100 Years of NACA
For those outside of aviation, NACA may look like a misspelling of NASA, but the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics actually predates NASA by 43 years. Established March 3 1915, the agency was founded to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. It eventually became part of NASA, but it served as the foundation of all things aerospace for quite some time. Find any aerospace engineer and through a NACA number at them, they'll probably start describing the wing shape attributed to it.
NASA is holding a celebration of the founding of it's parent agency March 3 and 4 and will be broadcasting the whole thing live on NASA TV.
Stratolaunch is Coming Together.
In short, Stratolaunch is Paul Allen's private space launch concept. It will utilize the largest plane ever built to hoist a rocket up to altitude and the launch the rocket with it's payload into space. Originally SpaceX planned to partner with them, but decided to focus instead on making their rocket reusable.
The concept here is not new, even the Germans in WW2 played with the idea, and it is how Virgin Galactic and the Spaceship Company deploy Spaceship 2.
The mothership plane is finally coming together, and it is one big mama. I watched the hanger it is being built in go up. That structure is mammoth in size, but as the pictures in the link show, it still won't be large enough to hold the completed aircraft once they attach the wings. This one of those programs to watch.
Wavicles Imaged
Light is a funny thing. Is it a wave, is it a partcile? It acts like both and neither, coining the term Wavicle. Researchers have now imaged light acting just that way proving the quantum-mechanical theory behind how light works. It's quite the interesting experiment and worth a read for anyone interested in physics.
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