Two trips, a decade apart, spanned the most exciting era in space history.

Of the original seven astronauts chosen by NASA in 1959, only one, Alan Shepard, made it to the moon. And he almost didn’t. More than two years after his pioneering Mercury-Redstone flight in May 1961, Shepard was in training to command the first two-man Gemini mission. Progress to the moon was planned in three steps: Mercury to prove that space travel was feasible, Gemini to demonstrate rendezvous and long-term spaceflight, and Apollo to go all the way. In 1963, Shepard was a fair bet to fly all three.

The Boeing 747 is one of the most successful and beloved aircraft programs of all time. Beginning over half a century ago, Boeing has built over 1,500 planes across the 747 family before announcing the end of the program earlier this year. //

Boeing developed the 747-8 as competition for the successful A380 program by Airbus. The planemaker sought an aircraft with a capacity approaching 500 passengers and considered many designs before beginning 747-8 production by 2008. The freighter variant (747-8F) was introduced in 2011 before the passenger variant (747-8 Intercontinental or 747-8I) came out a year later.

At the time, the 747-8 was the longest aircraft in the world at 76.25m, an accolade it held until the 777-9 took to the skies this year. During the design phase, Boeing predicted around 300 orders for the plane, split equally between freighter and passenger variants. The program managed just half that figure: 107 freighter orders and only 47 for the passenger plane.

DeSantis brought up the fact that there is no due process for those whose existence might be completely ruined at the whim of a big tech company and that this kind of power has to be checked.

“I’m not going to accept that and I don’t think any of you are going to accept that,” said DeSantis. “So, we’re thinking through what we can do to provide people some protections.”

DeSantis warned Texans that this problem could get far worse if nothing is done.

“What’s to stop them in October of 2022, they coming into Texas and saying they don’t like one of the candidates, and they’re just going to deplatform them off everything,” said DeSantis. “What would the recourse be? I’m not sure there’s any recourse right now under law, even if there was, by the time you sued it wouldn’t be done, it wouldn’t make much of a difference and so, they have really opened I think Pandora’s Box on this.”

Tim Cook would do well to recall these words from a fellow Big Tech CEO:

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.†

I realize that there is currently a stampede in the Silicon Valley community to take swift and decisive action in pursuit of Revolutionary Socialism. But that is no reason for Tim Cook to turn into something that he knows he hates. Since when is Tim Cook responsible for determining which speech shall be free, and then usurping the assets he has been hired to manage to do what an authoritarian state would do… if he ran that state. That is not Tim Cook’s inner voice. What has happened to that man?

† Steve Jobs (2005)

Hawley was one of the lead attorneys in the landmark Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, which helped to gut Obamacare. He was also a lead attorney in the Hosanna-Tabor case at the Supreme Court, protecting the rights of churches.

Hawley became Missouri’s attorney general in 2017, before running for the United States Senate. Definitely the pedigree of a Republican Darling and someone who is being groomed for a presidential run.

Since the early years of Airbus, its decentralized nature has required the planemaker to transport aircraft components from various parts of Europe to a final assembly facility. Before developing its own Beluga and subsequent Beluga XL, it was often said that “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing.” Let’s briefly look at how Boeing (very) indirectly gave Airbus a helping hand in those early years and why this was necessary. //

In its early years, Airbus made use of two Super Guppy aircraft, built by an American company by the name of Aero Spacelines. This company, and its Super Guppy product, was formed with the main intent of providing NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) a way to transport large cargo between facilities.

The Super Guppy was actually a modified C-97 Stratocruiser, which is the military variant of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. This is how the phrase “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing” came to be.

In 2016, Qantas needed to get a new replacement engine to Johannesburg, South Africa, at short notice. While aircraft parts are often transported on cargo planes, the Australian flag carrier took a different approach. In this case, the quickest way to get the engine there was to catch a lift on the wing of a Boeing 747. //

Thanks to the design of the Boeing 747, there are anchor points under the wing to attach various objects. One of these can be a spare engine. This engine is not connected to the aircraft’s systems. As such, it cannot be used to provide additional power to the aircraft.

President Trump is just days away from leaving the White House and he is still standing for LIFE which is keeping with his campaign promises from 2016 and last year.

