Entries by tag: aviation
for my birthday questions both 
siglinde99 and legalmoose asked questions related to how I got into aviation and airplanes.
One simple answer is that I graduated right after the dot com crash when there were NO JOBS and I took the first company that'd hire me. Three months after graduation, worried and depressed that I was not going to be an engineer after all, I didn't care. I had always been warned that aviation was up and down and crazy and I would be laid off. And three months after I hired on, there was indeed a round of layoffs! I didn't even unpack all my boxes from the move. But I wasn't laid off that day, so I unpacked another box, stayed loyal and grateful and came in a little early every day. 18 years later I am still around.
My mother would tell you that when I was an infant, a pediatrician tried to jingle keys and get my attention during an exam and I didn't notice. He said it wasn't normal, and my hearing should be evaluated. Days later, Mom was outside with me and we heard an airplane. I turned to look at it immediately and tracked it across the sky. She knew my hearing must be okay and felt much better. I just didn't care about what some doctor was doing.
Somewhere between obvious economic forces and FORETOLD DESTINY there the real story, but now I can't remember the difference between things I planned and things that happened by accident.
Here are the jobs I had worked before college that might have set this heading.
1) Retail. Between college summers, I worked at a shoe store, I worked at a nature store at the mall. The nature store was way more fun. It was The Discovery Channel Store. I flipped over rain sticks for kids, explained the differences between telescopes, and watched Crocodile Hunter videos. People entered fascinated, and skipped out feeling elated. They bought the most fun things! The shoe store was not always as fun. I know there are stereotypes about people (women) LOVING shoes but I don't think they shop at famous footwear. Our customers HAD to buy shoes for their (ungrateful) kids, they had to write those checks, they left feeling like they'd addressed an obligation. There were fun things about it sometimes, but I mainly learned that I should get a job with products people are excited about.
2) Power plants. Before my senior year, I had my first engineering internship at a company that designed big huge giant power plants, mostly coal fired. While the science was interesting, the people were bored. They were there for a paycheck. Anything I did wouldn't be a real thing for years, even decades. The powerplants were far away, hidden off in remote areas where they weren't in anybody's back yard. They were an obligation. And my internship itself had felt very boring, unproductive, and disappointing.
I went back to college for my last year in engineering. My lab partner's internship had been at an airplane company. She was elated. She had a great time, she said. They got to design a special instrument panel for every airplane coming down the production line, they were all unique and new depending on what options got picked, and she got to see her designs built in weeks, not decades. And the airplanes went on new fascinating missions and no day was the same. That sounded awesome. Her stories definitely got me to apply.
Don't get me wrong... the vast majority of small planes are business tools. People trying to get to every little town quickly, deploy a team of expert technicians to those remote power plants, be an air ambulance to get lifesaving treatment to someone in a far off city. But there's still a feeling of excitement that we are getting their jobs done so much faster. When you get a shiny new laptop for work, isn't it a little exciting? Airplanes are that times a zillion for business owners. They may not be pure fun like the nature store, but they're not the shoe store either.
I wanted to go into consumer electronics. I thought that was where the fun would really be. But I've grown to appreciate the legacy of aviation too. I support airplanes older than me. Keep them flying. Any little consumer gadget I would have designed in 2002 would almost definitely be in the trash by now. Any powerplant might not be built at all. But the airplanes are out there helping people.
See, again, how do you know if you're rationalizing what you've done, or did it for the right reasons? You never know. I might have been happy with anything.
There are people at my company who work in finance, business applications, they could do their work anywhere. they never touch an airplane part. But they love airplanes and talk about them all the time! I know an IT guy with a commercial pilot's license, for heaven's sake, he flies every weekend then upgrades servers during the week. I get to work with passionate people and that's a wonderful thing.
siglinde99 and legalmoose asked questions related to how I got into aviation and airplanes.One simple answer is that I graduated right after the dot com crash when there were NO JOBS and I took the first company that'd hire me. Three months after graduation, worried and depressed that I was not going to be an engineer after all, I didn't care. I had always been warned that aviation was up and down and crazy and I would be laid off. And three months after I hired on, there was indeed a round of layoffs! I didn't even unpack all my boxes from the move. But I wasn't laid off that day, so I unpacked another box, stayed loyal and grateful and came in a little early every day. 18 years later I am still around.
My mother would tell you that when I was an infant, a pediatrician tried to jingle keys and get my attention during an exam and I didn't notice. He said it wasn't normal, and my hearing should be evaluated. Days later, Mom was outside with me and we heard an airplane. I turned to look at it immediately and tracked it across the sky. She knew my hearing must be okay and felt much better. I just didn't care about what some doctor was doing.
Somewhere between obvious economic forces and FORETOLD DESTINY there the real story, but now I can't remember the difference between things I planned and things that happened by accident.
Here are the jobs I had worked before college that might have set this heading.
1) Retail. Between college summers, I worked at a shoe store, I worked at a nature store at the mall. The nature store was way more fun. It was The Discovery Channel Store. I flipped over rain sticks for kids, explained the differences between telescopes, and watched Crocodile Hunter videos. People entered fascinated, and skipped out feeling elated. They bought the most fun things! The shoe store was not always as fun. I know there are stereotypes about people (women) LOVING shoes but I don't think they shop at famous footwear. Our customers HAD to buy shoes for their (ungrateful) kids, they had to write those checks, they left feeling like they'd addressed an obligation. There were fun things about it sometimes, but I mainly learned that I should get a job with products people are excited about.
2) Power plants. Before my senior year, I had my first engineering internship at a company that designed big huge giant power plants, mostly coal fired. While the science was interesting, the people were bored. They were there for a paycheck. Anything I did wouldn't be a real thing for years, even decades. The powerplants were far away, hidden off in remote areas where they weren't in anybody's back yard. They were an obligation. And my internship itself had felt very boring, unproductive, and disappointing.
I went back to college for my last year in engineering. My lab partner's internship had been at an airplane company. She was elated. She had a great time, she said. They got to design a special instrument panel for every airplane coming down the production line, they were all unique and new depending on what options got picked, and she got to see her designs built in weeks, not decades. And the airplanes went on new fascinating missions and no day was the same. That sounded awesome. Her stories definitely got me to apply.
Don't get me wrong... the vast majority of small planes are business tools. People trying to get to every little town quickly, deploy a team of expert technicians to those remote power plants, be an air ambulance to get lifesaving treatment to someone in a far off city. But there's still a feeling of excitement that we are getting their jobs done so much faster. When you get a shiny new laptop for work, isn't it a little exciting? Airplanes are that times a zillion for business owners. They may not be pure fun like the nature store, but they're not the shoe store either.
I wanted to go into consumer electronics. I thought that was where the fun would really be. But I've grown to appreciate the legacy of aviation too. I support airplanes older than me. Keep them flying. Any little consumer gadget I would have designed in 2002 would almost definitely be in the trash by now. Any powerplant might not be built at all. But the airplanes are out there helping people.
See, again, how do you know if you're rationalizing what you've done, or did it for the right reasons? You never know. I might have been happy with anything.
There are people at my company who work in finance, business applications, they could do their work anywhere. they never touch an airplane part. But they love airplanes and talk about them all the time! I know an IT guy with a commercial pilot's license, for heaven's sake, he flies every weekend then upgrades servers during the week. I get to work with passionate people and that's a wonderful thing.
I don't remember when I first heard of Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to earn a pilot's license, but every time I heard anything about her I wanted to know more. So I finally found a whole book about her.
You hear "first black woman pilot" (and first Native American pilot) and wonder what got her into flying, then you find out she was the oldest of 13 babies (nine surviving), she was born on a Texas farm in 1892, flying schools wouldn't teach black students so she had to learn French and study in France... you ORDER THE BOOK.
Bessie Coleman's parents didn't know how to read or write, but she got to go to school two years after the supreme court determined that black children deserved a "separate but equal" education. Black teachers, with barely a sixth grade education, would hold class in one cold room for grades 1-8 after the cotton had been harvested for the entire county. If the harvest took until December, that's when the school year started, and it would end when it was time to plant again. Bessie was her family's star and entertainment. They'd spend their evenings listening to her read, first the Bible, then an annual library wagon brought her books about black heroes... Booker T. Washington, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Harriet Tubman. That ten year old girl, tired of picking cotton, raised by a mother who told her children to "amount to something", must have gotten some ideas. She attended college after finishing the 8th grade at her school, but the college said her education was closer to a 6th grade level, and she ran out of money after one semester anyway.
In 1915 she followed one of her brothers and moved to Chicago. Texas was violence and poverty, fellow blacks were telling each other it was "better to die of frostbite than at the hands of a mob". She became a beautician in Chicago, part of a new exciting economy that included up-and-coming circles in everything from industry to journalism to organized crime. When her brother returned from WWI, he bragged about how wonderful Europe was, how impressed he was that even French women could fly airplanes. That's when the ambitious Bessie Coleman decided to be a pilot.
