Facts that shocked you

[Super Sonic]

Four Litre said:

Just read that 1 in 5 brand new cars on the road in the UK is a Motability car!

1 IN 5!! That now explains why I see all these news cars and wonder how everyone seems to afford them.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/st...

You should start a thread about it!
ETA maybe not!

Edited by Super Sonic on Thursday 13th March 19:12

[Dbag101]

[Austin Prefect]

The rest live in Earls Court.

[Cotty]

bigothunter said:

The Swift S-1 aerobatic glider is stressed for plus and minus 10g (service limits +10 g / -7.5 g). Speed is limited to 320 km/h. It doesn't have an engine.

https://allaboutplane.weebly.com/swift-s-1.html

It still needs to get up there in the first place, aren't gliders either towed by another plane or attached to a winch to launch.

[DodgyGeezer]

Roofless Toothless said:

Truckosaurus said:

Roofless Toothless said:

...
But even more scary was the dragster motor cycle that was parked next to it.

I've seen the French nutter who runs a rocket bike at Santa Pod. Once it is 'fired' then there is no way to stop it until the fuel runs out, he just has to cling on until then.

What shocked me about that thing was that it had a chain a few inches wide that ran along the length of the thing, just underneath the ‘seat’ or whatever you would like to call it, just underneath the driver’s body and left leg. If that chain let go, it would rip the unfortunate pilot in half. I couldn’t believe that anybody would re brave or foolhardy enough to ride it.

Edited by Roofless Toothless on Thursday 13th March 17:21

[Strangely Brown]

DodgyGeezer said:

That's quite a bet that the diff doesn't let go.

[eldar]

The most produced aircraft is the Cessna 172, with at least 44,000 produced. Second is the Ilyushin-Il2 with 36,183.

[Onelastattempt]

Arrivalist said:

Chauffard said:

hidetheelephants said:

Expecting patients to turn up at 7 am seems like a good way to not have them turn up unless they live locally, in most places public transport won't get you there.

Yep, the NHS should be flexible to the patients' needs not the other way around.

Had a major operation a few years back. Told to turn up at 7am and no eating or drinking allowed. Operation eventually happened at 4pm iirc.

Crazy.

Not just the NHS, I had an operation 3 years ago in a private hospital in Leeds, had to arrive for 7am , no eating or drinking until after the operation which took place at 3pm.

[Benni]

Roofless Toothless said:

What shocked me about that thing was that it had a chain a few inches wide that ran along the length of the thing, just underneath the ‘seat’ or whatever you would like to call it, just underneath the driver’s body and left leg. If that chain let go, it would rip the unfortunate pilot in half. I couldn’t believe that anybody would re brave or foolhardy enough to ride it.

Well, the chains , sometimes with double or triple outer links, break very seldom but yes,
they could cause bad injuries by wreaking havoc of anything in their way.
However, I do not recall (in Europe) of a rider having his leg cut off.
The only crew ever putting serious attention to this issue is the ingenious finnish team of Jaska Salakari.

See the frame tubes on left side ? That is where the chain runs in, totally sealed.
Jaska also designed his blown nitro twin engine, took him ~16 years to reach world class level,
he is about to grab the 1/4 mile record from the US boys (!) racing 4cyl motors (!!!)

[DodgyGeezer]

eldar said:

The most produced aircraft is the Cessna 172, with at least 44,000 produced. Second is the Ilyushin-Il2 with 36,183.

And the Bf-109 in 3rd as the most produced fighter (more than mustang & thunderbolt combined)

[mickythefish]

In back to the future 3, there are actually two delorens in the past, Marty could have just syphoned fuel out the one in the mine.

[RizzoTheRat]

Huff said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Tango13 said:

Steam driven too iirc?

Technically I suppose yes. Which means the shuttle was presumably the most powerful steam engine ever built until the SLS?

Not really - steam turbines driving electrical generation are commonly at around 10-12 times that output as a minimum - and run for decades. Darx is running six , 660MW generating sets.

