Meat pies in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE! Pie-lovers were given a novel but unrecommended way to freeze a meaty delight this week by sending the little beauty into space*. Youtube Video The meat and potato pastry parcel - still in its tin case - was tethered to a helium balloon and dispatched from mission control in a pub car park in Roby Mill, Wigan. Bods at the …
Sorry register this is not the first pie in space!
Here in leafy Stoke-On-Trent there is an annual young engineer of the year competition run by a local engineering firm KMF. Last year's competition was to launch a HAL balloon and the team from Madeley High launched a Wright's pie into space! this was back in May 2016. I wasn't involved in that team but did see it launch majestically into the sky. Not sure what happened after that!
(I presume PARIS is a failed dream at this point?)
Erm... didn't PARIS actually happen? Or did I imagine that? If so, I have some BIG mental health problems...
I think you may have meant LOHAN. I've not heard anything about it for ages. Last I heard it was stalled because they couldn't get clearance from the FAA.
Yep, LOHAN. As much as I loved PARIS and admired Lester, I don't give it much chance even if the FAA gets out of the way. I feel like I'm the only one that seems to think flight testing (never done) is critical for this project.
PARIS was a glider simply dropped to fly down unguided, fairly simple. LOHAN is rail-launched from a balloon by rocket thrust, then uses the rocket to climb higher. It has an autopilot to actively manipulate control surfaces to control the climb, then fly back down. LOHAN is many times more complex than PARIS and is highly unlikely to Just Work on the first try. At the very least, an unpowered drop test from a Cessna to check if it even flies and if the autopilot works. That would still leave many unknowns including how the autopilot handles the thinner air at high altitude, how control surfaces handle the stress of rocket thrust (they already changed the canard joint once) and so on.
I would love for LOHAN to work, but without some serious testing it has little chance of success.
Dang, I miss Lester though...
No - a proper pie has hot water crust pastry and is either pork or scotch. Other nearly but not quite as fantastic pies may use shortcrust - or indeed a whole variety of pastries. I've even made a steak and kidney using flaky pastry allround which was pretty damn good (my own special home made overhopped IPA [Intentionally for Pies Ale] helped) but you cannot beat a proper pork pie.
When they hear that it was made in St Helens they'll all go ballistic.
A pie made in their rugby league rival's town being smuggled onto their own territory would be tantamount to treason to Lancashire's most fervent pie eaters.
I suggest Wiganers retaliate with a launch of a tin of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls from a pub car park in St Helens.
> Lancashire's most fervent pie eaters.
Until quite recently (and for older sons of Wigan miners still) calling someone from Wigan a 'Pie Eater' would result in fisticuffs. Wiganers were dubbed 'Pie Eaters' by the Leythers when they broke the miners strike and ate humble pie in the 20's - many 100s of lives were lost as a result of the working conditions which continued. Think 'scab' squared.
I see the pie landed somewhere near the Bowland Forest. I'd like to think Sam the Dog found it and ate it. The kids in the school would still like him back if anyone spots him
http://www.thevisitor.co.uk/news/video-cuddly-dog-launched-into-space-from-morecambe-1-7836405
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/find-sam-toy-dog-missing-space-morecambe-bay-burnley-a6973641.html
http://www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk/news/sightings-of-missing-morecambe-space-dog-1-7845580
Brilliant method of reducing famine in far away countries without having to actually get there. Take frozen pies into space, and have them self-cook on re-entry so they're ready-to-eat when they arrive. I wonder if someone out there could work out the optimum altitude for appropriate reheat? I wonder if Comic Relief could make this a reality?
Not sure how to solve the landing problem, though. More a splat-down than splashdown.
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