slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) said:Bell ALSO built the P59, one of the first American jet fighters. It wasn't very good, apparently, and lost out to the P80.
Bell P59:
Of note, the rather famous (for Warbirds) guys at Chino is actually restoring a P59, with the original engine, to flyable conditions! I saw it a few years ago. They have to be getting pretty close now.
And now, on a lighter note ...
It's the chairs, the chairs!
The P-59 was never really considered a serious fighter. It was more experimental proof of concept. Engine out scenarios were a guarentee with early turbojets. The forgiving nature if the plane was paramount. The P-59 had a gigantic wing area of 386sq ft. The wing area of a P-51D is 235! Performance was sedate enough that a second, open(!) cockpit was added to a few 59s for observers.
America's first real fighter jet was the P-80. Kelly Johnson and Lockheed designed and built it in 143 days. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE DAYS!
Pete. (l33t FS) said:914Driver said:Ever seen Davy Crockett? Small bore like a bazooka. Think about it though, how far does it shoot, how fast can you run?
One in the museum at Picatinny Arsenal.
Yes, the minimum range was within its probable kill zone.
Off to find the numbers!
Assuming a minimum range of 400 yards, and a 20t yield, the minimum range is right about the LD50 for radiation.
Fatal range for direct blast effects is roughly 300-200 yards. 90 yards for flash 3rd degree burns.
( Source )
So we designed a tactical battlefield nuke that had a good chance of killing or seriously injuring the guys using it. How, and how often, did we test it?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :
Every service wanted in on the nuke game. The Air Force wanted it all. The same reason the Navy had North American build the AJ Savage and the A5 Vigilante, it wanted in. That was before it perfected sub launched ICBMs.
The Vigilante was even more ambitious. Mach 2 capable. Linear bomb bay between the two J-79s. It was a very, very big carrier qualified aircraft.
I'm just hoping I get a refund for my rallycross entry fee.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:Pete. (l33t FS) said:914Driver said:Ever seen Davy Crockett? Small bore like a bazooka. Think about it though, how far does it shoot, how fast can you run?
One in the museum at Picatinny Arsenal.
Yes, the minimum range was within its probable kill zone.
Off to find the numbers!
Assuming a minimum range of 400 yards, and a 20t yield, the minimum range is right about the LD50 for radiation.
Fatal range for direct blast effects is roughly 300-200 yards. 90 yards for flash 3rd degree burns.
( Source )
So we designed a tactical battlefield nuke that had a good chance of killing or seriously injuring the guys using it. How, and how often, did we test it?
You trade off the poor saps who you told to go fire the thing to do a helluva lot more damage to the enemy. You have a tactical nuke that can be carried by a couple guys on foot or in a truck, which is a lot harder to detect and stop than an aircraft flying overhead or an ICBM, that's worth basically sending five guys to their doom.
Of course, the military said that it was perfectly safe for the crews to shoot, just as lone as they lay prone behind sloping terrain and covered their head and neck. But during the Bikini Atoll testing, they also told people that death from radiation sickness was entirely painless, and just caused people to have extreme lethargy and go to sleep and die, which is obviously distinctly not true, and they even knew that at the time.
Helmets on for safety!
How many dummy warheads were fired by real people, and how many live warheads were tested remotely, during development I wonder?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :
Once.
slefain said:Helmets on for safety!
Those are actually just fiberglass helmet liners. You can see the rivets that suspend the sweatband webbing inside. Also, no chin straps. Those are attached to the actual helmet. The steel pot would drop down over the liner. So, not even the dubious protection of a steel pot on their heads.
Took me a while to realize that is not dust from sitting two decades, that is bodywork dust.
Obligatory pic. Squirrel!
Mr_Asa said:Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/projectcar/comments/uoytkv/im_really_happy_with_the_finished_plug_for_the/
It looks great completed
Hot take: the P-40 was the best looking plane of WWII.
That would actually be Spitfire.
Or maybe the twin-engined equivalent, the Mosquito:
I will agree, though, the P-40 is one of the most fightery-looking fighter planes ever created.
Duke said:I will agree, though, the P-40 is one of the most fightery-looking fighter planes ever created.
It's just got such great lines, a quintessential warbird look.
I went to the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY last summer and they are restoring a P-40 for display. The P-40 in question was involved in a midair collision in Florida in 1946, spent 50 years buried in a swamp, and then they dug it up and shipped the pieces to NY. They have before photos and it looks like just a beer can that went through a wood chipper.
Apologies for violation my own rule against consecutive Hotlink posts, but these are too good to lose track of.
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