This TV series would be styled along the lines of K.I.T.T. and Kung-Fu: a loner hero wanders, solving problems, doing good. The hero is a grit-toothed, one eyed, patch wearing fighter jet pilot, in a marvelous, sentient, nuclear-powered fighter jet which converses with him and can fly itself. The two have escaped after realizing that J.E.T.T. will be used by the military for evil. The military wants J.E.T.T. back and each episode tries to recapture it.
The twist: J.E.T.T. lost its landing gear in the escape, and cannot ever land. The duo is a Lost Dutchman of sorts; a supersonic vagabond. This presents difficulties in perceiving the folks below, understanding their problems, and addressing them within the limited interactions possible between a jet fighter and anything else.-- bungston, Jun 30 2004 Our hero http://www.comics2film.com/nickfury.gifWho would have thunk a google for "hasselhoff" and "eyepatch" would turn something up?? [bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft program http://americanhist...m/blwingedatom1.htm [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Pictures of nuclear planes http://www.brook.ed...ts/nucwcost/anp.htmNeither are very sexy - you'd have to scale it down a bit. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Our Heroine http://www.clubsbon...tures/misc/joan.jpgwho needs photoshop when you've got ms paint? [calum, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] But was your father as bold as a sergeant major?-- bristolz, Jun 30 2004 Sure, why not?
Plot hole: How to refuel if JETT cannot land?-- shapu, Jun 30 2004 He lives on grits and eyeballs.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 30 2004 Why would the Air Force be refueling him in mid-air if they were trying to capture him?
Plot Hole: How exactly does J.E.T.T solve the problems? About all he can do is buzz things or shoot or bomb things. There are very few issues that buzzing can solve and shooting/bombing would mean he'd run out of munitions soon.-- GenYus, Jun 30 2004 AH! [FarmerJohn]! That's likely to be the funniest thing I'll read this decade, thanks!-- phoenix, Jun 30 2004 Thanks for reading only the lines themselves, [aeolis].-- bungston, Jun 30 2004 [contracts], the J.E.T.T will need some sort of reaction mass. I don't forsee that a heat-exchanger type of nuclear reactor is going to provide the massive amounts of thrust that a jet requires and yet still be light and compact enough to actually get aribourne. I don't think that air is going to be sufficient for our purposes.
As an example of the mass-power ratio of a heat-exchange nuclear reactor, consider the nuclear power source for the US deep space probes. At a mass of 56 kg (122 lbs) it produced a whopping 4,400 watts of heat energy. Assuming we could convert that directly to mechanical energy, that would get us about 5.9 Hp. At this rate, we would have a 100 Hp powerplant that weighed almost 1,000 kg (2,200) lbs. Granted that this is for a RTG that was developed in the mid 90's but I don't think technology will advance quite so far.
PS. And my psuedonym is GenYus, not genius, so that should tell you something right there. :p-- GenYus, Jun 30 2004 I'm passing familiar with air-to-air refueling systems, having inspected some parts for them, and seen video, but I'm having fun picturing a nuclear ATA refueling system.
" Careful, careful.....little more to the left.....Oooohhhh, it glows, it glows ! "
And every ten episodes or so there would have to be some romantic angle......[the lovers gaze longingly at each other as they pass at mach 3].
Maybe she could be a wing-walking barnstormer kind of gal, and they could get together periodicallly, but they know it's not meant to last, because she could never leave her plane.-- normzone, Jun 30 2004 This is a T.V. show, so using T.V. logic, just saying it's nuclear solves all problems of refueling. As for food, he could buzz a banana plantation. Then grab as many banana's as possible.-- swimr, Jun 30 2004 I don't know why they can't have something like K.I.T.T's refueling truck. Have a cargo plane open up it's back end, J.E.T.T. flies in, our hero chats up the young intern with a romantic interest and gets lectured by the head of the Agency for Justice and Peace or some such organization that's helping him/her out. After the next mission assignment, our hero hops back into J.E.T.T., which is dropped off the back.-- Worldgineer, Jun 30 2004 Yeah. If the onboard GPS shows a significant reduction in airspeed, like if landing, the plane self-destructs in a nuclear holocaust -- new plot twist that would incorporate midair platform landings.-- dpsyplc, Jun 30 2004 The metaphor requires that there be no interaction with fueling trucks, Charlie/Oscar Goldman via intercom, or other.
It occurs to me that the "pilot" should actually be just some guy, unable to fly a normal jet. He depends on K.I.T.T.'s robotic abilities, together with shouted commands.-- bungston, Jun 30 2004 Hasselhoff is old news. This show would need a sexy female pilot. Link.-- calum, Jun 30 2004 [World] - thanks for the nuclear plane reading. Neat stuff. [Calum], thanks for the... err, just thanks, I guess.-- bungston, Jun 30 2004 [cal] took me a while to figure out who that was. Very nice.-- Worldgineer, Jun 30 2004 Paul McCartney could do the theme!-- MikeOliver, Jun 30 2004 [MikeOliver], hence my earlier comment.-- bristolz, Jul 01 2004 Just spied that [bris]. T'was late and I was not fully functional.-- MikeOliver, Jul 01 2004 Glow in the dark radioactive toy J.E.T.T.s that every human child will want. +-- sartep, Jul 01 2004 I was reading the comment about reaction mass. Probably JETT would use the nuclear heat to make steam and fly using steam powered propellers. JETT becomes a less suitable acronym but that is probably OK.
I am uncertain whether propeller-powered aircraft could exceed the speed of sound.-- bungston, Jun 26 2012 //uncertain whether propeller-powered aircraft could exceed the speed of sound.//
There are reports of a Spitfire reaching about Mach 0.96 in the 1950s. Propellors can work at supersonic speeds, but I don't think any aircraft has gone supersonic using only propellors.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 26 2012 random, halfbakery