Uh. Not hardly. The largest tunnel in the world is the NASA Ames 80x120ft tunnel.

Interesting article. I was not aware of the complementary work done in this area by the ESA. One glaring omission from the write-up is not identifying the woman wearing the MIT/NASA Biosuit. She is former MIT professor Dr. Dava Neuman who now serves as the Deputy Administrator of NASA.

My dad had a used car dealership for over 40 years so I got to see/drive all sorts of cars. This picture brought back fond memories of the 1981 280ZX Turbo he had for a while when I was in high school. Two-tone blue/silver with T-tops. Ahhhh. Nothing improves a band geek’s cred like being picked up in one of those…

He thinks it’s serious but anyone with any technical training thinks it’s a joke.

Those are off-the-shelf model rockets. I know I’ve seen that kit somewhere.

Well, to build the ‘motor’ for this plane, they had to get help from GE.

For Saab 9000’s, the joke was that the factory hung the heater core on a hook and built the rest of the car around it. Saab 9-5 fan speed controllers are a 9 hr job with you upside down in both footwells routing the sensor wire harness that connects to it. The part is only $100.

Only if you were wanting a ‘Project Car from Hell’ candidate! Structural rust = RUN AWAY!!! It looks like every bolt on this rig is one wrench twist away from the head snapping off and I don’t like my tap set that much. Also, where are the sweet 16in three-spokes that are supposed to come with the car? I remember…

“Sometimes life really IS a slippery slope.”

Hey! Don’t make fun of those idiots! That’s my job security you’re talking about (day job: research engineer for jet engine noise control)!

Going back in the past, NASA worked on a mothership design to transport the Space Shuttle called the VIRTUS. It looked a lot like the Stratolaunch concept and was based on two B-52 fuselages. There were some wind tunnel tests at NASA Langley in the 14x22ft Wind Tunnel, but it turned out to be cheaper to go with a…

The YB-49 was a jet-powered version of the XB/YB-35 which had embedded radial engines and rear-mounted pusher props. My aircraft performance professor was an engineer at Pratt back in those days. He told us a story about them doing ground tests of the engine/driveshaft/prop assembly. The driveshaft for those was…

Because of the Reynolds’ numbers achievable in the NTF (highest in the world), the models have to be constructed to exacting detail and polished to produce results that will match a real version in flight. Each model can cost over $1M.

If it is like other NTF models, it’s made of a high-nickel content stainless steel called ‘Vascomax’. Vascomax is very ductile which keeps the model from getting brittle when the tunnel runs in cryo mode (-250degF).

This model is being tested at the National Transonic Facility at NASA Langley. They are using a semi-span mount so they only have to build one half of the design and it allows the model to be a larger scale.

Cars.com shows that there is only one for sale in the entire US. There are more Bugatti Veyrons listed for sale than this people-mover Merc!

The designer of the YF-23 was on my Master’s thesis committee: Robert Sandusky. He also designed the fantastic, but ultimately unsuccessful, F-20 Tigershark. The -23 is a pretty plane but doesn’t hold a candle to this:

Show up for the BMWCCA Oktoberfest next month at NJMP to get in some track time. We don’t care what you bring as long as it’s cool and the Skyline qualifies. You can run Thunderbolt one day and do the autocross the next. They have a special class for non-BMW’s so if you can beat out my friend in his WRX, you’ll get a…

I really should be replacing the cabin fan controller on my ‘02 Saab 9-5 Aero. I’ve had the part for months but don’t relish the NINE HOURS it’s going to take to install it.

There was another Saab that could do this without the trays: the original 9000. In those cars, water would get inside the parking brake cable housing and freeze preventing you from releasing the rear brakes. Throw in some snow and you were making more doughnuts than the staff at Krispy Kreme.