onetrack

Static electricity is a very real concern, and not for nothing does every refuelling tanker have a large static strap that is connected to ground as the very first step in emptying the tanker.

 

The Murray Bridge SE article is very good. A large portion of SE buildup comes from synthetic clothing, and movement of your body and clothing across upholstery and other components, that assist in creating static buildup.

 

Watch this young lady slide her body in and out of the vehicle, creating the static buildup that releases when she grabs the fuel bowser handpiece.

 

 

 

Google is your friend - but you have to click on and download the 1MB MP4 file.

 

Google Groups

 

hihosland, that's good! Got a good belly laugh out of it.

 

 

Q. Did you hear they came out with a new shoe for lesbians?

 

A. They're called Dikes. They have an extra long tongue, and they only take one finger to get off!

 

 

Accountant: I specifically stated in my instructions, "smaller" size glasses, with thinner glass thickness. Find the person responsible for over-riding my instructions, and making them larger as well as thinner, and let him be the company scapegoat. He was operating without proper corporate authority.

 

If the plaintiffs lawyers, by some deviousness, beat our team of scurrilous corporate lawyers, arrange to immediately and retrospectively, restructure the company, and transfer all the company assets to the new structure, so the plaintiffs win is a Pyrrhic victory.

 

 

Accountant: The glass can be made smaller, and of thinner material. This will immediately translate to an additional $500,000 profit, annually.

 

 

I'm guessing during the 45 minute stop someone not with the travelling group pulled the trailer pinCannot see any other reason for the trailer to become unhitched

I find it hard to believe a unhitched trailer from a prime mover would go for hours fine then suddenly just disconnect after a 45 minute stopover

Metal fatigue has been known to be a cause of trailers parting company with their tow vehicle. I can't see the fine details, but that trailer is a very large car transporter-type trailer and is more than likely, merely a towball-type coupling. It's easy to overload this style of large trailer, and when you do, towbar or towball failure is highly likely. I've had towballs snap at their neck (the thin part above the mounting base), I've seen entire towbars come off vehicles when the retaining bolts broke (usually caused by poor installation - the lowliest and most incompetent apprentice is usually the one given the job of towbar installation, because no-one else likes doing it - it's hard, difficult, work).

 

Drawbars have been known to fracture and detach because of metal fatigue - usually caused by inadequate metal thickness, poor welding, or excessive drawbar flex over many kms, heavy loads, and rough roads.

 

Towballs fracture because they are overloaded, or overstressed by reversing, and having the tow vehicle hit the trailer drawbar, thus imposing severe loading on the towball and towbar.

 

Safety chains should ensure that a detached trailer doesn't become a wayward missile, and in this case, the safety chains have totally failed. A major investigation needs to be initiated to find out why. Safety chains are there to stop the detached trailer from launching itself into oncoming traffic, usually with fatal results.

 

In addition (although I'm not familiar with U.K. trailer laws), trailers over 4500kg Gross Mass in Australia must be fitted with a breakaway braking system that activates the trailer brakes immediately upon the trailer becoming detached.

 

It's pretty obvious this trailer carrying the Spitfire didn't have a breakaway system, or a working breakaway system.

 

Whether it is required on a trailer that size in the U.K., I don't know, but it looks like it's big enough, that it should have one.

 

 

Good God, now Cundall will be ecstatic. He's now got his proof, that there actually are, surplus Spitfires in Burma!

 

Great story, red750, thanks for the links.

 

 

PM, you got the joke arse-about - and it's the old-time version.

 

I guess that was because it was in Latin? - as all Romance languages read back to front?

 

This is the correct modern version ...

 

A young lass named Gloria had arranged to pick up her boyfriend on the weekend in her old Ford van - but she warned him it was unreliable and it might not make it.

 

If she didn't arrive, it would be because of the van - and if that happened, she'd see him early next week.

 

The van broke down, of course, and she couldn't make it.

 

They were both Latin scholars, so she sent him a text which read .. "Ths psses glry of wrld".

 

He immediately translated it as "Sick Transit - Gloria; Monday".

 

 

I must confess, I glanced at the title and I misread, "Aviation, Masculinity and Good Looks".

 

Now, here's some aviation porn for real men. It's got it all. Taildraggers, gliders, brute muscle strength, guns ... and aviation engineers. And not a gal to be seen.

 

Ooops - that's right, the gals were too busy building the gear, that the guys were wielding!

 

 

 

Whatever you do - don't tell Cundall about the buried F-111's!!

