Video: Revealed - The Mysterious Apollo Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea!

More pix and info at this BezosExpeditions webpage 

 The mysterious Apollo voyage to the bottom of the sea is really a by-product of every Apollo mission that left the Earth... the engines and booster stage returned to Earth after burning for approximately 165 seconds, reaching about 205,000 feet. Interestingly, the momentum carries the booster up to about 360,000 feet before it begins to descend. While falling, the booster stage assumes a semi stable engines-down position until impact with the ocean. The pieces and parts then make their way on down to the ocean floor. 

 And now, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos (who also founded the low-cost spaceflight development company Blue Origin) along with a very skilled team of deep sea searchers has located two of the Rocketdyne F1 engines used to launch an Apollo Saturn V rocket. These two engines might actually be from the Apollo 11 mission according to this page on the BezosExpeditions website. The info on that page is from nearly a year ago tho, so we may find that these engines are from a different Apollo mission. Makes no difference to me... spent F1 engines that can be recovered and restored for viewing are awesome no matter what mission they were on!

 The engines were located 14,000 feet below the surface in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles east of Cape Canaveral, and as the video shows, they were viewed and recovered by Remotely Operated Vehicles. It's quite stunning to see these F1 engines in the cold blackness of the ocean so many years after they spent a brief amount of time in the cold darkness of the edge of space.

(click pic to enlarge) F1 rocket engine thrust chamber on ocean floor (Bezos Expeditions)

 
 The Saturn V first stage (known as the S-1C) had five of the F1 engines mounted, one fixed engine in the center and four gimballed around it for controlling the flight path. These were, and still are, the most powerful rocket engines ever built: creating over 1,500,000 pounds of thrust on an empty weight of just 18,500 pounds. But just imagine the weight in the fuel tanks! 318,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 203,400 gallons of kerosene - wow! Each F1 engine stands 19 feet tall and has a diameter of 12.3 feet. The total liftoff thrust produced by the S-1C and its five F1 engines for the Apollo 15 mission was 7,766,000 pounds!

 Jeff Bezos has said that the recovered engines remain the property of NASA but is hopeful that after the National Air & Space Museum most likely gets one of them that maybe the Museum of Flight in Seattle might get the other one. Time will tell. Plus, they may be able to locate and recover more engines as well.

 Check out this Space.com page that gives a nice overview and graphics of the amazing Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo missions.

 You might also enjoy this extensive old-school NASA Apollo Saturn V first stage fact sheet that offers many interesting technical details of the S-1C.

 Great job Jeff Bezos and team for helping us to get excited about the Apollo missions all over again!

Videos: FedEx 727 Lands On 4,000 Foot Anchorage Runway!

 FedEx recently donated one of their antique Boeing 727's to the University of Alaska for use at Merrill Field in Anchorage as a non-flying training tool, but Merrill Field only has a 4,000 foot runway. Well, if you know anything about the United Airlines 727 on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, you probably know that it was landed at the old Meigs Field back in 1992 on a runway that was only about 3,900 feet long!

 So, a landing at Merrill's 4,000 foot runway should be a piece of cake. And a piece of cake it was as can been seen in these two videos that recorded the event that took place on February 26, 2013. The two videos offer different perspectives but are both very well done... and what a beautiful day it was in Anchorage!

 And then the video below is a compilation of Chicago TV news station broadcasts about the United 727 landing at Meigs back in 1992. 

 All this 727 watching sure makes me long for the day when this fabulous trijet, which made its very first flight on my second birthday (Feb 9, 1963), was the mainstay of every major airport in America! Back around 1969 (when I was 8) I used to ride a UAL California Commuter 727 every other weekend from San Francisco to Los Angeles and back to go visit my dad. My seat was usually the one right next to the left engine... I loved all that noise and vibration when the engines went into reverse!

 I hope you enjoy all this 727 avgeekery as much as I did : )

Video: Boeing Presentation On 787 Battery Problem And Fix (+ CoolPix)

(click pic to enlarge)  'Boeing' on the very reflective side of the prototype 787 at OSH11

Click here to see the full Boeing webpage on the technical briefing with additional info

 I've been pretty quiet about the Boeing 787 battery issue that grounded the fleet on January 17, 2013, but mostly because situations like this are really hard to comment on when you simply don't have access to the facts. Of course, lack of facts rarely stops the media from making all kinds of comments... while they profit all the way along regardless if what they are saying makes any sense or is even rooted in the truth. That's why I found this long, slow-paced, and potentially boring 1 hour and 34 minute video so fascinating, it's all about the facts.

See my recent post: Poll: Would You Ride The 787 On Its First Return-To-Service Flight?

 From understanding what the battery in question does on the 787 to a detailed explanation of the two incidents that led to the grounding, this technical briefing answers every question I can imagine about the issue. More important, it makes extremely clear what steps have been taken to retrofit the battery installation to prevent any such incidents from occurring again. The briefing took place last Friday in Japan (actually on Thursday evening EDT time) and was presented predominately by Ray Conner (executive vice president of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes) and Mike Sinnet (Vice President and 787 Chief Project Engineer) - and in my opinion, these two men have done a fantastic job of presenting the details of the problem and the Boeing response as the company has worked with the FAA to resolve the issue. 

 I feel this briefing presents Boeing as neither shaken nor cocky about the 787 program, but instead I see a company that has been diligent in designing and building the most advanced civilian aircraft the world has ever seen, and one that has handled an unforeseen complication with honesty and integrity.

 Boeing is currently well into the certification testing of the revised battery installation and the hope is that the 787 will back in service within weeks.

 I admit that you have to be a pretty hardcore geek for the inner workings of how technologically advanced aircraft are designed and built to enjoy this video, but given the importance of the subject matter to both Boeing and the flying public, I think this hour-and-a-half video is well worth the time invested in it.

(click pic for hi-res)  CoolPix of the Boeing 787 prototype departing Oshkosh 2011

Caption Contest #80 Has A Sequestered Winner!

 While I feel the sequestration is being used as a dirty trick against the American people, I'm at least happy to see we can still have some avgeek fun with it. Congrats go out to 'Tim' (again!) for coming up with the winning caption. Short, sweet and right on target, that's how you win at captioning. Here's hoping Tim will be able to make it to OSH13 to fetch up his bacon sandwich winnings.

 I also wanna send a big Thank You to everyone who played this time around, it was a fabulous batch of captions. I've been going thru a major time and energy cramp with my day job, and I posted this contest as a way to get something up quickly. It's very encouraging to me to see how much response the contest got. I'll plan to post another one before long to keep y'all in top captioner form. I've still got a nice treasure chest of images suitable for avgeek humor, so keep your eyes peeled for another to show up some Monday morning before long : )

Video: Can You Say Aerodynamic Braking? (Vulcan Bomber Farnborough 2012)

 I'm constantly amazed at how easy it is to miss really cool avgeek stuff on the internet, like this fabulous Vulcan Bomber landing video from Farnborough 2012 that now has over 1,300,000 views. I had missed it til this morning... but maybe you've already seen it. Even if you have tho, it's definitely worth seeing again. This is some serious aerodynamic braking on display!

 The Avro Vulcan served as a bomber in the British RAF from 1956 until 1984. The airplane is nearly square in its dimensions with both a length and wingspan either a little under 100 feet or a little over 100 feet depending on the version. Max takeoff weight for the later version was just a tick over 200,000 pounds and the max cruise speed was .93 Mach. The Vulcan was an outgrowth of the much smaller Avro 707 that was used to test the viability of a the delta wing platform.

 The Vulcan burned itself into my memory back in my teen years when it was touring US airshows back in 1976. It was truly glorious to see and hear this amazing beauty fly. The example in this video, known as Vulcan XH558, is the only flying of the 136 built. It was restored by Vulcan to the Sky Trust thru charitable donations and had been flying on and off since 2008. It's scheduled to attend several European aviation events this summer, including the 2013 RIAT. Long live the Vulcan!

