Nigerian air crash

A plane identified as an MD-83 crashed in Lagos, Nigeria while attempting to land.

   The MD-80 versions were modifications on the old DC-9.  The vertical stabilizer was mounted at the top of the vertical stabilizer.  The entire horizontal stabilizer was designed to rotate relative to the airflow.  To accomplish this, there is a jack screw and powered nut assembly.  The jack screw was attached to the stabilizer and forced its movement.  The nut assembly was powered and caused the motion. There was an accident off the coast of California where the nut stripped and the screw assembly came loose causing the stabilizer to flap freely and causing the aircraft to crash causing the loss of all lives on board.
   The Lagos accident seemed to involve the loss of attitude control, so the same assembly would be the first cause of failure to examine.

Fast recon

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   t should be possible to build an unmanned follow on to the SR-71.  The drone would be carried aloft by a carrier aircraft and released from a boom, see F-35 posts.  It could be built with ramjet engines.

   Ramjet engines are as efficient in thrust for airflow as turbine engines at about Mach 3.  

At a little under Mach 4 they are as efficient as turbines by fuel flow.  The airflow is the air swept into the engine inlet by forward movement.  It allows fro the minimum inlet size and the minimum drag for a given thrust.  Fuel flow is the rate a t which fuel is burned.

   The drone could be used in the event of satellites being destroyed.  It would be flown to a speed of over 600 mph and released .  Its engines would initially be horribly inefficient but there relative efficiency would rise with increasing speed.

   At the end of its surveillance run it would be captured by another manned aircraft and flown to the ground for reuse.  Its advantage is high speed, high altitude flight in a package of minimum radr return.  It could probably be built without vertical stabilizers, tails, as the high speed flight should allow for good rates of control.     

Laser bullets

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   In order to achieve greater accuracy attempts have been made to secure laser pointers on police handguns.  The difficulty is that they become dislodged and consequently produce inaccurate fire.  Another solution is to place the laser physically in the bullet.

   The bullet would have to be a hollow point.  The copper jacket of the bullet would be 1 electrode.  An insulator, perhaps Teflon tape, would be wrapped around the bullet for electrical separation.  The 2nd electrode would be the propellant case.  an electric conductor would be swaged between the Teflon tape around the bullet and the case.  A plastic tube would be installed into the case to allow propellant to be filled while leaving a space to insert the laser light tube.
   The electronic package for the bullet would be installed on the pistol frame.  The battery could be installed at eh bottom of the bullet clip, displacing 2 or 3 bullets.
   Grips would be squeezed on the front and back of the pistol handle to connect the circuit and activate the laser.  If the circuit fails, the pistol would still be operable.
   A serious difficulty is placing the electrodes in the pistol chamber.  The negative electrode would provide electrons which is what oxygen wants for reactions, there would be a severe danger of corrosion unless the electrode is isolated from the steel .  A ceramic insert could be used to achieve this.  There is a danger of dislodgement and jamming.
   At a muzzle velocity of 350 meters per second, the bullet would drop about 0.1 meter, 10 centimeters at 50 meters range.  The light tube might also be slightly misaligned and the laser light would spread over some area.  But it should still have effective accuracy at 50 meters, if the laser has adequate light to be seen, particularly under sunlight.
   This would be a war crime for military usage since the bullet is open ended.  The idea would be to have it available only for police agencies to insure that police have an advantage in gunfights.  In the U.S., the lunatic lobby would insist on everyone haveing access to them, which would really be a bad idea since it would make killings much easier.

   The pistol would be more expensive and the bullets many times more expensive than conventional designs.

Titanic follies

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   For some reason an Australian with a lot of money is threatening to build a copy of the Titanic.  There are immediate peculiarities in this.  The first being that even with first class staterooms the Titanic's cabins did not all have private bathrooms.   People then had different standards.  Apparently he means the overall shape of the ship and the public spaces with the same arrangement of corridors, excepting steerage class.
   The ship will undoubtedly have diesel engines.  The Titanic, as built, had 4 funnels, but only 3 were functional.  The 4th was added to make the ship look more balanced.  In the replica 33 out of 4 would be useless deadweight. They were also built tall to disperse coal ash, which is unnecessary with diesel fuel.
    The Titanic's rudder was undersized and it had a peculiar arrangement of 3 propellor shafts.  Obviously, the copy would be built with 2 shafts and either 2 rudders or electric engines that can pivot.

   The Titanic's bow was built with a straight stem, apparently insurance companies at that time insisted on it.  Maybe that was supposed to minimize damage in collisions.  The problem is that it produces a very strong singularity as the bow hits water, producing unneeded drag.  A more angled
bow reduces the singularity as bow hits peaceful water and reduces fuel consumption.
   It really was not much of a ship and there is no reasonable cause to copy it.

Small recorders

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   Accidents involving small private planes are investigated but they do not have flight recorders like commercial aircraft.  This makes the work of the accident investigators much more difficult.
    A simple improvement would be to have a recorder about the size of a pack of playing cards attached to the plane's dashboard.  It would have an ambient microphone to record conversation and general aircraft noises and three axis motion and rotation measurements/
   It should cost only a few hundred dollars if built into s new plane and maybe a few thousand dollars to retrofit existing aircraft.  It can be built much more simply than commercial aircraft recorders because the enery of ground collision is much less.  The total fuel heating from fire would also be less and frequently small planes crash without burning.  It could have a lithium battery to record after engine failure.  The cost would be low because it would have no connections to the aircraft controls.  This limits the amount of information gathered, but it would atill be a major improvement for accident investigators over currently having nothing.

Scientific learning

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   One of the disappointments of engineering and science ids the refusal to use science to teach science.  The claimed methodology of science is to create a model then measure and evaluate the model before continuing it or rejecting it.  This is not done in instruction.  Each instructor chooses to teach in any manner he desires with out regard to its results.
   It would make more sense to test students as well as having them fill out surveys to determine satisfaction and assessment of knowledge gained.  The next step is to promote the methods that work and discontinue the ones that do not.  It might actually improve the efficiency of education.
   It might not be possible or desirable to standardize across  all curricula, there is too much diversity in  student ability across schools and departments.  But it should be possible over time within one school to evaluate and improve the methodology, and it might have some applicability to other schools.
   A fair amount of variety in teaching methodology should be encouraged, but it must be evaluated and the better parts adopted generally.

Army cargo

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

  The movement of logistics is the first challenge of modern militaries.  The use of containers had revolutionized cargo movement, it could similarly change military logistics.
   For military usage, containers could be built each of which would be 1/3 the length of a standard container.   3 of them could be clamped together and shipped and moved as a standard container.  On arrival at the destination shipping port, they would be separated and placed on a 5 ton truck for resupplying forward units.
    A standard container is 8 feet wide and 9 feet high.  For military usage, they would be 8 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet high, allowing an internal height of 6 feet, the remainder being structure.  It would be a bit of a head knocker but soldiers wear helmets.
   The advantage is that the packaging and sorting would be done in the U.S., simplifying logistics and allowing fewer logistic personnel being needed at the forward location.
   The one one drawback is that the density of cargo might be lower to avoid overloading the truck.  That would mean less cargo in each 3 set than a standard container, which would require more containers and more ships, although more containers could be shipped with each of lower height.  The stacked height of containers,and the raised center of mass they create, limits container carriage on ships.  Additionally, 4 cargo boxes rather than 3 could be in the length of 1 container rather than 3.
    The other weak point is that the clamps must be highly reliable or there will be a significant risk of the boxes  separating and being dropped when lifted by cranes.

