June 18, 2006
Yes, this really did happen...
...yesterday at Vertical Challenge 2006 at San Carlos Airport, California, a car hoisted down the length of a runway, then dropped it:
I'm very happy I had my Olympus E-1 kit in the trunk of my car, since my friend and I stumbled on this airshow quite by accident, seeing all the helicopter activity from the highway whilst driving north intending to watch the jumbos landing at SFO, from the shoreline at Burlingame.
June 16, 2006
Sitting back seat felt weird tonight
I'm not used to sitting back seat in a small plane. Tonight I did sit backseat, during someone else's instrument training (missed approaches, VOR/RNAV/GPS approaches, etc.) and found I learned an incredible amount about instrument flying that is sometimes hard to absorb when you are in the hot seat (as I usually am).
I took the opportunity in the back seat to watch the plane's altimeter over the PIC's shoulder as I correllated it with altitude readings I was taking with the SU-1 barometer modification on my Yaesu VX-5R handheld HT. At 4000 and 5000 feet altitudes in the San Francisco Bay area, over 2 hours of flying with reported surface barometric pressures of between 29.94 and 29.98 inches of mercury, without calibration, I was getting agreement ranging from 0 to 200 feet. It'll be interesting to see how much better the agreement is after I RTFM and do a pre-flight calibration.
April 21, 2006
Quote of the Day
All of the liability problems of general aviation manufacturers were brought on by their own lawyers. They maintained that they couldn't afford to fight these cases, when in truth they couldn't afford not to. Ford fought their Pinto case to the Supreme Court and had a $125 million judgment against them thrown out of court. Nobody sues Ford capriciously anymore.
Scott Crossfield, aviation legend, who died yesterday at the age of 84 while piloting his Cessna 210
Courtesy of AVweb
December 23, 2005
Gene Whitt's aviation essays
My pilot friend David recommended this colossal collection of aviation-related essays by Gene Whitt.
October 11, 2005
Quote of the Day
As long as the government doesn't mandate "one-size-fits-all," I don't care what the private companies do. There will always be one or two renegades who will see the obvious market opportunities and offer various levels of security. Personally, I want to fly with the clothes-optional-guns-mandatory-girls-fly-free airlines.
Sandy Sandfort
September 21, 2005
jetBlue pilots: you guys rock!
As I write this, I'm seeing live footage of the aftermath of the jetBlue Airways flight which just made an emergency landing of an Airbus with a stuck nosegear at LAX. What an amazing landing! Hell, the pilot & first officer kept the aircraft exactly in line with the runway's centerline, right to the very end. Whoo hoo! You guys rock!
August 17, 2005
"See Earthrise from lunar orbit"
A week ago, I caught a short segment of Fox News' business anchor Neil Cavuto interviewing Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, who was promoting his company's Deep Space DSE-Alpha program, a privately-funded Soyuz-based circumlunar expedition. I noticed, not for the first time, a surprising skepticism about private space travel from the normally highly pro-free enterprise Cavuto, who seems to be nurturing a serious blind spot on the matter, a dangerous case of NASA-romanticization.
Me, I'm sanguine about the DSE-Alpha, and hope to see Anderson's enterprise succeed. In the meantime, someone needs to buy Neil Cavuto a copy of Victor Koman's "Kings of the High Frontier." Abolish NASA, get the government out of the space business, and let people like Anderson do their thing without subsidy or interference.
August 10, 2005
Quote of the Day
Can you Breathe in Freefall?
At 120mph, inhaling is real easy. If you find it difficult to exhale, panic and scream, which is just another way to exhale. Then inhale which, as mentioned, is very easy at that speed.
In short, yes, you can breathe in freefall.
February 18, 2005
"The Five-Billion-Star Hotel"
This looks good: Las Vegas hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is building space habitats based on designs that were apparently too cost-effective for NASA. Expect the first to be on orbit by 2010.
February 6, 2005
Space tourism touted on the SuperBowl
Just saw this a few minutes ago on a SuperBowl TV commercial: Richard Branson & Volvo team up in a contest to give away a suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic.
November 10, 2004
"Getting Into The Launch Business: The Amroc Story"
Most of us are familiar with the events marking the Ansari X Prize winning flights of SpaceDev's SpaceShip One recently. Far fewer, however, know of the story of the American Rocket Company (AMROC), the pioneering company whose intellectual property lives on in that prize-winning ship: the revolutionary hybrid rocket engine that sent it to the edge of space, twice. Read on...
July 29, 2004
eMachineShop: your toys, delivered to your door
Brian Smith passes on this fantastic link to a placed call eMachineShop. Their blurb:
eMachineShop is the remarkable new way to get the custom parts you need. Download our free software, draw your part, and click to order - it's that easy! Your part will be machined and delivered. Even better, your cost is low due to the Internet, software, and automated machines.
Why waste time traveling, calling, faxing or emailing to conventional machine shops? Reduce your total time up to 90% and open doors to new products and projects. Intelligent design software gives instant exact pricing, expert feedback, and unrivaled convenience.
I took machining in college a few years ago (and have some military experience in a related field), but I don't have the setup to do some of the stuff I'd like to have. Now, I'm thinking of commissioning a number of cool toys I've been hankering after.
July 26, 2004
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
As I mentioned earlier, I saw "I, Robot" last night. Right before the movie began, I saw a spectacular trailer for an alternate universe fantasy, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. It looks like a great deal of fun, and I'm looking forward to its September release.
I mentioned this on a mailing list last night, adding that Zeppelins were featured prominently in the trailer, to which listmember Chris Claypoole offered this observation:
...[this phenomenon falls] under the purview of Hite's Law: "All change points, from Xerxes to the last presidential election, create worlds with clean, efficient Zeppelin traffic."
Every alternate history can be differentiated from our own by the presence of airships. *Every* one. So, if you're ever not sure whether you're in an alternate universe, look up.
July 24, 2004
Neil Armstrong: The Awful Truth
Just a few short days after the 35th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's historic moonwalk, we learn the unalloyed truth about what he really said on that occasion:
In 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man to walk on the moon, uttering the immortal phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Or did he? Previously suppressed footage discovered by blogjam shows that Armstrong's reaction was a great deal more uninhibited than history suggests, and that a hasty editing job was needed to prepare the astronaut's moment of glory for broadcast.
July 12, 2004
Quote of the Day
This is very much like the arguments I've been having with those who believe only government is capable of "real" science, of "pure" research. Yes, indeed it did take 43 years for private efforts to repeat the sub-orbital flight of [Alan] Shepherd.
