Model Airplanes

In the abstract, of course, I think this is great. But, what I’d like to any of these outlets or advocates do is actually sit down and map out how it would be implemented in the real world. Like, imagine you, tomorrow, were made Director of Right to Repair at Samsung or Apple or any major consumer electronics company, how would it all work?

New iPhone is introduced, can’t even make enough to meet demand for the first 6 months. Would you set aside half the parts for repair, so you only have half as many to sell at launch? Maybe that’s totally the right thing to do, I don’t know yet, which is why I’m asking out loud. Or, maybe you only make the parts available one year out, when demand is in balance, and warranty coverage is ending. Is that the best of both worlds?

How do you protect people from crap lithium-ion batteries that could burn down their car, house, or an airplane? Politicians, publications, and pundits love to throw around the words “cheap repairs” but the cost of that can be astronomical in terms of human and property damage. Maybe any and all regulation should cover the repairs and not just the manufacturers?

And how do you protect security and privacy? If companies are required to provide hardware or software that can, for example, connect swapped out fingerprint or facial scanners, what’s to stop criminals from getting them and using them on stolen phones? Governments for using them on

Article source: https://www.imore.com/right-repair-private-members-bill-proposed-ontario

It’s no secret that Airbus and Boeing are running a modern day duopoly in the airplane manufacturing industry. These two companies account for 99% of large aircraft orders around the world, serving more than 4 Billion air travelers annually. Their dominance over the market has been a common trend throughout history and the future shows implications that it can continue.

Why Do Airbus and Boeing Dominate The Market?

Two main factors are the reason who Airbus and Boeing’s dominance over the airplane manufacturing industry: money and history. With both of these factors on their side, Airbus and Boeing can easily maintain their positions as the top companies.

Manufacturing airplanes requires significant costs. The high barrier to entry includes costs associated with not only the parts, but customer support, maintenance, technology, and more. These two companies have dominance over domestic and international demand, but large overhead has even allowed them to buy into regional leaders, including Bombardier and Embraer.

The early entry into the manufacturing market has allowed the companies to develop close relationships with their respective government and organizations affiliated with regulation of the industry. Boeing, for example, is the 2^nd largest spender on lobbying in the US, with more than a quarter billion dollars spent.

Safety is perhaps the most important aspect in air travel. The deep history of success for the two manufacturers has solidified their reputation as the go-to airplanes in the industry.

The Rise of Boeing

The Boeing Company was started in 1916

Article source: https://simpleflying.com/why-airbus-and-boeing-have-no-competition-2/

Ronnie’s piece yesterday on the Bandit car that couldn’t be got me thinking. But not about famous cars of Hollywood cinema, mind you. Not about an impeccably dressed Steve McQueen tossing and bouncing a Highland Green Mustang over the streets of Jefferson Airplane-era San Fran, nor about a lawless-but-amiable Burt Reynolds running defence for a rig full of suds in his ’77 Trans Am. American Graffiti? Nope. Christine? Forget about that turd. Gone In 60 Seconds, version one or deux? Nada. Not even the schlockfest The Car registered in this tired brain.

My thoughts turned, instead, to movie cars that do not get movie-loving car nuts worked up into a froth. Film stars in their own right that, sadly, don’t get enough credit. You’ve probably got a few of these overlooked, four-wheeled matinee idols rolling around in your mind right now.

The choices are endless. However, as the better part of my childhood was spent watching old shows and movies on an 8-channel Sony TV (sports involves risk, you see), yours truly’s most indelible automotive memories come from the decade of disco, polyester, and brougham barges.

So it’s no wonder that I have a fondness for the 1972 Ford Custom 500 piloted by one Inspector Harry Callahan near the finale of Magnum Force, in which a suddenly straight-laced Callahan battles the dastardly Lieutenant Neil Briggs while trying to pilot two tons of sliding steel around the mean streets of San Francisco. As a youngster, my fascination with that movie didn’t end with the

Article source: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2019/02/qotd-overlooked-but-not-forgotten/

Traditional aircraft are powered by loud and mechanical components, with engines and propellers generating the thrust and power necessary to achieve flight. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), however, have developed an airplane that can cruise over ground without the aid of heavy machinery, using only lithium-ion batteries and electricity to ply air quietly.

While it may “glide” it is no mere “glider” and can summon up its own wind on which to fly. The process, detailed in a study published in Nature, hinges on electroaerodynamic propulsion, a system that creates ionic wind through positively and negatively charged electrodes underneath the plane’s wing. The silent aircraft is necessarily small, weighing in at 5.4 pounds with a 16-foot wingspan, fashioning it a prototype for any future commercial applications.

Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, detailed how the electrodes ultimately compel the aircraft to fly. Forty-thousand volts of electricity under the plane’s wing are created by positively and negatively charged electrodes, fostering an an electric current of nitrogen ions. The ions collide with normal air molecules, emitting ionic wind out of the plane’s back and giving it flight.

As Barrett explains: “The ions go from the positive to the negative, colliding all the way with neutral air molecules and creating this wind that goes behind the plane.”

The process of creating ionic wind, courtesy of a GIF:

Though it set a new precedent

Article source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25308261/ionic-wind-airplane/