Re: Fighter Fur Balls a thing of the past?

----- Original Message -----
From: Allan Goodall <awg@sympatico.ca>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 4:18 AM
Subject: Re: Fighter Fur Balls a thing of the past?

> On Fri, 01 Jun 2001 19:34:32 -0400, Richard and Emily Bell
> <rlbell@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> >If you can sidestep Einstein, odds are the inertial compensators can
get
around
> >the problem of g-loading pilots to death.
>
> You know, I KNEW someone was going to mention that! The inertial
compensators
> may save someone inside the fighter, but won't affect the actual
inertia
of
> the fighter itself. IF you can kill the inertia of the fighter, then
you've
> not only countered Einsteinian physics, but you've essentially laid
the
ground
> work for battledreadnoughts manoeuvring like fighters (so, why have
> fighters?).
>
> If you don't kill inertia of the fighter outside of the ship, a
smaller,
> lighter fighter will still have an edge. Without a human, an escape
mechanism,
> and a life support system, the computer run fighter still has a major
edge.
>
> >Forty g's is not unduly harmful, so if we can avoid blood pooling
> >(and this scheme does), we can return to the heyday of pilots being
limited by
> >their machines.
>
> CBC Television's "The Nature of Things" program had a fascinating
documentary
> on the history of crash test dummies. The USAF Colonel, Dr. Sapp,
conducted
> ejector seat research projects on himself (in the belief that he
should do
> anything he was going to ask his volunteers to do). In one gruesome
test
> (which he survived, but is still icky to hear), he sustained 43 gs.
His
eyes
> ended up bleeding (they whites ended up going completely red). He said
it
felt
> like his eyes literally popped out of their sockets. He had bruises
over
his
> body where dust inside his suit caused bruising and blistering. He
decelerated
> from a high speed (his peak speed was around 630 mph) to 0 in 1.3
seconds.
>
> So, blood pooling may not be your only problem...
>
>
> Allan Goodall 		 awg@sympatico.ca
> Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall
>
> "Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
>  you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
>  brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan,
>    "Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor"
>
Instructions for the test, 1-strap yourself to a rocket powered rail
sledge,
2-launch yourself up the rails into a waterbath to provide the breaking,
3-experience pain.

Of course, one of the limits on fighter maneuverablilty at present is
the
fact the pilot is SITTING when pulling high g turns. If the pilot was
lying
down or on a chair that rotated so that the pilots back was flat to the
direction of the g`s, the g load he could withstand would be higher.
This is
not as stupid as it sounds, as the germans had a proposal for a jet
replacement for the stukka (?) that had the pilot lying on his chest to
suvive higher g`s when dive bombing (but the invation of germany stoped
them
before they could build it). As for the swivaling pilots seat, thinking
of
gundams linear seats, in which all controls are mounted on the seat,
surrounded by a 360 deg viewscreen, and the seat is mounted on a pivot.

Just something for discusion.

BIF

"Yorkshire born, yorkshire bred,
strong in arms, thick in head"