You’ve probably heard of the “vomit comet.” This is a rather graphic nickname for an aircraft used to provide near-weightlessness for short periods of time by flying along a parabolic trajectory. They are used to train astronauts, conduct zero-gravity experiments, and are famous for having director Ron Howard create realistic spaceflight scenes for his movies. Apollo 13. But you might be surprised to find that it’s not as special as you might think, other than the padding that covers the inside for when occupants inevitably hit walls and ceilings.
In fact, similar results can be achieved on small commercial aircraft if the controls are manipulated properly.so [Chaz] is working on an Android app to help pilots find their sweet spot.
With the software running, the pilot first climbs the plane, then pitches it up, trying to keep the indicator on the phone’s display green for as long as possible. It’s not easy, but you can see in the video after the break that they manage to make it long enough to have things floating around the cockpit.
as [Chaz] As he explains, the app is essentially a G-force indicator with several UI features designed to help pilots keep the plane in the proper attitude and provide a feeling of weightlessness. It takes the value from the phone’s accelerometer, performs the appropriate calculations, and changes the color of the display when his calculated G-force approaches 0.
If the pilot is able to keep it below 0.1, the phone will play an audio cue. However, the fact that loose objects that were in the cockpit were floating should also be a pretty good indicator in this regard.
not similar [Chaz] He’s still ready to release the application, but since it’s built in MIT’s App Inventor, the walkthrough he provides with screenshots of the editor is technically not a good idea. That should be enough to write an application (I’m not kidding).