Model Airplanes

Since their invention more than 100 years ago, airplanes have been moved through the air by the spinning surfaces of propellers or turbines. But watching science fiction movies like the “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Back to the Future” series, I imagined that the propulsion systems of the future would be silent and still – maybe with some kind of blue glow and “whoosh” noise, but no moving parts, and no stream of pollution pouring out the back.

That doesn’t exist yet, but there is at least one physical principle that could be promising. About nine years ago, I started investigating using ionic winds – flows of charged particles through the air – as a means of powering flight. Building on decades of research and experimentation by academics and hobbyists, professionals and high school science students, my research group recently flew a nearly silent airplane without any moving parts.

The plane weighed about five pounds (2.45 kilograms) and had a wingspan of 15 feet (5 meters), and traveled about 180 feet (60 meters), so it’s a long way from efficiently carrying cargo or people long distances. But we have proved that it is possible to fly a heavier-than-air vehicle using ionic winds. It even has a glow you can see in the dark.

Revisiting discarded research

The process our plane uses, formally called electroaerodynamic propulsion, was investigated as far back as the 1920s by an eccentric scientist who thought he had discovered anti-gravity – which was

Article source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/mit-flies-model-airplane-powered-electric-fields-and-ionic-winds-180970877/

The Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 fighter plane is regarded by aviation history buffs as one of the fastest, most efficient killing machines of the Second World War.

Don Bradshaw has one in his Saskatoon home’s detached garage.

Bradshaw is building the plane all by himself for an American collector named Kermit Weeks. Weeks wants it in flying condition by the time it’s done in a few years, Bradshaw said.

“It’s not something I could ever fly because it would end badly. It’s a very high-performance airplane. It would be like driving an Indy car to work,” he said.

Flying it isn’t the point for Bradshaw. For him, the fun is the thrill of chasing down parts.

“In a way it’s a little like being a treasure hunter,” he said. “It’s kinda like the ultimate challenge.”

Some of the parts had been abandoned in German fields, where farmers would later pick them up and repurpose them for farm use. Other parts are being sold online by descendants of people who hung onto the parts for decades and whose original use have long been forgotten.

Bradshaw has found German Ebay-style sites and a core group of parts collectors from around the world to be the best sources.

It’s fascinating for Bradshaw, a history buff who can easily spout off the plane’s specifications, or anecdotes about how it hit -35 C in the cramped airplane cabin, so pilots had to wear heated suits.

Each part of the plane has a story, and there are thousands of pieces. Some are as small as nuts

Article source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-wwii-plane-aircraft-rebuild-1.4932497

Battlefield 5 has a brand-new update that brings the first chapter of Tides of War to Xbox One, PS4 and PC. There’s a lot to cover in 10GB of data, so let’s get right to the very extensive patch notes courtesy of an official PDF from DICE.

Battlefield 5 Update 1.04 Patch Notes

Tides of War

The Overture DLC is ‘Battlefield 5’s first big DLC drop since launch. DICE/EA

• New War Story: The Last Tiger.
• New map: Panzerstorm: A tank-focused map set in the Belgian countryside at the start of the war.
• Practice Range: Use all unlocked vehicles and weapons to see which ones you like.

Top Issue Fixes Changes

• Fixed a bug where weapons would stay locked even if the player had reached the required level to obtain them
• Improvements for the issue involving infinite loading screens. Should be drastically reduced with this update.
• Fixed an issue where vehicle passenger gunner turret animations would not align with where the player was aiming.
•  Player s no longer get into a soft hang when viewing assignments in – game.
• Made tweaks to the Conquest Soft Catch – up mechanics. The catch – up will now only be activated when the losing team is very far behind instead of rounds that are fairlyclose. We think that this will make matches more fair in general, while at the sametime making the matches a bit more exciting if

  Article source: https://www.newsweek.com/battlefield-5-update-104-overture-dlc-practice-range-patch-notes-1245036

The Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 fighter plane is regarded by aviation history buffs as one of the fastest, most efficient killing machines of the Second World War.

Don Bradshaw has one in his Saskatoon home’s detached garage.

Bradshaw is building the plane all by himself for an American collector named Kermit Weeks. Weeks wants it in flying condition by the time it’s done in a few years, Bradshaw said.

“It’s not something I could ever fly because it would end badly. It’s a very high-performance airplane. It would be like driving an Indy car to work,” he said.

Flying it isn’t the point for Bradshaw. For him, the fun is the thrill of chasing down parts.

“In a way it’s a little like being a treasure hunter,” he said. “It’s kinda like the ultimate challenge.”

Some of the parts had been abandoned in German fields, where farmers would later pick them up and repurpose them for farm use. Other parts are being sold online by descendants of people who hung onto the parts for decades and whose original use have long been forgotten.

Bradshaw has found German Ebay-style sites and a core group of parts collectors from around the world to be the best sources.

It’s fascinating for Bradshaw, a history buff who can easily spout off the plane’s specifications, or anecdotes about how it hit -35 C in the cramped airplane cabin, so pilots had to wear heated suits.

Each part of the plane has a story, and there are thousands of pieces. Some are as small as nuts

Article source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-wwii-plane-aircraft-rebuild-1.4932497