MYTHBUSTERS 2015 Season Thread

[Retu]

I watched the episode. They seemed a bit too much focused on launch and landing the plane and how difficult it's supposed to be. Landing on two wheels, big wing span etc. I found it a bit odd since, if you don't take into account poor visibility from the cockpit, U-2 is basically just a big glider with a jet engine attached. And we do have gliders that approach the wing span of a U-2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_%28glider%29

The real problem flying U-2 comes from a phenomenon called "coffin corner". What it means that the higher you go, the smaller your operational envelope will get. Your stall speed, the minimum speed to required to maintain level flight, will go up and the speed for critical Mach number (basically the airflow will start to go supersonic around the wing and it will cause loss of lift) will come down as the speed of sound is slower at higher altitudes. For U-2 the speed difference is around 5 knots at cruising altitude. You go too slow and you fall out of the sky or you go too fast and you will fall out of the sky. Hence the term "coffin corner". This makes turning the plane pretty dangerous, since one wing can reach the critical Mach, while the other wing will stall, if you screw things up.

 

[Forbin]

You know what disturbs me a bit about the show now? I find it weird to have two intercutting stories going on with the same people (Jamie and Adam) doing both. It made sense with the two teams - "while Adam and Jamie are figuring that out, let's check in on what the other team are doing!" - But we know Adam and Jamie aren't doing both things at the same time. I know it was an editing illusion anyway, but it's really emphasized now. I think it would work better with two complete, uninterrupted segments.

 

[Forbin]

As for the Myths - yeah, the U2 segment was glorious to watch, but it was no urban legend that needed busting. Want to know if the plane is hard to fly? ask the pilots.

The drones - they managed to cut the chicken with a flexible blade because they'd basically built a sidewalk edger. Hold pressure on a soft target with a spinning plastic blade - sod or chicken - and it cuts it. A quadrotor slamming into something is going to bounce right off. It won't be able to spend time applying constant pressure.

 

[Trekker4747]

Good episode, the second part of this new season seems much more on track with how the show more-or-less should be. Granted, no real "myths" to test here in their usual manner but they at least weren't tied to any kind of property like pretty much everything in the first part of this season.

The stuff with the U-2 was utterly cool. I'm sure it was an amazing experience for Adam. I do kind-of wonder why only one of them could experience it. Couldn't they have taken Jamie up on a second trip that same day or the next day?

The drone tests were sort-of interesting but not to greatly surprising in the end result. It does seem that those things would have to be made to be pretty safe, especially if companies are seriously considering using them for deliveries and such.

There've been times during the series where I've seen some great shots and such made by the camera and I always assumed more "mundane" camera techniques were used to achieve them. Cranes, scissor lifts, helicopters and planes, etc. But that they use a drone for them (at times, I presume) is pretty neat and would seem their operator has good command over the drone in flying it stably to achieve good camera work. (I assume the multiple rotors and such help with stability.)

Fun episode and, man, jealous of Adam that looks like it would have been one hell of a trip to make!

 

[Christopher]

The stuff with the U-2 was utterly cool. I'm sure it was an amazing experience for Adam. I do kind-of wonder why only one of them could experience it. Couldn't they have taken Jamie up on a second trip that same day or the next day?

Well, they do have actual official business to do with those things. I doubt they could really justify doing it more than once. And from a TV-dramatics perspective, it would've been anticlimactic to do it a second time.

The skeptic in me suspected that Jamie never intended to do it at all, that the whole thing was manufactured so we could get the heartwarming moment of Jamie ceding the opportunity to Adam. Although now that I think about it, the fact that Adam repeated his "I owe you one" to Jamie while he was up in the stratosphere makes me think it was genuine. I have no doubt that he wasn't playacting about anything while he was up there.

The drone tests were sort-of interesting but not to greatly surprising in the end result. It does seem that those things would have to be made to be pretty safe, especially if companies are seriously considering using them for deliveries and such.

I have to wonder, how many people have been killed by pizza delivery cars or UPS/FedEx vans over the decades?

There've been times during the series where I've seen some great shots and such made by the camera and I always assumed more "mundane" camera techniques were used to achieve them. Cranes, scissor lifts, helicopters and planes, etc. But that they use a drone for them (at times, I presume) is pretty neat and would seem their operator has good command over the drone in flying it stably to achieve good camera work. (I assume the multiple rotors and such help with stability.)

Based on that io9 article I linked to earlier, I gather that the camera drone is a relatively new addition to their arsenal, within the past couple of seasons or so.

 

[Trekker4747]

I have to wonder, how many people have been killed by pizza delivery cars or UPS/FedEx vans over the decades?

