If you ever want to convince someone that flying is magical, just remind them that scientists still can’t explain exactly how a wing produces lift. Theories abound. For a long time it was all thanks to Daniel Bernoulli and the idea that an airfoil accelerates the airflow, which means it must lose pressure perpendicular to the wings, thereby sucking you, your airplane and your credit cards … Continue reading Need a lift?
He was born on a Pembina, North Dakota farm on May, 17th 1923. He died today, Christmas Day, in 1944. Donald J Emerson enlisted as a US Army Air Forces armourer as soon as he’d finished high school. Early the next year, 1943, he learned that entry requirements for pilot training had been lowered and he jumped at the opportunity. By January 1944 he … Continue reading On Christmas
I’ll try to keep the Beauty Shots short and sweet, so if you’d like to read a little more about these vapour cones, you’ll find the info here. Click for the bigger picture, obviously… And if you’d like a big, clean copy of this shot for yourself, you can get it here. But don’t be fooled… As an interesting aside, there’s a YouTube video that keeps popping up … Continue reading Rapture
All this talk of future commercial airplanes rings with echoes of the past. Of course the 1940s’ Horten and Northrop flying wings are well known. But Britain was pushing on the technological ceiling at the same time – with their Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52. A grand vision While not a true flying wing (it had vertical surfaces at each wing tip for yaw control) the A.W.52 was … Continue reading A.W.52
An avweb flash entitled Smaller Aircraft Tails Possible caught my eye back on December 5th. It linked to a story from CalTech, called Sweeping Surfaces for Greener Planes – relating how researchers at that eminent institution hope to reduce tail sizes (and weight, and drag, and fuel consumption) by using active flow control air to supplement the authority of a smaller rudder at low airspeeds. Changing the … Continue reading Airline futures
An insightful, if somewhat raw, quote from Eastern Airlines’ boss Eddie Rickenbacker. Clearly a design connoisseur, the irascible WW1 ace made the comment in 1958, on being shown proposed seat covers for Eastern Airlines’ new Lockheed Electra fleet. And here’s another view of VH-VXB with a bit more info (click to view full sized)… Continue reading Seat Cover
More than half of the RFC pilots killed during World War One died in training, not combat. So although Canadian Billy Bishop would claim 72 victories, he had to face the most dangerous part of war flying first… I tried very hard On November 1st, 1916, I was sent to a school for elementary training in the air. This consisted, first of all, in going up … Continue reading Billy Bishop VC
I’ve managed to invent (to the best of my knowledge) a new game for aviation fans. I was in Sydney this week (my six-mile-high commute) and, while I was riding the train to visit a friend, I noticed I was in carriage number N5334. ‘Hmm,’ thought the avgeek in me, ‘that sounds like an RAF serial number.’ It was an off-chance, but I had nothing better … Continue reading Planespotting
An article on Daniel Uhr’s digital art and book, Lufwaffe Confidential, which he co-created with author Claudio Lamas de Farias, (see Inside Loupe, airscape 3) stirred a long-dormant line of interest in me. I’d long wondered how much German science moved west, and east, before the Iron Curtain came down. Turns out – a big lot. In my mildly obsessive Googling, I came across Scientists and Friends, a … Continue reading The Mother Lode of Invention
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