Aeronautics (from the ancient Greek words á½°Î®Ï ÄÄr, which means "air", and ναÏ
Ïική nautikÄ which means "navigation", i.e. "navigation of the air") is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere. While the termâliterally meaning "sailing the air"âoriginally referred solely to the science of operating the aircraft,it has since been expanded to include technology, business and other aspects related to aircraft.[1]
If there’s something ever wrong with ping-pong guns is that they fire too slow. So, Mark French, a mechanical engineer at Purdue University in Indiana, along with a couple of his graduate students took it upon themselves to finally design a gun that can fires ping-pong balls at supersonic speeds. Of course, this makes for [...]
In Philip K. Dick’s novels, a common denominator is the complete autonomy of the surrounding technology. The human characters often interact with their toaster which knows what kind of grill cheese they prefer and even makes small talk, to the extent of exasperation from the human counterpart. A more palpable side to reality is the [...]
The now retired Concorde turbojets were the fastest civilian airliners in the world, capable of carrying passengers from Paris to New York in just 3.5 hours, traveling at supersonic speeds. However, lack of market appeal, combined with high maintenance costs, lead to its regrettable retirement from service with no civilian airliner to replace it, not even to [...]
Space offers incredibly fascinating experimental conditions for various scientific studies, otherwise very hard or practically impossible to replicate on Earth. Microgravity is something of great interest to scientists, and even simple experiments with fire are extremely insightful. Combustion in space occurs at much lower temperatures and with a lower amount of required oxygen, and to [...]
For most, a jetpack can be considered more of a SciFi concept than a viable, realistic flying contraction. However, recent advances from a New Zealand aeronautical company might have paved the way for jetpacks to finally become commercially mainstream. Exiting, right? Just recently this month, the aforementioned company, Martin Aircraft Co., has successfully tested one [...]
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is already in its 7th year on Mars, and over the years it provided some quite useful information; researchers from NASA have been constantly working on ways to improve and optimize it by constantly uploading new software. Such is the case with the software they applied this winter, which makes [...]
Tue, Jan 29, 2013
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