Next Video and Debate Challenge Update.
The next superprop video is coming along well. I think many of you guessed correctly it's on the Corsair-5. That's the reason I ended up putting up the two Human factors videos first. It's hard to talk about the Dash 5 without getting into that, and I found that I just couldn't cover the basics of why the Corsair's cockpit improvements mattered while still talking about the rest of the airplane in a video of reasonable length. Anyway, coming soon!
Debate Update.
I have three possible candidates for my debate challenge. Two of the three are heavy hitters. One is, let's say an OK hitter.
Of those three, two are doing some research before they accept. That means they are watching my videos on the related subjects and gathering data to see if it's worth contesting in a debate format. I won't know until Monday which person I'll be going with. I am trying to get the strongest possible opponent. At that point I'll be able to let you know who it is, the subject chosen, and when it will take place. Oh, and the subject is entirely a function of which person accepts the debate.
Greg
Comments (13)
This should be very interesting. Public debate, in whatever form, is how understanding of the past is increased and ideas developed. I think it speaks well of your intellectual honesty, Greg, that you want to have such a discussion.
I was wondering how did navy fighters navigate their way back to the carrier.. especially at night.
In the community section of my youtube channel I have a debate challenge up.
If I get bored I’ll have a read of the thunderbolt and mustang AFM’s this weekend, and maybe rewatch the video. It sounds like a fun discussion at least. Even as a troll I’d never be able to debate with a straight face that the wright brothers weren’t the first to fly, and the Felton nuclear bomber thingy is just full cringe.
Ok so what have I missed here? What's this debate? It sounds like something I don't want to miss.
sure, it's gregsairplanes at gmail. At the moment it doesn't look like anyone is going to take up the Wright Brothers challenge, I could be wrong, but I'll know for sure in a couple days.
I just sent the email. Sorry for the delay.
Greg, your original videos on the Wright Brothers prompted me to do my own research into the matter. I don't consider the claims made about Gustave Whitehead to be serious enough to be worthy of debate. The claim fails basic logic tests before we even get into the veracity of the "evidence". The claim about Santos-Dumont is a little bit more intriguing to me. He wasn't the first person to fly an airplane (that's the Wright Brothers, obviously), but he did have an important role to play in the early history of aviation that gets completely overlooked because of this pointless question of whether or not he was the "first". I've done some work running contemporary sources such as L'Aerophile articles from the time and his autobiography "O Que Eu Vi, O Que Nós Veremos" ("What I Have Seen, What We Will See") through Google Translate and I think I have a fairly good idea of what was going on at the time and why Brazilians are so obsessed with "proving" Santos-Dumont was the first. Do you have an e-mail address where I can send you what I've found?
Thanks guys, right now it looks like only one person is serious about taking up the debate. I think that says something for the strength of my positions.
No one likes losing publicly Greg 😂
Best of luck in the debate.
Greg, the odd compass the British used had nautical origins. It is much more accurate than our current ones where you’d be lucky to have one within 5 degrees. The first thing Swordfish pilots did when they returned to shore was to have their compasses swung. Wooden decked carriers had nails in the flight deck. They wouldn’t accept one off by more than 1 degree. They dead reckoned for navigation off the carriers. Before take off, they were given the projected course of the carrier for the duration of the flight. Our Navy guys did the same thing. They flew so low, they estimated the winds from the waves. They had some sort of combination plotting board E6B they used. Our guys flew search missions looking for submarines. Bill B.
Well Greg, we will be in your corner for this “debate”. Wipe the floor with them!🤘🎉