Adventures in Lighter-Than-Air Flight Preview
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Spinoff 2015 Cover
Air Revitalization System Enables Excursions to the Stratosphere NASA Technology Now there’s a new story in the works that builds on the nation’s history with high-flying n order to test a parachute system for surviving high-altitude bailouts, from balloons and space travel, and it involves 1959 to 1960 the US Air Force commenced Project Excelsior. It required allowing others the opportunity to see the I Captain Joseph Kittinger to complete a series of jumps from a gondola teth- world from a view that only a select few, such as ered to a helium balloon that had carried him into the stratosphere. On August Kittinger, have ever been allowed to see. 16, 1960, Kittinger completed his most audacious leap from a height of 102,800 The first chapter began as one of NASA’s feet—until recently the highest altitude reached by man in an unpowered aircraft. iconic missions, the Space Shuttle Program, was After achieving a freefall velocity of 714 miles per hour, he landed safely back on coming to an end. The agency had set its sights New Mexico soil. on new horizons, such as sending humans to Kittinger’s risky skydive proved useful for not only pilots but also NASA astro- Mars and designing other spacecraft to explore nauts. Besides the parachute, Kittinger also wore a pressurized suit to withstand the deeper reaches of the solar system. Instead being above what’s known as the Armstrong limit. At approximately 62,000 feet, of using the shuttle to get to the International or roughly 12 miles above Earth’s surface, atmospheric pressure drops so low that Space Station (ISS), astronauts would hitch water boils at temperatures as low as the human body’s. -
Durwood “Skip” Ringo to Receive the 2015 Cliff Henderson Trophy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stephanie Berry 703-416-4888 Ext 104 [email protected] Durwood “Skip” Ringo to Receive the 2015 Cliff Henderson Trophy Washington, DC, June 15, 2015 – The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) is proud to announce that Durwood “Skip” Ringo has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 Cliff Henderson Trophy. The Henderson Trophy, which is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, was established in 1960 to honor the creator and Managing Director of the world- renowned National Air Races from 1928-1939. His work stimulated a generation’s interest in aviation and challenged the state of the art in aviation development. The trophy is awarded to “…a living individual, group of individuals, or an organization whose vision, leadership or skill made a significant and lasting contribution to the promotion and advancement of aviation and aerospace in the United States.” Previous recipients include Colonel Joseph Kittinger, USAF (Ret.), Joe Lombardo, Marion Blakey, The United States Air Force Academy, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle, Senator Barry M. Goldwater, Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, and Scott Crossfield. Ringo received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Citadel in 1967 and also holds a Master of Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the College of Naval Warfare. Ringo has also completed the Kennedy School of Government’s Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at Harvard University. Commissioned in the U.S. -
Assessing the Evolution of the Airborne Generation of Thermal Lift in Aerostats 1783 to 1883
Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research Volume 13 Number 1 JAAER Fall 2003 Article 1 Fall 2003 Assessing the Evolution of the Airborne Generation of Thermal Lift in Aerostats 1783 to 1883 Thomas Forenz Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/jaaer Scholarly Commons Citation Forenz, T. (2003). Assessing the Evolution of the Airborne Generation of Thermal Lift in Aerostats 1783 to 1883. Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.15394/ jaaer.2003.1559 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Forenz: Assessing the Evolution of the Airborne Generation of Thermal Lif Thermal Lift ASSESSING THE EVOLUTION OF THE AIRBORNE GENERATION OF THERMAL LIFT IN AEROSTATS 1783 TO 1883 Thomas Forenz ABSTRACT Lift has been generated thermally in aerostats for 219 years making this the most enduring form of lift generation in lighter-than-air aviation. In the United States over 3000 thermally lifted aerostats, commonly referred to as hot air balloons, were built and flown by an estimated 12,000 licensed balloon pilots in the last decade. The evolution of controlling fire in hot air balloons during the first century of ballooning is the subject of this article. The purpose of this assessment is to separate the development of thermally lifted aerostats from the general history of aerostatics which includes all gas balloons such as hydrogen and helium lifted balloons as well as thermally lifted balloons. -
The Longest Leap
The Longest Leap Heroism is not limited orate technology and a team of ex- was suffering extreme pain in his to combat, but the valor perts in several fields, came close to right hand that was caused by par- being his last. In November 1959. he tial failure of pressure in that glove of only a few, like Joe bailed out of a balloon at 76.000 feet. during the ascent. Kittinger, is tested in the highest anyone had been in an After he had fallen for four min- both peace and war. open gondola. His small stabilizing utes and thirty-seven seconds. Kit- chute, which was to prevent a flat lingers main chute opened. and BY JOHN L. FRISBEE spin that could be fatal at rotation some eight minutes later he landed CONTRIBUTING EDITOR speeds of 150 to 200 rpm. malfunc- at the White Sands MissileRange in tioned and wrapped around his New Mexico with no permanent in- I N 1934, the Air Force abandoned, neck. He dropped unconscious to juries but with three world records: seemingly for all time, its lighter- 12,000 feet, where his main chute the highest open-gondola balloon than-air program that included both saved the day. Three weeks later, he ascent, the longest free-fall, and the balloons and airships. 'No decades jumped without incident from longest parachute descent. He was later, the tremendous advances that 74,000 feet. In September 1%0. also the first man logo supersonic in had been made in aviation technolo- President Eisenhower presented the a free-fall. -
{Download PDF} Come up and Get Me: an Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger Ebook
COME UP AND GET ME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COLONEL JOE KITTINGER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Joe W. Kittinger,Craig Ryan,Neil Armstrong | 272 pages | 16 Apr 2011 | University of New Mexico Press | 9780826348043 | English | Albuquerque, NM, United States Joseph Kittinger - Wikipedia If you're in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It's the same thing if you're free falling from space. There are no signposts. You know you are going very fast, but you don't feel it. You don't have a mph wind blowing on you. I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet. Kittinger set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest-duration drogue-fall four minutes , and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. His records for highest parachute jump and fastest velocity stood for 52 years, until they were broken in by Felix Baumgartner. Kittinger appeared as himself on the January 7, episode of the game show To Tell the Truth. He received two votes. He and the astronomer William C. In , after returning to the operational air force, Kittinger was approached by civilian amateur parachutist Nick Piantanida for assistance on Piantanida's Strato Jump project, an effort to break the previous freefall records of both Kittinger and Soviet Air Force officer Yevgeni Andreyev. Kittinger refused to participate in the effort, believing Piantanida's approach to the project was too reckless. Kittinger later served three combat tours of duty during the Vietnam War , flying a total of combat missions. -
Airships Over Lincolnshire
Airships over Lincolnshire AIRSHIPS Over Lincolnshire explore • discover • experience explore Cranwell Aviation Heritage Museum 2 Airships over Lincolnshire INTRODUCTION This file contains material and images which are intended to complement the displays and presentations in Cranwell Aviation Heritage Museum’s exhibition areas. This file looks at the history of military and civilian balloons and airships, in Lincolnshire and elsewhere, and how those balloons developed from a smoke filled bag to the high-tech hybrid airship of today. This file could not have been created without the help and guidance of a number of organisations and subject matter experts. Three individuals undoubtedly deserve special mention: Mr Mike Credland and Mr Mike Hodgson who have both contributed information and images for you, the visitor to enjoy. Last, but certainly not least, is Mr Brian J. Turpin whose enduring support has added flesh to what were the bare bones of the story we are endeavouring to tell. These gentlemen and all those who have assisted with ‘Airships over Lincolnshire’ have the grateful thanks of the staff and volunteers of Cranwell Aviation Heritage Museum. Airships over Lincolnshire 3 CONTENTS Early History of Ballooning 4 Balloons – Early Military Usage 6 Airship Types 7 Cranwell’s Lighter than Air section 8 Cranwell’s Airships 11 Balloons and Airships at Cranwell 16 Airship Pioneer – CM Waterlow 27 Airship Crews 30 Attack from the Air 32 Zeppelin Raids on Lincolnshire 34 The Zeppelin Raid on Cleethorpes 35 Airships during the inter-war years -
Paul E. (Ed) Yost Ed Yost Inducted Into the U