With financial help from black newspaper editors (they liked news, she'd be news) she studied French at the local school, boarded a ship to France, found the only school there that would train a woman, and learned to fly. She finished the ten month course in seven months, walking an 18 mile round trip each day from where she lived, speaking a new and unfamiliar language, watching other students crash to their deaths right in front of her. After returning to the US she went back to Europe for additional acrobatic training, and returned to Chicago in 1922 to try earning a living as a "daredevil aviatrix".
It was a tough living with lots of competition. She was constantly bragging that she was on the threshold of buying an airplane or starting a school for black pilots. She was not always honest about her age or achievements. But she definitely had the license and definitely amazed crowds with her flying. She wore a custom tailored uniform, refused to fly at shows where blacks were not admitted, chewed through managers who tried to tell her what to do, double-booked herself too many times, and was never quite financially ahead of the game. When she finally bought a plane in California in 1922, the motor failed on its maiden flight. She was pulled from the wreckage and badly injured. She took months to recover, and even more months to find the financial means to get back to flying.
She finally hit her stride when she went back to Texas in 1925. She flew rented planes at popular airshows and gave lectures for groups all around the south. It was a successful year, and 1926 could be even better. That year she finally had the money to buy a Jenny she'd been eyeing at Love Field, a "veritable shopping mall of used aircraft", crowded with surplus planes and parts. She made the final payments to the shop she'd had fixing an old plane up for her. The lead mechanic flew it out to her in Florida, surviving two forced landings on the journey. He took Bessie as a passenger so she could look out for parachute jump spots on a show the next day. The plane failed again when a loose wrench jammed in the engine. They both died in the crash. She was 34 years old.
She'd flown for 10000 people at single shows, and 5000 attended her funeral. She'd been a sensation, loved by children, credited with inspiring so many Americans, black and white, male and female, to fly.
She never gave up. Her story shows that getting the license, getting an education, making a story, can never be the end-all-be-all, she was constantly looking for the next step. She always had her dream of starting a school. So many aviation pioneers never lived long enough to see their visions develop. But of all the stories I've read, she came in with the least, and somehow outdreamed the most.
You hear "first black woman pilot" (and first Native American pilot) and wonder what got her into flying, then you find out she was the oldest of 13 babies (nine surviving), she was born on a Texas farm in 1892, flying schools wouldn't teach black students so she had to learn French and study in France... you ORDER THE BOOK.
Bessie Coleman's parents didn't know how to read or write, but she got to go to school two years after the supreme court determined that black children deserved a "separate but equal" education. Black teachers, with barely a sixth grade education, would hold class in one cold room for grades 1-8 after the cotton had been harvested for the entire county. If the harvest took until December, that's when the school year started, and it would end when it was time to plant again. Bessie was her family's star and entertainment. They'd spend their evenings listening to her read, first the Bible, then an annual library wagon brought her books about black heroes... Booker T. Washington, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Harriet Tubman. That ten year old girl, tired of picking cotton, raised by a mother who told her children to "amount to something", must have gotten some ideas. She attended college after finishing the 8th grade at her school, but the college said her education was closer to a 6th grade level, and she ran out of money after one semester anyway.
In 1915 she followed one of her brothers and moved to Chicago. Texas was violence and poverty, fellow blacks were telling each other it was "better to die of frostbite than at the hands of a mob". She became a beautician in Chicago, part of a new exciting economy that included up-and-coming circles in everything from industry to journalism to organized crime. When her brother returned from WWI, he bragged about how wonderful Europe was, how impressed he was that even French women could fly airplanes. That's when the ambitious Bessie Coleman decided to be a pilot.
With financial help from black newspaper editors (they liked news, she'd be news) she studied French at the local school, boarded a ship to France, found the only school there that would train a woman, and learned to fly. She finished the ten month course in seven months, walking an 18 mile round trip each day from where she lived, speaking a new and unfamiliar language, watching other students crash to their deaths right in front of her. After returning to the US she went back to Europe for additional acrobatic training, and returned to Chicago in 1922 to try earning a living as a "daredevil aviatrix".
It was a tough living with lots of competition. She was constantly bragging that she was on the threshold of buying an airplane or starting a school for black pilots. She was not always honest about her age or achievements. But she definitely had the license and definitely amazed crowds with her flying. She wore a custom tailored uniform, refused to fly at shows where blacks were not admitted, chewed through managers who tried to tell her what to do, double-booked herself too many times, and was never quite financially ahead of the game. When she finally bought a plane in California in 1922, the motor failed on its maiden flight. She was pulled from the wreckage and badly injured. She took months to recover, and even more months to find the financial means to get back to flying.
She finally hit her stride when she went back to Texas in 1925. She flew rented planes at popular airshows and gave lectures for groups all around the south. It was a successful year, and 1926 could be even better. That year she finally had the money to buy a Jenny she'd been eyeing at Love Field, a "veritable shopping mall of used aircraft", crowded with surplus planes and parts. She made the final payments to the shop she'd had fixing an old plane up for her. The lead mechanic flew it out to her in Florida, surviving two forced landings on the journey. He took Bessie as a passenger so she could look out for parachute jump spots on a show the next day. The plane failed again when a loose wrench jammed in the engine. They both died in the crash. She was 34 years old.
She'd flown for 10000 people at single shows, and 5000 attended her funeral. She'd been a sensation, loved by children, credited with inspiring so many Americans, black and white, male and female, to fly.
She never gave up. Her story shows that getting the license, getting an education, making a story, can never be the end-all-be-all, she was constantly looking for the next step. She always had her dream of starting a school. So many aviation pioneers never lived long enough to see their visions develop. But of all the stories I've read, she came in with the least, and somehow outdreamed the most.
One Christmas I asked my sister, who runs a button business (yes!) to custom make me a Women in Aviation Magnet Set for my white board. I have these at work and love them, and get asked about them, and wanted to note who I picked. I think these are all historical figures worth knowing!
I am keeping the descriptions very brief because there are plenty of places to do more research.
Louise Thaden - Air Racer, Wichitan, Airplane Saleswoman, first vice-president of the 99s! She continued writing about and advocating for aviation years after her retirement, certain to tell the world that women were superior pilots.
Harriet Quimby - American woman to earn a pilot's license and the first woman to make a solo flight across the English Channel.
Bessie Coleman - First indigenous person and first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license, aerobatic pilot, activist. I actually would like to learn a lot more about Bessie Coleman but haven't found much, my library doesn't have a Biography outside of the kids section. I'll keep at it. I am fascinated with her, the idea that a young black woman born into a family of sharecroppers got herself to Chicago, worked all the jobs and met with media sponsors to convince them to send her to France where a flight school would teach her to be a pilot. There was this idea that airplanes were new, no one race or gender had proven itself enough to be the gatekeeper, so black people could finally start from the same plain and prove their equality in all things through aviation. She was going to be an activist through mastering the technical.
Jackie Cochran - First woman to break the sound barrier, also the head of the WASP program in WWII, that trained women pilots to test and ferry repaired airplanes. I've heard WASPS speak at several conferences, they are always a joy! And in their stories, I kept hearing them say "and then I met Jackie..." they'd sing her praises about how she lead and advocated for them.
Amelia Earhart - First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Founder of the 99s, an organization that still thrives today.
Sally Ride - First American woman in space
I am keeping the descriptions very brief because there are plenty of places to do more research.
Louise Thaden - Air Racer, Wichitan, Airplane Saleswoman, first vice-president of the 99s! She continued writing about and advocating for aviation years after her retirement, certain to tell the world that women were superior pilots.
Harriet Quimby - American woman to earn a pilot's license and the first woman to make a solo flight across the English Channel.
Bessie Coleman - First indigenous person and first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license, aerobatic pilot, activist. I actually would like to learn a lot more about Bessie Coleman but haven't found much, my library doesn't have a Biography outside of the kids section. I'll keep at it. I am fascinated with her, the idea that a young black woman born into a family of sharecroppers got herself to Chicago, worked all the jobs and met with media sponsors to convince them to send her to France where a flight school would teach her to be a pilot. There was this idea that airplanes were new, no one race or gender had proven itself enough to be the gatekeeper, so black people could finally start from the same plain and prove their equality in all things through aviation. She was going to be an activist through mastering the technical.
Jackie Cochran - First woman to break the sound barrier, also the head of the WASP program in WWII, that trained women pilots to test and ferry repaired airplanes. I've heard WASPS speak at several conferences, they are always a joy! And in their stories, I kept hearing them say "and then I met Jackie..." they'd sing her praises about how she lead and advocated for them.
Amelia Earhart - First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Founder of the 99s, an organization that still thrives today.
