My OperaChaos, asymmetry and creativity...
Monday, July 13, 2009 7:47:13 PM
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227141.200-disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives-the-brain.html?full=true
New Scientist
..."Disorderly genius:
How chaos drives the brain by David Robson
29 June 2009
HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer?
Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise."...
(Please click on the above link to read the article in full. Thank you. tkm)
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.swannysmodels.com/BV141review.html
Images and text Copyright © 2003 by Matt Swan
Developmental Background
The story of the Bv-141 began in the late 1930s when the Luftwaffe was shopping for a light ground attack aircraft to supplement the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, which was already in production. Focke Wulf proposed its Fw-189, while at Blohm & Voss, designer Richard Vogt came up with what is certainly the most asymmetrical airplane ever flown.
Although the firm is best known for building Germany's World War II flying boats and was well established as a manufacturer of sea going vessels, Blohm & Voss is most notorious for its profoundly eccentric Bv-141. It was precisely this eccentricity that doomed an otherwise operable and reportedly reliable airplane.
Blohm & Voss actually undertook to build it at their own expense. It worked, but pilots refused to trust such unorthodox lines and the British laughed at them. The airplane that emerged from Vogt's drawings was remarkably aerodynamic, the fact of which he'd already known. It was 39 feet 10 inches long, with a wingspan of 50 feet 8 inches and a weight of 8600 pounds, putting it in almost exactly the same size and weight class as the familiar Messerschmitt Bf-110. Powered by a BMW132 865 hp radial engine, the Bv-141 had a respectable top speed of 248 mph and a ceiling of 29,530 feet, while its 700-mile range was almost twice that of the Fw-189.
The Bv-141 was a very unusual, asymmetric aircraft. The configuration was adopted to give excellent all-round view from a single-engine aircraft. An extensively glazed nacelle was fitted to the left of a slender tail boom. The Bv-141A (with symmetrical tailplane) was an excellent aircraft but the RLM rejected it as underpowered. The more powerful Bv-141B (with asymmetrical tailplane) had some handling problems. Both types had hydraulic problems.
Its first flight, on 25 February 1938, proved the Bv-141 to be more airworthy than its detractors wanted to believe. Over the next two years three Bv-141A prototypes and 10 Bv-141B production aircraft were completed, but the poor bird never shook the stigma of its disfigured appearance and the Folke Wulf Fw-189A was the winner of the contract.
New Scientist
..."Disorderly genius:
How chaos drives the brain by David Robson
29 June 2009
HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer?
Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise."...
(Please click on the above link to read the article in full. Thank you. tkm)
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.swannysmodels.com/BV141review.html
Images and text Copyright © 2003 by Matt Swan
Developmental Background
The story of the Bv-141 began in the late 1930s when the Luftwaffe was shopping for a light ground attack aircraft to supplement the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, which was already in production. Focke Wulf proposed its Fw-189, while at Blohm & Voss, designer Richard Vogt came up with what is certainly the most asymmetrical airplane ever flown.
Although the firm is best known for building Germany's World War II flying boats and was well established as a manufacturer of sea going vessels, Blohm & Voss is most notorious for its profoundly eccentric Bv-141. It was precisely this eccentricity that doomed an otherwise operable and reportedly reliable airplane.
Blohm & Voss actually undertook to build it at their own expense. It worked, but pilots refused to trust such unorthodox lines and the British laughed at them. The airplane that emerged from Vogt's drawings was remarkably aerodynamic, the fact of which he'd already known. It was 39 feet 10 inches long, with a wingspan of 50 feet 8 inches and a weight of 8600 pounds, putting it in almost exactly the same size and weight class as the familiar Messerschmitt Bf-110. Powered by a BMW132 865 hp radial engine, the Bv-141 had a respectable top speed of 248 mph and a ceiling of 29,530 feet, while its 700-mile range was almost twice that of the Fw-189.
The Bv-141 was a very unusual, asymmetric aircraft. The configuration was adopted to give excellent all-round view from a single-engine aircraft. An extensively glazed nacelle was fitted to the left of a slender tail boom. The Bv-141A (with symmetrical tailplane) was an excellent aircraft but the RLM rejected it as underpowered. The more powerful Bv-141B (with asymmetrical tailplane) had some handling problems. Both types had hydraulic problems.
Its first flight, on 25 February 1938, proved the Bv-141 to be more airworthy than its detractors wanted to believe. Over the next two years three Bv-141A prototypes and 10 Bv-141B production aircraft were completed, but the poor bird never shook the stigma of its disfigured appearance and the Folke Wulf Fw-189A was the winner of the contract.
