Tangentially, those wind mills are really cool IMHO. Why are they considered an eyesore? I think they are elegant and cool.
I think it's all the dead birds littering the ground around them that's the problem. or maybe this Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well, GE is a US company so it would use US sized bolts and nuts. With the obvious reason being Metric is more universal around the world, why would Metric better? Don't the US sized bolts hold as well?
Then there is always the issues of lightning strikes. The Wind farm here in Cent MT has had 3 generators go down recently due to lightning damage. Each one had to have all 3 blade replaced. This factor along with seeing half of the windmills with the blades feathered while the others are running and generating. I don't see how this can be a source of cheap electricity when 50% of time they are idle.
Aircraft engines are, still, for the most still use the the SAE/English fasteners and are designed in English units. That's why, if you look at an aircraft engine part drawing the dimensions won't be even numbers in Metric units. The T800 was an exception becaused it used spline drive nuts and bolts and that cost a fortune to implement. Virtually all of the fasteners in turbine engines are AN/NAS/MIL standard. In a turbine you need fasteners that are made out of exotic high temperature materials like A286. These fasteners are reduced head, 12 point bolts and nuts that are a lot lighter than conventional fasteners. If you look at a typical flange in a turbine engine, there are literally hundreds of small nut and bolts holding things together. The weight of fasteners is a major issue, so conventional fasteners aren't an option. You could use a meteric fastener, but the AN and Mil fasteners give you a standard to design to with accepted limits for strength at temperature. You would have to spend a forutne to create a standard to replace that and aircraft engines aren't like cars, we don't make that many of them. Not sure what they use in Europe, but here in the U.S. even the engines we are designing today are still using the English system.
It's a commercial intended for a US market. "eleven sixteenths" rolls off the tongue better than "seventeen milimeter". It might be as simple as that.
Probably truth in that too.. Also in most cases we don't use open end wrenches on anything since they don't work too well on a 12 pt nut, but hey, it makes a good commercial.....
Aside from the technical aspects, I think that this crybaby new-age whine over jet engines (of all things) - is endangering my flat screen. I have locked up the handguns.
