I was on BBC news today!

[craggle]

No it wasn't Britain's most wanted or any traffic offences.

I went to South Wales a couple of weeks ago with work to do some testing at Pendine sands on one of the projects I am design engineer on. The BBC were invited for the last day of the trials and today they released the article on the 6pm news.

I can be seen in the background of the observation room after the firing, Just. (I was hiding)

News item

Additional footage

Final mission animation

Bit more information.

Great fun for 4 days and the Welsh weather was brilliant.

First time I've been on TV (that I know off) Hopefully not the last.

Craig.

[383 stroker]

Nice one,

congratulations, fame at last or should that be infamy! Could try strapping one each side of the cob on a doomsday switch instead of nos.. could be fun. Project similar to one i was involved in several years ago, what g-shock levels did you you have to design for out of interest? I worked to 30g in 3 axis with a 40ms survivalility after impact. Bet your pleased at the results.

All the best

[cliffords]

Craig
I saw the article last night and said it looked like you in the background, all the family told me I was wrong but there you are fame.
Can I have your autograph please ?

[Sidecarbod]

Originally Posted by 383 stroker

Nice one,

Could try strapping one each side of the cob on a doomsday switch instead of nos.. could be fun.

Somebody has already tried it, read the extract below then decide whether its a good idea or not!


You all know about the Darwin Awards - it's the annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it. And this year's nominee is: The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. the wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened. It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts, as best could be determined, are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH, continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel. Incredibly, an intact bumper sticker was recovered as well. The text on the sticker was; "How do you like my driving? Dial 1-800-EAT-SHIT.

[craggle]

Originally Posted by 383 stroker

Nice one,

congratulations, fame at last or should that be infamy! Could try strapping one each side of the cob on a doomsday switch instead of nos.. could be fun. Project similar to one i was involved in several years ago, what g-shock levels did you you have to design for out of interest? I worked to 30g in 3 axis with a 40ms survivalility after impact. Bet your pleased at the results.

All the best

Hi Andy

We were impacting at 310 metre/second so we had to design for up to 40,000g We actually recorded 20,000g at the tail during the impact and slightly less at the nose. You may have noticed that they didn't fly level but hit with a nose up attitude. This created quite a high lateral loading at the back end which distorted the tail of the penetrator quite nicely.

All the electronics and batteries actually survived fine and still work now! maybe we over engineered it. The real moon versions will have to survive for a year after the impact so they need to be quite well made.

Craig.

[Robin427]

I was on telly once whilst at University. I just hope that nobody digs the clip up if I become famous...

[mikey]

Originally Posted by Robin427

I was on telly once whilst at University. I just hope that nobody digs the clip up if I become famous...

Was that the scene with the student where the ink imprint of the 'M' came off onto your chest. Embarrasing really, but I guess it would be even more embarrasing if people realised it was not Manchester, but Winchester University you were at.

Mike

[wilf]

...............and they said that building a Cobra replica wasn't rocket science.............

[andicole0]

Fame at last Craig.

Andi.

[craggle]

A'ha you found me then.

Actually the correct scene but wrong position I am hiding behind the boss (Alan Smith) when they filmed that. We had the option of looking out the window at the real thing or watching the footage on a large TV screen. I took the window option on all 3 days.

I did actually look like my Avatar last Sunday. A friend of mine is a part owner in a Tiger Moth so he took me for a 30 minute flight last Sunday. Very noisy, bumpy, windy but great fun. Bit like the Dax really!.