Briefs
Sunday, September 17th, 2023
British aviation legend Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown has died at 96.
When he went to receive an honor from King George VI, the reigning British monarch of the time reportedly said to Brown, “What, you again?”.
Thursday, August 3rd, 2023
Oh my, Michael Lind writes in Tablet exactly what I’ve been thinking, so forgive the extensive quoting:
… The Western elite culture of transgression is an example of antinomianism … Derived from the Greek words meaning “against” and “law” or “norm,” the term antinomianism refers to the view that all laws and norms are oppressive always and everywhere, and that the act of transgression in itself is virtuous, if not holy.
…
The three saints of transgression are the illegal immigrant, the transsexual, and the woman who proudly celebrates abortion. All three are idealized by our revolutionary ruling class precisely because they violate traditional norms — the traditional norm of patriotism, based on the legitimacy of the city-state or nation-state or kingdom and its laws and borders; traditional gender norms; and traditional family norms, which celebrate the capacity of women to give birth and to nurture their infants and of men to provide for them. Most of what is called “progressivism” today is really transgressivism.
…
By now the antinomians in Western nations have won their war against tradition in every realm.
Having vandalized every premodern tradition, the elite antinomians of the modern West now don’t know what to do next. What should rebels against the bourgeoisie rebel against when the bourgeoisie has fallen?
The answer, it is increasingly apparent, is to rebel against the proletariat.
…
Whatever working-class “normies” believe and enjoy, the most influential tastemakers of the trans-Atlantic ruling class denounce and seek to ban, using one of their three or four specious all-purpose justifications. If non-college-educated Americans were to take up square dancing as a fad, the powers that be in the media and academia would solemnly inform us that square dancing is problematically racist or sexist or worsens climate change.
Thursday, July 27th, 2023
At Oshjosh, Boeing’s Wisk flies!
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion
Tom Segev
♦♦♦♦
Just as author Tom Segev relates that Ben-Gurion increasingly harked back to the episodes that shaped him in his earlier life, so too are these episodes more vivid to us than later ones. This would be fine and even impressive as a literary gambit, having the reader feel about Ben-Gurion’s life the way Ben-Gurion himself did, but at least for this reader it was somewhat disappointing in that it’s the later events — founding and leading the State of Israel — that we are reading for. But again, this too may be a literary achievement, suggesting that for the subject of this biography, it was the younger man’s experiences that were important — and that by extension this is the case for all lives. But I’m not sure that’s accurate; surely the ambitious younger Ben-Gurion would have been overjoyed at the eventual achievements of his later self.
It’s a strange complaint to make, but I feel this book wasn’t long enough; each of the many episodes, particularly the later more historic ones, I felt could have withstood more detail.
I was pleased to learn of Ben-Gurion’s erratic behavior and attitude towards his family, and of his penchant for travel and mild but somewhat constant womanizing, and his growing intellectualism alongside faddishness. Segev concludes that Ben-Gurion’s philosophical disposition is basically that of Anglo-American liberal; all to the good. Almost. The implication is that this temperate poise made him the wise indispensable man, but also open him to more exciting dead-end intellectual enthusiasms.
Friendships, sex, religious relations, despair — the richness of the subject matter’s life encourages in the reader a life in politics as it’s a life in full.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2022
Lilium’s electric aircraft demonstrator takes off and lands vertically, achieving mid-flight transition. The first and last moments of the video are I guess the most important. Lilium stock rises 6%, seemingly as a result.
Tuesday, August 30th, 2022
For those not yet cognizant of the fact that eVTOLs are coming soon and coming fast, Jeff Scallop writes up the rationale at “Still No Flying Cars? eVTOLs Might be the Answer” in Market for Ideas.
The main attractiveness of eVTOLs is their ability to reduce transit times in metropolitan areas, especially those routes subject to heavy traffic jams. Given current battery autonomy, ideal distances for eVTOLs range from 15 to 150 miles.
eVTOLs also offer many advantages when compared to helicopters, such as a lower cost per seat per mile (currently at $3.00, which is comparable to ride-hailing apps even). They also have much lower noise levels, allowing them to fly at lower altitudes and significantly reducing the necessary infrastructure costs (vertiports vs helipads), which could help boost adoption.
Monday, August 1st, 2022
At Leeham News, Bjorn Fehrm critiques the efficacy of the Lilium eVTOL. His chief criticism:
The Lilium project is in its seventh year, yet it has not transitioned from hover to forward flight during this period. The widely proclaimed transition in early June was a main wing transition, not a transition for the vehicle (canard + main wing). Such a transition is yet to be made.
