It's time for another installment of our "Funny Animals" series. We've received tons of photographs, some taken by submitters, some hunted down from the web or through emails, without definite attribution info. For such pictures we ask the viewers to let us know who the original photographers are, so that we could include this info. Thank you all, and have fun!
Part 1: The Cute, The Ugly and "Just Chilling Out"
These concerns surprisingly gained a lot of weight in the government...
"Surprisingly"..? Have you actually looked at the results of the sonic boom testing done at Oklahoma City in early 1964, and at White Sands later that year? We're not talking fuzzy green Luddite environmentalism here... we're talking what the FAA and Boeing concluded would be millions in payments for physical damages per overland flight.
The article misses the fact that Concorde did indeed fly successfully and accident free for a great many years. The TU144 was a great triumph both of soviet ingenuity, and soviet espionage, incorporating much of concorde's design. Whilst a Concorde is in a museum in Seattle it is far from being the only one preserved. One is at Filton, near Bristol, England, from where the first proving flights took off. Truth is, Concorde was a triumph that worked, first flying in 1969, in service 1976, and continuing until late 2003. An airliner that flew higher and faster than any other, ever. Whereas the Boeing SST was a pipedream that never materialised.
The interest of the governments may not have been as benign as the article implies. There is a story that - as a test - they once flew a Concorde out over the Norwegian Sea then had it cruise back over Britain at its normal height and speed, just to see how easy it would be to intercept. The answer was that it wasn't. It flew too high and too fast for anything in the UK to get to it before it had flown right across the country.
The noise problem was BAD. I used to work at Heathrow and many the time I stood outside Hatton Cross (tube) station as Concorde climbed into the sky. There was a longterm carpark between the station and the runway, which meant that Concorde passed over that even lower, and as the rumble of the plane died away you could always hear the blaring of the horns of the cars - their theft alarms triggered by the vibration. I often used to wonder how many travellers parked in there and got back to find that - for some unknown, to them, reason - their car batteries were flat.
soubriquet said: "The TU144 was a great triumph both of soviet ingenuity, and soviet espionage, incorporating much of concorde's design."
May be Concordes' design was stolen from USSR? Tu-144 has it's first flight 2 months earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144
"However, even if this were to be confirmed, the documents were early development plans and would not have permitted the USSR's engineers to come up with their own aircraft; the plans could only serve as a general indication of the work of the Concorde design team. Moreover, Soviet aircraft designers in the 1960s had significant experience building delta-shaped aircraft, which proved an efficient means of achieving Mach 2, and TsAGI, of which Andrei Tupolev was a graduate, had developed extensive data about such designs."
Yeah, yeah. I'll believe the US can build a craft comparable to Concorde when I see it build a V/STOL plane that isn't 100% craptacular (especially when compared to my country's brilliant AV-8B Harrier). Until then, forgive me for thinking that you're way out of your league here.
Dear friends: I uploaded some pictures of the SST Museum that my father took during our trip to Florida the summer of 1976. Hope you enjoy them, the link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8767849@N07/sets/72157618299890370/
I will be uploading more pictures of the SST Museum soon !!!!!
All three programmes became surrounded in myth. The soviet 'steal' question was settled some time ago in a British TV documentary when Boing, Concord and Tu./KGB engineers all got together and reminised, their chat then being intercut throughout the telling of the story by narator/camera.
The ex-Soviets admitted that they had stolen a complete set of plans through the French end of the Concord programe but didn't use much from them as their design was already too advanced (in the process of procurment). The British and French designers looked at Tu blueprints and agreed that there was nothing 'really' Concord about the Tu.
Another story revolves around the fact that the Americans were so pissed off at A) the success of Concord and B) the cancellation of their own that they spent years not letting C. land at New york or other places useing the noise argument.
I lived under the flight path of Concord most my early life and still miss her at 11am most days. The roar of those jets was akin to a Bloodhound Missile, Minutman or small satalite launch-vehicle. It was the sound of mens dreams writ large, and sometime in the 80's under Thatcher, Regan, Schmitt and Miterresturant or whatever his name was...we stopped dreaming, the bean counters and grey suits took final control over our destiny and it's all down-hill now...
I love cars, and I love Plan 59. This has been one of my favorite posts of yours, ever. I have a '59 fairlane galaxie 500...you just cant beat the styling of the 50's and 60's! Thanks!
"their outrageous size and engine's unbridled power give off a statement of pure excess"
True, but many of today's automobiles rival their weight and easily exceed their power. Modern mid-luxury sport sedans are quicker, faster, handle immeasurably better, and are scads safer than their counterparts of yore. We're truly living in a new Golden Age of the Automobile!
"QUANTUM SHOT" #191
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4 Comments:
This is some great stuff for lolcats!
The Llama things win the ugliest animals, always. A creature that spits... But for sheer disgustingness, the frog in the salad.
The little hedgehog chilling out, is by Kiwi photographer Rachael Hale, the little guy's name is "Hedgamahog" :-)
hahahaa...
great job..
it's cool...
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