{"id":4352,"date":"2013-12-08T18:26:05","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4352"},"modified":"2013-12-08T18:26:05","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:26:05","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-december-8-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4352","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour For December 8, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Considerably Overweight Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most recurring human follies is the seemingly endless attempts to cross the car with an airplane. Why? The two have such profoundly different purposes and requirements, and there\u2019s so little that they actually share. Can\u2019t dreamy-eyed engineers get past the idea that a passenger cabin and a set of wheels is not really enough to share effectively. Perhaps the most amusing looking but tragic examples is the AVE Mizar, an ill-fated (did I give too much away?) attempt to make the Pinto airborne.<\/p>\n

The Mizar was conceived of and cobbled together between the years 1971 and 1973 by a former Henry Smolinski, a Northrop-trained engineer. His brilliant idea was to combine the rear section of a Cessna Skymaster,\u00a0which was a very innovative design using two engines in the same thrust line, one in the front and one in the back.\u00a0 By cutting away (the very light aluminum) front section of the Skymaster, Smolinski envisioned replacing it with the not-so-light Pinto.<\/p>\n

The rear Skymaster engine was retained, and it was intended to be the sole power plant during cruise. But for take-off and climb, the Pinto\u2019s engine was also called on. Exactly how that was accomplished has been lost in the mists of time. Update: apparently the Skymaster\u2019s original 220 hp rear engine was replaced by a 300hp engine to compensate somewhat for the loss of the front engine, as well as the Pinto\u2019s considerable weight.<\/p>\n

And of course, upon landing again, the Pinto would be quickly unbolted and driven away, although with a very heavily burdened dashboard, if that clipping picture above makes all to obvious.<\/p>\n

It really did fly, but only a couple of times. In a test flight on September 11, 1973, the right wing strut detached, or the wing just folded, based on varying eyewitness accounts. Smolinski and pilot Harold Blake were killed upon the Pinto\u2019s fiery crash. The flying Pinto\u2019s weight was considerably above what the Skymaster\u2019s gross maximum certified take-off weight.\u00a0 One observer reported that the wing struts were attached to the car with sheet-metal screws and that \u201c\u2026everything was really bad.\u201d \u00a0The NTSB report of the crash also identified bad welds, along with a bad attachment of the right wing. People have blamed the Pinto for fiery crashes, but they can\u2019t stick this on on it.<\/p>\n

Culled from: Curbside Classic
\n<\/a>Generously submitted by: Erin<\/p>\n

And look, they even made a promotional film! \u00a0And it’s a hoot!<\/p>\n

[tube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rzv4q5EEy1k[\/tube]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Considerably Overweight Yet Truly Morbid Fact! One of the most recurring human follies is the seemingly endless attempts to cross the car with an airplane. Why? The two have such profoundly different purposes and requirements, and there\u2019s so little that they actually share. Can\u2019t dreamy-eyed engineers get past the idea that a passenger cabin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4363,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4352\/revisions\/4363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}