How many images are we expecting to get back from Percy covering the landing? About 28,470 according to this paper

It turns out that pilots have been mostly perfect. Trim failures do happen, but in nearly all situations, the crew reacts correctly and the flight continues to a safe landing. Of course there have been fatal accidents caused by trim failures, and not just a few, but they are small in number compared to the total number of flights.

But at the jet level, flying has become so safe, that even a small number of accidents deemed acceptable even 25 years ago, is no longer tolerable. And electronic advances make it possible to include at least triple-redundant monitoring and sensing in critical flight control systems. Fly-by-wire (FBW) control systems—which all newer designed larger jets employ—use triple redundant computers and sensors to operate all flight controls, including trim. Pilots’ movement of the cockpit controls are the equivalent of moving the mouse on your desktop computer.

If you believe that the public has more confidence in a well-trained and experienced human pilot than in a FBW automated control system, try explaining the three-second recognition time. Once they understand that human pilots have three seconds to recognize pending disaster, and take the proper action to prevent a crash every time without fail, the public wants the multiple backups of FBW computers.

If you don’t believe me, read and listen to coverage of the 737 Max situation. The very idea that human pilots must be relied on to disable a malfunctioning critical flight control system stuns the media and, according to polls, the flying public. It doesn’t matter that the vast fleet of 737s—the most common jet airliner in the world—flies on with a pitch trim system that can run away, and that pilots must recognize and respond correctly to prevent a crash. That fact hasn’t been brought to public attention. The three-second recognition time is never mentioned, or even understood. If it was, the media and public would be as alarmed as they are about the MCAS system on the Max. They trust pilots, but unlike many of us who are pilots, the public knows there is no perfect pilot.

February 23, 2019

LIVING
How Boeing’s first 747 took off — and changed the world forever
By Eric Spitznagel

February 23, 2019 | 12:49pm

The first 747 is rolled out of Boeing's plant in Washington state for display in 1968. The plane finally took off in February 1969.
Courtesy of Boeing
Fifty years ago this month, on Feb. 9, 1969, the Boeing 747 was officially introduced to the world. But as the wide-bodied jumbo jet taxied down the runway for its inaugural flight from Paine Field, just north of Seattle, not everybody in the crowd was convinced it would be a success.

The plane, which would soon be dubbed “Queen of the Skies,” was big — maybe too big. At twice the size of the Boeing 707, it was by far the largest civilian passenger jet ever conceived: 231 feet long with a 196-foot wingspan — enough room to play regulation basketball on each wing — and a tail as tall as a six-story building. Impressive to look at, but would it fly? //

Between 1970 and 2017, more than 3.5 billion people have flown on a 747, more than half the world’s population, according to the Smithsonian. 747s have carried Space Shuttles for NASA, been the choice for Air Force One since 1990 and was Richard Branson’s first plane when he launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984. There has never been a more iconic passenger plane, one that even casual travelers can recognize by sight, thanks to its teardrop-shaped “hump” above the main deck.

Its success is a little ironic, given that the 747 was created with the assumption of failure. In the late ’60s, supersonic airplanes like the Concorde, capable of cruising at more than twice the speed of sound, were widely predicted to be the future of commercial air travel.

“The thought was 747s would eventually be converted into cargo planes,” says Lombardi. “They would become freighters.”

So they designed it with cargo in mind, not passengers. By placing the cockpit above the fuselage on a second deck, creating that distinctive hump, the nose of the plane could become a front-loading door. The wide body design allowed for even more cargo room.

Bonchie
@bonchieredstate
If Trump did this, didn’t make a public statement of support or visit, and then went to Camp David to play Mario Kart, he’d be crucified by the press. Absolutely crucified.

Evan Smith
@evanasmith
INBOX: @GovAbbott says @JoeBiden only “partially” approved Texas request for disaster declaration. Wanted individual assistance in 254 counties, got it in 77 counties #txlege

Fusilli Spock
@awstar11
·
Feb 21, 2021
Imagine the media reaction if this was CA & Trump did this:

1. Apparently, TX requested to increase the capacity of fossil fuel generation to meet demand due to the upcoming winter storm & temperatures. DOE refused.

djcalligraphy 🇺🇲
@DJcalligraphy
BOMBSHELL: Biden administration blocked Texas from increasing power as Texas begged for help a week before catastrophic polar vortex.

