• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

Milestones

Go to CruxDreams.com
Naraku said:
75 years ago today (14 October):
Chuck Yaeger, who had the real "right stuff", became the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound.
Click to expand...
"Hey Ridley! Got any Beeman's?"
Iconic quote from 'The Right Stuff' (1983).

Altough according to popular perception, the sound barrier was thought to be an impenetrable 'wall', there had been cases it had been broken unintended, during dog-fights in WWII, and always in a dive. German V2 rockets also flew faster than sound, so you could not hear them coming in.
Yeager's flight was the first controlled attempt to break the sound barrier, i.e. by flying at horizontal level.
 
The claim that some planes like the P-51 Mustang and the Me-262 broke the sound barrier in dives id disputed. The instruments on those aircraft could not give accurate readings at those speeds and test done with the P-51 showed severe damage from vibration at speeds above Mack 0.85.

The "sound barrier" isn't a wall, per say. but it might as well be. As an aircraft approaches Mach 1, aerodynamic drag increases creating a build up of pressure ahead of the plane, putting stress on the wings especially and making control difficult or impossible. A year before Yaeger, 27 September 1946, Geoffrey de Havilland Jr was killed while testing his family's experiment supersonic aircraft the DH 108 when it broke up at Mach 0.9. Yaeger was the first to make a controlled flight at Mach one and survive.
Twenty-five years ago today (15 October), the land sound barrier was broken by RAF Wing Commander Andy Green driving the jet propelled ThrustSSC. He reached 1,228 km/h (763 mph) fifty years and a day after Chuck Yaeger's flight.
And, ten years ago yesterday, 65 years after Yaeger, Felix Baugartner became the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound without a vehicle. He made a free-fall from helium balloon from an altitude of 38,969.3m (128.852 ft) and reached a top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph) on 14 October 2012.
 
Naraku said:
The claim that some planes like the P-51 Mustang and the Me-262 broke the sound barrier in dives id disputed. The instruments on those aircraft could not give accurate readings at those speeds and test done with the P-51 showed severe damage from vibration at speeds above Mack 0.85.
Click to expand...
There was also the problem of 'compressibility' that was experienced by the P-38 and the P-47 during power dives that caused flight control freeze up and airframe failures. As I recall a few pilots lost their lives before it was fully understood what was happening. I don't recall if the P-51 had that issue or not.
 
Naraku said:
The claim that some planes like the P-51 Mustang and the Me-262 broke the sound barrier in dives id disputed. The instruments on those aircraft could not give accurate readings at those speeds and test done with the P-51 showed severe damage from vibration at speeds above Mack 0.85.
Click to expand...
The point is, Mach 1 was not by definition a destructive barrier, and such was known , since the V2 rocket routinely reached speeds of 3x the speed of sound. The issue for the designers of the Bell X1, was to make it possible for an airfame. and overcome the forces on he wings and the control surfaces.
 
Marcius said:
'... a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated...'

Sixty years ago today, on 22 October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis burst into the open with John F. Kennedy's TV address.
Click to expand...
I was too young to recall anything of it, but elder people have always told how everybody was seized by the tension and the fear for a nuclear conflict breaking out.
 
Loxuru said:
I was too young to recall anything of it, but elder people have always told how everybody was seized by the tension and the fear for a nuclear conflict breaking out.
Click to expand...
I grew up and lived a good part of my life during the cold war. I remember the Cuban missile crisis quite well, and it was truly frightening. It wasn't blowing smoke, or saber rattling at all. It was real and literally fingers were on the buttons. I doubt if very many people made any plans for the future during those 13 days.
I was 14 at the time, and I still recall it vividly.
 
wulf said:
I grew up and lived a good part of my life during the cold war. I remember the Cuban missile crisis quite well, and it was truly frightening. It wasn't blowing smoke, or saber rattling at all. It was real and literally fingers were on the buttons. I doubt if very many people made any plans for the future during those 13 days.
I was 14 at the time, and I still recall it vividly.
Click to expand...
On this side of the pond, surrounded as we were with American air bases, we re-read our "What to do if the 4-minute warning sounds" pamphlet. Also 14, I picked out the girl I would like to spend my last four minutes with. But it never happened (thank goodness for the world, hard luck for me).
 
old slave said:
On this side of the pond, surrounded as we were with American air bases, we re-read our "What to do if the 4-minute warning sounds" pamphlet. Also 14, I picked out the girl I would like to spend my last four minutes with. But it never happened (thank goodness for the world, hard luck for me).
Click to expand...
Sorry you missed your chance at true bliss, but under the circumstances, it worked out for the best.:biggrin:
 
Loxuru said:
The calendar notation of the Era Fascista (E.F.) is still preserved on monuments in Italy, and in areas controlled by Italy between the wars. E.g.in the Palace of the Grandmaster of the Knights of Rhodes, in Rhodes City, which was restored under Fascist rule.
Click to expand...
Same thing with Italian books -- they were double-dated. For example, Stilicone by Santo Mazzarino bears the date '1942-XX'. Must be one of the last quality books to do so -- not sure whether the Republic of Salò bothered with the EF dating, but it really wasn't the best of places for Italian writers and publishers. :devil:
 
Loxuru said:
Seventy years ago, on November 1st 1952 (or October 31, according to the time zone), the US tested the first hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok Island in the Bikine Atoll.
Click to expand...
The device wasn't really a "bomb". Code named "Ivy Mike", it weighed 74 metric tons, required that the deuterium fuel be kept at near absolute zero and filled a two story building.
The first actual weapon sized device wasn't tested until 1954.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom