It's time again for our Website of the Week, and this time we visit an online reference for all things aerospace
SCOTT: "Our website is mainly an educational site that we try and answer questions that our visitors come and ask about different aspects of aerospace engineering, whether it be related to commercial aviation, military aircraft, space travel, careers in the industry and so on."
Jeff Scott is one of the eight aerospace professionals behind Aerospaceweb.org, an informative website featuring aircraft and spacecraft design, the popular "Ask a Rocket Scientist" feature, and a virtual museum of both military and civilian aircraft. In fact, the airaft museum was how it all got started.
SCOTT: "And over time we started writing detailed descriptions of the aircraft. You know, their histories, what made them unique and how they worked. Then we started including technical details, such as their overall sizes and weights and all the different versions of that aircraft that were built and what missions they performed, and so on. And over time it's become a fairly large collection of information on military and commercial aircraft, helicopters and so on."
The "Ask a Rocket Scientist" section we mentioned a moment ago is one of the most popular features of Aerospaceweb.org. Jeff Scott says they receive about 100 questions a week.
SCOTT: "We wish we could get to them all. But each week we try and pick one or two that are subjects that we feel are interesting enough to write about and interesting to our readers to learn about. And ... one of the things that's most interesting about doing this sort of thing is that oftentimes people will ask a question, something you've never thought about or maybe something you've always been curious about but never really had the time to go look into it in detail."
This week's question involves a nearly-forgotten U.S. Navy program from the 1950s to launch a satellite on a rocket fired from a high-flying fighter jet.
The "Ask a Rocket Scientist" archive covers a lot of ground — or should we say, a lot of space and sky. Some of the recent entries are about deciphering the national markings on military aircraft, the Greek names for the planets, the variability of the speed of sound, and how jet engines work.
You can ask your own question, or read the answers and learn more about all kinds of flight at Aerospaceweb.org, or get the link from our site, VOANews.com.