With all of the sponsored research on microairplanes and very long endurance platforms, this talk on biomimetic flight is timely as well as interesting. Lots of fun stuff in the foil pack - the central points are that biological is common and diverse with numerous types evolving. It also tends to be efficient and there are samples across wide ranges of Reynolds numbers. - particularly in the regime of very small flyers and those with extreme endurance.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/l/n/lnl/rc/anders/tsld001.htm
One would guess that someone with a military background was involved in this project - a gas turbine beer cooler. There is quite an industry in building small gas turbine engines these days (often using modified automotive turbo chargers), but this may be the most unique purposing of one I've run across.
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer
So did the name America come into use? There is folklore about Amerigo Vespucci being somehow involved with map making and somehow his name ended up on a map. In high school we learned that this was poppycock with Vespucci dismissed as a charlatan. That still doesn't answer the question.
A more interesting question is who was Amerigo Vespucci. He was Florentine and came from one of the more respected families of that day and place. His uncle was a physicist of the day and he managed to get not only a good education, but was the beneficiary of family connections to the Medici family. Somehow he found himself a trusted agent of the Medicis when Queen Isabella decided it was time to make Spain safe for god-fearing Christians with a little help from the Holly Office.
Spain was now lacking in both Moors and Jews, which left something of a void in the business and intellectual world. Amerigo found himself in Spain in 1492 and was involved in trade as well as the business of outfitting ships. It was an age of gonzo explorers like Columbus, but Vespucci was considered a cultured man of the Renaissance who could bring his knowledge of physics and astronomy (as well as business) to the effort. A friend, benefactor and major VC of the day - Lorenzo de'Medici - put him on a ship near the turn of the century as the ship astronomer and scientist.
A bit of perspective. An age of exploration had been ignited and an important segment of the population ws able to follow it due to the invention of the printing press a half century before. People were very hungry for words of any sort and Amerigo did not disappoint.
It is reasonable to get copies of these letters for your own amusement, but I wouldn't let them come into the hands of children as they inspire the same sort of thought that sells low level porn these days. Most letters coming back talked about new flora and fauna, peoples and the drama of the trip. Vespucci talked about beautiful native girls who only wanted Christian men and who used unimaginable techniques. There were races of giant women, sea serpents, cannibals ... lies exaggerations and more lies.
His audience ate it up.
Give someone a printing press and the first thing that becomes profitable is something lurid and racy. Vespucci had real name recognition and, in a strange way, it may be reasonable that the new world be named for the guy who hyped it. One has a strange sense that there is something profoundly human here, even if we don't want to admit it.
OK -
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497vespucci-america.html
It has been years since reading the letters (some of which are probably forgeries) and a complete collection does not seem to exist on the Internet.
6:10:04 AM 
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