The World’s Biggest T-Rex, as WWII Airplanes
Mr. T, looking over from his computer: “Did you hear, they found the bones of a 20,000 pound T-Rex?”
Me, looking over from my computer: “Is that big?”
T, shock evident: “It’s more than the weight of an elephant.”
Me, unimpressed: “Well, shouldn’t T-Rexes be the weight of elephants? That doesn’t seem that big.”
T, eyes rolling: …
Me: “Give me a sense of scale. I can’t picture it.”
T, consulting the news article about researchers finding the world’s largest T-Rex skeleton in Canada: “It was 40-feet long. That’s like two RV-4s end-to-end.”
Me, thinking about the little two-seat airshow plane he flies: “That still doesn’t sound that big. Is it like a B-25 size?”
T, googling the length of the B-25 and finding it’s 53 feet: “Nope, too long.”
As I wonder aloud: “Maybe a Hellcat?” T types “TBM Avenger length” into a search bar. Bingo, Google pops up all the specs for the TBM, including its 41-foot nose-to-tail length.
T: “So, it’s the size of a TBM Avenger… But,” he pauses, flipping back to the previous page, “The WEIGHT of a B-25.”
We’re now both chuckling, me doing my impression of T-Rex arms. Then T turns back to the screen to reference the TBM’s flying specifications and its maximum airspeed, and shouts, “Now imagine that flying at 275 miles an hour WITH TEETH coming right at yah!”
[All the laughter]
And that, my friends, is how avgeeks talk dinosaurs before dinner.
xoxo,
shawna
