This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 18-May-2015
Subject: Aerospace Game (Jeopardy-like Quiz)
Description: For May, Jeff wanted to try something a bit different, so he created a Jeopardy-like game show and got the squadron involved in playing. The game consisted of questions in four Aerospace-related categories: General Aviation History, Aerodynamics, Aviation Safety, and Aeromedical. Team 2 (the left side of the room) won by a substantial margin.
The game can be found at this URL to play, or this URL to edit (password required).
18 May 2015
27 April 2015
Presentation: April 2015
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 27-April-2015
Subject: The USS Macon - A Piece of Local History
Description: Jeff's presentation for the month of April was a documentary of sorts about the airship USS Macon - its history, its design and construction, its service, and ultimately its loss in 1935 off the shore of Northern California near Monterey. The fallout of this loss was the death knell for rigid airship designs considered by the US Navy. Also mentioned were expeditions undertaken in 1991 and 2006 to view, photograph, and recover artifacts from the wreckage, among which were the remains of parasitic biplanes that had been carried aboard the Macon.
Download a zipped PDF of this presentation (303 KB).
Date of presentation: 27-April-2015
Subject: The USS Macon - A Piece of Local History
Description: Jeff's presentation for the month of April was a documentary of sorts about the airship USS Macon - its history, its design and construction, its service, and ultimately its loss in 1935 off the shore of Northern California near Monterey. The fallout of this loss was the death knell for rigid airship designs considered by the US Navy. Also mentioned were expeditions undertaken in 1991 and 2006 to view, photograph, and recover artifacts from the wreckage, among which were the remains of parasitic biplanes that had been carried aboard the Macon.
Download a zipped PDF of this presentation (303 KB).
31 March 2015
No presentations: February, March 2015
Due to various time constraints and other issues within the squadron, no AE presentations were given in the months of February and March, 2015. Normal presentation schedule resumed in April.
26 January 2015
Presentation: January 2015
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 26-January-2015
Subject: Astrophysical Fitness
Description: January's presentation was an exploration of the effects of prolonged space travel on the human body. Some effects can be controlled - analgesics help with general body pain, exercise prevents muscle atrophy, sleep medications help with disrupted sleep cycles, etc. - but some are not so easily controlled at all, and very little research has been done with psychological effects - loneliness, isolation, etc. The presentation touched on an upcoming ISS mission in which astronaut Steve Kelly (brother of Mark Kelly, who was in the news recently when his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona congresswoman, was shot by a would-be assassin) will spend over a year traveling to and from the ISS plus time spent onboard the station. His physical and psychological effects will be closely monitored and studied.
Download a zipped PDF file of this presentation (83KB).
Date of presentation: 26-January-2015
Subject: Astrophysical Fitness
Description: January's presentation was an exploration of the effects of prolonged space travel on the human body. Some effects can be controlled - analgesics help with general body pain, exercise prevents muscle atrophy, sleep medications help with disrupted sleep cycles, etc. - but some are not so easily controlled at all, and very little research has been done with psychological effects - loneliness, isolation, etc. The presentation touched on an upcoming ISS mission in which astronaut Steve Kelly (brother of Mark Kelly, who was in the news recently when his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona congresswoman, was shot by a would-be assassin) will spend over a year traveling to and from the ISS plus time spent onboard the station. His physical and psychological effects will be closely monitored and studied.
Download a zipped PDF file of this presentation (83KB).
31 December 2014
No presentation: December 2014
Due to fewer meetings being scheduled in December and other scheduling difficulties, there was no AE presentation given in Squadron 80 for the month of December.
17 November 2014
Presentation: November 2014
This months's AE presenter: David Hartman
Date of presentation: 17-November-2014
Subject: the Rosetta Mission
Description: Provided a brief status of the Rosetta mission and Philae probe.
The Rosetta mission reached its goals of intercepting 67P and landing Philae probe on its surface. This was an 11 year mission, and included fly-bys of earth and Mars. The lander was successful in photographing the surface, but it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Lack of power from its solar cells eventually resulted in loss of contact with the lander. The AE presentation included details of he mission including efforts to recover the lander. Photos of the comet were displayed and discussed.
