MetaFilter posts tagged with flight

Pilots overshoot MSP. Whoops!

COBRA! — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:50:50 -0800

Were they arguing? Were they asleep? It's not clear yet why two pilots overflew the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles before turning around in Wisconsin. What is known is that they dropped radio contact over Kansas, that Air Force fighters were put on alert, and that, according to MN Public radio, passengers saw cops and stern-looking men in suits waiting on the jetway when they were finally allowed off the plane. MSP alt-weekly City Pages aggregates info about the flight as it comes in, and discussion on local sites is spirited.

UP

empath — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:53:10 -0800

"Authorities were scouring the skies Thursday for a 6-year-old boy who unhooked his family's experimental balloon-powered aircraft and floated away from home, sheriff's officials said."

"The world's most famous missing person."

kirkaracha — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:11:32 -0800

"The unburied come back to haunt us." On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea (map) in their Lockheed Electra en route to Howland Island (map). They were never seen again. Earhart and Noonan's flight was one of the last legs of an attempted around-the-world flight at the Equator. (A previous attempt, flying east to west, failed when Earhart's plane was damaged in Hawaii and had to be sent to California for repairs.) The most common explanation is that they ran out of fuel, ditched in the ocean, and drowned, but the disappearance is an enduring mystery. In Search of...Amelia Earhart (part 2, part 3). Where's Amelia Earhart? The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR; previously) is a leading supporter of a theory that the Earhart and Noonan crash-landed at Nikumaroro (then called Gardner Island; map) TIGHAR's map of Nikumaroro shows the locations of possible evidence to support their theory. TIGHAR recently obtained a reference sample of mitochondrial DNA from a direct female relative of Earhart's, and is making a new expedition to Nikumaroro in May 2010 to look for DNA evidence. Crash Reconstruction by the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University.

It's not too early in history to be exterminated by a Dalek

XMLicious — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:00:35 -0800

The ring wing or annular airfoil is an aircraft design which has been experimented with throughout the history of aviation with some interesting variations. It has served as the inspiration for several paper airplane designs, model airplanes of course, and a variety of children's toys. The capabilities imagined by the French coléoptère engineers of the 1950's and 1960's and the U.S. "flying tank" designers are available today at least in the form of unmanned vehicles (large PDF brochure, 6 minute video download, 1½ minute YT news clip). The technology has also been adapted to become the surfboard tunnel fin and there are underwater UAVs as well.

They're models, not toys!

gamera — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:37:28 -0800

Building and flying free flight model airplanes is a pastime so obscure it doesn't even register on the geek heirarchy. But in the period between Lindberg's flight across the Atlantic until the start of the Second World War, thousands of boys (and some girls) around the world succumbed to the allure of rubber, lube, and dope. Free flight was eclipsed in popularity by control-line models and later radio control, but a hard core of enthusiasts are still at work making wonderful flying things. It's now pretty much a pastime for old men, many of whom have returned to the hobby after retirement. It's likely that some of the kids in the newsreels linked above are still making models. Like many obscure enthusiasms, it has found a home on the web. Here are some highlights for your browsing pleasure: A gallery of rather small photos, and another. An extensive British site dedicated to free flight scale models, including lots of rocket-powered models. A gallery of antique gas-powered model planes. Twin pushers and other free flight oddities (previously on Metafilter). Unbelievably delicate and graceful indoor duration models. Actual flight starts at about 1:52. More Indoor Planes, including an ornithopter. Some of these planes are actually radio controled - Free flight designs and techniques are often well-suited for small radio control models. "The sport of kings" - 2005, Middle Wallop. An introduction (with music, alas) to the modern Wakefield class of high-tech rubber powered planes. A jewel-like V-12 CO2 Engine (more music, Steppenwolf this time). The Long Flight, a short 1968 amateur film about model aviation. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. The story offers a clue why the sport/hobby isn't more popular. There's a long sequence where the young protagonist painstakingly builds his model, only to have it crash and break on it's maiden flight. For most kids this would end their fling with model planes. Luckily, this is a movie and 1939 Wakefield Champion Dick Korda is on hand to initiate him into the mysteries of the model plane. The Plan Page has free plans and construction articles for classic models scanned from old model magazines. Finally, a bit about a personal favorite, Bob Copeland's streamlined Wakefield from 1939. Pictured here and in this forum thread.

