Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Not the usual way to see the alphanumeric characters on a license plate, all on the left side, with empty space on the right
plus, I can't figure out what the hell XSDX means
I really doubt some apartment complex corporation has a security patrol car, that's a Lexus,... with a Japanese front license plate. But it makes for an interesting photo
it's not uncommon to see a car with a German front license plate around the city, but Japanese? That's rare. I checked the back, and it's got a California plate on the back. Weird combination
The GoKart Pro 2, which made its debut at CES 2024, is now one of TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of 2024
It is touted as far more than the average e-mobility solution in that it can also be used as a racing simulator for PC gaming when not going at up to 26.7 miles per hour. It can also convert into a detachable Ninebot hoverboard at need.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
a 1985 Plymouth ‘Cuda concept car, based on the L-Body Shelby Chargers of the mid-80’s, one of 2.... I've never heard of this until now
Shelby halted the Barracuda project as soon as he discovered they were using parts from the Shelby Charger in its development. An article from March 2000 in Mopar Collector’s Guide revealed more details about it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1123898235758598&set=pcb.1123898402425248
I find the reasons that some things were built they way they were, interesting when it turns out that there were design decisions made based only on getting around tax laws (three wheelers) or import laws (the famous "Chicken Tax")
I just learned why it had those rear seats in the bed!
It was a way to get around the 25% “chicken tax” on trucks; with four passenger seats, it was no longer a truck, but an open air tourer, or something like that; a passenger car, in any case.
If you haven't heard of the Chicken Tax before, I posted about it in 2011 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/09/chicken-war-and-chicken-tax-and-what.html
Subaru’s center-mounted “Passing Lamp”... something I've never heard of until now
69 Mustang Mach 1 Fastback will be at booth #11861, Full Throttle Garage booth, at SEMA
Started out looking like this
turned out looking great!
they temporary bridge was quickly built by locals and volunteers in Northeastern Tennessee for crossing the river bed after the real bridge was destroyed during flooding from Hurricane Helene
three flatbed trailers placed parallel, because they are easy to install and remove, and the load rating of a semi trailer is a known quantity!
This is similar to using railroad car beds like I posted in years past
Monday, October 28, 2024
previous crashes the Osprey had were attributed to a recurring “hard clutch engagement”. However, in the November 2023 crash, investigators pointed to the gearbox as the cause in their preliminary findings. Now they have a "Why" and "How"
While both the publicly released AIB and the internal SIB blamed this single gear, the latter mentioned that the “single crack” was “similar to those seen on seven previous failures in low-speed planetary pinion gears.” Five of those prior failures, which go back to 2013, were caused by “non-metallic inclusions” – defects in the metal alloy from which the gears were made.
Universal Stainless, a key supplier for Boeing – itself facing allegations of shoddy manufacturing standards amid a standoff with workers’ unions – has a history of quality control issues dating back to 2001. At the time the company was sued by Teledyne Technologies for defective steel that caused “multiple crankshaft failures” in aircraft engines, with “over 90% of the crankshafts found to be flawed.”
Former Universal Stainless employees describe a toxic workplace culture with equipment dating back to the 1950s, pressure to prioritize production over quality, “racial discrimination and unsafe working conditions.” Universal is now facing lawsuits from multiple former employees, for racial and age discrimination, disregard for safety, and retaliation against whistleblowing employees.
Hunterbrook cites the 2014 case of British aerospace major Rolls Royce, which discovered a “large air pocket” in the center of a steel bar produced by Universal. Smith told Hunterbook: “We got this bar back and the ends were great, but the middle of the bar had this massive air pocket in it. I don’t understand how you miss that.” He added that somehow the bar had been passed through about “10 departments.”
In this context, Smith said that the steel is “refined by an outdated facility” at Dunkirk in New York, unlike its “state-of-the-art” and “sophisticated” plant at North Jackson, Ohio. Some equipment “dates back to the 1950s” or even “the World War era”. “You can’t even get parts for this stuff.” Smith added. During his time at Universal Stainless, meetings addressed manufacturing only “after a customer discovered a problem, rather than through internal quality control.”
Summed up, there simply was poor quality control and outdated equipment at the steel company behind the failed gears on the ill-fated CV-22 Osprey
Universal Stainless, a key supplier for Boeing – itself facing allegations of shoddy manufacturing standards amid a standoff with workers’ unions – has a history of quality control issues dating back to 2001. At the time the company was sued by Teledyne Technologies for defective steel that caused “multiple crankshaft failures” in aircraft engines, with “over 90% of the crankshafts found to be flawed.”
Former Universal Stainless employees describe a toxic workplace culture with equipment dating back to the 1950s, pressure to prioritize production over quality, “racial discrimination and unsafe working conditions.” Universal is now facing lawsuits from multiple former employees, for racial and age discrimination, disregard for safety, and retaliation against whistleblowing employees.