The fact that a VTOL developer makes such noise about a transition from hover to forward flight of a part of the vehicle tells you a lot. Other VTOL OEMs transition to forward flight within months of the first hover flight. Why is it such an issue for Lilium?
The use of jets voids Lilium of help from a rotor wash to attach the flow around wings and movables. The integration of jet thrust and movable also voids Lilium of a fast movable control surface to counter the pitch disturbances that are part of a transition. The canard design augments the pitch control problem by forcing a nose-heavy design.
Saturday, July 30th, 2022
Managing Editor of eVTOL News Dan Gettinger rounds up recent developments by eVTOL leader Archer, Beta, Eve, Joby, Lilium, Volocopter and Wisk.
Wednesday, July 27th, 2022
Volkswagen has announced an eVTOL, reports Germany’s IT Times.
Sunday, July 17th, 2022
Israel views Iran’s new suicide UAVs as a top-level, strategic threat, argues the JISS thinktank:
UAVs are precision weapons, hence it is not enough to kill some of them or even many of them: The operational requirement is to kill them all – in the language of missile defense, to achieve a zero or near zero leakage rate. Defending against swarms of UAVs arriving simultaneously from every direction at treetop levels is a formidable challenge to any air defense system, a challenge that may well require the development and fielding of new technologies and operational doctrines.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Hitting a nice pair of personal enthusiasms: coffee and aviation:
In recent years, new partnerships between airlines and craft coffee brands have started to emerge. In many cases, this has been a way to offer an improved product and put more of a focus on customer experience in airport lounges and on flights.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2022
Germany’s industry-leading Lilium demonstrates both vertical take-off and landing with its Phoenix 2 eVTOL technology demonstrator, reports eVTOL.com.
Thursday, May 12th, 2022
Elon Musks has said the problem with flying cars is the noise. (I think he’s also said he’d love to be working in the field.) Meanwhile Joby has just announced its eVTOL aircraft registered the equivalent of 45.2 A-weighted decibels (dBA) from an altitude of 1,640 feet (500 meters) at 100 knots airspeed. According to eVTOL.com’s article, “NASA said it also plans to conduct similar acoustic testing with Wisk Aero”.
Friday, March 4th, 2022
As an antidote to the war in Ukraine, not far away, in Germany, development of the Lilium eVTOL continues apace. It’s perhaps the most exciting of the upcoming electric planes. The eVTOL Innovation YouTube channel has just dropped a video The Insane Engineering behind The Lilium Jet.
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022
A compilation of all eVTOLs.
Friday, January 28th, 2022
A flying car story has broken through to mainstream news. Boeing has invested a further $450m in Wisk, which it co-owns with Larry Page. Boeing’s Chief Strategy Officer Marc Allen told Reuters:
Our view is that is the big strategic advantage of Wisk, going straight to a self-flying aircraft, building those principles in at every level of the design and development.
The Wisk Cora eVTOL seems to solve the vertical vs. efficiency trade-off nicely, with a set of six vertical props on the wings for lift, and a single big one at the back for propulsion.
Wednesday, January 26th, 2022
A flying car story has broken through to mainstream news. Boeing has invested a further $450m in Wisk, which it co-owns with Larry Page. Boeing’s Chief Strategy Officer Marc Allen told Reuters:
Our view is that is the big strategic advantage of Wisk, going straight to a self-flying aircraft, building those principles in at every level of the design and development.
The Wisk Cora eVTOL seems to solve the vertical vs efficiency trade-off nicely, with a set o f six vertical props on the wings for lift, and a single big one at the back for propulsion.
Thursday, November 25th, 2021
Happy day: rivals British Airways and Virgin Atlantic flew synchronized flights from London to New York to mark the end of Covid-based travel restrictions to the USA, reports Airline Geeks.
Sunday, September 12th, 2021
A pilot’s account of the first American flight into Newark after 9/11, originally published September 2004.
My eyes, as though drawn by some magnetic force, strain to view the skyline. My mind flashes to the horrific scene of an exploding airplane penetrating the World Trade Center building. I know I had flown that very airplane. I had used that airplane to unite families, friends, and business people. It had become a weapon of mass destruction. I feel violated.
Sunday, July 4th, 2021
The Aviationist reports on Israel’s new airborne anti-drone laser system. Motherfuckers necessitate invention.
El Al and Etihad have launched codesharing and reciprocal frequent flyer points. Warms the cockles.
