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Re: [Amps] Good engineering...More Car Computer Horror Stories

To: Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO <w5wvo@cybermesa.net>
Subject: Re: [Amps] Good engineering...More Car Computer Horror Stories
From: Roger <sub1@rogerhalstead.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:02:29 -0400
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>

Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO wrote:
> Uh, yeah. 100 watts power out. To what kind of antenna, mounted where, with 
> how much gain, in what direction... ?
>
> This all reminds me, perversely, of the early WW I fighter planes, where 
> they initially mounted a machine gun in front of the pilot's cockpit -- so 
> it had to shoot through the propeller. They actually did that. When a 
> sufficient number of planes crashed because of having their propellers shot 
> off by their own pilots, 
Actually the fix was called an interrupter that prevented the  gun from 
firing while lined up with a prop blade.
The problem was discovered right away..probably the first time they test 
fired it.

Yes, some one did try armor plating that section of prop but it was not 
considered successful.
> the "re-engineering" of this problem was to place a 
> layer of steel armor on the inside of the propeller blades. This brilliant 
> solution, besides degrading the plane's performance somewhat, did in fact 
> REDUCE the number of planes crashed as a result of their propellers being 
> shot off by their pilots. Brilliant! This solution was deemed acceptable for 
> some time, until some enterprising fellow (forget which side he was on) 
> invented an interlocking mechanism that allowed the gun to shoot only during 
> those portions of the propeller's rotation when it was not in the line of 
> fire...
>   
Which was early on.  They didn't shoot down a whole lot of planes 
although those stories continue to circulate.

> Point is, people will typically do as little as possible toward solving a 
> problem if the risks posed by the problem are deemed acceptable in terms of 
> cost -- 
Point is back then they didn't know any better. We are after  all 
talking cutting edge technology for those days.
They didn't even have parachutes.

73

Roger (K8RI)
> in dollars or even, as above, in lives. Things haven't changed much. 
> Greed and the callous willingness to disregard the safety of OTHER people 
> (not oneself, of course) tend to trump people's sense of social 
> responsibility, if any. Interestingly enough, the people most likely to 
> manifest this disregard are the same people who tend to rise to the level of 
> decision-making power. Funny how that works.
>
> Bill W5WVO
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Gary Smith" <wa6fgi@sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:29 AM
> To: "Randall, Randy" <Randy.Randall@healthall.com>; "'Carl'" 
> <km1h@jeremy.mv.com>; "'Rob Stampfli'" <rob@cboh.org>; <amps@contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] Good engineering...More Car Computer Horror Stories
>
>   
>> I have in my files a very nice letter from Toyota stating that it was okay 
>> with running up to 100 W Po in my `09 Scion. Can make it available upon 
>> request with my address redacted should anyone be interested.
>> Gary...wa6fgi
>>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>>  From: Randall, Randy
>>  To: 'Carl' ; 'Rob Stampfli' ; amps@contesting.com
>>  Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 8:21 AM
>>  Subject: Re: [Amps] Good engineering...More Car Computer Horror Stories
>>
>>
>>  Sounds like they still are!
>>
>>     
>  
>
>
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>   
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