Jet pigeon

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   One of the dangers of modern militaries is the loss of communications satellites, they are easily destroyed because their paths are predictable.  A possible back-up is to build a drone with a range of 12 000 miles, 24 000 miles being the circumference of the globe.  It would be able to fly to the host country like a homing pigeon from any point on the globe.
   In appearance it would be similar to a U-2, but unmanned and smaller.  It would have data storage on board for all routine but non time critical military information.  It would have a cruising speed of 500 mph at an altitude of 60 000 feet.  It would be lifted and recovered by manned planes, which would save the weight of landing gear and allow the wings to be designed exclusively for cruising flight.  It would be flown to 40 000 feet and released.  It might take it 24 hours toreach its home base, but it would free up radio circuits for critical work.
   A 50% fuel fraction should be achievable.  For 24 hours, that would be 2% per hour.  If the engine burns 1 lb of fuel for each pound of thrust, specific fuel consumption of 1.0, which should be achievable, it would need a weight to thrust of 38 to 1, average weight is 1/2 of 100% + 50% = 75% divided by 2%.  Powered gliders can achieve 50 to 1, unpowered gliders, 75 : 1.

Inefficiency

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   One of the biggest drains on U.S. defense spending is that the congress members use it as a jobs program.   There is a constant proliferation of defense plants to supposedly create local jobs.  This guarantees that all production is low rate and inefficient.
   Everyone would be better off in the long run if the defense plants were consolidated in a rather small geographic area by type; the armor vehicle production in one area, the ships in one ship yard complex,aircraft in a cluster of plants. The employees would move from one plant to another as needed.  This might require the rewriting of anti-trust legislation.
   Equipment would be built in pulses; one type of aircraft would be built for one year and then the production line would be mothballed until production restarts.  There would only be enough employees left to perform maintenance.  All the other employees would then move to another plant within a few miles and produce a different product for another year.  They would produce fighter planes for one year and then tanker aircraft the next and then possibly helicopters in the third year before returning to fighters.
   Buiolding larger numbers in one year tends to lower costs.  It also allows for design changes to be incorporated in one type and that type produced in useful quantities.
   The employees would move potentially from one employer to another, but that can be arranged if everyone acts like adults.  Each employer would contribute by time employed into pension funds.
   For ship building, instead of building one ship at a time, destroyers would be built in clusters of four. Modern shipbuilding involves building ships in sub-units and then assembling them.  If a destroyer is built in twelve sections, four section 6s would be built, then four section 5s which would be assembled.  This saves money.  It would mean having only one shipyard for government contracts.  Aircraft carriers would be built in pairs, again, to save money and  increase efficiency.
     

Flying trailers

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   There was a tornado near Dallas, Texas that lifted truck trailers.

   For a  trailer to be lifted, there must be either:

1. a wind such as B, blowing harder above the trailer than below to cause a greater pressure drop and therefore produce lift
2. a wind such as C, that deflects upwards from the ground and produces lift through stagnation pressure

    For B, assuming a trailer weighs 12 000 lbs and is 8 1/2 ft wide, U.S. standard, and 53 ft long, maximum allowed in U.S., the load would be 12 000 / 53 X 8.5 = 30 lbs per square foot, psf.  The magic number for pressure is about 8000in the US. Common System.  For 30 psf, v^2 X 1/800 = 30, or v^2 = 24 000.   If the air speed were to be zero below the trailer, the wind would have to blow at 155 ft/ sec, 100 mph, 160 kph, to produce lift.  If the speed below were 60 mph, 90 fps, the upper speed would have to be 90^2 = 8100 + 24 000 = 32 000 = v^2, v= 180 fps, 120 mph, 192 kph.  With ground drag and other trailers blocking the low wind, it might be achieved, but the trailer would not be a perfect surface, the area would not be fully effective.  Instead one would have to adjust the area downwards by a factor of maybe0.8.  All v would increase by 10 % in that case.
    In C, if the wind is at an angle to ground of 30 degrees, with the same factor of 0.8, the weight density would be 33 psf for v^2 of 26 000, but only 0.5 of velocity would be incident on trailer.  However, there would be a vacuum above the trailer that would match in theory the  pressure force below.  That would reduce the need force by 0.5 but with the wind speed vertical of 0.5 speed, v^2 = 26 000 X 2 = 52 000 orwind speed 230 fps, 160 mph, 260 kph.
   To fly, the trailers would have no inherent aerodynamic lift.  The square corners would prevent circulatory flow and would violate Kutta's hypothesis.  The vertical sides height be 10 ft high.  If the trailer is rolled so the side is 30 deg to the horizontal;
 The sides are 2 x 10 x 0.5, wind angle x 0.87 cosine of lift
 The top an bottom are 8.5 x 2 x .87, wind angle x 0.5 lift cosine
The effective area is 8.7 - 7 = 1.7 ft width.
For 53 ft = 90 ft^2 or 133 psf
Wind speed would be 340 fps, 230 mph, 370 kph.
     The equation of force goes as 2 X (L1 - L2) X sin 2x, where x is the angle of inclination and L1, L2 are the lengths of sides.  This has to br multiplied by the effective adjustment of thearea for edge effects.

city streets

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   If one were to build a new city, it might be desirable to actually separate car and truck traffic.  Ultimately,the only way of controlling car traffic is to let it grow until it chokes itself off, no other effective  means has ever been found to regulate it.  But trucks are essential to the functioning of a city, there traffic should not be impeded.

   The truck streets could alternate with  the car streets, B.  The blocks would be divided into building lots that stretch from the truck street to the next car street.  The property developer would be responsible for integrating truck access into the building plans.
   At A, is shown a possible cross section of the street.  There could be an elevated pedestrian plaza above street level.  To accommodate trees, cast iron cylinders of 10 foot diameter could be installed from the natural soil to the plaza level.  The cylinders would be filled with planting material and trees planted within them.  The cast iron should preclude tree roots rupturing the container.
   Enclosed, elevated walkways would be run above the center of the street.  Similar walkways have been built in Minneapolis, Minnesota to protect pedestrians from sever weather.  Connecting walkways would extend from the building fronts to the walkway.  Bicycle routes could be built on the top of the walkways, allowing bicyclists unimpeded movement.
    Mass transit would entail having what would amount to horizontal elevators that would be slung beneath the pedestrian walkway.  This protects them from snow and ice, so they would never be non-operational.  By elevating them above the street, they are not slowed by traffic jams.
   At c, is shown a pattern of cross bridges, perhaps 4 per block, to allow  a smooth flow of people back and forth a across the street without the need for pedestrian crossings to slow traffic.
   There could be additional businesses and taxi stops at street level.

   The truck and car routes could have roundabouts rather than traffic lights to allow for a smoother flow of vehicles. The center of the roundabouts could be connected to one block in the direction disallowed by traffic.  The centers could then be used as mini-parks.
   ASt some point, there will be an inevitable mixing of cars and trucks, but minimizing the common usage should allow for better truck movement.

Raising fish

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   There is an increasing demand for fish while native stocks are being stressed by over fishing.  The obvious solution is to raise fish.  There are difficulties of fish parasites and disease outbreaks in close confinement when they are raised in ocean pens.  An alternative is to build large enclosed fish-rearing tanks.