But Rutan['s ship] returned to earth with everything he left with except his fuel, a feat that Government has never achieved.
Curt Howland
June 25, 2004
BATF forcing rocket amateurs out of the field
This is nasty and upsetting news from Steve Pegram: "Rocket Hobbyists Dropping Hobby" due to hamfisted, jackbooted regulation by the goons of the BATF. Just when we're seeing the spirit of innovation in rocketry and space travel rekindled, the government is working to snuff that spirit. This crap needs to be fought... which seems to be happening by default, since many rocket hobbyists have chosen to ignore F-Troop anyway.
The STOL CH 801 kit aircraft
Kristopher K. Barrett has turned me on to investigating a kitplane that he himself has been in the process of building: the STOL CH 801 kit aircraft.
June 23, 2004
Yet more: tour bus to space?
This is getting even more interesting: Eric Pavao sends along yet another piece (Popular Science) on the SpaceShipOne flight, this one intimating that Burt Rutan has a lot more up his sleeve:
After winning the X-Prize, Rutan will quickly move on to other challenges. During press conferences leading up to Monday's flights, he dropped hints about "going to orbit sooner than you think," an apparent allusion to the Tier 3 orbital space-vehicle program that he is reportedly involved in. The SpaceShipOne program is known as Tier 1, and Tier 2 would probably be a tour-bus-like version of the same concept, a vehicle capable of carrying up to 10 passengers on suborbital space flights. Under his contract with Allen, Rutan is required to deliver data on how much such a vehicle would cost to build and fly. Mojave Aerospace--a new company jointly owned by Allen and Rutan and disclosed this week--will own the rights to SpaceShipOne technology and would oversee future franchising and commercialization efforts for the system. Details will remain secret, said the cagey Rutan, "until we're ready to push something out of the door."
More video coverage of SpaceShipOne flight
Bill St. Clair passes along this SpaceShipOne flight coverage with video (you'll need to enable pop-ups in your browser).
Quote of the Day
The success of SpaceShipOne feels like a reward for my faith. I can’t say I’m terribly surprised – relief is more the word. If I were anywhere near the Mojave desert instead of freezing through a London summer, I would have travelled myself to witness it.
It’s a shining example of what like-minded people would say is the ultimate freedom – the freedom to create, to produce, to take risk, to try and also to fail. The freedom that can only fully be realized where our money (our very lives) isn’t taxed away for a variety of hare-brained political schemes and our lives aren’t regulated to the point of absurdity.
Most Americans reading this would have paid for NASA through their taxes – where’s your return on investment? I’m willing to bet that the VCs who stumped up for SpaceShipOne are looking forward to some long term return on their money.
I hope that those who advocate the big-government nanny state for various reasons sit up and take notice this week. This is what we humans are capable of – without the interference, guidance or regulation of beaurocracy.
June 21, 2004
"SpaceShipOne, Government Zero"
This is the in-flight face of the first non-government, privately-financed test pilot to earn American astronaut's wings:
The full story here. Now go out and buy a copy of Victor Koman's "Kings of the High Frontier."
Space history to be made in less than 7 hours
The world's first privately funded manned spaceflight will occur in less than 7 hours from now, with the takeoff of the carrier ship and spaceship from Mojave Airport at 0630 California time.
June 15, 2004
Japan takes delivery of first new Zeppelin airship
Via Eric Pavao: Japanese company takes delivery of first new Zeppelin airship, a 247-foot updated helium version of the original ships.
June 3, 2004
1st private manned space flight happens June 21st!
Eric Pavao passes on this fantastic news: SpaceShipOne will be making its first historic flight from Mojave in less than 3 weeks:
Mojave, CA: A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's atmosphere.
Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create a manned space program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's atmosphere. SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, it will demonstrate that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise. This event could be the breakthrough that will enable space access for future generations.
April 23, 2004
Quote of the Day
My Dad used to tell stories about air-baggers back in the 1920's; these were people who strapped bags full of hydrogen to harnesses they wore, setting the contents to near-neutral buoyancy. He described their activities as jumps that could take them 50 feet in the air or higher, with the main danger being getting caught in trees and electrical wires.
April 22, 2004
Foresight Senior Associates Gathering 14-16 May 2004, Palo Alto CA
I'll be attending all 3 days of the 14-16 May 2004 Foresight Senior Associates Gathering in Palo Alto, California. I very highly recommend this event to anyone interested in molecular nanotechnology. If you're not intimately familiar with nanotechnology, but want to learn, I enthusiastically recommend the 8-hour "Fundamentals of Nanotechnology" tutorial session on Friday: I'll be attending myself to dust off and deepen my own understanding.
January 12, 2004
FireFlyMovie.com: Guerrilla Marketing
FireFlyMovie.com is a "Guerrilla Marketing" effort of the Firefly fan community...
...dedicated to assuring that Joss Whedon's television masterpiece Firefly will someday grace the silver screen.
From what I've heard recently, the fan base may have succeeded in this effort.
Kirsten C. Tynan's "Space Entrepreneurship Network"
Just saw this on the smith2004-discuss list: Kirsten C. Tynan's "Space Entrepreneurship Network" website, which has a useful set of pointers to relevant "Treaties, Laws, and Regulation."
January 11, 2004
SciScoop, meet FuturePundit; FuturePundit, meet SciScoop
I have a bit of the matchmaker in my blood. Some months ago I mentioned FuturePundit; recently I mentioned SciScoop. Those blogs really should get together for drinks and dinner sometime soon, maybe catch a movie afterwards.
December 30, 2003
Quote of the Day
He won't fly on the Balinese airline, Garuda, because he won't fly on any airline where the pilots believe in reincarnation.
Spalding Gray
December 23, 2003
SciScoop: Exploring Tomorrow
It's great to get feedback on one's blog postings, especially when it results in the personal discovery of a great resource. Blog commenter Ricky James runs the compendious and incredibly interesting SciScoop: Exploring Tomorrow, which I strongly recommend telling all your friends about. So much to explore!
December 18, 2003
"SpaceShipOne Breaks the Sound Barrier"
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' pioneering flight. On the same day that a hobbiest at Kill Devil Hills was trying unsuccessfully to replicate that flight, the real news of the day went mostly unnoticed:
Today, a significant milestone was achieved by Scaled Composites: The first manned supersonic flight by an aircraft developed by a small company's private, non-government effort.
Rutan finally did it! This is fantastic news; congratulations to the Scaled Composites team. Images and a related story are available on Space.com.
November 5, 2003
Quote of the Day
A recent reader opinion letter author stated that the loss of the Columbia crew has caused him to question the value of human spaceflight and conclude that the space program has, "served its purpose". The letter writer offered several unsupported conclusions about space exploration. The most notable conclusion was that, "Man is not a spaceling".
If I follow the writer's logic correctly, we need to make some major changes in America. Apparently, man is not a suitable "roadling" either. Given that 26,000 people die in automobile accidents every year, we should stop making and driving autos. Fire fighting, law enforcement, football, auto car racing, and aviation also kill people every year. We should also ban those professions. Perhaps we should ban printing and burn books since we run the risk of getting a deadly infection from untreated paper cuts. Perhaps we should just all dig a hole in the ground, crawl in, cover our heads and never come out.
Man (including womankind) is not a timid creature. Fortunately, human beings have an irresistible urge to "push the edge of the envelope" and that includes challenging new frontiers. Like that letter writer, some early European commentators concluded that the newly "discovered" America was too forbidding and inhospitable to justify further exploration and settlement. Moving into space is as natural an act as breathing is for humans.
October 27, 2003
Quote of the Day
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to go to the forest to gather wood, saw it, and nail the planks together. Instead, teach them the desire for the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
October 24, 2003
British Airways retires its Concorde fleet today
The Concorde SST was finally retired by British Airways today, after years of running at a loss. As much of an Anglo-French boondoggle as it turned out to be, I've always been a bit fond of the plane: the idea of a supersonic transport has always been, um, sound; someone will do it right someday.
Years ago when I lived in London, I had the occasional pleasure of seeing a Concorde crossing over London on its way to or from Heathrow Airport, in climb or descent configuration, far enough away from the airport that its spindly landing gear were retracted and its nosecone was pulled up in its sleek inline (unbent) cruise configuration.
I even got to visit one of the birds, and step inside, ten years ago this autumn. I was part of a small group of people who toured catering operations for British Airways at Heathrow (long story) with a side trip to the Concorde hangar. I have a ton of pics from that trip, and even a couple of cool ones of myself in the Captain's seat in the narrow cockpit of the one plane we were allowed to enter. If I have time soon, I'll dig those out and scan a few to this site.
I really wish that BA would cave in to Richard Branson's attempts to buy a Concorde off its hands: a Virgin Atlantic Concorde might actually make money, as well as keep alive a fabulous piece of aviation history.
October 20, 2003
Quote of the Day
Novelist Victor Koman was dead right, when he said (in his great work, Kings of the High Frontier) that the actual mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — its not-so-hidden agenda, having nothing to do with the development of space travel and exploration — is to keep scum like you and me from ever getting into space.
At the same time (as Victor also points out), NASA mouthpieces have been telling the public since the 1960s that our being able to visit space, perhaps even vacationing on the Moon, or in zero gravity at a space station, was "only about thirty years away". That's what they said in the 60s, that's what they said in the 70s, that's what they said in the 80s, that's what they said in the 90s, and that's what they're still saying today. It's always just about thirty years away.
October 18, 2003
Course Review: Underwater Aircraft Escape with LTR
Survival Arts welcomes back old friend and contributor from the early days of this blog, Eric Cartman. - Russell
In September 1999 I had the opportunity to attend the 20th Annual SOF Convention. Part of my reason for going was to take advantage of the various training seminars offered which included jump, medical and underwater airframe escape. As it turned out most of the classes were canceled for various reasons, but the underwater airframe escape, given by Learn to Return Training Systems of Anchorage Alaska was not. Being a pilot, I this would be an interesting opportunity to expose myself to something new. Even though I had been flying for some time, I had never considered such training on my own, even though I regularly attend various training courses. The thought of what might happen if I ditched a plane or helicopter into water seemed simple enough. Emergency checklist, radio calls, open the doors or windows to keep water pressure from sealing you in, crash and exit the craft when/if you can. Seemed simple enough. Well, not really, as I was about to find out.
The Class
Training consisted of 4 hours of classroom time followed by hands-on simulator training in the hotel swimming pool. Although large facilities exist with mechanical “dunkers” which include complete sections of various airframes, LTR has also designed man-portable devices that they can bring to any facility that has a reasonably sized swimming pool.
The class consisted of about 8 people from various backgrounds from the military, law enforcement and civilian worlds. Everyone was treated pretty much the same. The class was taught by Brian Horner, the President of LTR, and John Evans. Both have extensive military and rescue experience as well as numerous other credentials. Their rescue experience became immediately evident during the initial slide show, which included a large number of photos from actual rescues. The slide presentation included some great images of helicopter ditches in progress, as well as some “rescue faux pas” such as a rescue boat getting caught up in the rotor of a sinking Sikorsky helicopter!
LTR does a lot of training of oil platform workers and others who routinely travel significant distances over water in rotorcraft. Unlike fixed wing aircraft, which tend to float even if flipped over during a water landing, helicopters have a high center of gravity and are often operated with no doors. This combination tends to lead to almost instant submersion upon completion of autorotation or, if the helicopter is well sealed, a roll-over followed by a slower inverted submersion. Many over-water rotorcraft are therefore fitted with inflatable pontoons that can be deployed in an emergency, thus allowing the craft to float upright... but even those systems can fail, as was evidenced by the picture of the sinking Sikorsky (its right pontoon developed a leak, leading to an eventual roll-over after everyone was evacuated).
The lecture covered basics such as the characteristics of survivors, heat loss and heat loss prevention. Various protective equipment and crash positions were explained, as were pre-crash techniques that one can use to reduce injuries once you get into the “ground phase” of your flight. Several generally useful tips for crash positions were provided, e.g. being certain that one’s lap belt buckle is accessible even if you are in the standard bent-over crash position. This allows you to get free of your seat even if injured or otherwise unable to sit up. There have been actual instances of people being trapped by their seatbelt. Also, the standard inflatable life vests provided on commercial jet aircraft can be worn and partially inflated to act as a cushion for the upper body upon impact.
The next segment of the lecture covered various impediments to exit after the crash, such as fire, smoke, lack of visibility due to water depth or turbidity and running out of air. This was followed by an explanation of the significance of knowing where the nearest exists are when boarding aircraft, understanding how to operate the window/door jettisons, and a technique that uses a pre-defined reference point to allow you to re-orient yourself after the crash even if you’ve had your brains well scrambled.
The final segment covered miscellaneous tidbits like the fact that fixed wing aircraft tend to sink nose first, which often results in panicked passengers and crew swimming up to the aft section where the last air bubble is and then becoming trapped due to lack of an exit point. Rescue procedures were also touched upon, including less known items such as the fact that helicopter rotors can create significant static charge on the flying craft. A rescue basket or line that is being lowered to you can give a strong shock if one reaches out to it before it touches the ground. This can also lead to ignition of spilled fuel floating on the water or ground.
With the classroom portion over, we were instructed to arrive at the hotel pool later that evening, fully clothed and with a towel…
Witch Dunking
I arrived 1900 at the hotel pool to a surreal scene. The SOF convention had a knife fighting contest that evening, so a platform was set up at one end of the pool and various “contestants” were getting ready. There was also a bar set up, and numerous people were milling around getting boozed up. Wannabes in their brand new BDUs, bikers, old Vets with beer guts, cleancut law enforcement types, manufacturer reps from the likes of Colt and H&K, press photographers and probably more than a few locals that just decided to see what was going on. The pool itself had dunking machines in the process of being set up, with an array of glaring halogen lights trained on it. It could have been the set of a James Bond movie, with the bad guys assembling their latest doomsday device. And the paramedics. Seems that the hotel insisted that an ambulance was on standby during the class lest they be held liable for something. Brian and John seemed annoyed at this last part, given that they had never had a serious injury during years of conducting such classes... not to mention that John was a Pararescueman and Brian is an EMT.
Over the next few minutes the rest of the class arrived and the first dunking machine was installed in the shallow end of the pool. The machine consisted of two aluminum crew type seats attached back-to-back on a long pole that was supported at both ends by an A-frame. This allowed the seats to sit at just above water level. The bottom of the A-frames were connected on the pool floor by a square frame which had a small vertically mounted door attached to the perimeter. If you dived under the water right next to the seats, the door looked like a cargo hatch you might find on the side of a small to medium aircraft. Two bright yellow grab handles were mounted on the frame next to each side of the door, one for each dunkee.
The infernal part of the apparatus was this: the pole to which the two seats were mounted on could rotate, thus taking both passengers from a comfortable, belted-in, upright position to being held upside down and under water in under a second. Not all that much different from the contrivances used to encourage “witches” to confess during the Inquisition. The only difference was that you got to go dual vs. solo. The following links shows the apparatus in use:
Preparing for the crash
Glug, glug...
Drowning in 4 feet of water
As it turned out, I was the last person to go through this. Not that I’m chicken or anything, it just worked out that way. Yeah. Before the simulator, we were instructed on the exact sequence of actions we should perform to get from being underwater, belted into the chair, to exiting through the make-believe aircraft hatch. The first step is to sit still until all motion stops: no point in popping your belt to get tossed around and lost in the water as it floods in. Next, you bring one of your hands to a predetermined spot on your body, such as your thigh and then, using touch, walk your fingers over to a known point that you can grab solidly, such as a door handle, arm rest or structural member. Once you have a solid grasp on this point, you pop your restraint system and pull yourself over to the hold point by contracting your arm muscles towards the torso. The purpose of this is to have a guaranteed known orientation before starting any movement towards an exit. It’s surprisingly easy to become disoriented when underwater, even when you have light and decent visibility... much less in pitch-black conditions.
I figured this was going to be easy. I had spent a lot of time in and under the water. I’d been caught and pounded into the sand by strong ocean surfs, stuck in rip tides and rivers that were so fast you couldn’t stay on your feet, and I could swim almost 50 meters under water. Now I was in the shallow end of a hotel pool, what could go wrong?
The dunker was turned over and I immediately got a snoot full of water. No nose plugs were allowed, as you don’t travel with them in the real world. Sure you can hold your nose, but at some point you need your free hand to release the seatbelt. We were told to expect this and just deal with it. Wanting to get my head upright and clear the water out of my nose, I immediately popped my belt, to hell with finding a reference point. As I fell out of the seat onto the pool bottom, I blew some air out of my nose to clear the water. Next step was to find the damn door and get topside. Hmmm, now where is the door? I was starting to notice that my air situation was getting a little uncomfortable. Yet even with my eyes open in a clear, lit pool I couldn’t seem to find that door. I knew it was only an arm's reach away, but still, no matter where I looked, no door. Ouch! My face scraped the concrete pool bottom as I was looking around. “What the hell is the pool bottom doing over there?” I thought to myself. At that point I realized that I was pretty much out of air and didn’t even know which way was up. OK, time to give it up, surface and take the well deserved barbs that will be coming. Now, which way is up? Damn, got to get some air. Since we wore clothing into the pool, the extra weight made me just about perfectly neutral in buoyancy, so there was no “floating to the top”. I then noticed the leg of one of the instructors in my peripheral vision as he approached. Probably wondering what the hell I was doing just lying on the bottom of the pool like an idiot. My orientation instantly returned and I saw the door, a few feet away. I surfaced, gasping for breath.
Once I got some air back into my lungs, the instructor explained to me what I had done wrong (dropping my restraint before having a grasp on my orientation point). I went through the simulation again, making damn sure I did exactly as I was told. No problem the second time around. Wait for the roll to stop, walk my hand out to the grab handle, drop the belt, pull myself to the handle. Once I’m at the handle I know which way is up and exactly where the door is. I’m out in 15 seconds with plenty of air left. This exercise was repeated a few times until everyone had it down.
The tunnel
We were given a break and allowed to get out of the water while another section was added to the dunker. It’s cold hanging around in dripping wet clothing, even in Las Vegas during the autumn, but it was nice to have some time to drain the 2-3 quarts of water from my sinuses. The new section added to the dunker was completely under water. A 20 foot ladder section was added to the frame at the pool bottom. The first 2-3 feet were bare and the next 10 were covered by a small tunnel made of nylon stretched over metal hoops. At the end of the tunnel was a frame that had a set of bungee cords stretched across it, and a few feet beyond that there was another aircraft type hatch, but with a more complicated latch setup. To exit the tunnel one had to worm his way through the net made of bungee cords.
We were instructed to get back in the pool two at a time and go through the same dunking routine, except that we had to exit via the tunnel. Except for some extra time and the initial novelty of the tunnel/ bungee combination, it was pretty much the same thing. After we had all been through, the new configuration we were told to gather around the instructor at the dunker side of the tunnel. We were told that our aircraft was about to ditch and we had 15 seconds to figure out what to do. Once the signal was given, everyone had to go under, and stay underwater until they exited via the hatch at the far end of the tunnel. The instructor started the countdown as we tried to organize ourselves in some reasonable fashion. At 15 seconds we all went under. It was nice to not have water up my nose this time around. I went next-to-last since I knew I could stay under for at least a minute if I were prepared. I patiently waited as people disappeared through the tunnel. As the person in front of me started in, I lined myself up and followed close behind. Knowing that there was one more person behind me, I opted to pull myself along without any leg movement. I had learned from previous experience that having people stacked up close with limbs flailing is a bad combination. Unfortunately the guy in front of me didn’t know this, and I got a nice kick in the face as he tried to get through the bungee barrier.
After this exercise we were paired up again, and got to go through the dunking routine, but with blackout goggles on. This part was surprisingly easy, once you got over the psychological aspect of “Oh shit, I can’t see, and I’m in an small enclosed space with only one way out.” The final phase was the group exit exercise again, but this time with everyone wearing blackout goggles. I made sure I was last that time and waited a few seconds after I felt the person in front of me move down the tunnel.
Each exercise was recorded and graded. People who had trouble were encouraged to repeat the exercise as many times as they were willing to go through it.
The cube
The final simulator involved a large man-sized cube built out of PVC pipe. The cube had a helicopter seat mounted inside as well as real cyclic and collective control sticks. The outside was covered with netting except for the left and right sides. The left side had a removable plexiglass window, and the right side had a pull-ring type jettisonable door. The cube was perched on the edge of the deep end of the pool. After the student climbed in, via the door, he was sealed in and then rolled off the edge by fellow students into the pool.
The instructors were always present in the water during any of the simulations, wearing dive masks, snorkels and separate air tanks and regulators ready, if someone got stuck (no one did). They would lend any required assistance, as well as watch for proper technique and cheating. Yes, people do cheat! Not everyone takes this course voluntarily. Many oil company employees are required to be certified in order to keep their jobs.
The instructors followed the sinking cube, and would add additional tumbling and rolling motion to it on the way down. Once the cube settled, the student would exit via the window or door jettison. As the night went on, this activity devolved into various taunts and prods followed by a hasty roll into the pool before the person in the cube could respond. Needless to say, every round of this led to ever more creative paybacks by the last person to be rolled in.
During the end of the class we were given the opportunity try on several cold-water survival suits (everyone was pretty well chilled from being in the water and in wet clothing for 3+ hours) as well as additional runs through the simulators. As fun as the course was, it was serious business. If you couldn’t perform the required tasks, you did not get a certificate. Several people opted out before the class was over.
I was offered more pool time in the following day’s class, but weaseled out due to still feeling like an amphibian from all the previous night’s water breathing.
About LTR: Costs & Contact Info
The basic course costs around U.S. $185, depending on where it is given. Included are a very useful information booklet and - if you pass the simulations - a certificate of completion that is good for 2 years. This certificate is required by many insurance carriers for people who routinely fly long distances over water in rotorcraft or small planes.
Although LTR is based in Alaska, they give training sessions all over the world, including cold weather survival, underwater aircraft escape using a HEEDs bottle, jungle survival, disaster & earthquake response and numerous other courses. Courses range from 2 to 96 hours of actual training time.
LTR Training Systems
230 East Potter Drive, Unit One
Anchorage, Alaska 99519
survival@alaska.net
Eric Cartman
October 14, 2003
China launches its first man in space... in secrecy, of course
Almost 10 months ago to the day, I wrote a short blurb on this blog about Shenzhou V, which was supposed to have carried 2 taikonauts. That launch happened today, in the same type of communist secrecy which surrounded Yuri Gagarin's launch so long ago, and featured only one taikonaut, Yang Liwei. CNN reports:
Quoted by Chinese media just before he blasted off into space, Yang said he would "gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation."
"I will not disappoint the motherland," he was quoted as saying. "I will complete each movement with total concentration."
All hail the "motherland": another ersatz superpower dedicated to making space its military summit. Yet another incident which compels me to recommend Victor Koman's Kings of the High Frontier.
September 30, 2003
The "Heinlein Prize" for space commercialization?
Just heard about this: "The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize for Accomplishments in Commercial Space Activities":
The Heinlein Prize is a cash award of $500,000 to an individual or individuals for practical accomplishments in the field of commercial space activities.
I'm not sure if this is newsworthy or not. I can't find on their site what they mean by "practical accomplishments," and after a bit of searching in the obvious places, I still can't find out where they get their funding. But it's interesting, nonetheless.
I suggest the Heinlein Prize people be as specific in their mission as the people at the X Prize Foundation.
April 18, 2003
"Passenger-Carrying Spaceship Makes Desert Debut"
YES! Just out today: Burt Rutan unveils Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne and its drop-ship, the White Knight.
Two years under wraps. Can't wait to see it up close.
Quote of the day
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci
April 17, 2003
Quote of the day
It is inconsistent with the nature of life - as revealed by the record of the past - for a species to remain in an environmental niche when the opportunity exists for escape. Most individuals of the species remain within the security and comfort of the environment to which they have become adapted... [But] certain individuals will always probe the limits of their environment. These adventurous few are the vanguard of a new development in the evolution of life... As most fish remained in the water, and most apes remained in the forest, just so, in tomorrow's world most of us will remain on the earth... But a small percentage of the human species... will leave us, and their descendants will spread out into the galaxy.
Robert Jastrow
Introduction to The Next Ten Thousand Years by Adrian Berry, 1974
April 4, 2003
More on the rape of Meigs Field
I'd mentioned this a short while ago; here's more information. Apparently this indeed did happen in the dead of night, 4 days ago. The NOTAMS on this page are gut-wrenching to read. See also the Friends of Meigs page (main one here) on the same site; one telling comment:
From Stuart Gitlow on 01-Apr-2003 How do we define terrorist: A terrorist would attack a public work of great importance to the community. A terrorist would attack the public work with no notice, no announcement, and no regard for those using the facility. A terrorist would ignore the needs and desires of those around him. A terrorist would destroy the target without any plan for replacing the services that facility provided. And a terrorist might attack in the dead of night, the better to proceed with his heinous plan without anyone noticing until it was too late.
Chicago's Meigs Field destroyed in overnight coup by mayor's wife
I heard first about this from a posting by Toren Smith last night. This morning I met my old flight instructor for racquetball, and it was the first topic of conversation. It's worse than I'd thought. I'm personally really pissed off at this because I visited that area of Chicago many years ago after Navy boot camp, and told myself that I'd eventually fly into that field. If you'd ever seen it - and the view from it - you'd be pissed too. Oh, and the only reason the polipukes were able to get their way with the field - the Mayor's wife wants a friggin' park there - was that this time they had - you guessed it - the excuse of (drumroll please): homeland security.
March 22, 2003
Der Schokoladen Flieger
Here's a great little vignette: the story of retired USAF Col. Gail Halvorsen, AKA "The Candy Bomber", the most famous pilot of the Berlin Airlift.
March 21, 2003
The Horror of Blimps
Thanks to Steve Pegram for passing on this dire warning. I needed the lift, so to speak...
March 17, 2003
FuturePundit: future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution
This is a great resource: "FuturePundit: future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution". This is one of the incredibly productive Randall Parker's 4 well-separated specialist blogs, and I plan to refer to it often.
March 1, 2003
Quote of the day
Manned spaceflight versus robotics? Let's see ... on your wedding night, would you be satisfied to send in a remote, and receive telemetered progress reports?
L. Neil Smith
Tactical Reflections
February 28, 2003
"Threat level for every flyer"
I heard about this yesterday. Thanks to Michael for sending me a link about it today.
Transportation officials say a contractor will be picked soon to build the nationwide computer system, which will check such things as credit reports and bank account activity and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.
I ask: what degree of police state are you people willing to put up with?
February 27, 2003
HighLift Systems: a commercial space elevator in our near future?
I just found out about HighLift Systems today. Looks like someone is trying seriously to make a business out of the space elevator concept.
February 21, 2003
Quote of the day
Take the best and make it better. If it doesn't exist, create it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.
Sir Henry Royce
February 20, 2003
Quote of the day
"But vehicles, they are different somehow. If you do not believe it is possible to love an inanimate object, then you do not know too many teenage boys and their first cars. Ships have always been she. Airplanes, too. And I don’t think this is so hard to figure out, because there is something about a machine that takes us places, something alive and magical. Many foreign observers of America simply cannot comprehend our love of automobiles, but that is because they have never had to face crossing Texas. There is a rite of passage for everyone in the US, and that is your first teenage road trip. And no matter what kind of piece of shit you may be driving when you take that trip, that machine is serving you up pure, unrefined freedom and it’s so delirious and liberating that it makes your head spin, and carves the songs you heard during those glorious hours into that part of your brain that makes you cry when you hear them again twenty and forty and sixty years later.
A guy on a Harley knows real freedom in the single, left and right direction of the highway. Sailors know it in two dimensions, the ability to point the bow anywhere on the compass and follow it, come what may.
And then there are those of us who have worked and studied and trained like hell so that we may know freedom in all three dimensions. Now a lot of people think this makes pilots a little arrogant and aloof. Not so. The average pilot, despite the sometimes swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy and caring. It’s just that these feelings don't involve anyone else."
Bill Whittle, in his essay Courage
February 19, 2003
Quote of the day
"I like to fly because it combines intelligence, ingenuity, passion, skill, discipline and guts. We do not flirt with danger. We try to get as far away from danger as we can. We look at the death of our friends and colleagues right in the eye so we know what it looks like when it comes for us. This is not a love or a fear of dying. This is confronting the fact that death is in fact real, and by doing so, by facing that, you do, indeed, develop courage.
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is taking action in the face of fear.
And I know courage is the stern face of love because I love to fly more than I fear being killed while flying. I do everything I possibly can to reduce the risks, knowing I can never eliminate them all. There comes a time when I can honestly tell myself I’ve been as careful as I know how to be, and then, and only then, is the time to strap in. I’ve made the risks and the fear as small as I can. The joy stays as large as it ever was."
Bill Whittle, in his essay Courage
February 18, 2003
If this man doesn't write a book, the world will be a poorer place for it
Very few people understand why some of us fly. Bill Whittle is one of those people. Stand warned: you will cry after reading his brilliant essay Courage.
February 7, 2003
Why Aren't We There Yet? by L. Neil Smith
An article today in the Sierra Times by L. Neil Smith accurately reflects the mix of emotions I've felt in the last week about the Columbia tragedy. He's also got some interesting things to say about the asbestos link in both the Challenger disaster and the early collapse of the Twin Towers.
As for the space shuttles' solid fuel rocket boosters, the next generation of O-rings was simply manufactured without the offending asbestos. During the first few minutes of Challenger's fatal flight, burning gases inside the rocket tube ate through the substandard O-rings, creating a jet of flame -- exactly like a welding torch -- that cut into the auxiliary fuel tank under the shuttle and ignited it.For whatever it's worth, it was exactly this same phenomenon -- an insane political correctness with regard to asbestos -- that allowed the World Trade Center towers to collapse several hours earlier than they would have, killing three thousand people, if the use of asbestos hadn't been abandoned partway through their period of construction.
Speaking of the Towers:
As to Easterbrook, his notions about "rebuilding" NASA -- he wants to send the shuttles to a museum and let the space station burn up in the atmosphere just like Skylab did -- are exactly like the notions of those who want to rebuild the World Trade Center to a smaller, more humble design. Me, I'd rebuild it a mile tall and put Phalanx guns on top.
Read the article. After you read that, then read the text of a speech Neil gave 15 years ago at the December 1987 Future of Freedom Conference in Culver City, California.
February 5, 2003
Koman's book still pretty hard to come by in London
I have to agree with Russell's earlier posting about the Koman book cover and the lackluster marketing of the book itself. I tried to get the book on Amazon.co.uk, and it wasn't even listed. So I ended up going to a Barnes and Noble site instead, and to be fair they shipped it over pretty fast.
Book covers do make a big difference, to state the obvious. I quite like the cover on Kings of the High Frontier but I agree that the cover could be a lot better. The covers on books by folk like Vernor Vinge, Peter Hamilton or David Brin are in a different class, and draw the readers in. Also, SF art is still a much under-appreciated art form in its own right.
Perhaps, in the light of the current flurry of interest in what we do next about space travel and commercial development up there, there may be more interest in Koman getting a decent publisher with more flair and drive. It bugs me that his magnificent book was so hard to find while there is so much garbage on our bookshelves here in Britain and elsewhere.
I once went into a huge Waterstones bookshop here in Chelsea and there was not a single work by Heinlein, Anderson (Poul) or Larry Niven on the shelves. It's a bit like going to a classics section and seeing nothing by Hugo or Tolstoy. How the hell are young people going to get inspired by science and technology if there isn't the fiction out there to whet their appetites? After all, I am pretty sure many of the astronauts in the 1960s and subsequent decades first got their taste for their activities by reading a book by Heinlein or a Buck Rogers comic strip.
However, we Londoners can seek solace in The Forbidden Planet bookstore in New Oxford Street and Babylon 5!
William Stone pretty much sums up my views on the Columbia matter
The major name of this blog is "Survival Arts", but the minor name is "Freedom, Immortality, and the Stars", which just happens to be the name of an article by William Stone III. He pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.
We both, of course, took the slogan from a speech given by L. Neil Smith at a conference 15 years ago.
February 2, 2003
Kings of the High Frontier, by Victor Koman
Just two days ago, Friday, I received by mail my only copy of a book I'd lent out to a former co-worker, who surprised me by finally returning it to me by a private express carrier. I'd been warned by Murray Rothbard many years ago never to lend out my personal books, as I'd never see them again... even if that book was one of Murray's own (which it was, which was a reason we were having the chat at school... another story).
Friday's mail gifted me Victor Koman's Kings of the High Frontier, to my relief - and to my erstwhile colleague's credit, in exactly the same good condition as I'd lent it. The events of the last couple of days, including my truly belated and short account of a visit I made a little over a year ago to private space transportation startup XCOR, prompt me to write at least a short recommendation, if not a comprehensive review, of this superb novel.
The story surrounding the publication of this book is a bit of an unknown to me. From what I can gather so far, Victor Koman first published it online, then arranged with a small publishing house, Bereshith Publishing, to publish the novel as the first book in Bereshith's new "Final Frontier Books" imprint. My "First Limited Edition" of 1998 is signed on a page that was sewn into the book, and numbered 545 of "...1250 signed and numbered copies". The frontspiece is enticingly subtitled "Book One of the High Pilgrimage", but I know of no as-yet published "Book Two".
I'm astonished that the Amazon listing for this edition of the book (there's also an even more limited edition listed for $75) mentions a 4-5 week availability, with a US$1.99 surcharge. This extra little charge is apparently due to the requirement that Amazon special order their copies from Bereshith, manually.
No knock on the excellent job that Bereshith did with the book - everything between the covers is as good or better than what most major imprints would have done - but the idea of limiting such an important work to 1250 copies borders on tragic. The only thing I don't like about the book is the unfortunate cover. I'll go out on a limb here, but I do tend to judge a book by its cover. Good books deserve good covers, and it's unfortunate that few publishing houses with a science fiction imprint produce to the quality of the cover - as an example - on Ken MacLeod's The Stone Canal (TOR). I've even seen people on various mailing lists recently mention that they had a copy of Koman's book "laying around, waiting to be read", but were put off by the cheap dustjacket.
These same people are getting around to reading the book now, and are exclaiming their delight: it's a first-rate piece of science fiction, and one of those books, like Atlas Shrugged, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or Unintended Consequences, that you simply can't put down once you pick it up.
Neil Walsh, even with his slightly squishy Canadian sensibilities, gives a good account of the book in his otherwise glowing SF Site review, and the Amazon entry gives a large body of editorial reviews of the book, with synopses. Go there for a longer description.
L. Neil Smith stated yesterday, on the day of the Columbia disaster:
NASA needs to be abolished, rather than handed over to anybody. It's a great wonder that many more of these fatal accidents haven't happened. NASA's record of incompetence (read the original specs the shuttles were supposed to meet), together with their real mission -- to keep you and me out of space -- make them a burden and a liability to anyone who wants to get off this mudball or who simply desires to be free.
Koman is a friend of Smith, and the above is pretty much his thesis too... and an opinion I share wholeheartedly. Even as I write this, my TV in the background is airing the opinions of hairspray heads like Geraldo Rivera who are wailing and needling people like "space tourist" Dennis Tito that "non essential personnel" shouldn't be flying into space, since... get ready for this... "it's tooooooo dangerous..."
Well, hell, human life is inherently dangerous. There's no escaping that fact. There's also no such thing as risk-free human action.
Koman's characters take that risk on themselves, as free men and women, and defy a government and its bureaucracy - NASA - that have no intention of allowing the final escape from tyranny that space truly represents. The viewpoint characters (there are quite a few of them) explore some wild and wonderful - and mostly fairly plausible - escape vehicles. The engineering efforts alone are fascinating stories, but the characters themselves, by the end of the story, are well fleshed-out and memorable.
This book really deserves a much larger audience than its initial 1250 print run. It's the Unintended Consequences of the free space movement. Pick up your copy before it becomes unavailable... then carefully lend it out to your friends!
And while you're at it, contact Bereshith Publishing and see if they'll consider another print run.
"America, and the idea of America, is an unending cornucopia of astronaut material"
...they knew their job was hazardous, they did it anyway, and by all accounts, they died doing what they wanted, and loved, to do. There are many more astronauts in the astronaut corps who, if a Shuttle was sitting on the pad tomorrow, fueled and ready to go, would eagerly strap themselves in and go, even with the inquiry still going on, because they know that it's flown over a hundred times without burning up on entry, and they still like the odds. And if yesterday's events made them suddenly timorous, there is a line of a hundred people eagerly waiting to replace each one that would quit, each more than competent and adequate to the task. America, and the idea of America, is an unending cornucopia of astronaut material.
Quote of the day
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USN (ret.)
February 1, 2003
Pictures from last year's visit to XCOR Aerospace, Mojave, California, 25 September 2001
Today's events remind me that I never got around to posting these photos anywhere. In September of 2001, friend Anton Sherwood and I were on a long roadtrip back from training at Front Sight, and had a few hours on our hands. I suggested a side trip to the Civilian Flight Test Center at Mojave Airport in southern California. I enquired at the FBO for the address of XCOR Aerospace, and was told the location of their main office a few blocks away. I called ahead and was graciously welcomed into the production & prototype lab while someone tracked down "Rocket Plumber" Doug Jones, a long-time poster on several mailing lists I'd been subscribed to.
Doug very hospitably met us two strangers and offered to show us a rocket engine testbed, the EZ-Rocket, that he and colleagues had been working on. What a treat! We jumped at the offer, and were let in to see this:
This machine has gone on to be piloted by Dick Rutan on several occasions, such as this day on which 2 flights were made in turnaround fashion.
Here's Doug Jones giving me and Anton the rundown on the testbed craft:
Here, Anton Sherwood gets a good, close look in the cockpit:
A note about why I chose just now to post these photos...
I've been following much of the blogosphere coverage of the tragedy, especially the coverage on Samizdata by long-time space advocate Dale Amon, a respected member of the "spacer community". I was truly annoyed at the derisive comments of a poster to one of Dale's articles, who likened XCOR and others to "hobby space clubs", and felt I should draw some attention to the amazing work being done by one of those "clubs".
Keep up the good work, Doug!
