Bill, only the worst idiot puts speed control devices in with nickel
metal batteries, or in the motor compartment where they can get wet, and
then run , run backwards, or not run at their whim. 

 Only a good body count is going to get this idiot's attention, and then
only long enough to fabricate a MIRV of excuses.

 The more I hear from the vanishing ranks of the "team" or in writing
from the guy himself, the more contempt I have - he is one seriously
dangerous loose cannon right now.

 This whole thing will be over with very quickly, and my bet is that as
usual it will be the next Ian Rolin that we will be called to extract
from the spring.

 By the way, Stone is no aerospace engineer, he a civilian engineer.


Bill Mee wrote:
> 
> Wakulla II Project Bumbling continues:
> 
> According to a recent newspaper article Bill Stone now refers to
> himself as an "Aerospace Engineer". This is just a polite way of
> calling himself a "rocket scientist". The more we learn of his
> outlandish, Rube Goldbergesque schemes for the Wakulla II project the
> more we tend to agree that Stone’s mind is somewhere in outer
> space, even if he himself resides on terra firma.
> 
> Apparently, in between redesigning the Cis Lunar, managing the Wakulla
> II project and performing feats of "aerospace engineering" Stone has
> told the National Institute on Science and Technology (NIST) that he
> "tests space suits by cave diving with them". This is actually true if
> you consider a "dry suit" to be a "space suit". According to one of
> our spies, Stone was observed performing launch tests on his drysuit
> from the bottom of the Wakulla Springs basin. Similar to an Atlas
> booster, Stone became airborne when his "space suit" "over inflated"
> and sent him rocketing to the surface.
> 
> Even less amusing is the fact that critical last minute firmware
> changes are being performed on the Cis Lunar rebreather. This is
> because the red/green/amber warning light system still does not
> function correctly. Fortunately for Stone, electronic closed circuit
> rebreathers (CCRs) are not subject to any Federal Regulation even
> though the device is clearly a life support system by any stretch of
> the imagination. If instead we termed the Cis a "computerized
> respiratory assist device" it would be subjected to the most draconian
> of regulatory compliance requirements. Before this device could be
> tested on humans it would have to have an Investigational Device
> Exemption (IDE), have the oversight of an Institutional Review Board
> (IRB), meet all of the very stringent criteria for testing on human
> subjects and be part of a Pre Market Approval (PMA) filing. If this
> process was circumvented in any way Stone and his band of "aerospace
> engineers" would be subjected to harsh criminal and civil penalties.
> These laws are rigidly enforced within the medical device industry and
> there are company executives languishing in jail for having violated
> them. For instance, if a death or serious injury occurs with such a
> device a Medical Device Report (MDR) must be filed immediately and
> failure to do so is a criminal offense. Take for example the near
> death of the USCT diver at Madison Springs recently. That event
> clearly would be considered reportable. At least Richie Pyle is off
> the hook since he "reported it" to the rebreather list after the cat
> got out of the bag.
> 
> Stone’s "Thin Man" and "Fat Man" scooters are fine examples of
> "rocket science". For those of you who are unaware these names were
> used to describe the uranium and plutonium bombs respectively, which
> were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Stone is
> quite correct to name these WKPP purloined designs after "bombs".
> Almost assuredly these devices can be expected to detonate when
> hydrogen, from the violently offgassing Nickel Metal Hydride
> batteries, leaks passed the doubtlessly flimsy sealing interface
> between the motor and battery compartment. Like the other "aerospace
> engineers" from Morton Thiokol whose sealing expertise resulted in
> another well known hydrogen blast, Stone can be expected to
> manufacture excuses when leaky seals turn the "Fat Man" into the Von
> Hindenburg. Not wanting to pass up on any opportunity to "technify"
> the simple and reliable, Stone has placed motor speed control circuits
> inside his scooters despite the fact that the speed can be easily
> varied via the manual pitch control on the prop. This jumble of op
> amps, oscillators and thyristors represents dozens of failure points
> and is the absolute height of foolishness to place in a critical life
> support system. This is especially idiotic in view of the critical
> life support role of the scooter and when balanced against the
> miniscule savings in energy is simply an unjustifiable risk.
> 
> To make matters worse, the brilliant rocket engineer, Stone has
> connected his scooter bombs to his untested CCR. When the scooter
> "eats" the line at one of the many intersections in the Wakulla "A"
> tunnel, the resulting panic stricken abandonment of the scooter and
> life support will surely win high praise for this gem of aeronautical
> engineering.
> 
> All of this nonsense leads us to conclude that Stone is absolutely
> desperate to prove something. This makes him and his project extremely
> dangerous.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>


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