That is incorrect. The mag check is used to determine that the primary ignition systems are firing all cylinders. In the event of a failure, the plane will still have a working ingition system to power the engine, though on a slightly reduced power level.
We DO NOT use the switch to kill the engine at the destination, however. Instead, we pull the mixture to cut off the fuel flow to the engine. Starving the engine of fuel prevents the mag from firing any residual fuel left in the cylinder after engine shut off. If we don't, someone just walking by the front of the plane can move the prop and have it accidently fire up. That would not be a good situation and many people have been killed because of it.
No, they were not filling a language gap need. Windows Vista is produced in 36 languages, and all of the pirated edition languages were already covered. (If I remember correctly, XP was produced in 24 languages.)
Bill
Drag your wings behind you??? Have you even looked at their prototype?
Before you start making stupid comments, check your facts. The Terrafugia folds it's wings vertically. They are folded electrically, so you don't have to even get out of the car. In fact, you land at an airport and before you even get off the taxi-way, the wings are folded.
BTW... I just chatted with Carl the other day and they are getting ready to start flight testing. They're just waiting for their final signoff for their airworthy certificate. They've have driven it up to 70 mph so far.
Or maybe he got the first version of the product... the Illudium "Q-36" Explosive Space Modulator! Apparently the Pu-36 is a more refined version that Marvin used it in later episodes.
With Red Whittaker as the CEO, I'm sure this company can do what it says. If you're not familar with Red, his robots have been doing great things for many years. For example, it was Red's robots that helped clean up Three Mile Island after the accident there, as well as Chernobyl. His team at Carnegie Mellen also won the Darpa Grand Challange for developing a vehicle that could navigate autonomously. (The previous year, he took 2nd and 3rd place in the same challenge.)
So... I guess after he achieves this, we'll have a "Red Moon" after all!
The only problem with using ePaper for a HUD is that you will not get the correct focal length. Normally, HUDs have a complex array of optics to move the image's focal point beyond the front of the car when seen by the the driver.
Simply applying ePaper to the glass would set the focal point to the windsheld, which is way too close for usability.
Also, there is the fact that they would also need some form of lighting during the night as ePaper isn't a light source by itself.
That is so complicated. The "beach ball" idea from the two current rovers was much better.
That system worked great for the first 3 small rovers, but the larger rovers would simply splat through the ballons because of the size of them. The Mars Polar Lander and it's "sister" Phoenix used soft landing techniques that had the rockets slow their desenct all the way down. (BTW - You only mentioned two rovers, but in 1997, Sojorner pioneered the ballon assisted landing process.)
The problem with the rocket assisted desent is the fact that the rocket exhaust will contaminate the ground surrounding the landing site. They Skycrane idea get's around that and has the chemials and residues fly away several hundred feet to avoid that.
Picture? That little thing right under the title of the article is a "Video!!!" Video is a series of picture chained together chronologically. It's a really cool invention, kind of like that Roadable Aircraft that the "Video" is showing.
Not to nitpick, but 200 hours per year is actually 40 hours less than 20 hours per month by my rough estimate or roughly 16 hours and 40 minutes per month. Not that I am a math major or anything, but I am pretty good with basic arithmetic. Someone, please check my work.
I see nothing to flame him about. I hold several patents on technology (none in software.) My largest patent has been violated by the Chinese by two different companies. They never once tried to contact me about licensing the technology. One company actually made a direct copy of my design, right down to my logos. The other company took my design and produced their item in their own case. But the internal components were almost (size changed to fit new case) identical.
Protecting my patents is guaranteed by the US Constitution. Why people think this is a bad thing is beyond me.
People who spend their lives working on products and ideas deserve the benefit(s) of capitalizing on that work without someone poaching on it.
I was allowed to use my Casio FX7000G (yep... 25 years old beauty!) in class once even though someone complained about it because I did program it.
The prof simply said that if I programmed it to do the functions needed, then I obviously understood how to do solve the problem, which in the real world is how we would do it anyway.
"Also, do you know how far the safety distance is behind a commercial plane? That's miles of airspace that can't be used due to turbulence in the plane's wake. Now imagine what the wake of a rocket plane is like!"
Actually, what's interesting about a "plane's wake" turbulence is that it is a function of speed and weight. These planes are very small and light, so their wake will also be very small. The only thing another plane would feel is a minor bump or "air pocket."
