Speed is one of the primary benefits of flying, and during the first half of the 20th century, there was a passionate effort to make planes faster. While slow, piston-engine aircraft dominated the 1930s, jet aircraft emerged by the end of World War II, and test pilot Chuck Yaeger ushered in the supersonic era when he broke the sound barrier in 1947. However, the troubled … [Read more...] about High-Speed Flight
Archives for 2022
The History of Iced Coffee
Iced coffee is an extremely popular drink, but iced coffee has only really been popular in the United States for about the last two decades. Iced coffee drinks started to gain popularity in 1995 when Starbucks introduced their Frappuccino’s, but they weren’t the first place to offer an iced/iced blended coffee drink. At the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a barista invented the Ice … [Read more...] about The History of Iced Coffee
A Brief History of Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality has been around for much longer than you may think. The first rendition of this technology started as early as 1968, by a computer scientist at Harvard named Ivan Sutherland (https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-mainstreaming-of-augmented-reality-a-brief-history). His device was called The Sword of Damocles, as it hung from the ceiling in a heavy, clunky, almost creepy … [Read more...] about A Brief History of Augmented Reality
Why Fly?
With aircraft being as popular as they are, and with governments and private corporations dedicating millions of dollars every year to aviation development, it is worth asking: Why fly? An informative study to help answer this question is “What Price Speed?” a research paper written by the aerodynamicists Theodore von Kármán and Giuseppe Gabrielli in 1950. In their paper, … [Read more...] about Why Fly?
The History of: Macchiato
Italy has been one of the most influential countries in the world in terms of its impact on culture. They have impacted a range of things from art, history, religion, fashion, and even coffee. The macchiato is an Italian coffee drink that was established in the 80’s, when baristas needed a way to differentiate between espresso drinks that were just plain espresso, or ‘marked’ … [Read more...] about The History of: Macchiato