Saw it last night from my driveway here in Daytona, first launch I've ever seen. We saw three lights... I'm assuming it had boosters? (they dropped off after a while)
If the pilots say they were blinded, I believe them.
After a 4 hour flight as a pilot, your night vision is extremely sensitive. And it needs to be, even though airports look bright as hell from the ground, they tend to just blend in to lights of a city from a distance.
It takes very little (other than a pilot with the right ticket and a capable bird) to become and "airline".
Not so, a pilot cannot just earn his commercial license, get an airplane, and start charging for passenger service. Passenger/Cargo services are heavily regulated and inspected annually (and subject to random inspections). It's takes far more than the right ticket and a plane full of seats.
FAR 61.68: Practical test requirements for Category III ILS rating
"(iii) All approaches performed during the flight increment must be made with the approved automatic landing system or an equivalent landing system approved by the Administrator;" http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ec fr&sid=0e07c97b57c39f9e548b8d28bdcb8339&rgn=div8&v iew=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.2.2.1.6&idno=14
I'd put my money on the military ditching this plan in a few years (budget cuts anyone?)
Plus, you can't really mess with the efficiency of a soldier standing in a street with a rifle. A computer on his back isn't going to help him dodge bullets.
As a pilot, it is my responsibility to see-and-avoid other traffic during my entire flight. But it becomes the controller's responsibility to maintain seperation in controlled airspace.
I'm a low time pilot, but I can tell you that most of the time in controlled airspace, the controllers do their job well. The problem is on the weekends at uncontrolled airports...
The research airplane in this experiment failed to reduce the sound of the sonic boom as much as hoped.
In fact, this research is primarily intended for the next generation business jets, not the military. The future of such planes is up in the air in the moment, because not only do they have to reduce the wake of sonic booms (they shatter windows and suprise people), the regulations have to change. I for one know that the FAA is slow at that.
Regarding the need for windows in airliners: A Boeing 777 pilot today needs to be able to see a few hundred feet ahead of him on takeoff, but after rotating off the runway, he doesn't need to see anything at all. Modern airliners can land and auto-flare... that is, land themselves in ZERO visibility conditions. The pilots undergo extra training for this, of course.
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Could someone tell these guys to bring down all those Al Qaeda (and assorted copycats) websites with beheadings and terrorist messages on them?
Saw it last night from my driveway here in Daytona, first launch I've ever seen. We saw three lights... I'm assuming it had boosters? (they dropped off after a while)
If the pilots say they were blinded, I believe them.
After a 4 hour flight as a pilot, your night vision is extremely sensitive. And it needs to be, even though airports look bright as hell from the ground, they tend to just blend in to lights of a city from a distance.
It takes very little (other than a pilot with the right ticket and a capable bird) to become and "airline".
Not so, a pilot cannot just earn his commercial license, get an airplane, and start charging for passenger service. Passenger/Cargo services are heavily regulated and inspected annually (and subject to random inspections). It's takes far more than the right ticket and a plane full of seats.
FAR 61.68: Practical test requirements for Category III ILS rating
c fr&sid=0e07c97b57c39f9e548b8d28bdcb8339&rgn=div8&v iew=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.2.2.1.6&idno=14
:)
"(iii) All approaches performed during the flight increment must be made with the approved automatic landing system or an equivalent landing system approved by the Administrator;" http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=e
They auto-flare during the auto-landing
I'd put my money on the military ditching this plan in a few years (budget cuts anyone?) Plus, you can't really mess with the efficiency of a soldier standing in a street with a rifle. A computer on his back isn't going to help him dodge bullets.
As a pilot, it is my responsibility to see-and-avoid other traffic during my entire flight. But it becomes the controller's responsibility to maintain seperation in controlled airspace.
I'm a low time pilot, but I can tell you that most of the time in controlled airspace, the controllers do their job well. The problem is on the weekends at uncontrolled airports...
The research airplane in this experiment failed to reduce the sound of the sonic boom as much as hoped.
In fact, this research is primarily intended for the next generation business jets , not the military. The future of such planes is up in the air in the moment, because not only do they have to reduce the wake of sonic booms (they shatter windows and suprise people), the regulations have to change. I for one know that the FAA is slow at that.
Regarding the need for windows in airliners: A Boeing 777 pilot today needs to be able to see a few hundred feet ahead of him on takeoff, but after rotating off the runway, he doesn't need to see anything at all. Modern airliners can land and auto-flare... that is, land themselves in ZERO visibility conditions. The pilots undergo extra training for this, of course.