Home Posts tagged "flight" (Page 2)

Tag: flight

#1235: FlightDeck

I read recently about how fighter planes are frequently scrambled in response to the use of certain words in transmissions from planes. Words like “bomb” and “hijack”.

The fighters are supposed to deflect an aerial attack by first making rude gestures at some incoming plane, followed after a decent interval, by shooting it down (presumably so that it crashes somewhere less publicity-worthy -ie anywhere that isn’t London).

Today’s invention attempts to avert this disaster. In the event that an airliner was suspected of being used in an attack, a special aircraft would be launched from the nearest airport.

This would be effectively a flying bombproof runway or deck. The deck plane would approach from underneath and behind (invisible from inside the captive aircraft).

It would activate the engine cutoff valves, causing the plane to settle onto the deck and be held in place by clamps on the wings. The captive plane could be boarded by special forces and the combined craft landed somewhere discreet very rapidly.

#1231: Incendascent

Glider pilots won’t hear tell of carrying any kind of motor aboard their craft which might be used to save them in an emergency (a parachute is just about acceptable among engineless aviators).

I talked yesterday to a gliding enthusiast and she mentioned that when trying to find a landing site, she will routinely seek out any sources of warmth on the ground, as even the sun-warmed wall of a hut can provide a lifesaving updraught.

Today’s invention is a magazine of high intensity flares which are dropped on the ground when a glider pilot runs out of lift sources and landing sites.

The pilot flies in a circle and and drops the flares at intervals. These have a brightly coloured casing and when returned to the owner, provide the retriever with a payment. They have an insulated base so that heat can escape only upwards.

On a second circuit, this time over the flares, the glider picks up enough altitude to hedgehop home.

#1230: CooledTool

Machine-assembled glazing units are inherently hard to break through -even when one is fortified by adrenalin in an emergency.

Today’s invention is an update to the standard glass-breaking escape hammer often found on public transport.

It takes the form of a conventional hammer, modified by the inclusion of a small, very high-pressure gas cylinder. When the hammer impacts the window surface, this breaks a seal on the cylinder allowing the gas to rush out. This expansion can be arranged to be sufficiently energetic that the glass surface becomes rapidly cooled locally and therefore embrittled.

This in turn allows the hammer to penetrate the window much more easily (a similar system might be used instead of detonator cord in the canopies of fighter jets with ejector seats).