Model Airplanes

FRANCE — Airbus recently made a big splash with its design for the latest version of its Beluga transport airplane, and now the company reports the first of five aircraft has successfully finished its first test flight.

The new BelugaXL (Airbus A330-700L) landed at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, France, at 2:41 p.m. local time on Thursday after a flight of four hours and 11 minutes.

Airbus says the BelugaXL will undergo some 600 hours of flight tests over 10 months before entering expected service in 2019.

The design is certainly eye-catching: Its livery includes a whale-style nose cone, sparkling blue eyes and a smiling mouth.

When it introduced the design, Airbus tweeted an image of its super-sized transporter jet’s makeover along with the caption, “Whale hello there! Introducing the new BelugaXL dressed up in its livery for the first time”!

The smiling whale design was chosen by Airbus staff following a poll in which 20,000 employees were given six options and asked to choose their favorite. With 40% of the vote, it was the clear winner.

Whale of the skies

It’s based on the A330-200 airliner, which became known as the “Beluga” because of its resemblance to the white Arctic whale.

The airplanes carry parts for all of Airbus’ planes from manufacturing sites across Europe to the final assembly facilities in either Toulouse, Hamburg or Tianjin.

The original planes have been in service since 1994; however, Airbus launched a program to build a new version with similar modifications and dimensions in 2014.

“The need for the new Beluga comes with the

Article source: https://fox6now.com/2018/07/20/airbus-completes-first-test-flight-of-beluga-xl-flying-whale/

Fifty years after an AN-12 aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in the Lahaul valley of Himachal Pradesh with 102 personnel on board while flying from Chandigarh to Leh, a mountaineering expedition has located the body of one of the soldiers on board along with some parts of the aircraft.

The discovery was made by a team of mountaineers who were on a clean-up expedition to the Chandrabhaga-13 peak on July 1. The remains were found at the Dhaka glacier base camp, 6,200 metres above sea level.

“We first found some parts of the aircraft. Subsequently, our team members spotted the decayed body of a soldier a few metres away from the spot,” said team leader Rajeev Rawat.

“Our team took pictures of the body and the plane wreckage, and alerted the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School on July 16, after which their personnel have begun search operations in the area,” Rawat said.

The plane has been the subject of much intrigue over the decades. The Soviet Union-built aircraft with 98 passengers and four crew members had gone missing on February 7, 1968, after the pilot had decided to turn back while approaching Leh due to inclement weather. The plane was over Rohtang Pass when it made its last radio contact.

Thirty-five years later, in 2003, the plane’s wreckage was discovered in the south Dhaka glacier by an expedition of the ABV Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali. The mountaineers also found the remains of a body, subsequently identified as that of Sepoy

Article source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/climbers-find-body-of-soldier-killed-in-1968-plane-crash-on-himachal-glacier/articleshow/65078995.cms

A groundbreaking competition could help blockchain take to the skies.

The Aviation Blockchain Challenge, sponsored by the German airline Lufthansa’s innovation hub and the enterprise software company SAP, is seeking innovative proposals across the entire spectrum of the airline’s business, from flight operations to its supply chain to the passenger experience.

There’s no Air Blockchain just yet, but give it time.

“Blockchain is one of the game-changing technologies of our time, which we are systematically addressing as part of our digital strategy,” Thorsten Dirks, a member of Lufthansa’s board and the CEO of Eurowings, said in a statement announcing the challenge.

The aviation industry, which has had more than enough headaches involving security, passengers and fuel, among others, might actually be ready for blockchain-inspired disruption. Here are four ways that could happen.

1. The Boarding Pass Is Just the Beginning

The next time you fly, look at your boarding pass or ticket. That barcode represents data that must be shared among a

Article source: https://thirtyk.com/2018/08/17/airines-blockchain-4ways/

—

“If you loved me you would have called,” declared my now-ex-girlfriend.

“What? I’m sorry, I didn’t see that in the rulebook, what page is it on?” I quipped.

We didn’t last much longer.

This was back in my twenties, and this woman I was dating was fond of marking out everything I did that displeased her as evidence that I didn’t love her. It was also a bit of a control-through-guilt tactic. It underlined what I later discovered was a core issue in many relationships – mismatched models.

What are your models?

When I was a boy, I used to love to build model airplanes. Snapping together little plastic parts to make a bomber or a fighter warmed my little heart. People would look at my model and say, “Nice Spitfire!”

Only it wasn’t a Spitfire, it was a model. As much as I wanted it to, it couldn’t make strafing runs. It represented something in reality—an actual fighter plane. That’s what models are: representations of something in reality.

There are many different kinds of models. I spent twenty-two years writing computer software. Most of that time was spent creating models of processes or interactions. Excellent computer software models the things it represents efficiently. The same is true for your mental models.

Everything in your experience is represented by models in your consciousness. You have mental models of what things are, like toothbrushes and political movements. You have mental models (called beliefs) of truth. You have mental models of the relative importance of things called

Article source: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/models-meaning-key-major-obstacles-interpersonal-relationships-lbkr/