Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

SANTA ANA DRAGS

PEOPLE FLYING into or out of Orange County, California, John Wayne Airport (SNA) may not realize it, but they’re sharing real estate with 1950s’ hot rodders. What’s more, hot rod … Continue reading

October 3, 2015 · Leave a comment

MOVING THE GOODS—BY AIR

IT DIDN’T take long for marketers to realize that aeroplanes could move the goods, in the advertising sense. Quite distinct from poster art of early aviation meets, another genre quickly … Continue reading

October 2, 2015 · Leave a comment

HELLO, CAN WE HEAR YOU NOW?

NASA’s RECENT announcement that there are signs of water on Mars is a long, long way from any chance that it has life as we know it. However, this news … Continue reading

October 1, 2015 · Leave a comment

AFRICA COUNTS

EARLIEST MAN arose on the African continent, and with evolving culture came mathematics. There’s a standard book on this subject, now in its third edition, Africa Counts by Claudia Zaslavsky. … Continue reading

September 30, 2015 · Leave a comment

HYBRID VS. GASOLINE VS. DIESEL: TWO SNAFUS

THE RECENT Volkswagen diesel deceit reminded me of a 2010 SAE International presentation of mine that coordinated with an article in R&T. In retrospect, the presentation involved a pair of … Continue reading

September 29, 2015 · 5 Comments

CALIFORNIA, HERE I CAME

I’M A born-again Californian, not a native one. Wife Dottie, by contrast, is a desert rat from El Centro. In rearranging some bookshelves recently, I came upon a fine California … Continue reading

September 28, 2015 · 2 Comments

WONDERS OF A CAR’S CATALYTIC CONVERTER

MY RECENT item on fuel cell catalysts got me and several readers thinking about conventional automotive catalytic converters. Are automotive catalysts the same as those in a fuel cell? No. … Continue reading

September 27, 2015 · 3 Comments

CREATE ONE’S OWN LA BOHÈME

I’VE REDISCOVERED a book about making one’s own opera production with nothing more than scissors and glue. What fun. A snip-and-paste challenge. I think of this as preparation for the … Continue reading

September 26, 2015 · Leave a comment

CUTTING FUEL CELL COSTS

AN ADVANCE at Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy may significantly lower the cost of fuel cell propulsion. Briefly, Argonne researchers have developed a less costly replacement … Continue reading

September 25, 2015 · Leave a comment

AIRCRAFT DEICING/ANTI-ICING TIDBITS

TEMPERATURES TODAY in a few Southern California locales may hit three digits (Fahrenheit, thankfully). So I thought some tidbits about aircraft deicing and anti-icing might be cool. Maybe you’re familiar … Continue reading

September 24, 2015 · 5 Comments