Mach (pronounced mak, mahk or moch)
A
number indicating the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in
the medium through which the object is moving. Also known as the Mach number; standard abbreviation is M.
1937: Named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Dr Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach (1838–1916) who devised the system of speed measurement based on the Mach number. He’s remembered also as the founder of logical positivism, asserting the validity of a scientific law is proved only after empirical testing. The Mach number is important in the understanding of fluid dynamics and represents the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound (Mach 1.0). It’s most applied to aircraft which are classified:
Subsonic Mach <1.0
Transonic Mach =1.0
Supersonic Mach >1.0
Hypersonic Mach >5.0
The speed of sound varies, reducing at higher altitudes and if aircraft exceed about 250 mph (400 km/h), air near the aircraft is disturbed, locally changing the density. This compression, increasing with speed, alters the force on the aircraft and is of great importance to aerodynamicists and structural engineers. The Mach number is within the science of fluid dynamics because air is fluid and, at hypersonic speeds, the energy of the airframe affects the chemical bonds which hold together the nitrogen and oxygen molecules of air, the heated atmosphere becoming an ionized plasma of gas. That’s why spacecraft re-entering earth’s atmosphere need to be insulated from high temperatures. Mach 1 was first exceeded by an aircraft in level flight in 1947 but man-made objects travelling at that speed had long-existed, even before modern ballistics. The crack of a whip is actually the sonic boom caused by the tip exceeding Mach 1.
The 1969
Ford Mustang Mach 1
Unlike Ford’s later Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs, both powered by genuine racing engines, 1969’s outwardly similar Mustang Mach 1 was a less ambitious machine for street and strip and available with a variety of engines, one of which, thanks to a little Dearborn mendacity, was very competitive in the then highly popular sport of pro-stock drag-racing. A moniker like Mach 1 is known in contract law as mere puffery, the notion being that in advertising it's possible to assert things which (1) can be neither proven nor disproven or (2), are so absurd no reasonable person would take them seriously. In 1969 nobody took literally the idea a Mustang could break the speed of sound which was just as well because, at ground level, Mach 1 is 767 mph (1235 km/h) while the top speed of the most powerful Mustang Mach 1 was about 130 mph (210 km/h) or Mach 0.171. Actually, most were built for drag-racing and geared for acceleration rather than top-end speed so few were capable of more than 115 mph (185 km/h) or Mach 0.151.
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with 428 (FE Series) CobraJet V8.
Hankering for a seven litre (427 cubic inch) version, Ford had added their 427 V8 (FE Series) to the Mustang’s option list for 1968 but none were built (although Shelby did one (or two depending on how such things are counted) and an uncertain number were fitted by dealers pursuant to customer request. Probably now most remembered from service in the Ford GT40 and the AC Shelby Cobra, the 427 was a famously powerful and robust unit, a trophy winner on circuits from Daytona to Le Mans but was also cantankerous, noisy, an oil-burner and, perhaps most importantly for Ford, expensive to build because of its complex lubrication and cylinder width at the extreme limit of the block’s capacity. It had also reached the end of its development so, until their new Boss 429 V8 (385 series) became available, Ford hotted-up the previously unremarkable 428 V8 (FE), used until then smoothly to propel big luxury cars like the Thunderbird and LTD. Pleasingly for Ford, the 428 developed for the Mach 1 gained its increased output from bolt-on bits and pieces and was cheap to produce.
Belying its dramatic appearance, the nose-heavy 428 Mach 1 was actually pretty bad at just about everything except the straight-line, quarter-mile sprints at which it excelled though Ford cheated to achieve even these 400 metre-long successes. Upon its debut in 1968, the National Hot Rod Association (drag-racing’s sanctioning body) allocated vehicles to competition classes on the basis of manufacturers’ declared power-outputs. Ford claimed the new 428 CobraJet generated 335 horsepower which was quite an understatement, something which allowed it to dominate that year’s national championships. After that, the authorities cracked down and used their own assessments but by then the 428 CobraJet had done its job and such was the glow of the reflected glory that Ford sold over 70,000 Mach 1 Mustangs in 1969. Not all were equipped with the big block 428 (a 390 cubic inch (6.5 litre) FE was also available which was about as heavy as the 428 but less powerful) and as road cars, those fitted with the small block (Windsor) 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) V8 were probably more suited to what most people did most of the time. Ford produced the Mustang Mach 1 between 1969 and 1978 although the 1974-1978 models are not well regarded, the name revived in 2003-2004 for a small production run and in 2021 the Mach 1 returned to the Mustang range.
