Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
Very sad. Incredibly violent. Actually rolls a vehicle over.
Head in hands, defined.
- Thread starter Let'sgoflying!
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SkyHog
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Everything Offends Me
Space balloon?
Really? Was this Britain's attempt to finally do something America didn't tell them to do first?
Really? Was this Britain's attempt to finally do something America didn't tell them to do first?
Wait, you talking about the country whose engineers invented the modern jet engine?
Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
er, no. It was a Nasa project and those were Australian accents I think!
astanley
En-Route
Indeed on both accounts. Even without processing the accents (which were clearly Australian), the news logo at the top is a clue -- ABC News next to a double helix is Australia's public broadcaster: http://www.abc.net.au/
Cheers,
-Andrew
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
I wonder how many times the phrase "She be right" was used leading up to that. That was Alice Springs in Aus and the project was a NASA project.
rottydaddy
En-Route
They were launching, AFAIK.
It sorta looks like either the gondola was too heavy for the amount of lift the balloon was producing, or it was not balanced right... or maybe they had the "pick" in the wrong place. At the release, you see it roll dramatically, creating a downward force... they're not supposed to do that, for obvious reasons.
To me it looks like they had the gondola suspended from a crane when a gust tilted the crane and it broke loose. If you look right before it lets go, the line between balloon and gondola is at 45deg to the crane. The reason it goes downward is not because they didn't have enough lift, it is because the gondola tried to swing right underneath the balloon circumscribing a circle. Had they used a crane 3 times as tall (or cosine of the support rope or something like it), they would have been a-ok.
rottydaddy
En-Route
I'm pretty sure that swinging the crane away at release is standard procedure (to keep it clear in case the payload rises and/or drifts right away); looks like that part was intentional.
But yes, the gondola practically rolling over was definitely not intended.
But yes, the gondola practically rolling over was definitely not intended.
It wasn't the crane turret that swung, it was the whole crane coming off it's base. This wasn't an intentional release with the balloon that far off to the side. Whatever they used to suspend the gondola while the balloon was being filled broke when wind blew the balloon too far off to the side.
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