Does E = mc² or mc³? The Science in Bond Films Thread

Comments

• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 18 Posts: 14,262

  DAF
  
  
  
  
  
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• thedove hiding in the Greek underworld

  January 18 Posts: 5,691

  One small thing, it was not Connery saying "Operation Grand Slam" that stopped the laser, unless he was told to cut the torch at that point. The line that stops the laser is Goldfinger saying "You are right Mr. Bond you are worth much more to me alive."
  
  Now I am trying to recall whether we see the torch in the film after Bond speaks and says his lines? Maybe close ups or insert shots of the lasers after that line?
  
  
• QBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.

  January 18 Posts: 14,952

  Movie magic. Keep in mind the shots were not filmed in order as we see them. And time can play with one's memory. When the laser flame disappears for good in the long shot it's a visual effect added in post.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 20 Posts: 14,262

  
  
  

  

  Science
  James Bond: The profile of a perfect vaper?

  Two researchers at the University of Otago in Wellington (New Zealand) got interested in tobacco use by James Bond and other characters of the Eon production series, especially by Bond's sexual partners. They also paid attention to tobacco-related spy-gadgetry over the six decades of the series and noticed he never used an e-cigarette so far.
  https://www.vapingpost.com/2017/01/18/james-bond-the-profile-of-a-perfect-vaper/
  By A7mad-vp -
  January 18, 2017

  “It won’t be the nicotine that kills you, Mr Bond”

  Everybody knows how James Bond’s life is stressful. He is a joker, a gambler, he smokes and drinks. But in “this ever-changing world in which we’re living” (Live and Let Die, lyrics) we have never seen James using an e-cigarette to get his nicotine fix, why? The warning, “It won’t be the nicotine that kills you, Mr Bond”, in the mouth of vilains, in 1967, could have paved the way of his smoking cessation.

  
  Selected smoking trends in 24 James Bond movies from 1962 to 2015 (from Wilson & Tucker, 2017)

  Interestingly, James has gradually decreased his smoking since the first movie in 1962 (83%) and stopped smoking 14 years ago. He relapsed for his “last cigar” in Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan) and, since, hasn’t been spotted smoking, even in a mirror image (cf. Dr No where Sean Connery was smoking in bed).

  
  Bérénice Marlohe smoking in Eon’s Skyfall movie (James Bond).

  Secondhand smoke exposure and temptation to smoke
  Bond’s exposure to cigarette smoke started at work, where his colleague at MI6, Miss Moneypenny, was spotted smoking as early as in 1963 (From Russia with Love). James also had multiple sexual partners who smoked and both enjoyed post-coital cigarette break, which adds to secondhand smoking the risk of fire.
  
  Although Bond’s partners stopped smoking in the 1990s, the risk of a relapse into smoking couldn’t be completely discarded. The last occurence of a James Bond’s Girl smoking after almost 10 years of abstinence was in Skyfall (2012), as the French actress, Bérénice Marlohe (featuring Séverine), was holding a cigarette and blowing smoke at James’ face. Provocation?
  
  Cigarettes, cigars, packs or lighters, the temptation to smoke was also present through the gadgets James received from Q’s for his missions. Were Dr No’s producers visionaries when they invented cyanide-containing cigarettes for use in suicide?

  
  Remote controller hidden in a cigarette case (Thunderball, 1965)

  Tobacco products always refer to death
  In James Bond movies, various tobacco products have been diverted with strong reference to death, always. Some cigarettes were used to blow corrosive powder at vilains’ faces, hookah pipes were converted in machine guns and even a cigarette pack was equipped with a remote control detonator. But references to the risk of smoking have always been made with a lot of humour.

  
  “You should give up smoking, cigarettes are very bad for your chest”
  

  James received his first warning in 1967 when he was told “You should give up smoking, cigarettes are very bad for your chest” (in You Only Live Twice). His black humour about a cigarette that fires a rocket made him say “It can save your live, this cigarette”. He also ironically told “filthy habit!” to a man about his smoking after he knocked him out in 1997 (Tomorrow Never Dies).
  
  Adaptation to changes in the society and anticipation
  As health warnings appeared on British cigarette packs in 1971, reading “WARNING by H.M. Government, SMOKING CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH”, James Bond (Roger Moore) referred to such warnings in 1974 (The Man with the Golden Gun) and said “I see why these packets carry a government warning (…) they certainly can damage your health”.
  
