Odd Lots
- German model train manufacturer Marklin has filed for bankruptcy, though there is still some hope that the 150-year-old firm will remain in business. Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.
- Scientific American has an interesting retrospective on the infamous nuclear-powered B-36 that actually flew back in the late 1950s, with a live, air-cooled ( Read more... )
"Nuclear-powered" is a misnomer here; the aircraft was gasoline-powered, like any other B-36. Well, kerosene too, as it had those clusters of four jet engines outboard of the six piston engines, as though it had robbed the corpse of a crashed B-47.
The plane, known as the Convair X-6, was hauling around the small reactor to gather information on operating airborne reactors, as part of the development program for never-built future nuclear-powered planes. It was accompanied by another plane full of paratroopers who would jump and cordon off any crash site if the X-6 ran into trouble.
Powering a plane with a fission reactor was a pretty dreadful idea. We spent a billion dollars to confirm this. Every generation should re-examine such things, in case progress has changed the situation, but I believe it remains a dreadful idea.
I once did a slideshow about nuclear aircraft.
The gadget is called Auto-Tune.
This is the thing that makes Cher sound like a single-sideband radio?
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