Out of the minds of children come refreshing ideas

An 8-Year-Old Came Up with an Amazing Way to Locate Missing Airplanes

Benjamin Jensen—an eight-year-old from Ogden, Utah—came up with a genius new way to locate missing airplanes while watching "Why Planes Disappear" on TV. His thought: "We could have a system that has neon balloons that rise up to the surface when the plane crashes in the sea—and there would be stones at the bottom so they would stay there." He continues to explain that the balloons would be made of reinforced rubber giving them the ability to withstand pressure and keep it from floating right up into the air. An RF transmitter would be located inside the balloon for easy finding.

Jensen is the son of two Air Force veterans, both of who were not surprised with his idea given their son's lifelong interest in aviation and military airplane design. He went ahead and drew a sketch of said design and sent it to Delta CEO Richard Anderson. Here comes the plot twist: Delta loved the idea. John Laughter—the airline's senior vice president of safety, security, and compliance—sent Jensen a package with two model airplanes, some Delta swag, and a note. "I work with many Delta people, The Federal Aviation Administration, and airplane manufactures to solve problems such as airline tracking in an emergency," he said. "There are lots of experts thinking about ideas just like you sent us. I will make sure to share your plans with them!"

Delta Considers 8-Year-Old Strategy for Locating Missing Airplanes | Travel + Leisure

This reminds me greatly of the old story (unsure if really true) about the truck driver who got his trailer stuck under a low clearance bridge causing a traffic nightmare in both directions. Police arrived, other first responders arrived, even the DOT all showed up trying to figure out how to un-wedge the trailer from under this bridge. Hours and ideas tried to no avail.

Finally a child, from one of the cars backed up in traffic, but now looking on at this debacle asks "Why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?”

Air out, difference in wheel height is enough so clearance is made, slow and cautious movement from under the bridge, truck is able to get out. Dozens of pros all intently focused on some problem, so much so that a child with a simple idea comes up with the solution that did not occur to a one of them.

The mind of a child...

OrphanSlug said:

This reminds me greatly of the old story (unsure if really true) about the truck driver who got his trailer stuck under a low clearance bridge causing a traffic nightmare in both directions. Police arrived, other first responders arrived, even the DOT all showed up trying to figure out how to un-wedge the trailer from under this bridge. Hours and ideas tried to no avail.

Finally a child, from one of the cars backed up in traffic, but now looking on at this debacle asks "Why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?”

Air out, difference in wheel height is enough so clearance is made, slow and cautious movement from under the bridge, truck is able to get out. Dozens of pros all intently focused on some problem, so much so that a child with a simple idea comes up with the solution that did not occur to a one of them.

The mind of a child...

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exactly

they havent been taught yet that simple is wrong

I must appreciate Jensen for his creativity and his intelligence power. He is just about 8 years and doing really a nice job, usually at this age kids likes playing with friends, but Jensen likes to enhance his creative power. A few days ago in one article I had read about a preschool is organizing an aviation day event, in which they had invited education, training member of an Airman, in a purpose of letting the kids know about our air force society and the air force education. The preschool website is also updated with all the activity of how kids shown interest in learning things.

Crashes bad enough to make an aircraft difficult to locate would almost certainly be violent enough to put a small tear in a balloon. If the balloon doesn't remain airtight, it would fail to perform the intended function. (you'd also need a release mechanism that involves inflation, and this would have to be mounted on the outside of the hull)

Kids sometimes come up with simple ideas that work. But most of the time their ideas are pretty dumb.

Because they're children and they lack the complex knowledge of how the world works, and the mental capacity to make good use of that knowledge even if they had it.

OrphanSlug said:

This reminds me greatly of the old story (unsure if really true) about the truck driver who got his trailer stuck under a low clearance bridge causing a traffic nightmare in both directions. Police arrived, other first responders arrived, even the DOT all showed up trying to figure out how to un-wedge the trailer from under this bridge. Hours and ideas tried to no avail.

Finally a child, from one of the cars backed up in traffic, but now looking on at this debacle asks "Why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?”

Air out, difference in wheel height is enough so clearance is made, slow and cautious movement from under the bridge, truck is able to get out. Dozens of pros all intently focused on some problem, so much so that a child with a simple idea comes up with the solution that did not occur to a one of them.

The mind of a child...

Click to expand...

Umm, that's the standard way to unstick a truck that's stuck under an overpass.

Your story is probably apocryphal

sangha said:

Umm, that's the standard way to unstick a truck that's stuck under an overpass.

Your story is probably apocryphal

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It's a surprisingly common problem, especially where the overpass is a bend in the road and the banking makes it higher going in than coming out.
I saw that once where the stuck truck was loaded with mining-truck tires. There were skidmarks overhead and underfoot.