  Innovation is not the only fact of James Bond’s high-tech gadgets. The study also reveals that the producers of the series had anticipation skills, especially when a person, in Goldeneye, is seen going outside to smoke for the first time, saying “I’m going for a cigarette”. It was in 1995 the first reference to smoke-free workplaces while the Health Act 2006 that introduced provisions for the creation of a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces in the UK was enacted about 10 years later.
  
  Smoke-free workplaces is also referred to in 1999, when Bond offered a cigar to Miss Moneypenny and she threw it into her office bin. But in the same movie (The World Is not Enough), James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is also seen smoking in public transportation: a private plane and a submarine.

  

  James Bond (Timothy Dalton) manipulation a cigarette pack of the brand Lark (Licence to Kill, 1989)

  After some studies dealt with alcohol use and violent behaviour in James Bond movies the authors believe that “persisting smoking content remains problematic”. They notice that product placement (Aston Martin, Martini, Marlboro, Lark) also occurred on two occasions against only one occasion where no reference to tobacco products was made (Casino Royale, 2006).

  
  “Will we see James Bond remaining abstinent in the future opuses of his movies?”
  “Will we see him using an electronic mods or rather a PMI/Altria HNB cigarette?”
  

  The study demonstrates that James Bond has a problem with stress, games, alcohol and women. Nevertheless, the hero is shown to follow the general trends of the society. Given his good start to get rid of combustible cigarettes over the last 14 years and the taste of his colleagues for high-tech devices, there are some questions which appear to be on the lips of a number of persons: “Will we see James Bond remaining abstinent in the future opuses of his movies?” “Will we see him using an electronic mod or rather a PMI/Altria HNB cigarette?”
  
  
  Wilson N & Tucker A., 2017. Die Another Day, James Bond’s smoking over six decades. Tob Control doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053426
  

  

  
  
• CommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea

  January 20 Posts: 8,648

  moke-free workplaces is also referred to in 1999, when Bond offered a cigar to Miss Moneypenny and she threw it into her office bin. But in the same movie (The World Is not Enough)

  
  not quite. It had nothing to do with no smoking in the workplace, but with the line 'i know exactly where to put that'it was a reference to a certain US president, and his extracurricular activities at the workplace.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 23 edited January 23 Posts: 14,262

  Well the joke was definitely relating the cigar to presidential mischief of the day in the oval office as you said @CommanderRoss .
  
  To be fair, smoking restrictions in the UK up-ticked in 1992 and 1995, leading to an outright ban for smoking in the workplace 2006-2007.
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 24 Posts: 14,262

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

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• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 31 Posts: 14,262

  

  

  Magnets Featured in James Bond
  Films, Part One

  https://buymagnets.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-films-part-one/?srsltid=AfmBOoqZvXq8ZPJfo7Qvqq3WCKg942OxR0UsJmx5K_LHLwtxfH0KrDX7

  

  Some of the most creative ideas about magnets have come from the silver screen. In movies, television, and comic books, magnets have been featured as the power behind some truly incredible gadgets and gizmos. One of the most interesting masters of magnets has been Agent 007—James Bond. In fact, magnets have so frequently played a starring role in the James Bond movies that this will be the first blog in a multi-part series examining magnets in the world of James Bond.

  Magnets have Helped James Bond
  Escape from Certain Doom

  From Russia with Love (1963)
  In From Russia with Love, the second film in the Broccoli & Saltzman franchise, Sean Connery played James Bond with a stylish attaché case in hand. This leather case, supplied to him by the brilliant “Q,” was no ordinary briefcase. Instead, it was a state-of-the-art gadget that contained a magnetized tin of talcum powder concealing a tear gas cartridge. The case was designed so that when it was opened with the latches in the wrong position, the tear gas bomb inside would explode. When Bond was confronted by Spectre villain Donald “Red” Grant, Bond had to rely on the teargas canister exploding in the face of his adversary. If not for this clever trap, Bond may not have been able to defeat Grant.
  
  Now, could this work in real life? Well, it would probably be easier today than it was in 1963. You see, in 1963, powerful neodymium magnets had not been invented yet. This means that Bond would have had to rely on weaker ferrite or alnico magnets to attach the tin to the inside of the case.
  
  You Only Live Twice (1967)
  Sean Connery starred as James Bond for the fifth time in this film, with a screenplay written by Roald Dahl. In this film, Bond finds himself and his ally Aki being chased by a carload full of gunmen as they speed down the road in a Toyota 2000 GT. Just when things start to look particularly dire, the two are saved by Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service. Tanaka orders a large two-rotor helicopter to their rescue, but this is no ordinary helicopter. The helicopter is carrying an enormous electromagnet, which is lowered onto the car of the villains. As the villains are lifted higher and higher into the air, the helicopter carries them away from the road and over the ocean. Suddenly, the electromagnet is shut off, and the gunmen, trapped in their car, fall helplessly into a watery grave.
  