Sally Ride - First American woman in space
Last week I wrote about my frustration with movies that show non-climbing airplanes, and a friend of mine pointed out an even BETTER example:
I hadn't seen Fast & The Furious 6... I didn't think I could, since I haven't seen 1-5. But now I know you don't have to watch them in order because they're not in any order. Marc has seen them but watching the clip he was like "oh that guy's alive in this one!" because who knows.
But the movie is famous for this airplane scene where the actors drive around, fight, enter and exit an Antonov An-124 during what seems to be a 5 minute takeoff roll. The airplane is screaming down the runway, you hear the crew say "we have reached takeoff speed", the fight scene continues, the cars are shown shooting at it, more fighting, everyone has a tea, the airplane is still on the runway. Everything continues. The airplane lifts off the runway about 10 feet, level with the cars. More fighting, chasing, driving, trash talk, "you joined the wrong team!"... the airplane is now 15 feet in the air.
I found myself immediately wondering how long this damn runway is, and I wasn't the only one... a quick google search shows plenty of calculator nerds all estimating that the runway would have to be 20-30 miles long.
This obviously doesn't exist so I'll add these runway length fun facts: Salina, Kansas actually has a two-mile long runway. Go figure! It's longer than the main ones in Wichita. It is fairly common for big international airports to have two mile long runways, just weird that ours is in the middle of Kansas. Built in WW2, there was an airforce base and B-17 flying fortress training. The longest runway in the world, Qamdo Bamda in China, is 3.4 miles long. The longest runway in America is at Denver International, 3 miles long. You'd think you'd be able to get out of that damn place faster.
I hadn't seen Fast & The Furious 6... I didn't think I could, since I haven't seen 1-5. But now I know you don't have to watch them in order because they're not in any order. Marc has seen them but watching the clip he was like "oh that guy's alive in this one!" because who knows.
But the movie is famous for this airplane scene where the actors drive around, fight, enter and exit an Antonov An-124 during what seems to be a 5 minute takeoff roll. The airplane is screaming down the runway, you hear the crew say "we have reached takeoff speed", the fight scene continues, the cars are shown shooting at it, more fighting, everyone has a tea, the airplane is still on the runway. Everything continues. The airplane lifts off the runway about 10 feet, level with the cars. More fighting, chasing, driving, trash talk, "you joined the wrong team!"... the airplane is now 15 feet in the air.
I found myself immediately wondering how long this damn runway is, and I wasn't the only one... a quick google search shows plenty of calculator nerds all estimating that the runway would have to be 20-30 miles long.
This obviously doesn't exist so I'll add these runway length fun facts: Salina, Kansas actually has a two-mile long runway. Go figure! It's longer than the main ones in Wichita. It is fairly common for big international airports to have two mile long runways, just weird that ours is in the middle of Kansas. Built in WW2, there was an airforce base and B-17 flying fortress training. The longest runway in the world, Qamdo Bamda in China, is 3.4 miles long. The longest runway in America is at Denver International, 3 miles long. You'd think you'd be able to get out of that damn place faster.
Marc had Godzilla on the other day, the Matthew Broderick version. Marc watches the worst movies, you guys.
I had to stop watching this one because Godzilla was tearing up NYC and the military was trying to fly helicopters around shooting at him with what seemed like pretty small guns, and Godzilla kept smacking them into buildings and dodging them while they navigated the city streets, zooming in between sky scrapers.
I don't care if it's an airplane or a helicopter... it is totally silly to show any aircraft zooming in between sky scrapers. I'm calling Hollywood BS on the whole idea.
It's not the first time it's been shown. 2012 had a "new" pilot escape from a los angeles earthquake, dodging falling buildings left and right, and they leave the city without ever thinking to put a few thousand feet between them and the ground.
You know what airplanes and helicopters are really good at? Climbing. You know what would be an easy place to shoot at Godzilla from? The sky above him. You know what a newbie pilot learns to do within his or her first 30 minutes of flight training? ascent. I could teach a toddler to do it. Pull back on the stick, houses get smaller. Push in on the stick, houses get bigger.
And YET disaster movies continue to show aviators tackling their obstacles head-on, in obvious danger of collision.
sky for rent
Well, I guess I have bad news for movie goers: fiction is fiction. But good news for everyone else out there: Airplanes are pretty good at flying UP into the sky, and lots of people can figure out how to make that happen.
I had to stop watching this one because Godzilla was tearing up NYC and the military was trying to fly helicopters around shooting at him with what seemed like pretty small guns, and Godzilla kept smacking them into buildings and dodging them while they navigated the city streets, zooming in between sky scrapers.
I don't care if it's an airplane or a helicopter... it is totally silly to show any aircraft zooming in between sky scrapers. I'm calling Hollywood BS on the whole idea.
It's not the first time it's been shown. 2012 had a "new" pilot escape from a los angeles earthquake, dodging falling buildings left and right, and they leave the city without ever thinking to put a few thousand feet between them and the ground.
You know what airplanes and helicopters are really good at? Climbing. You know what would be an easy place to shoot at Godzilla from? The sky above him. You know what a newbie pilot learns to do within his or her first 30 minutes of flight training? ascent. I could teach a toddler to do it. Pull back on the stick, houses get smaller. Push in on the stick, houses get bigger.
And YET disaster movies continue to show aviators tackling their obstacles head-on, in obvious danger of collision.
sky for rent
Well, I guess I have bad news for movie goers: fiction is fiction. But good news for everyone else out there: Airplanes are pretty good at flying UP into the sky, and lots of people can figure out how to make that happen.
In honor of engineers week I got to give factory tours to girl scout trips. I love it SO MUCH! And I figure, since I mentioned in my profile that I write about airplanes, maybe I should occasionally write about them.
When I take kids around the airplanes I show them little things. Because they look at an airplane, and all they see is the big thing... wings. fuselage. seats. where do you sit, how does it fly? and I want them to know that the fun of engineering is breaking it up into a million tiny parts, and every part has a job. Nobody is an expert on an entire airplane. I really mean that.
And wings are GREAT, learning about Bernoulli's principle and aerodynamics and airflow but hell... even when I get into THAT I like to show the weird little metal things that get added to an airplane to help air flow the right way. winglets and strakes and dorsals.
my point is I do not like to get into Bernoulli's principle when I show kids an airplane. that's a big thing, and it's hard to tell what part you play in the greater scientific principle and history of airplanes. it won't tell you the whole story anyway. you never know the whole story looking at the big things.
just like right now, you are a small thing, but you are important. and aren't you more interesting than the big class picture or whatever you're in? to learn about something, you focus in.
A pitot tube sticks out, a shiny metal straw that air blows into and there's an instrument in the cockpit that says how fast you're going. It's heated so ice doesn't build up on it.
Speaking of ice, it's very dangerous. It weighs the airplane down, messes with the airflow, it can make an airplane crash. So we have three main ways of getting rid of it in the air. We can heat our leading edges. We can make them with inflatable boots that blow up like balloons to break it off. Or we can make tiny holes ice-melting fluid to seep out.
On the backs of the wings and stabilizers you see the flight controls - ailerons to roll side to side, rudder to turn left and right, elevator to pitch the nose up and down, trim tabs to help hold them in place when you just want to stay at one attitude (and what's attitude)
All over the fuselage we've got antennas! GPS, radios, internet for passengers, transponders for airplanes to talk to each other and make sure they're far enough away from each other, radio altimeters that bounce signals off the ground so you know exactly how high up you are.
And lights - Big lights to help you see while taxing, smaller ones to be on all the time in the sky so other airplanes recognize you. left wingtip has a red light and the right wingtip has a green one. This is so you can always tell which way an airplane is crossing in front of you in the sky, or you can tell if it's going towards or away from you.
By this time I've usually exhausted the attention span of a first grader in an airplane factory, and I'm not sure anything has sunk in. They're always all over the place, looking around, so we take questions, talk about factory safety, explain the different jobs you can do, who knows where the talk will lead. I'd love them to remember something. Anything! But even when I try to make the stories small and relatable, there's a lot going on, and tomorrow is another day full of learning for them. I do my best.
When I take kids around the airplanes I show them little things. Because they look at an airplane, and all they see is the big thing... wings. fuselage. seats. where do you sit, how does it fly? and I want them to know that the fun of engineering is breaking it up into a million tiny parts, and every part has a job. Nobody is an expert on an entire airplane. I really mean that.
And wings are GREAT, learning about Bernoulli's principle and aerodynamics and airflow but hell... even when I get into THAT I like to show the weird little metal things that get added to an airplane to help air flow the right way. winglets and strakes and dorsals.
my point is I do not like to get into Bernoulli's principle when I show kids an airplane. that's a big thing, and it's hard to tell what part you play in the greater scientific principle and history of airplanes. it won't tell you the whole story anyway. you never know the whole story looking at the big things.
just like right now, you are a small thing, but you are important. and aren't you more interesting than the big class picture or whatever you're in? to learn about something, you focus in.
