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Apparently there's nothing new under the sun....
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:38 pm
by D_Hall
So today I'm at the cafeteria eating lunch and having a chat with a colleague who works in another branch. Somehow the topic of The Pipe Dream came up and I was describing the gun to him; it's concept of operation, intended use, etc.
He gets this odd look on his face.
"What?"
'Seem that his branch already has such a gun. It was built sometime in the 1970s. 'Tis (by this forum's nomenclature) a high Nx propane/air hybrid. Barrel is 6" bore x 25' long. Muzzle velocities up to 2000 fps.
The gun had been in mothballs for over 20 years. They started to pull it out of mothballs about 6 months ago. They got it operational last week.
The bad news: The Pipe Dream won't be as unique as I'd hoped.
The good news: The two guns are enough different in scope that they won't generally be competitors so there shouldn't be any internal political strife if I continue.
More good news: Hey, this is a large scale high pressure hybrid gun with a history of operation..... And DDT wasn't a problem for it. Yeah!
Even better news: It shouldn't be any big deal for me to get test data (chamber pressures, barrel pressures, muzzle velocities...the works!).
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:43 pm
by fireman565
What about PICS??

Come on, PICS??

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:21 pm
by Lentamentalisk
with out pics I fell left hanging... Get me info NOW!

Im waiting...
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:51 pm
by D_Hall
LOL... I don't know if I can do pics.
Lenta, I just noticed your avatar. Is that from "War Stories?"
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:09 pm
by Lentamentalisk
that it is, and my sig is hex for "No power in the 'verse can stop me"
glad to see someone on this forum is a Firefly fan.
These fools are clueless...
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:16 pm
by MrCrowley
D_Hall wrote:Lenta, I just noticed your avatar. Is that from "War Stories?"
Oh here we go again
<A HREF="
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/frocksi ... ">Enjoy</a>
Edit: Witchcraft! I've been beaten again

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:24 pm
by Blitz
Heh heh, I love Firefly... Always liked Adam Baldwin from there. Stupid FOX!
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:40 am
by D_Hall
Lentamentalisk wrote:glad to see someone on this forum is a Firefly fan.
These fools are clueless...
I haven't clicked yet and I'm hoping it's a thread about a gun named "Vera."

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:27 am
by jimmy101
Sounds very interesting. Would
love to see the performance data and any info they collected on pressure, burn time etc. I wonder if they ever published anything on the gun?
I wonder how many of the features you were considering incorporating (multiple sparks, fan, turbulance inducers ...) were known back then?
You certainly should be able to do the data acquistion either much better, or much cheaper, than they could in the 70's. Heck, a modern $30 PC soundcard probably has about the same capabilities of $10K's worth of 70's stuff.
Crap, now I want to see a picture of a big-ass hybrid with a bunch of beatle-haired, bell bottoms wearing engineers standing around it. Half of'm will probably have goaties.

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:30 am
by ammosmoke
Lentamentalisk wrote:that it is, and my sig is hex for "No power in the 'verse can stop me"
glad to see someone on this forum is a Firefly fan.
These fools are clueless...
What's firefly?

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:34 am
by sniperjosh
Wow, this is intriguing, I too would love to see some performance data. Nice find

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:43 am
by starman
jimmy101 wrote:
You certainly should be able to do the data acquistion either much better, or much cheaper, than they could in the 70's. Heck, a modern $30 PC soundcard probably has about the same capabilities of $10K's worth of 70's stuff.
Crap, now I want to see a picture of a big-ass hybrid with a bunch of beatle-haired, bell bottoms wearing engineers standing around it. Half of'm will probably have goaties.

Amazingly, only the fastest super computers of the time could have performed what we know now as the $30 sound card...$10,000 wouldn't have been nearly enough money. Digital music was relegated to the mostly theoretical realm or very low resolution. The CD player which appeared in the early 80's was truly a breakthrough of technology, but was only alas the playback mode. Digital recording was literally millions of $ to get into. Only the large recording corps could afford to jump in.
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:16 am
by psycix
Did that gun have a name or so?
You cant google something you dont know the name of.
Maybe the name of the builder/designer or whatever information.
You should ask your colleague for more information D_Hall.

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:36 am
by SpudFarm
more details

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:42 am
by Jared Haehnel
I love fire fly 8) To bad it got canceled at the end of its first season. That pissed me off. And the movie kind of ruined it for me but still is in my top three favorite TV shows... if you don't know what it is look it up you won't be sorry8)
That gun sounds amazing....I look forward to seeing the specs...