I think quite a few of us will get the reference.

We have been experimenting with fuel/air explosives since the 50s at least and have never been able to develop anything reliable.

I don’t know who this “we” is but the US has had FAE weapons in the inventory for years and they work fine.

BT

What if this thing isn’t F/A… if it’s vapor-phase monoreactant, it wouldn’t require any air at all. Perhaps they’ve found some chemical that’s stable enough to survive an initial shock, and the secondary “fuse” is a high enough temperature or perhaps a higher velocity shock to set off the cloud? Perhaps it’s a nitrated heavy hydrocarbon… IIRC as the molecular weight rises the stability of nitrated organic chemicals rises as well, it’s much harder to set off trinitrotoluene than nitroglycerin or nitrocellulose. Could we have a cloud of X-nitro-Y-ane with a shock buffer for primary distribution?

The world may never know :-p

I keep thinking I want to experiment with F/A explosives but I can see it’s a tricky thing. The F/A ratio has to be within a certain range for it to work and how do you get that consistent of a mixture throughout the entire volume?

And making reasonable assumptions about the amount of “power” get from, say, a gallon of fuel is pretty scary. A large percentage of the weight of most explosives is oxygen. If you use oxygen from the air instead putting it in the explosives you get a much larger explosion for the same weight of explosive.

Was Cas the model for General Jack D. Ripper?

YEEEEHAWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

Up here, you would be surprised. Quite the catch phrase on the liberal blogs in Knoxweird.

Next you will pulling post titles out of the Mouse that Roared.

Hmmm….

Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper
Col. ‘Bat’ Guano
Maj. T.J. ‘King’ Kong

(I love IMDB!)
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I… no, no. I don’t, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.

Next you will pulling post titles out of the Mouse that Roared.

Let’s not go there…

Next: China reveals deadliest-ever bayonet!

This cannot be good for these people.