Jessi Combs, the 'Fastest Woman On Four Wheels,' Killed In Land-Speed Record Crash (yahoo.com) 152
McGruber shares a report from Popular Mechanics: Jessi Combs -- vehicle builder, racer, fabricator, TV personality, and all-around automotive legend -- was killed on Tuesday in a crash while attempting to break her own land-speed record in southeast Oregon. She was 36. The crash occurred as Combs was piloting her jet-powered land-speed car on the Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed where several land-speed records have been set. According to local reports, the crash happened shortly after 4pm local time.
Combs held the title of "fastest woman on four wheels" after setting a record of 398 mph in her jet-powered North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger in 2013. More recently, she had piloted that same car to 483.227 mph in a single shakedown run in October 2018, though that run ended prematurely with mechanical troubles. (Governing bodies require two back-to-back runs in opposite directions to set an official speed record.) Combs was also a host, builder, and technical expert on shows like Xtreme 4x4, Overhaulin', Truck U, and Two Guys Garage. She brought about Velocity channel's All Girls Garage, and was a host and builder on a season of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters.
Combs held the title of "fastest woman on four wheels" after setting a record of 398 mph in her jet-powered North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger in 2013. More recently, she had piloted that same car to 483.227 mph in a single shakedown run in October 2018, though that run ended prematurely with mechanical troubles. (Governing bodies require two back-to-back runs in opposite directions to set an official speed record.) Combs was also a host, builder, and technical expert on shows like Xtreme 4x4, Overhaulin', Truck U, and Two Guys Garage. She brought about Velocity channel's All Girls Garage, and was a host and builder on a season of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters.
Good for her (Score:5, Interesting)
She died doing something she loved at the prime of her life, instead of growing old, ending up in a retirement home and posting stupid comments on websites.
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You don't have to be old and retired to do that.
This is a huge bummer, but I share the sentiment. It's a uniquely American thing, for the most part, to do something crazy just for the sake of doing it, and I salute her for that. As well as all the work she's done to promote building, making, teaching, etc. to girls and other women.
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It's a uniquely American thing
That Icarus guy was such a copycat.
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According to Nintendo, he was just a kid.
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What is uniquely american is the urge to make this into something uniquely american. It's only an expensive type of extreme sports. And safely on 4 wheels too instead of 2!
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It's a uniquely American thing, for the most part, to do something crazy just for the sake of doing it
LOL!
Only a fully-inbred American could possibly think that.
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Yes, it really is almost uniquely American. That's why there are essentially no mountaineers from other countries, because pretty much only Americans would try to reach the top of a mountain just "because it's there".
Same thing for arctic and antarctic exploration - the only country with a base in Antarctica - The USA. Literally no-one from other countries had ever even bothered to go to the poles (or at least, not until Americans did it first).
Same thing with sports. Running a 4 minute mile just for the he
Re:Good for her (Score:4, Interesting)
as far as location it's uniquely american, no land speed records set outside the USA after July 1964. The last three times a British chap was driving though 8D .
Re: Good for her (Score:2)
Oh BS. The WWS were both long in brewing that no European country really wanted to address. Becoming a WW was the simmering pot furiously boiling over.
The US historic policy was to remain out of other people's problems. But today with so much global trade by US companies, that is no longer true. It's nearly impossible not to have some skin every with the sheer size & investment of its army.
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The US help lay down the punishing terms after the defeat of Germany in WWI that helped cause WWII so don't say that WWII was only caused by European countries. The US had interacted with them and played them against one another for over 150 years by the time WWII came around.
The world keeps hearing about how isolationist the US wants to be but yet the politicians keep sticking their noses into every other country's business. They have been messing around with Central and South American countries for decade
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Interesting that you think that the USA had some sort of moral obligation to join two wars between two other countries. Especially when we get castigated for doing so these days.
So, should we have also gotten involved in the war between China and India a few decades back? I'm sure that war would have been shorter if we'd nuked both countries at the first sign of
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The US gets castigated these days because the situation is different. The majority of the world doesn't have a problem with the First Iraq War when the US formed a coalition to force Iraq out of Kuwait. The US formed another coalition and got the permission to go into Afghanistan. While I don't agree with the actions, especially as it was just because the Afghanistan didn't hand over a person that wasn't residing in the country, at least the US went through he motions to make it legal in the international s
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And on the plus side, a wreck at 400mph probably doesn't hurt much.
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It probably hurts A LOT, but for a much shorter time than a regular car crash.
Who knows, maybe the pain signals never even had the time to reach her brain.
