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Flight - Blog Posts
I hope you will enjoy this Halloween special. Today, we are trying something a little bit different by exploring the evolution of a particular animal : Bats.
While their evolutionary history is shrouded in mystery, they allow us, nonetheless, to explore 2 interesting ideas :
1- Convergent evolution : How organisms tend to evolve similar (albeit not identical) body plans as solutions to similar problems (flight in birds, bats and pterosaurs)
2- Prediction : Like any theory, evolution is not only descriptive, but also predictive. Thanks to its models and principles, it allows us to make predictions to complement our gap in observational data.
Happy Halloween!
P.S. : The blog in the third picture is neither scientific nor peer-reviewed. But it is a nice illustration of how the common ancestor of bats MIGHT have looked like, and how using basic principles from evolution, phylogeny, and comparative anatomy, we can visualize how some animals have come to be what they are.
Flight Delays Made Easy: Tune Protect’s Lounge Pass Perk
Transform flight delays into comfort with Tune Protect’s Delay Lounge Pass, offering lounge access for AirAsia Travel Insurance customers worldwide. Continue reading Flight Delays Made Easy: Tune Protect’s Lounge Pass Perk
Can Spiders Fly?
Yes, spiders have at least two methods of flight. One method they have is to use a spider-silk thread that carries them on the wind. The other, I discovered recently, is to use their legs. I was walking on a newly-paved stretch of path, minding my own business, when I noticed coming up along-side me a strange-looking bug. At first, I thought it was a flying insect, but it didn't look like any flying insect I'd ever seen before. It was just hovering along-side me at eye-level, going just slightly faster than I was walking. I inspected it a little closer... it was a spider! It had the look of a top-heavy flight plane where the wings are fully under the body. The 'wings' were actually the spider's spindly little legs tremulously undulating in the wind. It appeared to be attempting to follow the same pathway I was following and eventually I watched it land a few feet in front of me on the pavement. I was able to say 'hi' and get a closer look. It wasn't timid at all but kept trying to climb up on me. Maybe it thought it would get a free ride! Now I have a new respect for spiders with spindly legs. ❤️
Yesterday, as I was walking, I noticed that the leaves floating down through the air paused just a second on their way down as if they wanted to stay aloft. I wondered, then, if leaves are meant for flight. Do they possess a remnant of the life of the tree they came from? Do they possess sentience or a will of their own? I picked one up, keeping it to photograph. On my way back home, I saw the wind pick up a leaf in front of me, then another and another... soon a whirlwind of leaves passed over and around me. It seemed the universe, or the leaves, answered me. They knew I held their friend captive in my hand. "Just a photo, and then I'll let it go," and later I did. :) Further on, I heard a powerful rustling in the woods behind me, and a great whirlwind brought golden-brown leaves high into the air. It's no coincidence, they said, that leaves resemble feathers.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/__nfs_vvIrQ
Flight Facilities - Crave You (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix)
NASA Langley researchers are working on various projects to improve commercial airliner cockpit simulators to reduce the risk of loss-of-control in flight. This includes improving simulator fidelity for stall training, and also includes a partnership with the U.S. Navy, at the Disorientation Research Device Facility in Dayton, Ohio, to develop and evaluate synthetic vision displays to help pilots recover from upsets or unusual attitudes.
NASA Langley Research Center
NASA Begins Work to Build a Quieter Supersonic Passenger Jet
The return of supersonic passenger air travel is one step closer to reality with NASA's award of a contract for the preliminary design of a "low boom" flight demonstration aircraft. This is the first in a series of 'X-planes' in NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency's Fiscal Year 2017 budget.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced the award at an event Monday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.
The return of supersonic passenger travel is one step closer to reality with NASA's award of a contract for the preliminary design of a low boom flight demonstrator aircraft. This is the first in a series of X-planes in NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.Credits: NASA
"NASA is working hard to make flight cleaner, greener, safer and quieter – all while developing aircraft that travel faster, and building an aviation system that operates more efficiently," said Bolden. "To that end, it's worth noting that it's been almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency's high speed research. Now we're continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter jet that may break the barrier to accessible, affordable supersonic passenger flight."