   The structure could be built with concentric rings, A.  The overall facility might be 1000 meters across with each ring 20 meters across and 20 m deep.  The rings would be connected with short tunnel sections, B, to allow the fish to be moved successively outwards as they mature and grow larger.  The younger fish, being smaller, would be accommodated nicely in the smaller internal rings. The structure between the rings might be 5 m wide.
   For 1000 m width and allowing 200 m for a center portion for early growth tanks and support equipment and facilities, there would be 16 rings.  The average diameter would be about, 1000 + 200 = 1200/ 2 = 600 m for a circumference of 1800 m.  With a depth of 20 m; 1800 X 20 X 20 X 16 rings =
12 000 000 cubic meters, m3.  The question then becomes how tightly to pack the fish.
   If the fish are stocked at 1 / 40 the volume, apparently tighter packing is possible, and one assumes that the fish double in size each year over a 3 year growth cycle, the fish would need 1 volume in year 1, 2 volumes in year 2, and 4 volumes in year 3, actually there would be somewhat more available for year 3 as the fish do not spontaneously double in size, or 4 / 7, 57%, would be harvested, so
12 000 000 X .57 / 40 = 170 000 metric tonnes of fish harvested annually.  Allowing a net yield of 50% weight  for fillets, = 85 000 000 kilograms of salable weight annually.
   For a structure of 1000 m by 1000 m, if the construction costs are $5000 / square meter, m2, the total cost would be $5 000 000 000 ($5 billion).  If financing is at 5%, the structure should last at least 50 years,so amortization could be adjusted for that period, the finance costs would be $250 000 000 /yr or $3 per kilogram of salable fish.
   There was a report some 10 years ago that said fish processors in Norway were shipping fish to China for processing before returning them for sale in Norway.  The claim was that shipping and processing in China cost over $1.50 / kg, while Norwegian processing cost some $3.00 / kg.   As fuel prices rise, the cost of shipping rises and the total cost of shipping and processing.                                                      
    Machines have been built as test equipment that can automatically; cut off fish heads and tails, open fish, clean out fish, remove fish bones and even peel off the skin, the latter, I believe, aided by rapid heating of the skin with steam before removal.  If there is a constant processing of fish, the cost of maintaining such automatic machines could be met and a large part if not all of the cost of the fish tanks could be offset by the cost savings of the automatic processing.
   At C, is shown the  feeding cart, c.  The cart would travel around a circular set of tracks at the edge of the tank.  It would spray the food across the tank for the fish to feed.  One of the complaints of pen raised fish is that the flesh is flabby from having no exercise for salmon and tuna.  The cart allows the fish to exercise by chasing their food.  For slow moving fish, such as cod, the cart might move at 3-5 kilometers per hour, kph, for salmon it might move at 10-20 kph to make them run.  The cart would be refilled by a hopper, h, that would move on overhead rails.  There would be 2 carts, 1 would be feeding the fish while the other is refilled.  As the first approaches the loading station, the second would begin moving forward while the first stops and is refilled.
   If the fish are packed densely, there would be the need for frequent changes of water as fish digest protein and excrete ammonia.  This would require extensive piping beneath the tanks.
   By enclosing the tanks with a roof, there is no danger of bird predation and a reduced risk of pathogens moving into the water.  In addition it would allow fish of different temperature regimes to be raised in one location.
   By isolating the fish in tanks and raising the feed under controlled conditions, it should be possible to raise low mercury predators, such as tuna.

   At I, is illustrated the movement of fish between tanks.  2 nets would be lowered into the interior tank after the exterior tank has been emptied of fish.  1 net would move forward past the tunnel connecting the 2 tanks.  The tunnel doors would be opened adn a guide net, set at a diagonal across the interior tank, would be place just past the tunnel.  The net behind the tunnel would be raised, and the one in front would sweep progressively around the tank, forcing the fish into the outer tank.  Once this is completed, it would be repeated for the next inner tank.

   Algae are the healthiest source of fish food,  currently, the least expensive method of raising them is to feed them white sugar in dark spaces.  That is not particularly sustainable.  Algae are plants and can be raised in sunlight, they are also needed to reprocess the enormous amount of ammonia the fish would excrete.
   At D, is shown one possible solution.  A mandrel of metal that has a coefficient of temperature expansion greater than glass would be place on supports.  An extrusion form would deposit molten glass around the mandrel.   Then another section of the extrusion device would vapor deposit aluminum onto the glass tube over about 1/3 of its circumference.  This aluminum would be placed on the lower side of the tube when mounted in sunlight to reflect light that has not been intercepted by the algae back into the tube to give the algae another chance to utilize it.  Then another layer of glass could be deposited ocer the aluminum to protest it.
   It might be necessary to have an outer slip form slide over the lower surface of the tube while being formed to prevent excessive sagging of the glass.
   The mandrel would be slid horizontally after the full tube is formed and slowly cooled.  When the glass has solidified, the mandrel could be withdrawn, although this would involve dragging it over the interior surface of the glass, so care would need to be taken.
   The tube might have an interior diameter of 4-5 m and be 200 m long.

   At E, is shown the mandrel and extruder.  There are 2 supports at each end so that one can be lowered, the extruder placed and then the second support would be lowered to allow the extruder to proceed down the mandrel.
   To estimate the size of the field for the tubes: 170 000 000 kg of fish X 1000 gm/kg X 4 Calories per gram of protein or carbohydrate, fat is 8 Calories, but 1 food Calorie is actually 1 kilocalorie or 1000 calories X 4 joules / calorie = 2700 X 10^12 joules per year or 7 X 10^12 joules per day.  But fish need at least 1 1/2 calorie of food for each calorie of fish, = 10 X 10^12 joules /day.
   Sunlight at noon directly under the solar high point, equator, is over 1 kilowatt/m2.  Allow for at least 10 hours of sunlight X 0.7 to allow for the average solar elevation X 3600 seconds per hour X 0.7 to allow for cloud cover = 18 000 000 watt-seconds or joules / m2.
   Dividing 10 X 10^12 by 18 X 10^6 = 550 000 m^2.  However plants are not very efficient in using sunlight.   Terrestrial plants do not exceed 5% conversion of solar energy into plant energy.  5% would require 20 times or 11 square kilometers.
   The parts of the fish not sold, about 1/2 could be fed to other fish, that would be a 1/3 reduction in calorie needs, but the algae would be mostly fed to an intermediary such as krill or herring and that would require more food.  This is what would probably kill it, the cost of all those glass tubes and the plumbing they would require.
   If this could be afforded, the glass of the tubes would be cleaned every night by a robotic scrubber that would move through them with brushes that cover the entire interior surface.
    F, shows the central fish tanks with arrays of glass tubes and production facilities connected to it.  The fish would be moved into the separate production units immediately after harvesting.
   G, shows the harvesting ring, a smaller ring at the outside.
   H, shows the capture method of forcing the fish to a central conveyor belt where they are raised and stunned by electricity before moving into the processing equipment.

 
 

49ers stadium

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   The San Francisco 49ers, an NFL, american professional football, franchise long argued over how and where to build a new stadium, I would suggest floating it.  Their current stadium is located at Candlestick Point, directly along San Francisco Bay, so access to the water is relatively easy.

   The idea is to build a massive monolithic platform, a giant barge, out of concrete and guild the parking structure and stadium on top of it.  In order to recover the cost of construction, buildings would be built on top as well to produce additional revenue, A, B.  The platform might be 2000 ft by
10 000 ft.

   Concrete is weak in tension so post tensioning, placing wires in the concrete and tightening them to produce a compressive stress which under tension does not produce net tension, would be needed to overcome the stresses produced by waves.  2 dimensional post tensioning, as D, has been used.  For the stresses ina floating platform, 3 dimensional post tensioning , as E, must be used.  For 2 dimesions, the wires can be laid out and the concrete poured over them before i sets and the wires can be tensioned.  For 3 dimensions, the vertical wires would have to be held on a reel with 1 end attached to an anchor plate, before the horizontal wires are laid and the concrete poured, F.  The lowest level of horizontal layer could be pre-molded and cured before being set as blocks with lead wires placed in the4 wire guideways.  The lead wires would be connected as each block is placed.  When all the blocks have been placed the tensioning wire would be attached to the lead wire string and the lead wires pulled through placing the tensioning wires.
   For forming the concrete, large blocks of expanded concrete could be used as molds.  Expanded concrete is concrete with a lot of little air holes in it.  It is similar to styrofoam.  Normal concrete weighs about 150 pounds per cubic foot, pcf; expanded concrete can weigh as little as 10 pcf.  Sea water weighs 64 pcf.  The expanded blocks, when placed, with spaces between for pouring the structural concrete, would render the entire platform unsinkable.  Even if the platform broke into pieces each piece would float as the platform would weigh less than sea water and the expanded concrete would prevent sea water from flooding and sinking the structure.  In addition the expanded concrete would prevent buckling of the structural concrete walls and floors allowing the concrete to achieve its maximal compressive stress.

