I was commenting based on reports the balloon was 20 ft in diameter. A 20 ft cylinder 6 ft tall would lift about 100 lb. This was a prism with average height less than 3 ft.
I call BS on the "kid on balloon" story. From the size of it, no way it could lift a person, even a 6 year old. I saw NOTHING in the press questioning if the envelope was big enough to perform as feared.
The "attitude" of a large displacement ship wouldn't change much with speed, and the leak made her even heavier and less subject to motion or thrust influence. Of course another option would have been to steam toward the rescue vessel for an hour or so, but then even less time would have been left to load the boats. The biggest lapse of judgment (after steaming full-bore through the ice-field in the first place) was shoddy boat training that left the lifeboats far below their capacity. When the crew started loading the boats, they didn't know the ship would sink, so they treated it as a formality like a fire drill, just going through the motions. After an hour or two, it became obvious the situation was dire but most of the boats were already away half empty.
By using caps I may have implied the "leveling" was MY conclusion, but it was the author of the book - I was just trying to emphasize the point not made in earlier posts. In any event, it is just one more "what if" link in a tragic chain. Another ship ("California" - "Californian"??) lay just a few miles away and never answered the distress call or the flares (not guarding radio and took the flares for celebratory). "Carpathia" did very well to save those in the boats. Hundreds more could have survived if the boats had been loaded properly.
The radio operator was truly heroic and died - his assistant survived to relate how doggedly the radioman stayed at his post, even after being relieved by the captain.
FWIW, the survivors quoted in this book said "A Night to Remember" is the best book and film about Titanic.
I just finished an old remainder book on the subject ("Titanic: Her Name"? - dunno, I trashed it). Theme was back and forth between the sinking and Ballard's efforts. Anyway, it said:
- iceberg creased the seams along several compartments, rivets failed, a 12 square foot, 600 gallon-per-second leak ensued
-compartments were "topped" (overflowed) bow-to-stern, taking her down by the bow
- the designer on board did accurately forecast the time to sink, including the fact that she would sink rapidly when the forward anchor bowsers were taken under and doubled the 12 sq ft leak
- IF HE HAD THOUGHT A LITTLE MORE ABOUT IT, HE WOULD HAVE ADVISED THE WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS BE OPENED, BECAUSE THE THE SHIP WOULD HAVE SETTLED LEVEL WITH THE 12 sq ft 600 GPS LEAK AND LASTED SEVERAL MORE HOURS, LONG ENOUGH FOR THE CARPATHIA TO ARRIVE AND TAKE EVERYBODY ABOARD
I spent 30 years in the airline business and too many years now around hospitals/healthcare, and Microsoft simply cannot supersede XP without triggering a collapse of their ecosystem. So many critical apps are leveraged on XP that it has become the "Bear Stearns" of IT - it simply cannot be allowed to die for lack of support.
Don't get me started. I spent a career working on these things, and there is a great difference in COST and VALUE. The Aviation Trust Fund is one of the most abused programs out there. Denver had a real problem at Stapleton that could not be solved on site. They needed a new airport but not six runways and particularly not this already-failed baggage system. What was the value received for the $400 Million in excess interest due to delaying the opening, not to mention the extra year of delaying every flight 30 minutes or so at Stapleton? Do some real analysis on your third runway and it probably has a lot of pork in it too. Atlanta is adding one runway (fifth) for $4 billion, and it was "justified" during the '90's when airlines could charge $1500 for a walk-up ticket. These things are a product of a disconnect between users (passengers and airlines), providers (airports, usually pork and patronage driven), and financers (taxpayers via a "trust fund" manipulated by the consulting industry). It's a lot like health care, there is third party financing that is not accountable.
I have not visited DIA, but by all accounts it is nice. Being nice and being a "success" are not the same thing. Is there anyone who thinks this is a good investment of $FOUR BILLION DOLLARS?
This "system" is a solution that has been hunting a problem since the late '60's. A start-up just knew that linear accelerators had to be the answer to some transportation problem, and the ivory-tower consultancies like Batelle just loved it. After haunting airport technical committees for 10 years, Eastern finally bought it for the then-in-design Atlanta terminal. At start-up in 1980, it lasted about 48 hours, than took six weeks to tear out and replace with a conventional system. Then along came Denver, and as someone said here, they were so isolated and over-consulted that they bought it in the face of Eastern's experience. The machine is far too complex and close-tolaranced for a semiskilled yet time-crucial environment like baggage handling. Eastern blew $20 Million, Denver/United $600 Million, who will step up and try for blowing a $Billion?
