It’s getting complicated. First it was the Amazon packages dropping into the backyard via an unmanned vehicle. This was followed by numerous companies working on autonomous vehicles for buses, taxis and even two-seater air shuttles. Now, a prototype unmanned aerial tanker refueled a F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet in early June. That’s right—a drone just refueled a fighter jet in mid-air.
While we recently celebrated women in manufacturing and engineering on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021 there is rarely a day that goes by that I don’t think back to the stories my own grandmother, Laurel McKinley (Hartner), shared about her experience working at the Willow Run manufacturing complex during World War II.
While high-speed rail development continues around the world, let’s take a minute to consider the achievements of George Stephenson — “the father of railways” and inventor of the first commercial locomotive and other significant achievements.
This is the timely and relevant sequel to our Nov/Dec 2018 Addendum article, "Safety Guaranteed." In the original article will looked at some incredible gear applications
from the safety of our desktop computers and smartphones. Who knew we would be spending most of 2020 doing the same exact thing?
Agostino Ramelli was a 16th-century Italian military engineer of some note who designed many machines and other contributions used in the go-go Renaissance period, including cranes, grain mills, and water pumps. But his most compelling apparatus was a real mindbender - a revolving wooden wheel with angled shelves that allowed users to read multiple books at one time.
uncertainty is still an everyday experience. Given the wealth of sometimes confusing and contradictory information we are spoon fed by Washington, we are left to our own
devices to decipher announcements, e.g. — Do I wear a mask or not wear a mask? Do I still need to practice social distancing (a classic oxymoron:
what is sociable about keeping distances
between each other)? And so on.