fast flop NB7V52

If they did, they might have read about Gustav Weißkopf / Gustave Whitehead and his powered flight on Aug-14-1901 near Boston.

And don’t forget Alexander Graham Polanski, the first telephone Pole.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

More likely newspapers, and news-letters circulated by people interested in aeronautics. International technical reports tend to be hard to get hold of even now, while I read "Aviation Week" regularly when young when I could get at a library that had a subscription.

I've no idea how the Wright brothers kept in touch.

John Larkin doesn't seem to be conscious of that kind of influence.

Who was their PhD advisor?

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Orville knew:

(AI copy and paste)

"The Mythical Whitehead Flight" is an article written by Orville Wright in 1945. In it, he refutes the claims that Gustave Whitehead made a powered flight in 1901, which are based on an article in the Bridgeport Herald of August 18, 1901. Wright argues that the story was not taken seriously until it was published in Reader's Digest. He also notes that the article was written as an eyewitness report, but there is no evidence that the author was present at the event. The claims of Whitehead's flights are still disputed by mainstream historians, who consider them to be unsubstantiated.

Regardless, tinkering with bicycles is an obsession with me. My many fat tire bicycle mods include custom fit, superb German fenders and a small

During the Winter my bike's tricked out with motorcycle handlebar heaters, handlebar mittens, and studded snow tires. Here's the whole winterized package:

My next project is to incorporate a voice-activated ham radio into the bike. Last week a hang-glider pilot gave a presentation at my ham radio club meeting. He showed off his Do It Yourself mountain bike helmet with an embedded avionic headset. Hang-gliding has come a long way in the past half century. This particular pilot typically glides at between 10,000' to 16,000' while wearing a thermo suit to protect against the extreme cold temperatures. It's now common for hang-glider pilots to travel from coast to coast.

Nice! Ed

They knew about Lilienthal and how he got himself killed. That’s why the Wrights used a canard design.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Voice activated ham radio is so passe, you should try voice powered ham radio - Mike Rainey got a QSO by shouting into a microphone powering a flea power transmitter!

I think putting the tail in the front was dynamically unstable, so they practiced a lot to learn how to fly it.

I don't recall that either of them got a Ph.D. It was essentially a German innovation, and took a while to get adopted outside Germany.

My Ph.D. supervisor got the first Australian Ph.D. in 1948 - before that Australians went off to England, America or Europe to get the degree.

In a lot of respects it is an academic formalisation of the apprenticeship system - apprentices trained under the supervision of a master craftsman.

The Wright brothers weren't supervised by anybody, but like anybody sensible doing new stuff they paid attention to what the competition was up to.

I don't know if the Wright flyer was dynamically unstable, but having the tail in the front doesn't necessarily make it so.

Jeroen Belleman

True.

My father was an aeronautical engineer. As was his father. My recollection is that the problem was that those planes stalled easily, and that this is what caused those accidents. The canard in the front made the airplane pretty much stall proof.

The Gwinn Aircar was designed to be stall-proof as well, so amateur pilots could operate one in reasonable safety:

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Joe

Claiming 44 years later that the Reader's Digest reprint was more widely circulated than the original local newspaper is not exactly strong evidence of not-having-happened.

He also made a contract with the Smithsonian that they could keep the Kitty Hawk as long as they told his story.

... for small values from coast to coast. The world record is 3009 Km, and you need sth. like the Andes or the European Alps aligned to your flight path, and enough wind from the right direction to produce waves.

Much more won't be possible. You are limited by the time from dusk till dawn and flying more than 200 Km/h eats your height quickly.

Gerhard

who gave up on gliders at -7 dioptres and bought a motor bike instead. But I could not resist the temptation of a paraglider flight in Nepals in the Anapurna region: <

Yeah, but when it stalled it settled reasonably gently, whereas L.’s crashed hard, nose first.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

In the current context coast to coast means Pacific to Atlantic. And not necessarily non-stop. Apparently an e-Lift system of some sort can come into play. And airplanes are able to optionally tow hang-gliders to altitude. The ham hang-glider pilot also spoke about how the prevailing winds parallel to the North face of Casper Mountain make it a poor launch site. But that didn't stop this guy:

The guys would like that topic. Speaking of flea power...

There's a Whispering Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The acoustically tuned dishes at opposite ends of the room enable quiet whispers into one dish to be easily heard at the other. The ham hang-glider pilot says his wings create an acoustically tuned dish. It enables him to hear barking dogs and people talking a mile below. Conversely, he could scream his lungs out, but the people below would hear nothing. Unless they pointed a dish in his direction.

Small planes are dangerous. I can't imagine the carnage if hundreds of those Joby things were flying over downtown.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Aren't these just reflectors? One of them turns diverging waves from its focus into parallel waves - the other dish then focusses the beam of parallel waves back onto its own focus.

If they are tuned, what frequency are they tuned to - and why?

The 2 points that define an ellipse have this property.

I was in the ancient Greek theater in Epidauros. It was kinda annoying because if you stood in the focal point, every bumble bee there seemed to hum around your head.

Cheers, Gerhard