Ten things you might not know about Aeronautics. . .

[Phil Perry]

1) Ten years ago toaday ( March 5th 2005 ) Steve Fossett became the first person to fly an aeroplane non stop around the world solo without refuelling.

 

2) Another anniversary, - the 47th birthday of astronomy Professor ( and player of the keyboard ) Brian Cox.

 

3) The word “Aeronautics” is derived from two Greek words, meaning “The Air and “Sailing”

 

4) The first time the word Aeronaut was used was in 1784, to denote a Balloonist.

 

5) During the first world war, NACA was founded as an emergency measure; it was replaced by NASA in 1958.

 

6) NACA was disbanded and NASA founded as a response to the Russian launching of Sputnik.

 

7) In Australia, aeronautics researchers last week made the first 3D digitally printed jet engine.

 

8) The world record for the longest time a paper aeroplane has stayed in flight stands at 29.21 seconds.

 

9) The furthest distance flown by a paper aeroplane is 226 feet, six inches.

 

10)The word “Drone” was first used for a pilotless aircraft in 1946. Before that, it described a male honey bee.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

There must be a fixed height for launching a paper plane. The rim of the Grand Canyon wouldn't count, I suppose.

 

The word Drone was also used to describe my maths teacher's voice and led to a lot of paper aeroplanes being made under desks and thrown out the window of 2B when his head was turned.

 

 

[mnewbery]

If he'd told you why the paper plane flew as part of the class, maybe not so much. Mine was a train buff so the maths was about friction, slopes, acceleration due to gravity and other two dimensional Newtonian-ness

 

 

[kgwilson]

I knew several of those aeronautical things but I can't work out why Brian Cox's birthday is one of them. The paper plane thing must be in a closed environment because I have had them picked up by a thermal & disappear skywards never to be seen again but I've been able to follow them for several minutes.

 

 

[Soleair]

http://www.redbullpaperwings.com/Rules.html

[Phil Perry]

I knew several of those aeronautical things but I can't work out why Brian Cox's birthday is one of them. The paper plane thing must be in a closed environment because I have had them picked up by a thermal & disappear skywards never to be seen again but I've been able to follow them for several minutes.

I wondered that too when I plagiarised the item from the Daily Express newspaper ! ! ! maybe the writer couldn't be ar$ed researching some other fact to make up the ten. . . .he has a hard job doing that article 5/7 per week ! . . . well Professor Brian Cox ( TV hearthrob with the ladies [swine] even at that age. . ! . .) has made some really good programmes on astronomy for UK TV over the past few years, and I guess, you have to LOOK UP to see aviation happening as well ! ! Anyway, I emailed the writer about this but no reply so far, probably thinks I'm a pedantic prat. . . .( could well be right there )

 

On a connected vein,. . .I attended a really good presentation by GASCO ( GA safety meeting ) last thurs,. . . and they handed out a nice orange plastic box to all the guests containing some safety publications, and yours truly noticed an error in one of them straight away, but I held on to my water, and decided to scan and post on RF in the General Ignorance section,. . . to see if any of my friends can see it. . .posting around half an hour's time. . . when I've finished my curry . . . . ( Chicken Tikka and Garlic Balti with Mexican hot rice )

 

Phil

 

 

[flying dog]

Though probably moot:

 

 

 

[Cropmaster]

Though probably moot:

 

Who knew!

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Go QI ! ! . . . . that's where I get all my amazing facts from FD. . .now I've only got wackypaediar ! !

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Who knew!

We went to see "Paper Planes" last weekend. Nice movie, good to see kids getting excited about flight.