A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

Last year, I posed on this blog the question of the “Treadmill Problem”. That is, if a runway was turned into a giant treadmill that could exactly match the rotational speed of the wheels of an aircraft trying to takeoff, would the aircraft ever takeoff? Well, earlier this week the infamous MythBusters took on that very problem.

They first performed a small-scale test with a model airplane and a real treadmill. The result? The model airplane took off. They then performed a much larger scale test with a real ultralight aircraft on an actual runway. They used a huge roll of tarp material pulled in the opposite direction of the aircraft by a pickup truck. The result? The airplane took off with little effort. They explained the science behind it. In a car, forward motion is generated by friction between the tires and the road surface, so on a treadmill a car would remain still. However, in an aircraft, the actual forward thrust is provided by the propeller or jet engines, the wheels just allow the aircraft to easily roll. So, no matter how fast the treadmill moves under the wheels, the aircraft easily takes off. It makes sense.

Related: The Treadmill Problem | The Treadmill Problem Revisited

Michael Anderson - David Brown - Kalpana Chawla - Laurel Clark - Rick Husband - William McCool - Ilan Ramon

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.
- President George W. Bush, February 1, 2003

We will never forget you or your sacrifice.

Gregory Jarvis - Christa McAuliffe - Ronald McNair - Ellison Onizuka - Judith Resnik - Dick Scobee - Michael J. Smith

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
- President Ronald Reagan, January 28, 1986

We will never forget you or your sacrifice.

While 2007 brought devastating news with the loss of Steve Fossett, there were no major airline accidents or passenger fatalities in the United States. According to an article in USA Today, this is the first time since 1998 that that has happened. I think this is a wonderful testament to the training and professionalism of our flight and cabin crews. There may be events outside of your control that cause flights to be late or canceled, but the flying public can remain at ease knowing that they will arrive safely at their destination.

As the year 2007 draws to a close, I can’t help but reflect back on perhaps one of the saddest events of the year for me, the disappearance of Steve Fossett. At the outset of that ordeal, I had held out the hope that somehow, by the grace of God, he had only had a minor problem and would either walk back to the remote airstrip he took off from a couple days later, or be picked up by a rescue helicopter from the Nevada desert. Sadly, we now know that would not be the case. For whatever reason, Mr. Fossett lost his life out there and I can only hope that his remains will some day be recovered to both give closure to his family and to hopefully find out what happened.

Because of this, I feel so very fortunate that I was at the right place at the right time to witness his non-stop solo circumnavigation flight into history. While attending Kansas State University - Salina, the campus of which is directly adjacent to the Salina Municipal Airport, I was able to watch him takeoff from beside the runway, and was also there to watch his return three days later, and witness the festivities that followed. It is certainly an experience that I will treasure forever.

Godspeed Mr. Fossett, wherever you are.

There is more great news for Boeing this year, as they have earned a potential $1.2bn order from NASA to upgrade their Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) over the next 5+ years.

Initially valued at $695 million, with options increasing the deal to $1.2 billion, the contract calls for two spacecraft, with the first ready to launch in 2012. The second is expected to be ready for launch in 2013.

Boeing will design and manufacture the TDRS K series satellites as well as upgrade NASA’s TDRS system ground terminals located near Las Cruces, N.M., according to a release. The ground terminals are the primary two-way communications link between the TDRS satellites and the ground-based elements of the TDRS system communications network.

After pondering it for sometime, I’ve decided to add a “sideblog” over on the left-hand column as an experiment. The sideblog will have little snippets and links for things that don’t necessarily fit in with the primary focus of this blog as a whole, but that I want to blog about regardless. The look of the sideblog may change as I play with it, or it may go away completely if I decide I don’t really want it. We’ll see. :-)

I just wanted to send out Veteran’s Day good wishes and links to Jeff at A Multi-Engine Instructor’s Blog (turned Airline Pilot) and American Solider at Adventures in flying!. You gentlemen, and all others who have served and are serving, have my everlasting gratitude and respect. God Bless You.

On November 3, 1957, nearly one month after the successful launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union surprised the world again by launching the first animal into space. That animal, a small dog named Laika, paved the way for the eventuality of human spaceflight by showing that a living thing could be launched into space and survive. Unfortunately, she only survived a short while once in orbit - only a few hours, compared to the several days that the Soviet government originally reported. So today we remember and honor Laika, and all of the animals that have followed her, for their sacrifices - albeit unwittingly.

Today is the one year “blogiversary” of A Pilot’s Blog in its current form. So, I’ve decided to create a little round-up of five of my favorite posts (not that I post all that often) from the past year.

Happy 7-8-7 Day (July 7, 2007)

Project Constellation (June 10, 2007)

Lunar Eclipse (March 3, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem Revisited (January 5, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem (December 12, 2006)