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In 1910, Eugene Ely flew a Curtis pusher off the deck of a converted cruiser to make the first winged aircraft takeoff from a Navy ship (Except for possibly Samuel Langley, who catapulted unsteerable aircraft off a houseboat to their doom). Curtis' plane was a success largely because of Wright's patents. Unable to use wing warping technology, Curtis used ailerons instead, which all planes have today. It's landing gear was a tricycle arrangement which most planes also use now. It wasn't a power house, pushing 40 horsepower from his own design, but was astounding for the day. The first "carrier" takeoff and flight was a success, and the next year, another Curtis D made the first landing on a navy ship.
Last October, the USN tested it's latest carrier hotrod, the short takeoff and landing F-35B. This is the coolest bird ever, and makes you want to be a flyboy. Everything this plane does looks effortless, almost aircraft ballet. The F-35B is the first plane to include vertical takeoff and landing capability with supersonic speeds and stealth technology. The internal weapons bay can hold a ton of stuff, but if you don't care about stealth, you can really load the wings down with 15,000 lbs of weapons. It looks on schedule to replace the Marines F-18s and Harriers.
Armored Planet sent me the link for this video. (They've got hosting, also.)
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One of the most disturbing practices on New Year's Eve is getting out a couple of guns and shooting into the air at the stroke of midnight. Bad idea. All that stuff going up will come down, sometimes with tragic consequences. And on top of that, the Police have a better chance of finding you and possibly linking you to a victim with one of the newest items in their toolkit. Shot Spotter.
The Shot Spotter system is in use in lots of Police agencies around the country, and is a wide area real time acoustic surveillance system that can track outdoor gunshots and pinpoint the latitude and longitude for follow up by Police Officers. The agencies where this system is in use report an 80% reduction in gunshot activity, which means it works. Make some noise this New Years, but keep the guns in the safe. We'll all be better off for it.