When a commerical jet is landing, it is slow and heavy, which produces very large wingtip vorticies. That is when we will hear the warning from ATC, "Caution, Wake Turbulence." The normal landing procedure behind an airliner is to land beyond where the jet touched down, which puts you above and in front of his wake. Wakes are produced because a heavy plane needs to increase it's angle of attack to fly slow for landing (or takeoff, for that matter) and with a lot of weight, there is a significant amount of air moving along the wing outward towards the tips, which produces very large vorticies. If a small plane enters a vorticie, because it is rotating, the plane will also rotate. Small planes flying upside down very near the ground is a bad combination... unless you're flying a Pitts S-1 or something similar. Wakes also always move with the wind and fall towards the ground. That is also why flying under an airliner is a bad thing.
When we do "360 degree steep turns" in small aircraft, you will know when you do it correctly, as you will pass through your own "prop wash" and feel the bump. This is also a form of wake turbulence.
A wind sock isn't very sophisticated, but it tells us things that wouldn't have been as apparent without it. To elaborate on Chris' comment: A wind sock will "inflate" about half way with about a 7 mph wind speed. It will inflate fully with a 12-15 mph wind speed. It also rotates to indicate the direction of the wind. When observed over time, it can indicate the variability of the wind. For example, is it gusty or is the wind direction frequently changing.
Simple, but quite effective. One of the last things pilots check for when landing is the wind sock to see if we will need to prepare for a more "stimulating" landing or not.
Actually, the Challenger didn't blow up. The external tank collapsed due to the solid rocket motor burning through the external hydrogen tank. As the hydrogen tank collapsed, the mass of the shuttle was greatly reduced, which caused an acceleration of the entire vehicle assembly. That acceleration drove the remaining portion of the hydrogen tank into the oxygen tank causing it to also collapse. As the same time, the srb burned through it's rear attach point to the external tank, causing it to loose lateral stability. That instability allowed it to rotate (out of sync with the rest of the shuttle stack) which further weakened the external tank structure.
As the external tank collapsed and the srb rotated, it rotated the shuttle so that it was no longer aligned with it's nose pointed towards the direction of travel. The aerodynamic forces became so extreme, that it overwhelmed the shuttle's structure.
The shuttle was literally torn apart due to the aerodynamic forces. The explosion actually occurred after the collapse and breakup as the escaping oxygen and hydrogen ignited.
For years, us pilots have been looking for a viable way of taking data to altitude. Typical hard drives fail at altitudes above ~15,000 feet. SSDs have basically eliminated that problem altogether.
Using SSDs on our portables, we can now go to extreme altitudes in unpressureized enclosures without the fear of drive failure.
"How many other media devices out there require a PSU with a cooling fan? anything can someone name me more than 1?"
My Tivo does AND my Media Center PC does.
Come to think of it, so does every home computer I have ever owned!!! It's just that the Power Supply is IN the computer. The XBox designers decided to move it out of the unit.
I mean, we've had the International Space Station in orbit for quite a while now and it's been using this same technology... they're called "Solar Panels." They're function is almost exactly the same... they take radiation (though in a different wavelength) from the sun and convert it into electricity.
Hey, my calculator also uses a similar technology.... oh, wait... so does does my car's battery maintainer. Wow... this technology catches on fast!
I just wanted to express my sincere thanks the United States of America for looking out for us citizens in this manner.
The possibilites of a radiological device getting through have been discussed in the past, but this is the first time I have heard that we are actually doing something concrete about it. Nuclear technology in the wrong hands is very dangerous on many levels.
I was unaware that the technology had evolved to this state and I must say, I'm very impressed. (Belive me, I work in the high technology fields, but not in the nuclear sciences, and to me this is a cool feat.)
I'm sorry that this person was inconvienced, but I do belive there are more important issues at stake here.
I also want to personally thank my Brother John and my two cousins Tom and Tony who are all doing their part to protect this great country of ours.
I guess your comment would have been more funny if you had said, " I hope he stole the part where they used rubber o-rings to connect the SOLID FUEL BOOSTER SEGMENTS."
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That is incorrect. The mag check is used to determine that the primary ignition systems are firing all cylinders. In the event of a failure, the plane will still have a working ingition system to power the engine, though on a slightly reduced power level.
