The Really Bad Ideas Thread

[Weaver]

How about a steam driven Submarine?
You'd need a long snorkel thingy to let the smoke/steam out? (Might be a bit of a giveaway during the day) perhaps best just to snorkel at night?
Or could you just vent it overboard?
Smoke bubbles?  smoke rings
And I suppose the Coal bunkers would take up a fair bit of room, but you wouldn't be short of water for the boiler....

Regards
Keith

british k class of 1913 were steam powered

Isn't a nuclear submarine basically steam powered?  Albeit with the steam generated by nuclear power, turning turbines rather than pushing pistons and being in a closed system.

However, getting back to the point.
Not all bad ideas have to be armed.  I do have a pair of 1/24 Napier Sabres and a number of small Japanese cars in the same scale.  Not sure what transmission I would use.  Not sure that you would require more than one speed, reverse and a clutch.
Turboprop Be2c Royal Flying Doctor Service?

How about an eco-car? You have a huge flywheel that powers the car, which is spun up before your journey by being connected to a wind turbine (mechanically, not electrically, for maximum comedy effect). You could travel really cheaply for.... yards......

I know you're thinking about the gyroscope effect of trying to get a huge flywheel around the first sharp corner, but that's just the sort of negativity and lack of positive attitude that tries to drag all great innovators down.

[Weaver]

The Davy Crockett Spar Torpedo.

For those who don't know, the spar torpedo was a bomb on a long stick, attached to the front of a small boat, which was then supposed to bravely ram a large warship, the boat's chance of survival being proportional to the length of the stick and the optimism of it's crew.



This idea clearly needs to be updated for the nuclear age, and what better means than the Davy Crockett's Mk.54 warhead? It's explosive yield was about 20 tons of TNT, so it would destroy any ship, and it's lethal radius was about 400 yards, so, with a 20-foot long spar, what could possibly go wrong?

[Snowtrooper]

This idea clearly needs to be updated for the nuclear age, and what better means than the Davy Crockett's Mk.54 warhead? It's explosive yield was about 20 tons of TNT, so it would destroy any ship, and it's lethal radius was about 400 yards, so, with a 20-foot long spar, what could possibly go wrong?

Just replace the Mk 54 with a Casaba Howitzer. In plain English, a nuclear shaped charge which was the by-product of Project Orion, you know, the one that tried to build a spaceship that used "nuclear pulse" propulsion, and so another kind of nuclear explosive ended as its intended primary weapon.

Here is a page explaining it with nice calculations too: http://toughsf.blogspot.fi/2016/06/the-nuclear-spear-casaba-howitzer.html

Though, with the Casaba Howitzer, you wouldn't actually need direct contact, since using a meagre 5kt warhead you would still penetrate 700mm of RHA at a distance of 10 kilometres from the explosion. Also, be careful aiming that thing, as anything in a straight line - more correctly, within about 22,5 degrees arc - receives a fatal does of radiation at ranges almost a thousand kilometres out (surface area of an adult human male is about 2 m2, half of that aka front or back standing up, about 1 m2, would receive radiation 2 kJ / m2 = 2 sv, fatal radiation dose is between 4 and 6 and since this is logarithmic scale at 100km you will get 200 Sv - fortunately Earth's curvature directs the beam to space, but any friendly aircraft or spaceships in the line of radiation are of course in danger)

Of course, there's the thing that the Casaba Howitzers were intended for space warfare, or fired from orbit, not being used as close-range weapons on Earth, but since this is a Bad Ideas thread...

[Snowtrooper]

Would it be possible to fill the tanks of a crop duster with some sort of incendiary? Would the mist be enough to ignite things as well as a well-placed canister of napalm? Or would this be an alternative to a fuel-air explosive instead?

How about filling the tanks of a water bomber with the same, making it a literal firefighting aircraft?

[PR19_Kit]

How about filling the tanks of a water bomber with the same, making it a literal firefighting aircraft?