A pitot tube sticks out, a shiny metal straw that air blows into and there's an instrument in the cockpit that says how fast you're going. It's heated so ice doesn't build up on it.
Speaking of ice, it's very dangerous. It weighs the airplane down, messes with the airflow, it can make an airplane crash. So we have three main ways of getting rid of it in the air. We can heat our leading edges. We can make them with inflatable boots that blow up like balloons to break it off. Or we can make tiny holes ice-melting fluid to seep out.
On the backs of the wings and stabilizers you see the flight controls - ailerons to roll side to side, rudder to turn left and right, elevator to pitch the nose up and down, trim tabs to help hold them in place when you just want to stay at one attitude (and what's attitude)
All over the fuselage we've got antennas! GPS, radios, internet for passengers, transponders for airplanes to talk to each other and make sure they're far enough away from each other, radio altimeters that bounce signals off the ground so you know exactly how high up you are.
And lights - Big lights to help you see while taxing, smaller ones to be on all the time in the sky so other airplanes recognize you. left wingtip has a red light and the right wingtip has a green one. This is so you can always tell which way an airplane is crossing in front of you in the sky, or you can tell if it's going towards or away from you.
By this time I've usually exhausted the attention span of a first grader in an airplane factory, and I'm not sure anything has sunk in. They're always all over the place, looking around, so we take questions, talk about factory safety, explain the different jobs you can do, who knows where the talk will lead. I'd love them to remember something. Anything! But even when I try to make the stories small and relatable, there's a lot going on, and tomorrow is another day full of learning for them. I do my best.
Whenever a press photo comes out of an experimental airplane doing tests for a major program, the most common question I get is "why is there a pointy thing at the front?" Some jokes about combat, shish-kabobs, or magical unicorn powers can ensue.
I'm not an expert on these but it's fun to have an avionics engineer explain non-electrical topics and shows that I see the airplane as more than just a flying case for blinky lights so here goes, I'm striving to do more.
The pointy thing at the front of a test plane is an air data boom. I don't like Wikipedia's entry on it, too sparse with not enough pictures, so allow me to expand. The boom's job is to hold airspeed measuring instruments way out in front of the airplane, where none of its wind-moving parts will mess with the measurements. It's sometimes a bright color or striped because we want everyone to notice it and not walk into it when they're working on the airplane.
It's quite common. In fact googling around different manufacturers first flight events of new models, they ALL had an airspeed boom.
Pilatus PC-12, from AOPA:
Lear 85, from Business Journals:
Gulfstream G500, from AIN:
Sometimes when there's a pesky propellor needing that space, they'll put the boom out on the wing, like this GippsAero GA-10 (photo: motoroids)
For nice pretty airplanes we sell to people, we tuck two airspeed instruments away in unnoticable places: the pitot tube (pronounced pee-toe... it's french) and the static port. The pitot tube faces front and air blows into it so we can tell how fast we're going. The static port faces the side so we can tell what altitude we're at. The airspeed indicator on the airplane compares these two instruments - for instance at a high altitude, not as many air molecules are hitting the pitot tube. That's not because we're going slower, it's just that there are fewer air molecules up there. So the static port measurement gets considered in that calculation.
Using the test boom, we verify that the nice pretty hidden locations of the pitot and static ports are accurate enough at different airspeeds and altitudes, even with the wind currents of the airplane doing strange things around them. We also put numbers in a book that tell the pilot how far off those measurements will be... on a little airplane, the pilot gets to see Indicated Airspeed, but she's got the book to look up Calibrated Airspeed... which is the actual airspeed corrected for those placement errors. We use Calibrated Airspeed when we did the math to design the airplane and decide how fast it can safely fly, so it's important for us to tell the pilot the equivalent numbers in Indicated Airspeed, that way she knows what number will be showing on the airspeed indicator when she's nearing that speed limit.
That's why we only need that boom on experimental airplanes - we get the numbers we need, then you don't have to deal with it. You can get rid of it and use the nosecone for better things, like holding a weather radar inside of it. A weather radar is awfully handy, can stay nice and hidden, and definitely needs to be in the front of the airplane, unlike the pitot/static ports which we have clearly learned to correct for because science knows how air moves.
I'm not an expert on these but it's fun to have an avionics engineer explain non-electrical topics and shows that I see the airplane as more than just a flying case for blinky lights so here goes, I'm striving to do more.
The pointy thing at the front of a test plane is an air data boom. I don't like Wikipedia's entry on it, too sparse with not enough pictures, so allow me to expand. The boom's job is to hold airspeed measuring instruments way out in front of the airplane, where none of its wind-moving parts will mess with the measurements. It's sometimes a bright color or striped because we want everyone to notice it and not walk into it when they're working on the airplane.
It's quite common. In fact googling around different manufacturers first flight events of new models, they ALL had an airspeed boom.
Pilatus PC-12, from AOPA:
Lear 85, from Business Journals:
Gulfstream G500, from AIN:
Sometimes when there's a pesky propellor needing that space, they'll put the boom out on the wing, like this GippsAero GA-10 (photo: motoroids)
For nice pretty airplanes we sell to people, we tuck two airspeed instruments away in unnoticable places: the pitot tube (pronounced pee-toe... it's french) and the static port. The pitot tube faces front and air blows into it so we can tell how fast we're going. The static port faces the side so we can tell what altitude we're at. The airspeed indicator on the airplane compares these two instruments - for instance at a high altitude, not as many air molecules are hitting the pitot tube. That's not because we're going slower, it's just that there are fewer air molecules up there. So the static port measurement gets considered in that calculation.
Using the test boom, we verify that the nice pretty hidden locations of the pitot and static ports are accurate enough at different airspeeds and altitudes, even with the wind currents of the airplane doing strange things around them. We also put numbers in a book that tell the pilot how far off those measurements will be... on a little airplane, the pilot gets to see Indicated Airspeed, but she's got the book to look up Calibrated Airspeed... which is the actual airspeed corrected for those placement errors. We use Calibrated Airspeed when we did the math to design the airplane and decide how fast it can safely fly, so it's important for us to tell the pilot the equivalent numbers in Indicated Airspeed, that way she knows what number will be showing on the airspeed indicator when she's nearing that speed limit.
That's why we only need that boom on experimental airplanes - we get the numbers we need, then you don't have to deal with it. You can get rid of it and use the nosecone for better things, like holding a weather radar inside of it. A weather radar is awfully handy, can stay nice and hidden, and definitely needs to be in the front of the airplane, unlike the pitot/static ports which we have clearly learned to correct for because science knows how air moves.
And he'd look up and ask, "Is it going to make the airplanes fall out of the sky?"
And I'd say, "Uh... nope."
And he'd reply, "Reply back and say we'll do it correctly next time, thanks for the pointer, ask if there's anything else the new form asks that they need us to send. I'm not going to respond."
He asked this question for every sort of bureaucratic crisis and gradually I got into this habit of working it into all areas of life, not just work. Is my kid's library book late because we forgot that library day is thursday? are we out of bread and having to use hot dog buns for toast? did I open the resealable cheese bag wrong so now there's a gap between the zip-lock part and the bag part so it's not really resealable?
life goes on, aka don't sweat the small stuff, aka...
airplanes are not falling out of the sky.
tada!
Gaaah ever since this story came out about a hacker who claimed to have made an airplane fly sideways because it's JUST SO WEIRD. As an avionics engineer... it was so weird I couldn't comment. And then I was nervous to comment because we're all afraid to talk about hackers, and security, and the feds, it's just a mess everywhere.
So I was happy to read on runway girl that Boeing has stepped up to defend its security, maintaining that no, you cannot make an airplane fly sideways from a passenger display port. You cannot get to the airplane's engines or flight control from there. These systems are very separated and I'm happy to see Boeing is using the same good industry standards that I do where I work... of course they are, they helped develop them, just like the rest of us.
The idea of spooling up an engine from a passenger display is kind of like someone claiming they could disable your air conditioner by reprogramming your coffee maker. They're not talking. That's not a thing.
And even if someone disabled something or cut power to a box, here's the thing about airplanes... we think first about things not working all the time. What would happen if a wire broke? Wires were swapped? A box lost power? A box was wrong? And then we test for everything, I have spent hours and hours hanging out inside airplanes on the ground doing interferrence checks to make sure your cell phone or wifi adapater can't go rouge and interferre with anything, ever.
So if some hacker killed power to a cockpit display, there's a standby display getting power off a totally different bus. There's physical separation, bus separation... he'd have to all over the plane, into panels, with lots of tools, to do anything. Not just sitting in his seat. And that's just power - the databuses are just as redundant and separated.
