Still awaiting flying cars (aka roadable aircraft) we were promised, the first pair of fatalities occurred on this day in 1973, when co-founders of AVE (Advanced Vehicle Engineers) Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake were test-piloting a Mizar prototype (named after the lodestar in the Big Dipper) in Oxnard, California. Mating a Cessna airframe to a Ford Pinto, an earlier test-flight had revealed stress of the struts and the deadly crash succumbed to the same design flaw, setting the field back significantly, though one-off developments continue.
synchronoptica
one year ago: an important battle in the Scottish War of Independence (1297)
two years ago: 80s automotive dashboards, avian photograph of the year, the Dead Internet conspiracy theory plus Midcentury Modern home-entertainment consoles
three years ago: a memorable, perfectly timed photograph, Disintegration Loops, fiery skies plus assorted links to revisit
four years ago: US pulls funding for the UN migration agency, more on the art and writing of William Blake plus imagining what’s beyond the frame
five years ago: a web-cam aimed at the North Tower, an international trombone festival, corporate sponsored space exploration plus the US attacks the International Criminal Court
