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Topic: OT - Weird History

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Wildcat4E

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7238 on: Today at 02:52:54 PM »
Nashville in navigable.  I didn't think about Phoenix or Vegas.  Maybe only refers to older larger cities.
I figured there would be some kind of dam between Nashville and the Ohio/Mississippi.  Not my area map expertise.

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7239 on: Today at 03:19:11 PM »
Nashville is on the Cumberland River.  This is why it was a strategic target in the US Civil War for the North.  

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7240 on: Today at 03:23:56 PM »
In addition to the B36 which @Cincydawg posted above, the US Navy's first jet carrier fighter was also a prop/jet hybrid.  The Ryan FR Fireball.  

The issue was that early jets did not throttle up quickly which made them unsuitable for operations on the short runways provided by carrier flight decks.  To get around this issue the Navy ordered a hybrid piston/jet fighter.  It used a Wright Cyclone 9-Cylinder air-cooled radial at the front spinning a traditional propeller and a jet engine at the rear to generate higher top speed.  Oddly, the jet that it used was designed to operate on AvGas so that the aircraft would only have to carry one type of fuel to power both engines.  

FWIW: the Wright Cyclone at the front was essentially one half of the Wright Duplex-Cyclone 18-Cylinder radial engine in use at the time on the B29.  If anyone wants to know, I can explain why Radial engines always have an odd number of cylinders per bank.  Ie, there are single-bank 7 and 9 cylinder radials and double-bank 14 and 18 cylinder radials and there was even a four-bank 28-cylinder radial but note that those all have either 7 or 9 cylinders in each bank.  

The Fireball was actually built and placed into service before the end of WWII but it never actually saw combat.  

The aircraft was a complete failure.  It was structurally far too weak for carrier operations and suffered from nose-wheel failures and wing failures throughout it's short tenure in service.  Also, my take is that while in theory it was supposed to combine the best of piston planes (acceleration to get off a carrier) with the best of jet planes (top speed) I think in practice it ended up not being very good at either.  Acceleration with the 1,350 HP Cyclone was certainly adequate but it can't have been remotely close to the acceleration provided for the Corsairs, Hellcats, and Bearcats by the 2,300 HP Pratt & Whitney 18-Cylinder Radial.  Meanwhile, the Fireball's top speed was 404 MPH which was phenomenal by the standards of 1943 when it was ordered but was nearly matched by the Hellcats and surpassed by the Corsiars and Bearcats of 1945.  

A couple years after the war ended the USN introduced the first purely jet powered carrier-based fighter which was 100 MPH faster than the hybrid Fireball.  

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7241 on: Today at 03:28:48 PM »
Modern jets use "Jet-A" fuel, which is basically Kerosene, not useful in gasoline engines.  I don't know what early jets burned, probably Kerosene?

The B-36 project was started when we thought we might have to bomb Germany from here.  I think it only used its jets on takeoff, the early versions didn't have the four jet engines.

I was told the temperatures inside a modern jet are higher than the melting point of the turbine blades.




MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7242 on: Today at 03:30:03 PM »
Nashville in navigable.  I didn't think about Phoenix or Vegas.  Maybe only refers to older larger cities.

Hmph.  The rest of the world has nearly every major city at a navigable waterway......natural waterway, at least.

But if you're Houston, for example, you just build the Houston Ship Channel, a 50-mile artificial waterway that connects the city to the Gulf.

Problem solved.  We build major cities with navigable waterway access wherever the hell we want.

Because we're America, dammit, and the rest of the world ain't.  

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7243 on: Today at 03:34:26 PM »
I think navigable in terms of barge shipping would leave out Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Madrid  ... maybe I'm wrong, I don't think any of those have cargo shipping.

Vienna does, London, Amsterdam, quite a few do.  Railroads made it less useful.  

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7244 on: Today at 03:59:31 PM »
I don't know about the others, but I'm somewhat certain Paris has barge shipping along the Seine and offshoot canals.  But I've never been, so I'm not very certain. 

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7245 on: Today at 04:03:01 PM »
The Seine in Paris is not very large, it can accomodate smaller passenger craft, but not significant barge shipping.  And of course it is hindered by bridges like this one.




Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7246 on: Today at 04:04:08 PM »


River cruises are popular.  

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7247 on: Today at 04:09:52 PM »
The Seine in Paris is not very large, it can accomodate smaller passenger craft, but not significant barge shipping.  And of course it is hindered by bridges like this one.




I wonder if it's just certain parts that are used.  The GoOgleZ AI overlord seems to think barge-shipping happens on the Seine in Paris, for whatever that's worth.  Like me, I bet its never been to Paris.  

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7248 on: Today at 04:10:20 PM »


That island is where Paris started.  It got raided by Northmen, at one point the King paid one of them named Rollo with land if he'd keep the Vikings out of the river.  The land was then called "Normandy", after North.  The Normans lived there, and the grandson of Rollo later became King of England while also being a vassal of the king of France.

Brittany is called that because it was settled by Britons a long while back leaving "Britain", being pushed out by Angles and Saxons.  History is very weird.

Cincydawg

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7249 on: Today at 04:11:55 PM »
You can see that smaller barges could traverse the Seine, and some probably do.  So, it's technically navigable, and no doubt that was a factor in why it exists where it exists.

So, I stand corrected.

847badgerfan

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7250 on: Today at 04:20:02 PM »
I figured there would be some kind of dam between Nashville and the Ohio/Mississippi.  Not my area map expertise.
There are locks associated with the damn dams so ships/barges can get through.
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

Wildcat4E

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #7251 on: Today at 05:02:08 PM »
I wish there was a cheap way to move water.  About a day's worth of Mississippi flow would fill the 2 x 4 mile lake we frequent up to the brim, which I do not believe it has ever been the case.

There was a hare-brained idea to dig a canal and steal Missouri River water, and move it uphill 300 miles West to store out here on the high plains.  

Maybe when we figure out how the Egyptians built the pyramids, that can happen.

 

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