Archive for the 'Things you should know about' Category

Scuttled

Published on March 22, 2010 in Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: diving.

If you’ve ever considered diving then may we suggest one of the fascinating spots on Earth – Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Not only does it have one of the world’s highest concentration of wrecks to dive, but the story behind them will keep you occupied for hours even if your suit springs a leak.

Scuttled

Scapa Flow is one of the world’s great natural harbours. Measuring around 12 miles from East to West and 10 miles from North to South, its sheltered position between the islands of Hoy, Burray, Graemsay, South Ronaldsay and Mainland means that it’s been used for thousands of years for fishing, trade and shelter.

Scapa Flow became the UK’s primary naval base during WW1 and WW2, allowing for easy access to the North Atlantic. To prevent U-boat access submarine nets and blockships were sunk at the entrances.

A Blockship At Rest

At the end of WW1 the German High Seas fleet was interned at Scapa Flow, awaiting a decision on their fate. 74 German ships, from giant battleships to destroyers were escorted there in November 1918.

During the several months of internment the crews were confined to the ships they arrived on. Crew morale turned mutinous. Under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig Von Reuter, sailors were sent back to Germany until only caretaker crews remained. As negotiations continued, he became concerned that the British intended to seize his ships.

At 11.20 on the 21st of June 1919 Reuter gave a coded order to his fleet. Flood valves were opened, holes in bulkheads bored, portholes loosened. Some sailors were shot dead in an attempt to prevent the scuttling – the last casualties of WW1. By the end of the day 52 German ships were on the bottom of Scapa Flow. The surviving ships were towed to shallower waters to be beached or remained afloat.

Over a period of years the ships were raised for salvage. Even today occasional dives take place to retrieve pieces of steel for use in scientific instruments, satellites and other radiation-sensitive equipment as metal forged after 1945 is irrevocably contaminated with radioactive isotopes from nuclear activity.

Only 7 German ships now lurk underwater along with several other British-sunk blockships and the wrecks of HMS Royal Oak and HMS Vanguard. Royal Oak was sunk by a German U-boat and Vanguard suffered an accidental explosion, they are both classed as war graves and only accessible to Britsh armed forces divers. The German ships are are classed as scheduled ancient monuments and require a permit to dive. Any debris within a 100 metre radius cannot be removed.

A View From The Road

We were lucky enough to try a dive for ourselves last summer. There are alot of dive operators on Orkney. In Stromness harbour on the south of the mainland, half the boats in the harbour are dedicated to diving.

The operators recommend dry suits, even in the summer months. This means squeezing yourself into a giant neoprene romper suit with regular clothing on underneath. www.scapascuba.co.uk can supply all the equipment and a fine person to escort you down for about £70, even if you’re a total beginner. It’s money well spent, one of the most amazing things you can do in Britain.

The wrecks are teeming with aquatic life. Our instructor told us that you can peer through the portholes of the German ships and still see crockery and furniture untouched for 90 years. And when the dive is over head across the to the Isle of Hoy to visit the Scapa Flow naval museum.

No doubt the ships themselves will be dust by the end of the century, so pop along while you can to make your grandchildren green with envy.

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Human Powered Aircraft

Published on March 14, 2010 in Featured and Things you should know about. 1 Comment Tags: Flight, hardware.

In these troubled times of Peak Oil and climate change it’s time to start looking at more uses for one of most versatile power sources ever made – you, dear reader. You don’t emit too much CO2, you can be fuelled by everything from rancid eels to fungi and if something breaks it’ll usually grow back. That’s a pretty cool spec list.

Fail

When the oil runs out there are plenty of things we’ll still want to pull off, one of which is flying. Luckily there’s a small band of scientists and enthusiasts out there working to make human-powered flight a reality.

We’re not talking gliding or ballooning, we’re talking taking off and providing forward motion through one’s own toil. Inevitably the earliest attempts at this involved strapping wings onto the arms and flapping away gamely, unfortunately humans would require pectorals the size of beer barrels to keep ourselves in the air.