This is an artist’s concept of a possible Low Boom Flight Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) X-plane design. The award of a preliminary design contract is the first step towards the possible return of supersonic passenger travel – but this time quieter and more affordable.Credits: Lockheed Martin
NASA selected a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Palmdale, California, to complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). The work will be conducted under a task order against the Basic and Applied Aerospace Research and Technology (BAART) contract at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
After conducting feasibility studies and working to better understand acceptable sound levels across the country, NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project asked industry teams to submit design concepts for a piloted test aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, creating a supersonic "heartbeat" – a soft thump rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flight.
"Developing, building and flight testing a quiet supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path to enabling the industry's decision to open supersonic travel for the flying public," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission.
Lockheed Martin will receive about $20 million over 17 months for QueSST preliminary design work. The Lockheed Martin team includes subcontractors GE Aviation of Cincinnati and Tri Models Inc. of Huntington Beach, California.
The company will develop baseline aircraft requirements and a preliminary aircraft design with specifications, and provide supporting documentation for concept formulation and planning. This documentation would be used to prepare for the detailed design, building and testing of the QueSST jet. Performance of this preliminary design also must undergo analytical and wind tunnel validation.
The detailed design and building of the QueSST aircraft, conducted under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Integrated Aviation Systems Program, will fall under a future contract competition. In addition to design and building, this Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) phase of the project also will include validation of community response to the new, quieter supersonic design.
NASA's 10-year New Aviation Horizons initiative has the ambitious goals of reducing fuel use, emissions and noise through innovations in aircraft design, ground operations and the national air transportation system.
The New Aviation Horizons X-planes will typically be about half-scale of a production aircraft and likely are to be piloted. Design-and-build will take several years with aircraft starting their flight campaign around 2020, depending on funding.
For more information about NASA's aeronautics research, visit:
www.nasa.gov/aero
“The erosive work of streams.” Elementary physiography. 1910.
A photo of Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on February 13, 2007 at 06:45:16. Detail page on OPUS database.
Harold Feinstein Birds Flying, 1963 Gelatin silver print
and speak to me from the depths of this long night as if we were anchored here together, tell me everything, chain by chain, link by link and step by step,
Pablo Neruda, from section “XII,” of excerpts from Heights of Macchu Picchu, transl.Tomás Q. Morín, Plume (August 2017)
Józef Chełmoński (Polish, 1849-1914)
Crane departure, 1871
Oil on canvas, 41.5 x 57.5 cm
Aviator hat? Check. Spaceship shirt? Check. Skeleton fingers? Check. We're ready for the cold!! #winter #winteriscoming #flight #pilot #futureastronaut #itsalwayshalloween #youcanttaketheskyfromme #weaimtomisbehave
Cargo Ship Choreography: NASA Co-Op #3 Day One
Today I returned to Mission Control to support the ISO (Inventory Stowage Officers) console. This team is in charge of packing cargo ships, choreographing the unloading of cargo ships and letting astronauts know where they misplaced their socks. Basically, ISO knows where everything is in the bird's nest that is the International Space Station.
My task is to choreograph the unloading of a cargo ship docked to space station. This is no ordinary choreography however, I will be using a device I created training for with another Mission Control in an earlier Co-Op. In the Fall of 2015 I produced a training video for a device that has the potential to make difficult procedures easier for astronauts. Astronaut Scott Kelly and Tim Peake ended up using this training in space. This week I will be familiarizing myself with standard unloading procedures, watching videos of astronauts testing this new device and questioning what is the hardest part of unloading that could be made easier with this device.
In layman's terms - I am choreographing the unloading of a cargo ship onto space station that the astronauts will perform by using a helpful device.
My battle station.
Saturn V stage.
NASA Co-Op Week 15: Precious Cargo
Six flags of countries who contributed to the International Space Station decorate the flight console. I return to Mission Control watching launch preparations from a new perspective - with Remote Interface Officer. Colloquially called RIO this team of international collaborators were originally dubbed Russian Integration Officer. The RIO flight controller communicated with the Russian team for launch and cargo capture system checks for the Cygnus rocket launch carried by an Atlas V rocket. Cygnus carries over 7,000 pounds of experiments, food and replacement parts to Space Station. cell cultures, bacteria, and microbe satellite experiments are on board the Cygnus rocket. We are calling this event a "Cyg"-nificant launch.
