In brıef

“You never change something by fighting the existing reality.
  To change something, build a new model that makes
  the existing model obsolete.”
  ― R. Buckminster Fuller

The unchecked transfer of public wealth into the hands of wealthy families has persisted since this nation’s founding. It is based on the claim, that they alone are best qualified and trustworthy to manage our treasure because of a lie; they have achieved great wealth and power allegedly based on merit.

Behind on that pretense, their illusory mask of meritocracy, both commercial and governmental systems have cultivated and defended a class hierarchy based on ethnocentric, pseudo-scientific concepts of race, sex, gender, and social Darwinism.

We can no longer allow the sacrifice of our constitutionally defined “general welfare” through privatization for the exclusive enrichment of an illiberal, anti-democratic plutocracy and their monopoly on power through their political and corporate proxies.

LongSpéır Transport is my advocacy project for prefigurative social and technological innovation in transportation democratization. It is rooted in the premise that a deliberately rational, compassionate, and just society, we must guarantee equal access to mobility as essential in fulfilling its covenant between citizens — that the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness will not be a class privilege.

Our strategic mission is to demonstrate, via the scientific method, a practical means to repatriate and democratize, publicly fund, and manage a uniformly accessible system of transportation that, in most use cases, proves more effective than state-subsidized, mass-consumer-promoted personal vehicles.

Planes of the Future: The End of the Jet Age? | FD Engineering

The way we fly is about to change, driven by a new breed of aviators unafraid to challenge the status quo. From clean, green electric aircraft to autonomous sky taxis, these innovators are reshaping the future of aviation. As advancements in technology accelerate, the traditional jet age may soon give way to a new era of sustainable and efficient air travel. Could this shift signal the end of an era, or the beginning of a transformative leap in how we soar through the skies?

From the Westland-Hill Pterodactyl to the Northrop Flying Wing

DroneScapes
This article, updated and revised after having originally been published in Aeromilitaria, is understood to be one of the fullest accounts of these aircraft written so far and includes material accessed in the British National Archives, plus images that have never previously been published. Beginning with the lightweight Pterodactyl I of 1924, Geoffrey T. R. Hill took his concept forward through several stages to the test flying of a full-scale fighter prototype, the Pterodactyl V of 1934, and proposals were also made for a flying boat and other versions.

How BYD, Nio And Other Chinese EVs Compare To Tesla

Low-cost, high-tech Chinese EVs have stirred fears of a government subsidized existential threat to automakers around the world. So what do these vehicles have to offer? How do they compare to the Tesla Model Y, which in 2024 was the best-selling car in the world? CNBC’s Beijing bureau chief Eunice Yoon tested four of them from large and high-profile Chinese brands to see how they stack up, and how their rivals might compete.

LOFTID (Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator)

The Heat is On! NASA’s “Flawless” Heat Shield Demo Passes the Test
A little more than a year ago, a NASA flight test article came screaming back from space at more than 18,000 mph, reaching temperatures of nearly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. At that moment, it became the largest blunt body — a type of reentry vehicle that creates a heat-deflecting shockwave — ever to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) launched on Nov. 10, 2022, aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket and successfully demonstrated an inflatable heat shield. Also known as a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) aeroshell, this technology could allow larger spacecraft to safely descend through the atmospheres of celestial bodies like Mars, Venus, and even Saturn’s moon, Titan. (Full article)

PigeonBot Uses Real Feathers to Explore How Birds Fly

Evan Ackerman, Robotics Editor • IEEE Spectrum

“With the real feathers elastically connected to a pair of robotic bird wings with wrist and finger joints that can be actuated individually, PigeonBot relies on its biohybrid systems for maneuvering, while thrust and a bit of additional stabilizing control comes from a propeller and a conventional tail. The researchers found that PigeonBot’s roll could be controlled with just the movement of the finger joint on the wing, and that this technique is inherently much more stable than the aileron roll used by conventional aircraft.”
Link to full IEEE Spectrum article.
Link to YouTube video seminar on PigeonBot research presented by Laura Matloff, representing her collaborative team Eric Chang, Amanda Stowers, Teresa Feo, Lindsie Jeffries, Sage Manier at the Standford Bio-Inspired Research & Design (BIRD) Lab headed by Professor David Lentink.

The magniX powered Harbour Air eBeaver

AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association)
Harbour Air VP of Maintenance and Manufacturing Shawn Braiden discusses the eBeaver, a partnership between Harbour Air and magniX. They hope the eBeaver will be STC’d to be the first electric aircraft to carry passengers.

Inside the Wright “B” Flyer Look-alike

AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association)
A not-for-profit organization in Dayton, Ohio operates a Wright “B” Flyer look-alike called the “White Bird”. Listen in as chief pilot Richard Stepler talks about the airplane, and it’s similarities to the original design by Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Wright “B” Flyer, Inc.
A not-for-profit corporation that seeks to increase awareness of Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding region as the Birthplace of Aviation.

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