It's interesting that the brief linked to mentions radar hits with readouts of 14500 and 14900 feet but doesn't say anything about whether the aircraft was equipped with an O2 system or not. Above 12500 the pilot would be required to use supplemental O2 by FAR. Extended periods near 15000 without oxygen would definitely set you up for impaired judgement. Maybe it's considered in another document but it's not in the brief.
... It used to be up to the pilot to take off and land, and the autopilot would fly the bit in the middle in good conditions. Now the autopilot takes off and lands too.
The 'used to be' part is right, the 'now' part is pure and utter bollocks. Airliners never take off on autopilot. In fact, there are minimum altitudes/times aloft for autopilot engagement.
As far as landings, autolandings are still the exception, not the norm, even after 25+ years of autolands being a normal part of civil aviation. Autolands are accomplished when the visibility is too low for pilots to land visually, or in good weather at a specified interval to confirm that the autoland system is still performing up to snuff. Pilots can also choose to autoland if they want to, but most resist giving up a landing when there's no good need to. Pilots can also manually land in winds that no one would dare trust to the autopilots.
Pilots still take off and land and leave the boring stuff to the autopilot.
Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on.
The reason greenhouses work so well is that glass does a decent job of blocking infrared light (hmmm... maybe someone can think up a catchy name for the effect).
I'm not an optics wonk but I'd expect the infrared laser through a window trick would be tough to pull off. Especially so if the glass is low-e.
Is it common for double-pane glass to contain anything that could be called a vacuum? I'll admit I don't know but I always thought they just had regular atmospheric-pressure air between the panes, as an extra layer of insulation.
A vacuum would be great for stopping heat loss, but isn't present in any normal double pane window. Atmospheric pressure (14 lbs/sq in) * the number of sq inches in a window pane is a big number. Any pane that didn't break would be noticeably bowed.
Some higher end double pane windows are filled with argon, since it insulates better than standard air.
There aren't a lot of airplanes with 40 year production runs. The 757 didn't even go 25, and it's a great airplane.
To put it in perspective, Boeing is still building 747's while the front section of one of Northwest's early ones is on permanent display at the Air & Space Museum.
I still remember watching the first one make it's first take off on TV, then running out to the back yard to see it off in the distance. Now there are 747's in museums.
Probably the coolest video of a Boeing passenger jet was the 707's barrel roll. The test pilot got in a bit of trouble BUT WAS NOT FIRED. Needless to say it was only done once.
Well... he (Tex Johnston) actually rolled it twice that day.
The networks 'alter reality' every day during sports broadcasts - the ads you see on stadium walls on TV are often superimposed over the real wall. What you see is not what the guy in the stadium sees.
I don't have any problem with superimposed first down lines, etc, that help you understand the play - I doubt many people mistake those lines for ones that are actually there. But changing the image of something that's happening live and and not being up front about it seems dishonest to me. Without disclosure, it makes me wonder, "What else have they changed?"
Turbulence makes planes fall down like that. Not nose-dives. My source on this is a 747 pilot btw
The elevator ***easily*** has enough authority to generate negative G's. If there were an uncommanded nose down input at cruise you could easily float pax and crew. Let me repeat - easily.
Your friend's 747 has cables that drive servos that drive flight controls. Standard stuff.
The A330 is pure fly-by-wire - there is no mechanical connection between the stick and the elevator. The stick or autopilot tell the computers what you want the aircraft (not controls) to do, and the computers then command the flight controls accordingly. The million dollar question would be why the computers would make an uncommanded move, or if they even did. If an autopilot is using elevator to compensate for a mistrimmed stabilizer, disconnecting the autopilot can lead to a pitch up or pitch down event. The A330 is supposed to autotrim the stabilizer, but something obviously went wrong somewhere.
The lack of mechanical connection between the stick and control surfaces means you're relying on the computers (five specific ones to be exact). Anything that calls the trustworthiness of the computers into doubt is a big deal. There was a healthy of skepticism among pilots about fly-by-wire when it first hit commercial aircraft (see if you can guess it's nickname), but it has worked well for years.
..being in Boeing's backyard, it's fairly easy to obtain a surplus jet-engine starter motor.
Huh? The engines on a Boeing are started using high pressure air from an auxiliary power unit or ground cart that then drives a starter motor.
I'm not trying to be pedantic... I'd really like to know what kind of motors you're finding for EV conversions. It's not an engine starter. An APU starter by chance?
Given that at some point the rate of new members signing up will equal the rate that existing members die, calculate the maximum number of members of 'I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!'
Slashdot Mirror
No Radio Shack article is complete without The Onion's business analysis.
Sheesh. These pics are just a few days old and they've already lost the images of the Apollo 13 landing sight.
It's interesting that the brief linked to mentions radar hits with readouts of 14500 and 14900 feet but doesn't say anything about whether the aircraft was equipped with an O2 system or not. Above 12500 the pilot would be required to use supplemental O2 by FAR. Extended periods near 15000 without oxygen would definitely set you up for impaired judgement. Maybe it's considered in another document but it's not in the brief.
