The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 was the first successful, practical, and fully controllable helicopter, first flown in 1936. It was also known as the Fa 61, as Focke began a new company—Focke-Achgelis—in 1937. Only two aircraft were produced. The first prototype, the V 1 D-EBVU, had its first free flight on 26 June 1936 with Ewald Rohlfs at the controls. By…
The Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” is a retired long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft that was developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. Its nicknames include “Blackbird” and „Habu”. The SR-71 was developed in the 1960s as a black project by Lockheed’s Skunk Works division. American aerospace engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for many of the SR-71’s innovative concepts. Its shape was based on the Lockheed…
Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred…
Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by Henri Poincaré in 1905 as the gravitational equivalent of electromagnetic waves. In 1916, Albert Einstein…
Christopher Columbus (between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were…
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, and philosophical thought in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present. A…
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for take-offs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medevac, and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in other roles, including as a…
The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 was the first successful, practical, and fully controllable helicopter, first flown in 1936. It was also known as the Fa 61, as Focke began a new company — Focke-Achgelis — in 1937. On 9 February 1935, Focke received an order for the building of a prototype, which was designated the…
Edward Higgins White II (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) was an American aeronautical engineer, United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He was a member of the crews of Gemini 4 and Apollo 1. White was selected as one of the second group of astronauts, the so-called “Next Nine”,…
Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the “flying man”. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making the idea of heavier-than-air aircraft a reality. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing…
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She had been the regnant queen of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death.…
In 1896 when Washington reviewed the study conducted by George Washington Carver about the infection plaguing the soybean crop, he invited Carver to head the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee, where they became close friends. Carver later autographed commemorative stamps issued in 1940 in Washington’s honour. This was the first time an African American was…
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music. His early period, during…
Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of…
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration (commonly known from 1969 to 1972 as moonwalks). In…
Today 28 years ago an AI beat a world champion chess master for the first time. Deep Blue was a chess-playing expert system run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer (IBM RS/6000 SP Supercomputer with 30 PowerPC 604e “High 2” 200 MHz CPUs and 480 custom VLSI second-generation “chess chips”). It was the first…
Today we remember the safe return of the Skylab 4 crew to earth, 51 years ago. On the 8th of February 1974 the crew splashed down in the Pacific. Skylab 4 was the third crewed Skylab mission and placed the third and final crew aboard the first American space station. The mission began on…