I worked as a drag racing crew chief in the seventies on a super fuel funny car. I occasionally added 2% hydrazine to our nitromethane/alcohol fuel mixture (90% nitromethane, 8% alcohol, 2% hydrazine). Our Chrysler hemi powered Corvette set a few mph records with that mix. The best was 237 mph in 6.35 seconds. Not very fast by today's drag racing standards, but really stepping out in the mid 70s..I kept the hydrazine in a tightly sealed bottle and poured it right into the tank just before we went to the starting line. To keep from breathing in the fumes I held my breath. Hey, it was the seventies. We didn't worry about stuff like that. Paul
Peter Alling wrote: > > Hydrazine will kill you in incredibly small amounts. > > At 09:15 AM 10/3/03 -0600, you wrote: > >This will be my last post on this subject, but let me say I have really > >enjoyed it, as far as off-topic threads go. One of the planes that we (at > >NOAA) have had the good fortune to fly our instruments on is the NASA ER-2 > >(essentially a U2 "R" model with less sophisticated electronics). The > >ground crews that look after these planes at Dryden Flight Research Center > >(Edwards AFB in CA) were, a few years ago but no longer, Lockheed Martin > >contractors. A number of the ground crew members had previously served on > >SR-71 ground crews. It is absolutely true that the SR-71 leaked like a > >sieve until it was airborne. It would refuel in air immediately after > >takeoff, which is common for a number of modern aircraft as well. One of > >the ground crew told me that he had seen pictures taken by the pilots in > >flight of the nose section glowing red when the plane was at full speed. > > > >The compound used to relight the engines at altitude in an emergency on > >the ER-2 (and U2) is hydrazine. A safety briefing is necessary every time > >you visit Dryden to work, and being aware of the alarm that sounds in the > >event of a hydrazine leak is one of the things they caution you > >about. It's a nasty agent. I wouldn't be surprised if it is hydrazine > >used on the SR-71 as well. > > > >Peter > > I drink to make other people interesting. > -- George Jean Nathan
