These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
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| 38
 This
Prop-Rod
car was one of the earliest models produced by L.M. Cox Manufacturing. For many
years the models went by the trade name of Thimble Drome, but later were know simply
as Cox models. It was featured in magazine advertisements as early as 1961 when
it appeared in American Modeler. The Prop-Rod came it a Babe Bee .049 engine that
had an inverted cylinder. It was designed to run either on a tether stretched along
a sidewalk, on a tether mounted in the center of a circle (see video below), or
it could just run free. These couple photos were captured from an eBay auction a
while back. The Prop-Rod was a little over 12 inches long and 6 inches wide ...
 "In the high desert of California, where some
of the most important aircraft in aviation history have been built and flown, the
next airplane destined to make history continues to take shape on a legendary factory
floor. That airplane is
NASA's X-59 QueSST (Quiet Supersonic Technology), an experimental
piloted aircraft designed to fly faster than sound without producing sonic booms.
The factory is better known as the Skunk Works, a renowned Lockheed Martin division
that for the past 76 years has used an out-of-the-box approach to design and manufacturing
that has produced some of the nation's most advanced airplanes. Now that legacy ..."
 On May 8, 1945, with the capitulation of
Germany, Italy, and local Axis forces, World War II ended in the European Theater.
Then, on September 2, 1945, with the surrendering of Japan, World War II ended
in the Pacific Theater and in its entirety. A mere five years later, on June 25,
1950, The U.S. entered into the
Korean War (Conflict). China and Russia, both of which were
allied with us during World War II - and both of which we saved from Japanese
and German, respectively, conquering - backed North Korea in its attempt to take
South Korea by force. There's appreciation for you. During that half-decade
interval, military aircraft had undergone an extreme evolution from propellers
and piston engines to turbines and jet engines. The U.S. Air Force underwent a
major reduction in force shortly after the end of WWII ...
 Leroy M. Cox built his glow fuel powered
model empire by being not only an innovator and skilled craftsman, but also by possessing
marketing savvy. This advertisement from a 1961 issue of American Modeler
magazine is a prime example. Here,
Cox encourages modelers to spend the money they might have
received for Christmas from friends and relatives to buy some the many alluring
models the company has to offer. I know that as a kid, I drooled over every Cox
airplane, helicopter, boat, and car seen in magazines or in a store. A lot of
the more models like the Prop Rod air-powered car, the Super Sabre F-100 jet,
the Water Wizard air-powered hydroplane, and the original Super Cub 105 sell for
high prices on eBay, especially if they are in new or excellent condition and
come with the original boxes and accessories. These predated my flying days by
about six or seven years. It would be nice to have a couple of them ...
 The FAA just sent out a notice of updating
to its Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system. It is the cellphone-based system that provides
drone pilots with access to controlled airspace at or below 400 feet and awareness
of where pilots can and cannot fly (among other things). "The FAA UAS Data Exchange
is an innovative, collaborative approach between government and private industry
facilitating the sharing of airspace data between the two parties. Under the FAA
UAS Data Exchange umbrella, the agency will support multiple partnerships, the first
of which is LAANC."
 When is the last time you saw an advertisement
for
Harley-Davidson motorcycles in a model airplane magazine? This
ad appeared in a 1951 issue of Air Trails. Harley Davidson was established way back
in 1903, so even in 1951 it was nearly half a century old. Early models looked like
- and essentially were - bicycles with beefed up frames and an engine nestled between
the rider's lower legs. Interestingly, the Wikipedia article notes that Harley-Davidson
and Indian were the only two major motorcycle manufacturers who survived the Great
Depression that began in 1929. Equally interesting - for those who remember the
TV show "Happy Days" - is that quintessential 1950s biker figure Fonzi rode a
British-made Triumph motorcycle, not one of the American brands ...
 "Astronomers are elated with the first X-ray
images from a German telescope on Russia's Spektr-RG astronomy mission, demonstrating
the instrument's ability to observe galaxies near and far as scientists seek answers
to questions about dark energy. German officials released the 'first light' images
from the
eROSITA instrument Tuesday. The German-built instrument is the
primary payload on the Russian Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy observatory, which launched
in July on a Proton rocket and headed for an observing post nearly a million miles
from Earth. 'These first images from our telescope show the true beauty of the hidden
universe ..."