  Of this scene, associate producer William Cartlidge was quoted as saying, “I remember script conferences where the idea was to think of as many outrageous suggestions as you could, and this was one of them.”
  
  Is this idea as bizarre as Cartlidge implies? On one hand, it’s not completely crazy. Electromagnets are commonly used in the scrap metal recycling industry to move cars from place to place during the recycling industry. On the other hand, electromagnets capable of lifting cars are quite heavy, and it’s questionable whether or not a small helicopter could realistically carry a large electromagnet in addition to the car the magnet picked up. Additionally, all electromagnets must be connected to a power source—we’re not sure exactly how this electromagnet is being powered.
  
  But, part of the fun of film is that it presents us with larger than life thrills!
  
  If you are interested in learning more about electromagnets—which you may or may not wish to connect to a helicopter—contact BuyMagnets.com today. And, stay tuned for the next blog in our James Bond series!

  

  Magnets Featured in James Bond Films
  Part 1

  By Paul Fears | 06 November 2017
  https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-films-part-1/
  
  Magnets and magnetic powers often make it into popular culture via the movies. With all the gadgets and gizmos, James Bond has enlisted the help of the simple magnet on many occasions. In the first of two blogs, we look at the movies in which Magnets took a starring role alongside Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

  

  From Russia With Love (1963)
  The 1963 movie was the 2nd in the Broccoli & Saltzman franchise, featuring Sean Connery as James Bond. His attache case was the first of many state-of-the-art gadgets supplied by Q. The leather case contained a magnetised tin of talcum powder concealing a tear gas cartridge.
  
  When the case was opened with the latches in the wrong position, the tear gas bomb exploded. After being overcome by Spectre villain Donald ‘Red’ Grant (played by Robert Shaw) on a train returning to England, Bond has to rely on the teargas canister exploding in his adversary’s face when he opens the case. In the ensuing hand-to-hand battle, Bond eventually strangles Grant with his own garrote.
  
  Magnetically attaching the tin to the inside of the case is possible, although only weak Ferrite Magnets were available when the movie was made.

  

  You Only Live Twice (1967)
  Sean Connery’s 5th outing as James Bond was in a movie with a screenplay written by Roald Dahl. In the movie, Bond is in a Toyota 2000 GT with with an ally Aki and being chased by a car-load of gunmen. The beautiful head of the Japanese Secret Service, Tiger Tanaka, comes to his rescue. Her large two-rotor helicopter has a gigantic electro-magnet, which is lowered onto the villain’s car, lifting them off the ground and then dropping them into the sea.
  
  Electro-magnets are used widely in the scrap metal industry and was clearly the inspiration for this gadget. However, the weight of such an electro-magnet would be considerable, especially with the addition of a car. Also, how the electro-magnet is powered is never made very clear.

  

  Live and Let Die (1973)
  In 1973 Roger Moore made his first appearance as James Bond. In the movie, Bond wears a unique Rolex watch with many features. As well as a small buzz saw built into the face, which Bond uses to free himself after being tied up, the watch has two magnetic properties. Incredibly, the timepiece has a magnetic field that is powerful enough to deflect a bullet at long range. However, it is the use of the magnet in his watch to unzip the dress of Miss Caruso is the one that is most remembered. Bond attributes this to ‘sheer magnetism’.
  
  In reality, it is difficult to comprehend how a magnet in a watch would deflect a bullet. However, a Rare Earth Neodymium Magnet (which was not widely available at the time), may have some chance of unzipping a dress, although very unlikely.
  
  Magnets in James Bond and the Real World
  With the amazing advances in technology, many of the gadgets featured in early James Bond movies have now become reality. Since 1963 permanent magnet technology has evolved considerably, with Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets producing exceptionally strong magnetic forces. In fact, without Magnets the world would be without mobile phones, wind turbines, and electric motors.
  
  We just wonder when James bond will next need the help of a Magnetic Force.
  