Thursday, June 10th, 2021
The first successful aerial refueling of a manned aircraft by an unmanned tanker has been achieved by Boeing’s MQ-25 Stingray.
Sunday, April 11th, 2021
With this panegyric to airport culture, Eva Wiseman riffs on a Vice story about young Britons going to the airport to get (earthly) high and hang out. As a Briton I find this awesome, even while as an Israeli I find it a bit pitiful (ie, just go to the beach!).
Wednesday, September 30th, 2020
Great long piece in The Guardian on the aviation meltdown.
Thursday, September 17th, 2020
Israel Aviation Industries’ long-established Heron flew to Ben-Gurion, marking the first ever landing of a drone at a civilian airport.
Sunday, April 19th, 2020
Marc Andreessen: Build, baby!
Sunday, January 26th, 2020
Two interestingly contrarian pieces in the Daily Mail by authorities in their respective fields: “Ja, we Germans are jealous of Brexit” by Alexander Von Schoenburg, editor-at-large of Bild; and “Why woke diets featuring superfoods such as avocado are leading to a surge of distressing gut problems” by Luci Daniels, former chairman of the British Dietetic Association.
Tuesday, October 8th, 2019
11 Brilliant Ways To Redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles by Spencer Howard at GodSaveThePoints. Most are not actually flying Virgin Atlantic but their partner airlines
Saturday, September 28th, 2019
September 25th, 2019, a Virgin Atlantic plane landed in Tel Aviv for the first time. Airplane travel writer Gilbert Ott was aboard.
Tuesday, September 24th, 2019
James Ketchell completes his gyrocopter global circumnavigation, apparently the first person to do so. Awesome.
Monday, July 1st, 2019
The bastards finally did it: Sde Dov Airport, within walking distance from Tel Aviv, closes. You’d have thought that enough powers-that-be would have liked a nice little airfield within 5 minutes of town. Well, hopefully eventually they’ll build another one in the Med. Update: They’re still talking. Umpteen objections submitted regarding the existing plan.
Saturday, September 8th, 2018
McKinsey offers suggestions for lean airline operations. I find this oddly exciting.
Tuesday, August 21st, 2018
This Globes article reports interesting stats re Israeli air traffic. After the domestic carriers, Wizz Air is the top airline by flights, Turkish Airlines by passengers. They’re followed by EasyJet and Aeroflot. Nasty rhetorical exchanges between the national leaders notwithstanding, the Turkish national carrier will soon operate 10 flights a day to Israel!
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018
This 1-hour Smithsonian production is a history of America in the Roaring 20s, with amazing newly-colorized footage. Richly effortlessly narrated by Liev Schreiber, it remedies our black & white impression of this not-so-distant mirror. There are things I should have learned about in school but did not, particularly the Greenwood massacre.
Saturday, September 9th, 2017
Enjoy this superb little series on contemporary American commercial aviation by Slate, from security theatre to the pilot shortage.
Monday, September 5th, 2016
In this report on Ryanair’s service between Budapest and Eilat, anna.aero lists the low-cost airlines flying to Israel. All the others fly to Ben-Gurion. So that’s Eilat to Budapest in February roundtrip for 85€!!!
Monday, July 18th, 2016
Life meets Goblin. Franky Zapata flies his Flyboard Air in Monaco during the Grand Prix on May 29th, 2016 [via my Dad].
Thursday, July 24th, 2014
Sunday, July 15th, 2012
The stuffed former pet cat looks eerily alive reborn as a remote control helicopter. I just don’t know what to think or feel or say about this.
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
“Nation on the Move” is the magnificent second episode of the America Revealed PBS series. Interestingly, the show is British-made.
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Francis Fukuyama builds a drone. Yes, that Francis Fukuyama.
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Conrad Black, facing more jail time, remains irrepressible.
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
The reprap, a self-replicating 3d-printer. Most mind-boggling thing ever.
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Fox News slideshow from the 49th Paris Air Show.
Sunday, June 12th, 2011
Al Schwimmer, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, dies at 94. Haaretz obit.
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
GAGA-1, a hobby balloon satellite.
O reason not the need — give us the Immersive Cocoon.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Over at The Atlantic, this is perhaps the piece and subsequent conversation in the comments on applying the Israeli airport security method in the USA. “I’d say, as a generalization, screeners here possess above-average intelligence, whereas your average TSA screener seems to be a working stiff.” Yes, and working stiff seems an overstatement.
