Episode 49 --- The Dangerous Downside of Airliner Automation

FromThe Cosmic Controversy Podcast

Start listening View podcast show

Episode 49 --- The Dangerous Downside of Airliner Automation

FromThe Cosmic Controversy Podcast

ratings:

Length:

52 minutes

Released:

May 7, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Guest commercial pilot and author Jack Hersch talks about his 2020 book, “The Dangers of Automation in Airliners: Accidents Waiting to Happen.” It’s both a fascinating and harrowing read but prompts questions and nagging issues that the aviation industry needs to continue to address.

Released:

May 7, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (66)

Cosmic Controversy covers past and present issues in aerospace and astronomy with your host --- science journalist, Forbes contributor and ”Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System” author Bruce Dorminey.

Skip carousel

Episode 9 --- How ESA's GAIA Satellite Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Milky Way: Dutch astronomer Anthony Brown of Leiden University explains how the European Space Agency's GAIA satellite is revolutionizing what we know about the Milky Way. This all-sky survey mission revisits each target 70 times over the course of the years-long ... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 11 --- Betelgeuse Dimming Mystery Might Be Solved, Says Edward Guinan: In a stroke of serendipity during a wide-ranging podcast interview, Villanova University astronomer Edward Guinan explains the paper behind today's news flap about the red supergiant star's inexplicable dimming. The most recent explanation is that dust g... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
82 min listen
Episode 5 --- The Trouble with Dark Matter: Episode 5 --- The Trouble with Dark Matter. This important hour-long interview with astronomer and dark matter expert Stacy McGaugh, Chair of the Dept. of Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, covers the conundrums surrounding... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
59 min listen
Episode 3 ---- Will We Get Back to the Moon By 2024?: Episode 3’s special guest is John Logsdon, the founder of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, author and celebrated space analyst. We discuss everything from how the pandemic is impacting current space operations to NASA’s Artemis mis... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
52 min listen
Episode 1 --- How to Find Microfossils on Mars: A conversation with astrobiologist Lara Maldanis about how to identify very ancient microfossils here on Earth and the potential for detecting them on Mars. by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
55 min listen
Episode 2 --- The Mysteries of Our Planet Venus: In this wide-ranging interview, planetary scientist Stephen Kane of the University of California, Riverside, delves into the mysteries of our neighbor planet Venus. We discuss how Venus went wrong and why understanding its evolution is so important in c... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
65 min listen
Episode 7 --- After Pearl Harbor, Were the Japanese Planning to Strike the U.S. West Coast?: Guest Michel Paradis on his fascinating new book "Last Mission To Tokyo" and how the ingenuity and success of Doolittle's raid marked a crucial turning point in America's war in the Pacific. Paradis argues that Jimmy Doolittle and his men's bombing raid... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
54 min listen
Episode 18 --- The Heyday of Flying by the Stars: Retired commercial pilot, crash investigator, and aviation attorney Gary LaPook joins me to discuss the development and practice of celestial air navigation in passenger aircraft; how it worked; why it was replaced; where it could go wrong, and why celes... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
62 min listen
Episode 10 --- Why Mars Remains So Misunderstood: Three spacecraft are currently en route to Mars, but none will visit the poles. Yet Mars’ poles drive much of the Martian climate. And their understanding is key to deciphering what might have been happening on the Red planet some 3.5 billion years ago... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
60 min listen
Episode 4 --- Is the Sun an Oddball Star?: Is the Sun an Oddball Star? A fascinating conversation with Kepler and TESS astronomer Travis Metcalfe, of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., about how our Sun stacks up against other sunlike stars in the galaxy. We cover the history of our... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
56 min listen
Episode 8 --- How NASA’s $10 Billion Webb Telescope Will Help Us Figure Out Our Own Solar System: When first conceived, the 6.5 meter James Webb Space Telescope was all about galaxy surveys, the deep sky, and cosmology; it still is. But it’s also about solar system science in surprising ways. This infrared behemoth will virtually revolutionize the ... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
69 min listen
Episode 13 --- Why Future Space-Based Arrays Of Optical Telescopes Will Likely Be 3-D Printed In Orbit: Lowell Observatory astronomer Gerard van Belle, Chief Scientist at the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI) in Flagstaff. Arizona talks about the possibility of arrays of space telescopes that are 3-D printed after launch. We also discuss the hi... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
81 min listen
Episode 6 --- The Evolution of Intelligence on Earth and Beyond: We hear a lot of talk about the possibility of intelligent E.T.s, but in this episode, neuroscientist Lori Marino gives us the nuts and bolts of what intelligence really is; how it manifests itself on our own Earth; and why intelligent aliens won't neces... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
61 min listen
Episode 27 --- Why Mars Went Wrong: NASA’s MAVEN orbiter has arguably done more to document how and why Mars lost its atmosphere and much of its water than any spacecraft ever sent to the red planet. The mission’s principal investigator, planetary scientist Bruce Jakosky is this week’s fe... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
60 min listen