  Related Technical Article
  Magnets Featured in James Bond Movies Part 2 https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-movies-part-2/
  Magneto Embraces Magnetic Power https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-movies-part-2/
  
  Magnet and Magnet Assembly Design
  Bunting designs, manufactures and supplies a wide range of magnets and magnetic assemblies. Many are bespoke for specific applications operating in extreme conditions. For further information on any of the products mentioned in this article, or for bespoke magnet assemblies and magnet designs, please contact us via:
  Phone: +44 (0) 1442 875081
  Email: [email protected]

  
  

  

  Magnets Featured in James Bond Movies
  Part 2

  By Paul Fears | 20 November 2017
  
  https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-movies-part-2/
  
  In the second of our two James Bond blogs, we continue the review of how 007 and his enemies utilise magnets and magnetic forces. Our first blog concentrated on the eras of Sean Connery and Roger Moore, and in this blog we look at the movies in which Magnets took a starring role alongside Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

  

  The Living Daylights (1987)
  It was 14 years and the appearance of a new James Bond in the form of Timothy Dalton before another magnet inspired gadget appeared after Live and Let Die (1973). In The Living Daylights, Bond has a Philips Magnetic Fob Key Ring Finder that emits a stun gas when activated by whistling the first notes of ‘Rule Britannia’. In additional, this innocuous magnetic fob also contains high explosive detonated by a wolf whistle and a series of keys capable of opening 90% of the world’s locks.

  

  GoldenEye (1995)
  The most impressive use of magnetic forces featured in the movie that introduced Pierce Brosnan as 007. GoldenEye was a top-secret Russian weapons system that converted two satellites into offensive weapons. With special access codes, the satellites set off an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would cause any object working with an electrical circuit to fail.
  
  In the real world, minor EMP events cause low levels of electrical noise or interference which can affect the operation of susceptible devices. A very large EMP event, such as a lightning strike, is also capable of damaging objects such as trees, buildings and aircraft directly, either through heating effects or the disruptive effects of the very large magnetic field generated by the current. The damaging effects of high-energy EMP have led to the introduction of EMP weapons, from tactical missiles with a small radius of effect to nuclear bombs tailored for maximum EMP effect over a wide area.

  

  Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
  Brosnan’s next outing as James Bond came in Tomorrow Never Dies. One of the most dramatic scenes in the movie is the car chase in the multi story car park, with Bond driving a BMW 750iL using an Ericsson Cellular Phone whilst hiding in the back seat. The car was fitting with an array of weapons including Magnetic Flash Grenades.
  
  Magnets in James Bond and the Real World
  With the amazing advances in technology, many of the gadgets featured in early James Bond movies have now become reality. Since 1963 permanent magnet technology has evolved considerably, with Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets producing exceptionally strong magnetic forces. In fact, without Magnets the world would be without mobile phones, wind turbines, and electric motors.
  
  We just wonder when James bond will next need the help of a Magnetic Force.
  
  Related Technical Article
  Magnets Featured in James Bond Films Part 1 https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/magnets-featured-in-james-bond-films-part-1/
  Magneto Embraces Magnetic Power https://www.bunting-berkhamsted.com/how-true-are-magnetos-magnetic-powers/
  
  Magnet and Magnet Assembly Design
  Bunting designs, manufactures and supplies a wide range of magnets and magnetic assemblies. Many are bespoke for specific applications operating in extreme conditions. For further information on any of the products mentioned in this article, or for bespoke magnet assemblies and magnet designs, please contact us via:
  Phone: +44 (0) 1442 875081
  Email: [email protected]

  

  
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  February 1 Posts: 14,262

  FRWL
  
  
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• Gerard

  February 1 Posts: 6,098

  A few points : Mythbusters busted the myth that a magnet could divert a bullet. They tried, and didn't succeed, even with the strongest magnets in existence. As for the idea of weightlessness through magnets, it's been with us for a long time. La Diane de l'Archipel, a novel published in the 1900, showed the protagonists dress in magnetic nightshirts in order to sleep at night in complete weightlessness, and in one of his adventures, Tom Swift used a magnetic costume to train for weightlessness on Earth before going to space.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  February 8 Posts: 14,262

  It's correct that bullets aren't ferromagnetic.
  
  
  
  
  

  

  James Bond in space

  Charles Day | DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.5.01024025 September 2013
  https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/18876/James-Bond-in-space
  
  The MI6 agent's occasional ventures into space are the least plausible element of the long-running movie series.
  
  Ian Fleming’s third James Bond novel, Moonraker (1955), centers on a plot by Sir Hugo Drax, a British aerospace tycoon with a secret Nazi past, to bomb London with a missile armed with a Soviet nuclear warhead.
  
