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hobbesmaster posted:By "computers" I mean analog computers which take a voltage input and perform some operation on that voltage (add/subtract/multiply/divide) using op-amps. They must have gone through a lot of vacuum tubes! Pretty much, they were more just a series of servos and drivers with linked inputs:  
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Dec 28, 2015 17:54
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Dead Reckoning posted:A relative of mine flew B-29s out of Tinian at the end of the war (and no, before someone asks, he didn't fly either of those B-29s, but he was on the island when the missions were launched.) He says there was a neat trick where they could line up the gunsight and then press a button to slew the turret and fire as soon as it lined up. It gave fighters who thought they hadn't been spotted a nasty surprise. That's street as hell.
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Dec 28, 2015 17:57
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inkjet_lakes posted:Not sure they'd have fared as well flying directly over Warpac runways with a fireworks display lit under their fuselage Planned employment was lateral instead of parallel because of expected ground fire anyway. Still, in E. Germany at least airbase defense was comparatively underdeveloped because it was left to the (overstretched, undergunned) locals. The best of the best of Soviet AA was mobile and to be taken along with the army.
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Dec 28, 2015 18:01
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That Mi-8 minelayer has to be the least efficient way to do it possible.
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Dec 28, 2015 18:24
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Pretty sure I saw that "yoke" on a tractor when I was a kid. Its only missing a brodie knob.
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Dec 28, 2015 18:25
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drzrma posted:
A lot of the weapon system movies were done by actual pro movie studios (Disney did a bunch) during the war years as their part in the war effort. So they look drat good especially now that we're used to info vids with a shitload of footage that looks like it was shot on an 80s betamax.
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Dec 28, 2015 18:55
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Hey look, an overview of the Doppler Radar system for the Apollo lander!  Also, have a link to a Java version of the Apollo Guidance Computer. http://svtsim.com/moonjs/agc.html Now with realistic IMU boot up times!
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Dec 28, 2015 19:08
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priznat posted:A lot of the weapon system movies were done by actual pro movie studios (Disney did a bunch) during the war years as their part in the war effort. So they look drat good especially now that we're used to info vids with a shitload of footage that looks like it was shot on an 80s betamax.  e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85MDZfZr1ag The best one is IMO the one on analog computers in naval fire control. Watching it was probably the first time I understood that 'analog computers' were actually analog and not some kind of clicky relay electromechanical digital computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8aH-M3PzM0 hogmartin fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 19:12
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drzrma posted:I don't know what it is about training films from the 40s-50s that makes them so great, but I love them. I agree so much. The cartoon style, the surprisingly high production values (you are lucky to get stock footage next to your powerpoint presentation these days), the voice, the zeitgeist, the low pace and the surprisingly high pedagogical value. It's understandable during the war years, they had big budgets, commandeered animators and had to teach hick teenagers how to operate high tech engineering. But the tone and quality of information is there both before and after the war. This one did the rounds a few years ago. Great example of the type, if not actually about aircraft. Most people in AI sort of know how a differential works, but everyone knows how it works for sure after seeing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI e: and OSHA.jpg with fanfare after 8:55 Ola fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 19:39