   At I, is shown a slightly different construction method.  The molded blocks are used as the lowest base but an additional layer of concrete which would be post tensioned would be poured on top of them before the expanded concrete blocks are placed.
   Where there is automobile parking, it might be a good idea to place expanded concrete above the structural concrete but below the actual parking surface.  That would allow for energy absorbtion in the expanded concrete in the event of a car bomb. The creation of a a sacrificial surface such as that would prevent damage to the structure, which would be very difficult to repair, H.
   At G is shown the possibility of building a convention center and exhibition space as an additional amenity.  The roof could span 1000 ft with a tied arch, a steel arch that has an additional continuous steel beam along its lower edge to counteract the reaction forces of the toes of the arch.  To the sides of the central space could bre additional conference rooms, offices and smaller group rooms.

   Over the parking areas, walkways could be built, they would provide a public access amenity.  This would be necessary to gain approval for the construction.  The walkways would be 100 ft wide to allow for cafes restaurants and shops.  They would be wide enough to also allow for the installation of basketball and tennis courts.   Across the walkway, J and L, a, there might be 4 supports for redundancy.   Along the walkway, K and L, b, the spacing of the column groups could be 50 ft to allow for vehicle parking nad access lanes.
   At M, is shown the floating structure connected to shore by arched bridges.  By floating the structure, it is immune to earthquakes, although the bridges and water, electric, gas and sewer lines could be damaged.
   At lower right is illustrated some consideration of wave action and bending stresses.  The Golden Gate restricts energy input form the Pacific Ocean and the large size of the4 bay dissipates the energy that does enter.  Waves produced by wind blowing over the bay are limited by the dimensions of the bay itself.
   Allowing for a 1000 ft long wave, a wave of 14 second period, which would be unlikely to ever be seen in the bay, the half-wave length would be 500 feet.  d could represent the distance between the centroid of the lower quarter wave and the upper 1/4 wave, maybe 400 ft.  For a sine wave, the area of water would be about 2/3 of the 1/4 wave length X wave amplitude, 1/2 wave height.  If the platform is 40 ft thick and the upper and lower concrete surfaces are 3 ft thick, for an allowable concrete strength of 3000 pounds per square inch, psi, 430 000 lbs/ foot square, psf, the maximum moment would be 40 X 3 X 430 000 = 52 000 000 pound feet.  For d = 400, 130 000 lbs of force over 250 ft, 1/4 of 1000 ft, = 520 lbs per foot.  But since the area is about 2/3, 1 1/2 X 520 = 780 lbs /ft.; Divided by 64, weight of seawater = 8 ft. X 2 to allow for both upper and lower waves portions, = 16 ft larger than any wave likely to be encountered in San Francisco Bay.
    The platform would have 2 X 3 feet of concrete for the upper and lower surfaces + the blocks underneath of maybe 2 ft for a total of 8 feet.  In addition there must be vertical structural walls, maybe 2 feet thick every 100 X 100 feet.  That would be 100 + 110 = 200 X 40 X 2 = 16 000, divided by 100 X 100 = 1.6 feet 8 + 1.6 = 9.6.  It takes 2.5 feet of water to displace 1 ft concrete, 9.6 X 2.5 = 24 ft. In addition ther is the expanded concrete 40 X 10 / 64 = 6.5 feet.  The total is 24 + 6.5 = 30.5 plus the weight of buildings.  Allowing 4 feet of concrete, which should be about 4 floors of building, that would require an additional 10 ft, total = 41 feet displacement.
   If the buildings equal 4 floors, they would be concentrated so that 30 floors would be built over 1/8 of the structure or 40 floors over 1/10.
   #0 feet of water = 1 ton or 1/2 cubic yard of concrete.  ! cubic yard of concrete costs about $150, labor adds a lot more cost.  If the cost is $1000 per square foot, the average for each floor of building would be $250/ square foot.  But not all the space is sellable, hallways elevator shafts, so the cost might be $330/ square foot.  With construction the total might be $700 / square foot.  For a 2000 square foot apartment, fairly large, the cost would be $1 400 000.   There would need to be 2 000 X
10 000 X 4 X 3/4 / 2000 = 30 000 apartments.  San Francisco has a population of about 600 000 or
240 000 dwellings.  In addition, some buildings could be used as hotels or office buildings, it might actually be affordable.

    To build the platform, a series of pipes in a herringbone pattern would be emplaced below the depth necessary to float the platform, N, O.   Then steel sheet piling would be driven to form a rough rectangle.  The area enclosed would have sand pumped in to fill above the high tide line.  The pipes could pump out water to consolidate the sand.  The loer blocks would be placed and the platform poured and allowed to set.  The sheet piling would be removed and water would be puped through the pipes to undercut the sand until the platform floats   The platform would then be towed into position.  The sand could then be restored to its original condition.
   One additional point is that the platform would block sunlight,killing sea grass where it is anchored.  There might also be a deficit of oxygen under the platform, so air might have to be pumped to prevent fish kills.
    The other question is what the life time of the platform would be, 50 years, at least should be obtainable.
 

No land mines

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   Anti-personnel land mines are notoriously useless, they have at best barely slowed an attacking force, although they do produce gruesome injuries.  The purpose of any localized defense is to slow an attacking force long enough for mortars and artillery to be aimed and additional forces to be deployed.  In U.S. doctrine, mine fields are only used with an overwatch, personnel deployed immediately behind them. Russians and Chinese bury and abandon mines to impede and discourage movement.

   In World War I, the British developed what they called the Livens projector.   It was a pipe section with a steel plate welded across one end.  In side of this pipe were placed a propellant charge and a metal canister containing poison gas.  A shallow hole would be dug, the projector placed in it at a desirable angle and the apparatus would be used as a short range mortar to throw the canister and gas to the opponents trench lines.

   A more modern version of this could be built with cluster munitions, A.   It would be better for the cluster bombs to be deployed as D rather than C, having more of a horizontal to left and right rather than elongated in depth, the attacking force would be deployed effectively horizontally and the munitions would want a similar spread to cover them.  Infantry tend to be useless when firing rifles at more than one hundred meters, so covering relatively short range fire over a horizontal distance left and right is more important than firing at greater range, at least for stopping  an immediate attack.

   In order to achieve this spread the casing would have an oval shape,similar to D, and a cone would be placed over the propellant, inside the bombs as at A.  That should cause a wider spread when fired.  The maximum range desired would be no more than 200 meters.  There is a ballistic formula neglecting air drag; distance, s = velocity squared / gravity when fired at the angle of 45, which achieves maximal range.  For 200 m, g = 10 m/s2,  v = 45 m/s, a very low velocity and the projector walls can be fairly thin.

   For the bomblets, assume an explosive content of 200 grams and a steel jacket of 100 grams.  Thee is a normalized distance, a product of dimensional analysis for explosives.  It is the energy of the explosive divided by atmospheric pressure and then the third root of the quotient being taken.  For 200 gram of explosive, assuming an explosive value of about 4.8 Mega joules per kilogram, the normalized distance would be a little over 2 meters.  At sea level, at one half standard distance there are 100% fatalities; at 3/4 standard distance lungs collapse.  The bomblets would explode on the ground, so the explosive force would be peak at ankle height, the distance is measured form the actual point of the explosion.  With the metal fragments and the explosion, it might be disruptive out to about meters radius or about 50 square meters. 

    The question then becomes centered on how heavy to make the loaded projector.  If 300 bomblets of 300grams each were loaded, they would mass 90 kilograms, all up it would mass 120-150 kg.  It could ber made smaller, but it would still be movable by a small group of personnel.  300 bomblets at 50 m2 each would cover 15 000 m2, or an ellipse of 100 meters by 200 meters. 

