True, but at Virgin Airlines, the engineers and mechanics wear the same uniforms as the pilots. It's wasteful and highly confusing, but Branson insists.
That sounds dumb. You would think you need to be able to identify the relevant and necessary people quickly during and emergency.
I have tens of thousands of PC sim hours over the last 30 years. I'm ready for a pilot to get a heart attack on a flight any time now. Let me in there.
I just had my chance about a month ago in a trainer plane. It was incredible. Also I've had multiple nightmares about it. But I want to do it again. But it was terrifying.
Edit: Just to be clear, the pilot didn't die. I mean I finally had a chance to take the controls and see what it's like.
I'm making this really simple. If you want to learn more, I've linked the necessary Wikipedia articles.
So, imagine you have a group of atoms attending a party. These atoms (primarily uranium) are jumping around and having a blast. But there are some mischievous atoms known as neutrons. They're the troublemakers, and they crash into this party (literally) and start a chain reaction.
These troublemakers (neutrons) crash into the uranium atoms at high speeds, causing them to split. This splitting releases an immense amount of energy, just like those party poppers that launch confetti everywhere. The uranium atoms breaking in half release more troublemaker neutrons, which then crash into more uranium atoms and keep the party going.
But things can get out of control if we don't keep things cool. So, in comes the chill factor – a coolant. It's like a cool drink that cools down the party and assures that things don't heat up too much. Now, we need a DJ to create the right atmosphere, and that's where a control rod comes in. These rods can absorb the troublemakers (neutrons) and regulate the intensity of the chain reaction (fission reaction). They're like the bouncers at a bar, ensuring things don't get too rowdy.
And that's how a nuclear reactor works.
I vote to make "build a submarine" the new colloquial phrase for idiotically attempting something someone is clearly not qualified for against all warnings.
