'Exploding' Tunnock's teacakes cleared by tests to fly again
BBC
The story goes that 60 years ago, Tunnock's teacakes were banned from RAF flights after a cockpit marshmallow explosion.
The chocolate-covered treats were apparently all the rage, eaten by nuclear bomber crewmen on training sorties at the height of the Cold War.
But in the summer of 1965, a captain and student pilot forgot they had placed unwrapped teacakes above their instrument panels.
When the captain pulled an emergency depressurising switch the iconic Scottish treat erupted - leaving a sticky mess over the airmen, the instruments and cockpit canopy.
Now the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine has now given them the all-clear to fly again, after tests in an altitude chamber found the teacakes did not explode.
The experiments were covered by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) at the centre based at RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire.
BFBS
First the teacakes were put into an altitude chamber - normally used in the training of new fast jet pilots - and were lifted to 8,000ft, climbing at 4,000ft per minute,
They were then rapidly decompressed to 25,000ft in three seconds to see if they would blow up.
As air pressure in the chamber decreased, the air inside the teacakes expanded until the chocolate cracked and the mallow filling puffed out.
BFBS reporter Hannah King, who witnessed the tests, said while the mallow escaped from the chocolate casing, they "did not appear to explode and cause a risk to in-flight safety".
It was also discovered that when they were frozen before being placed in the chamber, their hardened shells were more resilient to cracking at altitude.
Pilots have been offered some advice by Dr Oliver Bird, an instructor at the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine, who carried out the tests.
"The best advice is that the snacks are kept frozen and in their foil wrappings until pilots are ready to consume them," he said.
Fergus Loudon, sales director at Tunnock's, which is based in Uddingston, near Glasgow, said: "If we really are talking about the people who fly our supersonic jet fighter bombers, then I'm inclined to think that Tunnock's Tea Cakes wouldn't be the highest thing on their list of worries, but I'm glad to hear that they can now enjoy them, like everybody else, with official approval."
An RAF spokesman said he was not aware of any "banned confectionery list", adding that the tests were not carried out in an official capacity.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Risk of new nuclear proliferation cycle, Australia's defence minister warns
SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles will on Saturday highlight the risk of a new cycle of nuclear proliferation in Europe and Asia, driven by China's rapid nuclear modernisation, Russia's strategic ties to North Korea and lapsed treaties. The Cold War arms control framework focused on numbers, warhead types and delivery systems is inadequate to grapple with the weaponisation of space, cyber and the ability to integrate nuclear weapons with autonomous systems, Marles is expected to tell the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian security forum. "We also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition," excerpts of his speech seen by Reuters say. In the speech Marles criticises Russia for threatening to use nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear arsenal decades earlier, and says the probability Russia is transferring nuclear weapons technology to North Korea places "intolerable pressure on South Korea". "China's decision to pursue rapid nuclear modernisation and expansion, which aims in part to reach parity with or surpass the United States, is another reason the future of strategic arms control must be revitalised," he is expected to say. There is a risk of a new proliferation cycle that jeopardises the U.S. extended nuclear deterrence arrangement, he says. Marles will repeat Australia's assurances that the nuclear powered and conventionally armed submarines it is acquiring from the United States in the next decade under AUKUS comply with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Defence ministers, senior military and security officials and diplomats from around the world are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore from May 30-June 1.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Ocean darkening' warning as fifth of the world's waters undergoes transformation
