At work this year we have been taking turns giving presentations to the group. My presentation was about a week ago, and the topic I chose was Amateur Space Access. I wanted to show some of the important events and developments that have been happening since serious space research began, and how they have been leading towards increased amateur access to space. I found a really cool program for Mac OS X called Timeline 3D, which I used to present against. I gave the presentation using the free download version, which places a small watermark on the screen, but I ended up eventually buying the software, mostly so I could export this to video and share it with others.
Unfortunately this video only captures the events, not my commentary which connects them all together. Each event is displayed for 2-3 seconds, so you will probably want to just start and stop the video so you can go at your own pace.
I am sure plenty of people will see this and ask, “Why isn’t my favorite event on here?” Two reasons: 1) This is my timeline, not yours. 
2) I had to scope this. As it was I had to talk fast for a half hour to get through it. If I had added anything more it would have been way too long. This means some things had to be cut. For example, there is no mention of the first space walk, let alone the first American space walk, or first man on the Moon. Why? For the purposes of this presentation, once you can get a spacecraft into space, putting a person inside that spacecraft and keeping him alive is a matter of refinement. And in many cases the US was not first, so why would I not give credit where credit was due? In some cases I just used an example that made my point, not necessarily the first or the best product or achievement. Bottom line: I could only put so many events in this timeline.
Liked your video.
What was that project mentioned at the end of the video? Is there a link or additional information about it?
Also, regarding an earlier post, are you familiar with Aerolab (http://www.dark.dk/) [see downloads] and RASAero (http://www.rasaero.com/) for drag estimation?
Ed L
Thanks for the comment!
The rocket at the end is a small hobby project I’ve been tinkering with off and on in my copious amounts of free time (sarcasm) over the past few months. It’s called “Hummingbird”, mostly because it is underpowered and small. It’s powered by a G motor, so it’s not even high-power, I just wanted to do something small. It’s small enough that it won’t break the bank developing it, and the motor reloads are super cheap. I don’t know how well the exhaust vanes will work. I’m already planning the next version. Anyway, hopefully some time soon I will have some time to make a post or a web page about it. I haven’t worked on it in a while but it’s coming along.
I don’t think I’ve seen Aerolab or RASAero before, thanks for the links. I will have to take a look at them when I get some time. My main issue was that I could design something and simulate it, but a few small goofs and my numbers could be completely unrealistic. I eventually learned that the ARTS 2 altimeter actually comes with software that allows you to back out the drag properties from flying an actual vehicle — I like that idea because it’s almost like having a wind tunnel that you can test your full-size (or mockup) vehicles in. If I’d known that the ARTS had that feature built-in I wouldn’t have bothered putting my simulator together, although I did learn from it.
Cool stuff on your website, I’ll have to look through the rest of those reports. It’s nice to come across a like-minded person.