Nuclear Powered Aircraft: The Dawn of Atomic Age

All aircraft are designed based on a specific need or purpose.The advent of endurance, speed, agility, range etc all comes into play. The final design is just compromise between all these factors.

What if there was an aircraft that has unlimited endurance or unlimited range or both? Sounds like the stuffs from Sci-Fi. Well, with the recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology from Lockheed Martin, we might have an Sci-Fi aircraft in a decade.

Lockheed Martin announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion by which they are able to harness power from controlled fusion reaction. The main advantage with this they can reduce the size of nuclear power plant. Since they use magnetized vessel to contain ionized plasma, they are able to produce energy 10 times more powerful and clean than the existing power plants.

Check out the video from Lockheed Martin:

Ten years from now, we might have an aircraft powered by nuclear energy. They have tried making nuclear powered aircraft before but was cancelled for obvious reasons. (Source: Wiki)

This is actually a revolutionary breakthrough for energy sector. But for aviation, this will be a boundless technology. I wonder what we will be witnessing in a decade or two.

-Chan

Why Wright Brothers chose Kitty Hawk.

Failure. Failure was inevitable. Oliver and Wilbur knew it. The reason why Wright Brothers were able to achieve controlled flight (success) is because they foresaw failure.  

Kitty Hawk the land of Sand and Wind in North Carolina. They selected Kitty Hawk because it was perfect for any crash. It had vast area with soft sand beds which could reduce the impact of any crash.

This principle of accepting failure and learning from it is what drew them to success. It is called taking calculated risk. Just like in business. 

People start business with a notion that it would work the first time. There is always a 50% chance of failure in any business. A good business man will know the risks, accept failures, learn from it and build valuable products or service. 

Billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon had a business plan which had a 70% chance of failure. He knew failure was ever present. You can either acknowledge it and be prepared or you can crash and burn.

Wright Brothers acknowledged it and now we have an industry called Aviation.

Until Next time.

Chan.

What's cool about Quad-copters?

For starters, it has 4 propellers.

Quad-copters come in different shape and size. I recently bought one, a nano quad-copter.

It's amazing how just one silicon board is engraved with algorithms  that manipulates the flow of electrons to control the tiny motor rpm which in turn produce lift.

What amaze me more is that this tiny quad copter is designed and manufactures in China, at a very cheap rate.

People has ignored that fact that things are hard to fly and now perceives world as instant stuffs that just works.

-Chan