willedoo

I've got some plan drawings for a valveless pulsejet somewhere here. I bought the plans a few years ago but never got around to building it. From memory it was a Chinese design, about 50mm diameter and less than a metre long. They call them valveless only because they don't have a mechanical reed valve like the other type. The way the air compresses creates a valve effect but without moving parts.

That's a lot of money to live in an asbestos box in the middle of nowhere.

The King looked a bit subdued when he brought the football out. I don't think he's been very well lately.

It was an amazingly tough game, I think only the second in Origin history to go to half time without a try scored. NSW were the stronger team and in the end their fitness outlasted Queensland. Right from the start, NSW dominated ball possession and field position. If Queensland blinked, NSW would have rolled right over them. In the end the Qld. side tired out and the Blues were able to score. They'll be happy with the win; first time they've won a decider at Lang Park in 19 years. Interestingly, one of the commentators said Lang Park has made the list of the world's top stadiums. It's unrecognisable from the old stadium where we used to have our annual high school athletic meets and where they also staged concerts.

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Looks a bit like my place.

I can't see Biden continuing his run for President much longer. Politically he's like a drowning man at the moment.

That reminds me of a story I read in an autobiography of a USAF F-4 pilot in Vietnam. It didn't involve him personally, but one of his associates at Cam Ranh AFB lost his WSO out the back seat in an uncommanded ejection. In training, two F-4's almost touched wingtips while performing a zoom climb, and the only way the pilot could avoid a collision was to nose down into a negative G dive. When he recovered from the dive he noticed a parachute canopy and thought it must have been from the other Phantom. It wasn't until he got no response from the back seat on the intercom that he realised it was his WSO under the parachute. He'd lost his Wizzo. It turned out the armourers hadn't secured the seat properly and when the plane went into a sudden dive, the seat rode up the rails and set the rear seat ejection sequence in motion. The ejection handle only activates the gun to do the same thing that the dive caused with an unsecured seat - make the seat rise up the rails and out into the blue. Everything else is initiated via static lines and other gadgets. I think I might have related this story previously somewhere on the forum.

It would be interesting to see them on maximum dive angle on bombing runs. 45 degrees is common, but I'm fairly sure I've read the figure of 60 degrees in the manuals I have. You would need to hold your mouth right.

They're a bit like the F-111 was, old design but still highly effective.

Not sure what you question there Marty. Let me use some other terms - still flying in service with the Hellinic Air Force. They're based in four squadrons. The RF-4E reconnaissance variants have been retired.

Greece still has 33 operational F-4E Phantoms. The F-4E was the variant we had, the one with the built in gun.

Now, let me guess which Foxbat you're referring to.

The word is that the Greek PM was partly influenced by the incident in March where the Russians almost blew him up with a missile in Odesa. It landed 150 metres from where he and Zelensky were and killed five people.

Greece is going to transfer 32 decommissioned F-16's to Ukraine.

No shortage of face marks at the finish line.

For a Queenslander, this is as good as it gets - Origin 3 decider at Lang Park. It's a cold night; the lads will have to wear an extra pair of cockroach stomping socks.

Cheer up Marty, it's only four years and after that his only influence will be if the Republicans win in 2028. If he wins this November, Trumpism will dominate the Republican party for some time beyond his term.

I think you'll find them up a certain creek.

And just for balance (no pun intended), one from the Trump side.

There's some footage online of Trump arriving at the Milwaukee convention and he's certainly got the A Team now.

There's been a lot of critisism of the performance of the female members of the Secret Service team and general critisism of the new Secret Service DIA hiring policy which aims towards 30% women employed. In the video footage I saw they didn't do too well, and one lady in particular seemed very flustered. The problem with social media video footage is that video is often clipped to suit the agenda of the person posting it and context can be lost. It can show what looks like bad performance only, with any good performance cut out. To have a balanced opinion, you would have to see the footage in it's entirety.

Just some thoughts on the above points: 1. He probably brought the rifle on site concealed under a coat. 2. He probably wasn't a good shot. Also a crowd of 50 or more people spotted him as soon as he started crawling on the low side of the reverse gable slope. They alerted police officers who were too close to the building to see him on the roof. The shooter had been exposed and law enforcement was looking for him, so he had to get to the top of the gable and get his shots off as best he could. He knew he was compromised so wouldn't have had time to frame an accurate first shot let alone the subsequent shots. 3. Three spectators were hit, one dead and two critically wounded. He also hit a hydraulic line on the elevated crane boom. In one video you can see fluid spurting out and the boom retracting. It might have been a ricochet as the crane was a fair way off target. As for the rest of the points, all I can think is Secret Services incompetence. There's a lot of current opinion that the SS has gone downhill. I'd guess the sitting President gets the 'A' team and the others get the dregs. The SS only had control over the inner secured area. All the outer areas like where the shooter was located were under the responsibility of the local police. It seems stupid that a rooftop 150 metres from the protectee was not under SS control and was left to the local Sheriff and Deputy Barney.

I don't think there are any hypersonic speed (Mach 5+) air to air missiles but a lot of them are up around the Mach 4 speed. As far as chasing helicopters goes, the drone can't match them on speed by a long way, it's only chance would be to sneak up on them when the choppers are at a slow speed for some operational reason. The Mi-8M cruise speed is around 240 kph with a maximum not much higher. The Ka-50 and Mi-28 have 270 kph cruise speeds with maximums close to 320. Intercepting other drones is probably all the Bullet will be able to do.