Episode 30 --- Uranus and Neptune --- Our Solar System’s Mysterious Ice Giants: Renowned planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel and I chat about our solar system’s mysterious ice giant planets, Uranus and Neptune. There’s only been one flyby of these giant planets by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft back in the late 1980s. Hammel, who was p... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
64 min listen
Episode 14 --- Does the Dwarf Planet Ceres Harbor Life?: This week's guest is NASA Dawn project scientist Julie Castillo-Rogez who led the hugely successful robotic mission on the first in-depth look at the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Castillo talks about why there's a growing consensus that Ce... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
58 min listen
Episode 21 --- How Aircraft Propellers Drove The Aeronautical Revolution: Without the lowly propeller, global trade and commerce and freedom of movement as we knew it prior to Covid would have never had the opportunity to flourish. Special guest Jeremy R. Kinney, Chair of the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian Institut... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
67 min listen
Episode 34 --- Why Geology Is Crucial To Unlocking The Mysteries Of Our Solar System: Planetary geophysicist Erik Asphaug of the University of Arizona discusses what we really know about our solar system; its age; its formation; and its evolution. Asphaug also addresses some major puzzles. Is our solar system truly anomalous? Is the compo... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
60 min listen
Episode 17 --- How We All Got Here --- Galaxy Evolution over Cosmic Time: For anyone who’s ever wondered how our own star happened to be caught up in the midst of a grand spiral beauty like our Milky Way, this episode should at least provide some clues. It’s a big cosmological subject and of course, we just skim the surface b... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
46 min listen
Episode 12 --- Understanding Potential Alien Technosignatures: This week’s guest is Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester in New York, who has received the first-ever NASA grant to begin cataloging potential alien techno-signatures in a non-radio spectrum. The hunt for pote... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 15 --- Amelia Earhart Disappearance Is Likely Very Close To Being Solved: Amelia Earhart, arguably the most famous woman in the world at the time of her 1937 disappearance, was on a second attempt to fly around the world when something went horribly wrong. However, what actually happened to the famed aviator and her navigator... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
83 min listen
Episode 26 --- How The Cold War Spurred The Earliest Days Of Interplanetary Exploration: The earliest days of robotic space exploration, to the Moon, Venus, Mars, and even Mercury, likely would never have played out in such dramatic fashion in the late 1950s and early 1960s without the Cold War. Despite a steep learning curve with lots of r... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
62 min listen
Episode 28 --- The Glenn Miller Disappearance: One of World War II’s Greatest Aviation Mysteries: Big band historian and author Dennis Spragg talks about the music, the legacy, and the tragic disappearance of the American big band icon, Glenn Miller. We cover what shaped his unique sound; his driving passion to give back to America’s Greatest Genera... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
69 min listen
Episode 29 --- How the Cold War Spurred the Race for Supersonic Flight: The age of supersonic flight officially began after World War II, when the late Chuck Yeager pushed the Bell X-1 test aircraft beyond the speed of sound (Mach 1) in October 1947. But bestselling author and highly-decorated fighter pilot Dan Hampton cont... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
54 min listen
Episode 31 --- Interstellar Propulsion --- What We Need to Make Star Trek Real: Propulsion physicist Marc Millis talks about the prospects for fast, efficient interstellar travel. Millis was head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Program at Glenn Research Center outside Cleveland for years beginning in the mid-1990s. We discuss wh... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
64 min listen
Episode 20 --- The Case for a Lunar Science Moon Rush: Notre Dame Planetary Geologist Clive Neal stops by the podcast for a terrifically candid discussion of why the Moon has to be the first stop en route to Mars. We talk about why the Moon holds the key to the new Space Economy; the prospects for NASA maki... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
76 min listen
Episode 43 --- What Future And Final Galaxy Surveys Will Teach Us About The Cosmos: Jason Rhodes, a cosmologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the JPL Roman Space Telescope Project Scientist, discusses a proposed galaxy survey to end all galaxy surveys. One that would wring as much information out of our universe’... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 22 --- The Far Future Of Our Universe (Turtles All the Way Down): What happens when all the stars in our cosmos’ galaxies burn out; with little or no hydrogen gas left to fuel star formation; and everything pretty much turns to toast? It will presage an age of black holes where extremely low temperatures and fundament... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
59 min listen
Episode 25 --- Getting To Know Andromeda, Our Grand Spiral Neighbor: First cataloged by Al Sufi as a mere optical smudge high in the winter sky, the Andromeda Galaxy has lately been a cornerstone of everything we know about contemporary astronomy and the cosmos as a whole. Join Lowell Observatory astronomer Philip Massey... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
54 min listen
Episode 16 --- Deciphering Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), arguably the most bizarre radio emissions ever detected.: Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have hogged the headlines for the last decade or so; prompting many news organizations to question whether they are produced by far-flung alien civilizations in the midst of some sort of bizarre intergalactic transport mechanism.... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
67 min listen