We DO NOT use the switch to kill the engine at the destination, however. Instead, we pull the mixture to cut off the fuel flow to the engine. Starving the engine of fuel prevents the mag from firing any residual fuel left in the cylinder after engine shut off. If we don't, someone just walking by the front of the plane can move the prop and have it accidently fire up. That would not be a good situation and many people have been killed because of it.
And yes, I am a pilot.
Bill
No, they were not filling a language gap need. Windows Vista is produced in 36 languages, and all of the pirated edition languages were already covered. (If I remember correctly, XP was produced in 24 languages.) Bill
Drag your wings behind you??? Have you even looked at their prototype?
Before you start making stupid comments, check your facts. The Terrafugia folds it's wings vertically. They are folded electrically, so you don't have to even get out of the car. In fact, you land at an airport and before you even get off the taxi-way, the wings are folded.
BTW... I just chatted with Carl the other day and they are getting ready to start flight testing. They're just waiting for their final signoff for their airworthy certificate. They've have driven it up to 70 mph so far.
Bill
Or maybe he got the first version of the product... the Illudium "Q-36" Explosive Space Modulator! Apparently the Pu-36 is a more refined version that Marvin used it in later episodes.
Bill
That's only if you average in the poor people.
Well of course! An "average" takes into account ALL the people, regardless of income level. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an average income!
Bill
With Red Whittaker as the CEO, I'm sure this company can do what it says. If you're not familar with Red, his robots have been doing great things for many years. For example, it was Red's robots that helped clean up Three Mile Island after the accident there, as well as Chernobyl. His team at Carnegie Mellen also won the Darpa Grand Challange for developing a vehicle that could navigate autonomously. (The previous year, he took 2nd and 3rd place in the same challenge.)
So... I guess after he achieves this, we'll have a "Red Moon" after all!
Bill
The only problem with using ePaper for a HUD is that you will not get the correct focal length. Normally, HUDs have a complex array of optics to move the image's focal point beyond the front of the car when seen by the the driver.
Simply applying ePaper to the glass would set the focal point to the windsheld, which is way too close for usability.
Also, there is the fact that they would also need some form of lighting during the night as ePaper isn't a light source by itself.
Bill
That is so complicated. The "beach ball" idea from the two current rovers was much better.
That system worked great for the first 3 small rovers, but the larger rovers would simply splat through the ballons because of the size of them. The Mars Polar Lander and it's "sister" Phoenix used soft landing techniques that had the rockets slow their desenct all the way down. (BTW - You only mentioned two rovers, but in 1997, Sojorner pioneered the ballon assisted landing process.)
The problem with the rocket assisted desent is the fact that the rocket exhaust will contaminate the ground surrounding the landing site. They Skycrane idea get's around that and has the chemials and residues fly away several hundred feet to avoid that.
Bill
Picture? That little thing right under the title of the article is a "Video!!!" Video is a series of picture chained together chronologically. It's a really cool invention, kind of like that Roadable Aircraft that the "Video" is showing.
Bill
Not to nitpick, but 200 hours per year is actually 40 hours less than 20 hours per month by my rough estimate or roughly 16 hours and 40 minutes per month. Not that I am a math major or anything, but I am pretty good with basic arithmetic. Someone, please check my work.
Bill
Actually, it was just an error from Metric to Imperial units.
Bill
I see nothing to flame him about. I hold several patents on technology (none in software.) My largest patent has been violated by the Chinese by two different companies. They never once tried to contact me about licensing the technology. One company actually made a direct copy of my design, right down to my logos. The other company took my design and produced their item in their own case. But the internal components were almost (size changed to fit new case) identical.
Protecting my patents is guaranteed by the US Constitution. Why people think this is a bad thing is beyond me.
People who spend their lives working on products and ideas deserve the benefit(s) of capitalizing on that work without someone poaching on it.
Bill
I was allowed to use my Casio FX7000G (yep... 25 years old beauty!) in class once even though someone complained about it because I did program it.
The prof simply said that if I programmed it to do the functions needed, then I obviously understood how to do solve the problem, which in the real world is how we would do it anyway.
The next week, everybody had one!
Bill
Hmmm... I thought they only crashed when you turned them on. Happen every time I try it.