If I'm not mistaken a fatal accident involving a pizza delivery driver in the late 80s/early 90s is what prompted Domino's to drop the "get in 30 minutes or we take $3 off" policy. Drivers were pressured to get the pizzas delivered inside that time frame so the pizzeria could get full-price for the pizza. If I'm not mistaken in some cases drivers were threatened with, or actually had, pay/tips docked to recoup the losses on late pizzas. Naturally this caused drivers to take more risks (speeding, running lights, frequent lane-changes) and lead to an accident and death. Prompting the dropping of the 30m/$3 policy.

I would think also that just pure odds would say that numerous drivers and other people have been killed in deliver-related accidents. I mean, there's been accidents involving injuries and deaths with emergency vehicles make a Code-3 response. So, delivery drives seems like near certainty.

 

[sojourner]

I worked for Dominoes during that time. No, the drivers were never docked for the losses.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

$3? In my day, we got the whole pizza for free, by gummit...

 

[sojourner]

3 dollars off if it was over 30. Free if it was over 40 minutes late.

 

[Christopher]

If I'm not mistaken a fatal accident involving a pizza delivery driver in the late 80s/early 90s is what prompted Domino's to drop the "get in 30 minutes or we take $3 off" policy.

That rings a bell.

I would think also that just pure odds would say that numerous drivers and other people have been killed in deliver-related accidents. I mean, there's been accidents involving injuries and deaths with emergency vehicles make a Code-3 response. So, delivery drives seems like near certainty.

Inevitably. There is no entirely safe technology. I doubt there's a way to make drones perfectly safe. Although keeping idiots from flying them into the path of firefighting helicopters would be a nice start.

Of course, once the roads are full of self-driving cars, there will be a lot fewer serious accidents. Apparently every accident involving a self-driving car to date has been the result of a human-operated car driving into it. So maybe genuinely autonomous drones will be less hazardous than manually controlled ones.

 

[Trekker4747]

I worked for Dominoes during that time. No, the drivers were never docked for the losses.

Legally they couldn't be as a matter of official policy. But when you're talking about a business that spans countless storefronts and franchises, I'd say it's almost a certainty some store manager/franchisee somewhere docked drivers for late deliveries.

 

[sojourner]

And that manager/franchise wouldn't have lasted long in the company.

 

[Forbin]

I don't know how much a U-2 flight costs, but I bet it's a LOT, and I bet it costs only half as much as two U-2 flights.

 

[Redfern]

What about Adam's infamous "motion sickness"? the series has had "fun" presenting that foible of his on numerous occasions. During one of their shark specials on the chartered boat; the "whirlpool tank"; flying in the Blue Angel testing if sonic booms could break windows... But this time, not only did we not see him puke, the subject of past accounts was not even mentioned.

Ona different note, I was surprised when Adam made a point they would be using blue tinted water (instead of the more obvious red) in the drone myth "for television purposes". I wonder what prompted that? Where was certainly a lot of red water pouring in that "car through plate glass" myth. Did the network actually get (and bowed to) complaints?!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Retu]

What about Adam's infamous "motion sickness"? the series has had "fun" presenting that foible of his on numerous occasions. During one of their shark specials on the chartered boat; the "whirlpool tank"; flying in the Blue Angel testing if sonic booms could break windows... But this time, not only did we not see him puke, the subject of past accounts was not even mentioned.

Sincerely,

Bill

Probably not an issue in U-2. The plane seemed to have a pretty good visibility from the rear cockpit and it is unlikely to pull any high-G maneuvers.

 

[Trekker4747]

Adam seems more prone to sea-sickness than motion-sickness, which are two different, though similar, reactions. After all, Adam has had no problems during the numerous car-related myths over the years and those involve motion. But being a boat has with it a lot of motions in all directions and unpredictably, a lot different than a car or even a plane.

 

[Redfern]

I was thinking of that steep climb the craft made shortly after take-off. But you guys are probably right. It wasn't pulling the kind of aeronautical stunts like that Blue Angel which included several multi G climbs that made Adam almost black out.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Marc]

What about Adam's infamous "motion sickness"? the series has had "fun" presenting that foible of his on numerous occasions. During one of their shark specials on the chartered boat; the "whirlpool tank"; flying in the Blue Angel testing if sonic booms could break windows... But this time, not only did we not see him puke, the subject of past accounts was not even mentioned.

Sincerely,

Bill

Probably not an issue in U-2. The plane seemed to have a pretty good visibility from the rear cockpit and it is unlikely to pull any high-G maneuvers.

didn't they show from an earlier show that the seasickness is from the lateral movement (rocking from side to side) but vertical motion (up and down) and Adam doesn't have a problem.

 

[Corran Horn]

New Travel Channel show with Kari & Tory...

 

[Christopher]

New Travel Channel show with Kari & Tory...

Can't say the premise interests me that much (aside from a certain curiosity about what Kari will be wearing when testing a waterslide). There's at least a token scientific element, but they aren't building things, which is their specialty. And messing around with existing thrill rides doesn't seem as daring as the kind of exceptional and bizarre challenges the Mythbusters devised.

Also, of course, there's no Grant. That doesn't seem right.