There's not a single ethernet cable running to an engine sending it emails to go faster. there are multiple separate data buses, cross-checked for comparison, from different sources, that all have to agree on what the commands are. and if anything gets weird, airplanes are made so that pilots get to override anything automatic that's happening. in a people vs. computers battle, people get to win on airplanes.
It's not the internet, it's a machine. And anyone doing any of this would have to know a LOT. That scene in "Flightplan" with Jodie Foster rewiring an airplane with just her skillz... no.
And if anything is real... this guys last tweet was joking that he could trigger EICAS system messages, which would be kinda like your kid in the back seat of your car making your "check engine" light go on. You'd sigh, land the airplane and call the maintenance team and it'd be a huge inconvenience. But not unsafe.
All the comments on slashdot are accusing this hacker of just trying to make a name for himself so he can earn more money as a security expert, but the media is still making such a huge deal about airplane hacking. It's just not adding up.
So I was happy to read on runway girl that Boeing has stepped up to defend its security, maintaining that no, you cannot make an airplane fly sideways from a passenger display port. You cannot get to the airplane's engines or flight control from there. These systems are very separated and I'm happy to see Boeing is using the same good industry standards that I do where I work... of course they are, they helped develop them, just like the rest of us.
The idea of spooling up an engine from a passenger display is kind of like someone claiming they could disable your air conditioner by reprogramming your coffee maker. They're not talking. That's not a thing.
And even if someone disabled something or cut power to a box, here's the thing about airplanes... we think first about things not working all the time. What would happen if a wire broke? Wires were swapped? A box lost power? A box was wrong? And then we test for everything, I have spent hours and hours hanging out inside airplanes on the ground doing interferrence checks to make sure your cell phone or wifi adapater can't go rouge and interferre with anything, ever.
So if some hacker killed power to a cockpit display, there's a standby display getting power off a totally different bus. There's physical separation, bus separation... he'd have to all over the plane, into panels, with lots of tools, to do anything. Not just sitting in his seat. And that's just power - the databuses are just as redundant and separated.
There's not a single ethernet cable running to an engine sending it emails to go faster. there are multiple separate data buses, cross-checked for comparison, from different sources, that all have to agree on what the commands are. and if anything gets weird, airplanes are made so that pilots get to override anything automatic that's happening. in a people vs. computers battle, people get to win on airplanes.
It's not the internet, it's a machine. And anyone doing any of this would have to know a LOT. That scene in "Flightplan" with Jodie Foster rewiring an airplane with just her skillz... no.
And if anything is real... this guys last tweet was joking that he could trigger EICAS system messages, which would be kinda like your kid in the back seat of your car making your "check engine" light go on. You'd sigh, land the airplane and call the maintenance team and it'd be a huge inconvenience. But not unsafe.
All the comments on slashdot are accusing this hacker of just trying to make a name for himself so he can earn more money as a security expert, but the media is still making such a huge deal about airplane hacking. It's just not adding up.
First, do me a favor and ignore the fact that *this* female pilot hasn't been up since October. I got plans when things warm up. March, I swear.
From Smithsonian Air & Space:
Why are there so few female pilots?
This article is very short and does a poor job describing what I assume is a much larger study.
One thing I hate about all women in (whatever) articles is lack of control. Like, if you're going to say that women only make up 6.61 percent of pilots, and then talk about how you looked at all this history, where's the history? Were women 10% of pilots in 1970? Well then we've got a problem!
And when it comes to economic factors keeping women out of flying... it's known that the average woman in almost every country has less money than the average man. Are women just as likely to get a license when you compare us to men with the same annual income?
All that aside, I would think the culture of flying would actually lead to more women pilots when compared to other STEM fields. I'm curious why that hasn't happened.
STEM fields all have a big disadvantage that women are fighting: overconfident genius culture. I promise. Walk into a group of engineers, you will find very few helpful enthusiastic "teacher" types who can't wait to help you into it. You WILL find defensive, overconfident mansplainers who tell you that they were born knowing everything. Everything they do, every side hobby, parent praise, family gene, they can attribute to making them a great engineer.
You have to be very confident in engineering to stand up to those guys and say, "No, you HAVE made mistakes, I SAW you. And you did not invent cold fusion at the age of 3. Stop posturing, my girlfriends and I are kicking this door in."
I was surprised to see that flying really isn't like that. Okay granted, I'm not a professional or even a commercial pilot... just have a private license. But my instructors were very encouraging, everyone loves to stand around and talk about their mistakes or adventures or craziness. If you say "it's not coming naturally to me!" they will gather around.
I had so many helpful blog readers and twitter friends when I was getting my license! It was a community, a group hug. There was sharing and high fives and encouragement. And not just on the internet... in real life too.
When I was getting a masters in electrical engineering, I just had my other regular friend people who'd been to grad school (but not engineering grad school) saying "spacefem we think you're smart, if anyone can do it it's you, get back in there."
Pilots are just cool. If anyone can solve this "get women into it" thing, I really think aviation as an edge over the other unbalanced fields I've seen.
Yes, it's true that numbers of pilots licenses for EVERYONE are dropping. Flying is expensive, and a tough career if that's where you want to go. But it's awesome for women, I just want to put that out there.
From Smithsonian Air & Space:
Why are there so few female pilots?
This article is very short and does a poor job describing what I assume is a much larger study.
One thing I hate about all women in (whatever) articles is lack of control. Like, if you're going to say that women only make up 6.61 percent of pilots, and then talk about how you looked at all this history, where's the history? Were women 10% of pilots in 1970? Well then we've got a problem!
And when it comes to economic factors keeping women out of flying... it's known that the average woman in almost every country has less money than the average man. Are women just as likely to get a license when you compare us to men with the same annual income?
All that aside, I would think the culture of flying would actually lead to more women pilots when compared to other STEM fields. I'm curious why that hasn't happened.
STEM fields all have a big disadvantage that women are fighting: overconfident genius culture. I promise. Walk into a group of engineers, you will find very few helpful enthusiastic "teacher" types who can't wait to help you into it. You WILL find defensive, overconfident mansplainers who tell you that they were born knowing everything. Everything they do, every side hobby, parent praise, family gene, they can attribute to making them a great engineer.
You have to be very confident in engineering to stand up to those guys and say, "No, you HAVE made mistakes, I SAW you. And you did not invent cold fusion at the age of 3. Stop posturing, my girlfriends and I are kicking this door in."
I was surprised to see that flying really isn't like that. Okay granted, I'm not a professional or even a commercial pilot... just have a private license. But my instructors were very encouraging, everyone loves to stand around and talk about their mistakes or adventures or craziness. If you say "it's not coming naturally to me!" they will gather around.
I had so many helpful blog readers and twitter friends when I was getting my license! It was a community, a group hug. There was sharing and high fives and encouragement. And not just on the internet... in real life too.
When I was getting a masters in electrical engineering, I just had my other regular friend people who'd been to grad school (but not engineering grad school) saying "spacefem we think you're smart, if anyone can do it it's you, get back in there."
Pilots are just cool. If anyone can solve this "get women into it" thing, I really think aviation as an edge over the other unbalanced fields I've seen.
Yes, it's true that numbers of pilots licenses for EVERYONE are dropping. Flying is expensive, and a tough career if that's where you want to go. But it's awesome for women, I just want to put that out there.
I'm not flying when it's 10 degrees out, people. But I will read about it. So I picked up this history book by browsing the 380's of the public library and it's the first one I finished in 2015.
"Dreams of Flight" by Janet & Michael Bednarek starts with the Wright brothers and goes right up until the book's published date in 2001. It focuses on general aviation (powered flight that is not military or commercial). It's chock full of lots of tidbits, but kind of reads like the writers were torn between writing a story and writing an encyclopedia. I wish they'd stuck with one. Honestly the content could have done just fine as an encyclopedia - I had to google to learn that a Rogallo wing is the flexible, collapsible wing used on hang gliders, and kind of wished there'd just been an entry right there. And I STILL don't understand why Cessna and Beech chose Wichita Kansas to start cranking out thousands of little airplanes, except that maybe they were just bored Kansans with nothing much to do but learn to fly. (Learjet started in Wichita simply because this is where the aviation resources already were. Nobody picks this place for scenic reasons.)
If you love airplanes, the book can be a little depressing. It starts with a time where people were just sure that airplanes would change the world. We'd ALL have one, you'd have to learn to fly to be anybody, we'd all be zooming around the country without any thought of distances. The progress following the wright brothers flight was amazing. Planes were suddenly everywhere, built by lots of people. Everyone thought there'd be this natural progression until we were all zooming around with personal jetpacks.
But the industry that produced 33,200 planes for general aviation in 1946 was selling less than 1000 a year in the early 90s. Flying has gotten more expensive and complicated. Something didn't come together.