 "New measurements [of the
Hubble Constant] of the rate of expansion of the universe add
to a growing mystery: Estimates of a fundamental constant made with different methods
keep giving different results. New measurements of the rate of expansion of the
universe, led by astronomers at the University of California, Davis, add to a growing
mystery: Estimates of a fundamental constant made with different methods keep giving
different results. 'There's a lot of excitement, a lot of mystification and from
my point of view it's a lot of fun,' said Chris Fassnacht, professor of physics
at UC Davis and a member of the international SHARP/H0LICOW collaboration, which
made the measurement using the W.M. Keck telescopes in Hawaii ..."
 Here is Melanie with my vintage, circa 1967
Sears "Discoverer" Model 4 6305A 60 mm Equatorial
Refractor Telescope (focal length 900 mm, f15 optics). Purchased
on eBay for a very reasonable price, it was in excellent condition optically and
physically. There are a few minor paint scratches that I plan to repair. After disassembling
all the mechanical parts, cleaning, greasing, and reassembling them, operation is
very smooth. The sun projection screen will come in handy for the April 2024 total
solar eclipse, and incredibly enough my house in Erie, Pennsylvania sits almost
dead center in the path of totality. The shipping / carrying case came with the
telescope. It is constructed with a mahogany plywood top and bottom surface and
with solid mahogany frame pieces. All the hardware was removed and either polished
or painted. The wood was sanded just enough to get it smooth and remove a couple
very minor scratches. I was careful to not erase any of the original already faded
ink stamping on the inside bottom; it has "JAS," with the rest being Japanese. Then,
three coats of semigloss polyurethane ...
 "The composite structure of Sierra Nevada
Corp.'s first space-rated
Dream Chaser space plane has arrived at the company's Colorado
factory for integration with computers, a heat shield and mechanical systems before
launch to the International Space Station in late 2021. The spaceship has been more
than 15 years in the making for Sierra Nevada - also known as SNC - a family-owned,
privately-held company based in Nevada with a space unit headquartered in Louisville,
Colorado, near Denver. Originally conceived as a human-rated vehicle to ferry astronauts
to and from low Earth orbit, the Dream Chaser is now under development under contract
to NASA as a cargo freighter for the space station. Sierra Nevada is contracted
to fly ..."
 "As the Collings Foundation's
crippled B−17, N93012, was approaching Runway 6 at Bradley
Windsor Locks, Connecticut, a few weeks ago, the crew was already desperately pressed
for altitude to try and align the World War II bomber with the runway for landing.
Shortly after takeoff from Runway 6 just minutes before, the airplane never climbed
above 500 feet AGL before it began a return to the field with a mechanical problem
reported in the number four engine. By the time the airplane was on downwind, its
altitude had dropped to 300 feet. During the turn from base to final, the Boeing
continued losing altitude, eventually striking the airport approach lights 1,000
feet short of the hard surface ..."
 This is my annual
Veterans
Day tribute. On November 11 (the 11th day of the 11th month), at 11:00 am (the
11th hour), we observe 2 minutes of silence in honor of countrymen who "gave the last full measure of devotion." A Pittance of Time
is performed by Canadian citizen Terry Kelly
(he went blind at an early age). It was written after
an experience he had on Veterans Day in 1999. It is done in the finest Celtic tradition.
 Mercury will pass across the face of the
sun. The astronomical term is "transit." What makes this
transit of Mercury so spectacular is that it passes nearly in
the center of the sun. It will take Mercury approximately 5-1/2 hours to move from
the eastern edge to the western edge, from 7:35 am to 1:04 pm EST. Both
the sun and the moon subtend an angular width of about half a degree. Of course
will should never look directly at the sun with your naked eyes, and particularly
not with any sort of magnification, be it binoculars or a telescope. The safest
way to observe this Mercury transit it by using a white projection screen with any
telescope generate an image large enough to make the black dot of Mercury stand
out relative to the sun. Weather permitting, I'll have my 1969 era 60 mm
Sears Model 6305A refractor set up. The next transit of Mercury
will be in 2032!
