Recent content by Flyboy

About damn time. I was beginning to worry that the joking “if it’s Boeing, it’s not going” was going to be serious.

It sounds like he’s trying to provide a steady output of mechanical power from an irregular power source, using some sort of storage system to smooth out the power, akin to a capacitor on a full bridge rectifier. In particular, it sounds like the objective is to use a gravity battery of some...

Let me make sure I’m understanding your question correctly… You’re looking at mechanisms for allowing you to dynamically transfer mechanical power from a source, such as a windmill or a water wheel, to a load, like a generator, while also allowing you to store excess power from your source for...

Well, there’s some practical use cases, especially for damascus or laminate steel construction. A very common modern approach is to MIG weld the corners of a stack of plates together to make forge welding of the initial billet much more controllable. Likewise, if making a canister damascus, you...

Given the bladesmithing aspect OP mentioned, forge welding is definitely something worth learning. Soldering and brazing are good for use with oxyacetylene. Just run a carburizing/slightly fuel rich flame and you should get excellent results. E-beam and laser welding… wheeeee. Those are...

In terms of sheer versatility, TIG wins without question. But TIG is absolutely an artform and requires some serious equipment and practice to get the best results. MIG welding is surprisingly beginner friendly. I’ve heard it be said that you can teach a monkey to MIG weld. Okay, not literally...

I’m not an expert on this stuff by any stretch of the imagination, but I think running them in series electrically is going to either fry one, or cause one to severely underperform. I suspect they have different resistances and current demands, but will require similar voltages.

Yes, if for no other reason than to finish the contract to prove it out. After that? Probably not. Too expensive to launch it compared to Dragon.

From the surface of the Earth, not recommended. As others have mentioned, the drag and compressive heating loads are, frankly, absurd. Now, from the surface of the Moon? Now that’s a whole different critter, and has been proposed several times over the years for mid to late colonization periods.

Yeah. Unless they’re willing to add a plant to return the boiloff to a liquid state, or add active refrigeration to the tanks, improving the fuel economy of an LNG tanker is kinda pointless. It’s just not economically sound.

That’s how I interpreted it. Using the boil-off as fuel makes a lot of sense.

I would feel confident in stating that the majority of the most important safety lessons from engineering are written in blood. The above list has a notable exception in Three Mile Island, but the rest are painful reminders and lessons.

https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/volcanic-unrest-grindavik Initial reports are estimating effusion rates at 1000-2000 m^3/s. Wow.

The issue is that the objective is not just suspending the axle in space and reducing friction. It’s also providing an air seal for the blower housing. A magnetic bearing would not provide that seal.

I think they mean towing it to altitude like a glider and then releasing it to fly freely. It allows for a larger aircraft than dropping it from another plane like Stratolaunch and Roc, but it’s riskier. Edit: yep, that’s exactly what they’re aiming for: