The mighty J58 engine, the SR-71’s secret powerhouse
An evening pause: For the geeks out there, this video is a very nice and detailed explanation of the engineering that makes this jet engine so powerful.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tag: aviation
Retired test pilot buys his own Harrier
An evening pause: Here is an fine example of a man following his dream and making it happen.
Hat tip Danae.
Two Eagles manned balloon breaks record
The privately funded Two Eagles manned balloon has set a new endurance record as it drifts parallel to the west coast.
The team is making good progress in its flight parallel to the west coast of the United States and is now approximately 400 miles west of the Mexican border. It is still expected the landing will occur tomorrow (Saturday) morning on the Baja peninsula in Mexico. Pilots Leonid Tiukhtyaev (two-kh-TIE-yev) and Troy Bradley and the Mission Control team will be very busy during the final hours of the flight using winds at different altitudes to steer the balloon to a safe landing in Baja.
A plane is born
An evening pause: Hat tip George Petricko.
Six Turnin and Four Burnin
An evening pause: From the 1955 Jimmy Stewart film Strategic Air Command. The B-36, with both propeller and jet engines, was soon superseded, but the takeoff, as captured so well in the movie, is impressive. It was a big plane.
Hat tip again to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
FAA moves to regulate and thus destroy drone use
We’re here to help you: The FAA is considering a new rule to require a pilot’s license in order to operate a private drone, even drones more akin to model airplanes.
The proposed rules would require that a drone owner would have to get certified as a pilot, “certification that can cost $10,000 and demand many hours flying aircraft that control nothing like a little drone.”
“Knowing the proper flap setting on a short runway approach for a Cessna 172 doesn’t do any good for a DJI Phantom [an inexpensive and popular commercial drone],” said Matt Waite, a University of Nebraska professor and founder of the Drone Journalism Lab. “A lot of people out there already running businesses in conflict with FAA policy, who don’t have pilot licenses, are probably looking at this like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.'”
Gee, here we have a new industry that is growing and prosperous, with many people coming up with creative ideas for using drones that none of its inventors ever dreamed of, and the government wants to step in and control it, regulating it to a point where it can’t even exist legally. Isn’t that nice of them?
The 707 turns 60
The sixtieth anniversary of Boeing’s 707 passenger jet and how it changed aviation history.
The pictures are cool, but read it for the history. Sixty years ago the ability of ordinary citizens to span the globe quickly and easily suddenly became possible, and that ability has changed the world.
The solar-powered experimental airplane Solar Impulse 2 made its maiden flight on Monday.
The solar-powered experimental airplane Solar Impulse 2 made its maiden flight on Monday.
The solar-powered aircraft took off at 5:36 AM CET, when the weather around the aerodrome was at its calmest, with pilot Markus Scherdel at the controls. The aircraft flew for two hours and 17 minutes, reaching an altitude of 1,670 m (5,500 ft) and a ground speed of 55.6 km/h (30 kt). According to Solar Impulse, the in-flight data indicates that the aircraft slated to make the first all-solar global circumnavigation flight performed to expectations.
The goal is to use this plane to fly around the world in 2015. Videos of the take off and landing below the fold. The plane gets off the ground very quickly, does not move very fast, and is balanced precariously on a single set of wheels in the center. If you look closely before takeoff, there are two guys literally holding the wings up at each end to balance it. They have to run with the plane for the first few seconds until it gets enough lift to balance on its own. The landing video shows both bicyclists and men racing to meet up with the wings to hold them up once the plane stops.
» Read more
“Can anyone on board fly an airplane?”
A feel good story: “Can anyone on board fly an airplane?”
The crashes that changed aviation and plane designs forever.
The crashes that changed aviation and plane designs forever.
Like the 1964 Alaska earthquake, sometimes bad things have to happen to force humans to face a problem and fix it.
An incredible collection of photos from the Edwards Air Force Base 2009 open house air show.
An incredible collection of photos from the Edwards Air Force Base 2009 open house air show.
It includes close-ups of Scaled Composites’ WhiteKnight motherships for SpaceShips One and Two.
To save fuel United Airlines is adding additional winglets to the wingtips of their airplanes.
To save fuel United Airlines is adding additional winglets to the wingtips of their airplanes.
The radical re-sculpting of traditional winglets adds a new tip below the upturned one that sharply curve backwards like a scimitar. That further reduces wingtip vortices that drag on the wingtips. Each traditional pair of winglets on the 737 cuts fuel consumption by 3.5% to 4% on flights of more than 1,000 nautical miles. The split scimitar upgrade—which costs $545,000, before discounts–will reduce fuel burn by up to 2% more, says United, which hopes to save up to $60 million a year because of the devices, once its fleet is outfitted.
Very smart. Expect to see these winglets appear on all commercial jets in short order.