Next time one of the notorious plug panels departs company with the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9, the captain calmly calls out the message: "release the Flug"
This causes The Flug to be released which is instantly sucked towards the vortex created by the gaping void. Inside The Flug is a sensor and two separated chemicals which when combined form an instantaneously expanding flexible foam.
Milliseconds before reaching its destination, the sensors activate the explosive expansion and The Flug flattens itself against the yawning gap, like a giant chewing gum ball. This has the effect of sealing it off, and preventing anyone (else) from being sucked out.-- xenzag, Jan 10 2024 K2 fluglike https://www.k2-glob...or-stop-leak-400-mllike platelets or blood or chewing gum [mylodon, Jan 14 2024] https://www.bbc.co....world-asia-67968526 [xenzag, Jan 14 2024] While it is waiting to be released, may we pet it?-- pertinax, Jan 10 2024 Yes, but there's a charge for that which is discounted if you book in advance.-- xenzag, Jan 10 2024 The Flug comes with a drink and a small packet of chips. I know. I ordered it.-- minoradjustments, Jan 10 2024 Obviously, Flug will become standard on all motor vehicles, large and small, in a variety of colours and opacities: CLEAR for repairing a car windshield broken yet again by foreign objects tossed from the lead truck's improperly-secured load; WHITE to replace doors kicked-out of ambulances and prisoner transports; ibid BLACK/BLUE for cop cruiser doors.-- Sgt Teacup, Jan 10 2024 And then what happens when the Flug pops out? Is there a reserve flug?-- pocmloc, Jan 10 2024 Some author, and I'm blanking on which, had neutrally buoyant balloons filled with glue floating around a space habitat. If there was a leak, the balloons would naturally drift to the hole, where the vacuum would pop them, and the glue would seal it.
Which, come to think of it, is also pretty much how platelets work. Reminds me of this.-- MechE, Jan 10 2024 If it wasn’t Clarke it was one of his cohort and timeline; Anderson, Sturgeon, Simak, Niven? I recall an astronaut doing a spacewalk to locate the fountain of escaping air from the microscopic pinhole, and using some kludge to plug it. Flug it, rather.
But the size of the leak is critical. Something the size of a door heading for a door-sized hole to plug it would probably take out a few passengers on its way.-- minoradjustments, Jan 11 2024 No - The Flug is about the size of a ping pong ball but expands exponentially nano seconds before reaching the gap.-- xenzag, Jan 11 2024 //the practical application// - what does that mean? These are unknown terms on the halfbakery (by me anyway) - you need The Sensible/Practical Bakery for those type of proposals.-- xenzag, Jan 11 2024 // There's as much joy for me to learn of real ways to instantly seal a hull breach as there is for you to imagine using a giant wad of chewing gum.//
Those are both highly appealing and will occupy my thoughts for many would-otherwise-be-boring hours. Thank you-- Voice, Jan 13 2024 Okay, it works. A ping-pong size ball of flug is drawn to a pinhole or a larger opening. It ‘knows’ when to solidify or else it would squeeze through entirely and disappear into the void, leaving the hole.
As it’s hardening in contact with the hull it fills the hole and as it takes a bit of time to harden it leaves a nice flattened flug plug inside, but OUTSIDE! Each ‘repair’ leaves a sharp spindle, a knitting needle, or a spike coming out of the hull where the repair happened. A few of these any your craft starts looking like a porcupine. Dangerous to navigate on a spacewalk. Good otherwise, though.-- minoradjustments, Jan 14 2024 Now the Boeing windscreens are going to need a similar product - perhaps of a more transparent nature. (see BBC news link)-- xenzag, Jan 14 2024 random, halfbakery