A question I have already been asked quite a few times is what precisely is meant by the part of BluFly's tag line which reads “made by people and flying from the surface to the Kármán Line”. Some think it's a mouthful. Candidly, this is a pretty fair assessment. However, as with all matters related to this humble publication it is done with the intention of furthering BluFly's overall objectives and long term goals. It provides a frame for what you can expect from BluFly as distinct from those things for which you'll have to look elsewhere.

To start, the “made by people” part is intended to preclude anything in nature that flies without any intervention or assistance from us: that would be primarily birds and insects, of course. It's not that there aren't really compelling images and stories in these respective domains; it's simply that they are both subjects with quite different audiences. Not to mention excellent coverage of both, each of which is vast enough to warrant independent study.

If I may be permitted to digress a little, I actually have profound respect for flying insects that goes well beyond anything “made by people”. Case-in-point: the monarch butterfly, the adult of which weighs in at about half a gram. To illustrate its prodigious capabilities, try asking any engineer to design an aerial vehicle capable of autonomous flight over a pre-determined course of about 3000 miles. Tough, but doable, these days. Then throw in at the end "by the way, make sure it doesn't weigh more than a gram, tops." Not to mention fueled only by nectar and milkweed, produces no harmful emissions and even has the built-in ability to manufacture more of itself. Now that's a recipe for a spit take if there ever was one.

No matter how gifted the aeronautical engineer — the ones to whom Theodore von Kármán is referring in his quote above, undoubtedly — they ain't got nothin’ on the diminuative monarch. No offense intended.

Just before I move onto the next part of the tag line, note that I said “made by people” as opposed to “flown by people”, or at least those seated in the cockpit and at the controls. That's because so much of aviation, both in the past and perhaps even more so today, is of the ‘uncrewed’ variety. I absolutely did not want to preclude any flying machine just because it didn't contain one or more human pilots. With BluFly, equal billing is provided to all air vehicles regardless of whether they are of the crewed or uncrewed persuasion.

Now, moving onto the “flying up to the Kármán Line” part: this is intended to preclude ‘space’ in the broadest sense. Somewhere along the line engineer and physicist von Kármán worked out the rough distance above the surface of the Earth where aerodynamic lift — generated by the interaction of vehicle structure and air — was no longer the primary factor in keeping a human-made object aloft. While it varies a little depending on where you are — and who you are — the Kármán Line is roughly 100km (62m) straight up. Again this self-imposed BluFly limitation, like birds and insects, is not because there aren't compelling stories about space exploration. It's simply a very different kind of science, a different audience and a subject which is also very well covered elsewhere.

If you'll permit me yet another small digression: the aircraft which always pops to my mind when discussing this somewhat abstract boundary is the scintillatingly gorgeous and distinctly Vaderesque X-15. 2 Even today, it still seems so far ahead of its time. For it and the pilots within, the Kármán Line really mattered. The X-15 eventually and successfully flew straight threw it — using aerodynamic flight controls up to the line, and then spaceship-like peroxide thrusters as it soared past it. On the way back down it would re-enter the sandpaper-like atmosphere where the control surfaces could once again bite into the thickening air and start taking effect. The X-15 pilots didn't just know about the Kármán Line — they actually lived it. Not to mention it seems so much more elegant than setting off a controlled explosion under your rear end and then hanging on for dear life.

For those eagle-eyed readers who also spotted the “humans-in-the-loop” part of the very same tagline, that's a nod to the insidious, multi-faceted challenges of artificial intelligence (AI). Candidly, that's worthy of a whole article in itself, so tune in next month for my thoughts on that.

To summarise, if it's not a bird or flying insect or even a flying fish and/or it's not headed to orbit or beyond, then it's fair game for BluFly. So expect coverage which will include the Guillow's Sky Streak, the Stratolaunch Roc and everything in between.

By all means, let me know what you think 3 about what's on offer this month and how BluFly might continue to improve. Also, if you have a story which fits the above and would like BluFly to help tell it, please drop me a line about that, too. I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time, fair winds and blue skies.

Terence C. Gannon
Managing Editor

Until such time we have our Table of Contents pages up and running, we are providing the most recent posts from the feed: 4

Note that the embedded posts above are from the Bluesky Custom Feed 4 which is the ‘reference’ feed for BluFly. Check out said feed if you want to see what else we posted about this month.