"I was up in those clouds all night."

emelenjr — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:10:47 -0800

"We were having dinner about four months ago and I was showing Clelia some pictures I'd taken in the air, and she said, 'Oh, that's so beautiful. I want to do that,'" Ben said. Easier said than done when you're 95. Be sure to check out the slideshow.

fear of flying

lalex — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:41:19 -0800

Ask the Pilot. Columnist Patrick Smith explains why you shouldn't be afraid of flying. For the past several years, the invaluable Patrick Stewart has been answering common passenger questions, including: Is turbulence dangerous? What are the safest airlines? No really, what are the safest airlines? How dangerous is in-flight decompression? Too hot to fly? A plane crossed in front of us? WHAT?? What does a runway near-miss mean? Will using an electronic device really down a plane?

Desperate to get to San Francisco

hermitosis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:16:06 -0800

"Cathay Pacific has apologized for embarrassing a customer whose anguish after missing her flight was captured on video by an airline employee and posted on the Internet..."

Let's Blow This Popstand

Xurando — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:38:08 -0800

Yet another study says the middle class are fleeing New York City. What happened to the previous studies and solutions? Bloomberg to Middle Class, "Get Out."

Fly the biofuel skies…

Artw — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:21:53 -0800

Today Boeing completed the first test flight of a commercial jet-liner using a mix of conventional jet-fuel and a fuel created from algae and the african weed jatropha. Boeing hopes that biofueled flights will be common in just three years.

Jesus Christ Dinosaur

homunculus — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:50:32 -0800

The Jesus Christ dinosaur hypothesis for the evolution of flight (PDF).

Air traffic control simulator

nthdegx — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:19:15 -0800

Push tin with ATC-SIM, an air traffic control simulator.

Girl with No Arms pilots plane

jwakawaka — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:31:03 -0800

A woman with no arms has conquered flying It's not all sensible, though. As she says at the end, she literally has her life in her "own feet." Flying a plane never looked so comfortable.

Fly My Pretty!

RokkitNite — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:48:55 -0800

On this day in 1852, Jules Henri Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight in a steam powered airship. His 27km journey from Paris to Trappes predated the Wright Brothers' 12-second flight by over 50 years. Although their low speed and a few high profile catastrophes severely diminished the popularity of dirigibles, they remain, for many, an emblem of scientific endeavour at its romantic, adventurous best. Giffard himself began to go blind in his fifties, and committed suicide in 1882.

macrovision

krautland — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:59:17 -0800

The AirTraffic Team at zhaw has posted a video depicting global flight activity over a single day to their site: windows media link / quicktime link. that's all.

A Tale of Two Airplanes

kurmbox — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:35:34 -0800

"Once Upon A Time... there were two very special airplanes that lived.... far.... far.... away on a tiny island in the Bering Sea. One was named Rivet Ball and the other was named Rivet Amber. Very few people knew anything about these two planes or the men that flew them. Even family members knew very little. That's because their mission was... TOP SECRET." (some photos and language within are NSFW) [via the wonderful PointNiner]

Jen Wang draws

Caduceus — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:33:51 -0800

If you like the art styles of Dresden Codak, Questionable Content, or Tony DeTerlizzi, you'll probably like the style of Jen Wang. She has recently started a new art blog. She also has a pretty nice gallery. Sev eral of my fav or ites. (Several of the gallery pieces are NSFW.) I don't really know a lot about art; the extent of my art criticism skills consists of saying "Ooo, pretty!" when I see something I like. But I said that often enough when I discovered her site tonight that I thought I'd share. She was mentioned previously in this post, but her link in that is broken.

