Re: [gentoo-user] [Way OT] Tally ho!

[Dale]

Peter Humphrey wrote:
> Of course! I missed the Spitfire, so I don't know how high it flew, but the
> Hurricane sound from no more than a couple of hundred feet or so was among the
> two or three most impressive of my life. Both planes have V12 Rolls-Royce
> Merlin engines (I think). As each cylinder fired, the sound pressure went up
> extremely fast at the start of the exhaust beat, suggesting huge exhaust
> valves, and the deep-throated roar was ... just ... beyond description.
>
> The only engine to come close was an extraordinary 1/3 scale model of a nine-
> cylinder radial aero-engine I saw years ago at a national model engineering
> exhibition. The crankshaft was anchored to the frame, and the entire engine
> and prop rotated around it. That's what you call air-cooling! Absolutely
> fantastic when he fired it up once an hour or so!

Yep.  Some of those prop engines are very powerful, maybe not so
efficient tho.  Anyway, they sure do make some noise even if the engine
is small.  I don't think they have mufflers or if they do, it isn't much
of one.  I also think they burn methanol or something too.  I'm not sure
and it may even vary from one engine to another.  I don't think they
burn plain old gas like cars. 


>> I live about 4 or 5 miles from a air force base here.  We have mostly
>> training type planes that fly over us but on occasion, we have something
>> really big here.  We have even had the space shuttle land there a few times.
>> The B2 bombers have been there as well.
> Sounds like a good place to live! That's not Edwards, is it? I drove up to the
> gates once to see what they'd say. They were actually quite polite.

I'm close to Columbus Air Force base in Mississippi.  It has a huge
runway.  It is one reason the space shuttle lands here.  It takes a long
runway to land and take off when carrying that thing.  I say space
shuttle, it's mounted on the back of a 747 I think.  What's more neat
tho is the big bombers.  My Dad several decades ago was doing a contract
job at the base.  For some reason they had the really big bombers out
there with armed military guards everywhere.   They wouldn't let anyone
even near those things. He could see them real good tho.  He said "it
looked like death, just plain death".  Later on my Dad found out it was
loaded up with bombs that they were moving somewhere else.   Death was
more accurate than he thought. 


>
>> I have heard some of the large planes when they start their engines and
>> like I said, I'm several miles away and it is loud.  Video just can't
>> give you that even with a good sub-woofer.
> Even that wouldn't help much, I think. You'd need something that can handle an
> extremely rapid wave-front and high volumes. As you said - you had to be
> there.

Yep, speakers can only do so much. 


>
>> Thanks for the link.
> My pleasure. I don't know when we'll get the Hurricane one - the man with the
> camera just put a two-word entry on Twitter this morning: "Hashtag HEADACHE"
>


Oooops. 

Dale

:-)  :-)