Technical Talk

[Renegadenemo]

It's true enough, we have some very serious players involved in the propulsion side of things and I don't want anyone to think I'm being secretive about it but the situation is that these are corporate names and logos you'd just not snaffle off the net and pop on your website. These are companies who employ whole departments to look after PR, their brand and their corporate image. It was like when Virgin gave us their train plates. You don't go slapping Virgin stickers all over everything until the press release has been signed off and their PR team have mailed an approved copy of the logo.
When they decide what level of exposure / involvement (or not) that they want we'll then fall over ourselves to deliver it. Until then, apologies for being a little vague.

[quicksilver-wsr]

Bill, thank you for explaining why the news stories on the Quicksilver website are sometimes pompous and vague.

Virtually all of our sponsors are corporate, with PR people and the political sensitivities that go with that. If you don't play it their way, they don't play. And they are right. Why should they? You usually find that you need them more than they need you.

I have occasionally had difficulties with people understanding what it's like to work with the big, or bigger, players. You have to play their game. We have several very big organisations that have helped us that we haven't been able to name for years, and still can't.

When a project drags on the way Quicksilver has, it creates even more difficulties, as you can imagine - although we have been extremely fortunate to keep the vast majority of our sponsors over the years.

I'm glad you're getting those big-hitters now, though.

[Renegadenemo]

We've always enjoyed outstanding support for our somewhat maverick but quintessentially British project. Those who've followed us for some time will have noticed the big names mentioned here and there but sponsors of that stature are generally content to stay behind the scenes at this stage.
These sort of projects carry a certain amount of risk and what is likely to happen is that if we make a huge success of things they'll all step up for a well-deserved slice and if we fall on our sword they'll all quietly disappear. And who can blame them - they'd be foolish to do anything else.

[Renegadenemo]

Some fantastic news today. The first of K7's original start bottles was given a hydrostatic test today after we'd finished refurbishing it and it effortlessly blew to 3200psi and held.

3200psi is the old working pressure so the bottle should have been tested to 4800psi but we weren't being greedy and it's now officially tested with a new working pressure of 2000psi, which is more than enough for our purposes. There was little doubt amongst all involved that the bottle would have gone to the higher TP but the other bottle is in slightly worse shape so we were going to impose a lower WP on that anyway so best to have them matched then we can balance them together and have plenty of volume for engine starting. Not bad for 34 years on the bottom of a lake and just one more thing that the do-gooders told us couldn't be done.

[Mike Bull]

As a witness to said test today, I can confirm that the bottle just sat there full of 3,200psi and went 'Yeah, and?'

[klingon]

Bill-whats the actual capacity of the start bottles?-bout the same as a modern diving cylinder?- now theres an idea for backup starts!

[Renegadenemo]

Diving bottles are close enough in terms of volume and they can take more than enough pressure but the limiting factor is that K7's start bottles have a 3/4 inch outlet that's carried all the way through to the start turbine and that's what's needed to spin up the Orph'.
We could use dive bottles to charge the system but not as a means of starting the engine directly without serious (and potentially dangerous) modification because a diving bottle simply isn't designed to release gas fast enough. It's meant to drip-feed you as you admire pretty fishes.

[klingon]

Thanks Bill-another tick on my mental list!

[Renegadenemo]

The start system is an elegant little setup. The bottles are balanced together by a pipe that runs under the inlet trunk and air is admitted upstream of a balanced piston in the main air valve. The chamber behind the piston is vented to atmosphere by a solenoid valve that opens a capillary at the push of a button allowing air pressure to push past the piston and into a gorgeous pressure regulating valve. It's all stainless and phosphor-bronze and it regulates the feed pressure to the start-turbine to a constant 350psi. It has a clever slave arrangement with a hydro-formed copper bellows controlling the main regulator that we mined out of its badly corroded housing then reverse-engineered a replacement. The pressure regulating valve is completely rebuilt, the main air valve should be complete next week and the solenoid valve is next on the list. One bottle is in test and we're starting on the other next week and the frame it all mounts to is pretty much ready to go too. can't wait to commission it all again after all these years.

[klingon]

So the double push that Antony Hopkins gave the replica to start in that bloody movie is Kosher then?one to prime the system then one to spin the engine?