Short PD.16

 aircraft, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
Jun 112021
 

The Short PD.16 was a circa 1957 design for a twin engined turboprop cargo/passenger plane. The configuration was similar to the Fairchild C-119, and would have been, by modern standards, an unusual passenger aircraft. Slow, voluminous, with (in one configuration) a cargo hold stuffed with cars and an upper deck filled with people in *luxurious* seating by modern standards, probably deafened and rattled. Half a dozen of one…

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 Posted by at 3:36 am

The dangers of statistics

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, Crazy, history, Hmm..., science, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 102021
 

It’s nice to see some physics textbooks getting real about the dangers of statistics:

Is This a Real Science Textbook Introduction?

These words do in fact form the beginning of the first chapter of the book “States of Matter,” a text by CalTech physicist David L. Goodstein, as documented by the following extract from a digital copy of the book:

That’s neat. Who knew that statistical analysis was essentially the Necronomicon?

NOW IT IS OUR TURN.

 Posted by at 1:38 pm

Starship/Superheavy animation

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Hmm..., projects, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 092021
 

An interesting piece of “fan animation” depicting a test flight of a Starship/Superheavy stack with subsequent water landings. I have high hopes that a flight will look this good… but realistically, we can expect a few flights with a bit more energetic ends. And that’s ok: failure is an option here. Failure can be a fantastic teacher. Certainly a far better teach than “not trying.”

Also of note: there are some bits of the animation here that are distinctly not “Hollywood A-Game.” But compare what just a few guys managed to do with, say, the first couple seasons of Babylon 5.  Technology progresses.

 Posted by at 12:54 am

Seems like “SR-71” is out in the wild…

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Book X, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., news, politics, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Jun 072021
 

I was under the impression it’d be another couple months before it was available, but I’m hearing that it is starting to show up in Britain. No reviews as yet, though I hope to see some (and obviously hope that they’re positive…).

It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99.

 Posted by at 10:47 pm
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