Sam the Octopus @troubleMoney@computerfairi.es

@noelle @minego my point is that if it can't take off under its own power then what you've got there isn't a plane, it's (at best) a glider

which people had been messing about with for a while

@noelle @minego bad analogy on my part, I went for the amusing visual rather than accuracy

but yeah, 20mph headwind needed to generate enough lift on the wings for the thing to get off the ground, in other words, couldn't take off on its own

@noelle @minego and therefore fulfil the "self-powered" part of the brief

for something to be a powered flight it has to be able to take off by itself, not just get blown into the sky like a badly assembled tent

@noelle @minego they needed to either slide down a hill to pick up speed, use a catapult, or have a massive headwind to take off!

I could bloody fly if you send me down a ramp or fling me from a catapult!

I'd probably get further than they did as well!

@minego more specifically, they didn't really get the first powered flight

pretty important part of the whole "flight" thing is taking off, which they couldn't do without a 20mph headwind which kinda invalidates the whole "powered flight" thing

who should really get credit for the first powered flight is a bloke called Alberto Santos-Dumont

@minego Wright brothers suck and their so-called "plane" was effectively just a kite with pretensions

mastodon: the only place I've ever found where you can shit-talk early 20th-century aviation enthusiasts and people know what the hell you're on about

@InspectorCaracal @maple okay, we can certainly agree on the fact that they built a thing which they said was a plane but was really a glorified kite

@maple good point, that was the chinese...

uh...

they invented the motorised kite!

sorta

I think other people may have put engines on kites before but they just didn't have enough headwind to take off

@maple hey, they didn't invent fuck all!

they came up with a plane that needed a 20 mile per hour headwind to take off

which is pretty much just a kite really but they did invent the kitey thing!

My thing for pilot's watches probably explains why I like the Cartier Santos so much, it's the original pilot's watch

First made by Louis Cartier for Alberto Santos-Dumont who piloted the first plane that could fly under its own power

(The Wright brothers can suck it)

@maple I'm octopus, not much changes

To clarify, the brand is Guinand, with a D at the end

Whoopi Goldberg isn't flogging these out of ten-forward unfortunately

Ooh, this is nice

The new Guinand Starfighter Pilot

Bicompax chrono heavily inspired by the ones Heuer made for the Bundeswehr in the 60's

I'm a sucker for a good pilot's watch, also a sucker for a good German watch, and this is both

@maple oh shit same

@Jo "dude, your laptop's so old!"

"first off, not a dude, second, it's an x230 so not old, third, get the fuck off my lawn you little shit"

@Jo TFW you realise that "old computer shit" in their eyes means anything produced before 2010

@maple but counterproductive is my favourite kind of productive!

@maple you can eat chips while listening to all of those

that's a chiptune!

@maple I think the people on the field kick the ball then refs stop everything and people yell at the ref