Date of presentation: 17-November-2014
Subject: the Rosetta Mission
Description: Provided a brief status of the Rosetta mission and Philae probe.
The Rosetta mission reached its goals of intercepting 67P and landing Philae probe on its surface. This was an 11 year mission, and included fly-bys of earth and Mars. The lander was successful in photographing the surface, but it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Lack of power from its solar cells eventually resulted in loss of contact with the lander. The AE presentation included details of he mission including efforts to recover the lander. Photos of the comet were displayed and discussed.
21 October 2014
Presentation: October 2014
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 20-October-2014
Subject: The Lockheed Vega - History Comes To Life
Description: Jeff's October 2014 presentation talked about the Lockheed Vega, a record-setting airplane from the 1920s and 1930s, its history, significant accomplishments, and the efforts made by one man to restore the last one still flying to its original condition.
Most of the information and images were taken from Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine, Oct/Nov 2014 issue, a corresponding article on their website, and the Wikipedia article on the Lockheed Vega.
Download a zip file containing both a PDF file of this presentation and the accompanying video that should (but doesn't) display as frame #2 in the presentation (1220 KB).
Date of presentation: 20-October-2014
Subject: The Lockheed Vega - History Comes To Life
Description: Jeff's October 2014 presentation talked about the Lockheed Vega, a record-setting airplane from the 1920s and 1930s, its history, significant accomplishments, and the efforts made by one man to restore the last one still flying to its original condition.
Most of the information and images were taken from Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine, Oct/Nov 2014 issue, a corresponding article on their website, and the Wikipedia article on the Lockheed Vega.
Download a zip file containing both a PDF file of this presentation and the accompanying video that should (but doesn't) display as frame #2 in the presentation (1220 KB).
14 October 2014
Reports: 2014 2nd Half AE Report and 2015 POA
Two PDFs were submitted to the group AEO on 14-Oct-2014, one containing the squadron's second half ("h2")
of 2014 AE report, and one containing the squadron's 2015 AE POA.
These had to be sent out in October rather than January in order to meet the new requirement to switch to the fiscal year rather than the calendar year for such things, and to submit these reports by 15 October. Therefore the h2 report only covers the period from July - September 2014 despite the "July to December" box being checked.
These had to be sent out in October rather than January in order to meet the new requirement to switch to the fiscal year rather than the calendar year for such things, and to submit these reports by 15 October. Therefore the h2 report only covers the period from July - September 2014 despite the "July to December" box being checked.
06 October 2014
Aerospace Minute by David
On 6 Oct, David gave an update on the Cessna/Textron Scorpion jet. The Scorpion is designed as a light attack and reconnaissance aircraft. The news is that Textron is actually flying prototypes at airshows. It was demonstrated at Farnborough Airshow last summer. Textron plans this as an export fighter, so focus is on demonstrating it in Europe.
15 September 2014
Presentation: September 2014
This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 15-September-2014
Subject: The B-58 Hustler
Description: the B-58 Hustler was important for several reasons. It was the first supersonic strategic bomber, capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2. It pushed the state of the art for aerospace engineering, with its first flight in October of 1959. Finally, it was an icon of the Cold War and nuclear deterrence. It was a delta winged aircraft and required a crew of three. A single thermonuclear bomb and extra fuel was carried externally in a weapons pod. The program was canceled in 1969 due to concerns over cost.
Date of presentation: 15-September-2014
Subject: The B-58 Hustler
Description: the B-58 Hustler was important for several reasons. It was the first supersonic strategic bomber, capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2. It pushed the state of the art for aerospace engineering, with its first flight in October of 1959. Finally, it was an icon of the Cold War and nuclear deterrence. It was a delta winged aircraft and required a crew of three. A single thermonuclear bomb and extra fuel was carried externally in a weapons pod. The program was canceled in 1969 due to concerns over cost.
14 September 2014
Aerospace Excellence Program
David contacted a Mr Williams, a science teacher at his son's school, to follow up on the Aerospace Excellence program. An email was sent containing information and links, and an offer to help him get started if he is interested in incorporating this into his science curriculum.
