Posted on 02/10/2006 6:21:51 PM PST by oxcart
(((PING)))
If I had one Eagle Scout end up like Foster....
It's only the "land" part that is problematic.
(Sure hope he makes it)
Didn't something remarkably similar happen to him last summer?
I don't think I have ever heard the expression "balls to the wall". I know the old one of "balls out" referred to the governors on old steam engines which moved further out the faster the engine turned.
When I was a young and really reckless youth I used to race automobiles regularly. Can't believe I survived and never even had a wreck.
IIRC, Last summer he flew something, maybe "Spaceship One" for 65 hours and during the last hours his fuel ran low so he had to alter his coarse.
OOPS.. Coarse = course
and how did this become a useful phrase to describe some action.
Similarly, the phrase "dead nuts on" to describe rocket science accuracy?
Who thinks up this stuff?
Balls to the Wall
The phrase balls to the wall, meaning an all-out effort, sounds as if it is a reference to a part of the male anatomy, giving rise to some confusion as to what it originally meant. However, the original usage has nothing to do with anatomy, coming rather from the world of aviation.
On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) "balls." Pushing the balls forward, close to the front wall of the cockpit results in the most and richest mixture of fuel going to the engines and the highest possible speed.
The phrase dates to the early 1950s. Several veterans have written me noting their use of the term during the Korean War era. The earliest written citation is a bit later. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang contains a quote from 1966-67, in Harvey's Air War:
You know what happened on that first Doomsday Mission (as the boys call a big balls-to-the-wall raid) against Hanoi oil.
Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.
IIRC "balls to the wall" in the old aeroplane the throttles had balls on top of the levers. Full power would have the levers against the panel. Hence "balls to the walls"
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
dead nuts - exactly on the mark, when the fractional units on an indicator all are zeros.
Yes, and he had a real or perceived fuel loss problem at the end of the flight.
What ever happened to WFO or WOT, go for broke peddle to the metal. floored max Q Ect bury it wind it out ect
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