Posted by
screwedmorethenonce on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/Sky-1-tp1500661p1500737.html
Dave Walsh <
[hidden email]> wrote:
At 01:31 PM 5/14/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Boy and I thought that I came up with some really wild speculation to
>explain the things that are shown, that don't make sense.
>Actually, if you check your flight history books you will find that the
>X-15 did have very small thrusters on it to "Help" manuver while in the
>edges of space, where there wasn't enough air pressure for conventional
>controls to work.
>As to the thought that the forqard thrusters are sealed to avoid an influx
>of sea water, and are blended smoth with the body of the aircraft, so as
>to reduce drag... It works for me. I don't know if we have any air
>enginners out there, or other pilots, so your guess is as good as mine.
>Anyone else have any thoghts on this?
Okay, I'm a pilot and a former U.S. Air Force tech, so I guess my
input is as valid as anyone else's without a degree in aeronautical
engineering! ;-)
On the Sky 1, it would appear that the underwing missile pods have
liquid-fueled reusable rocket engines designed to get the craft airborne
from an undersea launch, after which the air-breathing engine mounted under
the fuselage would take over the job of providing thrust to keep the
aircraft flying. The intake cover would have to be retractable to keep the
engine from ingesting water (Which is why most jet pilots I knew really
hated to fly underwater!), and such mechanisms exist today to protect
delicate turbine compressor blades from sucking in all sorts of stuff from
unconventional runways (dirt, stones, tools, etc...)-- the MiG-29 has
covers that slide over the front of the intakes while louvered vents on the
dorsal of the jet open to allow air to enter the engine. I think the
Northrop YF-23A Black Widow II also had the same function but not having
exact specs on the craft (I only have a model to speculate from) I can'r be
absolutely sure.
There are two rather glaring discrepancies on the Sky 1 studio model I
can see, though-- the intake built into the nose of the aircraft and more
importantly, the lack of an exhaust on the aft section! If the intake is
indeed under the aircraft, the nose intake is completely redundant, and
actually provides a source of drag and instability at high speeds and high
angles of attack. In other words, if he tries to execute a high-speed turn
with the nose intake that goes nowhere, the drag produced by the thing will
flip the aircraft tushy over teakettle, most likely ripping it to pieces!
(Apologies to all for the coarse language! ;-)
Maybe it is vectored by pipes/compressers along the sides of the body to the engines. As for drag, well if UFOes can fly in the atomsphere, they way they are designed, I'm not going to worry about drag on Sky. Besides, as one of my pilot trainers putit, a brink would fly with enough power.
And as for the lack of an exhaust, the only thing that could come close is a grille-like area on the aft end, but this is also in the spot where the pilot's access chute would most likely be, so sliding up the tailpipe of a jet engine just doesn't have an attractive idea to it
(Especially if one has heard of the horror stories of aircraft techs being sucked into the intakes of running jet engines!).
How is one "Sucked" into the exhaust of an engine? Now Barbequed, on the other hand...
Anyhow, back to the underwing rocket pods-- Luca Oleastri, designer of the most excellent Flight Sim Toolkit game "SHADO-- Attack SkyBase", came
up with the idea that the craft could indeed land on the ocean for recovery and reattachment to Diver, using the now-empty rocket boost pods as flotation devices. Once the aircraft has landed on relatively calm seas, diver could rendezvous, send out a diver to attach winch cables to the aft of Sky 1, and Diver could pull the aircraft into docking position and reattach the docking clamps, refuel and rearm from onboard stores (Or meet up with a resupply ship for the same reason), then continue with its patrol!
Seems like a lot of work just to recover Sky, as well as leaving the ship vunerable for the time that it would take to recover. Also, unless you had some way to close the exhauasts of the rockets they would flood and not float at all.
By the way, would you need a crane to to replace solid fuel boosters, even if they did float? And just where did they store these rather large puppies on board the ship?
I think that those who think they use a liquard fuel rocket are correct evven though you would still have storage problems with that as well.
I am not familar with the this UFO game. Where might you get a copy of it?
And if there any typos in the above treatise, please remember that I
have excellent speklling skills! My tpying skills, on the other hand... ;-)
"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!"
Dave Walsh
Harlington-Straker Sound Productions
[hidden email]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]