The tide abides for, tarrieth for no man, stays no man, tide nor time tarrieth no man - St. Marher, 1225 AD.
Time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. Its measurement has occupied everyone from the Egyptians, to Einstein, to present day future Nobel laureates. Anything from a bent T-square sun dial to the caesium driven atomic clock - the denominator remains the same. TIME!
Without its measurement we would not have Formula 1, no motorsport events, actually worst of all; no formula 1 parties with the pit babes wearing nothing but postage stamp sized bikinis....... and no speeding tickets. The world would be such a dull place indeed....... and the traffic police would cease to exist where going fast was concerned.
Man's obsession with its measurement took on a unique form in 1821. The chronograph was invented, patented (and thus named) by a chap called Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec. This invention however had one fundamental flaw - it could only measure one event at any one time. Now if you had only one Formula 1 car running round on at an event. The post-race F1 party won't be very interesting where stamp collecting was concerned.
F1 babe - brings new meaning to Sony "Playstation" indeed
So along came a chap called Joseph-Thaddeus Winnerl. Joseph had the foresight to envision that if you had more than one car racing at F1, you would have twice the amount of stamps at the post-race F1 party. You also presented with the problem of recording the timing of the two seperate events at the same instance - so the Split Seconds chronograph was born in 1838, a full 110 years before the first Formula One event.
Joseph-Thaddeus Winnerl
So what makes the split second chronograph so special?.......(besides doubling the pleasure of the F1 party stamp collector)
Look closely at the chronograph seconds hand on any split seconds chronograph and you’ll see a second hand fixed directly underneath the chrono seconds hand. These hands are so well aligned that sometimes it is impossible to tell visually with one hand is sitting over the other perfectly.
You begin to time a race as with a traditional chronograph by depressing the chrono's start/stop pusher. Then the amateur stamp collector presses the split seconds pusher on the chronograph (usually located either on the opposite side of the case from the start/stop pushers) and in an act of horological magic, suddenly the split seconds hand 'splits off' from the running seconds hand and freezes in place.
With the split-seconds hands stopped, you can then read off this intermediate time and have this recorded while the chronograph is still running. In another grand act of horological magic, by pressing the split-seconds pusher again the frozen hand would then catch up and merge perfectly with the running hand again. You can repeat this as many times as you want. Split seconds chronographs are also called rattrapantes, from the french word 'rattrape' that means 'to catch up'.
A postage stamp of the future
French Stamps! - Rattrapante split seconds demonstration video HERE
If ever you ever walked into a fine watch shop and asked the price of the split-seconds chronograph from the same range - the likely quote is usually twice the price or more compared to the normal chronograph version. Twice the hard earned cash for a single thin sweep second hand on a watch with a Frenchy connotation. You must be mad!
So what's the fuss about?
Up until the late 20th century (before the complication was industrialized by IWC and Jaquet S.A.), the rattrapante was the ultimate high performance timepiece with a price that was usually unaffordable. Because of their complexities, split-seconds chronograph were considered on par difficulty as a tourbillon to render and on a par with minute repeaters. The finesse needed to properly adjust them was also astronomical.
In an interview with REVOLUTION Magazine Patek Philippe’s technical director, Jean-Pierre Musy (quote): “The rattrapante is definitely one of the most complex watches in the world to fabricate. Bear in mind that for the distance between the split seconds wheel to the split seconds hand, the latter has to travel a large distance through a central axis. Any imperfection along this axis, such as the axis not being perfectly cylindrical, will cause problems."
The main problem with traditional split-seconds chronograph applications were mainly 2 fold:
- drag on the watch movement when split-seconds deployed and frozen in time.
- pressing the pushers out of sequence can destroy the watch!
[*The detailed technik out of scope of this discussion - but if you are hardcore enuff, read it here - Part 1 & Part 2]
Lange Double rattrapante with traditional column wheel control, brake clamps and traditional spring bars
IWC came along in 1992 and did the unthinkable and radically simplified the rattrapante by ingeniously altering the mechanism involved. The chief architect of this invertion that is protected by patent today is Richard Habring (with Kurt Klaus). IWC created a robust functional and handsome split seconds chronograph sports watch named the Dopple Chrono. IWC not only took watchmaking by storm but managed to do so at a fraction of the cost of any other rattrapante on the market. The rattapante was finally somewhat affordable now!
IWC Rattrapante Mechanism by Richard Habring & Kurt Klaus
IWC replaced the beautiful but difficult to adjust split seconds column wheel for a simple switching cam. This allowed the split seconds mechanism to be set up in a much shorter time. In another masterstroke of genius, instead of a traditional spring bar - IWC was the first manufacture to use a coiled cylindrical spring on the return lever that allowed a greater level of elasticity to diminish rattrapante drag and also to make setup easier.
1992............
