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While researching STOL airfoils, the Cuanda effect, as well as the Dyson bladeless fan (which uses a blown ring geometry airfoil) , as one does, I came upon an interesting article.   This I am sure will interest those of us who are into aerodynamics. I suppose that is most of us. This article elucidates a surprising understanding of low Reynolds Number flow by the ancient and medieval technologists, and also an insight into pre-industrial revolution industrialisation.

As published in Low-tech Magazine by Kris De Decker this is a truly amazing read follow the link below :

Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills

Please follow the link and leave a comment.

On Oct. 1, 1969, the Concorde 001, a joint British-French venture, traveled faster than the speed of sound for the very first time. It was the aircraft’s 45th test flight and it held Mach 1.05 for 9 minutes at 36,000 feet and 75 miles from Toulouse, France.

It wasn’t the first commercial aircraft to break the sound barrier, that was the Russian Tu 144 which had beaten the Concord by a few months but it was the Concord which went on to provide many years of commercial supersonic passenger flight.

Supersonic flight was for long only a dream but in 1974 Chuck Yeager (whom I have shaken hands with and is a real man who likes hunt’n shoot’n n Fish’n) was credited with being the first man to fly faster than sound.

For many years supersonic flight was the realm of the military only but Concord changed all that.

Although Concord has now been retired as uneconomic it looks likely that either as a luxury for the very rich or a service for corporated princes Supersonic flight will soon return to civil aviation as more and more projects move to fruition. In the mean time we will have to leave it to the military to provide us with sights such as this F 22 with its striking cloud trail.
The phenomenon is called a vapor cone or a shock collar, and, if you want to get really technical, a Prandtl–Glauert singularity. It is beautiful demonstration of how quickly things happen at the molecular level

Read more…

It took better than three years of restoration, but the Temora Aviation Museum, in NSW, Australia, completed the project and its rare Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) CA-27 Sabre has taken flight for the first time after 16 years on the ground. A pilot and airshow crowd favorite, this Sabre is A94-983. It took to the air at the hands of Darren Crabb, currently a corporate jet pilot type-rated on 14 aircraft. Crabb is an ex-RAAF Qualified Flight Instructor who has experience in F/A-18 Hornets and Macchi jets. “It was fantastic!” said Crabb, who said the aircraft performed flawlessly on its post-maintenance check flight. Australians will have their first chance to see the Sabre flown at the Temora Aviation Museum Flying Weekend this fall. But for those unable to overcome the obstacles of vast oceans of distance between here and there, the Temora Aviation Museum is giving away rides … though only virtually, on YouTube (sorry)
If you are really enthusiastic there is another CA 27 Avon Sabre lurking at Moorabbin Aviation Museum just waiting for restoration.
In part from From Avweb http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1417-full.html#200752