Status: RO
On the subject of metrication, according to Crismon's "Tracked vehicles of the
US Army", the Germans and the Americans disagreed on which standard for
measurements, bolt sizes, threads etc. should be adopted for their joint
MBT-70 tank project. The Germans wanted metric, the Americans,
Imperial.
Bizarrely, they reached a compromise under which those parts of the tank for
which the Germans were responsible were to use metric standards, while the
American bits were to use Imperial! (The MBT-70 and its XM803 spawn
also
had the driver in a contra-rotating subturret inside the turret, and
were
therefore usually knee-deep in vomit.)
cheers
On Fri, 10 Oct 1997 12:59:21 +0000, Rob Paul
> <rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
Status: RO
> The Germans wanted metric, the Americans, Imperial.
ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!! That means two sets of tools to fix the one damned vehicle!
Someone should post this to comp.risks!
This is something to think about in Dirtside II and FT campaign games: repair
times taking longer in mixed nationality forces. That puts a
whole new spin on why--in a recent game--the NAC player never seemed
to make his damage control rolls when he needed to. He had the wrong tool set!
This is quite interesting, when you consider that the US army adopted metric
distances so that they could use the rest of the world's maps.
> (The MBT-70 and its XM803 spawn also
Brings back flashes of that movie _The Last Starfighter_ and the
"Death Blossom." Thanks, I needed that. Your post was the funniest thing I've
read all day (made more so by it being true).