Arizona pilot says she’s the first armless person to fly using her feet

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Writer


Arizona native Jessica Cox tells Arizona’s Family she’s the first and only armless person in the world who flies planes with her toes.

“Being the first person to do this is pretty incredible, but I wanted to do this because it was about conquering my fear,” said Cox.

Growing up, Cox said people tried to tell her she couldn’t do things because she didn’t have arms.

“Being told constantly you can’t do something, for me it channeled this energy, this desire to go out and do, and say, watch me. I can do it.”

She found a plane that only required her to fly it with two limbs, so she decided to use her feet.

Now, she dreams of inspiring others. She’s a motivational speaker and shares her story.

Thursday evening, she spoke to Girl Scouts in Buckeye about having a “can do” attitude.

“I want to give them that good example of being a leader and role model. If I can fly an airplane with my feet, what is it you can do? Really, there are no limits if you believe in yourself.”

You can catch her at The Buckeye Air Show on Sunday.

Article source: https://fox2now.com/2019/02/08/arizona-pilot-says-shes-the-first-armless-person-to-fly-using-her-feet/

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3D Printed Arms – 4 Most Promising Projects in 2019

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Writer

Easton LaChepelle was a teenage bedroom roboticist, tinkering with a robotic hand made from Lego, model airplane motors, fishing wire, and electrical tubing. He entered a version into the Colorado State Science Fair, where a young girl approached him, fascinated by his project. Upon discovering that she was upper limb different and that her existing prostheses cost $80,000, he realized that he could help.

He and a group of friends formed Unlimited Tomorrow with the aim of creating affordable, advanced 3D printed arms. Today, the company has come an incredibly long way, with partnerships throughout the tech industry.

One such partnership was with Microsoft. Together, the two companies brought a 3D printed arm to a little girl called Momo. It was developed from 3D scans to fully personalize the fit, and Stratasys 3D printers were used to print full-color skin tones. The prosthetic arm weighs one pound, features haptic force feedback and even includes machine learning to track and adapt usage.

In 2018, Unlimited Tomorrow pledged to give the first 100 of these incredibly advanced 3D printed arms away for free. As of the 6th of January, their Indiegogo campaign was fully funded, and they’re now on their way to changing 100 lives.

Article source: https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printed-arms-most-promising-projects/

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Electric Airplane Maker Pipistrel Teams Up With Honeywell To Give Us An Autonomous eVTOL

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Writer
Autonomous Vehicles

Published on February 9th, 2019 | by Nicolas Zart

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February 9th, 2019 by  

After a slight hiatus from covering Pipistrel, we’ve got some news. The company has announced a partnership with heavyweight aviation player Honeywell to design an electric vertical take-off landing (eVTOL) aircraft — to get us off the congested ground.

Air Taxis Take Off With Pipistrel Honeywell eVTOL Partnership

According to Honeywell, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pipistrel means the companies will together develop urban air mobility solutions. The aircraft will integrate Honeywell’s avionics, navigation, flight control systems, connectivity, and other products and services in the future autonomous Pipistrel eVTOL.

Pipistrel seems to have developed an electric airplane — or more to the point, converted one of its airplanes to electricity — with much success, as you can see from the video below. It also announced an eVTOL for Uber last year. We don’t have much in terms of the design, but the Uber one can give us an idea of the new Pipistrel Honeywell eVTOL.

Honeywell defines “urban air mobility” as an aviation industry term for on-demand and automated passenger or cargo-carrying air transportation services. Its aim is to get people to travel safely in and around cities and rural areas while reducing congestion.

According to Ivo Boscarol, founder and president of Pipistrel:

“This is the beginning of a long-term relationship to collectively pursue the future

Article source: https://cleantechnica.com/2019/02/09/electric-airplane-maker-pipistrel-teams-up-with-honeywell-to-give-us-an-autonomous-evtol/

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California Dreamin’: Integrating Health Care, Containing Costs, And Financing Universal Coverage

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Writer

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Article source: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190207.806149/full

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50 years ago today, the first 747 took off and changed aviation

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Writer

It’s not an exaggeration to say Boeing’s future was on the line that Sunday morning at Everett’s Paine Field, exactly 50 years ago.