Paul E. (Ed) Yost Ed Yost Inducted into The U. S. Ballooning Hall of Fame Sunday August 1, 2004 At The National Balloon Museum Indianola, Iowa Ed preparing to launch the Silver Fox in his 1976 attempt to cross the Atlantic © National Geographic Society First flight of the modern hot -air Ed in the 1950’s balloon October 22, 1960 Ed spoke about his An Open House Honoring experience in developing PAUL E. (ED) YOST the modern hot-air balloon FATHER OF THE and his ballooning adven- MODERN HOT-AIR BALLOON tures. Ed at Stratobowl in 2003 ABOUT PAUL E. (ED) YOST Paul Edward Yost was born in Bristow, lowa, about 130 miles from Indianola in 1919. In 1934, when he was 15 years old, Ed and his father set out to .watch the first Explorer flight from the Stratobowl in Rapid City, South Dakota. He has been interested in balloons a long time. Yost was employed by the US Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945; he flew airplanes in Alaska from 1946 to 1948. Ed Yost is best known as the inventor of the modern hot-air balloon, however in his long and fruitful life he has done many things using and creating balloons. In 1949 Yost started work as Senior Engineer and Tracking Pilot for the High Altitude Research Division of General Mills in Minneapolis, where he worked on many scientific high altitude balloon projects. In 1952 they sent a 3.2 million cubic foot balloon, carrying US Navy instruments, into the stratosphere to study cosmic rays, as part of a scientific project that spanned many years. -
Don Piccard 50 Years & BM
July 1997 $3.50 BALLOON LIFE EDITOR MAGAZINE 50 Years 1997 marks the 50th anniversary for a number of important dates in aviation history Volume 12, Number 7 including the formation of the U.S. Air Force. The most widely known of the 1947 July 1997 Editor-In-Chief “firsts” is Chuck Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier in an experimental jet—the X-1. Publisher Today two other famous firsts are celebrated on television by the “X-Files.” In early Tom Hamilton July near the small southwestern New Mexico town of Roswell the first aliens from outer Contributing Editors space were reported to have been taken into custody when their “flying saucer” crashed Ron Behrmann, George Denniston, and burned. Mike Rose, Peter Stekel The other surreal first had taken place two weeks earlier. Kenneth Arnold observed Columnists a strange sight while flying a search and rescue mission near Mt. Rainier in Washington Christine Kalakuka, Bill Murtorff, Don Piccard state. After he landed in Pendelton, Oregon he told reporters that he had seen a group of Staff Photographer flying objects. He described the ships as being “pie shaped” with “half domes” coming Ron Behrmann out the tops. Arnold coined the term “flying saucers.” Contributors For the last fifty years unidentified flying objects have dominated unexplainable Allen Amsbaugh, Roger Bansemer, sighting in the sky. Even sonic booms from jet aircraft can still generate phone calls to Jan Frjdman, Graham Hannah, local emergency assistance numbers. Glen Moyer, Bill Randol, Polly Anna Randol, Rob Schantz, Today, debate about visitors from another galaxy captures the headlines. -
FLIGHTS of FANCY the Air, the Peaceful Silence, and the Grandeur of the Aspect
The pleasure is in the birdlike leap into FLIGHTS OF FANCY the air, the peaceful silence, and the grandeur of the aspect. The terror lurks above and below. An uncontrolled as- A history of ballooning cent means frostbite, asphyxia, and death in the deep purple of the strato- By Steven Shapin sphere; an uncontrolled return shatters bones and ruptures organs. We’ve always aspired to up-ness: up Discussed in this essay: is virtuous, good, ennobling. Spirits are lifted; hopes are raised; imagination Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air, by Richard Holmes. Pantheon. 416 pages. soars; ideas get off the ground; the sky’s $35. pantheonbooks.com. the limit (unless you reach for the stars). To excel is to rise above others. Levity ome years ago, when I lived in as photo op, as advertisement, as inti- is, after all, opposed to gravity, and you SCalifornia, a colleague—a distin- mate romantic gesture. But that’s not don’t want your hopes dashed, your guished silver-haired English how it all started: in its late-eighteenth- dreams deated, or your imagination historian—got a surprise birthday pres- century beginnings, ballooning was a brought down to earth. ent from his wife: a sunset hot-air- Romantic gesture on the grandest of In 1783, the French inventor and balloon trip. “It sets the perfect stage for scales, and it takes one of the great his- scientist Jacques Alexandre Charles your romantic escapade,” the balloon torians and biographers of the Romantic wrote of the ballooning experience as company’s advertising copy reads, rec- era to retrieve what it once signied. -
Article the Spectacle of Science Aloft