The archives are littered with questionable achievements in this field. Many an unverified flight took place, others used catapults and cables to gather momentum.

To finally clear the whole thing up the Kremer Prize was created in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer – a pioneer in chipboard and fibreglass. He offered a prize of £50,000 to the first human-powered aircraft to fly a figure of 8 course of nearly a mile at a height of at least 10ft. The stipulations were intended to prove that any winner was a genuinely viable, maneuverable aircraft and not something that could just limp into the air.

The first ever successful human powered flight followed soon after in 1961. The SUMPAC was designed and built at Southampton University. The machine was made from aluminium, spruce, balsa and nylon sheeting and weighed in at just over 60kg. Pedals drove an 8ft propellor. Its best ever flight covered 622 metres at a height of 3.65 metres. It was an amazing achievement, but not enough to win the money.

The Sumpac

After that milestone a variety of contenders appeared. Some were sponsored by aircraft companies, others were private efforts. The maximum distances flown rose to nearly a mile but no one was capable of taking the prize. Mr Kremer increased the winning fund but it wasn’t until 1977 that somebody finally claimed it.

The Gossamer Condor was the machine that pulled off the first controlled flight and won the Kremer Prize. It was a team effort led by aeronautical engineer Dr Paul B MacReady and piloted by cyclist and hang glider Bryan Allen. The machine was largely made from plastic and aluminium and weighed in at a piffling 32kg. It flew a mile and a half and executed a series of manoeuvres. The plane now hangs in the Smithsonian.

The Gossamer Albatross

You’d think the Gossamer team would be content to rest on their laurels, but the Condor was only the first salvo. The Gossamer Albatross truly upped the ante by crossing the English Channel in 1979. The craft, made from carbon fibre and polystyrene over a stretched plastic skin, made the 22 mile crossing in 2hrs and 49 minutes at an average altitude of 5ft, winning a second Kremer Prize of £100,000.

Since then a variety of other firsts have taken place. The first human powered passenger flight took place in 1984 when the German-built Musculair 1′s pilot carried his 10yr old sister a short distance.

The all-time distance record was set by the MIT Daedalus 88 that flew between the Greek islands Crete and Santorini, a distance of 71 miles over a time of 3hrs and 54 minutes. An Olympic cyclist – Kanellos Kanellopoulos – was recruited for the task. He crashed into the sea 7 metres short of his target after high winds broke the 88′s structure.

What next? There are still several unclaimed Kremer Prizes. £50,000 is up for grabs for the first person to cover 26 miles in under an hour. £100,000 is available for the first person to create an aircraft suited for sporting events in normal weather conditions. A competition is also open to schools for the longest flight duration.

People around the world are still refining designs.

There are hopes that one day human-powered aircraft racing will be an Olympic sport. Perhaps when materials and designs advance further we may all be able to have a go. Have a look at the Kremer Prize page if you have a few ideas yourself.

If you’re the inquisitive type, there could be one more thing scratching away at the back of your mind – what about a human-powered helicopter? You’re still in the right place.

This was the Da Vinci 3, the first human-powered hover. It was built in 1989 by Cal Poly. The flight reached an altitude of 8 inches for 8 seconds.

The Yuri 1

The current record holder is the Yuri 1. It was built in 1994 by Japanese students and upped the record to nearly 20 seconds of hovering.

Think you can do better? The Sikorsky Prize is offering $250,000 for the first machine to stay up for 60 seconds at a height of 3 metres. Now you know what to do with your Sunday.

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Extreme You

Published on March 5, 2010 in Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: 2 Feet, hardware.

No matter how skilled you are, no matter how many risks you take, no matter how much you spend on the sexiest hardware available, the one limiting factor in pulling off anything physical is the sack of meat your brain resides in.

And once you’ve accumulated years of experience, just as you feel your peak is reached, your meat sack starts creaking and it’s downhill into the grave. Thankfully a solution is slowly emerging. By the time your hips are titanium and your bladder lurks on the bedside table the Exoskeleton will have been perfected.

