Hello.

---Edward Becerra <eabecerr@henge.com> wrote:

At 01:56 PM 8/1/98 -0400, arromdee@inetnow.net wrote:

The problem is that you're confusing anime physics and real

physics.  In

real physics, even the futuristic versions of humanoid mecha would

be too

weak

to move, by the square/cube law.

If you're going to assume that large humanoids are possible at all,

you may

as well assume they can be built with 1940's technology.

	Actually, this is not entirely correct. The US Navy developed a

walking

truck with four legs that worked _well_, and was intended for heavy

duty

use in the deep jungles of Vietnam where wheeled, tracked, or air

cushion

vehicles were unable to go.

	The only reason it was never used, was that it was _originally_

designed

in the expectation that it would be powered by a thermo-electric

nuclear

battery, one where a red-hot (heat, not radiation) chunk of nuclear
material would heat a thermocouple, and generate power.

	Trouble was, between the beginning of the design process and the

finished

walker, attituded had gone from the optamistic belief of a reactor

in every

home and every car with an atomic battery, to 'I wouldn't touch

nuclear

power with someone else's hands.' And the design wasn't convertable

to an

internal commbustion engine, so it was scrapped.

	Pity, that..

	Still, all the design work remains intact, and some of it is on the

web.

If anyone's interested, I'll dig up the URLs for you. It could be

useful to

the story.

	Edward Becerra

 
 Actually Mr. Becerra you are partly right. The U.S. Army and Navy
both worked on exoskeletal suits 'Mecha' in the past. The history is
basicly this.

 In the 1960's General Electric with the help of the U.S. Army and
Navy developed the first man-amplifying exoskeleton. The hydraulically
powered Hardyman made lifting 250 pounds feel like lifting 10; all the
better for loading heavy bombs on airplanes. If saw the powerloader on
the movie 'Aliens' you get the idea what the Handyman was. The
mechanical arms and legs, which made the operator look like a
Transformer, were clumsy and dangerous, however, so the idea never
took off.

 The Hardyman concept was resurrected in the 1980's at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory. Researcher Jeffrey Moore wrote a concept paper on
Pitman, a powered exoskeletal suit. Moore wanted to protect the
infantryman from fuel-air explosives and chemical/ biological warfare,
in addition to helping him carry his heavy load. Unfortuneitly the
Army did not receive funding to continue the Pitman project but the
idea grabbed the attention of the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, which has assigned the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to study
similar exoskeletal systems.  

 If you wandering where and why I found this out. I found this out
while surfing the web looking for info on Madox-1 for a Blade Runner,
Bubblegum Crisis crossover fanfic I am working on. The fanfic is
called Bubblegum Blade and I am almost finished with Chapter 1. Where
I found this at. The Web Sites are.

http://www.discovery.com/area/technology/virtualtech/issue5/cover-x.html

 
http://www.discovery.com/area/technology/virtualtech/issue5/mighty-x.html

 Thank you for your time. I am sorry for this spam. But I think that
this is important to know for those who wish to write mecha fanfics.
And I find it interesting that the first Body Armor, Powered
(BAP)Mecha was invented by the United States.

 Bye.
 
 Paul Cousins' at paul_cousins@yahoo.com
 

 





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