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Old 04-16-2006, 05:16 AM   #25
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
Guess what folks? I was watching the referrers on this one, and someone had the full story.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123019117

Quote:
Did a glacier melt? Did some kind of ultra-secret government underground lab have a freak accident? Most importantly, which maintenance troop’s head rolled for this one?

Actually, it’s none of the above. Those who have seen the e-mail that seems to be burning up the communication lines across the Department of Defense need to brace themselves: That hangar at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., was filled with foam on purpose.

That misleading e-mail with an attached slide presentation showing photos of the test has caused considerable work in correcting wrong information.
...
The test of the new foam system was conducted Aug. 23. Required coverage occurred within one minute of the system being activated. The test was so successful, the foam reached the observation platform where officials were documenting the procedure.
The Air Force required a minimum of one meter of foam to be achieved in four minutes or less. For testing purposes, the foam was allowed to disperse for the full four minutes.

The observers were surprised at how quickly the system generated the fire suppressing foam, Colonel Singh said.

The system worked so well the exterior door of the hangar had to be opened before the test was fully completed. These events account for the photos of the amount of foam inside and outside of the hangar.

So, did someone have a gross miscue? No. On the contrary, a fire suppression system responsible for helping protect vital mission-essential assets and, most importantly, for helping safeguard Airmen’s lives, worked extremely well. The foam system exceeded Air Force standards, Colonel Singh said.
The article goes on to say that the images testing the ability of systems to handle overload as the images are emailed around.

I guess we learned that as well!

Sorry for anyone who was misled, although that number includes B and myself. The original images that were sent around had some misleading text on them that indicated that everything was unexpected. At least the record is corrected now!
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