Raytheon Exoskeleton

The most famous Exoskeleton example has to be when Sigourney Weaver starts kicking xenomorph butt in ‘Aliens’. In 1986 it must have seemed 200 years in the future, but scientists are beavering away to make it happen right now and have been for several decades.

The General Electric Hardiman

The very first attempt was the Hardiman, built by General Electric in 1965. The project was intended to allow a person to lift nearly 3/4 of a ton, unfortunately the device itself weighed well over triple that and its movements were so violent that no person ever activated it whilst actually wearing it.

Since then there have been no shortage of remotely-operated limbs but the exoskeleton has proven to be a much tougher nut to crack. The technical obstacles are formidable. Power supplies haven’t been compact enough, sensors haven’t been subtle enough to interpret the wearers’ movements and the mechanical muscles themselves have been too crude – until now.

There are a variety of projects around the world attempting to make a viable proposition. Perhaps the most advanced is the HAL 5 from the alarmingly named Cyberdyne of Japan. Its primary purpose isn’t to destroy the human race, but to help the elderly and those with mobility problems.

HAL 5 - Judgment Day

The suit operates by sensing electrical impulses through sensors placed on the skin. Computers interpret these signals and activate the servos in the suit. It’s powerful enough to lift 10 times more than an unsuited human and the battery supplies up to 5 hours of superhumanosity. There are plans to introduce it into other arenas such as construction and rescue. At the moment it’s only available in Japan.

But what of the military? Surely they’d be itching to send legions of Iron Men across the battlefield. Correct.

So what does it all mean? You’ll be able to jog up Everest, execute that pesky 1080 McTwisty with a quick squirt from your booster rockets and if you do end up decapitating yourself whilst Extreme Ironing then something like the machine below will be waiting for your brain-in-a-jar.

Can’t wait.

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Daddy G

Published on February 27, 2010 in Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: history, speed.

When was the last time you felt serious G-force? The most likely case is a car crash, in which case you probably don’t remember it. If it was for fun then a roller coaster probably offers the leisure seeker the highest G out there. In sports Luge riders can reach up to 5 times their bodyweight, and air racers hit 9G in tight turns.

The effects of any sustained G-force aren’t particularly fun – blackouts, tunnel vision, inability to move the limbs at all, unconsciousness and death are all possibilities. People believed that the human body could only take so much. One man set out to explore the limits of G tolerance, and in the process saved a huge number of lives by endangering his own.

Colonel John Stapp

Colonel John Stapp was a USAF flight surgeon who dedicated his career to transport safety. In the late 1940s he was assigned to the Aero Medical Laboratory’s most pressing research – the effects of deceleration on humans.

At the time it was assumed that no one could survive more than 18G and planes were being designed to this specification. Evidence gradually emerged that pilots were surviving higher G impacts only to be killed after the structural failure of their aircraft.

It became clear that research was necessary to measure what the human body could tolerate. The initial plan was to use a 13 stone dummy named Oscar Eightball, the reasoning being that if 18G was fatal it would be ridiculous to subject a live subject to anything approaching that.

Dr. Stapp inspected Oscar and announced that he had done the calculations and he himself would eventually be the test subject, despite warnings that he would be turned into a sack of jelly.

To simulate the forces in a crash a rocket sled was used. It was located at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base – the home of the X planes and The Right Stuff) on a track originally built to test captured V2 rocket motors.

The Gee Whiz

The sled was designed to replicate aircraft landing velocities followed by the violent deceleration of a crash. Rocket motors brought it up to 200 mph over a 2000 ft railed track and metal scoops plunged into water generated the effects of a sudden slow down.

In December 1947 after 35 test runs with Oscar, Stapp rode the rocket. His first ever run simulated 10G which he described as ‘exhilarating’. Over a period of time speeds and impacts increased and Stapp made a nonsense of existing theories, taking up to 35G, forcing designers to start making helmets, harnesses, seats and cockpits much stronger.

