› added 2 years ago

176

TIL in the mid-1950s, Hiller aircraft constructed flying platforms for an army-navy program. The pilot simply leaned in the desired direction in the platform would follow.

Read more thedebrief.org

via reddit.com

yG4p TIL that a young Richard Branson had his flight to the Virgin Islands cancelled, so he chartered a private airplane. Not having enough money to do so, he picked up a small blackboard, wrote “Virgin Airlines $29” on it, sold tickets for the rest of the seats, and used that money to pay for the ride.
4oB5 TIL that when Frederick the Great banned coffee in Prussia in 1777, saying beer was superior for “breakfast drinking,” people started drinking a coffee substitute called “Muckefuck.”
4XvyN TIL in newborn babies, 87% of the energy they burn is used to operate their brains.
NK91 TIL that a town called Sweetwater, Texas, as well as most of the Southeast, hold a form of a rattlesnake holocaust each year and have been doing so since about 1939.
OGD1Y TIL the first tests for Kevlar in bulletproof vests was done on goats. After 24 hours, one died. The rest had non-life threatening wounds.