Hunterbrook cites the 2014 case of British aerospace major Rolls Royce, which discovered a “large air pocket” in the center of a steel bar produced by Universal. Smith told Hunterbook: “We got this bar back and the ends were great, but the middle of the bar had this massive air pocket in it. I don’t understand how you miss that.” He added that somehow the bar had been passed through about “10 departments.”
In this context, Smith said that the steel is “refined by an outdated facility” at Dunkirk in New York, unlike its “state-of-the-art” and “sophisticated” plant at North Jackson, Ohio. Some equipment “dates back to the 1950s” or even “the World War era”. “You can’t even get parts for this stuff.” Smith added. During his time at Universal Stainless, meetings addressed manufacturing only “after a customer discovered a problem, rather than through internal quality control.”
Summed up, there simply was poor quality control and outdated equipment at the steel company behind the failed gears on the ill-fated CV-22 Osprey
Thank you George!
if you had these full race incredibly valuable winged Mopars leaving your event, wouldn't you stop oncoming traffic for 30 seconds?
skip the first 30 seconds on this next one
Squareback spotted in traffic the other day,
thanks to you guys that quickly reminded me of the name of this model!
VW will be slashing jobs, closing factories, according to the union
the auto giant aims to shut at least three factories in Germany, downsize its remaining plants and lay off tens of thousands of staff as part of a cost-cutting drive.
the results are posts of the Rudi Klein junkyard collection $9,355
the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 'Alloy' Gullwing sold for $9,355,000
most of the 911 engines sold for about 4k
the Vega air filter, was known as the "bedpan of doom"
GM decided to put the paper filter inside an unopenable metal housing. The housing was still made in two pieces, and was pretty similar to a regular air cleaner design, but the top and bottom were permanently crimped together to enclose the air filter element inside. This assembly then bolted onto the carburetor directly.
the 513th Expeditionary Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Airmen, have spent the past year or so restoring World War II-era airfields on the Pacific island of Tinian.
Last year, the 820th RED HORSE Squadron from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., arrived at Tinian to restore the runways at North Field, a complex of ramps, runways, and taxiways at the island’s north end.
the U.S. seized Tinian from Japan in August, 1944, and “As soon as the island was seized, the Seabees, the Navy’s construction battalions, began work on the largest airbase of World War II—and in fact the largest airfield in the world at the time,” according to the National Park Service.
The base had six 8,500-foot runways: four in North Field and two more farther south at West Field.
The former West Field became the Tinian International Airport and is still in use to this day: Air Force F-22 fighters landed there for the first time in March 2023. That year, the Air Force went public with its plans to restore North Field, with then-Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach telling Nikkei Asia that the area would be transformed into an “extensive” facility. The Air Force received $79 million in its 2024 budget for construction projects on the island.
The return to Tinian is part of a strategy called Agile Combat Employment, where, in a conflict with China, small groups of Airmen would launch and recover aircraft from small, scattered air bases to avoid being targeted by long-range missiles. Tinian is one of several locations across the Pacific where the Air Force may operate in a future conflict.
But preparing those airfields takes work, and that’s where units such as RED HORSE come in. The 823rd RED HORSE Squadron from Hurlburt Field, Fla., spent more than six months restoring and rebuilding North Field, putting up new structures and clearing eight decades of overgrown vegetation, according to an April press release. The 823rd went home in April, but other RED HORSE units and Navy Seabees took up the task, with the goal of restoring over 20 million square feet of degraded World War II pavement.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-red-horse-wwii-airfield-tinian/
Sunday, October 27, 2024
North Carolina officials initially estimated the road to Big Chimney would take several months to almost a year to complete. Blue-collar workers, team of volunteer West Virginia coal miners, prevailed over bureaucracy by rebuilding a road at breakneck speed on their own terms – allowing residents to finally return home, and they accomplished the task in less than a week.
Also thanks to Paul Panson at A&P for donating additional equipment and manpower.
Left to right:
Charles Dunbar
Darrell McCune
Jimmy Wood
Stephen Boone
Jeff Barnhouse (with Rock Solid Construction)
Ben Harris
Derek Butler
Bobby Thomas
Jon Campbell
“The DOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation) said ‘yeah, we’ll send some engineers down here and assess the situation.’
“The Army Corps of Engineers took a look and said they’d send some surveyors and engineers, I told them you might as well not waste your time because the West Virginia guys will have this road built before you finish your paperwork,” Lewis continued.
“Then the West Virginia boys came in and said, ‘We’ll have this road punched in in about three days.’ No s–t,” he recalled.
Not a final approved DOT road but an access road to get the people in and out with a SxS or a 4x4 truck.
“Then the West Virginia boys came in and said, ‘We’ll have this road punched in in about three days.’ No s–t,” he recalled.
Not a final approved DOT road but an access road to get the people in and out with a SxS or a 4x4 truck.