A team of NASA flight controllers flip-flop working in the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow and NASA's in Houston. For two months controllers visiting Moscow sit console for eight hours a day, six days a week, and on call 24/7. By being available to assist with international troubleshooting, answering the right questions, and making right calls at the right time RIO has saved the space station hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ten years ago an hour of an astronaut's time in space was worth $100,000 so that cost has inflated even more now!
RIO introduced me to their mascot, a groundhog named Phil. One of the first Russian American collaborations took place on a Groundhog Day. Phil's collar is decorated with pins from various missions. The plush Ground Hog was hibernating under the console but has been kidnapped and escorted around the Red Square.
An odd anecdote I learned is that there is a survival hand gun stowed away on the Soyuz capsule. It is used if the Soyuz makes an emergency landing in an unexpected area and the astronauts need to defend themselves from bears or wolves. That's pretty hard core!
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch the Cygnus cargo launch Dec 3rd 4:55pmCT: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAHDTV Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/t3_5ahJ0-Lw Apply for a NASA Internship & Scholarships NOW: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ NASA Co-Op applications: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars: http://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/ Join an aspirations in computing community: https://www.ncwit.org/programs-campaigns/aspirations-computing
Intern Week 9: Flying With An Astronaut
T-38 Simulator To get ready for intensive piloting into space astronauts train on the Northrop T-38 Talon, the first supersonic two seated trainer. I hear astronauts flying through the air in the T-38s every morning around Johnson Space Center. Before you can even think of piloting, it's essential to fly in a simulator to get use to the controls and indicators. I had the gracious opportunity to fly in the T-38 simulator with Astronaut Gregory C Johnson. With myself in the front of the tandem simulator and Johnson in the back (often entering God commands) I preformed rolls, buzzed the landing strip, and attempted a loop d' loop. I did enjoy flying in the simulation and would consider finding a flight simulator on Steam and hooking up my Logitech controller for practice.
Truth About The Russian Agreement Following the $490 million dollar deal NASA made with Russia to continue to use Soyuz, many are expressing concern about sending money overseas. This week Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa and Deputy Director Kirk Shireman spoke with us interns sharing career advice, illustrating their vision for the future of NASA and addressing this concern. Ochoa shared, while we are currently dependent on Russia for human transport to the International Space Station (ISS) NASA has assigned SpaceX and Boeing the task to transport astronauts from NASA to space from American soil. We are still purchasing seats on Soyuz because there must be overlap. While troubleshooting launching our own transport vehicles we must ensure there is still a way to get astronauts to the ISS. Reflecting on all the science that has been done on the ISS - the collaboration between the United States and Russia has propelled space flight into the future and expanded exploration. Shireman noted that although the United States will create a transport vehicle the partnership with Russia and other nations will continue. Shireman shared that the European Space Agency (ESA) is creating Orion's Service Vehicle after their experience with solar panels on the ISS. In the future Shireman sees many nations apart of the journey to Mars. What I took from this lecture is that it takes a planet to get to another planet.
Flight Director Wisdom Astronaut Michael Fossum and Flight Director Royce Renfrew shared career and life wisdom to interns and Co-Ops. A question I find helpful during my transitional time as a college student is - What would you tell your twenty year old self? Fossum shared that you should chase after what you desire to do, if you want to pursue a particular career find someone who got there and ask for advice. In respect to becoming an astronaut do not just check items off a list of skills and experiences you think astronauts should have, people have ruined their lives doing that. I asked Renfrew what key characteristic that an aspiring flight director should have. Renfrew mentioned this concept of having, Command Presence, meaning when you step into a room everyone knows the meeting is about to start. This presence doesn't necessarily have to do with your personality, how tall you are or how old you are. It is a very ambiguously defined characteristic but apparent when someone has it.
Intern Update This week I was primarily finishing documentation on my displays, writing my abstract, practicing my intern accomplishment summary presentation and creating a simple low fidelity interface the audio system can be tested with.
On my way to Rome