    The projectors would be placed just in front of the defensive position, that way short falls would not land on the defenders.  They would be dug into the ground with an angle appropriate for the desired range, B.  They could be made in 2 varieties; one with the bomblets detonating immediately upon contact with the ground, and another with delay fuses that would explode in sequence  like popcorn.  The first would be fired to stop the progress of the attack and then the second would be fired to inhibit reorganization of the attack.

   If the projectors are not used, their safety switches can be reset and they can be carried off to be reused.  I do not believe that any minefield ever inflicted more than 5% casualties on an attacking force, the projectors would be more effective at stopping, or at least delaying and inhibiting an attack.  

   This system would eliminate the problems of the inevitable casualties associated with laying one's own minefield.   It does use cluster bomblets which many countries are moving away from.

Sea mine

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts

   The desirable characteristic of a sea mine is its ability to actually strike a ship.  One way to accomplish this is to make the mine actually hunt the target ship.

   One way of achieving this goal is to build an inflatable mine.  The mine would come folded in a bag, C.  The bag would reduce the loss of plasticizer, chemicals added to the plastic material to keep it flexible,
which can be leached out with exposure to water.  The bag will also help to hide the deflated mine.  For a sand bottom, the bag would have sand glued onto its surface to mimic the bottom; for a mud bottom, the bag would be coated with foam rubber which would look like mud.  The bag would have a bleed hole to force any air out when it descends to the bottom.  When the mine inflates, the bag would rupture and the mine would emerge.
   To inflate the mine, nitrogen under pressure would be stored in tanks.
   If the cone diameter is 1.5 m and the tail is made with a length to diameter ratio of 6, then the volume of the mine would be 1/2 X 4/3 X pi X 0.75 X 0.75 X 0.75 (1/2 of a sphere) for the rounded top + 1/3 X pi X 0.75 X 0.75 X 6 X 1.5 for the cone = 0.88 + 5.3 = 6.2 cubic meters, m3, for a lifting force of 6.2 metric tonnes
X gravity.  At a depth of 1000 m, the pressure is 100 atmospheres or 10 Mega pascals.  Pressure cylinders or balls are built commercially to withstand at least 400 atmospheres.  Allowing 500 atmospheres pressure,
50 000 000 Mega-pascals, there would need to be 1.24 m3 of gas to inflate at 1000 m.  A ball of 1m diameter would have a cross section of 0.78 m2 for a pressure of 50 000 000 X 0.78 = 39 000 000 Newtons.  Aluminum could withstand 300 Mega pascals or more.  The circumference of the ball would be 3.14 m for 39 000 000 / 3.14 = 12 500 000 N/m.  That would require a thickness of 12 500 000 / 300 000 000 = 0.042 m.  The area of the ball would be 4 X pi X 0.5 X 0.5 = 3.14 m2.  X 0.042 = 0.133 m3, or, with aluminum weighing 2.5 tonnes / m3, a weight of 0.333 tonnes.  The volume would be about 0.5 m3, so 3 would be needed to inflate.  3 would be external to the mine for initial inflation, another 1 would be carried inside the mine for additional equalization.  The 3 external would be placed in the bag.
   The mine would be inflated and the bag ruptured and discarded.  The initial trigger would be acoustic and the mine would track acoustically.  Upon inflation, a heat source would raise the internal temperature to the curing point of the plastic, making it hard and the mine rigid.  There is a danger that the heating could damage the electronics, so they would have to be insulated and the interior ball would release nitrogen to coll the electronics and to make up the losses in nitrogen.  The curing temperature would be about 80 C, or 350 K.  The sea water would be about 0 C, so about 1/4 of the gas would expand and be released through a pressure equalizing valve at the back end of the mine.  The nitrogen used to cool the electronics would replace this as the mine cools.  As the mine rises, additional gas would be vented as their is a small limit to the differential pressure form inside to outside that the mine wall could withstand.  The plastic curing would not be perfect, but it would only need to be good enough to allow maneuvering. The inflating balls would be cut loose once inflating has been completed.
    The maximum moment sustainable at the ring of the top curve would be; pi X 0.75 X 0.75 X thickness of skin X maximum allowable force of skin.  Allowing 7 Mega pascals for strength, a fairly low value and a skin thickness of 0.005 m; maximum moment would be 60 000 N-m.  If control surfaces are 8 m from the ring,  a maximum control force of 7 500 N could be obtained.  However, thin walled buckling would greatly reduce this.  If the surface of the mine is not made smooth, but with a series of curved ridges as at D, the point of thin walled buckling would be delayed.  There appears to be enough strength for maneuvering.
   The skin area would be; 2 X pi X 0.75 X 0.75 + pi X 0.75 X 0.75 X 1/2 X 9 = 3.5 + 7.7 = 11.2 m2.  For a plastic density of 1.6 tonnes / m3 and a thickness of 0.005 m = 0.09 tonnes.  Allowing 0.5 tonnes for explosives + 0.33 for internal nitrogen ball + 0.09 = 0.92 or maybe 1 tonne all up.  With 6.2 tonnes of lift there is a net of 5.2 tonnes or the mine would have a thrust to weight ratio of 1 at an angle of about 12% from the horizontal, allowing it to chase down ships.  This is for near surface.  At 6.2 m^3, there would be about 280 standard volumes, each standard volume is 22.4 liters.  The molecular weight of nitrogen is 28, therefore the nitrogen would mass 8 kg for each atmosphere.  At 1000 m, ther would be 100 atmospheres or 800 kg nitrogen mass.
   The terminal guidance would be optical, attacking the mass of the ship.  The conical shape would cause some focusing of the blast shock waves off of the water cone and upwards into the hull of the ship, B.  The cone shape is also highly streamlined and should allow speeds of 50 knots,
   The mine would probably require a minimum depth of water of at least 200 m to function.
   The mine would appear to be debris when lying in the bag, making it difficult to detect.  The nitrogen balls could have plastic outer coverings to disguise their shapes for incresed difficulty in identification.
 
 
 

Paul Allen's rocket plane mistake

F-35 shown obsolete in previous posts

   Paul Allen got together with Burt Rutan to build a plane to carry a rocket aloft for space launch they got it very wrong.  I actually did a thing called Space Launch about two weeks before they announced their exercise in failed engineering.

  Fo0r reasons which I am sure they think are reasonable, they have decided to build an aircraft with two full sized bodies and place the rocket on a wing section connecting the two, B.  This achieves the truly impressive result of increasing weight, increasing the wetted surface and making the entire aircraft heavier and less maneuverable as well as more expensive.  Any reasonable observer would have to conclude that that level of incompetence could not be easily achieved, it would take actual work to equal that degree of failure.
   The correct design procedure is to build a single aircraft body and place the rocket on top, A.  The cockpit would constitute a separate capsule, C.  The cockpit would be on a ring mount that would allow it to rotate from a vertical to an inverted position.  This can be achieved because the aircraft can be built as fly-by-wire, all of the control inputs are electrical so the transmission of signals from the cockpit to control surfaces could be by electrical contact at the ring mount, radio signals across the gap from cockpit capsule to fuselage, by laser signal across the same gap or by mounting a flexible wire bundle from the fuselage to the cockpit for signal transmission.
   The aircraft flies to 10 000 ft (3000 m) and rolls inverted.  A smooth, coordinated roll loads the airframe barely above 1 g, virtually the same as straight line flight.  There is no danger of overstressing the structure.  The cockpit capsule is then rotated 180 degrees returning the pilots to an upright vertical position.  It would be in position G.  In this position the rocket can be smoothly dropped.  The dual tail allow the rocket to extend back further along the fuselage and ensures that there will be a smooth flow of air over the vertical stabilizers after rocket separation.  A single tail would suffer some degree of flow disruption as the rocket falls and the body of the rocket blocks and disrupts the airflow to some extent.
   The cockpit capsule could be built with 2 flight positions like a Gemini capsule or 3 positions like an Apollo capsule if an additional crew member is felt useful for preparing the rocket for launch.  From the front end of the capsule an escape tower of a a pole structure with rocket motors mounted at the end would enable the crew to separate tin the event of a casualty to the aircraft.
   The entire front end could be built into a rotating section, D, is desired.  A crew of up to 8 could be accommodated if additional personnel were needed, although I would not necessarily recommend building that.
   If the rocket were to be used for manned launches, the crew capsule could also be made to rotate on the rocket mounting, although there would be a weight penalty of several hundred pounds.
   To place the rocket on top of the airplane, a tower could be built with an extended arm which would be attached to the rocket carrier, E.  Cables would be used to provide the lifting force.   The tower would have 2 legs to allow th front of the aircraft to be moved under the arm, carrier and rocket for placement of the rocket.  Another method would be to lift the rocket on a giant forklift, F.
the forklift would be built with its supports spaced far enough apart the one could be in front of the wing and the second in back.  It would approach the aircraft from the side.
    By having a single aircraft that rolls inverted, the aircraft would be lighter and less expensive, allowing for a larger rocket to be carried or a higher altitude to be reached before separation.
   If anyone sees Paul Allen, tell him he is wasting hi money, but he has plenty and he won't miss it.  If you meeet Burt Rutan, tell him he botched the engineering.