Trump has been arguably the most Pro-Life President this country has ever seen and it is not just because he reversed the Mexico City Policy but he also went after Planned Parenthood in how they are funded. No other GOP President has ever even thought of that let alone do it. So it is entirely fitting that he issue a proclamation that will recognize the sanctity of life on January 22nd which also happens to be the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

As Newt Gingrich said, it’s all about who gets to spend the money and how much of it there is to spend. Fewer wars means a lot, I mean, a LOT, less spending. Regulatory cuts mean fewer lobbyists. All of that diminishes the power of the D.C. elite. It especially diminishes the power of the ”World’s most exclusive club.” McConnell and his allies hate that. That’s why he supports the impeachment of President Trump. //

Try former President Trump in the Senate. Keep his name in the public eye for the first hundred days of the Harris administration. Let everyone focus on Donald J. Trump. Most especially, continue to enrage the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump and are pretty damned sure the election was stolen.

Best of all, all you RINOs will help Trump keep his base energized. Keep his base energized as they continue to support him…and not as a Presidential candidate, but as a kingmaker. What McConnell needs to be most afraid of, isn’t a second Presidential run by Trump. He needs to be deathly afraid of Donald J. Trump getting involved in Republican primaries for the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 Presidential and down-ballot races. //

So please, Democrats and RINOs, keep beating on our Paladin. He can take it. You are just making him and us stronger. We will see you in 2022….and NO, Mitch. this time you don’t get any input on Republican candidates.

President Donald Trump’s advisory 1776 Commission on Monday released a public report, fulfilling its task to revisit the nation’s founding history in an effort to reunite the Americans around its founders’ principles.

Has it not been proven time and again (for nearly 250 years) that the constitutionally-prescribed philosophy of more speech, not less, is much better at producing reasonable rhetoric than censorship and repression?

On 20 February 2005, a scheduled passenger plane took off from Los Angeles International Airport en route to London, UK. During takeoff, one of the plane’s four engines blew out and was immediately shut down. Despite this, the flight continued as normal and made it across the Atlantic Ocean on just three engines.

Plenty of airlines are synonymous with the Boeing 747, but the world’s biggest operator of all time might well surprise you. The airline that has operated the most 747s ever is not Singapore or Pan Am, or even British Airways… it’s Japan Airlines.

Since the 1970s, JAL has operated a total of 108 Boeing 747. It was the launch customer of the Boeing 747-100 and also of the specially designed Boeing 747SR-100. This short-range version of the early 747 reduced fuel capacity but added payload. Initial designs allowed up to 498 passengers onboard, with later improvements expanding this to 550. 12 flew for JAL, alongside eight standard -100s. //

The variant with the biggest presence in JAL’s fleet was, however, the 747-400. In total, the airline took 44 of the -400s, 34 of which were the standard type, two were freighters and eight the ‘domestic’ version, the 747-400D. The D again was tailored to high volume, short routes, and provided JAL with capacity for as many as 624 people. //

The 747-400 was the real gamechanger and the best-selling product in Boeing’s 747 line up. In total, 442 747-400s were delivered to airlines. When you include the special variants such as the D, the ER, the ERF, the freighter and the combi -400M, that number rises to 694 of the type. That gives the 747-400 family almost a 40% share of the total 747 production. //

The biggest operator of the standard passenger variant was British Airways, with a fleet of 57. The airline’s 50-year relationship with the Queen of the Skies came to a crashing end in 2020, when the downturn in international traffic forced its hand and meant the fleet took an early retirement. //

Atlas Air takes the crown for the biggest operator of the 747 right now. 40 Queens fly for the New York-based airline, a handful of which are actually passenger aircraft. Six 747-400 fly in a VIP configuration as passenger planes, but the rest are all freighters. These are split between 30 747-400F and four 747-8F. The airline recently bought the last four 747s ever to be built by Boeing.

UPS and Cargolux take second and third place for current operators, with 33 and 30 aircraft respectively. The largest operator of the passenger variant is Lufthansa, which is recorded as having 29 in service. 10 are the 747-400, for which the future remains uncertain. But the other 19 are the more modern, fuel-efficient 747-8, which will likely stay in service for some years yet.

The U.S. government chartered for the occasion a Boeing 747 freighter from Kalitta Air, a cargo-only airline based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, instead of a regular passenger airplane. The 747 was fitted with passenger seats for this flight, according to a post by Facebook page Airline Secrets Exposed, which says it publishes submissions from airline insiders. //

It’s not clear at this time why the government decided to charter a cargo jet specially outfitted with passenger seats, instead of a regular airliner. We do, however, know the 747 has a peculiarity which makes it ideally suited for evacuating potentially contagious people: Its upper deck, where the cockpit is, can be closed off from the passengers on the main deck.

Indeed, according to the AP, the flight crew stayed on the upper deck for the whole flight, sealed off from passengers, and did not get off the plane in China. Flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the plane landed in Wuhan at 10:14 p.m. local on January 28 and left at 4:54 a.m. the following day. Since the flight crossed the International Date Line eastbound, the plane arrived in Alaska the day before it left China.