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She died doing something she loved
Yes, hurtling through the air screaming and being mangled was here _fave_ I bet.
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being mangled going from mach 0.52 tp zero in less than a second doesn't hurt. She might have seen something wrong beforehand and screamed "aw fuck"
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I suspect she was too busy to scream. People like that tend to retain focus right up until loss of consciousness.
Unless they've tried everything and have just become a passenger. At which point a zen like calm sets in. What will happen will happen.
Screaming? Nah. That's for drama queens.
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Shitting yourself though, ask bikers who've experienced a highsider.
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You'd need more than a concrete wall, you'd need a giant monolith.
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Are you saying she was driving on the moon and crashed into TMA-1?
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36 is still too young. And in a few short years, some other lady will break her record, and she'll be forgotten. Really not worth it, IMO. I don't if she left any children or a spouse behind, definitely not worth it for them.
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Just think, she achieved more in her life than you ever will.
Re: Good for her (Score:5, Funny)
This God fellow tried to tell her to stop being an overacheiver, but nobody listens to their imaginary friend anymore. I feel bad for her. She grew up in a society that taught her that going really fast was a worthwhile endeavor and that when she crashes and lives that was God, but when Ed dies of cancer, what? God could have helped, but he isn't letting a trivial thing like painful death of loved ones get in the way of a good plan I guess. With friends like this God chap who needs enemas?
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going fast is a worthwhile endeavor, tech from races and land speed attempts do filter down to consumer and transportation industries.
sometimes shit happens. you could could live the most boring and safe life and still die as a pedestrian or passenger.
Re:Good for her (Score:4, Insightful)
I vote to close the thread after this.
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See? The great loophole of life. Fuck up badly enough and you won't live to regret it!
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Virtual +1 Funny.
Mythbusters (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Mythbusters (Score:4, Informative)
She also came in with Kari, Tori and Grant but suddenly disappeared from the show a handful of episodes after
I think you're confusing her with Scottie Chapman. Scottie was on in 2004 and 2005 with only a few appearances after that. I recall seeing something from Mythbusters that she's now a dental assistant although she still does welding and maker stuff as a hobby.
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They focus only on the engineering, building, fixing with none of the fake drama and squabbles. I real
Fastest WOMAN .... (Score:2)
Is there something about women's physiology that makes piloting jet cars more difficult for women than men?
She achieved great things, and driving that jet car takes a lot of guts, courage and determination, but she wasn't the fastest person on four wheels.
If we want to live in a society free of sexism, we have to stop proclaiming achievements where being a woman is not a disadvantage.
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Is there something about women's physiology that makes piloting jet cars more difficult for women than men?
Common sense comes to mind. I've driven a car over 100mph more time than I can remember, but faster than 200mph I would use wings instead of wheels.
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I don't get land speed records. What's the point of going that fast and staying on the ground? They've always reminded me of the loudest bass contests where the cars are made out of solid concrete and only have to roll a few inches to qualify. Why even pretend that you're in a car?
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What's the point of going that fast and staying on the ground?
That's easy - because it's a thing to do. The engineering and mechanics required to breach the 200mph barrier is significant and if you're gonna do it safely and consistently, it's not just about throwing a huge engine with a bunch of turbos strapped to it. There's a real beauty in engineering in machines designed to generate massive amounts of power in a way that doesn't grenade components. Not everyone gets it, and that's OK.
Watching James May break a land speed record (albeit for a brief period in
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I enjoy walking down premade trails and looking at trees and mountains. It would be hard to explain what the point was to someone that did not enjoy doing that.
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No, - as proven every weekend in the NHRA circuit, where some of the top competitors are women, with no accommodation. And it's a lot more demanding than land speed records.
But you can't market a marginal achievement nearly as well without coming up with a "hook" .
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Is there something about women's physiology that makes piloting jet cars more difficult for women than men?
It's a good point and a little research shows you are indeed correct. The current Land speed record [wikipedia.org] is 280 miles an hour faster than Coombs effort and was achieved by Wing Commander Andy Green [wikipedia.org] in the ThrustSSC [wikipedia.org] at a whopping 763 miles an hour - which also broke the sound barrier on land in 1997.
She achieved great things, and driving that jet car takes a lot of guts, courage and determination, but she wasn't the fastest person on four wheels.
Or even the fastest woman. A little digging shows that honor actually goes to Kitty O'Neil [wikipedia.org] at 512 miles per hour. The thing is that O'Neil also had to overcome deafness. So I get it that Combs was making the atte
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Is there something about women's physiology that makes piloting jet cars more difficult for women than men?
