Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Adams who wrote (10334)	11/6/2001 11:15:24 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 23153

Hi Mark, Re: Putting airplanes under remote control only opens the avenue for even more asymmetric attacks. Hmmm, if this were the case today, our military might be concerned about the use of RQ-1 Predators and other drones. Yet, they seem to fly completely unmolested from electronic hijacking or jamming in Afghanistan today and in Kosovo in the recent past. My sense is that the comms links aren't that vulnerable to the likes of Bin Laden and his Toyota equipped messenger service. globalsecurity.org Re: Along these lines, the call for antimissile stations at nuclear power stations are silly, unless it can be demonstrated that the antimissile defenses are not a threat to the containment buildings. Remember the Kursk! Oooops, sorry, wrong country... Actually I'm trying to recall where on SI (help wanted) I saw an excellent discussion of the kinetic potential of a 757 airliner as a missile. The discussion was terrific, in clearing up misunderstandings that I had about the ability of a jet to penetrate a hardened structure like a nuclear containment. Basically, the only part of a jet that is solid enough the possibly penerate the four and a half foot minimun thickness of U.S. reinforced concrete containments is the engine rotor. I forget the weight, something like 15,000 pounds (or was that 1,500 pounds? Memory lapse) and shaped like a projectile. The rest of the plane would fold like an accordian and be no risk to a containment structure. That's why I resent the superficial level of discussion of these matters on CNN and the other networks. There's never enough data or in depth discussion to get at the truth, just enough to scare people because they don't understand engineering. Anahoo, if anyone here has that post on jets as missiles handy, I'd appreciate a link. Another good one that got away. Salaams, Ray