SISSA – International School for Advanced Studies Journal of Science Communication ISSN 1824 – 2049 http://jcom.sissa.it/ Article The spectacle of science aloft Cristina Olivotto Since the first pioneering balloon flight undertaken in France in 1783, aerial ascents became an ordinary show for the citizens of the great European cities until the end of the XIX century. Scientists welcomed balloons as an extraordinary device to explore the aerial ocean and find answers to their questions. At the same time, due to the theatricality of ballooning, sky became a unique stage where science could make an exhibition of itself. Namely, ballooning was not only a scientific device, but a way to communicate science as well. Starting from studies concerning the public facet of aerial ascents and from the reports of the aeronauts themselves, this essay explores the importance of balloon flights in growing the public sphere of science. Also, the reasons that led scientists to exploit “the show of science aloft” (earning funds, public support, dissemination of scientific culture…) will be presented and discussed. Introduction After the first aerial ascent in 1783, several scientists believed that ballooning could become an irreplaceable device to explore the upper atmosphere: the whole XIX century “gave birth to countless endeavours to render the balloon as navigable in air as the ship at sea”.1 From an analysis of the aerial ascents undertaken for scientific purposes and the characters of the scientists who organized and performed them – no more than 10 aeronauts from the beginning of the century to 1875 – an important feature emerges: ballooning – due to its proper nature - became a powerful tool in attiring a general public toward science, more effectively than scientific papers and oral lectures. -
Lucy Luck Stefan Inducted Into the U
Lucy Luck Stefan Inducted into the U. S. Ballooning Hall of Fame August 2, 2009 Born March 15, 1923 in St. Paul Minnesota Lucy’s interest, love and enthusiasm for flying probably began when she was eight years old when her oldest brother bought her a ride on an airplane at World Chamberlain Airport in Minneapolis. At an early age, her Dad described Lucy as a "Sparkplug". To her siblings she was "Sparky” and she still is!!! And she is definitely a “Sparkplug” in the history of ballooning. As one of the early women aeronautical engineering students at the university in Minnesota, she met Professor Jean Piccard and his balloonist wife Jeanette Piccard. Professor Piccard became one of her college professors. During her ballooning activities she flew with Tony Fairbanks in Philadelphia and met Tracy Barnes in Minneapolis and got to know such notable balloonists as Malcolm Forbes, Dewey Reinhart, Bertrand Piccard and Eddie Allen. Her Commercial Pilot, Lighter-Than-Air, Free Balloon License (limited to hot air balloons, with or without airborne heaters) is dated October 31, 1973. She received this in the early days of ballooning when all you had to do was sign your name on the license. She received her fixed wing aircraft pilot’s license when she was 40 years old, and has been around ballooning for fifty years. She was never actually a balloon pilot, but was a crew member and an observer for many years. Lucy has flown in both gas and hot air balloons. Her most spectacular flights were three that she had in Switzerland flying over the Swiss Alps and landing twice in Germany and once in Italy. -
2018 April Newsletter
April 2018 In this Issue: Presidents Letter Chaplin’s Corner Rolling Thunder, Inc.'s From the Editor major function is to Calendar of Events publicize the POW-MIA Patch Recipients issue. To educate the POW/MIA News public of the fact that History of Hanoi Hilton Prison many American prisoners POW/MIA License Plate of war were left behind Jerry Blake- President after all past wars. To help correct the past and Executive Board Letter from the President… to protect the future President veterans from being left Jerry Blake Hello Everyone, behind should they Vice President If we could ever get rid of the rain become Prisoners Of Jeff Meeks hopefully we can do some riding, don’t War/Missing In Action. Secretary forget the May meeting will be at USI MJ We are committed to will be sending out notices and directions helping American Mary Jane Miller on how to get out to where we’re going to veterans from all wars. Treasurer meet. Looks like the weather hopefully Rolling Thunder, Inc. is a Darrin Maxey will clear up in a few weeks and we should have a lot of events coming up in non-profit organization Chaplain the next month or two with the Ride to and everyone donates his Steve Suter The Wall at the end of May. I just want to or her time because they thank everyone for being a part of Rolling believe in the Board of Directors Thunder and thank you for what you do POW/MIA issue. Chairman of the Board with helping our local veterans and our local community Jack Miller If you have any questions or ideas, you Membership Meeting Board Member can talk to any officer and you can also W.D.