Model Airplanes

Surviving an electromagnetic pulse

The Air Force One of today dates back to the George H.W. Bush administration. He was the first president to fly in the same Boeing 747-200s that are still cruising today, known as VC-25A.

“The basic reason for updating them is that the existing fleet of planes are just getting old,” Harrison, of CSIS, says. Switching to newer planes provides the obvious benefits that come with a modern aircraft—more efficient engines and better reliability—and is also a chance to install new defence and communications equipment.

For example, during September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush had trouble with the on-board communications system, according to Walsh, who is a White House and political analyst for U.S. News and World Report, and has traveled on Air Force One some 300 times. “President Bush was upset a few times because his phone calls were getting cut off and dropped,” Walsh says. “Now they’ve apparently fixed that.”

Walsh also says that since 9/11 they made it easier for the president to address the country from the airplane.

The current plane also has understandably secretive defence capabilities. “What we do know is that Air Force One has a skin on it designed to ward off electromagnetic pulses if there was a nuclear war,” says Walsh. He presumes that the next version would have a similar system.

Walsh also says the current plane has the capability to deal with a weapon like a shoulder-mounted heat-seeking missile, which would be a risk during takeoff or landing. “We know there

Article source: https://www.popsci.com/air-force-one-history-next-generation

Doug Ford, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, Solano County Board of Education trustee and Reporter columnist, died in his Dixon home Thursday after a battle with prostate cancer. He was 87.

Ford was born in Georgetown, Ill., in 1931 but moved to Tillamook, Ore., with his family when he was 3. It was there that he developed a lifelong interest in aviation when his father took him to see a Soviet aircraft that had flown over the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver, Wash., in 1937.

Ford began building model airplanes and earned his private pilot’s license in 1950. He was accepted into the Air Force’s Pilot Training Program in 1951 but was moved over to the navigator training program after failing to pass the vision test. He retired from the Air Force in 1979, having reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.

This period saw a lot of activity in Ford’s life. He married his sweetheart, Oralie Quintanilla, had three children, was stationed throughout the United States, served in the Vietnam War, flew over the Arctic Circle and began teaching evening college courses on the military base on a variety of topics ranging from government to sociology to world history. He would continue to teach classes at local colleges through the early 1990s.

Upon retirement, Ford moved his family to Dixon and pursued master’s degrees in history and sociology at Sacramento State University and the University of California, Davis respectively, having previously earned a master’s degree in international relations from the University of

Article source: http://www.thereporter.com/doug-ford-former-solano-board-of-education-trustee-and-reporter-columnist-dies

In terms of brand awareness, IWC ranks around 30th among Swiss watch companies in the States while in China, he said, it ranks third or fourth. “That’s a massive difference,” he said. “In the U.S., we still have a long way to go.”

As for product growth, over the last decade IWC has introduced a suite of in-house calibers to its collection, prompting a rise in prices that presumably has helped to offset its investment in factory space, machinery and employees. The total amount of that investment is unknown — Richemont does not break out its brands’ financial details — but some estimates suggest it can cost as much as $8 million to develop even a base time-only caliber.

As a result, the number of pieces in IWC’s collection priced from $2,000 to $5,000, what the industry calls the aspirational category, and housing movements created by third parties such as ETA or Sellita has been declining. This year, for the first time, IWC’s Spitfire collection is powered entirely by in-house movements: The entry-level model, with the 32000 base caliber, costs $4,350.

With most of the brand’s indicators pointing in a positive direction, what keeps Mr. Grainger-Herr up at night? “Because of the long development cycles and the sheer amount of detail, I find myself thinking about products the most,” he said. “Often that will go round in my mind at night, yes.”

Yet he’s not shy about IWC’s raison d’être. “At the end of

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/fashion/watches-iwc-schaffhausen-christophe-grainger-herr.html

Community High School graduate Jake Garrette shared his love of flight with some current students earlier this month,

Garrette, a Bedford County native, was Community’s valedictorian in 2015. Both of his parents were previous teachers at Community (his mother was actually his senior English teacher) and his brother Grayson is a senior, so it’s safe to say that his roots run deep at the school.

In addition to his superior academic background, Garrette has always loved airports, airplanes, and traveling. Growing up, he used to build model airports at his house using Lincoln Logs, Legos, and Fisher-Price toys, along with a few model airplanes that he had acquired.

Career choice

Fast forward to Feb. 9, when a group of four Community students flew as part of a program Garrette developed a couple of years ago. Garrette was accompanied by fellow pilot and flight instructor Ben Kuper, who also took some of the students up in the air. Kuper has been an instructor for a little over a year and has around 530 hours in the air logged. His ultimate goal is to become a commercial airline pilot by completing all of his ratings and certificates, accompanied with 1,000 hours of flight time by January 2020.

“I love giving back and teaching people how to fly,” said Kuper. “When Garrette asked me to come out today there was no

Article source: https://www.t-g.com/story/2588980.html