Eddy's Good News: Barbie add first black pilot to inspiring women dolls & reducing fuel bills on cargo ships

Virgin Radio

31 Jan 2023, 10:36

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Tuesday 31st January 2023

Heart warming news from the USA as millions will now find out about the first black female pilot, because Barbie are adding her to their series of dolls based on inspiring women.

Say hello to “Brave Bessie Coleman” born in 1892 and grew up in Texas where she picked cotton to earn money, but Bessie wanted to go to University, which she couldn’t afford. Bessie made it her mission to become a pilot, but she was living in a racist and segregated society and American aviators refused to teach her. So, she studied the French language and saved up her money. At age 29, she sailed to France, enrolled in a flight school, and received her international pilot’s licence in 1921. She went back to the US where she wowed crowds with her flying stunts and even wing walking, she inspired so many female aviators and people of colour and now so many people will hear of her story, thanks to this new Barbie doll :)

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

Good news from the high seas as a green-tech company comes up with an ingenious way to reduce fuel bills on cargo ships by flying a kite off the bow!

Say bonjour to ‘Airseas’, a company from Nantes in France who make giant aerofoils that cargo ships can deploy in high seas, it’s attached to the bow and can help pull the shop forward and save as much as 20% of the fuel bill. That’s a double win because a lot of these ships use filthy diesel, the worst kind, a diesel composite called “bunker fuel”. 

It gets better, the “para-foil” and its command system tracks the wind and makes sure the wing is catching the most wind at all times. When the wind dies down, it automatically winds back into its housing. Shipping creates around 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but a whopping 15% of its sulphur dioxide, which is toxic to breathe for both us and marine life.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org