Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: theaviationzone.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to theaviationzone.com.

Comments · 8

  1. Re:Lokheed and Boeing by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Interesting · on The Flying Giant Is 40 Years Old

    To add to your comments about the C5 -- it can actually partially retract the landing gear on the ground squat down to truckload height, as well as drop a ramp for drive-on loading.
    details here.
    Though they no longer have this capability, when they were first built they could caster the mainwheels up to 18 degrees for crosswind capability: the aircraft could take off at an 18 degree angle to the runway. That must've looked incredible. Castering mains was a big fad in the 1940's and many commercial aircraft had it, but the complexity and uncertain ground-handling characteristics (they tended to break loose when taxiing) meant that the C5 was the last major airframe to have them, and even it lost them when upgrading to the new (now! with less cracks!) wings used on the -B model.

  2. Re:Almost Home by Rolan · · Score: 4, Informative · on Shuttle Discovery Lands Safely

    Now how do they get the shuttle back to FL so it can be launched again ?

    Atop a 747.

  3. Re:How did I get here? by idontgno · · Score: 1 · on Soviet Space Shuttle Found In Bahrain?
    Yup, Russian name "Mriya" ("Dream"); NATO designation "Cossack". Apparently, the world's largest airplane ever*.

    Specifications.

    *By weight. The Hughes HK-1 was taller and had greater wingspan, but max takeoff weight was less than 1/3 of the AN-225's 1.3 million pounds.

  4. Re:How did I get here? by idontgno · · Score: 1 · on Soviet Space Shuttle Found In Bahrain?
    Yup, Russian name "Mriya" ("Dream"); NATO designation "Cossack". Apparently, the world's largest airplane ever*.

    Specifications.

    *By weight. The Hughes HK-1 was taller and had greater wingspan, but max takeoff weight was less than 1/3 of the AN-225's 1.3 million pounds.

  5. Re:Pop open the champagne, my boy Rutan made histo by Hatta · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Completed Successfully

    Burt Rutan has built a spacecraft that he has called 'Spaceship One'. It is a small, quaint thing that CNN describes as shaped like a 'shuttlecock'.

    Wait... Shuttles have cocks? Guess that explains this then.

  6. A calculator parallel by SimCash · · Score: 1 · on A Physicist with the Air Force
    When I was a young 2685 (USAF code for mathematician) working as a ballistics engineer we got hold of some of the first TI-59 calculators with the nifty little magnetic card readers for inputting and storing programs. I had been playing with ballistic missile codes (both for live missiles and for a program called STRIKE (Strategic Targeting Resource Integrator and Kill Evaluator)) and suggested to the powers that be that it might be possible to get a pretty good fuel usage estimate for use in retargeting the Minuteman III (3 warhead system). Given the go-ahead, I pressed on.


    The first problem was the development and testing cycle times. I was used to the IBM 360 turnaround times for punch decks of 2-4 hours (often overnight because of the classification of the programs (Secret, Top Secret, SCI)). The TI-59 was slow, so I developed a sort of emulator on the HP9825 desktop "Calculator" so I could get faster turnarounds. In those days computers belonged to "Data Automation" (AD), so we only got the HP9825 because the case said "Calculator". The system had a tape drive, card reader, plotter, printer, full keyboard, 32-character display and 4K of memory with its own programming language, but hey, the box said "Calculator" so, by the book, it wasn't a computer. By emulating the TI59 on the HP9825 I was able to do real-time run/debug/correct style programming that was really fun compared with the batch style programming we were using on the IBM 360.


    By using some really tight code I was able to simulate the flight and deployment of the booster and the three reentry vehicles, computing the cross range and downrange perturbations and the resulting fuel costs, and estimate the total fuel used to deliver the RVs to the three targets as input by the user. This all had to fit in the 960-step/100 memory register of the TI59. Considering that amongst other things I had to invert a 3x3 matrix, space was pretty tight.


    Using data from the actual targeting programs used in the Minuteman III, I built some curve fitting functions for fuel usage, used simple spherical trig range and azimuth calculations and managed to get within 5% of the actual fuel usage (the program's estimate was always close to the projection from the mainframe, and was usually in the .95 to 1.05 range about the true value).


    The final program was to be carried on the ABCP (KC-135 "Looking Glass") to permit quick evaluation of proposed retargeting of MMIII missiles.

  7. .. hmm nothing compared to Russia by Crouchy · · Score: 1 · on Giant Airships to Deploy Buildings by 2003
    Maximum payload for the Antonov An-225 Mriya is 551,150 pounds (250,000kg), which can be internal or external. Antonov An-225 was originally built to carry the Russian Space shuttle.

    I remember one of the antonova's going down due to faulty fuel, but I am not sure it was this one. If someone can enlighten me on this I would be grateful.

    Have a look at:

    Antonov An-225 Mriya

    Or goto the following for a good list of other transport planes: Aviation Website

  8. .. hmm nothing compared to Russia by Crouchy · · Score: 1 · on Giant Airships to Deploy Buildings by 2003
    Maximum payload for the Antonov An-225 Mriya is 551,150 pounds (250,000kg), which can be internal or external. Antonov An-225 was originally built to carry the Russian Space shuttle.

    I remember one of the antonova's going down due to faulty fuel, but I am not sure it was this one. If someone can enlighten me on this I would be grateful.

    Have a look at:

    Antonov An-225 Mriya

    Or goto the following for a good list of other transport planes: Aviation Website