  As usual, Fleming made his fanciful tale seem plausible by incorporating details drawn from real life. At the start of the book, Drax’s company is ostensibly developing a medium-range nuclear missile for the UK as part of the country’s nuclear deterrent. The UK had in fact embarked on just such a program, Blue Streak, in 1954. Drax’s missile is an updated version of the V-2, which Germany used to bomb Antwerp, Liège, and London in World War II and which the US used after the war to jump-start its space program.

  

  Moonraker poster

  The movie version of Moonraker, which came out in 1979, follows the novel’s theme of death dealt from the skies—but little else. As is the case in the novel, Drax’s movie spacecraft is a real one, the space shuttle. But whereas Fleming’s WMD, the nuclear-armed missile, was already in service when he wrote the novel, the movie’s WMD, a metal sphere containing nerve gas and launched from low-Earth orbit, is just silly. Why deal with the technical challenge of aiming and firing the spheres from space when they could be deployed remotely and more effectively on the ground? The fight aboard Drax’s space station was conducted, implausibly, with handheld laser weapons. Deadly laser weapons exist, but they’re hardly compact.
  
  Indeed, most—but not all—of the James Bond movies that incorporate space weaponry stretch plausibility to the breaking point. The shining exception is GoldenEye (1995), whose villain, Alec Trevelyan, gains control of two Soviet satellites. By detonating an onboard nuclear weapon, each satellite can set off an electromagnetic pulse of such power that it would fry circuitry on Earth. Although the movie doesn’t mention it, Earth’s own magnetic field lines can direct the pulse to its target. In 1962 the Soviet Union tested the concept over Kazakhstan. From what we know of the test, the damage was extensive.
  
  The makers of You Only Live Twice (1967) expect the audience to believe that a spacecraft can launch, chase down, and capture another spacecraft, then return to Earth—all without being detected. Here’s what Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg have to say about the feat in their book The Science of James Bond (2006):

  The You Only Live Twice gobbling spaceship must travel much faster than the ship it eats, and it must possess extraordinary navigation. How could the gobbling spaceship maneuver so cleverly and precisely in outer space to find speeding rockets, get exactly on the right track for interception, and gobble them up without a major explosion? The answer is simple: It couldn’t.

  Perhaps the most preposterous space weapon is the one in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Having taken over billionaire Willard Whyte’s business empire, villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld intends to hold Earth’s superpowers for ransom by threatening to destroy their ICMBs with a heat ray fired from a satellite.* The weapon is powered by mirrors that collect, store, and concentrate sunlight. Even if Blofeld knew where China, the Soviet Union, and the US hid their weapons, the spacecraft’s mirrors—made for no clear scientific reason from diamonds—are far too small for the job.

  

  Judging by the size of its solar panels, the spacecraft in Diamonds Are Forever is tens of meters in size—too small to harvest enough of the Sun’s energy to zap targets on Earth.

  Judging by the size of its solar panels, the spacecraft in Diamonds Are Forever is tens of meters in size—too small to harvest enough of the Sun's energy to zap targets on Earth.
  
  How small? The idea of collecting sunlight and beaming it down to Earth to generate electricity predates Diamonds Are Forever by three years (or 30 years, if you count Isaac Asimov’s 1941 short story “Reason”). In most schemes, including the latest by Japan’s space agency JAXA, the mirrors are kilometers in size. And by the time the beam reaches Earth’s surface, it’s even wider.
  
  Does it matter that Bond movies get space science so wrong? After all, until the release of GoldenEye, Moonraker was the highest-grossing movie of the series. And why worry about far-fetched space travel when the central premise of the books and movies—that a single secret agent is assigned to thwart global evil—is itself far-fetched?
  
  It matters, in my view, for two reasons. First, there’s the moviemakers’ implicit presumption that their audience will swallow bad science. Maybe that patronizing presumption is valid, but as the books and some of the movies demonstrate, it’s possible to thrill an audience with plausible science, too.
  
  The second reason is that the Bond movies are set in the present day and purport to deal with real, present-day threats. That grounding in reality would be strengthened by plausible science; Bond’s battles with his adversaries would be more believable and therefore even more thrilling.
  
  
  *Historian of science Alex Wellerstein discusses the vulnerability of nuclear weapons in his recent blog post, “The final switch: Goldsboro, 1961.”

  
  
  
  
  
• CommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea

  February 9 Posts: 8,648

  Absolutely true, and not even mentioning dad.
  
