Every schoolchild in America knows that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. Electricity from the clouds above traveled down the kite's twine and threw a spark from a key that Franklin had attached to the string. He thereby proved that lightning and electricity were one. What many of us do not realize is that Franklin used this breakthrough in his day's intensely competitive field of electrical science to embarrass his French and English rivals. His kite experiment was an international event and the Franklin that it presented to the world--a...
Every schoolchild in America knows that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. Electricity from the clouds above t...
The Eclipse Project by Tom Tucker provides a readable narrative and a number of documents that record an important flight research effort at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Carried out by Kelly Space & Technology, Inc. in partnership with the Air Force and Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California, this project tested and gathered data about a potential newer and less expensive way to launch satellites into space. Whether the new technology comes into actual use will depend on funding, market forces, and other factors at least partly beyond the control of the...
The Eclipse Project by Tom Tucker provides a readable narrative and a number of documents that record an important flight research effort at NASA's Dr...
This monograph relates the important history of the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft project at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Spurred by a number of airplane crashes caused by the loss of hydraulic flight controls, a NASA-industry team lead by Frank W. Burcham and C. Gordon Fullerton developed a way to land an aircraft safely using only engine thrust to control the airplane.
This monograph relates the important history of the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft project at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Spurred by a numbe...
