UFO 🛸

I can barely keep my drone steady here on a calm day, with direct visual and control.

NASA just flew one on a different planet, in an atmosphere thinner than any aircraft we have is capable of handling, with it running on automatic because of massive signal delays between the planets.
And it looked great.

Goddddddddamn!!! 👍🙂🙃🙂

Gravity being only 3/8 that of Earth’s helps – but the atmospheric density is indeed a much tinier fraction of our stratosphere’s than that.

And carrying a fragment of the Wright Brothers’ flying machine too! It’s quite remarkable that their first flight covered less distance in the air than the length of a Jumbo Jet. It’s just amazing how far aerospace has come in less than 118 years since that first powered flight.

Yes, it came far, but started going backwards rapidly this century.

Reusable space plane – Space Shuttle retired 2011
Supersonic passenger aircraft – Concorde retired 2003
Aircraft with over 400 passengers – B747 out of production in 2020 and A380 in 2021

You could add to that the fastest reconnaissance plane, the SR71 in 1999, and the on an off testing of potential hypersonic aircraft.

Reusable space plane – Space Shuttle retired 2011
Supersonic passenger aircraft – Concorde retired 2003

It’s a perceptual thing.

Concorde crashed and it quickly brought an end to the plane and its history.
737MAX crashed, twice, due to defects…and Ryanair has ordered a load.

Go figure.

As for the shuttle, it has only failed twice. Once on the way up, and once in the way back. Both are tragedies, but as SpaceX demonstrates, “space is hard”. Going up is sitting atop a giant firework. Coming back down is equally unforgiving. I think what killed off the Shuttle was PR more than anything else.

Aircraft with over 400 passengers – B747 out of production in 2020 and A380 in 2021

The Dreamliner has… issues. Not unexpected with modern day Boeing that’s run by beancounters rather than engineers.
The A380? Kind of wonder how much Covid had a hand in that. People aren’t flying so much these days. And there’s no longer the allure of visiting a foreign place when you could come back with a new strain of the virus, have to self quarantine, etc etc.

People are belatedly beginning to realize that flying is a privilege we can’t ecologically afford to make as readily available to huge numbers of people as it has been, too. If we’d just take life a bit easier, give everyone longer holidays so they can travel in a more ecologically friendly way and enjoy the journeys as well as the destinations more, it’d be better for our descendants.

I wonder how much the pandemic has helped spread this realization?

I never cared much for flying. It was being able to experience foreign parts that I liked. Perhaps we can make the world bigger again if we are more modest in our travels?

Hear, hear to all that, Gavin!

That said, the view from up there is often pretty stunning if you’re lucky enough to get a window seat and you’re not flying over clouds – or even if you are. You could get that, perhaps better, from a balloon or a glider – but that might be no more ecologically friendly than a plane. There’s some essays I ought to write on that subject that I haven’t written yet.

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/Photos/FromPlane/Thumbs.html

There is no way that the human race can survive until we break the link between status and consumption. Malthus knew that.

When I was a student in Cambridge the Arts Cinema put on a film show of Indian film, sponsored by the most successful Indian restaurant owner in Cambridge at that time, a Mr Agarwal. The Indian ambassador and the mayor arrived in Bentleys. The Master of Trinity and his wife, Lord and Lady Adrian, arrived by bicycle.

We should demand of our leaders and holders of public office that they dress in sackcloth, and that they should have studied long and hard, and have spotless and generous characters. We wrong ourselves by aiming lower than this, in the name of a sham democracy. But how they are to be persuaded to undertake their duties I cannot imagine. Sumptuary laws for pop-stars and footballers?

PS. Before it was legal for me to have a driving licence I got my B certificate for gliding. I got it at Lasham airfield, under the tutelage of Derek Piggott, whither my maths teacher, Brian Thwaites, would drive us on Wednesday afternoons. The costs were paid by the RAF, in an unsuccessful attempt to bribe Mr Thwaites back to their service. He helped design the wings of the Canberra bomber. There is a Thwaites’ Theorem concerning circulation round an aerofoil, I believe.

Hear, hear again!

Before it was legal for me to have a driving licence I got my B certificate for gliding.

And I bet, every day still you look up at the sky and think something like: ‘Hmm, definitely soarable today!’
As for your views regarding public office, I agree entirely. One of the drawbacks of a professional political class is that officeholders feel the need to retain power and position for important personal, often financial, reasons: hence the dearth of honourable resignations (where someone is titularly, as opposed to actually, responsible for failure cf. Lord Carrington during the Falklands Crisis).
The Canberra: ah, yes! Product of that uniquely British phenomenon, the maverick genius, in this case, E.W.“Teddy” Petter. Didn’t he also do the EE Lightning?

the EE Lightning

In the words of the RAF pilots: “One man, twin fan, aluminium pursuit suit”!

realize that flying is a privilege we can’t ecologically afford

The thing with ecological shoutiness is (excepting a little Swedish girl who puts her money where her mouth is), most people are more than happy to tell others about their carbon footprints and such, as long as whatever is happening doesn’t affect their way of life.

“Short journeys by plane is a catastrophe!” (beat) “I’ve booked two weeks in Ibiza this summer!” (beat) “Had to queue up forever to fill up my Nissan that I use to take the kids to school half a mile down the road”.