His list of injuries began to grow as the experiments progressed. He cracked collarbones, ribs, broke his wrist twice, burst blood vessles in his eyes and went temporarily blind on several occasions, but his dedication never wavered.

Research moved on to the effects of ejecting at high speeds during the 1950s and Stapp was once again the willing test subject. A new rocket sled named ‘Sonic Wind’ reached 632 mph and came to a dead stop in 1.4 seconds to replicate ejection at 1800 mph. Stapp experienced 46G and survived.

Stapp in action

He was soon dubbed ‘The Fastest Man on Earth’, ‘The Bravest Man in the Air Force’, around the base itself he was known as the ‘Careful Daredevil’, a B Movie was made about his exploits, but Stapp was only interested in using his newfound celebrity to push the issue of car safety as he realised his findings were just as applicable to the road.

By demonstrating to the Air Force that as many pilots were dying in car crashes as plane crashes, he persuaded them to build one of the very first car crash test facilities and it became a cause he dedicated the rest of his life to. He brought together manufacturers, legislators and researchers to act on his results and to this day the Stapp Car Crash Conference is one of the world’s leading forums in improving crash safety.

Next time you put on your seatbelt you know who to thank.

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Sweet & Low Down

Published on January 30, 2010 in Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: Flight, speed.

We’re feeling smug tonight after breaking a world record time on Colin Mcrae Dirt 2, so let’s check out one of the lesser known records in the real world, one that may not be familiar but is definitely one of the most extreme.

There have been plenty of individuals willing to push the outer envelope. You have your Donald Campbells, Craig Breedloves, Chuck Yeagers and the list continues into the hundreds. Some of these people had the backing of governments, corporate sponsors or wealthy patrons. Others had to improvise a little more.

Darryl Greenamyer set the world low altitude speed record on the 24th of October 1977. The record required 4 passes at a height above ground level of less than 100 metres. An altitude of no more than 300 metres was to be exceeded between passes and no landings were allowed between them.

He officially clocked 988 mph at a height of less than 60 feet above the desert floor. At that speed and height someone told him his brain would be processing sights that were 150 feet behind him. And he achieved it with a plane cobbled together by hand from the remains of at least 12 others that he named The Red Baron.

the red baron in action

988mph? That may not sound too impressive but low altitude flight is a very different beast compared to further up. Fuel consumption and drag increases enormously in the thicker air. To give an idea, the range of his aircraft at high altitude would have been around 1500 miles at a fast cruise. He covered 130 miles during the record attempt and landed on fumes.

Greenamyer’s steed was a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, the first combat plane capable of sustained flight at Mach 2. The Starfighter was the perfect machine for the job. Its thin wings mean low drag and turbulence and combined with its endurance, handling and grunt there’s probably no plane out there that could take the record today without unfeasible amounts of expenditure and development.

The man himself also had the Right Stuff for the job. Greenamyer was a former Lockheed test pilot and he’d already broken the piston-engined world speed record. During his years at Lockheed he’d flown the F-104 countless times and was convinced that it was capable of setting more records.

A standard working day for Mr Greenamyer

The only question was how he would obtain his own example. In the mid 60s the F-104 was still a front line aircraft and military types are never keen to give up their hardware to civilians. He resolved to build his own from scavenged parts.

It took 13 years to create the Red Baron. It was assembled from bits found in scrapyards, job lots bought blind that included fridges and chunks of helicopter, one part was somebody’s office paperweight, a significant portion of the fuselage came from a preproduction mockup that required every rivet replacing.

By the time the plane was finished in 1976 it was a miracle of resourcefulness and a full on airborne hotrod weighing 20% less than a standard Starfighter and having 25% more thrust from a US Navy loaned engine.

It was taken out to Mud Lake Nevada and upped the low altitude record by 90 mph. The Red Baron actually exceeded 1000 mph but the timing equipment malfunctioned and 988mph remained the official speed. It hasn’t been beaten to this day.

