A few months back Flight International had an interesting story about an F-22 Raptor canopy that jammed, trapping the pilot for five hours until he could be cut out by power-saw. I have been thinking about this recently:
The Raptor stealth fighter, heralded as the most technologically-advanced fighter in the world, entered service in January after 19 years of development. Each jet costs around $134 million per unit.
The canopy became stuck in the down and locked position and could not be opened manually after the pilot cycled the mechanism several times, following a pre-flight warning that the canopy was unlocked.
The cause of the malfunction has not been determined. The cost of replacing the canopy, which belongs to an aircraft from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley AFB, Virginia, is estimated at more than $180,000.
This seems pretty bad at first glance, but if the pilot had to eject and the canopy was jammed shut the results would be tragic. Interesting to note the software terminology used to describe the situation:
On 10 April 2006 at approximately 08:15, aircraft 03-041 had a Red Ball for a canopy unlock indication. Attempts to clear the problems by cycling the canopy failed. The final cycling of the canopy resulted in it being in the down and locked position.
“Tower to 03-041. Please press ctrl-alt-del on your keyboard. Over.” My guess is a manual override might next be implemented.
This is one of the better uses I’ve seen of heat-sensing materials:
It’s a tub painted by Alsacorp. Now, instead of this disgusting radioactive-waste colored thing, imagine a tub that turned from white to an attractive shade of azure blue when it was just the right temperature to step into. Or perhaps we could get some cooking pots that would show their temperature by color. For example, don’t touch a handle that has turned red. Even better would be servers and racks, or similar heat-sensitive equipment, painted to show current heat-levels. (you saw it here first) Anything running red, for example, would need more localized cooling. Immediate improvements would be realized as the paint changed its shade.
More information is good, and choosing the right color is probably important if you don’t want to bother with specialized training. I figure most people (including me) see lime green water as a rather unattractive sign for a bathtub no matter how helpful it is to know the temperature.
The problem with analysis like this, as one of his commentators pointed out, is that it does not account for the larger impact of shifting to alternative methods of producing energy, let alone new sources. In other words, if you can fuel your conversion system with waste or by-products then you are essentially performing a clean-up operation. Ethanol has this capability, as does bio-diesel. In fact, bio-diesel could be seen primarily as a recyling process that generates a new fuel source from extant waste.
I also must make the point that new forms of energy may involve significantly more efficient engines and technology that is less centralized and therefore more resiliant. Diesel is known to run longer and require less maintenance than gasoline, so the total energy formula can actually show that alternative energies have a higher ROI, as Rudolf Diesel himself predicted.
Every once in a while when I need some comic relief, I go back and read the Vice President’s statement posted on Whitehouse.org:
In closing, please keep in mind that I’m speaking as the mastermind of a legislative agenda predicated almost exclusively on Social Darwinism when I confess that I experience a slight, non-pacemaker-induced pang of chestal discomfort each time so-called American citizens – like these WHITEHOUSE.ORG terrorists – err on the side of publishing ideologies that doom them to lifetimes of FBI monitoring, politically-motivated income tax audits, and – in special circumstances – mysterious newfound predilections to bathing fully clothed with a whole Radio Shack’s worth of plugged-in appliances. Do I have to remind anyone what happened to that Enron would-be snitch? No, I didn’t think so.
That case is history now, I believe, but taxpayer legal staff are at it again and apparently sending nasty memos to the Onion about the use of Presidential imagery such as their official seal. Emergent Chaos reports:
Silly Onion. Everyone knows the President reads and endorses Emergent Chaos, not the Onion. Who’d read anything with such a silly name?
