[HN Gopher] The US Army's earth-shaking, off-road land trains ___________________________________________________________________ The US Army's earth-shaking, off-road land trains Author : tomohawk Score : 84 points Date : 2020-05-25 20:46 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.thedrive.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.thedrive.com) | battery_cowboy wrote: | I wish we had a world with zepplins ferrying people around, land | trains with several gas turbine engines, and nuclear powered | aircraft. I'm bored of the same Material design web sites, phones | that look the same, every apartment is the same, etc. I want | imagination and crazy ideas to rule the world. | asadlionpk wrote: | Unfortunately, this happens because reaching a consensus helps | in scaling that product/tech/design which in turn means more of | that same thing. | teh_infallible wrote: | Hold my beer.. | officemonkey wrote: | There used to be steam-powered and battery-powered cars in the | early 20th Century. There was an Edison-Westinghouse war in | electricity distribution. | | Typically, a consensus is reached based on technical and | economic limitations. | | For example, nuclear-powered aircraft? You need shielding to | protect the human crew. You also need a reactor that can | survive a crash. That's why they use nuclear fuel for unmanned | probes. There are no humans to protect, and it's a one-way | trip. | jldugger wrote: | > visible from space on Google Maps. | | Note that google maps imagery is generally taken from airplanes | not satellites. | stonogo wrote: | Except the imagery they link to is actual satellite imagery | from Maxar, a space company that sells orbital Earth | observation imagery. | jiveturkey wrote: | WARNING: back button hijack. now on my blacklist. | | non-user-hostile link: https://outline.com/PUh9a5 | chkaloon wrote: | Cool. But I wonder about this stat: 63 manned stations, "would | need about 500 tons of materials to create all of these stations" | | 500 tons seems WAY low. | jcranmer wrote: | I think they dropped a 1,000 from it, so it should have said | "need about 500,000 tons." | runarb wrote: | > 500 tons seems WAY low. | | Yes, it sees "460,000 tons of materials were moved from the US | and southern Canada to the Arctic by air, land, and sea" at | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Early_Warning_Line#Con... | chrisco255 wrote: | Article is worth it just to watch the video of the land-train on | the interstate in the 50s / early 60s, with all the classic cars | maneuvering around it. | lukejduncan wrote: | Pet Peeve: they break the back button on the browser | adrianpike wrote: | Not for me, Chrome 81. | rjrodger wrote: | I wonder did this somehow inspire The Amtrak Wars[0]? | | (Probably not, but I'm loving the `strange(truth) > | strange(fiction)`) | | [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amtrak_Wars | bwldrbst wrote: | First thing I thought of! Especially the picture in the header. | afterburner wrote: | Very possible! | | https://i.imgur.com/Apnf1qN.png | afterburner wrote: | Oh, so I guess a real machine inspired this? | | https://i.imgur.com/Apnf1qN.png | ChuckMcM wrote: | I remember seeing a documentary about this vehicle as a kid. | Everything about it just seemed so oversized. I had not realized | it was the heavy lift helicopters that eventually outmoded it. | Kind of sad, since it can be handy to have the logistic | capability to move thousands of tons when you can't fly. | | It also got me wondering about what a Tesla version of this would | look like :-) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-05-25 23:00 UTC)