Feb. 9, 1969, was the first flight for model No. 1 of the 747, the largest commercial airplane in the world, capable of carrying more than 400 passengers.

Boeing had gone into deep debt, using a workforce of 50,000 that called itself “the Incredibles” because of the arduous task, to build the aircraft in less than 16 months. The banks that Boeing borrowed from for the project were worried.

On that winter day there was cheering from the several hundred people at Paine Field — most of them Boeing staff and management — when the 747 landed after an hour and 15 minute test flight over the Olympic Peninsula.

It was on the front page the next day in The Seattle Times, with a story headline that quoted test pilot Jack Waddell, “It’s ‘beautiful.’ ”

The legend of the “Queen of the Sky” had begun.

Since then, Boeing has delivered 1,548 747s. The planes have transported an astounding 5.9 billion people, nearly 80 percent of the world’s population, Boeing says.

Boeing 747 makes its first flight, Feb. 9, 1969. (Vic Condiotty / The Seattle Times)

Pan Am was the first airline to fly the jet, and it

Article source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/50-years-ago-today-the-first-747-took-off-and-changed-aviation/

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A wing and a prayer: Oklahoma City church opens its doors to indoor flyers

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY — He unpacks his gear one Saturday a month in the biggest, emptiest room he can find.

“You glue the parts to the paper. together. You cut it out. You fly the airplane,” says Tom Solinski.

For the past few years, that room has been the Exchange Avenue Baptist Church gymnasium where Tom and a few friends play with the same toys they loved as kids.

“There was always some sort of model airplane in my house,” Solinski said.

Some church goers might call it a miracle, but to Solinski, a retired aerospace engineer, balsa wood, tissue paper, and rubber bands make for serious science.

A few hundred turns, the right wing angle, and his simple creations can stay in the air for a few minutes.

The lighter versions some members of the Okie Flyers put together can stay up much longer.

“There is a competition level of making these fly up to one hour, strictly on a stretched rubber band,” Solinski explains.

On a typical Saturday, taking turns with the other flyers, Solinski might get in a half-dozen flights, all carefully calibrated and calculated.

“There’s always that anticipation that something will go seriously wrong or smack a wall, or smack a ceiling,” he said.

The miracle of flight might be science but it still feels like a miracle at this church or any big building with a high ceiling.

“You set it free and it flies,” he says. “So that’s kind of a big emotional feedback to do that.”

These are the simplest of machines, but

Article source: https://kfor.com/2019/02/08/a-wing-and-a-prayer-an-okc-church-opens-its-doors-to-indoor-flyers/

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I Was a Teenage Element Hoarder

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Writer

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally posted in October 2011. It has been resurfaced to commemorate the periodic table’s 2019 sesquicentennial. It has been lightly edited.

I knew I wasn’t like the other kids. Oh sure, I collected baseball cards and model airplanes, but not with the passion that I saved for my real obsession—collecting each and every element of the periodic table.

This was just part of my chemical romance, which also involved (but was not limited to): watching phenolphthalein solution in test tubes change color; launching sodium bicarbonate–acetic acid (vinegar)–powered rockets; generating the sulfurous odor of rotten eggs; making a smoke bomb that accidentally detonated in the basement; and eventually graduating to electrolysis and various combustibles that fortunately resulted only in singed eyebrows—but no loss of digits or eyesight.

Outside of explosives, however, lay elements—the Holy Grail, a complete set of the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Decades ago there was no Web, Facebook or eBay, no portal to seek fellow travelers who also might be gratified by my, shall we say, curious diversion or to supply my needs. It was only recently, as a copy editor at Scientific American, that I found out there are others who pursue such a peculiar pastime as element collecting. Until we did the story about them, I had almost forgotten about what I then thought was my unique idiosyncrasy. But then I should have known: you name it, and someone collects it—in many instances, to unsettling degrees of obsessive thoroughness.

Article source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/i-was-a-teenage-element-hoarder1/

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