18 August 2014
Presentation: August 2014
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 18-August-2014
Subject: ESA - The Rosetta Mission
Description: Jeff gave his August presentation on the Rosetta Mission, a project launched in 2004 by the ESA (European Space Agency). Rosetta is a mission to rendezvous with, and enter orbit around, the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to perform observations of the comet's nucleus and coma.
An important milestone for this mission was met very recently on 6 August, when the Rosetta craft entered orbit around the comet. It is expected that the Philae lander will land on the comet's surface in November.
Most of the information and images were taken from the Rosetta Mission's page on the ESA website.
Download PDF file of this presentation (376 KB)
Date of presentation: 18-August-2014
Subject: ESA - The Rosetta Mission
Description: Jeff gave his August presentation on the Rosetta Mission, a project launched in 2004 by the ESA (European Space Agency). Rosetta is a mission to rendezvous with, and enter orbit around, the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to perform observations of the comet's nucleus and coma.
An important milestone for this mission was met very recently on 6 August, when the Rosetta craft entered orbit around the comet. It is expected that the Philae lander will land on the comet's surface in November.
Most of the information and images were taken from the Rosetta Mission's page on the ESA website.
Download PDF file of this presentation (376 KB)
14 July 2014
Presentation: July 2014
This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 14-July-2014
Subject: An Introduction to the Concorde
Description: David gave a presentation that covered the science behind Super Sonic Transports (SST), the international relationships that made the project possible, operations and scheduled flights, and the end of the program. The Concorde was designed with a narrow delta wing to provide better performance and control during transonic and supersonic flight. Britain and France partnered to share the program costs in the 1960's. The program was an international effort which promoted national pride, on the scale of the US space program. British Airways flew twice-daily flights between London and New York. Air France flew once-daily flights between Paris and New York. The final flight was 26-November-2003. The program was ended largely due to lack of financial viability.
16 June 2014
Presentation: June 2014
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 16-June-2014
Subject: The Great War Gallery
Description: Jeff put together a picture show of sorts illustrating the state of military aviation during "the Great War" (World War I). Since aviation in general was still in its infancy at the time, a wide range of wildly divergent aircraft was used, ranging from lighter-than-air craft used for observation and, well, spying (with a high mortality rate for the observers, given the wicker baskets and flaky parachutes) to huge biplane bombers that took 23 minutes to climb to 5,000'.
Most of the information and images were taken from an article in Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine about the book "The Great War: A Photographic Narrative" by Mark Holborn and Hilary Roberts (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 10/29/2013).
Download PDF file of this presentation (9.1 MB)
Date of presentation: 16-June-2014
Subject: The Great War Gallery
Description: Jeff put together a picture show of sorts illustrating the state of military aviation during "the Great War" (World War I). Since aviation in general was still in its infancy at the time, a wide range of wildly divergent aircraft was used, ranging from lighter-than-air craft used for observation and, well, spying (with a high mortality rate for the observers, given the wicker baskets and flaky parachutes) to huge biplane bombers that took 23 minutes to climb to 5,000'.
Most of the information and images were taken from an article in Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine about the book "The Great War: A Photographic Narrative" by Mark Holborn and Hilary Roberts (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 10/29/2013).
Download PDF file of this presentation (9.1 MB)
11 June 2014
Aerospace Minute by David
On 2 June, David talked about competition in the market of commercial satellite imagery. Digital Globe currently sells images with a resolution of 50 cm, or about 20 inches. Airbus is selling images with better resolution. They have petitioned for permission to sell images with better resolution and are launching a satellite in August capable of images with 31 cm , or 12 inch resolution. Another challenge for Digital Globe is Skybox. Skybox is a startup that plans to launch 24 low cost, low resolution satellites in low orbit, each satellite about the size of a dorm room refrigerator. Through the use of scale out compute clusters and technologies such as Hadoop Map-Reduce, they are able to create high resolution images by stacking multiple low resolution images. This is a similar technique to stacking photos for astro-photography. It is rumored that Google is eyeing skybox for purchase, we could soon have Google Satellites.
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