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Yellow
April 3rd, 2004, 06:47 PM
Sprayng liquied toxic chemicals from an airplane, might seem to be a quite straightforward method.
But there are some very important factors to observe.
If the chemical is allowed to flow out of the container by pure gravitation, it will be atomizied into a very, very fine mist when it hits the air. This phenomena is known as "air-blast atomization". This fine mist will fall very slowly to the ground and it will be extremly sensitive to even light wind.
The end result might be that the toxic cloud hits the ground many miles from the target area.
To avoid this, the container should be pressurized, and the chemical should be blasted out with high power, through a thin pipe that points backwards, in respect to the direction of the airplane.
This will result in the toxic liquid only be broken up into small drops. These drops will fall much faster to the ground and will not be very much affected by wind.
When empty the container should be droped from the airplane before landing. It is likely to give off small amounts of vapor for some time.

nbk2000
April 7th, 2004, 05:32 PM
How astonishingly clever of you! :rolleyes:

Ropik
April 12th, 2004, 09:12 AM
I know that in Russia +- 40 years ago "gravity-fed" spraying was tested with very good result - on the civilians unfortunately enough to be few kilometers by the wind(yes, this testing was nearly one small city). The actually sprayed chemical was declared as effective because many dead bodies in the poor town.

Yellow
April 14th, 2004, 08:40 PM
I know that the cropduster-planes have been mentioned much in the popular press, as a method of dispersing chemical agents. And, yes, they are so, if you fly a few meters about the ground.
If you intend to fly higher, you can not hit a specific target.
Also, many of the easely manufactured low-grade nerve agents - such as those mentioned under "VX-Like-Agent" are more toxic if they contact the skin as small droplets, than if inhaled as a thin mist.
You have my garantee for that - I have seen a lot of test-annimals die - and I have suffered a "mild" nerve-agent poisoning.
In fact, if dispersed as a fine mist, they may simply evaporate before groundcontact.
Also, a bacteriological agent will only survive the UV-light of the sun for 1 - 2 minutes if drifting in the air without beeing "embed" in a liquid.