Dave, List,
In reading through the recent exchanges on the list about stopping
streamliners a thought occured to me... a thought that may be way outside
the box, but seems workable. Dave's fishing reel analogy got me thinking
about the way we stop large, heavy aircraft in the military. Usually this
arresting system is thought of as carrier based, but there are units in the
Marine Corps who build expeditionary airfields with portable arresting gear
capable of stopping aircraft as large as a C130 cargo plane on a short
runway.
Since our vehicles all travel in a straight line and at the same altitude
it seems reasonable to assume that they'd all be able to catch a cable
strung across the salt in their path using a "tail hook" as aircraft do.
This wouldn't require a great deal of space inside the vehicle, and could
be easily adapted to existing vehicles.
If we can stop a 175,000 Lb. aircraft going 140 MPH on a 3500 foot
airstrip we oughto be able to stop a 4000 Lb. streamliner going 400 MPH.
It'd certainly be a good emergency stopping measure, and if it works well
it could add a measure of safety to every streamliner run. Guys like Dave
and Mayf would have to work out the technical aspects of such a system
to get things stopped with reasonable G-forces and hook loads, but the
technology is already out there for aircraft, so we wouldn't be inventiing
anything, just reinventing it.
I'm kinda like my old beagle Dinky, I'm a jump dog. I'll get the rabbit
to
move, or in this case, open the topic, but I won't chase it. That's up to
ya'll.
Chuck Rothfuss
Pole Cat Hollow, NC
30 minutes from Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue.
The Corps only airfield with arrested landing capability on the East Coast.
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