By the time Lieutenant Colonel Michael Brill touched down after a combat mission over Iraq earlier today, he had broken his own world record for the most hours spent flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Brill, a 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron pilot, has logged more than 6,000 hours in the F-16.
That's the equivalent of 250 round-the-clock days in an aircraft that routinely flies at high speeds and subjects its pilots to intense G-forces. Brill says flying the jet is "like being on a roller coaster that you can steer." No wonder he spends so much time in the cockpit.
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Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?