#vulcanlove

Video screenshot showing the massive Vulcan wing being used for braking on landing

The Awesome 4th Hop Of The Awesome-Hopping SpaceX Grasshopper! (Video)

 After SpaceX solved an issue with the oxidizer tanks on the most recent Falcon 9 launch, their streak of excellent success with five Falcon 9 launches is intact. That's quite an impressive feat. And last week, on Thursday March 7, 2013, they had a successful record-altitude flight of their Grasshopper reusable rocket demonstrator. On its fourth test flight, Grasshopper reached 262.8 feet in altitude... and while a flight to an altitude of just under half the height of the Washington Monument might not seem like much to write home about, it really is a remarkable accomplishment. 

 The rock-solid stability and control on Grasshopper can be seen in the video, which includes some onboard views. It would be easy to think it was some sort of animation rather than a real free-flying rocket-powered flying machine. Wow, this thing is very well programmed! Grasshopper lifted off the pad, climbed to almost 263 feet, and then it returned back to the pad with a soft landing near the center! It appears to have been a perfect 34 second flight. This thing really does look like science fiction.

 All this testing is moving toward the day when SpaceX will have the ability to retrieve the launch vehicle with a controlled descent and vertical landing rather than allowing it to burn up on re-entry as essentially all boosters have done in the past - except for the Shuttle SRB's. This new reusable concept should allow for cheaper launch costs and quicker turn-around.

 Congratulations SpaceX, your work is outstanding!

 
 SpaceX Grasshopper launching on its 4th flight on Thursday 3.7.13  (photo: SpaceX) 

Caption Contest #80 - Ends Wednesday 3.13.13 At 9PM EDT

 
 Now that the time has changed back to Daylight Saving I figure we should celebrate with a fresh new caption contest, especially since bacon is involved! If you cook up the winning caption for the pic above you'll snag a bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2013.

 So... you've got til Wednesday evening at 9pm EDT to submit your clever/funny/cool captions. Then, I’ll pick the best 5 and put ’em in a poll for everyone to vote on for all day Thursday and Friday so we can find the winner. 

 The Rules: 

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in the 'comments' area 

3) Game ends Wednesday at 9pm EDT 

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, anyone can cast their vote starting Thursday morning and running thru til 9pm EDT Friday. The winner will be posted Saturday morning 3-16-13. Stand tall my avgeeks friends, no matter what!

Poll: Would You Ride The 787 On Its First Return-To-Service Flight?

(click pic to enlarge)  Prototype Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Oshkosh 2011

 The nightmare for the Dreamliner may be soon ending. From what I've seen, Boeing has a fix in mind for the battery overheat problem and is looking to the FAA to approve it and release the airplane back into service.

 While there's no way of knowing exactly when the airplane will resume scheduled service, I wondered if you would be willing to ride the airplane on its first 'return to service' flight? I can say, without hesitation, that I would definitely get on a 787 on the very first flight back into service.

 Please vote in the poll below to show where you stand on 787 confidence.

Skunky And Fascinating AgustaWestland 'Project Zero' Electric VTOL Tilt Rotor

Electric tilt-rotor VTOL research testbed built by AgustaWestland revealed yesterday

 The radio control model world has been leading the innovation in flying machines for several years now... and some wild and very impressive electric VTOL machines have certainly been a big part of that. But yesterday, March 5, 2013, AgustaWestland revealed that they have built a full-scale flying research demonstrator that incorporates electric motors and tilt rotors, and they did it in relative secrecy in a fashion similar to the Lockheed Skunk Works. Named 'Project Zero', this tilt-rotor was built in just 6 months (apparently back in 2011) with a variety of unmanned flights taking place in 2011 and 2012.

 The rotors tilt to allow the aircraft to transition from vertical flight to forward flight using the wings and blended body for lift. The wing panels are also detachable for when operations are intended to be in vertical-only mode, thus increasing the lifting capabilities. I haven't seen any indication yet that Project Zero has made transitional flights (vertical to horizontal), but it's still very exciting to see a design like this being put into actual flying research. The future of advanced aerodynamic design along with electric propulsion (after a few more years of technological breakthrough) is gonna be very exciting! Hopefully more info and details on Project Zero will be made available soon.

