Tuesday, June 19, 2012

how a jet engine works

how a jet engine works by Noladishu
how a jet engine works, a photo by Noladishu on Flickr.

You know what, flying should be fun. You're riding in air at hundreds of miles an hour, traveling across the country. That's something worth celebrating and treating like it's something special instead of something miserable that you have to endure like a colonoscopy. Jet Blue really tends to put the fun back into flying. They had this setup on "how an engine works" and it made my inner engineer glow with joy to see little kids walk up to the button (which is located within easy reach of a 7-year-old). The presentation was pretty good too (although they left out 'suck, squeeze, bang, blow').

Seems like a small thing, but it made me happy to see. Turbomachinery is really amazing and the US is the undisputed leader in jet engines. Only Rolls Royce can even pretend to be in the same league. One funny little detail: Honda's engineers INSISTED to the Board that they start an aircraft division; the engineers insisted to the board it would help them recruit engineers. The board complied and Honda probably loses money on their aircraft, but it keeps the engineers happy and you have to admit Honda makes some very well designed cars across a broad range of price points.