 An ability to trim a model aircraft for proper flight with no supplementary
control surface input has, since the advent of precise, reliable radio control (R/C),
been the domain mostly of the relatively small number of free flight (F/F) and competition
fliers of control line (C/L) and R/C. Most models can be made to fly very well when
a human or electronic pilot is able to make corrective deflections of control surfaces.
Warped and twisted wings, misaligned tail surfaces, and even a dangerously mislocated
center of gravity can have their otherwise detrimental - even dangerous -
effects mitigated by a skillful flyer. Authors have written that a properly
trimmed model of any sort will fly more precisely and successfully ...
 "The UK government is requiring drone operators
to register their aerial vehicles. In a press release, the UK Civil Aviation Authority
announced that in conjunction with the mandatory registration it is launching a
new service to help drone owners find their lost drones. Under the scheme, all drone
owners and operators in the UK that have droves that weigh more than 250g have to
register them. Registration costs £9 which the UK government argues is a lot cheaper
than replacing a lost drone. UK drone owners have
until 30 November to register or they can face a fine of as much
as $1290, according to one report ..."
 The February 1942 issue of Flying Aces magazine
contained a quadruplet of 3-view scale drawings of early airplanes: The German Fokker
D.V Albatros fighter biplane, the American Army Air Force's
Douglas O-31A observation monoplane, the Ryan Navy Seaplane, and
Russian I-16 Mosca fighter low wing monoplane. Per Wikipedia, "The Douglas O-31
was the Douglas Aircraft Company's first monoplane observation straight-wing
aircraft used by the United States Army Air Corps. Anxious to retain its
position as chief supplier of observation aircraft to the USAAC, Douglas
developed a proposal for a high-wing monoplane successor to the O-2. A contract
was signed on January 7, 1930 for two XO-31 prototype aircraft ...
 Jet airplanes were still somewhat of a novelty
with actual flying models when this article about a free flight North American
XB−70 Valkyrie appeared in a 1961 issue of American Modeler
magazine. This rather large - 21" wingspan and 45" long at 15 ounces - craft is
built of 3/32" and 1/4" balsa sheet and is powered by a Cox .049 engine in a
pusher configuration. That's not a lot of power for such a large ship, but it
must have been. The plans are easily scaled up or down with pencil and paper
thanks to a 1" square grid provided. Today, the B−70 could probably be built
lighter and be powered by an electric propulsion setup ...
 The February 1942 issue of Flying Aces
magazine contained a triplet of 3-view scale drawings of early airplanes: The German Fokker D.V Albatros fighter biplane, the American Army Air Force's
Douglas O-31A observation monoplane, and Russian I-16 Mosca fighter low wing monoplane.
Per Wikipedia, "The Albatros D.V was a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke
and used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War
I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatros
fighter to see operational service. Despite its well-known shortcomings and general
obsolescence, approximately 900 D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production
halted in April 1918." Here is an official outline drawing of the Albatros ...
 "Nine years after the end of World War II,
Keith Brunquist's father, Norm, took him out to an airstrip near their Anchorage,
Alaska home and showed Keith, who was nearly three years old, a
Boeing YL-15 Scout. Sixty-three years after his first glimpse
of the odd little airplane, Keith landed the fully restored Scout at the world's
biggest gathering of aircraft: the Experimental Aircraft Association's 2017 AirVenture
in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. By the time the show was over, the YL-15 was recognized as
the grand champion for post-World War II warbirds. In addition, Keith's workmanship
in restoring the Scout earned him a Gold Wrench award ..."
NASA Opens Competition to Build Human-Rated
Lunar Landers
 "Companies have until November 1 to
submit proposals to NASA for a
human-rated lander that could be ready in time to carry astronauts
to the moon's surface by the end of 2024, and the agency is leaving open the option
for contractors to develop a descent craft that would bypass the planned Gateway
mini-space station in lunar orbit, at least for the first landing attempt. The lunar
lander, or Human Landing System, is critical to the Trump administration's goal
of returning humans to the moon's surface by the end of 2024. NASA named effort
after Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, after Vice President
Mike Pence announced the 2024 goal ..."