Nothing about women's physiology. Here's a little snippet about the last one (O'Neil) who tried:
It's in the Bible (Score:5, Funny)
I'd love/hate to see the video (Score:2)
A friend of mine was in a helicopter crash while landing yesterday. Caught it on the news last night and wondered "hmmm, what are the odds". Saw her this morning, she's pretty shook up.
Some really cool details deleted because the NTSB will be looking into it, and I don't want to spread rumors. Or, to be honest,
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In any crash upwards of about 200 mph, you can be pretty sure the driver is dead unless you saw them eject first -- and I don't think these vehicles have ejection seats. This isn't even about the safety of the vehicle either. Decelerating a human from that kind of speed quickly takes more crumple than can be achieved in a lightweight vehicle, and it's not even worth bothering to try. All you can do is not crash. There is no backup plan.
Re:I'd love/hate to see the video (Score:4, Interesting)
Really reaching (Score:2)
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Re:Environmentalism (Score:4)
Agreed. And the impact of just the 20 largest container ships is more than the emissions of all cars world-wide. On a global scale automotive emissions aren't negligible, but they certainly aren't the worst offenders. They're just the most maligned because it's easy to screw the individual consumer than some global mega-corporation that either has no oversight or can bribe enough people to turn a blind eye.
Re: Environmentalism (Score:2)
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Agreed. And the impact of just the 20 largest container ships is more than the emissions of all cars world-wide.
that sounds.. not right. The most powerful container ship has an 80MW engine, at a little over 50% efficient, giving about 3.2GW of fuel consumption. A typical US car is 120HP (90kW), with a 35% efficient engine, making those 20 ships equal to about 12,500 cars.
There are over 250,000,000 cars in the US.
Maybe you're talking about sulphr, not emissions in general?
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at least the overall auto industry accomplished something.
Yes, it brought us motorsports.
Re:Environmentalism (Score:5, Interesting)
As the world moves more and more to being enviromentally friendly.. it is inevitable that these stupid "sports" will comes to an end. What exactly did society gain by turning all that jet fuel into noise so she could beat her own record?
These stupid "sports" have a huge technological support system. You don't just decide you'll drive any old clunker at 500mph. It takes design, knowledge and expertise to even attempt such a goal. All of that translates into a bunch of highly skilled people who have the ability to tackle a whole new level of engineering challenges.
Compare that with competitive eating .. where the sole goal is to shove as much food in your mouth as you can in a set time. *That* is a truly wasteful exercise.
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^^^ this^^^ WTF is wrong with you people? having worked at Imagineering and a fer other places I would think you would be excited that someone was exploring the real world. Everyone wants to complain that climate change or whatever else is their personal campaign, doesn't get traction. For that people have to understand how the real world happens/has consequences.
The people that *do* things are the people you are looking to engage. They know stuff done = change. If you need them, why are you putting t
Re:Environmentalism (Score:5, Insightful)
for no real net-benefit.
I pointed out the net benefit. You choose to ignore it.
Re:Environmentalism (Score:4, Insightful)
All major automobile advances originated in motorsports. Engine and drivetrain durability, fuel efficiency, disc brakes, overhead camshafts, antilock brakes, independent suspension, active suspension, crumple zones, aerodynamics, and incredible advances in tire manufacturing are but a few of the technologies in your passenger car because of their beginnings in motorsports.
Why are auto manufacturers so interested in motorsports? Because what they learn there will translate to their manufacturing of passenger vehicles.
Without auto racing, your car would still be getting 10mpg, your tires would never last 10,000 miles - resulting in dangerous blowouts, and your engine would be lucky to last 100,000 miles. How would all that be for the environment?
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>>you dont just strap a jet engine onto somethign and hope for the best
fukken watch me
Re: Environmentalism (Score:2)
Re: Environmentalism (Score:5, Informative)
Do you really think that"Indy 500 and stuff" matter as far as AGW is concerned?
If we ran the Indy 500 every morning and every afternoon of the year, the carbon footprint or doing so would be indetectable...
If you're really worried about AGW, the Indy 500 should be the very last thing you should be worrying about, and the last thing you should be trying to legislate out of existence....
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So.. after turning a sh*t ton of jet fuel into noise, how is society better off?
you think Indi 500 and stuff will continue indefinitely? sooner or later the EPA will come for them..
And soon Formula E will be more popular than Formula One.
LOL!