Texas asked to temporarily lift regulations on energy output to avoid disaster. Biden's DOE refused to help due to "green energy standards". //

Fusilli Spock
@awstar11

2. Then, after the damage was done, Biden refused to grant disaster status to 70% of the counties requested by TX //

Josh Kraushaar
@HotlineJosh
Biden “has not visited the stricken region or delivered prime-time remarks; he did not mention the disaster at a recent town hall; and he is studiously avoiding the controversy over whether wind energy or fossil fuels are to blame for power failures”

Biden’s low-key approach to storm wins praise but courts risks
washingtonpost.com

Cleaner air and a less polluted environment are what those on the left are trying to sell with green energy, but the reality is rolling blackouts, stressed power grids and pollution created by disposing of equipment like wind turbines.

Sustainability is a buzzword politicians use to describe these faulty forms of energy creation because the wind and the sun are thought of as infinite sources of energy.

However, the reality is that the technology used to harness that energy is anything but sustainable — and that matters to the people relying on them hoping not to freeze to death.

In the early morning of January 22, 1970, 335 passengers boarded Pan American World Airways Flight 2 at Terminal 3 of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, bound for Heathrow Airport in London. The flight had been scheduled to depart the night before and by this point was over 6 hours behind schedule, but any irritation on that score would have been largely offset by the excitement of the historic nature of this flight — this was the first passenger flight of Boeing’s latest aircraft model, the Boeing 747. At two-thirds the length of a football field, a tail rising six stories up, and interior dimensions more reminiscent of a large conference room than an aircraft cabin, the 747 was the largest aircraft ever to enter airline service, dwarfing all other existing airliners, and would remain so for the next 37 years.
Just after 2:00 a.m., Clipper Victor (N736PA), the 12th 747 off the production line, departed from New York and headed towards London. 6 hours and 43 minutes later, Clipper Victor touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport at 1:35 p.m. local time, cementing a milestone in aviation history. The completion of the inaugural flight marked the culmination of years of hard work by a team of engineers and test pilots who had been responsible for getting the mammoth 747 designed, built, and into the air safely.

Achieving the goals of the Democrat political agenda is all that matters to them, regardless of the human costs. Those costs are considered to be “necessary evils” in the pursuit of the greater good, as defined by the Democrat Party. What are a few deaths to return California forests to their primeval state “before mankind arrived and screwed up the environment” (as the greenies say)? Or several hundred thousand excess deaths in 2020 to get rid of Donald Trump? Or exploitation of shooting deaths to achieve gun control dreams? Martyrs or victims: it matters not. All are used by Democrats to achieve their political ends. The rest of us are just statistics. Reminds me of what the Soviets did and the ChiComs have been doing over the years.

TOMB OF JOHN AND MARY NEWTON APPROXIMATELY 20 METRES SOUTH OF CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, CHURCH STREET //

the epitaph written by Newton himself for the memorial tablet which remains in the church of St Mary Woolnoth: 'JOHN NEWTON, CLERK. / ONCE AN INFIDEL AND LIBERTINE / A SERVANT OF SLAVES IN AFRICA, WAS / BY THE RICH MERCY OF OUR / LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST / PRESERVED / RESTORED, PARDONED / AND APPOINTED TO PREACH THE FAITH HE / HAD LONG LABOURED TO DESTROY. / NEAR 16 YEARS AS CURATE OF THIS PARISH / AND 28 YEARS AS RECTOR OF ST MARY WOOLNOTH.'

Cruz isn’t out there telling Americans to stay home while he jets off to warmer shores. Cruz isn’t demanding businesses close while secretly patronizing his own wineries or barbers. Cruz hasn’t been pretending to care about getting stimulus checks out to Americans while flaunting his comfort and hypocrisy on live tv.

In fact, Cruz was just doing what he has been saying all along that every American has the right to do. He was taking care of his family. He has done nothing but encourage Americans to be cautious but still live their lives. He wants businesses open. He wants schools open. He wants Americans to be free even as they exercise extra safety measures for the time-being. He has been consistent in that message, so it isn’t strange that he’d be living it out himself. //

Commenter: His answer should have been "It is entirely within protocol in an emergency that if you can safely remove yourself and family from the impacted area, do so. This way first responders will be able to focus on those who do need help and you do not get into dire straights yourself."

Around him were a couple hundred shoppers, some with only credit cards, trying to stock up during a statewide emergency. The power had been going on and off in this Austin suburb as cold weather overwhelmed the Texas grid. But no one told shoppers to put their items back if they couldn’t pay cash.

When Hennessy got to the cashier, he said, she just waved him on, thanked him and told him to drive home safely.

“And it hit us — like, wow, they’re just letting us walk out the door,” the 60-year-old man recounted. Ahead of him, shoppers were pushing carts piled high with diapers, milk, jumbo boxes of crackers — all free. He began to tear up.