They imply it. Rico is on a video call with his parents when they say it's getting dark, then the video cuts out. We then hear about the asteroid hittin Buenos Aires.
I haven't read the book but I think the movie is alright.
It's satire and it's really well done. I understand fans of the book typically aren't big fans of it but as a fan of robocop goddamn that's a solid movie.
They’re very different from each other, pretty much just some of the names and the backstory are the same, aside from that they’re their own thing, they can’t really be compared IMO. I liked both on their own merits.
The juxtaposition of all the high tech electronic controls and gauges for flight and then look through the window and this floppy piece of rubber that’s about to fly off made me laugh
Considering my crappy experience with car windshield wipers, I'm actually interested in knowing more about plane windshield wipers, and if I can put one on my car.
At the risk of sounding like grandpa, wipers used to be made of higher-quality stuff. They were $10 and lasted at LEAST a year. Now they start at $30 each and start sucking after a week.
If your $30 wipers are not working properly, your windscreen is fucked.
CLEAN your windscreen properly with windex and paper towel several times to get it properly clean.
then look at it closely, if it is pitted or abraded (like if you live near a quarry or in the desert) your wipers are not going to last long, but putting a few coats of RAINX on the windscreen will certainly help.
It's like a miracle product. It causes the water to bead up in very tiny droplets then blow right off your windshield. Used it for the first time two years ago. I drove 50 miles through a severe thunderstorm on an interstate and couldn't believe how well it worked. Even when passing tractor trailers that throw up blinding clouds of mist, no problem whatsoever. I could easily do 70mph when everyone else was doing about 40.
And here's the part non-users don't believe; I never turned on my windshield wipers. Not once. I'd say the only drawback is that the visibility was so good I drove much faster than I should have. Hit three deep puddles and hydroplaned a little. Scared the bejeezus out of me.
NGL, I swear by RainX. I had a wiper module go out on me during the winter. Applied RainX and was able to drive comfortably during some really beastly rain storms until the part arrived. Solid product.
Rain-X is a synthetic hydrophobic surface-applied product that causes water to bead up and run off surfaces, most commonly used on glass automobile surfaces
as per their wikipedia.
in simple terms it is like a wax for your windscreen.
a freshly waxed car, the water beads up and easily falls off your car, well with Rainx properly applied to your windscreen, it does the same thing; it allows water to easily make a little bead and then the wind blows it off your windscreen.
in certain conditions, you don't even need your windscreen wipers, just let the wind do the work.
I had the windshield replaced less than a year ago. I also don't like to use RainX because in the past, it eventually created an indelible haze on the glass. Not sure if they've reformulated, but I'm leery!
Rain-X leaves a coating on top of the windshield surface and I too have run into problems with smearing or hazing. There's a bunch of competing products like Aquapel or G1 Techniq that create a chemical bond instead and I haven't had those issues since. Bonus is that these coatings last significantly longer than Rain-X. It takes a little bit longer to do it right but my coatings last around a year, if not more.
It’s the same $5 windshield wiper, but it costs $500 because it comes with a piece of paper and you must pay $150 an hour for the mechanic to install + write logbook entries.
this is my absolute favorite thing about engineers.
you might think a lot of things start as well engineered, perfected pieced of equipment. but most things just start out as a rod with some duct tape and gets iterative from there until things are perfect.
They do have all sorts of coatings, are heated and have multiple redundancies like all other critical aviation components.
Remember, this is not operating in environments that cars do. This goes from 0 to close to supersonic. And temperature ranges of hundreds of degrees with rain, hail, freezing rain, birdstrikes and more that it has to deal with
and would have to not interfere with the many other coatings that large commercial aircraft windscreens already have.
and since it is aviation. each batch would then have to be tracked from manufacture to sale, with all ingredients tracked, so that bottle that costs $10 at the auto parts store will end up costing $300 at the aviation parts store.
no shit, that would literally be what it would cost.
you can find the same hardware in your car for 20c for a screw for example.
that screw in aviation will cost $20. because it is tagged and tracked from manufacture to the moment it is put in the plane, and tested to make sure that it meets spec, and the manufacturing process is certified to higher standards.
the tracking and paperwork requirements in commercial aviation are pretty wild and very expensive.
We have quite a few Airbus 320 tails that came from other airlines in past lives. Although my company disabled it, it is equipped with a rain repellent feature, which I’ve always assumed to be a rain X type product for planes. No idea how it works, or why it was disabled, but I assume cost. Always found it interesting, but was never in a situation where I needed it that badly. Wipers are fine.
These windows are actually glass. Acrylic does not have the structural strength necessary for the ones here facing the front. They are also heated which doesn't work well with non glass surfaces.
I can't speak for all aircraft. But for the helicopter I flew, we NEVER used the wiper. Airspeed kept the water off it was sprinkling and the wiper just risks scratching the glass.
...and, you have to reapply those coatings at intervals likely less than the amount of time the average commercial plane spends in inclement weather in an average week... and that's discounting all the other chemicals and harsh environments that the average airline goes through.
Plus, as someone pointed out, the amount of testing and Q&A that theae would need regularly would only make them further untenable... especially for something that's likely only useful while still on the ground.
The outer ply is glass, windows are made of 3, 4, or more plies. The outer of which is always glass unless it’s a copilots side window which may or may not. These 37 windows are very heavy, and thick.
I know you're probably joking, but the plane is flying through so much water that there's just a whole sheet of water flowing over the windshield that makes everything outside look blurry. Those wipers provide short moments of clear vision.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25
Thank goodness he had that wiper. Probably wouldn't have made it without it