Re: Environmentalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Environmentalism (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Environmentalism (Score:5, Informative)
IndyCar (with a Y) races 100% ethanol. Their fuel comes from renewable resources. It burns cleaner than gasoline, also. The EPA isn't going to 'come for them', as the carbon footprint of 33 ethanol burning cars that run for a few hours a week for 17 weeks out of the year (not counting off season testing) is extremely insignificant. A single Amazon delivery van in the same time frame has a far far (far) greater CO impact than all of the IndyCar Series cars combined.
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you think Indi 500 and stuff will continue indefinitely? sooner or later the EPA will come for them..
The spectators driving to any mechanized sports event cause 3 orders of magnitude more pollution than the race itself. If you want to make a difference, go after the sports that draw the most spectators first. Baseball and football, for instance.
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One person flying across the country probably uses more.
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Other than it kept you off
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Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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hard to tell from this post.. you between 10 and 12?
what respect would you like me to have? woman does dangerous thing to feed her ego (beating her own speed record) and dies in the process?
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curious.. i share my views. you issue insults and i have a problem?
again.. why should i respect her? she drove at very high speeds to beat her own record and died in the process. i'm sure she knew it was one possible outcome and did it anyway.
she was a race car driver, not some air force pilot.
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Ever wondered why you don't have any friends?
When you hire a shrink to explain it to you, show him what you posted here.
-jcr
Dude, like, did you know you're the one being a raging asshole in that exchange? Like, seriously, show that shit about showing it to a shrink, to your shrink.
I'm not involved, but damn man. Mirrors are a thing.
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woman does dangerous thing to feed her ego (beating her own speed record) and dies in the process?
I agree, and while we're at it, damn those astronauts who risk their lives going into space so we can learn more about physics, biology, chemistry etc. They're the real egomaniacs, hurtling into space at thousands of miles per hour just so they can lord over us and mess around floating in their tiny capsules while we have to toil and trouble over real world problems.
Man, those astronauts, why can't they get proper jobs?
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what respect would you like me to have?
One should have respect for everyone, unless they do something to prove they are not worthy of it. The world would be a much better place for it.
My philosophy is that people should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as they are doing no harm to another person.
Ms. Combs harmed no one but herself, so I see no reason to disrespect her. I cannot say the same for many others out there, such as a large majority of our political leaders.
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Lol - yeah, it's not like the teams working on land speed records or Formula 1 or MotoGP or any of the other top tiers of "stupid sports" have massive R&D teams developing cutting edge technologies that make their way into day-to-day application - all without any expense to the tax payer.
enviro nazi ism (Score:3)
These sports don't emit any percentage of the world's carbon that would be graph-able. On the other hand if all the world's enviro-nazis offed themselves that would be a significant enough reduction to merit a graph.
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Flat screen TVs (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of the breakthroughs in technology come from extreme applications like high-speed racing. e.g. The use of foiling catamarans in the America's Cup races has led to advancements in lightweight composite construction and design. Advancements which contribute to the design and construction of things like stronger yet lighter weight and cheaper wind turbines. It's why so much new technology comes from military research projects (computers, digital photography, GPS, the Internet, two-way radio communication aka cell phones). Because the advantage of being first is greatest in the military, so they have a big incentive (and the budget) to fund crazy ideas some of which happen to pan out.
The day these "stupid" sports come to an end is the day technology stops advancing, and our power consumption for any particular application stops decreasing and remains frozen for the rest of time. That's probably the ultimate anti-environmental attitude one could have.
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So, companies like Toyota, GM, Ford, etc trying to advance technology (better fuel economy, etc) are all ties to race car drivers?
perhaps the engeneers tring to make 500mph cars can move to practical design?
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Uh, yeah. Look at those companies - they all have racing divisions. A whole lot of current technology in use in a camry, f150, camaro, etc was developed and tested by the race guys first. It's fun, it pushes limits of technology and design (which is where the breakthroughs and failures come from), it makes them money, and oh yeah, it's fun.
Those engineers who were trying to make a 500mph car will use their aerodynamics techniques to make your car a little more fuel efficient, so yeah, they help too.
Vehicle technology (Score:5, Interesting)
So, companies like Toyota, GM, Ford, etc trying to advance technology (better fuel economy, etc) are all ties to race car drivers?
Essentially yes.
Many, if not all, advances in engine and vehicle technology come from racing as this is where we push the limits and, risk of vehicle technology. For example things like disk brakes, come to think of it brakes themselves, came from racing vehicles. As did, twin cam shafts, multi valves, fuel injection, four wheel steer and active suspension.