The future is not NASA's
To cheer myself up, I've been perusing the X Prize website. As Dale Amon points out:
NASA will go to Boeing or Lockmart for a replacement. They are not going to talk to XCOR [spelling corrected by me - ed.] or Armadillo or any of the other companies who will develop the true space ships.What is my guess? I will suggest we'll see a half hearted program for a shuttle replacement initiated. It will run over budget or be stillborn like every other such program in the last 15 years. The ISS schedule will stretch out to a completion date of 2010, almost 30 years after Ronald Reagan called for a space station to be completed in 10 years. An X-Prize space ship will fly suborbital this year or next year and there will be private tourists on private suborbital flights by 2006 and orbital by 2010. NASA will then buy one for crew turnaround. The Russians will get a big capital infusion to turn out more Soyez and Protons.
On a related note, just yesterday I received by mail, from a former co-worker who had borrowed it, my sole copy of Victor Koman's Kings of the High Frontier, which I'm astounded to see is $75 new on Amazon, and about half that used. My copy is not leaving my house again anytime soon!
The Blogosphere is all over the story
I checked in with Samizdata.net to see if Dale Amon had posted on the Columbia loss, and indeed he has, several times in fact.
Rand Simberg of course has posted on the issue; I recommend checking in with his site Transterrestrial Musings as the days wear on.
There are still no routine space flights
I hate having to write about this, especially after having written about my experience of the Challenger explosion a couple of days ago. I'm no fan of government space programs, but my heart aches for the 7 who died on re-entry a few minutes ago on NASA's oldest shuttle, Columbia. They died doing what they wanted to do.
January 29, 2003
Have I ever mentioned that I saw the Challenger explosion... from the air?
Dale Amon posted yesterday on the anniversary of the Challenger explosion, but I just now read his post. I was reminded of a personal experience I had 17 years ago. I was on a training flight over central Florida that day. I felt compelled to write about my experience in a follow-up comment to the blog entry; I'm reprinting it here, below:
I have an entry in my pilot's logbook for a training flight I took that day in a Cessna C150 from an airport on Florida's Gulf coast (Crystal River, designated X31).
The CFI, retired Navy Capt. Tom E. Davis, was PIC on that flight (I'd not yet soloed). I was student, left seat.
It was a beautiful clear day, and I was sweating it out "under the hood" doing power-on departure stall simulations, power-off approach stall simulations, and other exhausting maneuvers.
Capt. Davis at one point told me to take off the hood and relax. We'd done our maneuvering inland, toward central Florida, away from Crystal River.
Capt. Davis had taken the controls and set us up for a gradual cruise climb, without explanation. I remember seeing a pillar of white smoke ahead, far in the distance but distinct - you can see clear across the state, especially as we were passing through 4300 feet at that moment - followed by more than one twisting trail of smoke...
I didn't know what I was seeing. I'd seen a Shuttle launch once before, from the ground in Orlando, but didn't make the connection. Capt. Davis at that point immediately turned the plane around and put it into a descent for Crystal River, without explanation, and with a look that told me he didn't want to talk. I didn't try. On arrival in the standard traffic pattern (it was an uncontrolled field), he gave a curt advisory to airport traffic, then took the plane in for a straight-in landing.
We taxied to the FBO, him still silent, then stopped the plane. He said nothing, walking grimly into the FBO, where we were greeted with what for me was the first truly jarring sight of the day, one I finally understood: a room full of crying pilots sitting in front of a television.
At that point I understood what I'd seen.
I haven't told this story to many people, and never publicly. Now I've done both.
I don't believe in God, and I can't say "Rest In Peace" for their souls. Their employer killed them through a confluence of negligence and politics. This memory is still raw for me, and I don't expect it to soften with time.
January 18, 2003
A piece of living history: the Beech 17 Staggerwing still flying
My friend Tom Burroughes visited me earlier this fall in order to attend a 4-day defensive handgun course at Front Sight. Before and after he headed out to the Nevada desert to learn weaponcraft, we spent some time at northern California airfields and aviation museums. I'm a private pilot, and Tom, like me, is a an aviation enthusiast. Tom's the son of a retired RAF navigator, and loves historical aircraft, like this 1937 Beech 17 Staggerwing:
This is one of the classiest aircraft ever produced, and silent testimony to an era before the liability explosion which brought Wichita to its knees.
Thanks to the circulation department at the Morgan Hill Times, which ran this photograph on its front page 8 October 2002, and recently provided me a print from their "Wings of History" feature, which predates by 2 months their online presence.
January 13, 2003
"Shenzhou V will be manned" by the world's first... taikonauts
Something to watch: China's next major space news will be the launch of Shenzhou V, which will be manned by 2 "taikonauts".
The Chinese space agency is touting this as the first launch manned with 2 astronauts as the debut manned flight of a primary spacefaring nation (the U.S. and Russia being the other 2). I'm not sure how much to be impressed by that assertion, considering the fact that the Shenzhou series is essentially an old Soyuz design; the accomplishment itself is essentially a "Gemini Lite" flight.
Still, I'll be watching their progress carefully. Maybe I can buy a flight on one of those things someday...
January 11, 2003
"Biting Commentary About Infinity...And Beyond!"
I'm discovering as time goes by that very old acquaintances of mine have blogs (big revelation that), and I'm continually checking them out. Here's another one for you: Transterrestrial Musings. Rand Simberg is someone whose postings on CryoNet I started reading many (pre-Web) years back. He's best known now as a spacer writer, and has even become a regular Fox News contributor on the subject!
January 2, 2003
International Space Development Conference, 23-26 May 2003, San Jose, California
Thanks to Dale Amon for pointing this one out. I've got friends presenting at this event, "Roadmap to the Stars". Anyone planning to attend?
December 31, 2002
TechTV's Catalog of Tomorrow
I have TechTV playing in the background while I'm working here, and just now saw an intruiguing ad for a book, TechTV's Catalog of Tomorrow. The images flashing by included some Foresight Institute graphics illustrating nanotechnological cell repair machines, apparently contributed by my friend Chris Peterson. The other thing that caught my eye was a dewar with an Alcor Life Extension Foundation logo: I'm a neurosuspension member of that cryonics organization myself.
This is another book I've not yet read, but find sufficiently interesting to point out to my readers. I'll review it when I lay my hands on a copy. In the meantime, the Amazon entry I point to here has 52 sample pages for perusal - lots of eye candy - with the index pages listed in full.
December 4, 2002
Another South African in (the) space (business)
Here's another surprise, at least for me: Samizdata's Dale Amon reports on a new venture of PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Space X (Space Exploration Technologies). Elon Musk has a good business track record, so I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
Readers will recall another South African in space recently, space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Thawte (later sold to Verisign).