 

 

I know where there's 20+ Spitfires buried in the desert! They just forgot to bury a Cessna 310 when they were burying the Spittys, so that's the major clue on their whereabouts!

 

Just send your donations of $10,000 and more to my PayPal account, so I can get enough funding to commence the search!

 

As part of the deal in exchange for your donations, I'll give you regular updates, on what I haven't found!

 

 

 

I can understand people finding wrecks lying on top of the ground - the crashed Kittyhawk found in the Sahara in Egypt is a classic example of desert preservation.

 

However - burying stuff and recovering it intact is another totally different scenario altogether. In a previous life, I was an agricultural earthmoving contractor and a mining earthmoving contractor.

 

I've both buried lots of stuff, and dug up lots of stuff. I can tell you this much, once an item has been buried in the soil - even if steps have been taken to preserve it, it is still totally knackered with corrosion from moisture and chemicals in the soil - even after a few short years.

 

Gold is transported through the ground via chemical reaction and the movement of water through the soil.

 

If gold can be dissolved and transported through the soil, deep in the ground, there is little chance of relatively delicate aircraft and airframes being preserved under the soil - particularly after 71 years of tropical rainfall and regular floods.

 

I'm reminded of the brand new '57 Plymouth Belvedere buried in a concrete bunker in Tulsa, in 1957, as a 50 year time capsule, to be raised in perfect condition in 2007.

 

This car was covered in cosmoline and plastic wrapping, buried in a "sealed" concrete bunker, and it was expected it would be raised as a pristine, brand new 50 yr old car in 2007.

 

As any of us who followed the raising of "Miss Belvedere" with interest, know - it rapidly became obvious that Miss Belvedere's vault was not properly sealed, it had 4 feet (1.2M) of water in it, and "Miss Belvedere" was nothing more than a sad, rusty wreck, completely unrestoreable. Any aircraft buried in the soil of Burma, even if buried in preservation materials, would now be little more than streaks of rusty stains.

 

 

I read about a yachty who found an island with lots of war supplies inside the hollowed hillside

I remember that story - the bloke made a film about it, he was an Alby Mangels-type of buccaneer, roaming the Pacific with a bunch of blokes and girls, having one big continuous party on this old schooner he'd bought.

I seem to recall he was pretty much a full-time drunk, and he plied all the girls on board with lots of booze to make them more compliant.

 

There were questions asked about the age of some of the girls (some were reputed to be under 16), so the bloke did a disappearing trick, and took off back to where he came from, which I think was Europe.

 

I can recall they found an abandoned U.S Army 6 x 6 truck and cranked it up, so they could haul all their scavenged stuff back to the boat.

 

The island was littered with concrete bunkers and there were hundreds of drums of fuel still inside the bunkers, along with all the other paraphernalia of war.

 

I can also recall there was an outcry from the people in the region about the U.S. Forces leaving their islands filled with WW2 junk - so the Australian Army sent in a team in the early 1990's, to blow up the bunkers, collect all the items still lying around, and take it all out to sea and dump it. They left the island clean, to the satisfaction of the locals, so there won't be anything left on that island, at least. For the life of me, I can't remember the islands name, I'm sure it was in Micronesia.

 

Cundall must be smoking some good stuff - it must make LSD look tame, for hallucogenic properties. How else could this dimwit keep prattling on with this rubbish?

 

What is even more amazing is the idiots he continues to find, to supply funding for his search. The bloke would be able to sell fridges, and air-conditioners, to Eskimos, I reckon.

 

Talk about the gift of persuasion - if he was selling religion, he'd probably already have 500 million followers.

 

 

Ah, yes - the Fokker D-XXI (D-21). Only 36 were produced, and they only operated between 1938 and 1940. Fitted with the beautifully engineered 9 cyl Bristol Mercury VIII, rated at 830HP.

 

A few were downed by the Lufwaffe, but the majority survived the total Nazi conquest of the Netherlands in 1940.

 

A large number of the survivors were then destroyed by the Dutch to prevent the Germans from utilising them.

 

However, it appears at least several fell into Nazi hands, as evidenced by the photos of the ones plastered with Swastikas.

 

More info here ... Fokker D-XXI [D-21] [War over Holland - May 1940: the Dutch struggle]

 

Incidentally, every Dutch person I know, who lived in Europe and survived WW2, had an undying hatred of Germans.

 

When you see what the Nazis did in the Rotterdam Blitz, as well as what they did to the rest of the country, you can understand why.

 

Cheers, OT

 

 

Well, you know what they always said about Volvo's, don't you? "It must be a great-looking car, once they get it out of the box!"

