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Balloon in the sky with diamonds ?

little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
Did you know that in WW1 the allied forces were unable to bring down zeppelins despite them being filling with explosive hydrogen? Yep, they'd shot them full of dozens if not hundreds of holes yet they kept flying.

This lead the allies to develop incendiary rounds just to be able to defend against zeppelins

Helium on the other hand is inert. It takes more than a little prick with a flaming arrow to down such gas bags

Interesting..
What are you thoughts on the earliest to latest Hydrogen advancements within the FCEV's auto sector? Can we call them advanced innovations which are yet to be determined?
Anyone here have a horse in that race running around the markets?
 

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Interesting..
What are you thoughts on the earliest to latest Hydrogen advancements within the FCEV's auto sector? Can we call them advanced innovations which are yet to be determined?
Anyone here have a horse in that race running around the markets?
I lost enough money in Ballard stock many years ago to know that I do not know enough about that market/technology to be investing in it. :(
 

little ol' e

Jus' a hobby guy
I lost enough money in Ballard stock many years ago to know that I do not know enough about that market/technology to be investing in it. :(
The BLDP stock did take a huge downturn due to weak fundamentals. However, people are still talking about this. Sorry to hear about your loss. That sucks!!! Timing is not on our side at times.
 

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
The BLDP stock did take a huge downturn due to weak fundamentals. However, people are still talking about this.
Well that would make sense, my timing never has been much good. I've also got some really great Blackberry stocks that has been a loosing proposition and now I have to hang on to them hoping they will make a fantastic comeback! HA HA HA HA.

On the bright side, I've never had much money to invest therefore my losses were not great by most people's standard. :)
 

Downwindtracker2

Well-Known Member
Toronto Builder, a Canadian connection to tracers. Robertson of screw fame was in England trying get more business. He saw what was happening with the zeppelins. He suggested tracers rounds, but hey what does a hardware salesman from the colonies know ? Of course the British dismissed the idea.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
This is pure entertainment...... Now the internal finger pointing begins..

3 Chinese spy balloons flew over United States during Trump administration, defense official says​


 
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StevSmar

(Steven)
Premium Member
What I find interesting is that it seems to be conveniently forgotten how the U-2 and SR-71’s were overflying ”undesirable” countries airspace.

That’s ”intriguing” how citizens had to be warned not to take pot-shots…
 

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
At 60,000 feet it would not be reachable by even the largest of handheld arms. I don't know of any ground based arms that can reach 60,000 feet. A missile, however - easy-peasy.
 
This is pure entertainment...... Now the internal finger pointing begins..

3 Chinese spy balloons flew over United States during Trump administration, defense official says​


Thats really interesting! I had no idea this sort of thing had been going on before! Why didn't this become public before and why weren't they shot down before?
 

Perry

Ultra Member
Interesting..
What are you thoughts on the earliest to latest Hydrogen advancements within the FCEV's auto sector? Can we call them advanced innovations which are yet to be determined?
Anyone here have a horse in that race running around the markets?
Hydrogen has some major draw backs that seem to be forgotten. I can't find the article I was looking for but this link basically gives the same information I had read a while back.




BUT ....never say never, I do remember a story of an idividual (amatuer) that actually stumbled on the fact that you could split water down into hydrogen and oxygen in a microwave. No electrolysis required. Everyday advancements could change everything. :)
 
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Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I spent 10 years of my life developing alternative fuels for transportation. I never thought hydrogen stood a snow ball's chance in hell of ever succeeding in the marketplace.

The three big monsters in the room are:

Energy density. - there just isn't enough energy in hydrogen gas to go very far on it.

Energy deficit - it takes more energy to produce pure hydrogen gas than it is capable of generating for propulsion purposes. That's the main thrust of the article mentioned by @Perry above.

Competition - Gasoline is not standing still. Gasoline efficiency and emissions reductions are improving faster than its competition. Everyone forgets this.

The dark horse in this race is Plantoline - a term I coined 40 years ago. Fossil Fuels like Gasoline are all the result of photosynthesis in plants that lived millions of years ago that converted sunlight into chemical energy. We refine that crude oil to serve our energy needs today. But there is no reason that we couldn't bio-engineer new plants that can directly create liquid fuels that could be used to power our current and future energy needs. Best of all, this would not need new infrastructure and it would be completely carbon neutral. Farmers to the rescue again!
 
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gerritv

Gerrit
Is it time to revisit gasifiers? I hope to have video of my brother's implementation in a few months. Runs on wood chips, a side product of wood farming.
 

gerritv

Gerrit
What I find interesting is that it seems to be conveniently forgotten how the U-2 and SR-71’s were overflying ”undesirable” countries airspace.

That’s ”intriguing” how citizens had to be warned not to take pot-shots…
Every time the US goes on one of these rants I generally think it is a diversion from what they are doing. do as I say, not as I do. The U2's are a prime example. They are BTW still in service.
 

StevSmar

(Steven)
Premium Member
The U2's are a prime example. They are BTW still in service.
I can’t imagine that there is much of a surveillance mission for U2’s anymore, over countries with missiles anyway.
I’m waiting for the rumoured successor of the SR-71…

It’s sure going to be interesting if anything about the electronics payload on the balloons is released. I wonder how much the missile cost that shot it down…
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
I can’t imagine that there is much of a surveillance mission for U2’s anymore, over countries with missiles anyway.
I’m waiting for the rumoured successor of the SR-71…

It’s sure going to be interesting if anything about the electronics payload on the balloons is released. I wonder how much the missile cost that shot it down…

An AIM 9 costs upwards of $350K US. I'm wondering if they will fess up if it turns out to be a metrological balloon after all.

Live Updates are still coming in https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/china-spy-balloon-us-latest-02-05-23/index.html
 
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