John Kettler Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Show will cover not just the tank but rebuilds of damaged ones and system upgrades. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 18, 2007 Author Share Posted July 18, 2007 Two out of three = not bad. Though no system upgrades were shown, viewers got to see an M88 Hercules (AKA Saddam statue toppler) recovery of a mud immobilized M1, many stages of the tank teardown process never shown on TV before (vertical sandblaster for an entire tank hull--ruin to whistle clean in 90 minutes, turbine inspection and rebuilding, leak testing, dynamometer, M1 full motion driving sim, nasty infantry training paintball played at velocities high enough to rip up siding, etc.) and some things seen before but with info added (turret rotation rate is 7.5 rpm, detailed depiction of slew and elevation controls). Even armor modelers would've marveled at the incredible decrepitude of the huge tank park and new arrivals awaiting the 55 day zero time rebuilds. Can't mess up your models enough! Vile's about right. Tank fleet's being burned up at 9 x the peacetime rate. Live IED neutralization demo using EOD bot delivering a detonation charge was impressive. Actual delivery procedure is classified. One IED attack clip from the field was shown, but no footage of an M1 thus hit was presented. Neutralized IED was a 155mm shell. Unless the show employed muting, the M1's engine whine is not loud at all. Host didn't get to drive an M1, but did get to go whipping around a NASCAR style test track at impressive speed, run the hill climb, brake test and so forth. He also got to drive a Bradley, which is everything the M1 isn't: loud, tall, and smoke belching. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Originally posted by John Kettler: viewers got to see ... many stages of the tank teardown process never shown on TV before (vertical sandblaster for an entire tank hull--ruin to whistle clean in 90 minutesJust to be completely pedantic (what, on this forum?), I saw the ballbearing sandblaster cleaning an M1 hull on TV in a documentary about 2 months ago, and since it was an American documentary on UK TV, I can only assume it had been on US TV some time before that. Not that it matters... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 18, 2007 Author Share Posted July 18, 2007 TheVulture, Should've added the qualifier "the first time I'm aware of" to my statements. Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile show, from which I learned a lot. The criticality of properly functioning air cleaners on the M1 was shown by the terrible turbine damage sustained on one of the engines being dismantled. Would guess almost every blade had to be replaced in that turbine stage. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibsonm Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Ah well then don’t complain about the cost of your next plane ticket. If its the same show as I saw a few months ago they were “our” M1’s being worked on (Kangaroo stencil). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSpkr Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Originally posted by John Kettler: Unless the show employed muting, the M1's engine whine is not loud at all. Regards, John Kettler I couldn't tell. The noise was drowned out by the Host's whinging. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibsonm Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 No they are very quiet. They also have a pronounced heat plume (so its not a good idea to stand within about 3m of the exhaust). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 20, 2007 Author Share Posted July 20, 2007 gibsonm, Full size jet engines are easier to repair than smaller gas turbines. Why? Components are larger, thus easier to see and handle. MrSpr, Good one! gibsonm, My brother told me during his Bradley days in Germany that a Benz driver learned about the heat plume the hard way--when the paint on his hood melted while tailgating an Abrams! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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