@DJignyte@philnmarks@DJSnM@CommiNathan@NASA@SpaceX It depends on how the redundancy scheme is set up. If it’s a fly-by-wire system then all a switch does is feed an input into the FCC and the FCCs will talk to each other over a data network and vote to decide if that input is correct.
@flynmt@philnmarks@DJSnM@CommiNathan@NASA@SpaceX I understand that, but in a ballistic capsule like that, there’s not much piloting that goes on. You could probably get away with 2 or 3 physical buttons.
@DJSnM@CommiNathan@NASA@SpaceX Touchscreens break, analogue switches don't, space is harsh, if people are concerned on aesthetics and cutting edge look and feel, wait till they find out how old the processors running the computers are.
It’s been months, and now I’m finally back to work.
Thank you guys for carrying my family & I through these past months. I am eternally grateful.
I promise to never sell my soul
God Bless 🇺🇸
The geniuses at the Skunk Works had to figure out a way an air breathing J 58 engine could handle supersonic airflow.
By using the inlet spike in the engine And the bypass doors, they were able to change the airflow from supersonic to subsonic. The front of the engine there is a sharp spike. The shape is not random. It sets up the shockwave in front of the inlet to protect it from the full impact of the air ahead. It also sets up the shockwaves inside the inlet, to slow the air down to subsonic speeds before it hits the compressor.
Ben Rich says in his book “Skunk Works” that it just about drove him crazy to figure out how to control the engine but they got it done. I thought it was interesting. I hope you do too. Written by Linda Sheffield
New thing:
“Poorly Explained Aircraft Systems”. Let’s do electrical…
The engine has a special shaft it uses to connect to a generator if you “flip the right switches”. It’s unclear if this is enjoyable for the generator, but soon lots of electrons are born.
The electrons are very excited & wish to explore, but there are paths they should stay on. Occasionally, some stray a**hole electrons decide to go on an adventure like Hobbits.
“Let’s check out the fuel tanks!” the Pippin Hobbit electrons say, and the movies would have like 75% fewer problems for everyone if Pippin had stayed home.
The jet doesn’t like this. It wants to keep the Pippin Hobbits in the Shire, so it closes the gate. We call the gate “Circuit Breakers”. The engineers have put them on the back wall of the cockpit. And on the ceiling. Sometimes on the side. Also, some at your feet. There might be some outside, but I don’t go out there.
This is very clear to Engineers, who write a map of them in the flight manual which requires a Rosetta Stone every time you open it. To make it very clear to pilots which breakers have “popped”, they tell you the body is white, so when it sticks out it’s easily visible among the all black array. This is a lie Engineers tell pilots to make them feel stupid when they can’t find a popped breaker.
That’s OK; when we find a popped breaker & are bored, it’s sometimes a fun challenge to see who can hold it in the longest before it gets too hot. I’m pretty good at this, but it took years of burning my hands to desensitize.
Some breakers are fake; Engineers call them “Remote Breakers” because the real breakers are in a place called the “Avionics Bay”. This is a mythical place where computers & lots more circuit breakers are said to exist, but it’s not really that. It’s an empty space Maintenance stores beer & goes to screw off when I ask them to fix something. I haven’t confirmed that because it’s accessed from outside on the ground & it can be hot or cold or rainy or windy outside, but I have high confidence in this theory.
Maintenance doesn’t like to be seen doing their work. I have to give this one to them, because pilots will see a malfunction, then say “I saw Maintenance fix this once like five years ago, they pushed this button, then I think this one” and now the flight is cancelled.
The jet senses when electrons stop being born fast enough & “sheds” loads to keep things it likes running. It does this in an order designed to piss off Flight Attendants, like shutting off the seat-back TVs & the Galley (the WiFi doesn’t actually run on electricity, it runs on fairy dust, anger & profane language). The Flight Attendants immediately call me to report this, and while we’re at it the wing looks like it’s on fire.
Other than me, the battery is the laziest piece of the puzzle. It does next to nothing until there is nobody left. Then it acts like a teenager, complaining it will only do like 6 things, and only for 30 minutes, tops. After that, it screams “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE A BATTERY THESE DAYS!” and quits.
I don’t want to give a false impression, though…there is always Airbus. It’s built by the French, so you KNOW it’s lazy, thinks it knows better than you & wont do what you ask it to.
Anyway, some jets have a little windmill you can lower into the wind, called a RAT. The RAT exists to exacerbate electrical fires caused when you flipped the wrong switches, but the jet fixed it automatically & you undid that with some more switches & buttons because you passed that systems test 3 years ago that you had the answers to.
The electrons for your seat’s phone charger are an unknowable mystery, wrapped in an enigma. I assume solar powered, but haven’t found the panels yet & you are being punished for your sins when it doesn’t work.
(It’s Twitter, so I have to put a disclaimer here that this is SATIRE & I respect my colleagues – I made fun of myself. I hope you had a laugh!)
@Charabon08@MCCCANM You’re not wrong. But back in the day they would just call it an artists rendering. But I found another picture that appears to be a real photo.
Born too late to pilot a B-17 against a ball-bearing factory.
Born too early to pilot a starship on a voyage of discovery.
Born just in time to pilot a Guppy full of Spring Break kids to Fort Lauderdale. Which I’m grateful for, but the other options are cooler.
At 11.40pm last night, a monster positive lightning bolt lit up the sky just East of Norman, Oklahoma.
And I was in Texas with my camera pointed above that storm, and captured the giant red sprite it produced.
@stellarman22 Like building a car in your basement? Then remembering it won’t fit through the door? They look really slow to deploy and use. And will likely vaporize if they see daylight.
Kept 11 tons of cocaine off American streets.
It’s unacceptable these brave members are not getting paid.
Shutting DHS down only punishes those who keep our nation safer.
AOC with zero life achievements: "Elon Musk is not a scientist, he’s not an engineer, he’s a billionaire conman with a lot of money" 🤡
Elon Musk: "Can you believe it? That's crazy, anyway... what did you get done this week?"