Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside

Re:Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside by rrss on Saturday October 05, 2019 @11:45PM (#21169700)

I'm psyched they named it after Heaviside. For the caliber, scope, and importance of his contributions, he is extremely under appreciated. Most of the people who have heard the name only know of the step function, but much of how electrical engineering is done (and named) is due to him.

Some things that could reasonably have his name attached (intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive):

Maxwell-Heaviside equations

Heaviside-Gibbs Vector calculus

Heaviside transmission line equations

Poynting-Heaviside vector

Heaviside loading coil

Heaviside-Cherenkov radiation

Heaviside-Lorentz force

Heaviside s-plane

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Re:Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside by salty_biscuits on Sunday October 06, 2019 @12:36AM (#21169844)

I would have thought most people would be more familiar with the heaviside layer (than the step function), even if only from the reference in the musical cats.

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Re:Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside by twic on Sunday October 06, 2019 @04:29AM (#21170603)

Heaviside is particularly inspiring to me because he was (somewhat) self-taught. He came from a modest family, got a job as a telegraph operator, then as an electrician, then learned physics, then made huge contributions to it.

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Re:Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside by dmix on Sunday October 06, 2019 @01:12AM (#21169960)

I didn't know that, I'll check out his Wikipedia.

In that case I think you'd have to be sure you were building something great or at least challenging before you take on their name. Which has to be considered but regardless it's a nice gesture and the aircraft name which can change easier than a company name.

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