Fuel for Thought

Paid to break stuff!

           Had a long run over night last night... just a light load going to Buffalo, New York.  It's final destination was Quebec, Canada, but it was being transferred to another driver as it was too long for me to take direct.  I picked up a place I"d never been, but it would sure be a cool place to work. As I drove back the long entrance road to the facility, I kept hearing a plane that sounded big, and very close! I kept looking for a low flying plane, or a landing strip, but never did see one.  I drove on back to the shipping dock, which was situated between some huge buildings. Turns out this was a commercial testing site where they tested jet engines!  I talked to one of the guys, and he told me their job was to basically try to break multi-million dollar engines all day! They would shoot birds (dead of course.. LOL)... ice, rocks, sand, etc... into running jet engines, trying to find the limits of each particular engine, and trying to find ways to deal with each problem.  In the end, if the engine lasted, they would detonate explosives in the intake vanes to simulate a catastrophic failure.

         Paid to break stuff... BIG stuff... what a cool job!

Dale is a Solo Van Owner Operator leased to FedEx Custom Critical. He can be reached with comments at [email protected]