Daniel Donagher paid to have this message of thanks flown for the surgeon who repaired his pelvis

A horseback riding incident left a man with broken pelvis on Valentine’s Day. He thanked the doctor who repaired it and restored his ability to walk again in a most unusual way. He rented a plane to fly overhear towing a banner that read “Dr. Daniel Chan is the man! Thanks Memorial staff. Don.”

Daniel Donagher was riding a horse in the Cayman Islands when he slid off. The fall left him with a broken pelvis. Donagher was airlifted from The Grand Cayman Islands to Fort Lauderdale Florida where his own doctor had found the best guy to take care of Donagher, Dr. Daniel Chan.

Chan says Donagher was in stable condition when he arrived at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. The orthopedic surgeon needed to reset the alignment of his pelvis and restore stability so the patient would be able to walk again. Recovery is expected to take six to eight weeks and Donagher is expected to walk normally when he recovers.

The gesture of gratitude was appreciated by Chan who says it was completely unnecessary. He followed that with, “Don’s an interesting guy.”

When Donagher awoke from surgery, he was screaming with joy, proclaiming it was great to be alive. He says until you’re faced with this kind of situation, you just don’t understand how it feels.

As for is Valentine’s Day, Donagher says it was his one big opportunity of the year and now it’s passed. And his wife won’t let him have a rain check either.

Flying Cars Are A Real Possibility

The future of transportation is very much up in the air right now. A lot of people are hoping for improved fuels, better economy, and lower prices, but at the same time they want faster and more efficient means of transportation. Fortunately it looks like the future is getting closer and closer as a number of new flying car designs are entering their final stages of testing and development.

Flying cars still have a lot of development left before they’ll be useful to the general public, but the fact that they are making progress is absolutely great news for everyone. It might take another 50 years before  the flying car is really ready for primetime but the simple fact that we are making progress is great news. Of course this is also amazing news for anyone in the market for a new or futuristic vehicle, the price might be a bit high for most buyers but the future truly is now.

Whether you want to fly, or just get somewhere fast the flying car is definitely a very promising future. In the next few years we will likely have a much better idea of where exactly we stand.

The latest flying car designs will be on display this week at the New York auto show and depending on how things go, we may see some truly inspiring designs. Who knows, these really might be the future of transportation and aviation all rolled into a single package and that surely is great news.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing, Passengers Uninjured

Today in Poland a Boeing airliner being operated by LOT airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after discovering that the landing gear system had failed. Despite the pilot’s best attempt at making the system work the crew was unable to recover from the problem; because of this they had to land without the landing gear.

Miraculously the pilot and crew did everything by the book and executed a flawless emergency landing; frequently during these types of operations there are injuries but today there were none. Analysts have already made it clear that it was the pilot and crew’s skill that saved the crew and passengers and his incredible control is what kept everyone from experiencing any sort of injuries during the emergency landing.

Obviously the investigation into what caused the emergency is still very ongoing but for now everyone simply agrees that it was the crew’s quick thinking that should be credited for the amazing landing. LOT Airlines and the crew have not yet commented on the landing or the emergency but like many other emergencies this crew will likely be considered heroes for the incredible amount of skill and determination they showed during the emergency landing. A further report on what actually caused the multiple failures is not expected for some time as the in depth investigation by Boeing and various aviation industries will likely take quite some time to complete; until then we will not know what exactly caused the problems experienced on this flight.

NASA Announces Green Airplane Contest Winner-- Source: LATimes

For quite some time now the issue of cleaner aircraft has been a big deal to environmentalists. Currently aircraft including airliners and general aviation planes pollute a substantial amount and despite the money involved there was no real push for any alternative fuels. Fortunately greener technologies were being developed by various people and NASA helped push that drive by creating the first green aviation competition. This week NASA officially crowned the winners of the contest.

According to NASA the requirements for the contest were based entirely on fuel consumption and flight distance. Each aircraft was required to travel 200 miles while only burning a single gallon of fuel per occupant; all of this must be completed within 2 hours as well so the aircraft were required to be somewhat practical. The winning team was the first to successfully build and test a design meeting these requirements and the winning team was a private research team from Pennsylvania.

Thanks to the efficiency and speed of the aircraft the winning team managed to earn the $1.3 million dollar prize from NASA. Obviously there was a substantial amount of money spent to develop the technology but the company behind the design is hopeful that someday they will in fact be able to transfer everything they have learned in this project over to full size aircraft and airliners so that emissions will be reduced and the environmental impact of aircraft will be substantially reduced. All in all this is great news environmentally and technologically.