In contrast, the NTSB specifically mentioned lack of supplemental O2 in another crash: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009415709_webntsb04.html
"We aim for the stars. Sometimes we hit London."
... It used to be up to the pilot to take off and land, and the autopilot would fly the bit in the middle in good conditions. Now the autopilot takes off and lands too.
The 'used to be' part is right, the 'now' part is pure and utter bollocks. Airliners never take off on autopilot. In fact, there are minimum altitudes/times aloft for autopilot engagement.
As far as landings, autolandings are still the exception, not the norm, even after 25+ years of autolands being a normal part of civil aviation. Autolands are accomplished when the visibility is too low for pilots to land visually, or in good weather at a specified interval to confirm that the autoland system is still performing up to snuff. Pilots can also choose to autoland if they want to, but most resist giving up a landing when there's no good need to. Pilots can also manually land in winds that no one would dare trust to the autopilots.
Pilots still take off and land and leave the boring stuff to the autopilot.
DieByWire
Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on.
The reason greenhouses work so well is that glass does a decent job of blocking infrared light (hmmm... maybe someone can think up a catchy name for the effect).
I'm not an optics wonk but I'd expect the infrared laser through a window trick would be tough to pull off. Especially so if the glass is low-e.
Is it common for double-pane glass to contain anything that could be called a vacuum? I'll admit I don't know but I always thought they just had regular atmospheric-pressure air between the panes, as an extra layer of insulation.
A vacuum would be great for stopping heat loss, but isn't present in any normal double pane window. Atmospheric pressure (14 lbs/sq in) * the number of sq inches in a window pane is a big number. Any pane that didn't break would be noticeably bowed.
Some higher end double pane windows are filled with argon, since it insulates better than standard air.
Gotta get it changed to Yfy.
Or PyFy. Or YFy.py.
Shoulda gone into marketing.... yeah, that's it. Marketing. I've got what it takes.
But at least it's a polite police state.
There aren't a lot of airplanes with 40 year production runs. The 757 didn't even go 25, and it's a great airplane.
To put it in perspective, Boeing is still building 747's while the front section of one of Northwest's early ones is on permanent display at the Air & Space Museum.
I still remember watching the first one make it's first take off on TV, then running out to the back yard to see it off in the distance. Now there are 747's in museums.
Man I'm feeling old.
Probably the coolest video of a Boeing passenger jet was the 707's barrel roll. The test pilot got in a bit of trouble BUT WAS NOT FIRED. Needless to say it was only done once.
Well... he (Tex Johnston) actually rolled it twice that day.
Those were the days...
From the summary... "A hybrid fission-fusion process has been developed"
From the article: " ...a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion..."
If it uses fusion, it hasn't been developed.
To paraphrase Sun....The Network is the Smoke Detector.
Invest in Diseased Livestock
Played For Sure.
The networks 'alter reality' every day during sports broadcasts - the ads you see on stadium walls on TV are often superimposed over the real wall. What you see is not what the guy in the stadium sees.
I don't have any problem with superimposed first down lines, etc, that help you understand the play - I doubt many people mistake those lines for ones that are actually there. But changing the image of something that's happening live and and not being up front about it seems dishonest to me. Without disclosure, it makes me wonder, "What else have they changed?"
Three dimensions for the price of two!
Turbulence makes planes fall down like that. Not nose-dives. My source on this is a 747 pilot btw
The elevator ***easily*** has enough authority to generate negative G's. If there were an uncommanded nose down input at cruise you could easily float pax and crew. Let me repeat - easily.
Your friend's 747 has cables that drive servos that drive flight controls. Standard stuff.
The A330 is pure fly-by-wire - there is no mechanical connection between the stick and the elevator. The stick or autopilot tell the computers what you want the aircraft (not controls) to do, and the computers then command the flight controls accordingly. The million dollar question would be why the computers would make an uncommanded move, or if they even did. If an autopilot is using elevator to compensate for a mistrimmed stabilizer, disconnecting the autopilot can lead to a pitch up or pitch down event. The A330 is supposed to autotrim the stabilizer, but something obviously went wrong somewhere.
The lack of mechanical connection between the stick and control surfaces means you're relying on the computers (five specific ones to be exact). Anything that calls the trustworthiness of the computers into doubt is a big deal. There was a healthy of skepticism among pilots about fly-by-wire when it first hit commercial aircraft (see if you can guess it's nickname), but it has worked well for years.
I'm glad they've given it a green light.
Me too. It seems like Urbana sure learned their lesson about giving big, powerful computers red lights about seven years ago.
Why is the tertiary mirror larger than the secondary? That's not like any telescope that I'm familiar with.
..being in Boeing's backyard, it's fairly easy to obtain a surplus jet-engine starter motor.
Huh? The engines on a Boeing are started using high pressure air from an auxiliary power unit or ground cart that then drives a starter motor.
I'm not trying to be pedantic... I'd really like to know what kind of motors you're finding for EV conversions. It's not an engine starter. An APU starter by chance?
The backhoe.
Given that at some point the rate of new members signing up will equal the rate that existing members die, calculate the maximum number of members of 'I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!'
Google's Android is Linux based... anyone know if the Openmoko phone will be able to run it?