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I was commenting based on reports the balloon was 20 ft in diameter. A 20 ft cylinder 6 ft tall would lift about 100 lb. This was a prism with average height less than 3 ft.
I call BS on the "kid on balloon" story. From the size of it, no way it could lift a person, even a 6 year old. I saw NOTHING in the press questioning if the envelope was big enough to perform as feared.
Find the airline "club" and free wifi usually leaks out...
Looks like a killer opportunity for Linus!
The "attitude" of a large displacement ship wouldn't change much with speed, and the leak made her even heavier and less subject to motion or thrust influence. Of course another option would have been to steam toward the rescue vessel for an hour or so, but then even less time would have been left to load the boats. The biggest lapse of judgment (after steaming full-bore through the ice-field in the first place) was shoddy boat training that left the lifeboats far below their capacity. When the crew started loading the boats, they didn't know the ship would sink, so they treated it as a formality like a fire drill, just going through the motions. After an hour or two, it became obvious the situation was dire but most of the boats were already away half empty.
By using caps I may have implied the "leveling" was MY conclusion, but it was the author of the book - I was just trying to emphasize the point not made in earlier posts. In any event, it is just one more "what if" link in a tragic chain. Another ship ("California" - "Californian"??) lay just a few miles away and never answered the distress call or the flares (not guarding radio and took the flares for celebratory). "Carpathia" did very well to save those in the boats. Hundreds more could have survived if the boats had been loaded properly. The radio operator was truly heroic and died - his assistant survived to relate how doggedly the radioman stayed at his post, even after being relieved by the captain. FWIW, the survivors quoted in this book said "A Night to Remember" is the best book and film about Titanic.
I just finished an old remainder book on the subject ("Titanic: Her Name"? - dunno, I trashed it). Theme was back and forth between the sinking and Ballard's efforts. Anyway, it said: - iceberg creased the seams along several compartments, rivets failed, a 12 square foot, 600 gallon-per-second leak ensued -compartments were "topped" (overflowed) bow-to-stern, taking her down by the bow - the designer on board did accurately forecast the time to sink, including the fact that she would sink rapidly when the forward anchor bowsers were taken under and doubled the 12 sq ft leak - IF HE HAD THOUGHT A LITTLE MORE ABOUT IT, HE WOULD HAVE ADVISED THE WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS BE OPENED, BECAUSE THE THE SHIP WOULD HAVE SETTLED LEVEL WITH THE 12 sq ft 600 GPS LEAK AND LASTED SEVERAL MORE HOURS, LONG ENOUGH FOR THE CARPATHIA TO ARRIVE AND TAKE EVERYBODY ABOARD
I spent 30 years in the airline business and too many years now around hospitals/healthcare, and Microsoft simply cannot supersede XP without triggering a collapse of their ecosystem. So many critical apps are leveraged on XP that it has become the "Bear Stearns" of IT - it simply cannot be allowed to die for lack of support.
Oh, you mean NC wants to become Florida...
Don't get me started. I spent a career working on these things, and there is a great difference in COST and VALUE. The Aviation Trust Fund is one of the most abused programs out there. Denver had a real problem at Stapleton that could not be solved on site. They needed a new airport but not six runways and particularly not this already-failed baggage system. What was the value received for the $400 Million in excess interest due to delaying the opening, not to mention the extra year of delaying every flight 30 minutes or so at Stapleton? Do some real analysis on your third runway and it probably has a lot of pork in it too. Atlanta is adding one runway (fifth) for $4 billion, and it was "justified" during the '90's when airlines could charge $1500 for a walk-up ticket. These things are a product of a disconnect between users (passengers and airlines), providers (airports, usually pork and patronage driven), and financers (taxpayers via a "trust fund" manipulated by the consulting industry). It's a lot like health care, there is third party financing that is not accountable.
I have not visited DIA, but by all accounts it is nice. Being nice and being a "success" are not the same thing. Is there anyone who thinks this is a good investment of $FOUR BILLION DOLLARS?
This "system" is a solution that has been hunting a problem since the late '60's. A start-up just knew that linear accelerators had to be the answer to some transportation problem, and the ivory-tower consultancies like Batelle just loved it. After haunting airport technical committees for 10 years, Eastern finally bought it for the then-in-design Atlanta terminal. At start-up in 1980, it lasted about 48 hours, than took six weeks to tear out and replace with a conventional system. Then along came Denver, and as someone said here, they were so isolated and over-consulted that they bought it in the face of Eastern's experience. The machine is far too complex and close-tolaranced for a semiskilled yet time-crucial environment like baggage handling. Eastern blew $20 Million, Denver/United $600 Million, who will step up and try for blowing a $Billion?