"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/29/2020 at 09:00 • Filed to: good morning oppo, wingspan
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/29/2020 at 09:00 • Filed to: good morning oppo, wingspan | 4
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Here’s a photo of a couple of famous flyers, taken at Wright Field in 1942.
The man on the left, wearing his trademark fedora, is Igor Sikorsky. He’s standing in front of his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the prototype of the world’s first mass produced helicopter. And the gentleman on the right? That’s none other than Orville Wright. Though Orville didn’t pilot a plane again after 1918, he served on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA, for 28 years, and was still alive when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. Orville died in 1948 (his brother Wilbur had died of typhoid fever in 1912), and he took his final flight aboard a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! piloted by two other famous flyers, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and TWA president Jack Frye. During the flight, Wright commented that the wingspan of the Connie was longer than his first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
TheRealBicycleBuck
> ttyymmnn
06/29/2020 at 10:00 |
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The rate of progress in all areas of technology is truly stunning. From a short flight to an airplane whose wingspan is longer than that first powered flight in less than one lifetime. Wow. Just think about all of the innovations necessary to make that happen. There were improvements in materials from the engine through the skin. There were massive improvements in our understanding of aerodynamics and as a result, the Connie’s wings transitioned between two different airfoil designs (as opposed to the single airfoil, constant-chord design of the Wright Flyer). The control systems were vastly improved from the control surfaces themselves to the cables and actuators which controlled them. Instrumentation was developed to monitor everything from altitude to attitude and location on the earth. Now we have systems that can fly aircraft automatically.
We truly live in an amazing time.
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ttyymmnn
> TheRealBicycleBuck
06/29/2020 at 10:21 |
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We truly live in an amazing time.
We do, but I’m so taken with cynicism lately that I feel like we are wasting it all. Humanity is capable of so many amazing and wonderful things, yet we continue to be slaves to our basest instincts.
Sorry to bring this down. It’s just where I am right now.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> ttyymmnn
06/29/2020 at 10:45 |
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We are, by nature, tribalist creatures looking to do better for ourselves and the members of our tribe. Even when basic resources aren’t scarce, our nature compels us to get ahead. Going against that nature is hard. Even the most passive person has something where they put themselves ahead of everyone else.
That’s part of why we, as a species, are so successful.
I would argue that tribalism has driven every technological advancement we’ve made. From the first rock that was thrown in anger to the technology to send people to space, it’s all been to further one group’s objectives over another.
That’s not to say that any one group had the right to suppress another. We’ve advanced as a species to the point where every advancement could be used to bring everyone up to the same level. Resources shouldn’t be scarce. We have the technology and wealth to make sure they aren’t.
While some people have and others have not, our tribes will continue to fight. It’s not just about the resources themselves. It’s about the perceived level of effort to gain those resources. This is the problem with a society of specialists. If one group thinks another doesn’t work hard enough for the resources they have, then they think that the other doesn’t deserve to have those resources in the first place.
I believe that’s the root of the problem.
Future next gen S2000 owner
> TheRealBicycleBuck
06/29/2020 at 11:56 |
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A few million years of evolution is not undone by 20,000 or so of non-nomadic civilization.
What makes you great fighting for survival does not align with what makes a society great. I think people tend to forget how we evolved and the deep seated “lizard brain” that comes from that evolution as society advances.