The history of the AOPA and EAA organizations is fascinating and could just about be its own book, since the issues concerning these organizations really tell a story of what went on with general aviation. I appreciated the book chronicling the impressive beginnings of both these powerhouse groups, not just because I'm an AOPA member.
I also appreciated that every chapter included a section on women and minorities in aviation. There are too many great names to mention here, but seeing certain people mentioned gave me confidence the authors did their homework. There was a lot about Bessie Coleman, the great black woman stunt pilot born into a family of sharecroppers who went to France to learn to fly since no one in the US would teach her. I also loved reading more about air racer Louise Thaden. Jackie Cochran and the WASPs who flew ferry planes during WWII are mentioned, with paragraphs given to some of the more interesting ones... again, tough to cover in a few pages what should be a book in itself.
I read a copy from the library so the last epilogue was written to address post 9/11/2001 aviation restrictions and compromises. The author also made the unfortunate mistake of updating us all on Chicago's Meigs Field - stating that an agreement had been reached to keep the airport open until 2026, an "ultimately happy ending". YUP. Pilots today describe the situation not as "ultimately happy" but as "ultimately destroyed by bulldozers in the middle of the night by a Chicago mayor who felt like he was above the rules" - so there's a lesson for you historians, do not write epilogues in the middle of a tennis match.
This is a book to read with wikipedia nearby, but when it's not rattling off sequences of events it'll give you some big ideas about what motivated the people who built planes, ran flight schools, set government policy and made aviation famous.
"Dreams of Flight" by Janet & Michael Bednarek starts with the Wright brothers and goes right up until the book's published date in 2001. It focuses on general aviation (powered flight that is not military or commercial). It's chock full of lots of tidbits, but kind of reads like the writers were torn between writing a story and writing an encyclopedia. I wish they'd stuck with one. Honestly the content could have done just fine as an encyclopedia - I had to google to learn that a Rogallo wing is the flexible, collapsible wing used on hang gliders, and kind of wished there'd just been an entry right there. And I STILL don't understand why Cessna and Beech chose Wichita Kansas to start cranking out thousands of little airplanes, except that maybe they were just bored Kansans with nothing much to do but learn to fly. (Learjet started in Wichita simply because this is where the aviation resources already were. Nobody picks this place for scenic reasons.)
If you love airplanes, the book can be a little depressing. It starts with a time where people were just sure that airplanes would change the world. We'd ALL have one, you'd have to learn to fly to be anybody, we'd all be zooming around the country without any thought of distances. The progress following the wright brothers flight was amazing. Planes were suddenly everywhere, built by lots of people. Everyone thought there'd be this natural progression until we were all zooming around with personal jetpacks.
But the industry that produced 33,200 planes for general aviation in 1946 was selling less than 1000 a year in the early 90s. Flying has gotten more expensive and complicated. Something didn't come together.
The history of the AOPA and EAA organizations is fascinating and could just about be its own book, since the issues concerning these organizations really tell a story of what went on with general aviation. I appreciated the book chronicling the impressive beginnings of both these powerhouse groups, not just because I'm an AOPA member.
I also appreciated that every chapter included a section on women and minorities in aviation. There are too many great names to mention here, but seeing certain people mentioned gave me confidence the authors did their homework. There was a lot about Bessie Coleman, the great black woman stunt pilot born into a family of sharecroppers who went to France to learn to fly since no one in the US would teach her. I also loved reading more about air racer Louise Thaden. Jackie Cochran and the WASPs who flew ferry planes during WWII are mentioned, with paragraphs given to some of the more interesting ones... again, tough to cover in a few pages what should be a book in itself.
I read a copy from the library so the last epilogue was written to address post 9/11/2001 aviation restrictions and compromises. The author also made the unfortunate mistake of updating us all on Chicago's Meigs Field - stating that an agreement had been reached to keep the airport open until 2026, an "ultimately happy ending". YUP. Pilots today describe the situation not as "ultimately happy" but as "ultimately destroyed by bulldozers in the middle of the night by a Chicago mayor who felt like he was above the rules" - so there's a lesson for you historians, do not write epilogues in the middle of a tennis match.
This is a book to read with wikipedia nearby, but when it's not rattling off sequences of events it'll give you some big ideas about what motivated the people who built planes, ran flight schools, set government policy and made aviation famous.
The bad news is, a very large airplane landed at the wrong airport in my neck of the woods last night, about 8 miles north of McConnel airforcebase.
The good news is:
1) Everyone was safe, airplane unharmed, and safely departed after a night of calculations to find out whether they could take off of a much shorter runway. No WATC students were sucked up by the ginormous engines.
2) Wichita made national news and it wasn't about those koch brothers being assholes.
3) If you've ever wanted to fly a dreamlifter to cargo boeing parts around, we hear there's a job opening.
Most pilots around here are really scratching their heads about how this could happen... I mean you plan a descent at a certain point of your flight, you're generally at a much different altitude 8 miles from the airport than you are 2 miles from my airport. And although many airports look the same, you try to note things like "I'll be flying PAST a city".
But hell don't ask me, I fly 172s. Based on their distances, I can land at about whatever airport I want.
I've landed at Jabara lots of times. It's nice. Gets kinda busy though... I'd be very upset if I flew there to practice pattern work and found a boeing on the runway.
The good news is:
1) Everyone was safe, airplane unharmed, and safely departed after a night of calculations to find out whether they could take off of a much shorter runway. No WATC students were sucked up by the ginormous engines.
2) Wichita made national news and it wasn't about those koch brothers being assholes.
3) If you've ever wanted to fly a dreamlifter to cargo boeing parts around, we hear there's a job opening.
Most pilots around here are really scratching their heads about how this could happen... I mean you plan a descent at a certain point of your flight, you're generally at a much different altitude 8 miles from the airport than you are 2 miles from my airport. And although many airports look the same, you try to note things like "I'll be flying PAST a city".
But hell don't ask me, I fly 172s. Based on their distances, I can land at about whatever airport I want.
I've landed at Jabara lots of times. It's nice. Gets kinda busy though... I'd be very upset if I flew there to practice pattern work and found a boeing on the runway.
I picked up this book for this book club I'm kinda getting into, and then nobody read it! Which is too bad because it was a delightful book, and apparently I'm way behind to just be reading it now because it's about good Kansas people. No wait... good southeast Kansas people! There's a whole museum in Chanute about them, and it's one of the on the 8 people wonders of Kansas.
The book is written by Osa Johnson. She married Martin Johnson when she was 16 years old. He was a photographer who dreamed of traveling in the world, and had been lucky enough to go on a trip with Jack London, and was touring Kansas as the prompting of his hometown friends lecturing and showing photos of what he'd found. I have no idea what prompted these people to get married, she didn't even like him and nearly killed herself at a roller skating outing trying to prove how badass she was. Maybe that's what got him? Anyway he was nearly ten years older than her, asks her to marry him, and they get married right then without any family around to speak of.
And just like that, she ditches her whole normal future of a home life and becomes part of this pair that is determined to go to the south seas to visit cannibals and headhunters, track down lions in africa, nearly starve to save up for trips and nearly die from weird random jungle fevers or angry natives or both. It's so weird, but she tells all the stories with this "and this happened, so that was cool" sort of casualness. Her and Martin love each other dearly, he stands up for her when others are saying that these places aren't for women, she takes care of him when he's sick or confined or needs an assistant.
They never have children, but they do have a pet monkey named Kalowatt who's almost as close, and again talked about totally casually like it's no big deal to have a monkey around all the time.
It's a wholesome and hallmark-y story set in a crazy landscape. Martin & Osa are adorable, lucky, determined, and have a perfect "just go with it" attitude that makes you think their lives were easy, until she talks about the boats and safari crews it actually took to get them to these crazy places.
My only complaint is that she didn't talk enough about airplanes, from the cover of the book I thought they were pilots or something but obviously if your career starts in 1910, there's not much room for them. But still they did go flying eventually, and Osa was a pilot, despite the fact that she was allowed to solo apparently without being taught to land first, she just bounced the plane off the ground unsuccessfully a few times before one finally stuck. awesome!
And then the book suddenly ends. Martin dies in a plane crash on a commercial flight in the US, Osa is badly injured too, but we don't hear about it. The last line is literally a perky conversation, and then a news poster about the accident. She did more things, she had a show, she kept traveling, but there aren't really updates in the book, so that's too bad.
Either way, it was a fun book. Kinda long and the first half is definitely the better one but I'd recommend it, and if you like Kansas it's a must read.
The book is written by Osa Johnson. She married Martin Johnson when she was 16 years old. He was a photographer who dreamed of traveling in the world, and had been lucky enough to go on a trip with Jack London, and was touring Kansas as the prompting of his hometown friends lecturing and showing photos of what he'd found. I have no idea what prompted these people to get married, she didn't even like him and nearly killed herself at a roller skating outing trying to prove how badass she was. Maybe that's what got him? Anyway he was nearly ten years older than her, asks her to marry him, and they get married right then without any family around to speak of.