  
  But the closer to what can actually be done, the more exciting the films get.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  February 15 Posts: 14,262

  
  

  

  How James Bond's Gun Barrel Opening Was Made (Before CGI)

  https://screenrant.com/james-bond-gun-barrel-opening-sequence-how-cgi/
  By Craig Elvy Published Apr 9, 2020
  https://screenrant.com/james-bond-gun-barrel-opening-sequence-how-cgi/
  
  Here's how James Bond's iconic gun barrel opening sequence was filmed in the days before CGI was commonplace. Whenever a new James Bond film is released, fans have come to expect the reprisal of certain consistent elements throughout the decades. The overly-specific martini order, the outlandish gadgets, Bond girls, Aston Martins, and the "Bond, James Bond" greeting are just a few of the tidbits to look out for when settling down with a Bond film. Another standard feature is the gun barrel opening sequence, with Bond positioned down the end of long tunnel, a gunshot ringing out and crimson red blood flooding the screen.
  
  The intro perfectly captures the action, violence, danger, style and secrecy of the James Bond character, and although the sequence has evolved with each incarnation of 007, the basic structure has more or less remained in place ever since Dr. No hit theaters in 1962.The version of the gun barrel intro movie-goers will see when No Time To Die (hopefully) arrives later this year is a mostly digital construction, but this obviously wasn't an option in the early 1960s. As such, James Bond had to dip into his innovative bag of tricks in order to first create the shot's intended effect.
  
  While Dr. No was directed by Terence Young, the task of filming the opening sequence fell to a specialist film title designer known as Maurice Binder, whose work on Bond would form a cinematic legacy. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the arrangement of the sequence came about very quickly, with a rough draft put together 20 minutes prior to a meeting with Bond's producers. When it came time to craft the actual intro sequence, a lack of digital alternatives meant using a genuine gun barrel was the most logical solution. The gun itself is widely believed to be a 38. caliber, but Trevor Bond, who worked alongside Binder on the sequence, claims in Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films (Ajay Chowdhury and Matthew Field, 2015) that the firearm used was actually a .45 Colt British service revolver.

  

  The use of a genuine weapon provided the signature rifling that runs all the way down the tunnel-like shot towards Bond himself. Filming in sepia, Binder first attempted to use a standard camera pointed down the barrel, but this technique created problems with keeping in focus. Instead, the finished version saw Binder switch to a small pinhole camera poked through a piece of black paper and placed down the gun's barrel, providing a photograph with far superior clarity. Because the gun barrel sequence would only feature Bond as a silhouette, a stuntman by the name of Bob Simmons stood in for Sean Connery.

  In terms of sound, fans will notice that before the gunshot and famous theme music kick in, the barrel sequence is accompanied by the vaguely familiar sounds of an early computer. Binder added this as an allusion towards Dr. No's evil scheme in the movie, and the sounds themselves were provided by, in Binder's own words, "a little old lady in Surrey" who had been experimenting with the possibilities of electronic sound.
  
  This behind-the-scenes tale perhaps isn't as auspicious as one might think given the current status of the James Bond franchise as an international movie juggernaut. And while modern sequences no longer have to resort to pinhole cameras and proper guns, Maurice Binder's original 20-minute brainwave remains intact over 50 years later, and has played a major part in making 007 a cinematic legend.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  March 22 Posts: 14,262

  
  
  
  The Opener BlackFly eVTOL performs during a night airshow at the
  EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh on July 27, 2022. David Tulis

  

  It’s 2024: Where are our flying cars?

  By Shaunessy Renker, Think intern
  May 7, 2024 Current Events, Science and Technology, Think
  https://think.kera.org/2024/05/07/its-2024-where-are-our-flying-cars/
  
  A running joke in the tech world is that flying cars are perpetually three to five years away. So when will they ever be a reality? New Yorker staff writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the industry trying to create “electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles”—a.k.a. flying cars—and what it was like for him to actually fly one of the prototypes. His article is “Flight of Fancy.”

  What the first years of flying cars would look like
  Flying cars have been a figment of fantasy in popular culture for quite a long time. Movies such as Blade Runner, Back to the Future, and even The Man with the Golden Gun, the ninth film in the James Bond series, feature flying cars or some sort of ‘roadable aircraft.’ The invention and popularization of such a vehicle has been highly anticipated for the last century, so where are they?

  “So there’s kind of an old joke that these things have been two to three years away since the early 90s,” says Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker staff writer and author of “Flight of Fancy.” “There are a lot of things that would have to happen.”

