omega tau science & engineering podcast

SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In late October 2015, I had the opportunity to fly on SOFIA during science missions 248 and 249. This episode captures these two flights. The episode is a mix between interviews with scientists and aircrew, recordings from the intercom system and some narration by me. The list of guests can be seen on the episode page - it is too long for the abstract.

SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In the context of the preparation for my SOFIA flights, I visited the DSI in Stuttgart several times during this summer to record interviews with various DSI people about SOFIA. This episode covers these interviews, plus a recording of the visit of the instrument labs in Palmdale. The guests and topics are Alfred Krabbe, Head of the DSI, on the history and some of the science; Thomas Keilig, CEO of DSI, on the airplane and the modifications; Christian Fischer, Project Engineer of FIFI-LS, on the instrument and some of the science; Dörte Mehlert, Education and Public Outreach, on education and the flying teachers programme; and Zaheer Ali, head of the science and mission operations laboratory, on that lab.

Während meiner Hamburg-Reise im September habe ich Lothar Schweinbach besucht, Eigentümer und Chef der Druckerei Max Sames. Dort beschäftigt er sich schwerpunktmäßig mit handwerklichen Drucktechniken. In der Episode machen wir einen Rundgang durch die Druckerei und besprechen diese. Dabei geht's unter anderem um Stahlstichdruck, Reliefdruck, Offsetdruck und Letterpress.

Der D-Check ist die Grundüberholung bei Verkehrsflugzeugen, das Flugzeug wird dabei in weiten Teilen zerlegt und gründlich inspiziert. Anfang Oktober habe ich die Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg besucht; dort war die A330, D-AIKD zum D-Check. Mit Thomas Erich habe ich mich zunächst über Flugzeugwartung und -überholung allgemein unterhalten und habe dann einen Rundgang durch die KD gemacht.

Studenten berechnen, entwerfen und bauen Segelflugzeuge im Rahmen von akademischen Fliegergruppen (Akafliegs). Jeden August treffen sie sich zum forschen und fliegen in Elchingen im Rahmen des Idaflieg Sommertreffens. Unter anderem werden neue Flugzeuge eingeflogen und deren Eigenschaften erforscht. Außerdem finden die offiziellen Leistungsvermessungen für Segelflugzeuge im Rahmen dieses Treffens statt. Ich war dieses Jahr dort und habe mich mit diversen (ehemaligen) Studenten über die Aktivitäten unterhalten.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is an international treaty, still being ratified, that bans all nuclear tests. An important ingredient to the test is monitoring, whether nuclear tests will be performed nonetheless. To this end, the CTBT Preparatory Commission has established a world-spanning monitoring system that relies on seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide monitoring. In this episode, our guest is Randy Bell who runs the international data center and is thus responsible for running the monitoring network and evaluating the collected data.

Joseph Tainter, our guest in this episode, is an anthropologist and historian. In 1988 he wrote a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies in which he argues that societies inevitably increase their inherent complexity, and, if and when the complexity becomes too "expensive" (diminishing returns), a society will collapse. In this episode, Joe explains his rationale and provides historic examples for collapse. We then discuss his theory relative today's world, concluding with a not alltogether positive outlook.

Matt Hall is a pilot at the Red Bull Air Race and a professional aerobatics/air show pilot, and in this episode we talk about both. We start out with how Matt got into flying through gliders and ultralights. We then discuss competition aerobatics and air show flying, and the difference between the two. We continue with air racing and take a look at his MXS-R airplane, which, at the time of recording, was at the DG factory in Bruchsal, where we met for the recording. We conclude the episode with a brief discussion of his military flying, which included the F-18 for the RAAF and the F-15E on exchange with the USAF.

Im August war ich in der Nähe von Ehingen an der Donau und habe dort Sven de Vries besucht, der dort mit seinen Schafen und Ziegen unterwegs war. Wir haben uns über Schafe an sich unterhalten, aber auch darüber, wie Wanderschäferei funktioniert, welche Bedeutung sie für die Landschaftspflege hat, wie Sven seine Routen plant, seine Schafe zusammenhält und mit seinen Hunden arbeitet.

Megaprojects can be identified by their size -- in the Billions -- and also by the fact that most of them are considered a failure in terms of cost overrun, delay or the benefit delivered. Why do over 90% of such projects fail? Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of the Said Business School at Oxford University has spent his career finding out. Together with his teams he has collected lots of data about successful and unsuccessful megaprojects, and has also developed tools to help such projects increase the likelihood of success. In this episode, Bent gives us an insight into his important research.