Air Force Builds Quiet Mach 6 Wind Tunnel 153
An anonymous reader writes "To help design 'scramjets' -- vehicles that'll travel thousands of miles per hour as they leave the atmosphere and zip around the globe -- the U.S. Air Force has just funded a wind tunnel that operates quietly at Mach 6. To get a quiet flow, the throat of the Mach 6 nozzle must be polished to a near-perfect mirror finish, eliminating roughness that would trip the flow."
18 inches (Score:3, Insightful)
The pipe is only 18 inches in diameter
So long, and thanks for the fish.
Re:18 inches (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:18 inches (Score:2, Insightful)
Some further comments (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I loved the part where... (Score:4, Insightful)
At Mach 6, yes. But if the thing is turned on when the undergrad is inside, the air doesn't just suddenly jump to Mach 6 - no, it accelerates, and that takes time. It takes an especially long time if the pipe is clogged by a human body.
What will happen is that the undergrad will get an overpressure against her feet or head, likely strong enough to eject her from the pipe. The pressure itself is unlikely to kill her, but injuries sustained when thrown out of the pipe might.
a million? (Score:2, Insightful)