So, like, what does this Merde! Merde! Merde! mean anyway? Is that French for Mayday Mayday Mayday or what?

(Written on 2016年02月05日)(Permalink)

Marc, mon vieux; Yes, they are, but as far as I have heard they only run the Lear bizjet programme out of Ontario and Ireland for that matter (what part of Canada is that place by the way?). But, Jim has a point, however crudely expressed. Quebec, as personified by Bombardier, farms out ZERO work for the rest of the country, they keep all the meat and potatoes down home in Montreal - that means no part manufacturing, no assembly, no engineering - no nothing for the rest of us, unless, for capacity reasons, it happens to suit them to get it elsewhere, and that is rare. Years ago they tried to headhunt me for the F18 programme as I am an engineer. You will all remember that one - Bombardier was underbid by Bristol in Winnipeg to the tune of about 20%, but the then prime minister, from Quebec, that crooked jerk Brian Mulroney who has retired in style in, guess where? Florida, made the public statement: "The centre of aviation in this country is in Quebec and it is going to stay

(Written on 2014年01月28日)(Permalink)

Get a grip? Get with it. Sure, you can fly on three engines - providing your turbine/fan section containment works and does its job of preventing supersonic schrapnel from ripping holes in the wings and/or fuel tanks - as almost happened on that Quantas A380 turbine explosion and containment failure a couple years back out of Singapore on initial climb-out, raining engine and wing debris down on an Indonesian island about 25km South of the airport - remember that one Mike? That event was traced to a faulty high pressure oil fitting feeding the Rolls Royce Trent turbine bearings which had been machined incorrectly and blew, leaving the turbine without oil pressure for its bearings - a very big deal. Only blind luck and an extra heavy dispensation of serendipity prevented a major air disaster. Look it up, you will see LARGE rents in the leading edge just ahead of the main spar. I note that both of these events occurred on the initial climb phase of the flights when high power

(Written on 2012年11月16日)(Permalink)

Great, I applaud the ingenuity, creativity and imagination which has gone into this project so far, but.... Isn't it about time Mr. Rutan et al started putting some of that ingenuity and creativity into something more worthwhile than (not so) cheap carnival thrill rides for people with a lot more money than they know what to do with? Even if I had that kind of money I still wouldn't be interested because I grew up a long time ago. I'm talking about sub-orbital flights here. How about a ship that could actually go somewhere and do something useful, such as say, flights from one end of the continent to the other, or even inter-continental flights in a few minutes - how's that for a wild concept? Ya, ya, I know all about the heating effects and the rest of the technical problems, but it seems to me that would be a far, far better goal to pursue, a challenge worthy of his skills and full attention.

(Written on 2012年06月02日)(Permalink)