That wasn’t enough to satisfy Mr Greenamyer. A few weeks later modifications began to take the world altitude record. It wasn’t to be. On a test flight the landing gear failed and he was forced to eject. The Red Baron’s story was over.

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Rocket Man

Published on January 28, 2010 in Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: Flight, history, Weird.

Now it’s 2010 the time has come to admit that the future really isn’t all that. There are certain things futurists guaranteed us which have failed to arrive. There should be robots attending to our every need, a nice resort on the moon and perhaps most glaringly – the jet pack. By now we should be able to pluck a contraption out of the cupboard, slap it over the shoulders and soar off down the pub.

For a privileged few it is a reality. And like so much other heroic technology it’s over 50 years old.

The idea of one-person flight has probably been around since the first humanoid stretched their rags over their arms, took a leap and started flapping but the most iconic and enduring example of the real thing is the Bell Rocket Belt.

The German army of WW2 was the first to attempt the development of a lifting device, but it wasn’t until the US Army backed Wendell Moore of Bell Aerosystems to develop what was termed the Small Rocket Lifting Device that the idea was refined.

Wendell Moore with his creation in the background

Testing on the belt began in late 1960 with several tethered flights in an aircraft hangar. In 1961 the first free flight was achieved. It flew a distance of 108 feet and reached a heady 4 feet of altitude. The future had arrived.

The Bell Rocket Belt was powered by hydrogen peroxide. By coming into contact with a catalyst it decomposes into a mixture of superheated steam and oxygen providing thrust through movable jet nozzles. The entire pack weighed 57 kilos fully fuelled and had a top speed of 60 mph. The pilot had to wear a thermal suit to keep out the intense heat generated by the exhaust.

The system embarked on an international tour, delighting crowds wherever it went. The military paymasters were less pleased. The maximum flight time couldn’t exceed 21.5 seconds, there was no method of a safe landing and the range never went above 800 feet. They decided helicopters were more fun and funding was cancelled.

That might have been the end for the belt but for one thing – Bell went out and got it a Hollywood agent. From the mid 60s it began to appear in movies (most famously Thunderball) , tv shows, events and ads. They were snowed under with requests for appearances and by the time the program was finally abandoned in 1970 over 3000 flights had taken place without a single failure.

Being slung up in a museum now seemed the most likely fate. No more funding or development was in the works until a brilliant engineer named Nelson Tyler gathered enough information to go home and build his own copy.

One of the works Bell pilots, Bill Suitor, heard of the new belt, got in touch and a new lease of life began.

Mr Suitor’s tale adds to the general air of unreality of the story. The original army contract stipulated that the system had to be able to be operated by someone of draft age with no flight experience. The then 19-year-old Suitor was Wendell Moore’s next door neighbour. One morning Moore approached him and casually offered him the choice of continuing in school or taking the job of a lifetime. By 1970 he had become the world’s most experienced belt pilot.

Suitor and Tyler continued flying into the 80s, his most spectacular flight at the opening of the 1984 LA Olympics in front of two billion viewers.

Tyler’s belt was eventually sold on when fuel became very hard to find, but a descendant of the original belt still flies today if you want that office party to be truly memorable.

There’s talk of improving range and performance. Several companies and enthusiasts are building their own examples. Perhaps its time is yet to come.

Fingers crossed.

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Snow Machines

Published on January 17, 2010 in Featured and Things you should know about. 0 Comments Tags: 4 Wheels, Motorsport, Snow, Weird.

Simply because we’re still in the mood let us have a look at some extra snow machines for the pure hell of it.

You might have spotted Ken Block’s tracked Subaru Impreza STI recently.

Sporting 400 bhp, you won’t find many faster ways of getting the kids to school across the average glacier, however Earth’s polar regions are harbouring stuff that’s plenty stranger.

Mars-1 Humvee

It may look like Arnie’s wet dream, but the Mars-1 Humvee may well help us explore the stars in the future. Built for the Haughton Mars Project this machine functions as a mobile laboratory studying the Haughton impact crater in the Canadian arctic. The crater is being used to develop techniques to investigate Martian geology.

