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Against the Wind: September 19, 1902. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. “Side view of Dan Tate, left, and Wilbur Wright flying the 1902 glider as a kite.
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Against the Wind: September 19, 1902. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. “Side view of Dan Tate, left, and Wilbur Wright flying the 1902 glider as a kite.
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Not Man Apart
Then what is the answer?– Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.
To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand
Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history… for contemplation or in fact…
Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness,
the greatest beauty is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
of the universe. Love that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken.
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Where the Sidewalk Ends
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
by Shel Silverstein
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popsicle sticks and tissue paper
Popsicle sticks and tissue paper with a lot of scientific knowledge behind it. Not just playing in the wind.
I bet they played in the wind as children. One thing leads to another. At about age 8 my dad showed me how to build a hexagon shaped kite out of sticks and newspapers. I’ve built many kites since, and even airplanes and gliders. It was a phase I went through, from playing in the wind.
Yes, I see what you mean ghostsniper, good point!
Amazing actually, even back then they understood the concept of moving flight controls. Follow the strings aft, and forward, actually controls the flight surfaces for lift and directional changes.
There is great significance in the fact that the lanyards rise almost vertically from the mens’ hands to the frame of the aircraft. This means that the ratio of lift divided by drag of the aircraft is very high, something the Wrights optimized using their bicycle-mounted test rig and wind tunnel.
You will note that a typical kite-string trails off to leeward at a fairly acute angle by comparison, indicating a ratio of perhaps only 3 to 1, compared to this glider’s ratio of perhaps 15 to 1! Years ago, I owned a glider with a ratio of 40 to 1. Today, 60 to 1 and more is not uncommon. Getting such hyper-efficient machines to even land is not easy!
Now compare this glider to Otto Lilienthal’s hang-glider, shown here a few weeks ago. Otto’s ratio was better than a kite, but actually not nearly as good as that of this Wright glider. Otto mushed through the air by comparison, and thus would not have been able to soar or gain altitude in rising air currents like the Wrights could (a bit).
Unfortunately, Otto focused on using his body weight for control, and thus was unable to use long wings for high lift/drag. The Wrights focused on maximizing the lift over drag ratio for sustained flight, and warped the wing for control. The Wrights then moved on to the problem of generating thrust for flight. Otto never achieved sufficient control, and in the end crashed fatally.
It was once argued that a running Piper Cub sitting on a moving conveyor belt could take off without actually moving forward. This was in alt.architecture about 1998.
The same condition would occur when the wind was coming in straight, fast and steady. I would slowly walk to the mountain edge and then without any effort forward whatsoever the hang glider would lift me straight up. It was flying already and only a slight tip of the nose downward and I am airborne.
Understood.
It was explained that the Piper is a unique design in that the engine and it’s placement is such that the propeller can cause enough airflow over the wing to create the necessary lift to become airborne. I’ve seen Pipers do things no other plane can do because of how they are designed.
Dr. Carrie Madej describes how the little Cessna she and her boyfriend were passengers… suddenly stopped flying. Everybody is in the ICU but recovering. She is also a pilot and displays a keen understanding of what might have occurred. I’ve watched videos of Carrie utilizing an electron microscope showing creatures that appear to have a will of their own thriving within the clot shots. https://tinyurl.com/yfrn66xa