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The Prius of the sky

A contest for fuel-efficient small airplanes has a winner: a modified VariEze that gets 45 mpg at over 200 MPH with two people aboard, and nearly 100 mpg at a lower "maximum range" speed. Details from Wired here , Tree Hugger here , and the...

Published 4 Nov 2009 20:28 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Technology

Bad news, good news on the air-traffic beat

Bad news: further evidence that the worldwide GPS system, which is run by the US government and on which everything from airline navigation to iPhone mapping apps relies, is at risk of "browning out." Earlier mention of the problem, back in...

Published 22 Oct 2009 14:07 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Technology

My new software favorite: Personal Brain

What is my purpose on Earth? Raising my children? Being as good and supportive a husband to my wife as (the movie version of) Paul Child was to Julia in the new film? Working for world peace and sustainable environmental development and a more humane...

Published 24 Aug 2009 5:12 by James Fallows

Filed under: Technology, Life

My new software favorite: Personal Brain (updated)

What is my purpose on Earth? Raising my children? Being as good and supportive a husband to my wife as (the movie version of) Paul Child was to Julia in the new film? Working for world peace and sustainable environmental development and a more humane...

Published 24 Aug 2009 5:12 by James Fallows

Filed under: Technology, Life

Aviation update miscellany: good, bad, constructive

Good . Pilot of a Cirrus SR-22 gets into trouble while flying over North Carolina but has an option. As the Mount Airy News reports , the pilot "...was at 6,000 feet when he declared an emergency, pulled the parachute his plane was equipped with...

Published 14 Jun 2009 16:57 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Technology

An Airbus captain on getting into bad weather

Regarding one of the puzzles of the Air France 447 crash -- how a professional air crew ended up in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm -- an airline pilot writes: As a point of reference I'm an A-320 Captain for NWA (soon to be Delta but happy...

Published 9 Jun 2009 7:19 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Technology, Disasters

Design aspects of software: maps as "thinking tools"

I don't talk about it as often as, say, small-plane aviation or, recently, Chinese education , or my doomed quest in Asia for good beer. But for many many years I have been fascinated by the relationship between "pure" acts of thinking ...

Published 12 May 2009 9:20 by James Fallows

Filed under: Technology, Life

If you're looking for something new to worry about....

... how about the prospect that the GPS system will be the next part of America's neglected infrastructure to be in trouble, with ripple effects on modern commercial life? It is impossible to overstate the importance of GPS to the worldwide modern...

Published 10 May 2009 23:54 by James Fallows

Filed under: Technology

F-22 fiesta

Two days ago I said that I greatly enjoyed my colleague Mark Bowden's article about fighter aces but disagreed with his implication that the F-22 was the way to go for the Air Force or the country. I have heard from many readers since then -- a few...

Published 23 Feb 2009 19:33 by James Fallows

Filed under: Terrorism/Security, Technology, Atlantic Monthly

More on China-US climate issues, more on F-22

- About China and the US cooperating on environmental/climate issues: Yesterday I mentioned this detailed and valuable report from the Asia Society and Pew. It turns out that Brookings has just done something similar. Summary here , with links to PDF...

Published 20 Feb 2009 18:52 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Terrorism/Security, China, Technology, Environment

Trouble in the software business: this time, it's serious!

Via my friend Bruce Williams , an accomplished aviator, flight instructor, and technology guy, I hear that the first-ever, 5000-person cuts Microsoft has just announced in its work force include the team responsible for Microsoft Flight Simulator . Williams...

Published 23 Jan 2009 17:22 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Technology, Appreciations

Why didn't I know this before? (Math dept: Benford's law)

One reason math is so satisfying is that it allows you to see order in what is otherwise the randomness of life. For instance, the famous Fibonacci sequence , which shows up in countless natural patterns like this: Math is also satisfying when it helps...

Published 21 Nov 2008 6:50 by James Fallows

Filed under: Technology, Politics

Realms converge: DayJet, VMware. Weird!

Time and again I've praised (or eulogized ) DayJet, the radically innovative but now out-of-business air taxi company based in Florida. And I've praised VMware , the still-in-business California company that lets you run Windows and Mac software...

Published 19 Nov 2008 13:31 by James Fallows

Filed under: Aviation, Air taxi, Technology

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Jim Fallows' Aviation blogs

The Prius of the sky

Bad news, good news on the air-traffic beat

My new software favorite: Personal Brain

My new software favorite: Personal Brain (updated)

Aviation update miscellany: good, bad, constructive

An Airbus captain on getting into bad weather

Design aspects of software: maps as "thinking tools"

If you're looking for something new to worry about....

F-22 fiesta

More on China-US climate issues, more on F-22

Trouble in the software business: this time, it's serious!

Why didn't I know this before? (Math dept: Benford's law)

Realms converge: DayJet, VMware. Weird!