A new study has warned that a significant portion of the world's oceans is undergoing a mysterious process known as "ocean darkening" - and the consequences could be dire A staggering fifth of the world's oceans have plunged into darkness over the past two decades, a dramatic shift that could spell disaster for marine life worldwide. Oceanographic Magazine has reported on a major new study revealing that more than 75 million square kilometres of ocean - including vast coastal areas and open waters - have experienced what experts are chillingly terming "ocean darkening." This process, observed between 2003 and 2022, involves the photic zone - the sunlit upper layers of the ocean where a whopping 90% of all marine life flourishes - shrinking dramatically as less light penetrates the water. Alarmingly, researchers from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory report that over 9% of the ocean (an area larger than Africa) has seen photic zones retreat by more than 50 metres, while 2.6% has seen a drop of more than 100 metres. While the full implications remain uncertain, scientists fear it could affect "huge numbers of the planet's marine species and ecosystem services provided by the ocean as a whole.", reports the Express. However, it's not all doom and gloom. Around 10% of global oceans - some 37 million square kilometres - have actually grown lighter over the same period, with changes possibly linked to plankton communities, rainfall, and agricultural runoff. Dr Thomas Davies, Associate Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Plymouth, explained:. "There has been research showing how the surface of the ocean has changed colour over the last 20 years, potentially as a result of changes in plankton communities. "But our results provide evidence that such changes cause widespread darkening that reduces the amount of ocean available for animals that rely on the sun and the moon for their survival and reproduction." He added: "We also rely on the ocean and its photic zones for the air we breathe, the fish we eat, our ability to fight climate change, and for the general health and wellbeing of the planet. Taking all of that into account, our findings represent genuine cause for concern." The team analysed two decades of satellite data using NASA's Ocean Colour Web, which breaks the global ocean into 9km-wide pixels. Light availability was then calculated using a high-tech algorithm to estimate photic zone depth. Among the most affected areas are the Arctic and Antarctic, and the Gulf Stream, which are already undergoing some of the most dramatic transformations on the planet due to climate change. Closer to home, the UK's waters have seen mixed results. The North Sea, Celtic Sea, parts of the English and Scottish east coasts, Wales, and the Irish Sea have darkened - while the English Channel and northern waters near Orkney and Shetland have brightened. Professor Tim Smyth, from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, issued a stark warning about the underappreciated dynamism of the ocean: "The ocean is far more dynamic than it is often given credit for. For example, we know the light levels within the water column vary massively over any 24 hour period, and animals whose behaviour is directly influenced by light are far more sensitive to its processes and change." He went on to highlight the potential ecological impact, "If the photic zone is reducing by around 50 metres in large swathes of the ocean, animals that need light will be forced closer to the surface where they will have to compete for food and the other resources they need." Smyth stressed this could precipitate dramatic shifts in marine life: "That could bring about fundamental changes in the entire marine ecosystem." His remarks accompany the publication of a pivotal study, 'Darkening of the Global Ocean', recently featured in Global Change Biology.
Spectator
2 days ago
- Spectator
How the US military became world experts on the environment
In 1941, as it entered the second world war, the US Army barely bested Bulgaria's for size and combat readiness. Nor did US forces have very much idea of what conditions were like in their new theatres of operation. In the winter of 1942, hot-weather gear and lightweight machinery landed in the deserts of North Africa where hot and dry conditions were assumed to persist throughout the year. Men froze half to death, even as their digging equipment foundered in winter mud. Sand, Snow and Stardust is the story of how the US military shed its ignorance and, by harnessing logistical intelligence and environmental knowledge, turned America into a global superpower. Before the second world war the US operated just 14 overseas military bases. By 1960 its 'leasehold empire' of more than 1,000 bases webbed the Earth and extended its influence over even the most extreme environments. In Greenland during the Cold War, bizarrely named bases proliferated across the landscape: SnoComp and Dogsled, Crystal Party and Snowman; Camp Fistclench, Camp Redrocks and Camp Century. It was an effort that was horribly wasteful and often wrong-headed; yet, in the final analysis, it was overwhelmingly successful, at least in turning a glacial valley in Greenland into a modern base that has been in operation since 1952. (In 2023 Camp Century was renamed Pituffik and given a new mission as a base for the US Space Force.) So here's the paradox that exercises Gretchen Heefner, a historian at Northwestern University, Illinois: the effort to establish military bases in extreme environments – laying airstrips across deserts and snowfields, anchoring radar stations into permafrost and pure ice – did evident and lasting harm to those environments; but it also left us with much better knowledge of how Earth environments tick.
