Precast: Hammond Injured, Veracruz Taillight, Crossover and Out or Justin Time?
You may have noticed that I haven't posted a precast in a couple of days. Truth to tell, TTAC contributor and former Car and Driver editor Stephan Wilkinson knocked the wind out of my sails with an email that asked why in God's name anyone would want to listen to a couple of "car dorks." As someone who's never had trouble getting laid (current status: happily married), I've never really thought of myself as a dork. Strange, sure. Over-educated, definitely. But dorky? I don't think so. At least I didn't think so until Wilkinson sent his email. Now I'm left wondering if my single-minded dedication to all things automotive, and the thousands of hours spent tapping the plastic in my e-garret about same, has rendered me a car nerd. (Webster's on-line dictionary makes no distinction between dork and nerd.) For sure, I know too much about some pretty obscure car-related things. But I console myself that you gentle reader know equally as much, and, in most cases, far more than I in this field. And I celebrate your knowledge. I respect it, admire it and defer to it. So, if I love your passion, I guess I should love mine– no matter how juvenile or "dorky" it sounds. In that spirit, I resume this audio feature. If it grates, so be it. But if you're dorky and you know it, click right here.
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I visit the grassroots motorsports board, where members are known as half-dorks, dorks, or super-dorks depending on length of membership and post count. :)
So I'm an aspiring super dork. Huh. Who knew?
Yes, jet fuel is way less combustible than most hydrocarbon liquids/gases. There are different kinds of jet fuel--JP3, JP4, etc.--and what the airline burns is even less combustible than what the military burns. Remember TWA 800, which blew up over Long Island when vapor in the center fuel tank ignited from a short-circuit spark? (I remember it well, since my wife and daughter flew the exact same airplane to Paris 24 hours earlier.) That spark is probably sparking away in a variety of 747s right now, since the problem has yet to be fixed despite the NTSB's recommendations, and it was probably sparking away for years before that in '47s. But fortunately, it's almost impossible to ignite jet fuel that way, and it was an incredible combination of temperature, vapor content and pressure that created that fireball. So jet fuel is in fact on the barely flammable side of combustion.
"Yeeehaw!" (smashing through a traffic jam and the wreck that caused it, in a tanker/semi-truck) "What are you hauling." (John Candy's line) "Rocket Fuel!" - Armed and Dangerous Somebody ought to link to a combustibility chart, I'm too lazy to find one, or explain how the hazmat labels are numbered on large trucks (1703? 1763? or whatever is gasoline.) 1.999/gallon here in Massillon, OH right now, so I guess 'The Truth about Gas' was right on the money (By William Sargant October 13th, 2005 435 Views)