Border Patrol on Flat Earth

[SOdhner]

From the North Pole to the edge of Antarctica it's roughly 18,000km. Most of that has to be real distance, since there's a nearly unbroken chain of land in the Americas. That means the it's about 113,097 kilometers around on that "inside" edge. (For comparison, the equator is 40,000km around so this is almost three times that - specifically 282.74%) This is just assuming we care only about the edge of Antarctica, of course. If we start talking about surface area of that frozen continent things get way worse.

Since the age of exploration, the sinister "They" have apparently been patrolling this border to make sure that nobody discovers the Edge and learns the truth about the shape of the world. It's really hard to say how many people they need in order to do this, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. They need to essentially live in Antarctica.
2. They need multiple shifts.
3. They need support staff, especially since they live there.
4. If they have families, those families presumably also live there? There would be some overlap obviously, people who married another patrol agent or even a janitor.
5. While some areas would be in much more danger than others, they would need to be able to quickly respond to threats all along the continent.
6. You can argue all you want for modern technology, but this is a job they would have needed to be doing for a very very long time.

So this is, and has been for a long time, a HUGE employer and has used enormous resources. I guess I'm asking... where do they recruit? Can I sign up? How are they paying all these people, let alone paying off all the scientists and pilots and things? If they have infinite money, as it seems they must, I'd love to have that job. They probably have a great dental plan too.

 

[CORed]

From the North Pole to the edge of Antarctica it's roughly 18,000km. Most of that has to be real distance, since there's a nearly unbroken chain of land in the Americas. That means the it's about 113,097 kilometers around on that "inside" edge. (For comparison, the equator is 40,000km around so this is almost three times that - specifically 282.74%) This is just assuming we care only about the edge of Antarctica, of course. If we start talking about surface area of that frozen continent things get way worse.

Since the age of exploration, the sinister "They" have apparently been patrolling this border to make sure that nobody discovers the Edge and learns the truth about the shape of the world. It's really hard to say how many people they need in order to do this, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. They need to essentially live in Antarctica.
2. They need multiple shifts.
3. They need support staff, especially since they live there.
4. If they have families, those families presumably also live there? There would be some overlap obviously, people who married another patrol agent or even a janitor.
5. While some areas would be in much more danger than others, they would need to be able to quickly respond to threats all along the continent.
6. You can argue all you want for modern technology, but this is a job they would have needed to be doing for a very very long time.

So this is, and has been for a long time, a HUGE employer and has used enormous resources. I guess I'm asking... where do they recruit? Can I sign up? How are they paying all these people, let alone paying off all the scientists and pilots and things? If they have infinite money, as it seems they must, I'd love to have that job. They probably have a great dental plan too.

I really don't see why "they" need this huge patrol force. Clearly nobody who believes the earth is flat has sense enough to bring a coat with them when they go to Antarctica to find the edge. Hypothermia will take care of the problem.

 

[Imhotep]

You didn't even get to the Fake Plan Crash Crew.

If a plane attempts to cross the border, they have to shoot it down and substitute it with an exact replica of the plane. Next, they simulate signs of a mechanical failure in the substitute, move all the casualties over from the real plane to the substitute, then move the substitute plane to a suitable crash location further from the border. Finally, report the "crash". Simple!

 

[SOdhner]

You didn't even get to the Fake Plan Crash Crew.

Oh man, that's true. Here I am talking about the patrol, but I didn't even get into what they have to do when someone does show up.

And granted, it shouldn't be too common. But yeah, getting or making a plane, getting it to the right place, fabricating all the evidence, disposing of the real plane... this is a big job.

Since they probably have to operate with a skeleton crew, the best plan would be to send remote-controlled decoy planes to several different areas as a diversion while you sneak over in a small boat.

 

[Imhotep]

It's a good plan.

1. Acquire a really rare plane. Like a McDonnell XF-85 Goblin maybe?
2. Wire it up for RC
3. Fly it to the border
4. Watch as they scramble to ship in a plane substitute
5. Profit! Or fall off the edge of the Earth...

 

[GlennB]

Drones. They dread drones. A flash party of drones (maybe 10,000?) all scattering around the border will surely overwhelm their defences. This is why drones will be banned soon.

 

[SOdhner]

1. Acquire a really rare plane. Like a McDonnell XF-85 Goblin maybe?

That's the plane a cartoon animal would fly in. That's amazing.

Drones. They dread drones.

Unless THEY are the ones that made all the drones? Think about it. They control the drones, they control the cameras. They can hijack them at any time.

1. They're protected from drone attacks.
2. They can spy on us with our own drones.
3. They can hack them so footage from drones makes the earth appear to be a sphere.
4. With everyone using drones nobody will go to look for themselves.

So what we really need it to make our own drones 100% from scratch, with old Polaroid cameras attached.

 

[PhantomWolf]

1. Acquire a really rare plane. Like a McDonnell XF-85 Goblin maybe?

I even know where you can get one. They have one on display in the The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland Nebraska.

That's the plane a cartoon animal would fly in. That's amazing.

