Airplanes
When Will We See Unleaded AvGas? | Flying
Leaded gas was phased out 25 years ago. Why are these planes still using toxic fuel?
Gone In A Flash – The Tragedy Of Pan Am Flight 214 | Weather Concierge
“MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY” Clipper 214 out of control. Here we go.” These were the final words of a “resigned” pilot of Pan Am flight 214 on the evening of December 8, 1963.
In his 22 years with Pan Am, Captain George F. Knuth had 17,049 hours total flying, with 2,890 hours flying a Boeing 707 but there was nothing he could do after a bolt of lightning struck the plane and triggered an explosion resulting in catastrophic damage. The event was a tragedy indeed but there were more tragedies exposed in the days and months following the crash.
Airplanes and September 11th
It annoys me that it’s hard to get anywhere in the wilderness – and be free of one industrial noise – be stuck listening to the noise of airplanes flying overhead. ✈While motor vehicles, generators and bicycles are prohibited in wilderness areas, no such prohibition exists for airplanes flying overhead.
One of things that most sticks out in my mind after September 11th was when they grounded the planes during that two day period after the tragedy.🔕 It made the sky quiet, it eliminated the jet trails that we’ve all just gotten to assume are normal. September 11, 2011 was a particularly clear day, and without airplanes going out, it made the sky even bluer and purer.
I don’t know if it’s practical to pass a law making wilderness areas no-fly zones.🛬 Certainly, that would get a lot of opposition from the airplane industry. Another option might be banning airplanes on holidays or Sundays, but that would also get the druthers of the traveling public who has places to go, relatives to visit, business to conduct. But it would be nice to give the air a break from the constant noise and pollution from air planes.
Why is the federal government subsidizing airports?
I was thinking the evening, how silly it is that the federal government is operating our air traffic control and security check-ins at airports. ✈Airlines are a for-profit, money-making operation, they should themselves be operating and paying for air-traffic control, not taxpayers. Airplanes are expensive and polluting, an industry that should be taking care of their own expenses, 💰 not something at the trough of the taxpayer, many who can’t afford to ride planes, certainly not at a regular interval.
The Physics (and Economics) of Wheelchairs on Planes
Indeed, regulations prohibit passengers from sitting in their own wheelchairs on planes, and, as a result, 29 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which dramatically increased American wheelchair users’ access to buses, trains, and other essential 21st century infrastructure, airplanes remain stubbornly inaccessible. For many wheelchair users, the experience of flying is stressful, painful, and sometimes humiliating. For some, it is simply impossible.