In this respect, I’m not sure I’ll see the “Rick plane” (mom named it; about 9pm, Lyon to Rennes, flies right over and fairly low) much any more. It’s been out of the sky during the lockdown for obvious reasons, but now France wants to stop internal flights where there is an effective rail link that can do the same journey. I’m sure there’s a TGV between Rennes and Lyon (though probably not direct).
I suppose it’s acceptable to travel by rail instead of plain so long as the journeys are clean, safe, reasonably timed (an hour flight versus a six hour train is not an equivalence), and don’t cost too much.

give everyone longer holidays

I bet, if there was a way, they’d try to reduce the holidays that we currently have (that’s generally five weeks plus various national holidays as paid holiday time).
Because, you know, money belongs with shareholders and CEOs, not the people that get stuff done.
F***ing shareholders. Worst bloody idea ever to come out of capitalism. When it’s all about them, it ceases being about the customer or the product. Quality nosedives, and it’s basically vultures sucking the life out of the carcass before moving on to wreck another company.

and enjoy the journeys as well as the destinations more

The only journey I ever enjoyed in my life was the SS Canberra when I was a lot younger. I wouldn’t mind (following a lottery win…) going on a cruise in a similar manner, but I have exactly zero interest in the floating hotel monstrosities that are commonplace these days.

it’d be better for our descendants.

It’d be even better if we stopped building massive cities on the coast. :-)

A little global rise in sea level will damage/destroy an awful lot of important cities.

in the name of a sham democracy.

Democracy? Wassat?

Seriously – on the left side of the Atlantic you have two groups who would rather skewer each other for political points than do anything useful “for the good of the country” (watch how Trump incites the first insurrection since we were running the country, and gets to walk away) while on this side of the ocean… Dominic Cummings. I bet he is still pulling strings, just not in the public view any more. Oh, and talking on string pulling, the Royals meddled. A lot.

Democracy is a placation. It’s something you’re supposed to believe in while those “in power” shaft everybody and gerrymander things to try to ensure that they stay in power.

Seriously – on the left side of the Atlantic you have two groups who would rather skewer each other for political points than do anything useful “for the good of the country”

That and the fact that they now everything is in the hands of those “Super PACs” committees: if one is decent enough to vote for a law that displeases them, on the next election the rival candidate receives a large donation for its campaign and massive advertising campaigns are organized (independently from the rival’s party) by these committees against the honest candidate.

France wants to stop internal flights where there is an effective rail link that can do the same journey

All well and good, but if flying long-haul it will be from a hub airport, and it might be nice to have a connecting flight to take you there that is the same airline’s responsibility. I’m sure Air France would refund you for missing flights ’cos the TGV was delayed. Not.

There is no way that the human race can survive until we break the link between status and consumption.

At the moment, there is very little evidence that the human race cannot survive almost indefinitely, unless you have a very static understanding of very dynamic processes.

Malthus knew that.

I struggle to think of anyone who was as wrong as Malthus was. With the possible exception of the Club of Rome. The difference is that Malthus could not have imagined modern day technology, while the Club of Rome actively ignored it.

I think what killed off the Shuttle was PR more than anything else.

More likely the fact that it was unsuitable for the headline task and much more suitable for shifting the military hardware into orbit and then people got less interested in putting big weaponry up there.

The only journey I ever enjoyed in my life was the SS Canberra when I was a lot younger.

That cruise ship had a round faced rather rotund bodied “ship headmaster” for the school onboard.
Guy named Richard Harris. His next job was at my old school as it wound down to closure¹
His most notable activity involved more wine and spirits delivered per week than the old head had in a complete term. I did mention his rosy cheeks, didn’t I? Oh, have now.

¹ Two schools with adjoining catchment areas were merged. Of course, they closed the one that occupied a land area that was three times the one that remained open

I struggle to think of anyone who was as wrong as Malthus was.

Really?

Let’s start with an Austrian twat who broke the 20th century.

Or, how about whoever Abraham really was, who blessed upon us two thousand years of people killing each other for stupid reasons. (at least the Greeks understood that their gods killed people for dumb crap for amusement).

Ghengis Khan wasn’t such a nice bloke. That a perky Japanese girl group did an over the top cover of a German Eurovision song…is a comical way to mess with his legacy.

Then, of course, we come to Pandora. This world would be a much nicer place had she been capable of following one simple instruction.

Remind me – Malthus who?

A little global rise in sea level will damage/destroy an awful lot of important cities.

Anything over 90 metres and I need a different house.
I could move back home to Sheffield. It would have an interesting waterfront

for the school onboard.

There was an onboard school?
Ah, so that’s why sometimes I was in the play area by myself, or quietly sitting on the deck reading about one (adult) book every two days.

Well yay for mom for neglecting to mention that to me. ;-)

[she was friendly with several crew, so she would have known]

Anything over 90 metres and I need a different house.

Me too, but 90 metres is a lot. I think we’re more likely to see things of that size as a tidal wave.

Pandora? I blame Tiny Kernel.

but 90 metres is a lot.

The wife quite liked a property down the road – about 3 or 4 foot higher than the Avon and in a loop of the same. Having seen the watermark in the Red Lion¹ I was, er, less than keen.
It is 75m above sea level, but the Avon is good at flooding without help.

¹ Closed, demolished, replaced with new housing which was built to resemble the pub it replaced.

So many things to take account of when moving house now – flood risk, broadband availability and speed, mobile signal strength on your network, crime rates, roof alignment for solar panels, public transport, neighbours, NHS dentist, doctors and hospitals, traffic, pollution levels, etc. And all that’s before finding a house you like…

I struggle to think of anyone who was as wrong as Malthus was.

Really?

Let’s start with an Austrian twat who broke the 20th century.

I would like to make a strong distinction between those whose predictions have been proven wrong (like Malthus, Meadows/Club Of Rome, Marx…) and those who have done wrong (like those who were mentioned by you, and other friends of humanity like Stalin, Mao, Pol-Pot…).

How do I do that correctly in English, so that it cannot be misunderstood?