Neat little aircraft. They were designed to be held in the bomb bay of a B-52 so they could be deployed to protect the bomber if it came under fighter attack. They worked too, well as far as getting them out of the B-52 and flying around it. The trouble come when they tried to dock back with the bomber. The wind stream about the plane was too strong and it was impossible to get them back into the bomb bay, so after they built and tested the three prototypes, they canned the project.

 

[CORed]

I even know where you can get one. They have one on display in the The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland Nebraska.



Neat little aircraft. They were designed to be held in the bomb bay of a B-52 so they could be deployed to protect the bomber if it came under fighter attack. They worked too, well as far as getting them out of the B-52 and flying around it. The trouble come when they tried to dock back with the bomber. The wind stream about the plane was too strong and it was impossible to get them back into the bomb bay, so after they built and tested the three prototypes, they canned the project.

It doesn't look like it has any landing gear (the yellow apparatus doesn't appear to be part of the plane). If I'm correct in that assumption, I wonder if they had to belly land them after they couldn't get them back in the B-52 bomb bay.

 

[Trebuchet]

It doesn't look like it has any landing gear (the yellow apparatus doesn't appear to be part of the plane). If I'm correct in that assumption, I wonder if they had to belly land them after they couldn't get them back in the B-52 bomb bay.

I think the flight tests were conducted with temporary fixed landing gear.

 

[Major Major]

I even know where you can get one. They have one on display in the The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland Nebraska.



Neat little aircraft. They were designed to be held in the bomb bay of a B-52 so they could be deployed to protect the bomber if it came under fighter attack. They worked too, well as far as getting them out of the B-52 and flying around it. The trouble come when they tried to dock back with the bomber. The wind stream about the plane was too strong and it was impossible to get them back into the bomb bay, so after they built and tested the three prototypes, they canned the project.

There were only two prototypes.

They were meant to be carried with the B-36, not the B-52.

The other prototype is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.

Later on they used RF-84F Thunderflash planes, attaching to the B-36 (technically the GRB-36D) by its wingtips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin

 

[Pope130]

The tip tow project was called Tom-Tom. It proved non-viable due to turbulence from wing tip vortices. Aircraft used were a GRB-36G and a pair of YRF-84Fs.

The operational version used a modified RB-36H and an RF-84K (altered RF-84F). An extendable trapeze assembly was used for launch and recovery. The intention was to provide low level reconnaissance capability at extremely long range.

 

[PhantomWolf]

There were only two prototypes.

They were meant to be carried with the B-36, not the B-52.

The other prototype is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.

Later on they used RF-84F Thunderflash planes, attaching to the B-36 (technically the GRB-36D) by its wingtips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin

Ahh, thanks for the correction, it was 2005 when I saw it so details... I should have checked my memory.

This is the one in Ashland. (At least as it was in 2005)

 

[cantonear1968]

I even know where you can get one. They have one on display in the The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland Nebraska.



Neat little aircraft. They were designed to be held in the bomb bay of a B-52 so they could be deployed to protect the bomber if it came under fighter attack. They worked too, well as far as getting them out of the B-52 and flying around it. The trouble come when they tried to dock back with the bomber. The wind stream about the plane was too strong and it was impossible to get them back into the bomb bay, so after they built and tested the three prototypes, they canned the project.

Why couldn't it land at a base?

 

[Grashtel]

Why couldn't it land at a base?

Its a short ranged fighter that would most likely be deployed well out of the range of a base or the bombers would have escort fighters accompanying them rather than needing to carry their own escorts.

 

[Elagabalus]

Why couldn't it land at a base?

You think yer average Alien Lizard Man can fit into one of dem tings?

 

[Cosmic Yak]

You think yer average Alien Lizard Man can fit into one of dem tings?

Well Hillary Clinton is only 163 centimetres (5 foot 4). If a lizard-woman can squeeze into a Hillary suit, it should have no problem with that plane.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Why couldn't it land at a base?

This was pretty much answered, it didn't have the range since it was supported to be deployed over the USSR or wherever the bomber was.

It didn't even have a landing gear, on all the trials because they couldn't get it back on board even though they did get it hooked up a couple of times, the pilot had to belly land the prototype on a lakebed strip to try and minimize the damage to the reinforced skid that it was equiped with for testing.

 

[MRC_Hans]

There were only two prototypes.

They were meant to be carried with the B-36, not the B-52.

The other prototype is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.

Later on they used RF-84F Thunderflash planes, attaching to the B-36 (technically the GRB-36D) by its wingtips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin

The whole project was a good example of building systems to cope with threats of the previous war. Ironically, nearly at the same time they were constructing planes without a gun, believing that all it would need would be missiles (against which the on-board fighter would have been useless .. except perhaps as a decoy ).

The only thing that made it make a little bit sense was the woefully short endurance of early jet fighters. But in-air refueling systems mostly solved that.

Hans

 

[MRC_Hans]

Its a short ranged fighter that would most likely be deployed well out of the range of a base or the bombers would have escort fighters accompanying them rather than needing to carry their own escorts.

Yeah. Range was a huge problem for early fighters. Once they had taken off and climbed to the cruise altitude of a bomber, they would have fuel for less than half an hour, even less if they had to do combat maneuvers.

Hans