 Here's the press release info on Project Zero from AgustaWestland:

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica Company, today unveiled its “Project Zero” tilt rotor technology demonstrator, giving an insight into what advanced rotorcraft of the future may look like. This, however, is no paper study. The technology demonstrator was designed and built in less than 6 months and has already secretly flown several times in 2011 and 2012, demonstrating AgustaWestland’s advanced rotorcraft technology.

The tilt rotor technology demonstrator is completely electric powered; designed to hover like a helicopter and convert to a fixed wing aircraft in forward flight thanks to its two integrated rotors which can be tilted through more than 90 degrees. The demonstrator performed its first unmanned tethered flight in June 2011 at AgustaWestland’s Cascina Costa facility in Italy and has since performed untethered hovering flights inside a secured area.

Click to read more ...

My Take On The 'Sequestration' Blues (And Thunderbirds Too)

(click pic to enlarge)  US Navy Blue Angels in tight formation at Reno in 2009

 I'm certainly no expert on the issue of sequestration, and since I've actually worked the last 15 days straight (with my day-job of ceramic tile installing) I also haven't had the time to do any deep research on the subject. However, it's my understanding that the $85 billion in cuts are actually only a reduction in the planned rate of GROWTH in the budget. So we're saying that we not only have ALL the money from the last budget but also a few percentage points MORE, but the news media and campaigner-in-chief have been telling us that all hell is about to break loose. I'm not buying it. I'm not buying any of it.

 And with reports that the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds have been cancelling their attendance at many 2013 air shows, strong opinions and passionate responses have been popping up all over. Especially since many of these air shows, like the Indy Air Show scheduled for June 15-16, have been cancelled as well since these elite military demonstration teams are by far the biggest draw for these events.

(click pic to enlarge)  Two USAF Thunderbirds back-to-back at Reno in 2011

 
 My opinion might be different than most. I'm 100% for budget cuts... not reductions in rate-of-growth, but real CUTS. And if we had real cuts and they truly meant that the Blues and Thunderbirds had to stop flying, then I'm actually ok with that. This nation MUST get its financial condition in order as soon as possible, tho technically I've given up all hope that we will ever do that. A financially responsible government is the only way we can have hope that these two elite aerobatic teams to will continue flying in the future. Far more important, we need to be fiscally strong to have any hope of having a positive impact on the global landscape in the next 20 years.

 But to pull the plug on these aerobatic demonstration teams when we have such a small actual budget adjustment makes me think that the government is using the impact that this will have on the American people as a dirty little trick. Even worse, this means many large communities won't have the benefit of the positive economic impact that is a direct result of a Blue Angels or Thunderbirds air show. Add to that the fact that these two teams are a very important part of both recruiting and bolstering a sense of pride in the American people, and I come to the conclusion that it's all being used as a weapon against we the people. But then that seems to fit all the more with the idea that the ultimate goal of this administration is to weaken every aspect of the United States of America.

 The more common opinion I'm seeing is one that says we must find a way to stop these cuts and make sure that all the services we need and want so desperately (from the Blue Angels to air traffic controllers to border patrol agents) are able to be funded. So, rather than identify and cut massive waste in poor government administration, or eliminate entire departments that simply are not part of a sensible government mission, they've convinced us that essential services are at risk. Hmm, so it appears that the government has figured out a way for the American people to DEMAND that we spend beyond our means. Well isn't that just precious.

 I don't have any big answers here, but I am fully prepared to say that I just don't buy any of this. And while there are some of you out there who are gonna want to beat me up for my opinion that the United States government is actually against America and the American people, I'm telling you now that I don't have the time or energy to have an online battle about it. This is what I believe from years of observing the actions of our so-called leaders, whether they have a D by their name or an R. My bottom line is simple: get our financial affairs in this country in order NOW, and do everything we can to keep the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds in the sky showing the American people, and the rest of the world, what freedom looks and sounds like.