Road opening

F-35 shown obsolete in previous posts

   After every disaster there is a need to open roads so that emergency construction equipment, medical supplies and other needs can move forward.  The following is a vehicle to help with the task  of opening roads.

   The starting point for the design is a large front end loader.   Added to the forward half=body is an hydraulic arm similar to a backhoe with a jackhammer fitted to its end.   The jack hammer arm would be fitted to a turntable, allowing it to swivel independent of the vehicle body and allowing it to reach to where it is needed.  Because of this the driver's cab, dc, A, would have to be moved over one set of the forward wheels from its usual position of being centered.   An additional cab on the boom arm, bc, would be added to allow for a clear view when using the jack hammer.  The two crew members would have to cooperate, one watching the road edge on the right, the other the left, to avoid driving off of eroded cliffs and precipices. The front tires would be increased from 1 per side to 2 per side to allow for the additional weight of the arm and jackhammer.
   When arriving at an obstruction, such as a partially collapsed building, C, the jackhammer would be used to break up the solid parts of the obstruction before the front end loader would pick up and remove the debris.  For softer material, such as mud slides, the blockage would just be scooped and moved off of the road.  One might want to check buildings for potential survivors before demolition.
    Large trees could also be broken up by the jackhammer, as well as boulders.
    For awkward objects and pieces the loader could scoop under while the jack hammer could be propped in front and on top like a finger to hold it in place.
   The loader could be built with a side dumping feature, the loader basket tipping to one side, to make it easier to empty in confined places.
   The material would only be moved o short distance before being dumped, other vehicles would eventually further remove it.

Loaders

F-35 shown obsolete in previous posts

   The driver caqb position on heavy equipment is positioned based upon old clutches and cables with hydraulic lines, electrical controls allow for better and more flexible design.

   In A, a backhoe is shown with a cab at the elbow joint allowing the operator to see\ downwards when excavating.  At B, is shown the same providing the advantage of actually being able to see the loading of a dump truck instead of guessing.  The conventional cab position can be left, the conventional on the left of the hoe the elbow on the right.  The cab should be made to position itself either at a low setting, l, to reduce the overall vehicle height when being transported and a high position, h, for operating.
    Backhoes are sometimes filled with earth and then used as a battering ram to break up asphalt.  For that reason the cab should be mounted on hydraulic shock absorbers to protect the operator when used to slam down as a breaking tool.
   The one danger is that backhoes operate close to excavations and if the operator is on the hoe elbow he might loose track of his position and drive over the edge.  It would be a good idea to have a warning system based on radar or sonar at the front and rear ends of the chassis, since they are used in both directions, to warn of drop offs and override the operator's movement commands when too close to an edge.
   This design applies as well to the giant equipment used in open pit mines, where the operator being able to see should increase the efficiency of the operations   At C, is shown a bulldozer with a cab on parallel arm supports.  This allow the operator 3 positions;

1. The traditional back position of the cab which allows the operator to see the slope and cut of the soil removal.
2. Forward over the blade which allows for the direct control of the amount of material being removed and adjustment to the amount of cutting.
3. An elevated perch which should only be used when the vehicle is stopped because it is less stable but allows for a full field of view of the overall work site.

      For a front end loader, D, the cab should be mounted on parallel arms attached to the loader arms to allow for viewing placement into dump trucks and, similar to the bulldozer, being able to see what is happening and the amount of material accumulating at the blade.
   All of these modifications should make the vehicles more efficient.

Cranes

Previous posts showed F-35 obsolete.

   Construction cranes are currently misdesigned.  They are still built as cranes which had wire and hydraulic controls for the operator when electrical controls are currently available and allows for greater freedom in design choices.

   In A, for a tower crane, the operator's cab should be moved to the end of the boom.  It would have a bubble canopy design to allow the operator to see directly down, this would enable the operator to see and position the load, making the crane more efficient.  When the boom is lifted, B, the cab would rotate to compensate and keep the operator vertical.   An enclosed walkway would be built along the boom to allow access to the cab and prevent falls.  The danger to the operator from a crane accident would not be that much more than with a conventional cab.  A conventional cab can still be left on the crane.
   For a crawler crane, C, rails would be added to the side of the boom, D, and an elevator cab would ride on these rails to the top.  The elevator would be lifted by a cable.  The wheels on the rails would have breaks in case of cable failure.  In addition direct brakes could be fitted that would clamp down on the rails in an emergency.
  If a luffing boom is fitted, a boom extending form the top of the main boom, the operator's view would still be improved   It could be possible to have the operator exit the elevator, enter a transfer foyer and then walk out along the luffing boom in an enclosed walkway to a cab at eh end of the luffing boom , but that might be a little much to ask.

   For an extending boom crane, the outer stop plates currently used at the end of each section could be replaced by interior stops, E.   The ends of each section would have to be chamfered to allow wheels of the cab carrier to travel up the length of the boom, F.  The cab carrier would have a frame that extends completely around the boom to ensure the cab does not separate, G.  Again, the cab and carrier would be lifted by a cable from the boom end and the carrier wheels would have brakes to arrest descent in the event of a cable failure.  The wheels would need a suspension that allows them to follow the decreasing width of the boom sections.
   There is an hydraulic cylinder under the boom to lift and position it.  This means that the cab and carrier cannot descend past the point of connection.  Therefore means must be made available for the operator to enter the cab, either a ladder or a hydraulic man lift.
  In all these applications, the operator being able to actually see what he is doing with the load would increase crane efficiency.

Big wind

F-35 shown obsolete on previous posts.

   Doing wind measurements above ground level in the 1950s as part of the work for rocket launches, it was determined that over the U.S. there were constant winds at 100 ft ( 360 m) above ground level.  The winds shifted in direction and strength byt were always present.  In fact, the 1200 ft level represented the maximum velocity of winds near ground.  In order to build wind power, that 1200 f levell would be the optimum point for the rotor hub with the blades extending above and below.

  Building a tower of that height would best be accomplished by using the tower itself as part of the lifting crane.  Wheeled ring elements would be lifted against the tower after it has had its lower section assembled by cranes, B, and then the assembled sections would ride up and down along the outside of he tower.