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priznat posted:A lot of the weapon system movies were done by actual pro movie studios (Disney did a bunch) during the war years as their part in the war effort. So they look drat good especially now that we're used to info vids with a shitload of footage that looks like it was shot on an 80s betamax. This. The people doing all sorts of WW2 information films were often top people. John Ford (one of America's leading filmmakers of the day, his movie "How Green Was My Valley" beat "Citizen Kane" at the Oscars for gently caress's sake) was wounded at the Battle of Midway. He was on Midway Island, up in a water tower, trying to get shots of the Japanese planes attacking Midway when he was hit by shrapnel. Frank Capra was a producer on the "Why We Fight" series of films - an attempt to explain to people how the hell WW2 started and was going. Speaking of Disney, they made this: Victory Through Air Power. It's pretty much a hour long movie on the Strategic Bombing Thesis, hosted by a Russian-American guy who was definitely aeronautically insane. Disney funded the whole project out of his own pocket he thought this guy's ideas were so important. If somebody can take my hand and show me how to make some .gifs (it is really .gif-able) I can do a synopsis. Ola posted:This one did the rounds a few years ago. Great example of the type, if not actually about aircraft. Most people in AI sort of know how a differential works, but everyone knows how it works for sure after seeing this: e: My favorite film of this type is very short and simply called "Hands" Nebakenezzer fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 19:50
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Nebakenezzer posted:If somebody can take my hand and show me how to make some .gifs (it is really .gif-able) I can do a synopsis. Gooncam is by far the easiest tool to make gifs out of everything. sourceforge dot net/projects/gooncam/ e: edited link because of Alereon posted:You guys probably want to edit these links out of your posts. You can leave the URL just please break the link. There's a risk that the forums or at least this page of the thread will be blocked by Google SafeBrowsing or users' security programs due to the presence of malware links. I am a computer forum mod and my opinions hold no sway here. Gervasius fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 20:03
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Gervasius posted:is by far the easiest tool to make gifs out of everything. That is blocked by ublock for malware slidebite fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Dec 29, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 20:07
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slidebite posted:That is blocked by ublock for malware They probably block the entirety of sourceforge since sourceforge started bundling poo poo in installers.
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Dec 28, 2015 20:21
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Party Plane Jones posted:They probably block the entirety of sourceforge since sourceforge started bundling poo poo in installers. Yeah source forge randomly includes viruses, excuse me valuable third party offers, in their installers. You can go to "files" and then download a zip or check out the project with SVN and compile it (its C#)
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Dec 28, 2015 20:40
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Just grab latest alpha build from "files" tab, unpack it and run gooncam.exe. No installer needed.
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Dec 28, 2015 20:43
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slidebite posted:That is blocked by ublock for malware
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Dec 28, 2015 20:52
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hogmartin posted:The best one is IMO the one on analog computers in naval fire control. Watching it was probably the first time I understood that 'analog computers' were actually analog and not some kind of clicky relay electromechanical digital computer. Yeah, this one blows my mind. Doing calculations with cleverly shaped bits of metal. It's the ultimate wartime evolution of the slide rule.
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Dec 28, 2015 21:01
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Mechanical computers like that were actually quite mature by that time. Steam engines had relatively advanced control systems by the late 19th century for example. Also as an EE gently caress analog controls.
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Dec 28, 2015 21:14
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Fredrick posted:It's a dumb joke either way, and it misses the part where an exploding airport concourse is a tragedy, but not as much of a tragedy as a 500mph aluminum tube full of 50,000 gallons of fuel exploding and landing on a school or something. By any measure, killing 500 people in line at a security gate will be at *least* as devastating in its impact on public awareness as blowing up yet another plane. Do you even remember Iraqi Air Flight 163, Korean Air 858, UTA 772, Avianca 203, or like another dozen-odd planes blown up by bombs snuck on board by terrorists? Someone setting a suitcase full of Semtex and roofing nails off at a security checkpoint would have enormous ramifications, simply huge, and pointing out the fundamentally self-defeating nature of our approach to security isn't dumb, it's just not *funny*.
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Dec 28, 2015 22:18
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hobbesmaster posted:Also as an EE gently caress analog controls. There are still mechanical governors running really large Hydroelectric power plants. I have to occasionally work on a 1970's era analog turbine governor. It is incredibly capable but what a pain in the rear end.
