Sheesh. Version 18 of the downtown-to-downtown shuttle that’s always just around the corner.. Closest anybody’s come has been Bell and Agusta with the BA609 tiltrotor, a technology outgrowth of the original XV-15 and V-22 programs.

That’s nothing. Google Damascus Titan. Thank God we don’t use liquid fuels for our ICBMs anymore.

Close to 40 million people crammed into California has absolutely nothing to do with it, right?

It’s for an A319/320, but Airbus says:

I was only kidding about “reverse thrust”, but the Pilatus Porter does allow “beta” inflight, which is unusual. Beta is essentially zero thrust with a very flat propeller disc. Lots of drag provides a nearly straight-down nose angle.

Inflight reverse thrust:

That was a terrible landing on the part of the pilot. Either the demonstrated crosswind component was exceeded (a no-no) or his/her technique sucks. Crab down to the runway, kick out the crab, bank upwind and touch down with zero drift on the upwind gear first. All I saw was a shitty crab all the way down. And yes,…

Well, velour was/is considered a step up from plain leather:

Modern Jets? Hell, the 1969 747 had a Mmo of .92 and routinely cruised at .85. Everybody gushes about the Concorde, but the 747 was only recently surpassed in cruise and top speed by the 787.

BMW E31 for the same price? Eh?

Price a used AMG lately? Dirt cheap.

If you want obsessive, try shooting 9 coats of lacquer with hand-flatting in between. Not having to rely on a clear coat provides a non-wet depth that’s hard to describe. Today’s catalyzed urethanes don’t compare - too “goopy”. Unfortunately, lacquer’s illegal in most areas. But Mexico’s paint shops beckon!

Dude, mentioning “Bangle” in the same sentence as the E31 is blasphemy!

I don’t know if you were being sarcastic, but if you weren’t, the V Rod was discontinued in 2017. A mistake, in my opinion. A little reluctant in the twisties, but boy could it go and stop like no other HD. And yes, it’s a sexy beast.

Amen. Let the crotch dudes and pirate grandpas duke it out over who’s best. We’ve got our own little party going on over here on the side and loving it.

The “continuous ignition” switch is on no doubt. Relights the engine on a flameout. Ordinarily the ignitors are switched off automatically once the engine starts.

I’ve got to disagree. The hard part of a thermonuke is compressing the secondary containing the fusion fuel. Nanoseconds after the primary detonates, the still-intact bomb enclosure briefly contains a dense “fog” of highly energetic X-rays that work to implode the secondary. The dynamics of that mechanism are highly…

Given the entire process has to occur in microseconds before the enclosure containing all that radiation blows apart, and that the secondary implosion mechanism has to be just “so”, I’m awaiting the experts to weigh in. It’s not like you just place a paint can full of LiD next to an atom bomb and go “boom”.

I wouldn’t call “personal luxury coupe” a fad - they’ve been around forever. The Porsche 928 or BMW 8 series were GTs. The Lincoln Mark whatever or Cadillac Eldorado certainly weren’t.

You do know that “autopilot” today means active navigation and not just altitude/heading/airspeed hold? Airlines punch the “autopilot” on after gear-up and off on short-final or DH. The rest of the time the FMS is running the show. I like Cadillac’s description as being more accurate as to its capabilities.