How not to design a Shuttle.

In article ,
Pat Flannery writes:


Paul A. Suhler wrote:

One of the P&W engineers I interviewed said that they tried
running "zip" through a J-58. Not only did it gum up the
afterburner injectors and the turbine (causing it to grind
to a halt thirty seconds after cutting fuel), but it also
left a half-mile trail of dead vegetation behind it.

The one I heard about is where they cranked up all six of the XB-70's
engines with it, and pretty much generated as much smoke as a forest fire.

I don't think they ever tried running installed engines on Zip. By
doing that, you'd contaminate the entire fuel system - and given the
characteristics of Zip fuel, you'd have to write it off before you
could decontaminate it. By hte time they'd gotten around to final
configuration selection for the B-70 and F-108 (Let alone the A-1
A-12), they'd given up on the idea of running it through the rotating
parts. There was still some interest in using it to fuel the
afterburners, but weighing the disadvantages - Toxic Byproducts,
Smoke, separate fuel systems, and all that jazz, the slight increase
in range wasn't worth it.

--
Pete Stickney

Without data, all you have are opinions

Pat Flannery wrote:

The other oddball thing is that this is apparently supposed to be used
for RCS cross section tests, but the metalwork on it looks really crude-
note the bad seams on the nose, and the crack in the underbelly on this
photo:
http://www.testpilot.ru/usa/convair/...ingfish_02.jpg
You stick this in front of a radar, and it's going to be echoing all
over the place.

That depends on the wavelength of the radar in question... and assumes
the picture is the model as finished.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

Derek Lyons wrote:

That depends on the wavelength of the radar in question... and assumes
the picture is the model as finished.



It looks pretty rough out on the radar range also:
http://testpilot.ru/usa/convair/king...ingfish_04.jpg
http://testpilot.ru/usa/convair/king...ingfish_05.jpg
The sucker looks like its been severely sunburned and has started to peel.

Pat

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:54:53 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

Paul A. Suhler wrote:

One of the P&W engineers I interviewed said that they tried
running "zip" through a J-58. Not only did it gum up the
afterburner injectors and the turbine (causing it to grind
to a halt thirty seconds after cutting fuel), but it also
left a half-mile trail of dead vegetation behind it.

The one I heard about is where they cranked up all six of the XB-70's
engines with it, and pretty much generated as much smoke as a forest fire.

The XB-70 routinely generated as much smoke as a forest fire. There
one film clip of a takeoff in which the Valkyrie disappears in a cloud
of black smoke shortly after brake release. It's pretty impressive,
if only because it makes F-4s look positively clean.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

Mary Shafer wrote:

The XB-70 routinely generated as much smoke as a forest fire. There
one film clip of a takeoff in which the Valkyrie disappears in a cloud
of black smoke shortly after brake release. It's pretty impressive,
if only because it makes F-4s look positively clean.



Yeah, I've seen films of it doing that; it doesn't speak well of the
efficiency of the motor's, does it?
I saw a MiG -29 fly at the Minot Airshow years ago...in that case it
made a lot of smoke when cruising normally, but none when using its
afterburner.

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

Fuel additives to reduce the radar delectability of the engine exhaust are
also mentioned, this apparently did prove successful and was used
operationally.

Mixing it with water would probably make it less delectable to the engines