And just like that, she ditches her whole normal future of a home life and becomes part of this pair that is determined to go to the south seas to visit cannibals and headhunters, track down lions in africa, nearly starve to save up for trips and nearly die from weird random jungle fevers or angry natives or both. It's so weird, but she tells all the stories with this "and this happened, so that was cool" sort of casualness. Her and Martin love each other dearly, he stands up for her when others are saying that these places aren't for women, she takes care of him when he's sick or confined or needs an assistant.
They never have children, but they do have a pet monkey named Kalowatt who's almost as close, and again talked about totally casually like it's no big deal to have a monkey around all the time.
It's a wholesome and hallmark-y story set in a crazy landscape. Martin & Osa are adorable, lucky, determined, and have a perfect "just go with it" attitude that makes you think their lives were easy, until she talks about the boats and safari crews it actually took to get them to these crazy places.
My only complaint is that she didn't talk enough about airplanes, from the cover of the book I thought they were pilots or something but obviously if your career starts in 1910, there's not much room for them. But still they did go flying eventually, and Osa was a pilot, despite the fact that she was allowed to solo apparently without being taught to land first, she just bounced the plane off the ground unsuccessfully a few times before one finally stuck. awesome!
And then the book suddenly ends. Martin dies in a plane crash on a commercial flight in the US, Osa is badly injured too, but we don't hear about it. The last line is literally a perky conversation, and then a news poster about the accident. She did more things, she had a show, she kept traveling, but there aren't really updates in the book, so that's too bad.
Either way, it was a fun book. Kinda long and the first half is definitely the better one but I'd recommend it, and if you like Kansas it's a must read.
I heard a report on Evelyn Johnson passing away and looked her up and saw that she'd been flying for seven years. Well heck, what's the big deal about that? Then I realized they meant her flight time added up to seven years... as in, logged over 57000 hours of flight time, starting in 1944!
She flew for the civil air patrol, trained 5,000 pilots, signed off on 9000, was a Cessna dealer and airport manager, she was one of the first inductees to the National Flight Instructors Hall of Fame, safely landed two airplanes with total engine failure and one on fire, saved a helicopter pilot... who knows what else. In that many hours and a long life in aviation, there have to be a thousand untold stories.
The NPR interview played a quote from her in 2003 about what it'd be like to turn 100:
"Here's what I'd like: Willard Scott will be telling about me being 100 years old," she said. "But I wouldn't hear him — because I'd be up flying."
amazing. One of her students called her mama bird, because she looked after all her students "like they were baby birds" and the name stuck, and it makes you think of all those airline pilots and hobbyists and everyone else up there in the air with their wings. Enjoying what they love, because she loved it so much.
(The awesome thing about this is that my grandpa sent it to me)
As the airliner pushed back from the gate, the flight attendant gave us passengers the usual information regarding seat belts, etc.
Finally, she said, 'Now sit back and enjoy your trip while your captain, Judith Campbell, and crew take you safely to your destination.'
We were sitting in the eighth row and I thought to myself, 'Did I hear her right? Is the captain a woman?'
When the attendants came by with the drink cart, I asked 'Did I understand you right? Is the captain a woman?'
'Yes,' said the attendant, 'In fact, this entire crew is female.'
'My God,' I said, 'I'd better have two scotch and sodas. I don't know what to think with only women up there in the cockpit.'
'That's another thing sir,' said the attendant, 'We no longer call it the cock pit.'
'On this aircraft it's known as the Box office.'
As the airliner pushed back from the gate, the flight attendant gave us passengers the usual information regarding seat belts, etc.
Finally, she said, 'Now sit back and enjoy your trip while your captain, Judith Campbell, and crew take you safely to your destination.'
We were sitting in the eighth row and I thought to myself, 'Did I hear her right? Is the captain a woman?'
When the attendants came by with the drink cart, I asked 'Did I understand you right? Is the captain a woman?'
'Yes,' said the attendant, 'In fact, this entire crew is female.'
'My God,' I said, 'I'd better have two scotch and sodas. I don't know what to think with only women up there in the cockpit.'
'That's another thing sir,' said the attendant, 'We no longer call it the cock pit.'
'On this aircraft it's known as the Box office.'
So last week I talked about how I was tired of Obama criticizing companies that own "corporate jets" because it's hurting my industry.
To be clear, I'm frustrated about the rhetoric here. I mean yes the tax increase is unfortunate too, but I know he's having to find a lot of places to increase revenue so I'll go with it. But why kick us while we're down? Over and over again, he singles out companies that use airplanes as being the ultimate fat cats with cash to spare, as if the plane is a luxury. The tax increase he's planning here is less than 1% of what he needs to fund his jobs plan, but "companies with jets" seem to make it in his top 3 targets in every speech. You'd think he was funding the whole thing by penalizing them.
It made me think he's got something against us, and I've done some thinking about it, and realized a few things:
First, it's true he doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to like Kansas, which is home to three major aircraft companies. We're a republican state. I'm not proud of that, I disagree with our leaders on almost every issue, except for this one about how wrong it is to villainize jet ownership.
Second, I think the guy might just have "urbanism". He's from Chicago, lives in DC, he sees people flying in and out of busy airports all the time. Maybe he doesn't understand that here in the middle of the country ("flyover country", right?) we're not so well served.
The National Business Aviation Association has a good campaign where they've been arguing the business case for company-owned airplanes, and I noticed a running theme to the stories:
I realize that everyone wants to look for a bad guy to blame their problems on, but it's not productive here. Telling a Salina business that their business jet is a luxury is like telling a New York business that their thousands-per-month office space is a luxury. Where you are and who your customers are change what you need to spend money on, plain and simple.
Being critical of companies that fly may look like a solution to the "rich get richer" problem, but it's more likely a failure to relate to people who live in a smaller town than you.
To be clear, I'm frustrated about the rhetoric here. I mean yes the tax increase is unfortunate too, but I know he's having to find a lot of places to increase revenue so I'll go with it. But why kick us while we're down? Over and over again, he singles out companies that use airplanes as being the ultimate fat cats with cash to spare, as if the plane is a luxury. The tax increase he's planning here is less than 1% of what he needs to fund his jobs plan, but "companies with jets" seem to make it in his top 3 targets in every speech. You'd think he was funding the whole thing by penalizing them.
It made me think he's got something against us, and I've done some thinking about it, and realized a few things:
First, it's true he doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to like Kansas, which is home to three major aircraft companies. We're a republican state. I'm not proud of that, I disagree with our leaders on almost every issue, except for this one about how wrong it is to villainize jet ownership.
Second, I think the guy might just have "urbanism". He's from Chicago, lives in DC, he sees people flying in and out of busy airports all the time. Maybe he doesn't understand that here in the middle of the country ("flyover country", right?) we're not so well served.
The National Business Aviation Association has a good campaign where they've been arguing the business case for company-owned airplanes, and I noticed a running theme to the stories:
- Union Pacific Railroad maintains a "go team" of people who can respond to an emergency situation, whether it's safety or hazardous waste, no matter how far into the middle of nowhere a train derails.
- Modular Devices builds & services mobile equipment so that heart patients in small communities can get procedures like cardiac catheterization at their local hospitals.
- Caterpillar and John Deere and lots of other agriculture-based companies own business jets because their customers are everywhere and often unreachable by commercial service.
- Dozens of businesses with small aircraft banded together to deliver water to rural Haiti during the cholera epidemic, in remote areas where runways weren't long enough for big freighter planes and people were suffering from a disease that kills in as little as 48 hours.
I realize that everyone wants to look for a bad guy to blame their problems on, but it's not productive here. Telling a Salina business that their business jet is a luxury is like telling a New York business that their thousands-per-month office space is a luxury. Where you are and who your customers are change what you need to spend money on, plain and simple.
Being critical of companies that fly may look like a solution to the "rich get richer" problem, but it's more likely a failure to relate to people who live in a smaller town than you.
President Obama promised again this week to help the economy by increasing taxes on companies that own corporate jets. The details: he wants to get rid of "bonus depreciation", which accelerates the depreciation of business aircraft for tax writeoffs. He'd raise $3 billion over ten years, like that'd somehow make a miraculous dent in his $447 billion jobs plan. The weirdest thing about it is that he's calling this specific line item out in speeches, like he always does, to point out how evil corporate jets are, how rich these corporate fat cats are, how it won't affect the little guy.
Well, except me, the engineer who works at a jet company.
I've written before about how jets are productivity tools; if you want to do business in Topeka, Kansas you can't exactly hop on Jet Blue. I've asked why we don't single out laptop computers or shiny conference room tables as "fat cat luxury items". I've brought up the fact that general aviation airplanes are a notable US export in a world where we buy our cars and electronics from everybody else.
