[steve-b]

Flame Proof - Starlite (can withstand temperatures of 2,700 degrees Centigrade)

That's all well and good, but I don't think it will help with the flames that result when somebody posts a mainstream American opinion on DU.

[aruanan]

ICI's own paints laboratory held an internal audit and what they found puts this claim in an entirely different light. For the audit showed that the most scientifically qualified of its research chemists had contributed to the least number of patents, and the fewer scientific qualifications the staff possessed, the greater the number of patents they had contributed to. In the most striking case of all, the person who had contributed to most ICI's patents had no scientific qualifications at all.

It seems that Maurice Ward's greatest strength as a researcher was that he had not been taught how to think.

No, wrong conclusion. The more senior scientists are used to perform the more bureaucratic functions of the enterprise. The less senior scientists are those who are still in the labs doing the work. It's no wonder that someone who has been removed from the day to day experimental work would not be coming up with patentable ideas.

[aruanan]

In April 1993, the defence magazine Jane's International Defence Review announced the discovery by a British amateur inventor, Maurice Ward, of a thin plastic coating able to withstand temperatures of 2,700 degrees Centigrade

And in the intervening 11 years we've seen a giant spate of new products and processes based on this discovery.

[OXENinFLA]

Well, does this have SPACE SHUTTLE applications?

[unixfox]

This story reeks of this song...

How do ya like me now?
Now that I'm on my way, do you still think I'm crazy standin here today?

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds like an ideal material for, oh, I dunno, say, a space vehicle fleet owned by Richard Branson? ;')

George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

Election 2004 threads on FR

[cyn]

If L'Oreal's ordinary shampoos cause a fish kill in Ohio (in which "A chemical reaction in a plant mixing vat ... caused the shampoo to burst through a pipe and onto the roof.", one wonders what this guy's concoctions could do to his neighborhood . . . and how long before he gets slapped with some environmental fine.

joking aside, thanks for posting this -- very interesting and inspiring to see what 'amateurs' are doing in their garages around the world -- may they live long and prosper.

[Centurion2000]

I think SS2 would benefit from this kind of paint. What are the temps experienced on spacecraft re-entry ?

[SunkenCiv]

Static Test of Hydrogen Peroxide Kerosene Motor
Robert Compton
http://www.ad6uy.com/sac-l5/motor-test.html

"Our present plan for the coming year is to develop an 8'' diameter 500 lb/sec throttleable regeneratively cooled motor. The performance of the H2O2/kerosene motors is not trivial producing the highest density impulse of any usable oxidizer/fuel combination. We hope this report will encourage further development among amateur rocket designers."

Hydrogen delta-V
SSTO delta-V and dense fuels
Henry Spencer
http://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/hydrogen_deltav.html

"A steeper mass line means that at any time after liftoff, the H2O2/kerosene SSTO has lower mass than the LOX/LH2 one, and since they have the same thrust... the H2O2/kerosene SSTO is accelerating faster. If they have the same total delta-V requirement, that last assumption must be wrong: the H2O2/kerosene burn time is shorter.

"But... the biggest penalty on top of the theoretical delta-V is gravity losses, and gravity losses are a function of burn time! The H2O2/kerosene SSTO is accelerating faster, so it has lower gravity losses, and needs less total delta-V. Moreover, that makes its burn time still shorter, and its mass line still steeper, so the difference in acceleration is even larger than it first seems...

"The H2O2/kerosene SSTO is operating in a very steep part of the mass-ratio curve. A 6% saving in delta-V is *not* trivial. For engines with a vacuum Isp of 320, the required mass ratio drops from 20 to 16. Given the aforementioned sophisticated scaling models, at this mass ratio, the H2O2/kerosene SSTO's payload at the same GLOM is now equal to that of the LOX/LH2 design."

[SunkenCiv]

a Blast from the Past.

[nightdriver]

So, trot it out and let's have a look at it.

Words alone don't accomplish much.

[sourcery]

It seems that Maurice Ward's greatest strength as a researcher was that he had not been taught how to think.

So, both the man and his invention are 'degree resistant.' How appropriate.

[Bender2]

Bump for later read...

[Flightdeck]

BS