MHD mini flying saucer

R & D for it funded by Air Force:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0611135049.htm

Pat

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:49:45 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

R & D for it funded by Air Force:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0611135049.htm

....What? This *again*?? We were hearing about MHD flying saucers back
when I was in High School, and even then it was the Air Farce that was
looking at them. And they still never address the issue of whether or
not telemetry will make it through the plasma field or not, do they?

When I go to Roswell next month, I'll be sure to ask the Greys what
their punchline is for this version of the joke...:-/

OM
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OM wrote:
...What? This *again*?? We were hearing about MHD flying saucers back
when I was in High School, and even then it was the Air Farce that was
looking at them. And they still never address the issue of whether or
not telemetry will make it through the plasma field or not, do they?


They've made great strides in battery electrical storage capacity versus
weight since then, as all those strange electric powered RC planes and
choppers out at Walmart show.
As to getting the control signal through the plasma, that was
accomplished with the Sprint missile, despite it being wrapped in near
white-hot plasma during ascent due to its hypersonic velocity in the
lower atmosphere.
I'm surprised a obvious tactic to cut weight while maintaining
structural rigidity wasn't discussed - make the thing into a inflatable
balloon, with gas pressure holding the exterior skin rigid, and only
needing a circumferential ring structure to keep the shape right.
Although not much help in something of 6" diameter, in something of 60'
diameter filling it with helium would kill two birds with one stone, and
surprisingly, a valve of some sort may not be needed to prevent
over-pressurization as it climbs to high altitude:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpressure_balloon
Some of those have spent over two years in flight while going clean
around the Earth 35 times:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_...ding_technique

Pat