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.