The Mars-1 also doubles as a prototype pressurised Mars rover which will one day serve as a roving home and workspace for four astronauts on extended field trips. It was delivered to the research site by specially trained drivers wearing flotation suits just in case they went through the ice.

Snow Bug

The Snowbug is a Russian-built 6×6 vehicle custom designed by Arctic explorers . Fitted with Peugeot diesel engines they cruise at 25 mph. They can sleep 3 people, be dropped anywhere by parachute and are loaded with the technology to keep their crews oriented and warm in the most extreme conditions. A team of Snowbugs completed the fastest ever land crossing from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole in 2000. Their ultra-low pressure balloon tyres allow them to float on the surface of the snow and also pull the odd cool party trick. See above.

The Terrabus

If you decide to go for a career change in the US Antarctic program, Ivan The Terra bus may well be the first personality you meet on arrival at McMurdo Station. Manufactured by Foremost it can carry up to 56 passengers at 25 mph. Originally designed for tourism, less than ten examples are said to have been built and they’re mainly now used by polar bases. Unquestionably the ultimate choice for that mobile alpine disco.

Overland Train

The LeTourneau TC-497 was developed for the US Army in the late 50s to solve the problem of cargo delivery to areas with no roads. It utilised gas turbine engines driving electric motors in each wheel. Each wheel was steerable but despite that a full length example still had a turning circle of a 1/4 mile, with 10 ft tall tyres and 570 ft long with multiple trailers attached that’s not surprising.

It could accommodate a crew of 6 in comfort over ranges of up to 400 miles. The cruising speed was 20 mph and the carrying capacity was 150 tons. The Overland Train became obsolete before testing even finished as helicopter load capacities increased. A tiny part of the machine lived on as the creator of Bigfoot bought its tyres from a scrapyard.

The train from the rear

Delta 2

Another Antarctic workhorse. The Foremost Delta is used as a bus, a pickup, a truck and anything else that’s needed in marginal conditions across the globe. A quick sniff around reveals a 1981 example can be yours for $85,000. Put those house deposit plans on the backburner.

Antarctic Snow Cruiser

The undisputed crown jewel of icy oddness, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser was the brainchild of Thomas C Poulter. It was billed as the ultimate polar exploration vehicle, allowing the US government to seize tracts of Antarctica in comfort before any other countries could reach them.

Built in six months for a 1939 expedition, the cruiser was bursting with superlatives.

It was 55 feet long, had a range of 5000 miles with room for a crew of five and enough supplies to last them a year. An aeroplane strapped to the roof would supply mapping and photography data. Accommodation consisted of a control cab, kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom and storage space. The wheels were retractable to aid crevasse crossings.

To reach the expedition ship departing for Antarctica in Boston, the cruiser was driven 1000 miles from Gary, Indiana attracting intense media attention all the way.

The cruiser arrived at the Bay of Whales in Antarctica in January 1940 with much excitement. Unfortunately it proved to be hopeless.

The machine was severely underpowered, overheating the electric motors powering its wheels within a few hundred yards. The wheels span uselessly in the snow. The most successful trek was completed in reverse. The snow cruiser was covered over and used as a static shelter.

WW2 caused the cancellation of funding and the cruiser was left to its fate. It was found in the late 40s buried under several feet of snow and found again in 1958 just as it had been left all those years ago. After that it was never seen again. Perhaps it was spirited to the Soviet Union, perhaps it fell to the bottom of the sea.

And the future? Lotus have this offering running around in the Antarctic today.

Powered by biofuels and weighing only 360 kilos, the Concept Ice Vehicle is the last word in low impact exploration. The machine comes with ice penetrating radar to detect crevasses and an exciting spiked foot to ram into the snow to stop in a hurry.

Want. In fact we want ALL of them.

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Archive for the 'Things you should know about' Category

Scuttled

Human Powered Aircraft

Extreme You

Daddy G

Sweet & Low Down

Rocket Man

Snow Machines

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