  Lewis-Kraus says that for ‘flying cars’ to be integrated into society there need to be massive changes made to the infrastructure of urban landscapes and airspace control.
  
  “Certainly, our current air traffic control is not prepared to allow that to happen,” he says. “Right now we have pretty strict minimum separation standards for how far apart aircraft have to be in the sky, especially in congested airspace.”
  
  The first successful prototypes of eVTOLs, electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts, don’t require a license to operate and are solely for recreational use. Lewis-Kraus says the use of the aircrafts are targeted towards people who own a lot of land since they’re greatly constrained in terms of its surroundings. More specifically, eVTOLs can’t operate in windy or rainy weather and congested airspace, they’re limited in terms of altitude, and their current battery capacity is a mere 25 minutes.
  
  “The way that they [eVTOL manufacturing companies] envision it this first-use case are gonna be more or less what helicopter services are like now,” says Lewis-Kraus. “The first iteration of these are going to be piloted. One of the big hurdles to overcome outside of the technological limitations is just passenger-consumer behavior and passenger expectation.”
  
  Lewis-Kraus says that through conducting different business model calculations, eVTOL companies discovered that having aircrafts operated by pilots indefinitely would not be sustainable long term. Given the daunting pilot shortage airline companies currently struggle with, finding pilots to take on eVTOL transport would be incredibly difficult.
  
  “Some of the companies have bet on the idea that the first to market will be piloted air taxis and then down the line—once people are used to those and once people see that it’s safe and reliable—then they’ll introduce autonomous drone taxis,” says Gideon Lewis-Kraus.
  
  Lewis-Kraus predicts that autonomous air taxis would operate like shuttles and fixed departure and arrival locations would be established. This is because allowing anyone to own an eVTOL for personal use and then to fly it wherever they please could result in chaotic and congested airspaces, especially in urban areas. So, the first ‘flying car’ services will operate similar to how helicopter companies are run today.
  
  “You’ll be able to go to what they call your local Vertiport… and you would book it through an app,” says Lewis-Kraus. “You would stroll over to the Vertiport, you would get through security and board in seven minutes. And then 10-15 minutes later you would be from Manhattan to JFK airport… these would be run on regular schedules.”
  
  He says that a ticket for the first commercial eVTOL flights would be priced at about the cost of a helicopter trip which hovers around $175 per seat.
  
  “One of these companies as signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Brisbane to fly passengers for their 2032 Olympics which does seem like a much more plausible timeline,” says Lewis-Kraus. “Within 10 years there will be some form of air taxi flying around.”
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  March 29 Posts: 14,262

  
  

  
  Bond Flies PHASST

  https://www.kineticaerospace.com/
  for more information contact:
  Kinetic Aerospace Inc. E-mail: [email protected] or phone 541-895-2038

  Or "Switchblade" as it's called in the 20th James Bond film,
  Die Another Day, released in American theaters November 22, 2002.
  
  Yes, those are PHASST gliders carting superspies James Bond and Jinx Johnson (played by Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry, respectively) into the face of peril. They're the reason Kinetic Aerospace Inc. pulled the PHASST test flight photos off the company's www.kineticaerospace.com web site for a year.

  Amazingly (amazing at least to KA's lead designer, Jack McCornack), the producers of the film wanted the Switchblades to look like the version Kinetic Aerospace flew at Eloy, AZ in January 2001. "I thought their art department would go crazy with [the Switchblades]," said McCornack, "but they wanted them identical to our first flight test model, right down to the paint job."
  
  According to Kinetic Aerospace's president, Dave Rogers, this put the company in a bit of a quandary. "We were honor- and contract-bound to keep the Switchblade image and information under wraps," said Rogers. "Since Switchblades look and fly just like PHASSTs, we felt the most discreet thing to do was to block public access to kineticaerospace.com until the film was released." Rogers acknowledged the company's other projects are not publicly accessible at present, saying, "If we couldn't keep secrets, we couldn't keep customers."

  McCornack claims he was pleased to see how director Lee Tamahori handled the Switchblade scene. "It's brief, but realistic," said McCornack, "The good guys get in unobserved, thanks to a fast cruise, good glide performance, and minimal radar signature. It's a wonderful promotion for the PHASST."
  