The case of the heroic [formula1.com] Ayrton Senna's death is directly attributable to the F1 governing body banning the use of active suspension. This shows the relationship between technology development, safety and racing - because the drivers are assuming the risk. In terms of fuel efficiency you can look to endurance racing such as Le Mans and the improvements gained there can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Modern vehicles are much *less* efficient than they could be simply because manufacturers want to ensure they don't see a vehicle returned in the warranty period. This means that things like increased fuel to air ratio is used to provide upper cylinder lubrication, restrictive air filters and exhaust for noise. The power and fuel efficiency of a vehicle can be increased simply by replacing the exhaust with extractors and air filters that improve volumetric efficiency.
perhaps the engeneers tring to make 500mph cars can move to practical design?
To some extent. At the top end speed is mainly co-efficient of drag so again we have another aspect of vehicle technology being explored even though this is mainly developed in F1. These are highly technical challenges and have absurdly pedantic rigor that I suspect you have to deal with when you mix ground effect with a jet engine and wheels.
I'm inclined to wonder why the car was not retired after the first record breaking run, isn't that where the limits were pushed? I'm not sure, I'm only a casual observer of land speed stuff. I'd say Coombs was a logical choice because females are smaller and lighter and the 10 or 20 kg difference between a large stronger man is a factor when you want to save weight and strength controlling the vehicle is mitigated with hydraulics. I don't know much about her either but I offer condolences to her husband and children. Damn, one world speed record would be enough for me.
What you're right about is this, we are moving into a place where we are designing radical new engine technology, especially around valves which can lead to massive improvements in power and fuel efficiency. Governing bodies of racing have manufacturers at a matured stage of technological investment. Manufacturers have a lot of capital investment in machining technology to create engines, so the last thing they want is some new disruptive engine technology that will force them to re-tool. Consequently they interfere with the rules to limit the development of racing technology.
A prime example we see with the aforementioned active suspension, what we see is manufacturers messing with the rules to *prevent* disruptive vehicle technology being tested, where it should be, in a racing environment. So if I was to reframe your observation to improve it's validity it would look something like "perhaps the engineers trying to make 500mph cars can be allowed to test more radical designs in racing? .
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Have you never heard the slogan Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" [foxsports.com]?
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Making boats go faster while using less energy is useful. Making cars go very fast in a straight line is worthless. What are they learning from this that is good for anything, given we already know rubber tires suck?
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Perhaps the biggest contribution made by recent land speed records is the use of CFD. Thrust SSC was one of the first engineering projects to rely on CFD, which was still highly experimental at the time. Working with the people who built the CFD package, they validated both the car's design and the CFD software.
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Look - AC comes here to exchange insults instead of having a conversation.. Shocked i tell you, shocked...
Slashdot needs to get rid of the AC system.
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OT: civil discourse (Score:3)
I didn't say anything of the kind, but fuck you too, asshole. And I don't mean the romantic love-making either, no. Bugger you with a rusty pipe between hemorrhoids, until your own smothered spirit drains out through the implement...
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If that is the extent of your human spirit, there isn't much to smother. What a hateful prick.
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Except people have fun doing stuff like this. I guess parachute jumping, scuba diving, climbing Everest and everything else should be done by robots too?
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Except people have fun doing stuff like this. I guess parachute jumping, scuba diving, climbing Everest and everything else should be done by robots too?
^+1
I'm thinking fun is sadly low on some people's list of priorities.
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yes, and you should not go on vacation, it's dangerous. Send your drone instead. Let's remote control droids instead of climbing mountains and throw cameras out of airplanes instead of parachuting and paragliding.
Or, you could get fucked. Off, is the general direction in which you should fuck.
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Flying is dangerous - we need to have robots throwing those cameras out of the airplanes instead of humans jumping out of planes to parachute and paraglide.
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When pushing a new parachute model to its limits? Yes, it would certainly make sense to have that done by a machine.
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This is ridiculous, and misses the point entirely. It's the difference between playing Madden '20 and taking snaps in real life in the NFL, or flying and RC airplane VS jumping into a real P-51 Mustang.
If you genuinely fail to see the point, then I pity you, because you *just don't understand real life and real experiences".
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You obviously haven't seen very many land speed record cars then.
Look at the cars at https://landspeedrecord.org/ [landspeedrecord.org] and you'll see several with a configuration similar to the one Jessi was driving.
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Failed to stop, went off the end of the course and crashed.
It was built into the scenario; if the brakes fail, you die, 100% chance. It is a small desert in the rain shadow of a small mountain, then it goes back to bumpy scrubland.
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Her end goal was 800mph and the overall record.
She didn't live past this last speed increase.