The price of gas

CVBreard ) wrote:
: I want a nuclear powered F33A Bonanza.
:
: In the 1950s (1960s?), there was a serious USAF project/study to use
: a nuclear reactor to power a B-36..
:
: Talk about long range / flight endurance records!
:
: It was serious stuff, folks.
:

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/resea...bers/b3-84.htm
Convair NB-36H - US Air Force Museum Bomber Virtual Aircraft Gallery

--Jerry Leslie
Note: is invalid for email

Jim Fisher wrote:

The bonus for us is that we can finally tell the OPEC nations kiss our
shiny, hairy, American asses for good. Let 'em all kill themselves and we
will all live happily ever after.


I doubt that will happen any time soon. America accounts for 25% of
the worlds oil consumption all by itself.

"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
...
[...]
Come to my field any Saturday - there are lots of us flying
nuclear powered aircraft.

Yeah, but your reactor is 93 million miles away, and unavailable at night.

But hey, on the plus side, it's the only practical fusion reactor I know of.


Pete

On 18 May 2004 13:44:45 GMT, (CVBreard) wrote in
Message-Id: :

I want a nuclear powered F33A Bonanza.

In the 1950s (1960s?), there was a serious USAF project/study to use a nuclear
reactor to power a B-36..

Talk about long range / flight endurance records!

It was serious stuff, folks.

Hasn't NASA built nuclear fueled Stirling engines? Here's a clue:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/tmsb/sti...ng_bckgrd.html
However, about this time NASA became interested in development of
free-piston Stirling engines for space power applications. These
engines use helium as the working fluid, drive linear alternators
to produce electricity and are hermetically sealed. These 12.5 kWe
per cylinder engines were intended for use with a nuclear reactor
power system; the Space Demonstrator Engine (or SPDE) was the
earliest 12.5 kWe per cylinder engine that was designed, built and
tested by MTI. A later engine of this size, the Component Test
Power Convertor (or CTPC), used a "Starfish" heat-pipe heater
head, instead of the pumped-loop used by the SPDE. Recently, in
the 1992-93 time period, this work was terminated due to the
termination of the related SP-100 nuclear power system work and
NASA's new emphasis on "better, faster, cheaper" systems and
missions.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-00a2.html
Europa Orbiter was replanned to use a new "Sterling" nuclear
generator design which would use less plutonium


http://www.cndyorks.gn.apc.org/yspac...heed_offer.htm

--

Irrational beliefs ultimately lead to irrational acts.
-- Larry Dighera,

On 18 May 2004 13:44:45 GMT, (CVBreard) wrote:

In the 1950s (1960s?), there was a serious USAF project/study to use a nuclear
reactor to power a B-36..

A friend of mine actually worked on that--at Pratt & Whitney, I think.
He would have graduated from college in 1957. He worked at P&W from
June to about the following January, when he realized that the world
was all screwed up, whereupon he quit and went to Cannon Mountain New
Hampshire as a ski patrolman. He hasn't held a regular job since, and
he claims that the nuclear power plant is what convinced him that he
was not a career engineer.

He flies one of those low-wing trikes, but he used to own a J-3, so I
still talk to him.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

On Tue, 18 May 2004 15:09:12 GMT, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:

There was no proposal to power the B-36 with one.

Well, of course it wasn't a B-36, but Convair did indeed have a
knockoff of the 36 on the drawing board with the reactor behind the
crew compartment.

Convair was desperate for any engine that would enable it to keep
building the 36. The Boeing B-52 was coming along fast.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

On 18 May 2004 14:02:09 GMT, (CVBreard) wrote:

The amazing thing is that they can take crude and transform it into motor
gasoline for just $0.40/gallon.

And bring it to the corner station for another 60 cents, while paying
enough in taxes to take care of all the state's roads.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

On Tue, 18 May 2004 11:14:53 -0700, Elwood Dowd wrote:

I hate to be the voice of reason---but has anyone considered the massive
inflation rate between then and now? How does our $2/gallon translate
into 1983 dollars?

Prices have not quite doubled since 1982. (Recall that Paul Volker,
Ronald Reagan, and Alan Greenspan stomped hard on inflation beginning
in 1980.) (I use 1982 as a basis because it was that year that I built
my house.)

So in 1983 dollars, our gasoline costs about $1.05 or $1.10.

(Recall also that Bill Clinton raised taxes a nickel. You should knock
off 2 cents to account for that.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! blog www.vivabush.org

is that all? We pay twice that in Oz.


"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
So oil is now over $40/barrel and this is being blamed for the fact that
gas
is now over $2/gallon and avgas is well over $3/gallon.

As one news report put it, oil is the most expensive it has been since the
1970's. Ummm, anyone remember what the price of gas was in the 1970's when
oil was pushing $60/barrel? It was less than a dollar a gallon....

--
Christopher J. Campbell
World Famous Flight Instructor
Port Orchard, WA


If you go around beating the Bush, don't complain if you rile the animals.

"calafradulistic" wrote in message
. au...
is that all? We pay twice that in Oz.


"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
So oil is now over $40/barrel and this is being blamed for the fact that
gas
is now over $2/gallon and avgas is well over $3/gallon.

Some places pay a LOT less ($1.85 for autogas and $2.35 for 100LL)