Honorary SOB status?

It's 1970s technology throughout. It's showing its age a bit.
It's still amazingly quick (0-60 in about 0.5s, top speed about 17,500
MPH). Those who ride it seem unable to resist a very broad grin (and
helmets are compulsory). Do you think 'honorary' SOB is merited?

http://wm.nasa-global.speedera.net/wm.nasa-global/RTF/WB57.wmv

(it goes a bit wonky at the end, but is pretty impressive up to the
booster separation).

Probably also the world's most expensive MOT re-test.

Regards,

Simonm.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, SpamTrapSeeSig

Nope. Too many wheels.

<Anorak Mode>

We may take a little national pride from the fact that the film was shot
from a WB-57 aircraft, derived (in the dim and distant past) from the
English Electric Canberra.

</AM>

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000

 

But it's got the most impressive paddock stand you'll ever see.
And bits fall off...

Cool!

Found this too:

"Managed by JSC, the WB-57s are former U.S. Air Force planes
designed to study weather conditions at high altitudes.
When the Air Force phased out its WB-57s in the 1970s,
it transferred two of the jets to NASA. NASA's are the
last two WB-57s still flying."

See also:
http://www.stsliftoff.com/rtf/eye/eye.htm

IMHO it's more exciting than the ground-shot movies, especially at the
beginning. I assume they'll do the electronic equivalent of rotoscoping
it to remove the shudder. I didn't watch right to the end - assume it
stops at the tank separation.

I still think honorary status ought to be considered <pleads>after all
it still *uses* 486s, and they have to go to clasic shows to get
spares...</pleads> How "s" is that?

Regards,

Simonm.

 

Thus spake SpamTrapSeeSig unto the assembled multitudes:

Take a look at the footage from about 1m45s through to about 1m55s.
Looked to me a little like a flame appearing from the SRB against the
tank...but maybe that's just me being paranoid.

 

It's interesting, isn't it. I first thought it was something shiny
catching the sun (the angle looked roughly right), but I don't think it
could be.

I wonder if they'll comment on it...


Regards,

Simonm.

 

SpamTrapSeeSig came up with the following;:

Looks to me like it's the flame from the central rocket booster, seen
through the gap between the outer booster and the shuttle, as it changes
attitude (rolls) slightly. By 1m56 the Shuttle wing is covering the 'gap'
that it's being seen through.

 

Paul - xxx came up with the following;:

Bad form and I dunno why it happened, but the post missed this paragraph.

It's also at the stage where the central booster is about to shut down
before ejecting the two outer boosters, so there might just be different
coloured flames as the fuel mixture changes slightly during the shut-down
sequence. Though that, is guesswork ..

 

I don't think they shut down the shuttle's engines at that point -
they stay lit to keep it going up. There's not much obvious flame from
these engines because they burn hydrogen/oxygen. The nozzles still
glow white hot, though!

 

Thus spake SpamTrapSeeSig unto the assembled multitudes:

A *very* knowledgable friend of mine reckons that it is almost certainly
'lick-back' of exhaust flame caused by very low pressure in the area of
the aft end of the fuel tank. It's apparently a very common phenomenon.
If there had been a genuine fault with the SRB, I'm pretty sure we would
have seen it on on-board camera footage.

 

Thus spake Paul - xxx unto the assembled multitudes:

*Ahem*

There is no "central booster" on the shuttle. There are the two solid
rocket boosters (SRBs), and the three main engines which are fuelled by
liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from the external tank. The main
engines continue to burn throughout SRB firing and through SRB separation
at about 2 minutes. Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) is at about 8.5 minutes.
They only reduce the thrust of the main engines during "Max Q" - the period
of greatest aerodynamic load on the vehicle at around 70 seconds after
launch. There is no change of fuel mixture - the MEs burn only liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which as Pip pointed out, produces an almost
colourless exchaust flame.

I was at the Cape for the launch of Atlantis in May 1998, in the KSC Press
Enclosure, so I was only about 3 miles from the launch pad - the closest
you can get. I was able to follow the shuttle from launch to about +6
minutes, not long before it dipped below the horizon, using my spotting
telescope. Fantastic experience.

 

Andy Clews came up with the following;:

<hangs head in shame>

I know .... I have about three models of it close by (I'm caretaker of a
school and they did a project on it recently), and I have no clue how I
parsed that, when what I had meant to say was it's at the stage where the
two boosters are about to shut down, and it looks like the far side booster,
seen below the central fuel tank between the wing and struts of the shuttle
to main tank gap.

I just dunno why I wrote central booster .... read my sig ...

As I said, guesswork on my part.

Bastard ...

I'd love to see it live ...

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

'yet another firework display'.

 

Thus spake Grimly Curmudgeon unto the assembled multitudes:

Well, maybe, but if this *had* been an O-ring failure it would in this case
had been too late into the flight and not burned long enough before the SRBs
were jettisoned - i.e. a lucky escape. The Challenger accident happened
because the O-ring failure happened right at ignition.

Sorry, I'll get my anorak

 

Thus spake Paul - xxx unto the assembled multitudes:

Perhaps you were thinking of Buran (Russian shuttle copy)

I know, I know...

Nothing to compare with it, and there won't be many more (espesh now that
they've grounded the fleet again!).

I just wish I could have seen a Saturn V launch back in the 1960s. Born
too late :-(

 

Andy Clews came up with the following;:

Yeah, be a pity if they ground them forever.

Heheheh, I didn't either but my dad did. I was old enough (born 1959) but
we couldn't afford for the whole family to go when my dad went to USA on
business at the same time as one of the Apollo missions, probably 12 or 13
but almost certainly in 1970/71

My fave (in a similar vein) was watching, hearing and feeling a flight of
Vulcans (24 of them) taking off in pairs from RAF Finningley, around the
same era. We lived across the fields from the base in Rossington ...

 

Thus spake Paul - xxx unto the assembled multitudes:

My Knowledgeable Friend From America suspects that this could well have been
the last shuttle flight we'll ever see - which will put the kybosh on the
International Space Station...

That would have been Apollo 13, 14, or 15 then. 12 flew in November 69.
Bastard

'kin 'ell, I bet that was a sight and sound.

And now, back to the motorcycling studio...

 

Why? The ISS has been supplied by Russian launches during the
previous shuttle suspension and either the Russians or the French
launched most of the modules.

Ken Young

 

Thus spake unto the assembled multitudes:

 

That's ok there's only a Russion and an American up there at
the moment. Plenty more where they came from...

Nick

 

The Russians still have a manned space program. The emergency escape
ship is a docked Vostock IIRC.

Ken Young