By 1992, Audi on the other hand had already conquered the world of rallying and mastered the Pikes Peak climb and the motor sports department moved on to Touring car. Unfortunately quattro was so successful on the racetracks that 4WD was banned eventually from competition. By 1999 Audi had moved on to the world of Le Mans and built the R8 LMP to compete. The factory-supported team won at Le Mans three times in a row 2000-2002 (A hat track means you can keep the Le Mans Trophy - so its sitting in Audi Sport now in Germany), as well as winning every race in the American Le Mans Series in its first year. Audi was so successful that in 2003, two Bentley Speed 8s, with engines designed by Audi and driven by Joest drivers loaned to the fellow VW company, competed in the GTP class and finished the race in the top two positions.
If you dissected at the detailed history of Audi motor sports, one recurring theme is evident. Every time Team Audi participates in a new segment, the team are on the podium or are a winner by the second year of competition. By 2005, this marked the sixth and final season for the most successful Le Mans Prototype of all time, the Audi R8. In record setting fashion, the R8 has achieved 61 victories from 74 sports car starts since its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 2000. From 2006 onwards, new technical regulations apply at the French endurance classic, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series.
Audi now has a Turbo Diesel R10...but that is another successful story in itself!.
Audi LMP Class R8 Le Mans racer
The Audi Le Mans concept car first seen at the Frankfurt Auto show in 2003 pays homage to the wins Audi took at the Le Mans 24 hour races in 2000, 2001 and 2003 with the R8 race car. Today this concept car is a reality and it was put on sale as the Audi R8 in 2007.
1992 and the F14 Tomcat.....
F14 Tomcat Climbing with Afterburners
1992 was also the year that the last F14 tomcat was delivered (on 20 July) to the US Navy. We must go back in time to understand this aircraft and how it became one of the most fearsome and successful 'iron fighters' of its time.
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat project was initiated in 1968 in response to the US Navy's proposal for the VFX (Navy Fighter Experimental). The VFX would challenge Grumman's aircraft designers with a long list of requirements including; two engines, two seats in tandem configuration, powerful radar, advanced weapons, systems, internal gun, the ability to carry a wide variety of short, medium and long range missiles and the ability to land on an aircraft carrier fully loaded.
Originally designed and procured as an air superiority and fleet air defense fighter aircraft, the mighty Grumman F-14 Tomcat has, over the more recent years, been used with extreme effectiveness as an air-to-ground strike aircraft. Capable of carrying a wide range of General Purpose and Laser Guided Bombs (LGB's) and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), the F-14 also has the LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) targeting system which allows the delivery of laser-guided bombs during precision, air-to-ground strikes. The F-14 Tomcat has served with distinction in all of the major conflicts of recent years. The F-14 is an expensive type to operate, in fact it is the most expensive aircraft to operate in the US Navy inventory. It is a large aircraft which has impressive performance and the ability to carry a formidable quantity of ordinance, including the legendary Phoenix missile system.
F14 Firing Phoenix Missile
The F-14A is a big aircraft, with tandem seating for a pilot in front and radar intercept officer (RIO) in back on Martin-Baker GRU-7A "zero-zero (zero speed, zero altitude)" ejection seats. The cockpit layouts are specialized for the pilot and RIO, and have little duplication. The aircrew sits under a clamshell canopy that hinges open from the back. Visibility is said to be very good. The aircrew gets into the cockpit on fold-out steps mounted on the forward fuselage.
Martin Baker Zero-Zero Seat
The variable-geometry wing scheme incorporates a number of advanced features. One is the fit of "glove vanes", small triangular foreplanes mounted in the wing gloves that are automatically extended at high speeds as the main wings are swept back, compensating for any change in aircraft pitch caused by the change in wing geometry.
Carrier Launch from catapult
The wing sweep is controlled by a "Mach sweep programmer" that automatically moves the wings through the range of 20 degrees to 68 degrees sweep, as dictated by flight requirements. The pilot can also set the sweep manually, and can select a special 55-degree mode for ground attack. The wings can be set back 75 degrees to an "oversweep" position, overlapping the horizontal tailplane, for carrier-deck storage.
The wings feature spoilers to improve maneuverability, plus full-span trailing-edge flaps and leading-edge slats to improve low-speed handling. The inboard flaps are of course disabled when wing sweep blocks their operation. The spoiler position can be tweaked by a thumbwheel on the pilot's control stick during landing approach to adjust speed and angle of descent without requiring a change in aircraft attitude, a scheme known as "Direct Lift Control (DLC)".
Supersonic or Cruise?
The tail assembly features "all moving" horizontal tailplanes, with differential action for roll control, and twin outward-canted vertical tailfins. Some early concepts had featured a large single tailfin. There are also twin ventral fins. The mockup had featured long ventral fins that folded to the outside for landing, but in practice the ventral fins are fixed. There are hydraulically-operated speed brakes on the top and bottom of the rear fuselage forward of the engine exhausts.
The F-14A follows in the Grumman tradition of building rugged aircraft. It is built primarily of aircraft aluminum alloy and titanium, with selective use of graphite-epoxy composite assemblies. The aircraft was initially powered by twin Pratt & Whitney (P&W) TF30-P-412 turbofans with 54.9 kN (5,600 kgp / 12,350 lbf) dry thrust and 93 kN (9,480 kgp / 20,900 lbf) afterburning thrust each. The TF30 was one of the items inherited from the F-111B.
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