Difference between revisions of "2353: Hurricane Hunters"

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(Trivia: more specific)
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{{incomplete|Created by a HURRICANE'S EYE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
 
{{incomplete|Created by a HURRICANE'S EYE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
The comic strip opens with [[Black Hat]] explaining to [[Cueball]] (who is presumed to be some government official) that flying into hurricanes, while risky, provides valuable scientific data. This is true–in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet for just a moment, a yellow sky. Although the {{w|Eye (cyclone)|eye}} itself is relatively calm, it is surrounded by the '''eyewall''', a region of extremely intense thunderstorms.  Thus, the danger of flying through such storms must be carefully weighed against the scientific knowledge being gained.  Highly-trained pilots with specialized aircraft, such as the {{w|NOAA Hurricane Hunters}} and the US Air Force's {{w|53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron}} (also nicknamed "Hurricane Hunters"), will occasionally conduct such missions, although they usually fly over storms and drop probes through them.
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The comic strip opens with [[Black Hat]] explaining to [[Cueball]] (who is presumed to be some government official) that flying into hurricanes, while risky, provides valuable scientific data. Although the {{w|Eye (cyclone)|eye}} itself is relatively calm, it is surrounded by the '''eyewall''', a region of extremely intense thunderstorms.  Thus, the danger of flying through such storms must be carefully weighed against the scientific knowledge being gained.  Highly-trained pilots with specialized aircraft, such as the {{w|NOAA Hurricane Hunters}} and the US Air Force's {{w|53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron}} (also nicknamed "Hurricane Hunters"), will occasionally conduct such missions, although they usually fly over storms and drop probes through them.
  
 
However, Cueball's comment in the third panel shows that Black Hat is not discussing the activity of hurricane hunting in general, but rather is attempting to justify his decision to fly a passenger jet through the eye of a hurricane (perhaps {{w|Hurricane Laura}}, which was active during the week prior to this comic strip's publication).  It's not clear if Black Hat is (somehow) a jet pilot himself, or has come into ownership of an airline and was merely directing a flight, but the passengers wanted to go to St. Louis, Missouri, which is [https://www.homefacts.com/hurricanes/Missouri/St.-Louis-City-County/St.-Louis.html only very rarely struck by hurricanes] (although [https://www.homefacts.com/tornadoes/Missouri/St.-Louis-City-County/St.-Louis.html tornadoes are of greater concern]), so presumably the jet was taken quite far out of its way to conduct the "experiment".  Passenger airliners are not meant to fly into hurricanes{{Citation needed}}, and can easily crash there. Black Hat replies that the passengers should be proud of their contributions to meteorology, which is probably negligible, as they were not actively collecting useful scientific data.
 
However, Cueball's comment in the third panel shows that Black Hat is not discussing the activity of hurricane hunting in general, but rather is attempting to justify his decision to fly a passenger jet through the eye of a hurricane (perhaps {{w|Hurricane Laura}}, which was active during the week prior to this comic strip's publication).  It's not clear if Black Hat is (somehow) a jet pilot himself, or has come into ownership of an airline and was merely directing a flight, but the passengers wanted to go to St. Louis, Missouri, which is [https://www.homefacts.com/hurricanes/Missouri/St.-Louis-City-County/St.-Louis.html only very rarely struck by hurricanes] (although [https://www.homefacts.com/tornadoes/Missouri/St.-Louis-City-County/St.-Louis.html tornadoes are of greater concern]), so presumably the jet was taken quite far out of its way to conduct the "experiment".  Passenger airliners are not meant to fly into hurricanes{{Citation needed}}, and can easily crash there. Black Hat replies that the passengers should be proud of their contributions to meteorology, which is probably negligible, as they were not actively collecting useful scientific data.

Revision as of 01:19, 1 September 2020

Hurricane Hunters
Our flight gathered valuable data on whether a commercial airliner in the eye of a hurricane can do a loop.
Title text: Our flight gathered valuable data on whether a commercial airliner in the eye of a hurricane can do a loop.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a HURRICANE'S EYE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The comic strip opens with Black Hat explaining to Cueball (who is presumed to be some government official) that flying into hurricanes, while risky, provides valuable scientific data. Although the eye itself is relatively calm, it is surrounded by the eyewall, a region of extremely intense thunderstorms. Thus, the danger of flying through such storms must be carefully weighed against the scientific knowledge being gained. Highly-trained pilots with specialized aircraft, such as the NOAA Hurricane Hunters and the US Air Force's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (also nicknamed "Hurricane Hunters"), will occasionally conduct such missions, although they usually fly over storms and drop probes through them.

However, Cueball's comment in the third panel shows that Black Hat is not discussing the activity of hurricane hunting in general, but rather is attempting to justify his decision to fly a passenger jet through the eye of a hurricane (perhaps Hurricane Laura, which was active during the week prior to this comic strip's publication). It's not clear if Black Hat is (somehow) a jet pilot himself, or has come into ownership of an airline and was merely directing a flight, but the passengers wanted to go to St. Louis, Missouri, which is only very rarely struck by hurricanes (although tornadoes are of greater concern), so presumably the jet was taken quite far out of its way to conduct the "experiment". Passenger airliners are not meant to fly into hurricanes[citation needed], and can easily crash there. Black Hat replies that the passengers should be proud of their contributions to meteorology, which is probably negligible, as they were not actively collecting useful scientific data.

