Sunday, January 20, 2008

Hypothetical Exercises in Fuel Systems Management

Let's say a certain somebody, let's call him Shmerb, declared that the services of a certain drug rehabilitation center, let's call it the Shmopiate Shmaddiction Unit, were insufficiently reliant on the lessons and theories of the bible and the prophets going back to Abraham. So Shmerb, in his abundant biblical wisdom, declared that a certain jet pack development organization would no longer pay the health insurance premiums for its Director of Fuel Systems, who was subsequently forced to sign himself out from the Smopiate Shmaddiction Unit, where he was undergoing much-needed treatment for an all-consuming addiction to Shmeroin. That Director of Fuel Systems is instead now supposed to rely on the "light of the Lord, as experienced through sustained sessions of prayer and silent reflection, to rid yourself of this terrible, heathen addition, borne of Satan himself."

Entirely unrelated to the preceding hypothetical exercise, I have returned from my educational hiatus to my position as Director of Fuel Systems at Project Jet Pack. Despite the unqualified success of the previous fuel system design, I have been tasked with designing an injector arrangement with lower potential blast disintegration, and I have been experimenting to that end.

One might ask if there is any scientific basis for diluting jet pack jet fuel with human urine. The answer to that question is this: when you dilute the jet fuel with something free, you then have extra jet fuel which you could, if you so chose, sell to someone else. What would one sell siphoned jet fuel for? Hypothethically? Well, it's hard to say. But, since we're just speculating, I suppose you could, hypothetically, trade jet fuel for shmeroin.

Lots and lots of shmeroin.

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Monday, April 2, 2007

The Project Jet Pack Harness System

The redesign and calibration of the Bell Aerosystems engine continues apace. Dr. Shrum announced this week that the Project Jet Pack team will be split in two, with Dr. Shrum leading efforts on jet engine design and testing, and with myself designing and fabricating the jet pack support systems.

The harness prototype (pictured right) was initially constructed of triple-layered Kevlar around steel-titanium alloy belting. The preliminary prototype trial demonstrated that this harness design was insufficient to meet Dr. Shrum's specifications, which call for a mass support rating in excess of 230 kilograms. After the test subject, Kevin, was removed from the failed harness, the straps were reinforced with a second layer of belting and stitched together using a synthetic fiber weave. Additional harness testing is scheduled to occur in four to six weeks, upon Kevin's full recovery.

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Bell Aerosystems/GE 4900

The Project Jet Pack team has narrowed the candidates for the next stage of development to two engines: the Bell Aerosystems design (pictured above) and the GE 4900 Jet Thruster. Testing on the two engines indicates similar thrust statistics, with the Bell engine providing 1418.098 lbf thrust, and the GE model 1301.8 lbf thrust. Dr. Shrum remains concerned about the stability of the Bell Aerosystems design; at full thrust, engine mounts showed readings of 47,000 Hz. However, the Bell system has shown superior subterranean metrics, a potential advantage over the GE 4900 for deep gorge and river bed missions.

Dr. Shrum has instructed the team to pray on the choice over the holiday. Happy New Year to the Project Jet Pack team, and all our readers out there!

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