And this may be incidental, but I also talk about how I like my job.
But Obama just keeps throwing us under the bus. In fact you know what? It's getting weird. And I'm not the only one saying it's getting weird, the Wichita Eagle pointed it out in their editorial this week, which at this point must be approaching the "stock Obama jet hate editorial" status:
And last summer Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner said Obama seems to have a strange fixation on corporate jets as a divisive target... why?
AOPA, EAA, state governors and thousands of workers have sent letters, held events, tried to get the attention of the administration that corporate jets aren't evil. It's not working.
Of course I think bonus depreciation is a good for businesses and we should keep it around. But even more I wish Obama would quit criticizing the business jet in speeches, quit acting like companies that own them are privileged, swimming in cash, and, well, EVIL. Some companies need their own airplane to do business... they need to go places and meet people and commercial aviation isn't going to work for them. Are you "evil" if you own a car even though a city bus passes a mile from your house every hour?
I want to like Obama. I voted for Obama!
I feel like he doesn't like me!
Well, except me, the engineer who works at a jet company.
I've written before about how jets are productivity tools; if you want to do business in Topeka, Kansas you can't exactly hop on Jet Blue. I've asked why we don't single out laptop computers or shiny conference room tables as "fat cat luxury items". I've brought up the fact that general aviation airplanes are a notable US export in a world where we buy our cars and electronics from everybody else.
And this may be incidental, but I also talk about how I like my job.
But Obama just keeps throwing us under the bus. In fact you know what? It's getting weird. And I'm not the only one saying it's getting weird, the Wichita Eagle pointed it out in their editorial this week, which at this point must be approaching the "stock Obama jet hate editorial" status:
Does President Obama have something against the men and women who build business jets? Because he is harming them — not fat-cat CEOs — in targeting and bad-mouthing jet ownership.
And last summer Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner said Obama seems to have a strange fixation on corporate jets as a divisive target... why?
AOPA, EAA, state governors and thousands of workers have sent letters, held events, tried to get the attention of the administration that corporate jets aren't evil. It's not working.
Of course I think bonus depreciation is a good for businesses and we should keep it around. But even more I wish Obama would quit criticizing the business jet in speeches, quit acting like companies that own them are privileged, swimming in cash, and, well, EVIL. Some companies need their own airplane to do business... they need to go places and meet people and commercial aviation isn't going to work for them. Are you "evil" if you own a car even though a city bus passes a mile from your house every hour?
I want to like Obama. I voted for Obama!
I feel like he doesn't like me!
I'll just pretend this is tumblr and reblog this from neuro42 :)
Betty Skelton, ‘fastest woman on Earth,’ dies at 85
She was too young to be a WASP in WWII, and commercial aviation jobs weren't open to women, so Betty Skelton went into aerobatics and performance. She was the international women’s aerobatics champion for three years starting in 1941.
Her story is loaded with coolness...
neuro42 :)Betty Skelton, ‘fastest woman on Earth,’ dies at 85
She was too young to be a WASP in WWII, and commercial aviation jobs weren't open to women, so Betty Skelton went into aerobatics and performance. She was the international women’s aerobatics champion for three years starting in 1941.
Her story is loaded with coolness...
She set an unofficial women’s air speed record of 421 mph in a P-51 Mustang, but the engine exploded in mid-flight, and she had to guide the plane back to the ground at an Air Force base in Florida. She did not get credit for the record because she did not land where she took off.
neuro42 send me this link to survey results on the topic, "Why Aren't More Women In Aviation?"And you all know that I love surveys.
And aviation!
And in my life, there's one bigger question I'm constantly dying to answer: what makes a person technical? Why aren't more people (male and female) interested in the cool stuff I'm interested in... science, technology, engineering, math (otherwise known as the STEM fields)? I think flying airplanes fits into that question.
A very cool part of this particular aviation project is that it actually proposes some solutions: Top Ten Ways to Increase Female Success in General Aviation
My first favorite idea in there: fill the role model issue using social networking. It says we need "a no-cost, readily-available database of female mentors for female general aviation pilots-in-training" I would like to give some points to Lynda Meeks for starting this up at Girls With Wings. Not only is there a wonderful forum there ("Radio Calls"), but a page filled with role models and fabulous personal stories. I even e-mailed one of her role models after I got my license to say "thank you" because her story assured me that becoming a pilot wasn't a simple thing, I wasn't supposed to be born with a magic knack for it, flying takes blood sweat and tears and that's okay! That page is one of the things that kept me going.
Second favorite idea: "Make the flight school-FBO atmosphere more female-friendly with more emphasis on enjoyment of the flying and social experience.... Cold, framed art of rockets and jet planes flying does not create a welcoming or social environment for women students and pilots."
I never considered this before, but I think it's an incredible suggestion. And so simple! At my flight school they gave out little trophies when a student soloed. It had your name engraved on it, and a gold airplane. They'd make your trophy and set it out on the desk in the hall we all walked through to get to the dispatch room. I see pictures of airplanes every day, but when I saw those little trophies I was always kind of inspired, like, "That'll be me someday." I also joked with my instructor that when my trophy came out, I was definitely going to "forget" to pick it up for a solid week so everybody and their dog would walk by and see my name there... if nothing else I'd make the pre-solo students jealous like I had been.
The point is that I was more inspired by seeing names and knowing people would see my name than by the actual trophy. I don't know if that's a female thing or not, I just know engineering departments would seem a lot more "human" if there were names of actual engineers... bonus points if they look like me. I loved hearing about other students hitting milestones, it made me feel like we were all progressing. It was happy.
SWE has learned that to get girls into engineering, we need to help them "see themselves" as engineers. Quit talking about the inputs (math + science = engineer) and talk about outputs: engineer + kid = kid-sized pacemaker for smaller hearts! engineer + flat prairie = sustainable wind farm! And show examples. Flying is the same way. We should feature personal accomplishments, and make flying a human thing. That's what's really amazing about being in the air: your personal experience and what you make it. I love the message.
koremelanaigis sent me this from society pages, it's too good not to pass on:
It's a vintage at from 1941. The text is hard to read, the biggest version I could find anywhere was still less than 600 pixels, but through much squinting this is what I decoded:
"They're Building Jobs As Well As Planes in Wichita to be ready when you boys come flying home"
"Believe me, you fellows in the service have something to look forward to the day Hitler hollers 'Uncle'," says Captain McNay. "The airplane that everyone can fly and fly is ready now at Cessna to be produced as soon as this war is over. It's the Cessna Family Car of the Air. And Mr. and Mrs. America will be flying it all over the country as naturally as they've driven automobiles for years."
"That's not just prop-wash. It's bound to come. And with it will come thousands of new jobs building, selling, and servicing thousands of Family Cars of the Air. What's more, there'll be miles of traffic-controlled airways, thousands of airports, landing strips and service stations to be operated. And that means jobs, good jobs and lots of them, for the boys when they come marching, rolling, flying home."
Mrs. America Wins Her Wings
Remember, Mrs. America likes to go places and see things. And when she finds out that she can cover 600 miles in a morning, to shop or visit in any one of a dozen cities, she's going to fly. And nothing can stop her.
Yes, she'll be flying, taking off and landing, as easily as she drives her car, in a few hours after she first steps in a plane. Compared to the hundreds of American women flying today, hundreds of thousands will fly in the post-war tomorrow. Why? Because it's going to be as easy as that for you to fly your own Cessna Family Car of the Air.
Everything about this ad is so happy! Go off and be a soldier, when you come home it will be The Future. You'll have a good job, a pretty wife who likes shopping, your own plane for her cruise along the airways with thousands of other women pilots (win!)
It feels like airplanes were the future... we weren't quite sure what we'd do with them, so we figured we'd do everything. Now days I don't even think the future is the future. We're jaded. We went to the moon, but it wasn't good enough to get us back. We cured diseases, but new ones came up. We connect with each other instantly, but no one knows their neighbors. It's like we made it to the future and it wasn't that cool. And airplanes... well, we decided they had their place.
But isn't this ad just adorably optimistic? I have a little hope, I mean hey I might not be renting a plane to go shopping every weekend, but the pilot thing worked out. I sort of fit into the Awesome Tomorrow.
I did a teensy bit of reading (one paragraph in one book I have, that's blogger-level research for you) and apparently this really was an airplane in the works. We were barely into the 40s, the war was just starting for us, business was booming, America was pulling together, engineers in Wichita were designing this airplane. They were trying to keep the cost in the same range as a 1941 Chevy. But then things got more serious, the war escalated and the program had to be suspended.
Oh well... so the future didn't all come together after WWII. It could still happen. The more we fly, the faster it'll get here, right?
Comments
Double A
r d v a r k