TDPerk wrote:" It is worth a mention that the US military entered WWII with some sectors of its tech in really backwards condition "
And some was superlative. The "any gun within range" artillery directing system was a terrible shock to the Germans, as was later the radar fuzed air-burst ammunition.
Dad's specialty was calculating Time on Target. Then they gave his unit two dozen Pozit fuses and that was a sad day for some Germans in Duren. I've written that episode up a couple of times here. But those came late ... Dec 1944 was when they were first used with field artillery. More of them were used for antiaircraft fire, where they apparently increased effectiveness about 5 x over conventional fuses.
The Army did upgrade their howitzers shortly before the war. The new models were excellent, but more importantly, they ditched the horses and pulled them with motor vehicles. My dad's unit, the 967th FA, was one of only a couple of units that pulled their 155's with tracked vehicles.
They approached the war pathetically under-manned and under-equipped, but got production and recruitment rolling fast. The National Guard was pulled in to the regular military in the year preceding Pearl Harbor ... that's what precipitated dad getting promoted 2 ranks and shipped off to Fort Sill to Battery Officer Course.
Honda's Disaster Zone Robot Is a Rescue Hero In Development
The E2 has five eyes. Two are Hokuyo laser rangefinders. There's also a monocular camera with a synchronized LED flash, a SR4000 time of flight camera, and a stereo camera combined with an infrared light projector. E2 is dustproof, splashproof, can operate between 14 and 104 °F. It cleans itself as it works, keeping dirt from getting its gears, and has what Honda is calling a "segregated cooling structure" that will work fans through the E2's torso.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Diogenes wrote:
Not a problem for civilian use, but a serious problem if you are making terminators.
But a serious advantage if you're hunting terminators.
With Cylons, listen for the clanking, then shoot at the red light.
I suspect these are being considered for smart cars. Our new RAV4 has radar and a camera in the front, backup camera, and you can get it with rear and side scan radar, too. The radar could be replaced with LIDAR or TOF cameras. But it will be interesting to see if these play well together when you have hundreds of them all pinging at once, either radar (24 GHz or 77 GHz) or infrared. I'm not sure the RAV4 would be welcome if we drove it down to Green Bank ... the 24 GHz band is being replaced because it messes with radio astronomy. Get enough of either of these technologies pointed at each other at a major intersection or across an interstate median and interference is bound to happen.
Cool. Some of the pieces in Phoenix (Mesa or Chandler, I forget) went up to Seattle (?) a few years ago. The first time I went they had closed off displays I'd come for. Next time around they'd shipped out. I was so bummed out. That Dora was something else.
One of the daydreams I've had since is to see aging cured so I can spend a good 50 years doing nothing but building old school warbirds for stick & rudder addicts. Late Doras and C model 152's would be near the top of the todo list. Strip all armor and guns out and fix all the crappy slave labor compromises.
You can do anything you want with laws except make Americans obey them. | What I want to do is to look up S. . . . I call him the Schadenfreudean Man.
The article says it couldn't go in reverse? Couldn't because there was somebody already stopped behind it, or the shuttle has no reverse gear? Also, no mention of the shuttle honking a horn to alert the truck.
Betruger wrote:
One of the daydreams I've had since is to see aging cured so I can spend a good 50 years doing nothing but building old school warbirds for stick & rudder addicts. Late Doras and C model 152's would be near the top of the todo list. Strip all armor and guns out and fix all the crappy slave labor compromises.
You know I'd like to build a 162 some day. Or a Ho 8b, or a Lippisch LI P.13a -- there's something about M > 3 that sounds, relaxing.
molon labe
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
Good question.
can it proactively avoid accidents?
I have avoided several accidents by intuition , all the sudden I just know that person ahead is going to do something stupid by their behavior or just the look on their face. You know what I am talking about.
The article says it couldn't go in reverse? Couldn't because there was somebody already stopped behind it, or the shuttle has no reverse gear? Also, no mention of the shuttle honking a horn to alert the truck.
I am not a nuclear physicist, but play one on the internet.
Betruger wrote:
One of the daydreams I've had since is to see aging cured so I can spend a good 50 years doing nothing but building old school warbirds for stick & rudder addicts. Late Doras and C model 152's would be near the top of the todo list. Strip all armor and guns out and fix all the crappy slave labor compromises.
You know I'd like to build a 162 some day. Or a Ho 8b, or a Lippisch LI P.13a -- there's something about M > 3 that sounds, relaxing.
Those Hortens look better than any wing designs built since, IMHO.
Maybe the XP 79b or the XF5U in different ways. Late US warbirds really took things to whole other levels: Although the XF5U never solved its vibration issues, it's flight performance (I've heard from ex servicemen & warbird nuts) was beyond the best late war luftwaffle stuff and << The only completed XF5U-1 proved to be so structurally solid that it had to be destroyed with a wrecking ball. >> Makes you wonder how it'd have compared to e.g. the P38 or P47's reputations with pilots as near-indestructible.
Meanwhile e.g. the 162 came apart at its glued seams. A real shame such nice designs suffered from their origins.
You can do anything you want with laws except make Americans obey them. | What I want to do is to look up S. . . . I call him the Schadenfreudean Man.
A lot of flying wing designs have stability problems. Easily solved if you put a modern flight computer in the control loop. Some of those old designs would be interesting with active stability control.
The daylight is uncomfortably bright for eyes so long in the dark.
hanelyp wrote:A lot of flying wing designs have stability problems. Easily solved if you put a modern flight computer in the control loop. Some of those old designs would be interesting with active stability control.
I like the 162 just because it looks cool.
The Ho 8n and the Lippisch LI P.13a were also reported to be stable in the subsonic, transsonic, and supersonic flight regimes. There is no reason to go by the TLAR rule and the FDL7 and FDL8 shapes they should not be stable hypersonically as well.
With variable leading edge vortex strakes and long travel nose gear, they should be quite landable too*.
*Although they'd be quite intolerant of last second crosswind gusts.
molon labe
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
That Dora was something else.