Bill
"Also, do you know how far the safety distance is behind a commercial plane? That's miles of airspace that can't be used due to turbulence in the plane's wake. Now imagine what the wake of a rocket plane is like!"
Actually, what's interesting about a "plane's wake" turbulence is that it is a function of speed and weight. These planes are very small and light, so their wake will also be very small. The only thing another plane would feel is a minor bump or "air pocket."
When a commerical jet is landing, it is slow and heavy, which produces very large wingtip vorticies. That is when we will hear the warning from ATC, "Caution, Wake Turbulence." The normal landing procedure behind an airliner is to land beyond where the jet touched down, which puts you above and in front of his wake. Wakes are produced because a heavy plane needs to increase it's angle of attack to fly slow for landing (or takeoff, for that matter) and with a lot of weight, there is a significant amount of air moving along the wing outward towards the tips, which produces very large vorticies. If a small plane enters a vorticie, because it is rotating, the plane will also rotate. Small planes flying upside down very near the ground is a bad combination... unless you're flying a Pitts S-1 or something similar. Wakes also always move with the wind and fall towards the ground. That is also why flying under an airliner is a bad thing.
When we do "360 degree steep turns" in small aircraft, you will know when you do it correctly, as you will pass through your own "prop wash" and feel the bump. This is also a form of wake turbulence.
Bill
Oh, really? Not according to their site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX101754511033.aspx
Bill
Simple, but quite effective. One of the last things pilots check for when landing is the wind sock to see if we will need to prepare for a more "stimulating" landing or not.
Bill
Dude, gods can get high, too!
Actually, the Challenger didn't blow up. The external tank collapsed due to the solid rocket motor burning through the external hydrogen tank. As the hydrogen tank collapsed, the mass of the shuttle was greatly reduced, which caused an acceleration of the entire vehicle assembly. That acceleration drove the remaining portion of the hydrogen tank into the oxygen tank causing it to also collapse. As the same time, the srb burned through it's rear attach point to the external tank, causing it to loose lateral stability. That instability allowed it to rotate (out of sync with the rest of the shuttle stack) which further weakened the external tank structure.
As the external tank collapsed and the srb rotated, it rotated the shuttle so that it was no longer aligned with it's nose pointed towards the direction of travel. The aerodynamic forces became so extreme, that it overwhelmed the shuttle's structure.
The shuttle was literally torn apart due to the aerodynamic forces. The explosion actually occurred after the collapse and breakup as the escaping oxygen and hydrogen ignited.
Bill
For years, us pilots have been looking for a viable way of taking data to altitude. Typical hard drives fail at altitudes above ~15,000 feet. SSDs have basically eliminated that problem altogether.
Using SSDs on our portables, we can now go to extreme altitudes in unpressureized enclosures without the fear of drive failure.
Bill
"How many other media devices out there require a PSU with a cooling fan? anything can someone name me more than 1?"
My Tivo does AND my Media Center PC does.
Come to think of it, so does every home computer I have ever owned!!! It's just that the Power Supply is IN the computer. The XBox designers decided to move it out of the unit.
Bill
I mean, we've had the International Space Station in orbit for quite a while now and it's been using this same technology... they're called "Solar Panels." They're function is almost exactly the same... they take radiation (though in a different wavelength) from the sun and convert it into electricity.
Hey, my calculator also uses a similar technology.... oh, wait... so does does my car's battery maintainer. Wow... this technology catches on fast!
Bill
I just wanted to express my sincere thanks the United States of America for looking out for us citizens in this manner.
The possibilites of a radiological device getting through have been discussed in the past, but this is the first time I have heard that we are actually doing something concrete about it. Nuclear technology in the wrong hands is very dangerous on many levels.
I was unaware that the technology had evolved to this state and I must say, I'm very impressed. (Belive me, I work in the high technology fields, but not in the nuclear sciences, and to me this is a cool feat.)
I'm sorry that this person was inconvienced, but I do belive there are more important issues at stake here.
I also want to personally thank my Brother John and my two cousins Tom and Tony who are all doing their part to protect this great country of ours.
Bill
Oh, oh... pick me... pick me... Pick me, please! Pleeeaaassseee... pick me.
(I'm cheap... not more than $15 Million.)
Bill
I guess your comment would have been more funny if you had said, " I hope he stole the part where they used rubber o-rings to connect the SOLID FUEL BOOSTER SEGMENTS."
Bill