Almost fifty years to the day after US Air Force (USAF) pilot Chuck Yeager (1923-2020), flying a rocket-powered Bell X-1 aircraft, broke the sound barrier in Earth's atmosphere, RAF Pilot Andy Green (b 1962) set the absolute land speed record (LSR) driving the Thrust SST to a speed of 763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h) over the stipulated flying mile (1.6 km). It was the first time a land vehicle officially broke the sound barrier. Powered by two afterburning Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines (the same type used by the British version of the F-4 Phantom II jet fighter) developing a net thrust of some 50,000 lb/f (223 kN) which equates to something in excess of 100,000 bhp (76 MW), the Thrust SST's record still stands. Weighing a impressive 10 tons, at full throttle the fuel burn-rate was some 4.0 gallons (4.8 US gallons; 18 litres) per second or a tiny fraction of a mile per gallon. Under the LSR rules mandated by the World Motor Sport Council, for a record officially to be sanctioned, there must be two runs in opposite directions within a certain elapsed time and the council confirmed the speed of sound was exceeded on both runs on 15 October 1997 at Black Rock Desert, Nevada (USA).
The only known photograph of the Anglo-French Concorde flying at Mach 2 (at 25,000 feet (7600 m) Mach 2 is 1,356 mph; 2,186 km/h; 1,185 knots), taken from a Royal Air Force (RAF) Panavia Tornado fighter while over the Irish Sea, April 1985.
Machboos
Lindsay Lohan in an interview published in the November 2022 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine revealed her favorite Middle-Eastern dish to cook was machboos, part of Arab cuisine throughout the region and prepared almost always with chicken with rice and vegetables. A kind of blend of biryani and risotto, the rice is cooked in the spiced broth of the meat or chicken, melding the spices and ingredients. Rice is a core component of Arabic cooking and interestingly, in Arabic it’s known as ruz but in the Khaleeji dialect it is aish (life) while in Egyptian Arabic, aish refers to bread, an indication of its centrality to the diet. Like hummus, between nations (and even families) in the Middle East, there’s often disagreement about how machboos should be prepared, most of the arguments revolving around the bzar (the spice mix) but it’s certainly adaptable, able to be served with achaar (mango or lime pickle), daqoos (a spicy tomato sauce), or yoghurt with chopped cucumber and mint.
Ingredients (for serving 4-6) (from Table Tales: Exploring Culinary Diversity in Abu Dhabi (Rizzoli)).
6 tablespoons plain yogurt, divided
2 tablespoons Emirati bzar spice mix,
divided
1½ kg chicken, cut into pieces
500 g basmati rice
80 mls vegetable oil
5 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
10 black peppercorns
2 whole lumi, cracked
450 grams onions, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, crushed
1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
4 small green chilies, halved
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander powder
285 grams canned tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking oil as required
450 grams potatoes, peeled and cubed
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Garnish
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
85 grams raw cashews
55 grams raisins
Fresh coriander, chopped
Instructions
(1) Combine 4 tablespoons of yoghurt with 1 tablespoon of the bzar in a large bowl. Coat the chicken and then marinade for 1 hour or longer. Rinse the rice and soak in enough water to cover for 1 hour; drain.
(2) Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, peppercorns and lumi and stir for 2 minutes. Add the onions and sauté until golden. Add ginger, garlic, and green chilies and stir for 2 minutes.
(3) Add the chicken and marinade and then cook for a few minutes on each side. Sprinkle in the turmeric, the remaining bzar, cumin, and the coriander powder.
(4) Add the tomatoes, salt, and 2 cups of water; bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is done. Transfer the chicken to a roasting pan.
(5) Remove the cinnamon stick and lumi from the stock and discard. Add the potatoes and fresh coriander and boil until the potatoes are just tender. Adjust the stock to get a one-to-one ratio with the rice. Stir in the remaining yoghurt until dissolved and then add the rice. Seal the Dutch oven with aluminum foil, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes until the rice is done.
(6) Turn on the oven broiler. Brush the chicken with some oil and broil until golden. Serve the rice on a platter with the chicken pieces on top. Garnish with sautéed onions, cashews, raisins, and fresh coriander.
Garnish Instructions
(7) Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil and onions; sauté until they are dark brown, but not burnt. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sauté the cashews in the same oil until golden brown. Finally, add the raisins during the last few minutes to complete.
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