 The
Berliner-Joyce OJ−2 was a multi-purpose biplane built for naval
service. Its maiden flight was in 1931. As this American Aircraft Modeler
magazine article photos show, it could be configured with wheels or floats.
Berliner-Joyce Aircraft Corporation had is main offices in Baltimore, Maryland,
which was a popular location for defense contractors then and now. The Glen L.
Martin Company, manufacturer of the famous Martin B−10 Bomber, was also in
Baltimore. The OJ-2 was in heavy competition with the Vought O2U Corsair, which,
unlike its eventual and much more famous successor gull-wing, all-metal
F4U Corsair, was a fabric-covered biplane. Someone at Vaught must have really
been stuck on using the Corsair name ...
 "China's big 70th anniversary parade marking
the founding of the PRC has come and gone. There were a number of revelations, some
of which we are still analyzing, but the biggest ones were in the unmanned space.
In the days leading up to the parade, we had covered both of the most impressive
unmanned vehicles that were to be displayed. It's time to follow
up with our analysis now that we have seen them in far greater detail. We posted
our analysis on the GJ-11 Sharp Sword UCAV earlier today, now here are my takeaways
from the official unveiling of the WZ-8 - also referred to as the DR-8 - high-speed
reconnaissance drone. Before we get started, it's important to note that the two
WZ-8s ..."
 "A
radically new kind of airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of
tiny identical pieces, can change shape to control the plane's flight, and could
provide a significant boost in aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency.
The new approach to wing construction could afford greater flexibility in the design
and manufacturing of future aircraft. Instead of requiring separate movable surfaces,
such as ailerons, to control the roll and pitch of the plane as conventional wings
do, the new assembly system makes it possible to deform the whole wing or parts
of it by incorporating a mix of stiff and flexible components in its structure.
The tiny subassemblies ..."
 "Oxford University and Surrey Space Centre
and Surrey Satellite Technology embark on a joint project to develop space telescopes
that are more compact for launching. The design of all space hardware tries to minimise
two factors: launch weight and launch volume. But for space telescopes,
minimising launch volume is particularly tricky, because the physics
underlining the operation of telescopes depends on their size - the area of the
primary mirror has to be maximised to collect the largest amount of light possible,
and the space between primary mirror and secondary mirror is fixed by the size of
the primary. With the Earth observation market growing, and already at the multibillion
dollar level ..."
 "Transportation produces about one-fourth
of global anthropogenic carbon emissions. Of this, maritime shipping accounts for
3%, and this figure is expected to increase for the next three decades even though
the shipping industry is actively seeking greener alternatives, and developing near-zero-emission
vessels. Researchers with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA), in Austria, recently explored another potential solution: the return of
airships to the skies.
Airships rely on jet stream winds to propel them forward to their
destinations. They offer clear advantages over cargo ships in terms of both efficiency
and avoided emissions. Returning to airships, says Julian Hunt, a researcher at
the IIASA and lead author ..."
 Bill (William) Winter served as the editor
of the Academy of Model Aeronautics' (AMA's) American Modeler and American
Aircraft Modeler magazines from 1966 through 1974, but his efforts to promote
all form of modeling - airplanes, helicopters, cars, boats, trains, and rockets
- covered many decades. His first recorded article, "Building the Famous Udet Flamingo,"
(co-authored by Walter McBride), was published in the March 1935 issue of Universal
Model Airplane News magazine. His 264th, "The Soft Touch," appeared in
Model Aviation (the latest incarnation of the AMA's flagship magazine) in 1996.
This article entitle "The Boom
in R/C Boats" appeared in a 1955 edition of Popular Electronics magazine
which, during the early ...
 "To take off from the water, this drone uses
an
explosion-powered water jet. At ICRA 2015, the Aerial Robotics
Lab at the Imperial College London presented a concept for a multimodal flying swimming
robot called AquaMAV. The really difficult thing about a flying and swimming robot
isn't so much the transition from the first to the second, since you can manage
that even if your robot is completely dead (thanks to gravity), but rather the other
way: going from water to air, ideally in a stable and repetitive way. The AquaMAV
concept solved this by basically just applying as much concentrated power as possible
to the problem, using a jet thruster to hurl the robot out of the water with quite
a bit of velocit ..."
