Chapter 14 The Code Goes to War: Crisis Situations Test Concepts and Usages
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Published:1990
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With the arrival of the Second World War came what one engineering historian, Ernest L. Robinson, called “the urge to accomplish the impossible.” As he related, “American warships, propelled by higher temperature boilers and turbines, had cruising ranges 50 percent higher than their British friends, who had to refuel three times to our twice.” In the air, American airplane engines equipped with superchargers had an extra increment of power and speed that gave them a definite edge in combat. “These superchargers had a wheel and buckets of super-strength high-temperature alloy capable of running red hot for 1000 hours,” said Robinson. “The supercharger was a true gas turbine although it lived with and became part of a piston engine.”