A late 1950’s project from Fairchild Aircraft for a STOL aircraft, the M-232. The propulsion system was fixed, but the wings were given large flaps that would direct the bulk of the propwash more or less downwards. Coupled with the extreme nose-up attitude on the landing gear, this would almost be enough for vertical takeoff…
Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 song “Born in the USA” is famous not only for having been incredibly popular, bit for being “misunderstood.” Springsteen’s intent, as is pretty clear by a straight reading of the lyrics, is to tell the tale not just of a Viet Nam vet (the US was barely a decade out from that…
I recently re-watched the 1998 movie “Pleasantville.” For those unaware, this starred a pre-Spiderman Tobey McGuire as a kid who’s a fan of the fictional 1950’s black and white TV show “Pleasantville,” sort of a cliche of the bland, utopian family shows of the time. It turns into a fantasy when Don Knotts shows up…
A common trope in science fiction is the discovery of “an element that does not appear on the periodic table.” This is of course nonsense… if the element has three protons, it’s lithium, full stop. And we’ve discovered – or invented – every element up to Element 118, Oganesson. These higher elements are quite unstable,…
The second Starship/Superheavy launched today. Vastly more successful than the first flight, but both stages were still destroyed. This sort of thing would be unacceptable for a modern NASA launch system… but it was common in early launch vehicle development. Atlas and Titan kerploded with regularity. This sort of thing is not desirable, but it…
Hey, how about standing in some red fuming nitric acid fumes? is that not enough for you? How about a dousing from a nitric acid geyser? Un camion pieno di acido nitrico esplode. pic.twitter.com/GRgt4Zdv4P — ANTONIO (@blusewillis2) November 14, 2023
Due to a law rushed through last year, if Illinoisans don’t register their perfectly legal and common firearm (referred to inaccurately as “assault weapons”) by January 1 2024 they could get in trouble. But there’s a little wrinkle… the “Firearm Owners Protection Act” of 1986. The FOPA has a lot of problems, but it also…
It’s many a year since I’ve driven through Denver. Last time I came close was 2019, when i drove *around* Denver and found it to be a horrible traffic nightmare; driving through it seemed like utter insanity. Apparently the years have not improved the situation any. Video shows car driving down 16th Street Mall sidewalk,…
I’ve long counseled American Jews to get armed and trained, because their “friends” on the political left will sooner or later throw them to the wolves. That day seems to be right about here, if not in fact yesterday. Anyway, this happened today: Several young kids escape injury after woman targets what she thought was…
Several models of the Starship Enterprise were built for the original “Star Trek” series. The most famous is the 11-foot model which was used for most of the effects shots, and *amazingly* managed to survive long enough to end up in the hands of the National Air and Space Museum. But before the 11-footer was…