   The individual sections would have, D, spring elements, most likely similar to leaf springs, s, to allow for some movement between them and keyway blocks, k, to prevent them from sliding relative to one another. The keyways would be solid metal rod that would slide into openings in the other element.  The springs could be fiber reinforced plastic or metal.
   To hold the unit together, wires, w, would be wrapped around the sections and placed under load before being clamped in position, to serve as structural connection and to provide downforce on the wheels while running up the tower for traction.
   After the elements are connected, crane booms would be erected on top of them and then the booms would be connected by a top frame which would have lifting cables, C.
   Inside the tower a spider would climb and then help to position each element.  The spider would have an upper and a lower body which could rotate relative to each other.  The upper body would have arms that could grasp and position the next element to be added.  The lower body would have 6 to 8 legs to hold and position itself against the sides of the tower.  To climb,  all the legs would extend raising the spider upwards.   2 opposite legs would detach from the tower sides and would rise to a new holding position, then this would be repeated until all the legs have been repositioned.

   In order to join the sections explosive welding would have to be used, E.  In explosive welding continuous  explosive charges are placed outside one of the pieces to be joined.  Upon detonation , the shock waqve dislodges metal ions across the joining surface, yet these ions still have bonding with the parent material forming a solid bond,.  Even dissimilar metals such as aluminum and steel can be joined.
Conventional  welding involves melting and then resolidifying the metals.  By the time steel melts the aluminum would be a puddle on the floor, defeating the purpose of the weld.  With thick metal sections , it is very hard to keep the metal at the proper temperature during welding since metals conduct heat well and dissipate it rapidly.  In this case it would because of the thick sections that explosives would be used.  After the explosives are fired ultra-sound inspection would be used to insure that the weld was effective.  Attemptong to use bolts would cause enormous stress concentrations around the bolts.
   When the tower is completed, the spider would be lowered by the crane and then a top plate positioned before emplacing the generator and the rotor blades.  The crane would the swing over the back of the generator  before being lowered to the ground for disassembly.
   For access to the crane and spider basket cars lifted by cable would be used as elevators.  The cars would be stabilized by ground wires while lifting and to prevent the basket from being forced into the tower by wind gusts.  The car would hav a docking port on the crane assembly.  It would be advisable to have more than one wire rope for lifting in case one breaks.
   The spider and crane would be powered by electricity from cables that would trail to the ground,
The spider's cable would become the power cable for the generator.
    To examine stresses, I will assume that the blades turn to prevent wind loading above wind speeds of
40 mph (65 kph), 60 feet per second, fps.  the magic number for conversion to force is to square wind speed in fps and divided by 800 to obtain pound per square foot, psf.   60 X 60 / 800 = 4.5 psf.  Assuming that the rotor blades are 1/2 the tower height, they would be 600 ft (180 m) long, their area would be 600 X 600 X pi = 1 100 000 square feet, f2.   1 100 000 f2 X 4.5 psf X 1200 ft (tower height) = 6 000 000 000 lb-ft.  Steel yield point can be over 50 kips (kilopounds, thousands of pounds, per square inch), assume the loading is allowable to 20 kips, allowing for fatigue and some allowance for thin walled buckling of the tube.  Assume the tube is 60 ft (18 m)  diameter, so ft radius; there is a formula, pi X radius squared X wall thickness, t, X allowable load = moment,  pi X 30 X 30 X t X 20 (000)kips X 144 inch2/ft2 = 6 000 000 000;
t = 0.75 ft.   60 ft, diameter, X pi X 0.75 X 580 pounds per cubic foot, weight of steel, = 70 000 lbs /linear foot at base maybe 30 000 lbs/ft at top.  Thin walled bucking would have to be checked and it might be necessary after erecting steel to line the tower with concrete to increase the wall thickness.
  Assuming the crane can lift 1 000 000 lbs, the average weight would be 50 000 lbs/ft and the average section lifted would be 20 ft long or 60 lifts minus the original placement to complete.
   Whether rotor blades could be designed and built of this size would be another question.
    The only way to move sections this size would be by airship.  If the airship could carry 500 000 lbs, 2 sections would be joined on the ground before lifting.  The difficulty with airships is that  in transferring the load they must remain stationary even with some wind gusts, companies, such as Lockheed, have designs to allow for this.  The airships could be filled with hydrogen to save money.  The danger of a hydrogen fire particularly in a cargo carrier is of minimum risk, although it might be advisable to avoid flying over densely populated areas.

Useless missile defense

Previous posts showed F-35 obsolete

  The idea of stopping an incoming warhead with interceptors should not work.  As far as I can tell a warhead weighs about 200 lbs (100 kg).  Aluminum weighs 150 lbs per cubic foot.  For the weight of 1 warhead 1.33 cubic feet, 2300 cubic inches of aluminum could be substituted.  If the aluminum is 1/16 of an inch thick (1.5 mm), and the pieces are 4 by 8 inches (100 X 200 mm), over 1000 pieces could be substituted for 1 warhead.  The pieces would be irregular in outline and bent to maximize radar return.  They would be stacked in clusters with a small amount of propellant, solid  rocket fuel, between each piece.  During the ascent the clusters would separate and the fuel would be ignited, separating the pieces.  Each piece would be bright, shiny, and hot to make it easy for the interceptors to see the pieces.   The warhead would also be made with a bright radar return.
   There is a thought that the way to by-pass the defense is to lower the radar signature to make it hard to track.  The better solution is to hide a tree by planting it in a forest.  Give them lots of targets to shoot at.  By having over a thousand potential targets, it would be statistically very unlikely for the actual warhead to be intercepted.  Building a rocket with a throw weight of 2 warheads is somewhat more difficult than building one with a throw weight of 1 but it is not an overwhelming difficulty.  The missile defense system has never been adequately tested and probably would never work.  If an opponent has the sophistication to build a warhead and a rocket, they can also build a warhead and rocket with a thousand decoys.

F-35:The $380 billion mistake

   There are two posts after this one.
See: The F-35 is useless/ YouTube

   The F-35 is a failed program.  What is truly pathetic is that it would have been a failed program 30y ears ago.

   I will now try to explain some facts about aerodynamics and aircraft structures.

   In illustration 1, (a) represents an airfoil shape with an airflow moving past it.  The airfoil shape and its inclination cause a circular to elliptical movement of air around the airfoil.  (b) shows the addition of the circular flow to the steady air flow.  This addition causes air to flow faster over the wing, where the  speeds of the two flows add, than under the wing where they subtract.  Any flow of fluid past a surface will cause a drop in pressure on that surface; the faster the flow, the greater the pressure drop.   Since the flow is faster above the wing the pressure drop is greater over the wing and the difference in pressure, higher over the wing, lower under, causes a net pressure upward producing lift and allowing flight.

   In (c) a wedge-shaped object, similar to a fighter plane fuselage, is shown in an airflow.  Under subsonic flight it cannot produce lift, as the circulating flow would be disrupted by the back of the wedge.  There is a concept in airfoil design, known as Kutta's hypothesis, which states that at the trailing edge of an airfoil the velocity must remain finite, as in (b).  The bluff rear end of the wedge prevents this and would require an infinite fluid speed to form a circulation, therefore it can only produce lift by having a separation of flow off the top of the shape which is horribly inefficient.

   However, under supersonic conditions shockwaves, light green lines, can form producing lower pressures above and higher below to produce lift.

   The other interesting case is the wedge rotating in compressible flow.  Air blowing at 180 miles-per-hour will compress about 3 percent if brought to  a stop by a wall, the number of air molecules per cubic foot would increase by 3 percent.  The compression of air increases, roughly, as the square of the velocity.  The drop in pressure for air flowing over a surface also goes as the square of the velocity(The two phenomena are related).  For lift the increase in compressibilty gives an added bonus to the total lift.  The velocity at which air is compressibile is arguable, depending on the context, but Mach .5 (one-half the speed of sound)  is a useful approximation.  That is 370 mph at sea level and 330 mph at minimum.  Owing to the compressibility, air above that velocity is, essentially, a different fluid from low speed

   When rotating in compressible flow, a wedge, as well as an airfoil,  will produce lift from non-circulating flow.  This has in common with supersonic flow that the upper and lower surfaces are independent, Kutta's hypothesis does not apply.  Lift is produced by a vortex of air that forms over the wing or body, producing  low pressure and lift.  The faster the airfoil or body rotates, the more lift is produced. 