More Episodes from The Cosmic Controversy Podcast

Skip carousel

Episode 67 --- Mysteries Of The Lunar Surface: Guest Benjamin Greenhagen, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, outlines the lunar surface’s remaining mysteries --- everything from permanently shaded regions at the North and South poles to near an... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
49 min listen
Episode 66 --- The Big Questions About The Cosmos And Our Existence: Guest Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and director of the BEYOND Center at Arizona State University, gives an enlightening and fascinating interview on the true nature of the Cosmos and why there is something rather than nothing. We also discuss hi... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
66 min listen
Episode 65 --- The Future Of Supersonic, Hypersonic and Suborbital Passenger Flight: Guest Christopher Combs, an assistant professor of aerodynamics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, discusses current prospects for supersonic. hypersonic and even suborbital spaceplane passenger flight. Combs clearly communicates the technical a... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
55 min listen
Episode 64 --- The Long-Forgotten Tragedy Of The Arctic Airship Italia: Acclaimed U.K. journalist Mark Piesing chats about his first book N-4 DOWN: THE HUNT FOR THE ARCTIC AIRSHIP ITALIA (Harper-Collins) which tracks the long-forgotten history of how airship and early aviators tried to conquer the North Pole. Umberto Nobil... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
49 min listen
Episode 63 --- Getting Real About the Social and Psychological Challenges of Long-Term Space Missions: Guest Sheryl L. Bishop, a social psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston gets real about what we need to make happen if astronauts are going to be able to thrive off-world beyond low-Earth orbit. Bishop... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
55 min listen
Episode 62 --- The Link Between Ancient Astrochemistry And Life On Earth: Guest Edwin (Ted) Bergin, professor of astronomy and Chair of the Dept. of Astronomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, discusses whether our existence in this solar system is directly related to the initial chemical makeup of our star’s protoso... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
55 min listen
Episode 61 --- Could A Snowball Earth Happen Again?: University of Chicago associate professor Dorian Abbot chats about his research on the controversial Snowball Earth Hypothesis. That is, the idea that at least twice in Earth’s geological past, our planet was basically a glacial ball of ice and snow. A... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
42 min listen
Episode 60 --- Why Our Human Brain Is Undeniably Unique In The Cosmos: Our civilization and technology as we know it owes itself to a fluke of evolution that enabled the development of human intelligence. It’s a marvelous and nuanced intelligence that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the cosmos. That doesn’t mean tha... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
47 min listen
Episode 59 --- Einstein’s Little-Appreciated Window Onto Far Flung Exoplanets: Darren DePoy, Professor of Astronomy and Associate Dean for Research at Texas A&M University in College Station, talks about using one of Einstein’s little-known and underappreciated method of microlensing to look for extrasolar planets around sunlike st... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
55 min listen
Episode 58 --- How The Unsung ‘Moon Buggy’ Saved The Final Three Apollo Missions: Guest Earl Swift, a former reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and New York Times bestselling author of “Chesapeake Requiem” discusses his brand-new book “Across the Airless Wilds---the Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings,” just out from ... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
49 min listen
Episode 57 --- Why Our Earth Is Still One Of A Kind: University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward, co-author of the famed non-fiction title, “Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon In The Universe" is my guest. He and University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee’s controversial book was pu... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 56 --- The Case For Antimatter Propulsion: Guest Gerald Jackson, former Fermilab physicist and advanced propulsion entrepreneur chats about his plans for an Antimatter Propulsion interstellar robotic probe. First stop would be Proxima Centauri. In a wide-ranging interview, Jackson talks about t... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
51 min listen
Episode 55 --- How Ford’s Tri-Motor Airplane Helped Create The Airline Industry of Today.: Matt Anderson, the John and Horace Dodge Curator of Transportation at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, speaks candidly about the early days of The Ford Motor Company and its foray into aviation via its revolutionary Tri-Motor airplane. Altho... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
47 min listen
Episode 54 --- What Nearby Stellar Open Clusters Are Still Teaching Us: Marc Pinsonneault, a professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University in Columbus, and an expert on stellar open clusters, chats about some of the most famous star clusters in the sky, including the beautiful, blue Seven Sisters of The Pleiades; the H... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
47 min listen
Episode 53 --- John Glenn, JFK and the Cold War's New Frontier: Historian and former Clinton presidential speechwriter Jeff Shesol chats about his new book, “Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War” just out from W.W. Norton. Shesol makes the case that the Cold War and the S... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
