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WHat was the plume of smoke?
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Makes me wonder how much lawn damage was done by the fuel. "My lawn just up and died!", said John Phillips while looking over the yellow turf that once was his front yard.
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I'd be surprised if the fuel was dropped over the same runway where the plane was intended to land. Sparks.
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Hmmm. Fun target for a model rocket....
Russ, please report to your neighborhood tribunal. Giving such information to possible terrorists is punsishable. ;)
I think the dispersal is such that there is not enough of a mixture to be combustable.
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A Hercules doesn't burn avgas, it burns jet fuel. Kerosene is a lot less volatile than gasoline and will hang around a lot longer. Come to think of it, those engines would probably run just fine on biodiesel (with about a 10% loss of range). Not only is biodiesel a lot less volatile than even jet fuel, it's also biodegradable.
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Flash point of methanol is something like 50 degrees F, so an aerial methanol dump could come down as a combustible (and toxic) cloud. Flash point of biodiesel is over 300 degrees F, it has a lot more energy per gallon, and it wouldn't require redesigning the fuel system.
"...damaged plane blankets city with french-fry grease before making emergency landing..."
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What would you rather have raining down from the sky: french-fry grease, or toxic, flammable, water-contaminating and possibly carcinogenic chemicals derived from black sludge?
I'd actually go for the french-fry grease. Easier to clean out of the clothes. (Obvious answer for a loaded question, right?)
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Actually, in #17 the words 'flammable' and 'possibly carcinogenic' apply to both kerosene and french fry grease.
ya i was thinking there ain't much difference, though one sounds tastier.
I'm thinking the french-fry grease probably wouldn't be too good for the water, either.
Probably not, though I suppose it'd biodegrade better than kerosene.
Actually, fry-grease is not flammable as I understand the nomenclature. It is designated "combustible", as its flash point is over 300 degrees F. This puts it in the same class as such dangerous substances as wood, paper, cotton and wool. You don't want to put ANY of these things on you and then light them on fire.
I think it has about the same combustibility as diesel fuel.
You can ignite diesel fuel by holding an open flame over a pool of it at room temperature, no? I'd like to see you do that with fry grease.
I think it takes more than holding a match above a puddle of diesel to get it to ignite, actually.
Yeah, it's been a while, but I remember having a hard time getting some diesel to light with a match.
Gasoline, on the other hand...
Looks like #2 diesel has a flash point of 125 F or so. I guess that's room temperature, if your room is in Baghdad and the power's out. ;-) Biodiesel has a flash point well over 300 F.
And uranium oxide *does not have* a flash point at all. Clearly nuclear power is the way to go! :)
I remember the U.S. military briefly toyed with the idea of nuclear-powered aircraft. That idea is kooky for a number of reasons, not all of them immediately obvious. :>
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as i recall, diesel cars have to compress the fuel before igniting it.
No, they compress the *air* - very fast, to make it hot. This makes it hot enough to set even stubborn-to-light biodiesel on fire, when pumped into the cylinder.
Very fast, and very tightly. Compression ratios in small diesels are about four times what they are in gasoline engines.
32 to 1?? Gasoline engines are usually 8 to 1 (by volume).
Re: #34 The diesel fuel has to be under pretty high pressure to be injected into the cylinder and burn with decent efficiency. New & higher-performance diesels use some extremely high pressures.
Re #37: Hmm...yeah, you're right, it's more like 3 times higher. A 1.9L normally-aspirated VW diesel has a 22.5:1 compression ratio. I think the 1.6L was a little lower. I was thinking gasoline engines were running down around 6:1 or 7:1 for regular unleaded, but a web search shows new cars are using 10:1 on 87 octane (presumably with knock sensors.)
Facts: Typical compression ratios of modern gasoline engines run from about 8.0:1 (turbocharged engine or one for low-grade fuel) to 10.5:1 (normally-aspirated high-performance engine running on premium gas). The diesels I've seen specs on run about 17:1. There's a gas-turbine/diesel hybrid called a Hyperbar which gets compression-ignition with only about 6:1 in the piston part, but it's a funky cycle and AFAIK there are no commercial offerings. (The outlet temperature of the turbocompressor is high enough to allow compression-ignition with only a modest volumetric ratio, though idling is problematic and starting requires one to spin up the turbo first, then crank the piston part.)
Gee, they could make that stunt part of their show, give ya a real thrill.
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