Thread: Please, what does "minis" mean as in horsepower?

Working with daughter on a paper about airplanes and she wants to find the horsepower of The Concorde as compared to the Kitty Hawk:

Kitty Hawk:

“Allowing 200 pounds for the propulsion system, they estimated that the aircraft with pilot would weigh 625 pounds. Based on this estimate, they calculated power, thrust, and speed requirements and concluded they needed an 8-horsepower engine generating 90 pounds of thrust to achieve a minimum airspeed of 23 miles per hour.

What she found about The Concorde:

The Concorde had the equivalent horsepower of 10,000 Minis!

We have both tried searching for what "minis" as a measurment of horsepower, yet can't locate anything. (keep getting the Mini Cooper car! )

Any help? And remember, we are the mechanically inferior females here!!!

Thanks!

It's a British article, right?
I believe they do compare The Concorde's power to one of a Mini car, which is probably a cultural icon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini

At least there's no unit of power which is called 'mini', as far as I know.

Yes, I think that is a graphic image, 10.000 Mini Coopers. I don't think it means anything else. A Mini Cooper had 55 PS, the Mini Cooper S had 70, the very first Mini (no Cooper) had 34.

Robin

Here is where the quote came from.. Discovery Channel

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/flight/...de/index.shtml

Definitely the car. .303 bullets aren't an official measure of velocity either.

Robin

Thanks! BTW, she also included this in her paper...

"The idea of a vehicle that could lift itself vertically from the ground and hover motionless in the air was probably born at the same time that man first dreamed of flying," this quote was said by Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky, the Russian immigrant to the United States who designed and flew the first viable American helicopter, in 1939.

It seems that social turmoil of the 1917 and the following years led to Sikorsky’s fleeing the county and seeking refuge far from home. Then, when he made his groundbreaking achievements in the field of chopper building Russians remembered that he was Russian too and so they, in a way, could take some of the credit for his work, in that, if it hadn’t been for his motherland’s ability to produce geniuses like him if we had been air bourn at all it would’ve been by hot air balloons and catapults only and maybe by magic carpets, in our dreams.
So I think all the credit must go to America. But I wonder if your girls knew about him before or they only got to know him while working on that paper and if he is known in the US at all?

P.S. Could somebody check for errors in my paper, with all those subjunctive moods and missing or superfluous commas?

Originally Posted by alexB

It seems that the social turmoil of [s:cj4lrt0m]the[/s:cj4lrt0m] 1917 and the following years led to Sikorsky’s fleeing the county and seeking refuge far from home. Then, when he made his groundbreaking achievements in the field of chopper building, Russians remembered that he was Russian too and so they, in a way, could take some of the credit for his work, in that, if it hadn’t been for his motherland’s ability to produce geniuses like him if we had been air bourn at all it would’ve been by hot air balloons and catapults only and maybe by magic carpets, in our dreams.
So I think all the credit must go to America. But I wonder if your girls knew about him before or did they only get to know him while working on that paper and if he is known in the US at all?

P.S. Could somebody check for errors in my paper, with all those subjunctive moods and missing or superfluous commas?

OMG... you are typing like me know! What have I done??? You have more run on thoughts there than I think I have ever had!! You are a GOD!

As for your question..... I was helping her out and was on a web page http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~leishman....html#Overview which is by a Univ of Maryland professor who has written a book "Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics" and he had the quote by Sikorsky right there on the main page. So... I was thinking, "Well darling, we should look up this Igor dude to see who he was if you are going to use this quote." And as I was typing in his name into Google, I was sounding out his last name in my head. You know how that goes, "Sik-or-sky" and as I hit the enter key, went "D'oh!.. HIM"

Knew that it was the name of a chopper, but did not realize it came from a real person's name. Sorry to tell ya.