Foaming In The Coaming

Firstly, As Per Our Tradition

We need to define 'Coaming' as I'm pretty sure it's not a word you are familiar with.  It refers to the frame around an aircraft cockpit to keep out moisture, and if Art will put down his nuclear fuel rod for a second - 

     That's 'Coming Home Damaged' by Terence Cuneo as I thought a Lancaster Giant Flying Mallet would attract more traffic than a bit of coaming.  Still, let's get up the relevant picture.  Art!

     Now we are all far better-informed than we were five minutes ago.

     Let us now define 'Foam' as per my 'Collins Concise English Dictionary', which informs us that it is ' - a mass of small bubbles of gas formed on the surface of a liquid'.  

     What we're going to be discussing here is a verrry specific kind of foam.  Namely, the one used to fight fuel fires.  We covered this on BOOJUM! almost 2 years ago, in August 2024, when the Kozaky set the Ruffian Proletarsky refinery ablaze, which then burned for two weeks.  Art!

This homie got foamy

     You see, firefighting foam is designed to lie on the surface of any burning fuel and both cool and suffocate it, cutting off oxygen so it extinguishes the fire.  NO!  You cannot use water.  Di-hydrogen monoxide, to use the cod name, is heavier than fuel and would simply invert the fuel/water interface, thrusting the burning fuel atop into fresh air and battening the fire.  Herein the link -

BOOJUM!: Blight And Frothy

     ANYWAY today's Intro concerns a tale related by 3rd-party, about a newly-constructed aircraft hangar, the fire suppression system, and an idiot.  Art!

     An aircraft hangar.  They are typically enormous enclosed structures, built to keep delicate and hideously expensive aircraft safe and cosy.  What do modern aircraft hangars have?  Why, overhead suppression foam fire systems, of course - obviously!   

     So, the foreman and his crew were installing a foam fire suppression system in a newly-constructed aircraft hangar.  They were being overseen and instructed, not by the Owner, but by the Owner's Representative on-site, as some rich people are too busy to be where the action is.

     Here now follow some technical details, so neck your Red Bull and keep paying attention.  Art!

     Those dangly red bits are part of the hangar fire suppression system.  

     Stage One of the system was the diesel pump that would shove several hundred PROUD IMPERIAL gallons of water per minute into the hangar system.  This would impact six 500 gallon drums of foam reagent.  The reagent expanded 200 times it's original volume and poured down onto the hangar.

     That's how you suffocate a fire.  As beknownst to Master Installer of New Equipment, hereafter MINE.

     Whom else is present at this hangar?  Why, none other than Owner Representative of Entitlement and Stupidity, hereafter ORES.  Yes they were dense.  Art!

     What happens when one of these foam fire suppression systems reaches completion?  Why what Mythbusters might call 'Proof Of Viabliity', and I can see Jamie tweaking his moustache already.  Not, 'Does it work' but more 'It works thanks to this small-scale demonstration'.  

     As MINE instructed, thanks to years of experience, carrying out one of these tests used a fraction of the total reagents, producing perhaps 100 gallons of foam.  The entire hangar would be covered in foam to a depth of 10 PROUD IMPERIAL feet.  Art!

     MINE explicitly stated 'This is never a full test of the full capacity of the system'.  

     Guess who objected?  ORES.  Their argument was that the finished hangar would be housing many million dollars-worth of aircraft, so the system needed to be fully and completely tested.  They would not back down on this, so MINE had the foresight to write out a quick waiver document and have ORES sign it.  Art!

     This ought to have been a gigantic waving red flag the size of a football field.  Ought to.  For ORES presses on.

     MINE gives the signal and the suppression system kicks into action.  Within minutes the foam has reached and surpassed the 10' level and is, in fact, beginning to cover the control room windows where they are observing, 20' above ground level.  Art!

     Horrified, ORES demands that the test be halted.  This is easier said than done, as the minion who triggered the test now has to jog over to a completely different building to turn off the water.  Then, because of latency, water will still be entering the system, so they have to shut off each foam generator manually.

     By the time the system is shut down, the entire hangar is full of foam.  So, also, is the adjoining office suite, whose doors had not been secured against foam ingress.  

     Next day the owner turns up, breathing fire and brimstone, wanting to know why a full system flush had been run.  MINE simply gave them the form that ORES had completed and that was the last time anyone saw ORES on site.  MINE detailed that empying those 6 reagent drums cost $150,000.

     Oooops.

This Is Low Blow Hilarious

Conrad is not a fan of South Canadian late-night chat show programs, as they are all scripted by humble minions who don't get a fraction of the appreciation they ought to -

     ANYWAY Stephen Colbert had Andy Serkis on his program, and someone had the demented yet brilliant idea to have Andy read Donold Trump's social media posts in the character of Gollum.  Art!

     It killed me.  I couldn't watch without laughing and may still mis-key whilst writing this.  If King Piggy ever encounters this it's potential stroke material.

A Shout Out To 'Hazegrayart'

If you're not familiar, HGA is a CGI artist, whom takes fictional or speculative ideas and renders them via clips on Youtube.  We have already covered their 'Skyflash' adaptation from 'Thunderbirds', where they turn a model into the most frighteningly fast piece of kit in the sky.  Really, check it out.  Now, they have done a vlog on Project Orion.  Art!

     If you're paying attention then you will realise this is not an Apollo launch as the assembled vehicle is not remotely familiar.  Art!

     A 'chemical' launch, in that they use conventional rocket physics of combustible propellants.  Art!

     First stage separation.  The chemical booster is exhausted and falls away, releasing the nuclear propulsion mechanism for the Project Orion main assembly to go into operation.  Art!

     Which means detonating a small nuclear bomb behind the spacecraft, propelling it forwards thanks to kinetic energy.  Before you throw up your hands in horror, this system has been assessed as being practical since the Sixties, and was one of the motive power methods considered by Clarke and Kubrick on '2001'.  Art!

     Earth to Mars in 5 days.  With no reliance on Elong Tusk.

Doughy Slabcake

I am unsure if there is actually a recipe of that name, but thought I'd just pass around another terrible photograph of Donold Trump, because that's what I thought upon seeing it.  Art!

     He looks artificially inflated.  Too much yeast?  Not enough baking powder?  It looks like his head might come apart along the seams - what the heck was that horror film where  that happened?  Art!

     O yes, 'Van Helsing' from <shudders> 2004.  No, I couldn't get a shot of his head coming apart, you ghouls.  Use your imagination!

     O hang on a mo - Youtube to the rescue.  Art!

     You can see him giving an incoherent burbling rant on the White House lawn already, can't you?  With no correspondent daring to mention the whole Head Coming Apart thing.

Are You Hungary For More?

The new Magyar administration in Hungary has scared the Orbanazi holdovers so much that they are scrambling to get their assets out of Hungary before they can be confiscated or interned or seized.  To that end, Art!

     These are Orcban regime jets, which are now parking in Vienna, Austria, since if they try to park in Budapest, Hungary, they might be confiscated.

     Peter Magyar also further cemented his impeccable credentials by summoning the Ruffian ambassador to be severely chastised about drone-bombing Ukranian civilians.

     Methinks Putinpot is going to rue ever having lost the Weretoad's regime to democracy.