AdamSmith

Neat site with detailed history and description of the Saturn V: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/contents.htm

There is no such rule here. Speak freely!

He has been there less than a day! What do you want, pics from his LAST trip? Be assured eye candy and stories will be shortly forthcoming.

Bravo!

"The dive speed is the absolute maximum speed above which the aircraft must not fly. Typically, to achieve this speed, the aircraft must enter a dive (steep descent), as the engines cannot produce sufficient thrust to overcome aerodynamic drag in level flight. At the dive speed, excessive aircraft vibrations develop which put the aircraft structural integrity at stake." http://theflyingengineer.com/tag/overspeed/

So nobody likes beaver?

P.S. I was reading a compendium of Clerihews today (newish ones) and noticed a lack of one of their two key attributes: Besides rhyming the name of a famous person with some nonsense, they seem funniest when they also have the imbalance of two very short lines and two ungainly long ones. As: Sir Christopher Wren Said, 'I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls, Say I'm designing Saint Paul's.' Of course sufficiently nonsensical content can render the line-length imbalance less critical to the thing's success. As in my favorite of them all, on account of making no sense whatever: Edward the Confessor Slept under the dresser. When that began to pall He slept in the hall.

Not exactly on topic but close enough?

ROFL The word odious seems to be having a run lately. Struggling to recall where else I saw it used just yesterday. Meanwhile, a not-quite-relevant-but-why-not Clerihew... Sir Humphrey Davy Detested gravy. He lived with the odium Of having discovered sodium.

Well, you made me look it up. Googling just now reveals that when a plane reaches its certified "Vne" ("never-exceed speed"), the least added stress such as a slight bump of turbulence is enough to push the airframe past its structural limits. So in a sense you're right, but it need not be a maneuver or motion remotely as severe as what you depicted.

P.S. RA1 can correct if I'm wrong, but I believe it IS possible to tear the wings off by putting the aircraft into a powered dive. I think this can create aerodynamic stresses beyond the structural failure point.

And what thread would be complete without...

Aha! And here is the 787 test:

Here is video of the 777 wing being tested to destruction, and failing at 154% of design limit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2HmvAXcU0 I first saw this on a business visit to the Paris headquarters of Dassault Systemes, a Dassault Aviation spinoff that makes the software used by Boeing (and Airbus) to design their aircraft. They were showing it to me to make the point that their structural analysis software, used in designing the structure, accurately predicted the wing failure modes to within a whisker of where it actually did fail in this physical test.

"Well, don't look to me, Dolores. All my money is tied up in cash."

If you are a nervous flyer who worries about turbulence snapping off the wing, have a look at this video... http://www.businessinsider.com/the-wings-of-this-airbus-plane-can-bend-way-more-than-you-thought-possible-2016-3 ...it shows an Airbus fuselage being tested in production (actually in late stage of design verification). They strap down the body, then flex the wing up and down through a range of 17 feet -- way more than the little wiggles you ever see out the window in flight.

Those shots come next.

I get 'em for the price of pouring a few shots into them.

The Mohel & his Jar of 25,000 Foreskins http://www.bangitout.com/the-mohel-his-jar-of-25-000-foreskins/

Eek. Alexander Litvinenko and the most radioactive towel in history The Russian dissident was murdered in London with polonium, but only on the third attempt. In an extract from his book A Very Expensive Poison, Luke Harding traces the toxic trail the clueless assassins spread around the capital http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/06/alexander-litvinenko-and-the-most-radioactive-towel-in-history