If you squint your eyes it could pass for a private jet

MrMerlot — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:03:14 -0800

Is solar-powered flight getting any nearer? As noted previously on Metafilter, solar powered aviation has travelled a long way since the heady days of the Gossamer Penguin. But could it actually one day power commerical flight? Trouble is, a quick look at the prototypes reveals that most solar-powered planes remain a world away from passenger aviation. But that could be subject to change. Although we are not quite at the stage of the easyJet ecojet just yet, what might be just over the horizon is something like the Hy-Bird, a hybrid of hydrogen, solar-power and lithium-polymer batteries. The Hy-bird still looks like a bit like a prototype, but it is beginning to look more like a proper plane. If you squint your eyes, it could pass for a private jet. Lisa Airplanes, the Hy-bird's manufacturer, is planning to take the plane on a voyage that will circumnavigate the planet later this summer. According to Inhabitat, the Hy-bird gets just 10% of its power from solar, but that's still a significant contribution. Yes, we should all fly less if we want to reduce CO2. But the prospect of a truly green-powered aeroplane is enough to spark the imagination. Could we both save the planet and still be able to fly?

Vulture to circle for years

backseatpilot — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:06:38 -0800

DARPA has announced the contractors for their "Vulture" UAV system. The plan is to build an aircraft that can stay aloft, uninterrupted, for five years. This article discusses some of the technical challenges. For comparison, Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk has a maximum endurance of only forty hours. Similar aircraft have been explored before, most notably with NASA's Helios, which was lost in a crash in 2003. DARPA's site for the program is a little understated.

Antipodean fun

steerpike — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:40:29 -0800

In celebration of my antipodean homesickness I've spent the morning catching up with some great Australian and New Zealand musical comedy acts I've been to. You've already met Flight of the Conchords previously on mefi. Now come and meet some... Flight of the conchords have appeared previously on mefi (as well they should) but you might be excited to know they aren't the only antipodean musical comedy act! Come and meet some of the others. We'll start with the original bad boys of musical comedy: the Doug Anthony Allstars (DAAS); as likely to leap into the crowd to pash someone as spit on them, DAAS live shows were an anarchic mix of foul songs(NSFW), spoken word, actual great singing and, if you were lucky enough to catch one of their later gigs, this song. More recently we have Tripod who continue the three piece theme but are a bit more user friendly and who are gonna make you happy. Women represent in the form of the Kranzky sisters who...well, defy description really. Across the water we also get the foul mouthed Ms Peacock They're not exactly musical, but unusual sound does play a big part with The Umbilical Brothers

Paper Pilot: Battle of the Air

spock — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:33:09 -0800

Flash Friday Fun: Design a paper airplane and then see how far you can fling it. (Sound warning)

Private spaceflight based on open architecture 'like Linux'.

blatant gizmo — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:41:01 -0800

SpaceShipTwo (SS2) [the suborbital craft] and WhiteKnightTwo [its launch system], created by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, have been revealed. More images. Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn says the WhiteKnightTwo will have an "open architecture like Linux to allow other people to develop new vehicles and revolutionize new industrial uses of space". He continues that, if people come to Virgin with plans geared towards the use of WhiteKnightTwo, they will work with them.

Тхундербирдс являются дороге!

Artw — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:28:50 -0800

Russian cold war bombers - The Tu 95 Bear and Tu 160 Blackjack, based in central Russia, which resumed long range patrols in August.

Vintage Flight Attendant Photos

brain_drain — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:07:58 -0800

Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

You and I were/weren't meant to fly....

never used baby shoes — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:48:50 -0800

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing new rules regarding passenger pre-screening both domestically and internationally. Interestingly, this includes flights that overfly the continental US without ever touching the ground. Overflying the Continental United States. This proposed rule defines ``overflying the continental United States' as departing from an airport or location outside the United States, and transiting the airspace of the continental United States en route to another airport or location outside the United States...In this proposed rule, flights ``overflying the continental United States' are a category of ``covered flights' for which TSA would conduct passenger watch list matching in order to protect the airspace over the continental United States and prevent individuals on a watch list from taking control of an aircraft...From the proposed rule. The rule does not cover flights that originate in one country, overfly the US, and land again in the originating country. For example, a flight between Toronto and Vancouver would be exempt. Since Transport Canada has already implemented a no-fly list, ATAC is questioning the purpose of this. Others wonder about different effects on the travel habits of Canadians and Americans.