Model Airplanes

The FuselageTree Tents International

If you crash landed in paradise, where would you find shelter? If there was a package from Tree Tents International on board, it might be in a Fuselage. Not a fuselage from the plane, but a mini cabin that looks a lot like one.

Tree Tents International, a British company, is going after the boom in glamourous camping, or “glamping,” in the United States with what it calls a green alternative to the conventional “glamping pod.” In other words, the 3- by 5-meter Fuselage can be set up almost anywhere, without clearing land or using construction equipment. You can put it on stilts or suspend it from a tree. It ships in a flat box, like something from Ikea, and is built to last.

The FuselageTree Tents International

Fuselage is the second design from Tree Tents International. The first was a Tree Tent made for George Clarke’s “Amazing Spaces” TV show in 2014, in the depths of a Welsh forest.

A Tree Tent at Nasets Marcusgard, Sweden.Viggo Lundberg

“The Tree Tent is perfect for two to three people so following that we wanted to design and make another really adaptable structure but one that could offer more space and take on even more extreme weather and locations,” says Eva Brittin-Snell, production supervisor for Tree Tents International.

Design for

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkart/2019/02/15/a-british-company-is-shipping-a-flat-pack-eco-cabin-called-the-fuselage/

Georgia May Jagger next to the new British Airways A380 double-decker aircraft at Manston Airport on July 21, 2013, in Manston, England. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images for British Airways)Getty

The demise of the Airbus A380 has been all over the news this week. The end of the plane’s production life was perhaps the biggest non-shock in the airline industry. I’ve written a score of articles at Forbes like “Has The End Come For the Airbus A380, Not With A Bang But A Whimper” and more recently, “How To Enjoy An A380 Flight Before They Go Away.”

I would occasionally compare the A380 to the rotund American comedian Rodney Dangerfield, in that his punchline was “I don’t get no respect.” This seemed to be the airline industry’s attitude; the A380 was one every passenger wanted to fly, but ultimately, no airline wanted to buy. And it is a sad irony that the A380, a much greater example of European technical and manufacturing wizardry than the Concorde ever was, is being shut down just as the very concept of a united Europe is under assault.

But it wasn’t politics that doomed the A380, it was economics. Great products are ultimately supposed to make money, and the A380 never did.

While some see the program shut down as a merciful end to the “Autopsy for the A380”, the public has only begun to process the pain. Because the A380 wasn’t just an airplane. It was a status symbol,

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2019/02/15/and-its-gone-an-appreciation-of-the-airbus-a380/

9. Here’s a tip for cooks at any level: You don’t always need a recipe.

Our food editor, Sam Sifton, gives you 38 ways to get dinner on the table, no recipe required. He suggests improvising off themes, like stir-fries, salads, braised chicken thighs or pasta bakes. Maybe seared lamb chops with butter braised potatoes, above, should be on your menu tonight.

“It’s fun to cook that way, and it helps you develop your kitchen skills along the way,” he writes in today’s Cooking newsletter. (You can sign up for the newsletter here.)

Our California restaurant critic also writes an appreciation of the classic Los Angeles restaurants that define the city.

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/briefing/border-wall-deal-amazon-valentines-day.html

The year 2018 was an eventful year for the F-35 Lightning.

The Pentagon’s new stealth fighter was used in combat for the first time, first by the Israeli Air Force and then by U.S. Marine aviators on an airstrike in Afghanistan . Royal Air Force pilots landed F-35B jump jets for the first time on the U.K.’s aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, while F-35Cs designed for catapult-launch from U.S. Navy carriers were test-integrated for the first time in a carrier air wing onboard the Abraham Lincoln in August 2018.

On the industrial side of things, unit costs for the standard F-35A model finally began to decline close to the projected $85 million per aircraft, while flight hours costs declined by $12,000.

Though in September a Marine F-35B jump-jet crashed resulting in the Lightning’s first airframe loss (fortunately the pilot successfully ejected), the loss of one airframe after twelve years of operation is an unusually good safety record.

However, the technical problems and delays that dogged the F-35A program for years have not gone away, as a recently released annual report by the Pentagon’s Department of Testing Evaluation makes clear (read it here).

The readiness rate for F-35s in operational units “remains below program target of 60 percent, and well below planned 80 percent needed for efficient conduct of Initial Operational Testing and Evaluation.” Note also that in 2018 Defense Secretary Mattis requested all aviation units boost readiness rates to 80 percent.

Worse, there was “no

Article source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/stealth-cant-hide-barely-half-americas-f-35s-are-ready-action-44412

It looks like something you might find aboard the Starship Enterprise. A projector beams a three-dimensional video into a container of photosensitive resin. The video plays while the container rotates for a few minutes — then the fluid drains, leaving behind a complete, fully formed 3D object.

Though it seems like science fiction, it’s not, thanks to scientists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), who have developed a brand-new high-speed 3D printing method called Computed Axial Lithography (CAL). The method is described in the journal Science, published online on Jan. 31.

“This is a breakthrough in the space of possible methods to do additive manufacturing,” said LLNL engineer Maxim Shusteff, a co-author on the paper. “What this approach does is make it possible for interesting polymer parts to be made much more quickly, which is

Article source: http://www.independentnews.com/labs_link/breakthrough-in-volumetric-d-printing-at-llnl-quickly-creates-objects/article_5259d08e-2fee-11e9-9da8-e7f19aa17537.html

Look, flight sales happen all the time (like right now). And surprising someone with a plane ticket somewhere is nice. But there’s nothing romantic about flying these days unless you’re on a magic carpet. Trains, on the other hand, are extremely romantic and come complete with a dining car. So for Valentine’s Day, instead of buying that plane ticket, maybe check out this two-for-one deal from Amtrak, and get two tickets aboard the… love express?

The deal is simple. If you book a ticket between February 14 and February 18, you can get another ticket for nationwide travel between March 25 and July 29 for free, according to Amtrak. And there are no blackout dates. And you’ll get free Wi-Fi, two personal items, and two carry-on bags. 

Here are a few sample fares:

• Portland, ME to Boston for $29
• Detroit to Chicago for $39
• Chicago to Kansas City for $69
• Boston to New York for $83
• San Francisco to Portland for $92
• Atlanta to Washington, DC for $129
• Chicago, IL to New Orleans for $135

Keep in mind, however, that these fares only apply to coach seating, and you can’t combine the low price with another discount. The offer is only valid for reserved service, so that rules out the Pennsylvanian, Keystone Service, Capitol Corridor, Hiawatha Service, Pacific Surfliner, San Joaquins, and 7000-8999 Thruways. But adults can be accompanied by a child age 2-12 at half the adult fare, with one child per adult, so you can potentially make it a family

Article source: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/amtrak-valentines-day-two-for-one-sale-2019