Following is a direct and fascinating quote from Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST):
“Aviation Week & Space Technology launched its 100-year digital archive in collaboration with Boeing, the sponsor of the archive. Both companies trace their roots to 1916. The archive includes 4,500 issues and nearly 500,000 pages of articles, photos and advertising.”
Wow! That’s a lot of historical information. I just learned of it this morning and haven’t delved into it fully yet. But it covers so much of aviation history that it has to be awesome and well worth the price of a subscription to AW&ST.
From NASA we learn that The James Webb Space Telescope (TJWST) will be in operation in about two years. For details, just Google “NASA Webb Telescope.”
Let me be the first to say that I’m not at all sure that I really understand the many details, and can’t explain the details that I do understand. The one most fascinating fact to me — assuming that I understand it correctly — is that we will be looking back in time. With TJWST we will be able to “see” planets forming at the time of the Big Bang. That’s so close to a time machine that it leaves me baffled. I’m learning a little bit about so much that it makes me feel more ignorant than ever!
And that’s not all that’s happening!
BBC reports that, “For the first time, scientists have tracked the source of a ‘fast radio burst’ — a fleeting explosion of radio waves which, in this case, came from a galaxy six billion light-years away.
“Fast radio bursts last only milliseconds but in that moment, whatever makes them blasts as much energy into space — in the form of radio waves — as our Sun emits in days or even weeks.”
We do indeed live in a fascinating world with new things coming at an ever-accelerating speed.
About the Author
Ralph Hood
Certified Speaking Professional
Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he's insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University.
Ralph Hood is also an award-winning columnist (he writes for several publications), a salesman and sales manager (he sold airplanes, for crying out loud!), a teacher (he taught college-level aviation management) and a professional public speaker who has entertained and enlightened audiences from Hawaii to Spain, and from Fairbanks to Puerto Rico.
- Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), National Speakers Association
- Past member, National Ethics Committee, National Speakers Association
- Past president of Alabama Speakers Association
- Member, Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame
- Past National Marketing Mentor, AOPA Project Pilot