[diamondgeezer]

My local kebab house isn't, thank God

[StratComm]

I was thinking if the designation exists, it is probably applied to the Capitol/White House/Mall area, the Pentagon, or both.  That would make the most sense, anyway.

[Flaser]

Originally posted by StratComm
A scramjet is a ramjet in which the conbustion of the fuel takes place while the airflow is still supersonic through the engine.  They can't be used to get themselves up to speed, thus the booster rocket.

Oh, yeah, and they go fast.  Really, really fast.  I'm pretty sure it's one of those engines that (if placed into an aircraft with a suitable airframe) can actually have a thrust/drag ratio that increases with speed to a point.  The Mach 7 that this thing went are the tip of the iceburg when it comes to how fast the engine can go.

The problem is how you're gona manage air friction - you could go high enough to reduce it - but the thrust would decrease as well, so figures....though the russians seemed to know a trick or two in this field.

[diamondgeezer]

Something about a spike... kinda like an aerospike thingy but with a magnetic field or some **** to shockwave the air around the vehicle, IIRC

[Zarax]

The russians also almost had nuclear fusion, which would kick some real butts if well employed...
BTW, do you still think that tech wins all wars?
Vietnam for US, Afghanistan for Russia, and now afghanistan2 and iraq2 shows that it's not exactly true...
In fact, local popular support is the most determining factor...
You can win all the battles and still loose the war...
Guerrilla Tactics rules!

[Liberator]

You misunderstand how the US lost in Vietnam.  Two years in, under MacArthur's leadership, the US Army has the VC and Chinese pushed out of the country into Laos and Cambodia.  The &*&&*& politicians then forced him to stay out of those countries instead of hunting them down like the animals they were.  This allowed the Chinese to arm and train the VC into a proper Guerilla army and was eventually what led to the US defeat and the loss of so many American lives.  Politicians may start wars but they need to stay the hell out once it comes time to actually fight them and let the military do it's job.

[Zarax]

Hmm... I never heard this version of the story...

[Ghostavo]

hunting them down like the animals they were.

Define racism.

[Fineus]

Guys please stop now.

Firstly - we've had enough political threads lately to last a lifetime.

Secondly - this is not the point of the thread, talk about tech by all means, perhaps the useful applications of these high speed planes and what have you. But leave politics out of it... it's not necessary.

[Ghostavo]

Sorry, either way, is there anything new about this engine that could have an effect in future space travels?

[Zarax]

Not in space travels but maybe in the new trans atmosphere transportation business...

[Fineus]

No worries,

And I don't think there's an application in space travels - but certainly in travel around the world there's an obvious application, both military and commercial. I'm not sure about the fuel use mind you... chances are those things don't come cheap - and they're nowhere near developed enough to use as they are.

But who knows, in time it could be possible to take this technology and refine it into something more plausable. I fail to believe that Concorde is the fastest way to get civilians from one side of the planet to the other.

[Ghostavo]

Teleportation has been done with a photon...

[Zarax]

One of these decades we will have a TRON like system, our whole self would be digitized and transferred to the desired place...

[Ghostavo]

Let's hope by then anti-virus will be much better than they are now!!

[Fineus]

I'm afraid I still adapt a Bones McCoy approach to teleportation - as in I'd rather it happened to someone else first, then me

[Zarax]

I fully agree with you Kalfireth

[Ghostavo]

You realise that in the series he was always using the teleporter and in the movies he was "forced" to join with the rest of the crew via it. It could still happen to you, either you wanted it or not, which leaves some ethical questions...

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
No worries,

And I don't think there's an application in space travels - but certainly in travel around the world there's an obvious application, both military and commercial. I'm not sure about the fuel use mind you... chances are those things don't come cheap - and they're nowhere near developed enough to use as they are.

But who knows, in time it could be possible to take this technology and refine it into something more plausable. I fail to believe that Concorde is the fastest way to get civilians from one side of the planet to the other.

IIRC the space application is simply for getting into orbit - i.e. replacing solid-fuel rocket boosters.

[Fineus]

They need standard rockets/jets to get it up to operational speed/height though - don't they?