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From: rsiatl!jgd@gatech.edu (John G. DeArmond)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Drag Races
Message-ID: <1990Oct17.005351.11083@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 17 Oct 90 00:53:51 GMT
References: <1990Oct4.012153.11030@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct15.033704.12531@cbnews.att.com>
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From: rsiatl!jgd@gatech.edu (John G. DeArmond)

mailrus!sharkey!amara!khai@uunet.UU.NET (S. Khai Mong) writes:


>As long as they are having fun, they should hook the drag car on to
>the catapult (adjusted for the A6) and take a look at the face of the
>driver.  ;-)

Actually the top fuelers don't need much in the way of a catapult to
beat the jets.  An indication of how the jets would fare sans catapult
can be seen in the jet powered dragsters that make some of the NHRA
nationals.  Typically powered by an F-14 engine, these beauties launch
from a standing start with full afterburner and turn 1/4 mile times
in the 6 second and 285 mph range.  By comparison, a top fuel dragster
can occasionally break 4 seconds and would be well over 300 mph had the
NHRA not put a gearing restriction on this year.    

Of course, this test is not fair but then no one said it was.  The jet
car's high terminal speed combined with a fairly poor ET illustrates that
the jet has only begun to cook by the time it hits the light.  A 1/2 mile
drag would be a horse of a totally different color.  These days it would
be a trick to find a top fuel engine that would run for 8 seconds without
an overhaul :-) 

John

-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC  | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress
Radiation Systems, Inc. | than we can prostitution on pimps.  Both simply
Atlanta, Ga             | provide broker services for their customers.
{emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd|  - Dr. W Williams |                **I am the NRA**