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Dec 28, 2015 23:40
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helno posted:There are still mechanical governors running really large Hydroelectric power plants.  Phanatic posted:By any measure, killing 500 people in line at a security gate will be at *least* as devastating in its impact on public awareness as blowing up yet another plane. Tsuru fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Dec 29, 2015 |
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Dec 29, 2015 00:01
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hobbesmaster posted:
This got me wondering: What are the nicest cockpits? My vote:  Holy crap that's a lot of space. You could kick a football in there. Honorable mentions:  (It's like a sun room)  (that view  )Cheating because it's the fact it's a freaking space shuttle that's awesome, the cockpit is not intrinsically amazing (IMHO) 
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Dec 29, 2015 00:20
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Tsuru posted:There are mechanical governors still flying on airliners to this very day. I'll take an "ancient" mechanical or analog system designed and fabricated with care that does its job and just keeps doing it for decades without as much as a hiccup over a digital system that was rushed to market running on lowest-bidder components programmed by a guy barely out of university, thank you very very much. Counterpoint: mechanical fuel injection. That b-29 computer is pretty badass. You pick the target size and put the pipper on the plane, then use a dial to make a circle in the sight the same diameter as the wingspan. Then just hold the pipper on the target, and the computer calculates range and slew angle, then corrects for windage, airspeed, bullet drop, target lead, and (of course) parallax. It seems to do this with synchros. The combined synchro signal is sent to the gun director, which is servo-driven.
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Dec 29, 2015 00:22
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Care to label those cockpits? I couldn't identify any besides the B-29 and Orbiter. I bet zeppelins and the like had some badass flight decks for sure.
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Dec 29, 2015 00:25
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Did the B-36 use the same gun turret computer as the B-29 or was it even fancier?
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Dec 29, 2015 01:04
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Captain Postal posted:This got me wondering: What are the nicest cockpits? First one is a Boeing 314 Clipper, the second is the Douglas XB-19. Modern aircraft obviously don't have a ton of room in the cockpit, but still, some are better than others. The 747 has a surprisingly cramped cockpit, given the size of the aircraft, mostly because of where it's located.
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Dec 29, 2015 01:06
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hogmartin posted:I bet zeppelins and the like had some badass flight decks for sure. I have a picture of R100's flight deck and bunch of guys in fisherman's sweaters piloting it with those steering wheels sailboats use but I can't find it right now. Have some R101 photos instead:   Additional good cockpit  Boeing Stratocrusier: 
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Dec 29, 2015 01:41
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MrChips posted:First one is a Boeing 314 Clipper, the second is the Douglas XB-19. When I was seated on the upper deck of a delta 744* I took a glance in the cockpit and the observer stations seemed to have a ton of space at least. The crew rest *that stopped my "this is the third transpacific flight in a row I have had a one day delay on" rant in its tracks
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Dec 29, 2015 02:19
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Tsuru posted:If you've paid any attention to bombings happening at major events in the last decade or so you know that can't happen. Sure it can. It just takes coordination and planning. Just because one idiot with a backpack bomb can't do it, doesn't mean it can't be done. Edit: V It's unfortunate we can't rely on that forever. Godholio fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Dec 29, 2015 |
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Dec 29, 2015 02:22
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I'm just glad that in general terrorists are so stupid.
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Dec 29, 2015 02:25
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It seems like making an effective bomb yourself is somewhat tricky to do. All else being equal, though, for a given size of explosive, I'd rather it go off on the ground than in the air- it seems like you would need only a relatively small bomb to fatally damage a 747 with 400 people on board compared to the bomb you'd need to reach the same number on the ground.
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Dec 29, 2015 03:12
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hobbesmaster posted:When I was seated on the upper deck of a delta 744* I took a glance in the cockpit and the observer stations seemed to have a ton of space at least. The crew rest Anyone have pics of various cabin crew rest areas that are normally hidden from the dirty plebes?
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Dec 29, 2015 03:13
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slidebite posted:Anyone have pics of various cabin crew rest areas that are normally hidden from the dirty plebes? Sin bins. At least the lower deck ones. No, but the 777 upper deck crew rest is the best seats in the house, barring the lack of windows.