   In 2, the plan view of a fighter is shown.  The original wings, A, are shown as well as extended wings, B.  The most important consideration in fighter wing structures is the wing stiffness, its ability to resist bending.  There are two main types of stiffness; bending stiffness, which is the equivalent of grabbing a wing tip and trying to force it up or down; and torsional stiffness, the equivalent of grabbing the leading and trailing edges of the wing and trying to force one up and the other down.

   For bending stiffness, the wing skin provides the stiffness.  The stiffness is determined by the thickness, gage, of the wing skin multiplied by the top to bottom depth of the wing (actually, measured to the center of the skin thickness) and multiplied by a material variable known as Young's Modulus.  Young's Modulus is the force per cross-sectional area of a sample divided by its fractional elongation from the force. (For steel, a force of 30,000 lbs per square inch would produce an elongation of .001, one inch in 1000 inches, for a Young's Modulus of 30,000,000 lbs per square inch.)  This means, that for a wing, if the top to bottom depth is doubled, that the skin thickness can be reduced to half for the same stiffness.  This can be done down to a skin thickness that would cause the skin to buckle, pucker up, (2,d).  This is known as thin walled buckling.

   The idea of improving aircraft performance is to enlarge the wings from their original planform, A, and increase them to planform, B.  Now things get confusing.  Wing area and planform is measured to the centerline of the aircraft, but, as previously noted, under steady, subsonic, flight , the body cannot produce circulation and, therefor, cannot produce lift.  Only the external wing area can produce steady lift.  But, under compressible rotation the body can produce lift.  A difficulty is, that away from the wings, any reduction of pressure above the body will cause air to flow from below into the low pressure (fluids flow from high to low pressure) disrupting much  of the lift.  The same effect happens at wing tips making the ends of wings inefficient at producing lift (this is why gliders have long wings, so most of the wing produces efficient lift).

   For an F-15 the total wing area is about 550 square feet with a wingspan of about 37 feet.  For wings, area divided by span produces a number called mean (average) cord.  The wingspan divided by mean cord is the aspect ratio of the wing.  (This is also wingspan squared divided by wing area.)  The aspect ration of the F-15 is about 2.5, so the mean cord is about 15 feet.  For the F-15 the wingtip is about 5 feet long, making the centerline wing length about 25 feet.  The fuselage of the F-15 is about 12 feet wide.  So, about 260 square feet of wing is within the fuselage and about 290 square feet is external.

   For wing, B, The maximum length along the fuselage, assuming similarity to an F-15, would be about 35 feet.  With a fuselage width of 12 feet that would allow for the wing area in the fuselage to be about 420 square feet (the forward fuselage would not readily accommodate the wing extension.)  The external wing would be (35 feet + 5 feet(wingtip) = 40 feet, divided by 2,)  =20 feet average length times 25 feet (external span) = 500square feet.  All of the numbers are about a 70% increase over the F-15 standard design.  The other limiting parameter is to not increase the total weight of the aircraft.

   Owing to the reduction in aspect ratio, the wing would not be as efficient.  The F-15 is designed to produce turning forces equal to 9 times its weight , 9g.  The larger wing could produce a higher number, I would suggest 12g would be obtainable.

   What needs to be understood is that lift is a function of atmospheric pressure and atmospheric density.  The change in pressure above and below the wing is a function of air density, but the lifting force is actually produced by air pressure.  At sea level, air pressure is about 2100 lbs per square foot.  It is half, 1050 psf, at 18 000 feet.  Air density is about one fourteenth of a lb per cubic foot at sea level an it halves at 22 000 feet.

For an F-15 wing loading, the weight of aircraft divided by wing area is around 90 psf (pounds per square foot).  For 9gs, that is 810 psf.  At 15 000 feet altitude it would be impossible to lower the pressure any more, it is impossible to create a vacuum and there is only about 1000 psf of pressure at 18 000 feet.  The only way to increase lift is to increase wing area.

   In 2b, if the wing cross section shape (wing profile) is maintained, but enlarged proportionately, for the same stiffness, the skin thickness can be decreased with the proportionate increase in cross-section length which would produce a proportionate increase in depth.  If the wing  section is twice as long, the depth at each wing position (one fourth the length, one half the length) would be twice.  The wing skin can then be one half for the same thickness to provide the same stiffness.  The wing area (twice as long but the same span ) would double, but the skin being one half as thick, would way the same.  The skin is the principal source of weight in a fighter wing to maintain stiffness.  The weight has not increased but the lift has allowing for higher turning gs.

   In 2a, the wing strip, s, owing to the reduction in efficiency from the reduced aspect ratio, would produce less lift and the center of lift would move closer to the fuselage since it is the wing tips which cause the loss of efficiency.  Both of these factors reduce the bending moment, 2c, and therefor require less stiffness.  The wing depth can remain the same and the wing can be even stiffer, or the wing skin can be reduced in thicknesss to make the wing lighter.  In addition there is something called Reynold's number which is velocity times a length divided by kinematic viscosity (the ratio of a fluid stickiness to its mass ratio).  An F-15 wing, using cord as length, has a Reynold's number of a about 100 million, twice the cord would be 200 million.  In general a thinner wing is better for higher numbers, so the wing skin thickness could be held constant and the the wing depth reduced.   Another option is to slightly extend the span while keeping the weight constant.   Additionally the cord length could be increased, which would be even more pronounced if the wing span was somewhat reduced.   Or, all of the  above could be compromised; slightly thinner, slightly more span, slightly lighter and slightly stiffer.

   The one problem is that it would fall out of the sky at low speeds and could not land, the stalling speed would be effectively raised to 300-400mph.  So, a lifting wing ,3, would have to be attached  for take-offs and landings.  A boom, similar to a refueling boom, but with 3 hinges, would attach to the fighter at its center of gravity.  The pilot would fly the two aircraft as one until they separate, at which point the lifting would fly robotically.  For connecting the boom would use laseer or radar to automatically attach when they are close enough.  If that fails, the pilot would fly his fighter with on hand while looking at a boom camera on a flat screen display and connecting the boom with his other hand.

   The landing gear would be on the wing which would save at least 1000 lbs from the fighter plus the additional structural weight need to accommodate the landing gear.  The vertical stabilizers, tails, could be moved under the fighter fuselage.  They can also be made smaller. The big vertical stabilizer is needed for low-speed flight and to have sufficient area above the turbulent flow when the plane is turning, inset 3, to maintain stability and prevent spin entry, when turning, the fuselage wake covers most of the stabilizer.  Since the fighter will never fly slowly, there is no need for large surfaces and underneath the fuselage will not place its wake on them.   However, for negative g, coming over the top of a curve, the fuselage might obscure them, so, it might be necessary to add strakes, ridges above the fuselage.  The F-16 has strakes under the fuselage to prevent spin when its tail is covered, so does the plane the Chinese claim is a stealth fighter.  The strakes provide an additional drag force to resist turning.
   In 4, the fighter is shown attached and being moved into the fixed position under the wing.  The  bending moments would be enormous, allowing for a section of boom 30 feet long and a fighter weight  of 50 000 lbs, the moment would be 1 500 000 lb-feet, it could not be generated by internal forces, so a cable, c, would have to lift and secure the fighter.  Once secured the fighter would have to be position by addition struts or bumpers, which are not shown.

  The pilot,  to resist g forces would have to be in a water-filled suit, similar to an astronaut suit with a scuba diver hood to prevent water from geysering around his neck under negative g.   The pilot would climb into his fighter and then the suit would be filled with water.