Re: SNOW JOB [power plants]

Dean McLaughlin wrote an excellent, though oft overlooked, novelette
called "Hawk Among Sparrows." A state-of-the-art supersonic fighter
suddenly flips back to WW1 and the pilot decides to take on the Kaiser's
air force. 

problem 1: Fuel. Kerosene of the time was so dirty it would choke his
engire, so it had to be all strained dozens of times through cheeseloth.

problem 2: His missiles were either heat-seeking or radar lock, and
neight worked on planes made our of paper and cloth with extremely cool
engine temperature. 
problem 3: The pilot finally go so pissed he decided to fly through the
enemy squadron at mach 2 and blow them apart with the sonic boom. It
worked, but something got sucked into his intake, and his plane had the
worse part of the meeting.

So trying to use a lower-tech "equivalent" in a higher-tech machine may
have a number of unexpected and unpleasant side effects. I suppose you
could make a high-tech engine to handle the low-tech fuels as well, but
almost certainly this would mean lower efficiency even with the right
fuels. And in the military, higher efficiency is usually the target. 

Ray Forsythe wrote:
> 
> Bell, Brian K (Contractor) wrote:
> 
> > Another reason for lower tech, local, manufacture.
> >
> > Ubertech lands for a quick consolidation and mop of a minor
incursion, but
> > gets sucked into a guerrilla war. 3 weeks into the campaign, they
have
> > exhausted their fuel cells (HMT & Fusion) and look to the locals to
supply
> > more. The locals explain that everything they have runs off of
biodiesel,
> > and they do not have the correct chemicals to recharge the fuel
cells.
> >
> > -----
> > Brian Bell
> > -----
> 
> Actually, wouldn't diesel work just fine as fuel for a hydromagnetic
turbine
> power plant?

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- Francis Bacon, "Essays"
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Edward Lipsett
Intercom, Ltd.
Fukuoka, Japan
translation@intercomltd.com
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