  Glimpses of Switchblade flight grace the official Die Another Day trailer, and all five of MGM's television ads for the film. Flash and QuickTime movies are available on www.jamesbond.com and www.mgm.com For more information regarding Switchblades, email [email protected]

  Kinetic Aerospace Inc. builds specialized aircraft and provides equipment and services for these aircraft, such as launch mechanisms and on-location/field support. If you have a specific question about our aircraft, or would like us to quote on a project of your own, please contact us at [email protected] or phone 541-895-2038
  
  Kinetic Aerospace Inc.
  P.O. Box 50103
  Eugene, OR 97405
  

  News Release
  PHASST Makes First Flights
  
  ELOY, AZ: Early in 2001, a new breed of aircraft took wing two miles above the Arizona desert. The PHASST (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport), pronounced "fast" flew three test missions in January, launched from a Skyvan jump plane and landing in desert rangeland near the Picacho Mountains, east of Eloy. All three launches were at 12,000 feet, with development pilot Allan Hewitt separating from the PHASST at 6000 feet and landing under his own canopy.
  
  The PHASST is designed to carry a paratrooper or skydiver, and as such is designed around parachuting skills rather than airplane pilot skills. The PHASST pilot flies in a "tracking" position (prone, head forward), the aircraft is dynamically stable in all three axes, and like a parachute, has no elevator, rudder, or aileron input. Instead, the pilot has brakes on each wingtip, which control direction and drag, much like the brakes on a ram-air parachute.
  
  Hewitt was chosen for his considerable parachuting experience, which includes a stint with the British Army's Red Devils display team, and also his powered parachute experience, which includes stunt piloting a Parahawk in the 19th James Bond film, The World is Not Enough. He met PHASST designer Jack McCornack while both were working on that film, on location in the French Alps.
  
  "We needed someone who would be a quick study, since we couldn't draw from a pool of pilots who had flown this sort of thing," said McCornack. "There is no 'this sort of thing.'"
  
  Described as "more something you wear than something you ride," the PHASST is contoured to fit the pilot, with the pilot's arms and legs fitting into recesses in the fuselage. Sweep is variable in flight, with a minimum wingspan of 5-1/2 feet for deployment from the transport plane and rapid decent, and a maximum wingspan of 8 feet for cruise and slow flight.
  
  The PHASST is launched tail-first with wings folded, from the rear ramp of the transport plane. Once free of the plane, the PHASST pilot spreads the wings and begins a high speed glide to his destination. On arrival, he releases the PHASST and tracks away, then opens his parachute and lands in the normal skydiving manner. The PHASST can then land under its own canopy, or fly unmanned under remote guidance or programmed instructions.
  
  According to McCornack, the first flight tests were meant to "...practice the launches, make sure the pilot can get clear [of the PHASST] easily in flight, and prove the practicality of the concept. And though we intend the PHASST to literally fly itself, Allan needs some time on it before we can explore its performance envelope."
  
  Current PHASST test projects include autopilot control and autonomous navigation by GPS, which allows the PHASST to follow a preprogrammed course without pilot input. The pilot will be able to overpower the navigation system through use of the wingtip brakes, should the situation warrant such action.
  
  Hewitt reported the PHASST was "a rock steady jump platform" for his two low speed (100 mph) separations, but "a bit of a handful" in his one high speed (197 mph recorded) separation. Hewitt recommended future PHASST pilots "...put on the brakes before bailing out."
  
  Three chase jumpers videoed the tests, and found the task challenging. "When Allan circled, we dropped right past him," said Andy Bennett, rigger and jumpmaster for the flights. "and when he put the nose down and tracked, he shot off toward the horizon much faster than we could go."
  
  The tests were a joint effort by Kinetic Aerospace Inc., which built the PHASST, and Sky Science Inc., which provided the pilot, rigger, recovery system, and cameramen. According to Kinetic Aerospace marketing VP Dave Rogers, the next manned tests will involve two PHASSTs, so "...the cameraman will have a way to keep up." He said future development plans include a turbojet powered version, which is expected to cruise at 180 knots and have a 100 mile range.
  
  Rogers explained the six month delay between the January 2001 test flights and the release of information as "...a courtesy to a customer, but now that we've met those needs, we're ready to brag."
  
  The company is seeking clients in the military, film, and recreational markets, for both the glider and turbojet versions.
  
  For more information contact Dave Rogers at [email protected] or 850-668-6363, or write Kinetic Aerospace Inc., PO Box 50103, Eugene, OR 97405.
  
  --end--

  
  PHASST EXIT With wings swept, Hewitt deploys both brakes and backs out of the Skyvan.
  A cameraman is exiting to the right.
  
  
  PHASST CRUISE With wings spread to full span,
  the PHASST "flat tracks" below a video cameraman.