 "The
Falcon 9 booster assigned to launch two NASA astronauts on an
orbital test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule has been test-fired in Texas,
but the schedule for the long-awaited mission remains unclear. SpaceX announced
the static fire test of the Falcon 9's first stage in a tweet August 29. The launch
vehicle's nine Merlin 1D first stage engines ignited on a test stand at SpaceX's
test site in McGregor, Texas, for a hold-down firing before the booster is shipped
to Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations. The 15-story booster produces some
1.7 million pounds of thrust from its nine Merlin engines, which consume super-chilled ..."
 Flying Aces magazine, which was
published in the middle of the last century, had for a while a monthly featured
entitled, "Down Memory's Runway," where vintage (at the time) aircraft were
featured in pictures and captions. Of course those same airplanes are practically
prehistoric today. By 1942 when this column was published, biplanes had been replace
by monoplanes as the standard commercial and military design. A 14-passenger Boeing
80-A passenger biplane is included, along with the statement that it is believed
to be the only tri-motored biplane built in the U.S. Of course there was the famous
Ford Trimotor, but it was a monoplane. Also included is a photo of Claude Ryan with
his company's first M-1 monoplane. The swirled finish ...
 Oh, for the days when American big airplane
manufacturers rightfully claimed air superiority. Boeing, of course, was arguably
the leader of the pack, although Douglas and McDonnell ran close at Boeing's heels.
The unfortunate incidences of the 737 MAX Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation
System (MCAS) software issue has delivered a huge black eye to Boeing at a time
when they are desperately trying to compete with Airbus in the commercial airline
transport market. Boeing enthusiasts who used to recite the "If it's not Boeing,
I'm not going," mantra have been forced to reconsider their brand loyalty. This
brief inset piece in a 1941 pre-war issue of Air Trails magazine extolled
the virtues of
Boeing's 314 Clipper amphibious airplane that facilitated Pan
American Airway's (PAA) domination of transoceanic passenger and cargo operations.
Similar to the manner in which the U..S. Navy used to sponsor ...
 "Germany's
Volocopter air taxi has flown a test flight at Helsinki International
Airport while integrated with both traditional and unmanned air traffic management
(ATM) systems. Managing the skies in urban environments is a pressing concern as
drone and air taxi technology rapidly advances. Developing safe systems to allow
unmanned vehicles to operate alongside piloted planes has become a priority for
countries and regions hoping to embrace this new wave of aerial innovation. The
latest Volocopter flight, which took place on 29 August, is part of the Single European
Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Programme, which aims to create a single coordinated airspace
for commercial, general and drone aviation ..."
 This advertisement for the
Aluminum Casalaire control line (C/L) model airplane appeared
in the November 1946 issue of Air Trails magazine. The Casalaire was designed and
marketed by Louis Casale of the AMA Nationals fame. Its fuselage is made of stamped
aluminum components that are held together with rivets which were set with a pair
of pliers - no air hammer or bucking bar required. Wings and empennage are built
from standard balsa and plywood parts. With a wingspan of 45" and a B- or C-size
engine, it is a fairly large model. For more background information and magazine
appearances of the Casalaire, look about half-way down this page on the Collect
Air website. Another advertisement for the Casalaire shown at Collect Air includes
a twin-cylinder Viking 65 engine that came with a 3-blade, variable-pitch propeller ...
 This is the Sunday, January 2, 1944, "Flyin' Jenny" comic strip. The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published
not far from where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried "Flyin' Jenny" from
the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved a couple dozen
from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December 7, 1941
- that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while
reading this comic at the breakfast table. I expect that soon there will be World
War II themes. "Flyin' Jenny," whose real name was Virginia Dare (what's in
a name?), was a test pilot for Starcraft Aviation Factory ...
 "The vice president did his best to sound
stirring. The podium, the flag, the ringing cadences - all were meant to convey
that this moment in the spring of 2019 was a significant one, a turning point in
the history of space exploration. 'It is the stated policy of this administration
and the United States of America to
return American astronauts to the moon within the next...five...years.'
