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It's different than a rotary engine.
Basically, a detonation engine works like a cylinder does in a traditional internal combustion engine. You have a detonation chamber that has a fuel air mixture injected into it, then ignited, which then charges out of a tube to propel whatever.
A rotating detonation engine builds on this concept except instead of a tube, the detonations are set in a self propelling cycle around a cylinder of sorts. The detonations ride the wall of the cylinders in a loop, each one igniting the next cycle, and creating thrust out the center. Something like that anyway.
Real programmers use butterflies
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That bit's irrelevant, I think. It's the propagation speed of the "flame front" that matters - it's a "detonation wave" rather than a "deflagration wave", which means that the unburnt charge doesn't get time to get out of the way of the flame that's going to burn it and so the engine efficiency rises dramatically - a bit like having shaped inlet valves and seats in a IC engine to promote a faster mixing of the incoming charge and a much, much faster flame front when the spark plug sets it all off. Faster flame == more efficient combustion and a much more "violent" bang - so more power for the same fuel / air mix and swept cylinder diameter. The "rotating" part is is a feature of the actual engine flame front design, and doesn't imply anything about the actual "detonation instead of deflagration" shenanigans.
There is of course always the original "detonation engine": Project Orion - Wikipedia[^] - but that's a little unfriendly on a populated planet ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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My first motorcycle had a rotary detonation engine: as soon as it got spinning well, it would blow up ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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What bike was that ?
"We can't stop here - this is bat country" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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My first "legal" bike: a 1970 Honda CD175[^] registration XUD 28J. Ten years old when I swung my leg over it, with more owners than it probably cared to remember, and more battle scars than a drunken docker. every time I rebuilt it, it got faster, and more fragile (and I got good at rebuilding that - I could get the engine out, apart, and back in the frame in under an hour. I was a fast - but not good - mechanic in those days.)
I could tell when it was going to break down - the speedo would exceed 75 ... I started one rebuild by shaking bits of cylinder head out of the other cylinder's exhaust pipe!
It had a "suicide" light switch:
Off -- low --- high --- park the one on the left, fits on the right bar end[^] so in cheap gloves, cold, at night, you had a 50-50 chance of no light at all every time you touched it. which was every time you approached a corner, because there was always something coming the other way.
Everything was cr@p, the brakes were ... no, let's not go there ... the suspension was gawd awful; it handled like it had a spring in the middle, possibly two; The tires were ancient and probably original YoKoOhNo; just everything was bad. I loved that bike, and it taught me a whole load of things. (Starting with "slide, don't bounce").
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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pkfox wrote: the love of my life ( which was largely spent working on it )
Yeah, Trumpets were like that (so were my Commando 850s)
A mate of mine bought a brand new Bonnie and fitted the new fangled Electronic Ignition, it took us an hour to realise that the reason we couldn't get anything like stable timing was that Meriden hadn't secured the backplate keyway with anything other than a film of oil ... that they went bust did not surprise me anywhere near as much as that they survived so damn long ... 
I moved from CD175 to CB250T (Dream), then CB550F, Commando (soon stolen), CB550F, Commando (soon burnt to the ground), a rapid succession of CB550F / CB650F for no reason I ever understood while rebuilding then ComeAndGo, a highly tuned Suzuki offroad stroker (stolen near the end of one of my bans, damnit) and then to V twins, Yamaha TR1s, 535s, XV1100, and then switched allegiance completely to Italy and several Guzzi Cali EV 1100 "fast commuting" bikes, and a range of Ducati ST2 / ST4 / 996, 999, ... with a couple of CB500F's thrown in for no obvious reason other than I didn't seem to be able to walk past one if it might be for sale ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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I still have an MV F4 Agusta in my garage with 123 miles on the clock
"We can't stop here - this is bat country" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Do not tell people even the county the garage is in! (You jammy bugger!) 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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Totally horrible to ride legally on the road ( hence the mileage ) when a mate of mine first saw it he said, I don't know whether to ride it or give it one 
"We can't stop here - this is bat country" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I had that problem with my Dukes - wonderful to ride once you were over the ton and the wind took the pressure off your wrists and back, but at even near legal speeds there just wasn't a gear in the box that meant you weren't slipping the clutch all the damn time. Following the police through a 30 zone was just torture.
Part of the reason I got a heck of a lot more miles out of my Guzzi Cali's - you could ride that for hours at 90-odd and still feel great. (Once you'd dumped the standard seat which was oddly shaped and quickly started to get "investigative" with your nether regions.)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
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I was a biker once. A Raleigh, I think. Three speed, pedals, standard handlebars, uncomfortable seat. The bike stand/sprung post thingy got bent on the first day so I had to lean it against lampposts and things. I loved it. Pretty good down hills. Changing a tire and oiling the chain was the extent of my mechanical skills.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Everyone here tomorrow (@12) can get a slice of bread to celebrate. Going "Dutch"; bring your own booze.
..and mine, please.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I'll drink to it with an Oban[^]. You're quite a character! 
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Greg Utas wrote: I'll drink to it with an Oban[^].
Whiskey? That's "heavy" beer according to description?
Nice, they do tours, could be fun. And they want me to enter my birthday with the year chosen from a combobox. Can't go there then, scrolling is too difficult in Edge.
Greg Utas wrote: You're quite a character!
So now you're a diplomat?
Lemmings, lemmings.. There's a recipe on youtube.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: Nice, they do tours, could be fun.
I never appreciated scotch until later in life, when a conference in Scotland arranged a tour to a distillery. It wasn't Oban, but their scotch...uh...put my lips to sleep. SOLD!
Eddy Vluggen wrote: Lemmings, lemmings.. There's a recipe on youtube.
And lots of recipes in my article for those who aspire to join them!
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If you like Oban you should try going a bit south down the coast. Springbank is a personal favourite of mine.
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I don't recall trying that one. Besides Oban, I like Talisker, and even Lagavulin and Laphroaig, two that some people might call turpentine.
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Oban, Talisker and Lagavulin (especially Lagavulin) are all great whiskies. And if you like them you will like Springbank. Oddly enough I prefer the 12 YO to the 15 and 18 YO ones.
Laphroig doesn't have any justification as a whiskey except as a drink ingredient. It doesn't have any taste besides peat.
It's like liquid smoke, you can put it in food as an enhancer, But why drink it?
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I'll have to see what Laphroaig does for bacon.
Not usually what I want, just occasionally.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: Nice, they do tours, could be fun.
They are - we went there for my 40th.
But Mum's 60th was better - we went on a tour of every distillery on Islay[^] and Jura[^]. (Not all on the same day, for obvious reasons.)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote: (Not all on the same day, for obvious reasons.)
Only so much hours in a day
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Only so much liver function available to handle the free samples.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Rittenhouse bottled in bond rye whiskey. That’s my drink of choose. Either neat or as an old fashioned
Frank Wilhoit: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon the requisite contempt
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