Missing Malaysian Flight
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A story just broke on Fox News. Evidently the pilot 'floored it' and the plane is currently in space. Wow, aren't you embarrassed?
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That Guy wrote:
exit the gravitational pull of the Earth .. in orbit
This is mutually exclusive. An object in orbit is in orbit because it is under the influence of gravity - without that, it would be flying off in a straight line. Also, an airplane with engines that breathe air (which is most of them, but not all) can never achieve orbit (not under their own power anyway). In order to achieve orbit, you need to raise your periapsis above the atmosphere, which can only do from above that altitude, which means you can't be using an air-breathing engine to do it. Achieving escape velocity with an airplane is possible if you cheat, just strap rockets to an airplane, and make it happen outside the atmosphere. Doesn't really count, in my opinion. With an actual airplane, inside the atmosphere, under its own power - not going to happen. For one, you'd need a blunt heat shield just to avoid disintegrating. Also, you couldn't have wings. And I'm not sure even a scramjet will still work at that speed (some predictions give it a maximum speed of Mach 24 - not enough).
harold aptroot wrote:
you can't be using an air-breathing engine to do it
99.99% of people have no clue about how a rocket _really_ works, and think it is a kind of bigger robuster airplane, with extra tanks.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what is used to.
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A story just broke on Fox News. Evidently the pilot 'floored it' and the plane is currently in space. Wow, aren't you embarrassed?
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MehGerbil wrote:
denier
Isn't that something to do with bank robbers faces (or ladies bottoms, I forget which)? The evidence for planes in space[^]
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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harold aptroot wrote:
you can't be using an air-breathing engine to do it
99.99% of people have no clue about how a rocket _really_ works, and think it is a kind of bigger robuster airplane, with extra tanks.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what is used to.
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harold aptroot wrote:
you can't be using an air-breathing engine to do it
99.99% of people have no clue about how a rocket _really_ works, and think it is a kind of bigger robuster airplane, with extra tanks.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what is used to.
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But surely, if it flies in a straight line rather than following the curvature of the earth ... :laugh:
Shirley, you jest! ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
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Shirley, you jest! ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
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Because the top speed of a Boeing 777 is 950km/h, and the escape velocity you need to escape the pull of the earth gravity is 11.2 km/s or ~40,000 km/h. Even down hill, with a following wind, it ain't gonna manage it!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
Escape velocity assumes unpowered. The 777 is powered, so velocity is immaterial. There's lots of other reasons a 777 can't get into orbit, but being unable to reach a particular velocity isn't one of them. Otherwise it wouldn't be possible to put up a really, really long ladder and climb into space - which it patently is.