Hardly had Mike Pence concluded his March 26 speech to the National Space Council
in Huntsville, Alabama, when the doubts and second-guessing began. Even at NASA
headquarters, where Administrator Jim Bridenstine took questions from his troops
at a televised town hall a few days later, the applause was tepid, and the questions
had mostly to do with money and political commitment ..."
 "The Job: Gritter's first job with Aurora
Flight Sciences was
building a small-scale model to prove the concept of the XV-24
Lightning Strike, winner of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency competition
for a super high-performance, short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. He also performs
aerobatic routines at airshows in full-scale airplanes. How did flying radio-controlled
airplanes prepare you for your job? Being around model airplanes exposed me to all
the technology - the components, the electronics. That was hugely beneficial in
school because the senior capstone ..."
 Here is a vintage Jetex-powered
Comet Lockheed F−94C Starfire kit that, prior to my receiving it, had
been started by the previous owner. It was designed and drawn by Gerald Blumenthal.
The copyright date printed on the plans is 1953. Many of the parts had been cut
out of the printwood balsa sheets, but none of the airframe has been assembled.
There were no laser-cut kits back in the era of this kit, when the die-cut balsa
sheets often were more appropriately referred to as "die-smashed" due to dull cutting
edges on the die. It was also not uncommon for the die-cut part to not exactly match
the outline of the printed pattern. Cutting out the parts with an X-Acto knife takes
more time, but at least for the small shapes and for accuracy that is the way to
go. I have not done a full inventory of the kit, but it appears most, if not all,
parts are present ...
 "'We first flew in dreams, but the dream
of flight has become real,' the narrator says. The image on the giant screen is
mesmerizing: Above massive volcanic islands reaching up from the ocean floats a
tiny triangular form. This is the first shot of the hang gliding scene from To Fly!,
the iconic IMAX film made for the opening of the Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum in 1976. It has been playing for more than 40 years, and for many, it's their
first encounter with
hang gliding. In the scene, pilot Bob Wills hangs below the wing,
shifting his body to exert control over the impossibly simple craft. He soars between
mountain peaks, then climbs, stalls, dives, and swoops high above the water. When
the film was made, hang gliding was emerging ..."
 This Russian Mosca I-16 fighter airplane
bears some resemblance the Bee Gee series of American racers. According to the Wikipedia
entry, "The Polikarpov I−16 (Russian: Поликарпов И-16) was a Soviet
single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's
first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to attain
operational status and as such 'introduced a new vogue in fighter design.' The I-16
was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force
at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter, nicknamed 'Ishak' or 'Ishachok'
('Donkey' or 'Burro') by Soviet pilots, figured prominently in the Second Sino-Japanese
War, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol and the Spanish Civil War - where it was called
the Rata ('Rat') or Mosca ('Fly')." Its maiden flight occurred ...
 "This September, at the National Championship
Air Races in Reno, Nevada, a couple dozen magnificently restored airplanes will
gather once again to be evaluated by judges and admired by fans. Those who attend
will be able to stroll among some pretty special aircraft, hear the owners and restorers
tell their stories, and watch the presentation of trophies by aviation heroes. They'll
also get the chance to vote for their favorite airplanes. By all means, get to Reno
if you can. But if you can't, we invite you to read the stories of these remarkable
airplanes and vote for the one that strikes a chord with you. Whichever one receives
the most votes will win the People's Choice trophy at Reno and be named 'Air &
Space Magazine
Airplane of the Year.' The winner ..."
 It is hard to imagine how pilots managed
to find their way through fog, rain, sleet, and snow prior to the advent of instruments
that could indicate whether the airplane was flying straight and level or spiraling
toward the ground. Some flyers were good enough in most situations to sense attitude
even without an outside-the-cockpit visual clue. However, it is entirely possible
to enter into a situation where your senses cannot possibly tell the difference
between normal flight and a life threatening scenario. Albert Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity tells us that without knowing otherwise, there is no discernable
difference between gravity and physical acceleration. Therefore, a pilot in solid
Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) conditions where he cannot see the
sky or ground could very well mistake ...
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