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Dec 29, 2015 04:40
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Airliners.net has crew rest area pics
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Dec 29, 2015 04:59
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david_a posted:Did the B-36 use the same gun turret computer as the B-29 or was it even fancier?
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Dec 29, 2015 16:35
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So long as the B-29 system didn't break down all the time it had to be a million times better than the system on the B-17/24 and the various medium bombers. If only by being easier to aim since you didn't have a gun blocking your view.
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Dec 29, 2015 16:59
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StandardVC10 posted:It seems like making an effective bomb yourself is somewhat tricky to do. Yes, but again, when your security is *based on* creating a giant bottleneck with hundreds of people standing around in close quarters in a completely unsecured space, you are creating a huge target. Obtaining high explosives is not really the obstacle for resourceful bad actors, and most of what we're doing is security theater. That's not to say it's *useless*, people need to *feel* safe in order to go to airports and travel, and the theater helps accomplish that. But the security line is such a giant, soft target of opportunity I'm amazing it hasn't been targeted yet. So far the bad guys have been total idiots who couldn't manage to set their own underwear on fire, or resource-poor people like the Tsarnaevs who were at least intelligent enough to go after a soft target, but we can't rely on them all being like that. Again, don't think "pipe bomb" like in Boston, think of a big wheeled suitcase full of HE and fragments going off in a packed security line on one of the busiest travel days of the year; the curtain's gonna come down on that security theater really damned fast. You don't need as much explosive to bring down a 747, if it's in the right place, but the security line's a place where the only limit on how big a bomb you can set off is that you need to carry it with you.
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Dec 29, 2015 17:18
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Phanatic posted:Yes, but again, when your security is *based on* creating a giant bottleneck with hundreds of people standing around in close quarters in a completely unsecured space, you are creating a huge target. Obtaining high explosives is not really the obstacle for resourceful bad actors, and most of what we're doing is security theater. That's not to say it's *useless*, people need to *feel* safe in order to go to airports and travel, and the theater helps accomplish that. But the security line is such a giant, soft target of opportunity I'm amazing it hasn't been targeted yet. So far the bad guys have been total idiots who couldn't manage to set their own underwear on fire, or resource-poor people like the Tsarnaevs who were at least intelligent enough to go after a soft target, but we can't rely on them all being like that. Again, don't think "pipe bomb" like in Boston, think of a big wheeled suitcase full of HE and fragments going off in a packed security line on one of the busiest travel days of the year; the curtain's gonna come down on that security theater really damned fast. You don't need as much explosive to bring down a 747, if it's in the right place, but the security line's a place where the only limit on how big a bomb you can set off is that you need to carry it with you. Man I went to see Star Wars and legit had thoughts of some lunatic doing something. gently caress the media. 
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Dec 29, 2015 17:23
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Phanatic posted:Yes, but again, when your security is *based on* creating a giant bottleneck with hundreds of people standing around in close quarters in a completely unsecured space, you are creating a huge target. I think I have a screencap around here somewhere of what was probably your most epic rant on the subject. It had something about setting off NAVSEA explosives all day and the airport detectors not catching a whiff of it, and another bit about some gear from a 160th SOAR helo where the TSA monkeys couldn't admit that you didn't match the profile of a bad guy because they couldn't admit there even was a profile. I think you ended it by calling Theatre Securite Americain 'the dumbest thing since the war on drugs and the Washington Nationals'. Good stuff.
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Dec 29, 2015 17:34
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hogmartin posted:I think I have a screencap around here somewhere of what was probably your most epic rant on the subject. It had something about setting off NAVSEA explosives all day and the airport detectors not catching a whiff of it, and another bit about some gear from a 160th SOAR helo where the TSA monkeys couldn't admit that you didn't match the profile of a bad guy because they couldn't admit there even was a profile. Counterpoint. The sassy black TSA ladies in Ohare are hilarious to ride the train with. And I love when they call me sugar.
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Dec 29, 2015 17:38
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