Posted on 06/08/2006 2:31:15 PM PDT by Pukin Dog
One of the least understood phenomena of a bomb blast is overpressure. Everything in the blast perimeter is subject to a sudden and profound increase in air pressure. This wave of blast overpressure declines rapidly the further it travels. A person 10 feet from a bomb blast will experience nine times the overpressure of a person 20 feet away. But it gets messy and unpredictable. A person who happens to be standing between the bomb and a strong wall is subjected to more blast effect because solid surfaces reflect the blast wave.
You, as you read this, are subjected to normal air pressure of 15 pounds per square inch, depending on how close you are to sea level. The rapidly expanding gases of the bomb push the air out of the way generating air pressures of as much as 700 tons per square inch in the immediate area. But even on the outer perimeters of the blast area overpressures can be deadly.
The human body contains two principal air-filled spaces -- the lungs and the nasal cavity and attached sinuses. A human subjected to a bomb blast wave instantly has hundreds and perhaps thousands psi of pressure pushing on these cavities. A mere 15 psi above normal is considered the threshold for possible lung injury, so imagine what happens to those near the epicenter of a bomb blast.
The chest caves in. The lungs inside it are compressed violently in on themselves -- so violently that the entire network of pulmonary vessels connecting them to the heart and the rest of the body are sheared off.
When the instant of blast overpressure passes, the lungs suddenly re-expand, like a crushed rubber ball rebounding in the hand of a strong man. But now they are filled with a huge volume of blood, blood that should be flowing to the heart and other parts of the body.
Blood that would normally return to the heart through the left ventrical has now overwhelmed the lungs. No blood in the left ventrical equals no blood in the heart equals no pulmonary output to the body. Blood pressure -- zero. The body is instantly starved.
Up above, in the skull, at the same instant, the overpressure works in another way. The nasal and sinus cavities implode. That part of the skull called the cribiform plate ruptures, snaps and may be thrust upward into the base of the brain.
Thanks for posting this Pukin Dog. Very informative and helps to have this depth of understanding!!!!!
Wonder if he had his JOHNSON wrapped in foil to protect IT for those 72 virgins? LOL...Palestinian suicide bombers wrap their Johnson's in foil to save it for those virgins, they think are waiting for 'em. An Israeli female journalist wrote a hilarious article on just this.
On another note-
There is speculation that the DC10 was the main reason MD went under in the long run. Would you agree with that statement?
I understand that the MD11 today has an exceptional safety record, but it was a bumpy road at first and there were issues originally with the cargo doors and mounting of the motors. Rumor has it that the rough beginning of this plane pretty much made MD loose out against Boeing which later bought them up. Would you agree with that statement?
Which brings me to my next question. MD looses in the race because of the DC10 (speculation) and the Comet kills De Havilland because of material fatigue. There is little room for failure in this industry since huge sums of money and human lives tend to go away when things go wrong. Yet Airbus fly's an A320 on its maiden flight full of VIPs into a forest and burns them up.
http://www.airdisaster.com/download/af320.shtml
They misread the market trend and build a plane designed for the Hub a spoke concept of air travel when in reality the trend is going away from this concept (A380). Their best rated plane assumes position eight statistically with seven Boeing, former MD, and a Saab leading the way; this despite the Boeing fleets having older planes on average and being used in more back yard operations (Africa, Latin America) where FARs dont apply and minor things like weights and balances may not be completely within their defined limits. I have raised this point several times with some of our European friends here that defend Airbus. I know years ago there was an incident where Perot Systems had to buy itself out of a bad contract and lost 35 million dollars. Despite being a large firm and having the assets to recover from this easily, people were running away and stocks plummeted. To me it seems VERY suspect that Airbus has the capital for such rapid expansion and despite having accidents that should have had an impact on sales and investment they just keep selling and somehow the lenders just keep pumping money into them despite minor incidents like a planeload of VIPs going up in flames. One plane, the De Havilland Comet, ended them as a major contender on the international market for large airframes - One error. Some issues on the DC10 (Which were resolved quickly) that today enjoys one of the best safety records all together caused MD to loose out to Boeing (If that point is accurate). But Airbus- Would you agree that Airbus defies historical precedence and reasonable investor behavior?
Basically the direction I head with this is that Airbus is state backed. The Consortium member states float this firm. In the 90s most of the national airlines were still state owned. The state owned airline Lufthansa was going to buy the state sponsored and subsidized plane, no matter what. That would be the logical conclusion from the question above.
But your comments about Airbus are spot on. They are state backed, and rely very strongly on that state backing for their survival. Unfortunately for them, nothing that relies on government for survival does very well. The recent buffoonary with the 350 and the continued problems with the 380 are becoming unrecoverable. They can't compete with Boeing because they've never really had to compete with Boeing. They dumped a lot of eggs into the 380 basket, and now the whole thing is turning rotten.
Can't say I'm sorry. FedEx bought the 380, but we'd be much better off with the 747. And I've always wanted to fly them.
What block Viper did you fly?
Block 15, 25 30, 32, 40, 42
It took him over 50 minutes to die, and he was conscious till he died.
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