Shouldn't that be 'firelighting'? 

[zenrat]

...How about an eco-car? You have a huge flywheel that powers the car, which is spun up before your journey by being connected to a wind turbine (mechanically, not electrically, for maximum comedy effect). You could travel really cheaply for.... yards......

I know you're thinking about the gyroscope effect of trying to get a huge flywheel around the first sharp corner, but that's just the sort of negativity and lack of positive attitude that tries to drag all great innovators down.

I'm imagining this.  In my head it's a bit like those toy cars where you pulled the plastic toothed belt through them to spin up the central wheel before launching them across the floor to smash more paint off the skirting boards.
I think a full size one would make a fantastic drag car.
Now how about an eco bike?  The flywheel would make handling interesting.  Particularly if it was spinning in the opposite direction to the rotation of the wheels.

[Rheged]

http://www.parrypeoplemovers.com/

Flywheel powered trams!

[PR19_Kit]

http://www.parrypeoplemovers.com/

Flywheel powered trams!

Ah yes, the Class 139s used on the Stourbridge line. I keep on meaning to take a ride on that, maybe later this week......

[kerick]

The Davy Crockett Spar Torpedo.

For those who don't know, the spar torpedo was a bomb on a long stick, attached to the front of a small boat, which was then supposed to bravely ram a large warship, the boat's chance of survival being proportional to the length of the stick and the optimism of it's crew.



This idea clearly needs to be updated for the nuclear age, and what better means than the Davy Crockett's Mk.54 warhead? It's explosive yield was about 20 tons of TNT, so it would destroy any ship, and it's lethal radius was about 400 yards, so, with a 20-foot long spar, what could possibly go wrong?

The smart one is at the back of the boat!

[Old Wombat]

The Davy Crockett Spar Torpedo.

For those who don't know, the spar torpedo was a bomb on a long stick, attached to the front of a small boat, which was then supposed to bravely ram a large warship, the boat's chance of survival being proportional to the length of the stick and the optimism of it's crew.



This idea clearly needs to be updated for the nuclear age, and what better means than the Davy Crockett's Mk.54 warhead? It's explosive yield was about 20 tons of TNT, so it would destroy any ship, and it's lethal radius was about 400 yards, so, with a 20-foot long spar, what could possibly go wrong?

The smart one is at the back of the boat!

The smart one's ashore, waving them off & wishing them good luck, having just convinced them that this is a really good idea.

[Weaver]

The Davy Crockett Spar Torpedo.

For those who don't know, the spar torpedo was a bomb on a long stick, attached to the front of a small boat, which was then supposed to bravely ram a large warship, the boat's chance of survival being proportional to the length of the stick and the optimism of it's crew.



This idea clearly needs to be updated for the nuclear age, and what better means than the Davy Crockett's Mk.54 warhead? It's explosive yield was about 20 tons of TNT, so it would destroy any ship, and it's lethal radius was about 400 yards, so, with a 20-foot long spar, what could possibly go wrong?

The smart one is at the back of the boat!

The smart one's ashore, waving them off & wishing them good luck, having just convinced them that this is a really good idea.

The smart one is back at the torpedo factory thinking "hey, maybe we could put engines on these things..."

[Captain Canada]

....and the optimism of it's crew

[scooter]

For the dio folks-

Drilling into and cooling down a supervolcano

Thankfully it's more of a thought experiment

[zenrat]

For the dio folks-

Drilling into and cooling down a supervolcano
or   
Thankfully it's more of a thought experiment

They're missing something.  Why not use it to generate power.  It can't be any more dangerous than your average Nuclear Reactor...

[Weaver]

For the dio folks-

Drilling into and cooling down a supervolcano
or   
Thankfully it's more of a thought experiment

They're missing something.  Why not use it to generate power.  It can't be any more dangerous than your average Nuclear Reactor...

No they're not: power generation is discussed in the article both for it's own value and as a way of persuading politicians to invest in the cooling project.