60 min listen
Episode 52 --- The Unexpected Origins of Life's Genetic Code: Guest Ben K.D. Pearce, a Ph.D student in astrophysics and astrobiology at McMaster University in Toronto, and an expert on the origins of life’s building blocks here on Earth. We discuss the idea that all the genetic components from which life emerged w... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 50 --- How Humans Can Use Bioengineering To Move Off-World: Geneticist Christopher Mason chats about his new book, “The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds” from MIT Press. We discuss both the nuts and bolts and the philosophy driving our expansion offworld. Mason’s goal is to preserve our spe... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
50 min listen
Episode 48 --- Mapping Laniakea, Our Home Supercluster Of Galaxies: World-renowned, University of Hawaii cosmologist Brent Tully on 50 years of mapping the nearby universe which includes our own home supercluster ‘Laniakea.’ Tully candidly assesses the state of cosmography, the science of making 3-D maps of the nearby u... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
52 min listen
Episode 47 --- How Palomar Observatory Changed Almost Everything We Knew About Astronomy: Astronomer and author Linda Schweizer talks about her comprehensive new history of Palomar Observatory --- “Cosmic Odyssey: How Intrepid Astronomers At Palomar Observatory Changed Our View of the Universe” from MIT Press. We focus on Palomar’s early 20... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
53 min listen
Episode 46 – Harvard Geologist Andy Knoll Sums Up The Grand Sweep Of Earth’s History: Harvard University geologist Andrew H. Knoll takes on the grand sweep of Earth’s formation and evolution in his new book “A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters. He succinctly describes Earth from its cosmological beginnings in a... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
58 min listen
Episode 45 --- The Incredible Story of Flying Tiger Flight 923’s North Atlantic Ditching: Author Eric Lindner talks about his forthcoming book, “Tiger in the Sea: The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival.” The September 23, 1962 Flying Tiger Line passenger charter Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft en rout... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
48 min listen
Episode 44 --- ESA’s Upcoming Euclid Dark Energy Survey: Fascinating new chat with Michael Seiffert, the NASA project scientist for the U.S. contribution to the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft. Due for launch in the second half of 2022, we discuss how this new space telescope will help astronomers f... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
52 min listen
Episode 43 --- What Future And Final Galaxy Surveys Will Teach Us About The Cosmos: Jason Rhodes, a cosmologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the JPL Roman Space Telescope Project Scientist, discusses a proposed galaxy survey to end all galaxy surveys. One that would wring as much information out of our universe’... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
57 min listen
Episode 42 --- Neil DeGrasse Tyson Talks About His New Book “Cosmic Queries”: Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, discusses everything from pond scum to space aliens in this off-the-wall and very engaging episode. It’s vintage Ty... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
46 min listen
Episode 41 --- The History Of Space Exploration In 100 Objects: Award-winning NASA astrophysicist and author Sten Odenwald discusses several of the 100 objects featured in his 2019 book: “Space Exploration: A History in 100 Objects.” I pick a few of the lesser known and underappreciated objects, which run the gamu... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
59 min listen
Episode 40 --- Cosmic Cataclysms And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life On Earth: I welcome renowned evolutionary paleobiologist Bruce S. Lieberman, a professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, who is an expert on how cosmic cataclysms have impacted the evolution of life here on Earth. Massive nearby supernovae, gamma-ray bur... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
63 min listen
Episode 39 --- What NASA’s Perseverance Rover Is Teaching The Rest Of Us.: NASA’s Rob Manning, JPL’s Chief Engineer, discusses management, logistics, innovation and the future of robotic Mars exploration in this unique episode. With this week’s successful landing of the Perseverance rover on an ancient river delta, NASA ups it... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
64 min listen
Episode 38 --- The Trouble With Dark Energy: Nearly 25 years after its discovery, the mystery at the core of dark energy persists. Astronomers are no closer to understanding what’s behind this cosmic repulsive force that counteracts gravity and causes the cosmos to expand at an accelerating rate t... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
54 min listen
Episode 37 --- Is Oumuamua, Our Solar System’s 1st Identified Interstellar Asteroid, Actually An Alien Probe?: Did an alien lightsail traverse our solar system in 2017? Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb thinks so. In today’s episode, I welcome Loeb to discuss his bestselling book --- “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.” We... by The Cosmic Controversy Podcast
62 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Episode 49 --- The Dangerous Downside of Airliner Automation

Episode 49 --- The Dangerous Downside of Airliner Automation

Description

Titles in the series (66)

More Episodes from The Cosmic Controversy Podcast