Pictures Of Mystery Plane Over Wichita

a reply to: Zaphod58

Blast! Well, at least I sort of know more now lol.

a reply to: framedragged

This technology is something that can be fitted to already existing aircraft. Vintage fleet to most high tech and expect better performance. Weather it be from extended range because of more efficient fuel consumption to faster dash speeds or lower exhaust signatures. The patents discuss that it could be easily adapted and installed on just about any aircraft.

Could really help out in civilian aircraft sector too. From Fedex planes to your favorite air carrier. In the long run it'll be cheaper rates for packages being sent and cheaper air fares for vacation trips to exotic getaways. Maybe even super sonic commercial jets that don't boom and are quiet. LA to Hawaii 3.5 hours. Future of aviation looks good.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Except for the fact that right now when it goes nuts you go from flying to shredded in 0.3 seconds.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Even if your just using the actuators that are just for the inlets or inside the engine? Not the kind that bath the entire plane in plasma. Or does it not matter?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Plasma is plasma is plasma. Even if it's just in the engines, it's going to shred that engine into tiny pieces, and probably at best eat into the wing, at least for a second or so before the actuator is totally destroyed. So then you have the problem of instead of everyone on board being killed instantly, they all get to live long enough to realize they're going to die a horrible death.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Just thinking out loud here, looking for others input or thoughts too.

You know what interests me. The WEAV is using plasma but it seems contained or safer somehow. They show the WEAV actuators operating right on tables hovering a few centimeters. I wonder if they are working on some sort of contained plasma actuators. Where the plasma stays in the actuator but the field that it generates on the air extends beyond the actuator. A safer type of actuator?

Probably doesn't extend too far from the actuator but enough to get the job done?

I dunno any thoughts?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: BASSPLYR

Plasma is plasma is plasma. Even if it's just in the engines, it's going to shred that engine into tiny pieces.

How would that work? High-strength steel in the turbine vs plasma? How does steel lose?

They've been building tokamaks which have some pretty high plasma temperatures for some time now, sure there is some degradation of the steel walls over time, but you've never had a plasma eat through something stout anywhere near that fast.

For actuation it seems you don't even need high temperatures, unlike fusion, you just want lots of charge that you can pull on.

a reply to: mbkennel

Turbine blades aren't made of steel, they are titanium, which while strong as hell, has some interesting weaknesses. One of the interesting things they found with the SR-71 was that while titanium was strong as hell, and hard to work with, the acid from a grease pencil that they were using to draw lines with, ate right through it. And what makes you think the plasma will only be contained to the turbine blades if it goes nuts? There is a lovely aluminum casing all around them, plus all the aluminum parts on the inside of the engine that it will get to when it goes through the engine.

a reply to: Zaphod58

meh...I say plasma is our friend. I think the issue with plasma is the field it creates not the plasma it's self. There has got to be a way to safely use plasma in someway. If not at least for the freaky colored lights.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I've worked with titanium on some project around the house and an RC robot. It is a real biotch to work with. Went through several drill bits before I got the hang of it. Forget about using "normal" tooling to get it to submit.

a reply to: Sammamishman

That's what Lockheed found too, but when they drew the cut lines on the sheets in grease pencil they found that within a few hours the lines had eaten into the metal and the edges were brittle.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Zaphod58

meh...I say plasma is our friend. I think the issue with plasma is the field it creates not the plasma it's self. There has got to be a way to safely use plasma in someway. If not at least for the freaky colored lights.

The trick is to channel and contain it using a powerful magnetic field because by nature it wants to disperse. There are several methods (at least three that I am aware of) that utilize magnetic fields to achieve this. All are works in progress..

a reply to: mbkennel

Don't forget that the plasma doesn't come into contact with the tokamak walls.

quick question. what's the fastest speed ever recorded for a mid flight refueling..??
I mean, Aircraft speed.. not fuel to aircraft.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

I couldn't find a record or anything but you can fly a high speed boom at Mach 0.95 which is about top speed for a kc-135 anyway so I don't see it being much higher for that.

In another ATS thread, CiTrus90 posted an excellent speculative image of what may have sighted over Wichita last spring:

West Texas Spanloader

a reply to: TAGBOARD

No, this was a different aircraft. That thread is speculating on bomber designs. What was seen over Wichita wasn't a bomber. Totally different mission.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Similar, when i first left school i started as an apprentice engineer, the company i worked for were subcontracted to make a few of the smaller parts for the prototype of the Typhoon a lot of them were made from Titanium. This was probably the only time whilst i was there that we had to drill things with the drill turning at a slower speed than if we were to use a reamer. And when some of the others were turning parts they were constantly having the tungsten carbide tips on the tool torn off. (Company i worked for used tools with tungsten carbide tips welded to what seemed like normal tool steel lathe tools as they were too tight to pay for the replaceable tipped ones :s )

a reply to: Aarsvin

Not to mention the lifespan of a Tomahawk engine is about 30 minutes then who cares planes need a bit more time,. I have a friend that works on them outside Detroit.

a reply to: mikell

OUTSIDE OF DETROIT!!! Are they crazy? thats like building a munitions factory in the parking lot of mad max's thunderdome. We are all lucky right now that the local detroit gangs aren't driving around right now with stolen tomahawks in the back seat of their hoopty lowriders. some rival gang pulls a gat the detroit gang pulls out a tomahawk "whats up now!!"

Couldn't they move the tomahawk factory someplace relatively safer like outside of cleveland or something?