I mean the Shuttle itself. Almost entirely* powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen so once burned everything is running on steam. SLS uses 4 of the same engines (Shuttle had 3), and as they're not reusing them they run them a bit hotter than the Shuttle did.

* It also had some hypergolic engines but I think they were only used for thrusters and hydraulic pumps.

48k said:

The descent rate in the main part of the descent profile is 10,000 feet per minute - or about terminal velocity for a sky diver in freefall.

The lift to drag ratio at hypersonic speeds was about 1:1, rising to 4.5:1 at landing speeds. For comparison a 747 can do about 15:1 (as successfully proven by the impressively unflappable captain Eric Moody who lost all 4 engines on one https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/captain-eric...

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 14th March 08:38

[Oilchange]

RizzoTheRat said:

The lift to drag ratio at hypersonic speeds was about 1:1, rising to 4.5:1 at landing speeds. For comparison a 747 can do about 15:1 (as successfully proven by the impressively unflappable captain Eric Moody who lost all 4 engines on one https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/captain-eric...

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 14th March 08:38

Tenuous factoid incoming---> When he landed safely he phoned BA Ops at Heathrow to explain the situation and my old man took the call.

[98elise]

mkjess123 said:

Having an operation is a serious part of somebody's life and involves substantial costs to the NHS or whoever.
Surgeons, doctors, and other highly qualified professional people are involved and an excuse about public transport just doesn't hold any water. We live 80+ miles away and managed it!

From taking my mother into hospital for surgery, it seems they bring a lot of people in early to prevent just that. When my mother was booking in there way more people than operating theaters.

My mother waited about 2 hours before actually going in. If somebody hadn't arrived I'm sure she would have been bumped up the queue.

[otolith]

Arrivalist said:

Chauffard said:

hidetheelephants said:

Expecting patients to turn up at 7 am seems like a good way to not have them turn up unless they live locally, in most places public transport won't get you there.

Yep, the NHS should be flexible to the patients' needs not the other way around.

Had a major operation a few years back. Told to turn up at 7am and no eating or drinking allowed. Operation eventually happened at 4pm iirc.

Crazy.

Had one last year. Turned up in the morning, went through all the paperwork, undressed and into a gown, on a bed in the anaesthetic room, wired up to heart rate, blood pressure and sats monitors, and was told that there wasn't a bed for me to go to. Got dressed. Was told to hang around until 1pm in case a bed came free. It didn't. Sent home at 1pm. Next one was cancelled with 24 hours notice. Finally had it done a week or two later.

[jonsp]

Austin Prefect said:

The rest live in Earls Court.

Back of the net

[Alickadoo]

otolith said:

Had one last year. Turned up in the morning, went through all the paperwork, undressed and into a gown, on a bed in the anaesthetic room, wired up to heart rate, blood pressure and sats monitors, and was told that there wasn't a bed for me to go to. Got dressed. Was told to hang around until 1pm in case a bed came free. It didn't. Sent home at 1pm. Next one was cancelled with 24 hours notice. Finally had it done a week or two later.

Everything ok?

BTW what did you have done?

Did it hurt?

[Cotty]

otolith said:

Had one last year. Turned up in the morning, went through all the paperwork, undressed and into a gown, on a bed in the anaesthetic room, wired up to heart rate, blood pressure and sats monitors, and was told that there wasn't a bed for me to go to. Got dressed. Was told to hang around until 1pm in case a bed came free. It didn't. Sent home at 1pm. Next one was cancelled with 24 hours notice. Finally had it done a week or two later.

The one you don't want cancelled at the last minute is a colonoscopy. Mainly due to the preparation you have to do before you go.

[98elise]

We think of air travel as being safe, however In 2024 there were 1,417 aviation accidents in the USA alone!

257 were fatal incidents, with 306 reported deaths.

[MarkwG]

98elise said:

We think of air travel as being safe, however In 2024 there were 1,417 aviation accidents in the USA alone!

257 were fatal incidents, with 306 reported deaths.

The numbers mean nothing without the context: what's the total number of flights, & compared to what?