 

 

I wrote earlier that it looked " boxy" That was not serious critique

My "boxy" comment was. (serious criticism)

I saw, straight up, that you need harsh criticism to make you get cracking, and use those other 10,000,000,000 lazy neurons in your brain.

 

Hmm, 4 natural triangles, gentle curves for the "Boxy" whiners, might be onto something here.

Right on, Einstein! Now you're cooking with gas! Starting to look like some engineer with aerodynamic principles in mind, is having some input here.

 

The best part is - the more you curve components, the lighter the frame gets, and the strength increases as well.

 

Don't forget that they stopped putting flat panels and straight frame members on cars long ago. Curved, wins every time!

 

You got a goer there, mate. Airbus will be calling you in soon, for consultancy work.

 

 

As one observer noted -"The flying flea had the potential to bring the airplane to the everyday man on the street - usually by falling on him" ...

 

 

AussieB1rd - The Flying Flea was an aeronautical disaster, and they had a dreadful crash record. I'm sure Bex is looking to improve on the FF, and looking to avoid avoid the "flying deathtrap" moniker.

 

Tinworm-wings: An SSDR Flying Flea?

 

 

It looks too ... ummm ... boxy. Now, if you curved the upright bracing members, you could shorten the horizontal members, and you'd start to have it looking something like the aviation equivalent of a Mazda 6 Atenza ....

 

After all, anyone can build a boxy looking aircraft. They did that in 1910. Nowadays, despite all this super-duper CAD stuff, we are not seeing the aviation equivalent in design and shape, that is available in a current model $15,000 car.

 

In fact, I reckon a lot of current model cars are probably more aerodynamic than a lot of kitplanes.

 

 

Ahh, I see now what I missed, thanks for pointing that out.

 

You do realise, of course? - that by the time you have mastered 2D or even 3D CAD, and settled on a superb, labour-saving, totally new, and cunning design - that a 3D-printed aircraft frame will promptly make your idea look like a Model T Ford??

 

Beijing University Unveils Enormous 3D Printed Aircraft Frames & More, Created with SLS Technology

 

 

Ahhh, so we are on to Plan B, or is it Plan C or D?

 

I'm a little puzzled here. You speak of "I am not happy with the continuity of supply for material, and especially welding to my standards" ...

 

I was under the impression that Plan A involved inserting sections into stamped cut-outs in lengths of extrusion. I didn't see any welding involved in that design. Did I miss something?

 

 

Man, that Be-103 is the craziest-looking flying boat design I've ever seen! How little would it take, to dip a wing into the water with a gust on takeoff, and do a spectacular cartwheel??

 

 

Jeez, that thing must have a bit of grunt, the way those blokes are throwing it around the sky! Very impressive, indeed!

 

 

Lots more info on the AN-225 trip to PER, in the link below ...

 

Antonov An-225 Mriya – World’s largest aircraft, to visit Perth (UPDATED WITH LATEST INFO)

 

Interesting to read about the need to spool the AN225 engines up over about 8 mins to stabilise them (to reputedly prevent compressor surge or stall, and a blown engine).

 

It seems that Soviet technology was behind the curve when they copied (reverse-engineered) the CF-6's, to build the AN124/AN225 engines.

 

As a result, it appears the turbine metal technology is not up to CF-6 levels, and the engine core temperature has to be brought up slowly to prevent damage.

 

I guess, seeing the era they were built in, it's a credit they are still running. Quite amazing to see the flight engineers huge consoles and their steam gauges - kind of reminds me of flying on the B707 in the 1960's.

 

 

There were 40,000 would-be spectators caught in the major traffic-jam that covered Tonkin Hwy and Gt Eastern Hwy - and probably 10,000 at the actual airport. The carparks at the airport wouldn't have held any more than 2 or 3 thousand cars.

 

It was bedlam on the roads, they were nothing more than slow-moving carparks all morning. People who were trying to catch flights couldn't get through.

 

I planned to avoid the airport, and thought I'd get a spot near the Guildford cemetery, which is close to being under the flight path and very close to the airport perimeter - but I couldn't get across the Swan River - Guildford Rd was chocked up with a traffic jam. It wasn't helped in the least by a big Festival being held in the centre of Guildford. I ended up getting a spot near the river in Bassendean and watched the big bird zoom in.

 

Quite surprised at the approach speed, she seemed to be coming in fast compared to the aircraft that landed a couple of minutes prior.

 

The bloke who drove up from Bunbury and who hired a chopper to photograph the approach and landing sure had it worked out!