larryfulkerson
Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005 From: Tucson, AZ Status: offline
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My R&D department recently moved into their new lab and compared with the old office they worked in, this new one is a warehouse. They need the space because they are working on a new technology weapon: a particle beam weapon. They put together a proof of concept model about the size of a kitchen table that fires electrons and they discovered that the power output wattage is about 400 times lower than the power needed for punching holes in aluminum instantly. The engineers told me that they were going to switch to shooting protons since they are about 2,000 times heavier than the electron and if they switch to bigger magnets they have calculated that the impact of the proton beam would generate a temperature of approx. 2,015 degrees C in about half a second. The gamestopper is the size, weight, and volume that the device has. That and the magnets we need to use aren't being built yet. Electromagnets about the size of a small car, 8 of them, aren't going to be easy to construct. Plus, the engineers have calculated that the amount of heat generated by the magnets would cause the stator to expand enough to drag on the surface of the magnets, which are ordinarily about 0.02mm above the stator, causing the outside case to heat up enough to turn cherry red and the sensor on the outside case will trigger an automatic shutdown. All this happens in about 2 seconds. So we're going to install some liquid helium heat exchangers to cool down the magnets quickly and hopefully keep them that cold. We're going to start further tests again in the spring. It's going to take that long to construct the new electromagnets. New ones because we have to take into account the piping for the liquid helium this time. Considering that liquid helium costs about $15,000 USD for a gallon and it takes four of those containers to fill the weapon fully it's really expensive. The helium levels are good for about an hour and a half. One of the engineers has started working on a smaller version that can be mounted on a multi-engine host. A bomber has been requested of the Luftwaffe for a suitable platform and they have agreed to send us an He-111, in about a week. They have to repair all the places in the skin that have jagged tears and almost-round holes. Plus there's a lot of avionics that needs to be replaced and recalibrated. The workers think they can get it ready for it's test flight in about two and a half days but their supervisor has had much experience with slipping schedules and he's seen the plane and it's got so many holes that he's sure it's going to take the better part of a week. He CAN'T be late with it. He's decided that if it still needs work after the deadline he's going to send his maintanence crew with the plane when it leaves so that they can finish their work on the plane and then worry about getting the crew back later. We'll call it a TDY.
< Message edited by larryfulkerson -- 3/10/2019 6:11:23 AM >
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If we're all created in the image of god then why aren't we all invisible?
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