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Two paratroopers and some electronics can turn a passenger jet into a bomb carrying many kilotons of conventional explosive. Trucks have blown up buildings. An

Two paratroopers and some electronics can turn a passenger jet into a bomb carrying many kilotons of conventional explosive. Trucks have blown up buildings. Anything is a weapon if you arm it. Conversely...

mulmen 2y ago
> Two paratroopers and some electronics can turn a passenger jet into a bomb carrying many kilotons of conventional explosive. A fully fueled 747 only carries about 190 tons of fuel and 140 tons of cargo. How do electronics turn that into kilotons of explosives?
- samatman 2y ago
  Centitons of explosive then. Much like a Starship.
  - mulmen 2y ago
    I don’t think jet fuel is as explosive as TNT so these two paratroopers would have to fill the cargo hold with tens of tons of explosives.
    - lazide 2y ago
      Jet fuel has significantly more total energy per unit of mass than TNT. 46 MJ/kg for Kerosene [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion], and 14.5 MJ/KG for TNT [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT]. Kerosene can be used to make a thermobaric bomb in the right conditions. It’s just just trickier to actually do than detonating TNT. Notably, TNT can certainly help accomplish making a thermobaric bomb. Either way, the cargo capacity by weight for a 747 is still the same.
      - mulmen 2y ago
        More energy =/= more explosive. Are the fuel tanks of a 747 conducive to creating a thermobaric bomb? By two paratroopers?
        lazide 2y ago
        With some TNT or cutting charges and an electronic device (timer/detonator)? I didn’t propose the initial idea, but it actually could probably work if the plane was flying [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010218023002961 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001021802...], and [https://tetrazolelover.at.ua/WpnryInTheWoods/Zhang2015_Article_Large-scaleSprayDetonationAndR-1.pdf https://tetrazolelover.at.ua/WpnryInTheWoods/Zhang2015_Artic...]. You’d want to run some significant calculations first to get the airspeed/timing just right, but yeah. It would be one hell of a show. Like a tactical nuke, probably. Edit: did the math because I was curious. A fully fueled 747 contains approximately 9 trillion joules of energy worth of fuel (not counting any payload, or the energy in its aluminum fuselage - which would be significant). A ton of TNT equivalent is 4.181 gigajoules. So the fuel load of a 747, if properly detonated, would be “equivalent” to a 2KT nuclear bomb. A 747 has a maximum payload capacity of an additional 100-120 tons.

mulmen 2y ago

> Two paratroopers and some electronics can turn a passenger jet into a bomb carrying many kilotons of conventional explosive. A fully fueled 747 only carries about 190 tons of fuel and 140 tons of cargo. How do electronics turn that into kilotons of explosives?

samatman 2y ago
Centitons of explosive then. Much like a Starship.
- mulmen 2y ago
  I don’t think jet fuel is as explosive as TNT so these two paratroopers would have to fill the cargo hold with tens of tons of explosives.
  - lazide 2y ago
    Jet fuel has significantly more total energy per unit of mass than TNT. 46 MJ/kg for Kerosene [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion], and 14.5 MJ/KG for TNT [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT]. Kerosene can be used to make a thermobaric bomb in the right conditions. It’s just just trickier to actually do than detonating TNT. Notably, TNT can certainly help accomplish making a thermobaric bomb. Either way, the cargo capacity by weight for a 747 is still the same.
    - mulmen 2y ago
      More energy =/= more explosive. Are the fuel tanks of a 747 conducive to creating a thermobaric bomb? By two paratroopers?
      - lazide 2y ago
        With some TNT or cutting charges and an electronic device (timer/detonator)? I didn’t propose the initial idea, but it actually could probably work if the plane was flying [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010218023002961 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001021802...], and [https://tetrazolelover.at.ua/WpnryInTheWoods/Zhang2015_Article_Large-scaleSprayDetonationAndR-1.pdf https://tetrazolelover.at.ua/WpnryInTheWoods/Zhang2015_Artic...]. You’d want to run some significant calculations first to get the airspeed/timing just right, but yeah. It would be one hell of a show. Like a tactical nuke, probably. Edit: did the math because I was curious. A fully fueled 747 contains approximately 9 trillion joules of energy worth of fuel (not counting any payload, or the energy in its aluminum fuselage - which would be significant). A ton of TNT equivalent is 4.181 gigajoules. So the fuel load of a 747, if properly detonated, would be “equivalent” to a 2KT nuclear bomb. A 747 has a maximum payload capacity of an additional 100-120 tons.