In the title text, Black Hat says that their flight gathered data on the possibility of making loops in the eye of the hurricane by passenger airliners, but if it had actually done a loop, he probably would have said so. (The Boeing 707 was made to successfully execute a barrel roll and fly inverted during a 1955 test flight, but probably no commercial jetliner could perform any advanced aerobatic maneuvers under load.)

It is possible that this is his justification of why passengers contributed to meteorology. However, passenger airliners' abilities to do loops has nothing to do with that field of science. Moreover, the same data could be gathered by flying the same airliner without passengers, or with willing ones.

In the real world, Black Hat would certainly go to prison for what he's done[citation needed].

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[Black hat facing left]
Black Hat: Yes, flying into the eye of a hurricane is dangerous.
[Cueball on left at a desk being addressed by Black Hat on the right]
Black Hat: But it provides us with crucial data that helps us understand and predict these storms.
[Same as previous cell, with Black Hat raising his hand]
Cueball: But your passengers had bought tickets to St. Louis.
Black Hat: They should be proud of our contributions to meteorology!

Trivia

Everything on Cueball's desk has gone missing in panel 3.


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Discussion

St. Louis people coming here to see if it's coincidence or if Randell was using location services for the destination.

Where did the stuff on the desk go?

Well, Black Hat is present in the room... 162.158.103.141 16:27, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
Squirrels.
ProphetZarquon (talk) 17:36, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Re: St. Louis - I'm not in St. Louis, but it still reads St. Louis for me. 108.162.219.90 17:02, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Considering the rock-bottom prices offered by airlines recently ($15 for a ticket on Delta or United?!?), it might not be too hard to fill a plane with people who just want to go on a dangerous joyride in a 747. Let's try some loops! ProphetZarquon (talk) 17:39, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Reminds me of https://youtube.com/watch?v=zmKXC9CYZwU (the aerobatics part). 162.158.155.36 19:11, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Is it purposeful that the description includes a line from the Hamilton song "Hurricane"? ("In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet for just a moment, a yellow sky.")

"(In the) eye of a hurricane(/storm/cyclone/...)"? A fairly standard phrase, at least since we had satellite photos to get a large enough overview of prime examples; though a well-defined eyewall (if survived) probably gave everyone the appreciation of the 'arena effect' in that time between the eye passing over them and then departing (requiring further survival) that could bring even primitive man the concept of an 'eye' in the weather. Tried to track down first usage. OED seems to give us "1758 J. Adams tr. A. de Ulloa Voy. S.-Amer. II. ii. iii. 213 The cloud..begins, according to the sailors phrase, to open its eye, i.e. the cloud breaks, and the part of the horizon where it was formed becomes clear.", though whether that's referencing the centre of a full hurricane or not, I don't know... 141.101.98.70 03:27, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

I don't think that Black Hat as a jet pilot would go to prison in real world. I think he would DIE in his attempt and they rarely put dead people in prison, especially if the body wasn't found. -- Hkmaly (talk) 03:53, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Don't think he particularly cares. Beret Guy probably would survive, but he'd just hallucinate the bars away. Cueball would make the control panel flash some weird error before taking off.
This feels weirdly fun, actually. bubblegum-talk|contribs 06:05, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
I updated the line. Really I thought black hats didn't go to prison because they kept themselves anonymous, but instead I mentioned security firms and organized crime. 162.158.63.62 00:38, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

For people who would like to read what that job is on a bad day: https://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2011/05/hunting-hugo.html lG Tier666 (who has lost his password...)108.162.229.142 10:37, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Sorry to hear about the password. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights) 18:36, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

In this rev, NotaBene writes that "the passengers wanted to go to St. Louis, Missouri, which is only very rarely struck by hurricanes …, so presumably the jet was taken quite far out of its way". This presumes facts not in evidence — we have no idea where the flight originated from, and there are plenty of flights to St. Louis from places such as Houston, TX and New Orleans, LA that travel fairly near to the track of Hurricane Laura. I'm not really sure the best way to save this portion of the explanation without gutting it entirely, hence this post here. JohnHawkinson (talk) 05:47, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Some time ago, I adjusted the rest of the sentence to no longer read "taken far out of its way", but instead refer to the more solidly-built fact that they weren't expecting to fly into a hurricane because, wherever they came from, they were flying to the middle of the country. --NotaBene (talk) 19:14, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
Yes, I debated whether to quote the current text or the original. The current is equally problematic: "but the passengers wanted to go to St. Louis, Missouri, which is only very rarely struck by hurricanes …, so they were certainly not expecting to "participate" in a hurricane hunting mission." If the location is relevant at all, then the frequency of St. Louis's hurricane vulnerability is still only half the picture and fails to support a conclusion about the passengers' expectations. I would probably take out more of the text than you would, so I suggest you do it, but I guess I can if you don't want to. JohnHawkinson (talk) 19:54, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
You are correct, I removed negative text.  :) --NotaBene (talk) 20:44, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

172.68.24.250 03:26, 14 September 2020 (UTC) isnt this a reference to Interstellar, where Professor Brand says they needed crucial data to calculate how to save Earth collected from within a black hole albeit entering it is dangerous?

I think that’s far-fetched as there are many places that are dangerous but scientifically rewarding to go. Like the Moon, or the sea, or forests. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights) 18:16, 31 October 2022 (UTC)