On 15 Dec 2003 23:56:42 -0500, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

In article ,
Dan Thomas wrote:

In World War I the French used "flechettes" against the troops in
the trenches. These were machined steel darts a few inches long, with
flutes cut into the aft end to stabilize and rotate them. They were
dropped from airplanes at a considerable height, hundreds at a go, and

[ ... ]

Increasing drag at lower altitudes would slow the acceleration, but a
much higher final velocity should be possible for a dart.

One factor is that the mass vs cross-sectional area was
seriously better than the average bullet, thanks to the additional
length, and the the stabilization of the fins, to keep the streamlined
and small cross section end pointed in the direction of flight. The
cross section would (approximately) define the drag, and the mass would
determine the acceleration force due to gravity. So -- as long as you
could keep it stabilized, the longer the dart, the higher the terminal
velocity.

Given stabilization -- a one-foot length of rebar would be
significantly more dangerous than a .50 cal bullet.

Thors Hammer was a Star Wars concept in which a 10' or longer chunk of
steel and composit with steering jets was to be used as a tank killer
from low orbit. IRRC

Out of curiosity -- what was the altitude ceiling for WW-I
period aircraft? (And for the pilots, since they almost certainly did
not have bottled oxygen available at that time.) IIRC, the air force
wanted the WW-II period pilots to be on oxygen at 10,000 feet or higher.

Enjoy,
DoN.

Just finished Rickenbackers book about his flying Spads etc in WW1. He
mentioned 15-20,000 feet. Seemed a bit high for no O2..but he did say
it.

Gunner

" ..The world has gone crazy. Guess I'm showing my age...
I think it dates from when we started looking at virtues
as funny. It's embarrassing to speak of honor, integrity,
bravery, patriotism, 'doing the right thing', charity,
fairness. You have Seinfeld making cowardice an acceptable
choice; our politicians changing positions of honor with
every poll; we laugh at servicemen and patriotic fervor; we
accept corruption in our police and bias in our judges; we
kill our children, and wonder why they have no respect for
Life. We deny children their childhood and innocence- and
then we denigrate being a Man, as opposed to a 'person'. We
*assume* that anyone with a weapon will use it against his
fellowman- if only he has the chance. Nah; in our agitation
to keep the State out of the church business, we've
destroyed our value system and replaced it with *nothing*.
Turns my stomach- " Chas , rec.knives