Model Airplanes

Delta pilot Mike Roelofs was on his aircraft at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport more than two hours before departure Friday morning, making sure everything was as it should be.

A cubby in the cockpit didn’t have fire gloves. So he hollered back to a colleague to move the safety wear from the flight attendant’s galley space to the front of the plane, where they are supposed to be stowed.

Roelofs was scheduled to fly a brand-new Airbus A220 airplane on its inaugural trip from MSP to Dallas-Fort Worth at 9:05 a.m., and he wanted everything to be perfect. It was the plane’s first flight with passengers aboard and the first time the new aircraft model had been parked at one of Delta’s MSP gates.

The A220 plays a key role in Delta’s drawdown of its reliance on regional airlines, as it transitions those flights to Delta’s mainline. The A220 isn’t a big plane, just 109 seats, but it’s Delta’s new workhorse, primarily replacing 76-seat regional jets.

It’s also part of the Atlanta-base carrier’s long-term strategy of increasing its typical aircraft size while decreasing the number of 50-seat airplanes.

For passengers and aviation enthusiasts, the aircraft has a few things going for it: wider seats than any other Delta aircraft, larger windows, a new and improved entertainment system and the buzzworthy bathroom-with-a-window.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/delta-s-latest-plane-includes-windows-in-the-bathroom/511955932/

For one group of men, Arthur Ashe Jr. is more than a tennis superstar and internationally recognized crusader for human rights and bringing awareness and resources to the AIDS epidemic.

For them, he is also the boyhood pal they went to school with, played baseball with, flew model airplanes with and enjoyed other adventures while growing up in North Side.

“Arthur was quiet, but he was considered the smartest of us all. He got all A’s in every class — from elementary school to high school. I don’t think he ever came close to a B,” said Frank W. Turner Jr., one of the dwindling group now in their 80s that gathers monthly at a Henrico hotel to reminisce and enjoy each other’s company.

Like Mr. Turner, most of the cadre grew up in the Brookfield Gardens apartment complex that sits east of Chamberlayne Avenue and south of School Street.

Most of those who meet monthly were members of the “Dream Boys,” a club the young men from Brookfield Gardens and nearby formed as teenagers and have restarted in the past four years to keep up with each other.

Mr. Ashe, who was younger at the time, never belonged, Mr. Turner said, but he was a regular presence in their lives as a classmate and neighbor.

Othello Scott, a retired pilot, used to live on Brook Road, a short distance from the Ashe home at 1610 Sledd St. “I could yell out my bedroom window at him,” he recalled.

At the time,

Article source: http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2019/jun/28/rekindling-memories-childhood-and-pal-arthur/

The aviation industry has long been criticized for its large environmental footprint, particularly its climate-warming carbon emissions. But a new study suggests that another byproduct of airplanes—the white contrails they paint across the sky—has an even bigger warming effect, one that is set to triple by 2050.  

Planes create their mesmerizinfg contrails as they soar high in the thin, cold air. Water vapor quickly condenses around soot from the plane’s exhaust and freezes to form cirrus clouds, which can last for minutes or hours. These high-flying clouds are too thin to reflect much sunlight, but ice crystals inside them can trap heat. Unlike low-level clouds that have a net cooling effect, these contrail-formed clouds warm the climate.

A 2011 study suggests that the net effect of these contrail clouds contributes more to atmospheric warming than all the carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced by planes since the dawn of aviation. And those effects are predicted to get worse as air traffic—and the resulting cloud coverage—increases: Some estimates suggest global air traffic will quadruple by the year

Article source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/aviation-s-dirty-secret-airplane-contrails-are-surprisingly-potent-cause-global-warming

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

Members of a model plane club are taking their love for their hobby to new heights.

The River City Radio Controllers have an airfield at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park called Bill Fluke Field.

More than 150 members build and fly model airplanes on a regular basis.

Ethan Ater is 17 years old and one of the youngest in the club.

“My dad brought me out here when I was 2 years old and I just have had a love of aviation ever since,” said Ater.

According to Tim Evans, most members fly World War I and II scale model planes, designed and built to look just like the originals.

Evans enjoys learning about the history of the planes he builds.

“You get to work with electronics, you get to work with wood, with composite materials, you get to study the history,” said Evans.

Ater does more extreme flying than other members.

He flies a helicopter and plane that are built to do stunts the real ones could never do.

“What’s cool about my helicopter is I can set the motor to turn it to a certain speed and I actually change the pitch so that enables it to go upside down and do all kinds of crazy stuff,” said Ater.

The aircraft are controlled by handheld remotes.

“It just takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with it,” said Ater.

The airfield is at the park off North Hurstbourne Parkway near Zachary Taylor Elementary School.

For directions, click https://www.wlky.com/article/model-airplane-club-shares-flying-with-community/28209207

The climate impact of flying isn’t just about carbon emissions. The contrails that airplanes create also influence the temperature of our atmosphere—and a new study finds that impact is set to grow in a big way.

As planes cruise through the upper reaches of the troposphere. spewing exhaust, they also leave behind trails of water vapor that can form streaky cirrus clouds. Most of these contrail cirrus clouds dissipate quickly, but under the right conditions they can linger for hours, and when that happens they warm the atmosphere by absorbing thermal radiation emitted by the Earth.

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Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect of contrail cirrus for years—in fact, there’s an entire niche field of research devoted to it. And it’s important: Globally, the atmospheric warming associated with these clouds is estimated to be larger than that caused by aviation’s carbon emissions. That surprising fact has some scientists curious about whether the effect will grow as the skies continue to get more trafficked into the future.

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Now, a pair of researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has attempted to answer

Article source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/airplane-contrails-have-surprising-effect-on-the-atmosp-1835905453

This is an exciting time for public libraries as we increase our program offerings to meet the seasonal interests and needs of our communities.

For children’s librarians, this means keeping kids reading during the summer both for the simple fun of it and to help them maintain the literacy gains they made during the previous school year. Beating the “summer slide,” where those gains are lost, is only one of many reasons we offer summer reading programs.

Public libraries have become community centers where anyone can go for entertainment, cultural events, public meetings and education. The Orange Public Libraries’ summer reading program reflects this. Children in our 2019 summer reading program will participate in craft programs creating planets out of paper lanterns, make kaleidoscopes, learn how to handle large rainforest reptiles, and tackle engineering challenges such as building robots and Rube Goldberg machines.

At the end of the summer reading program, children may enjoy a concert with the Brooklyn-based band Rolie Polie Guacamole, an ice cream social, as well as receive prizes for the time they spend reading. In addition to winning prizes, for every minute a child reads, the Friends of the Orange Public Libraries will donate a penny to the Franklin County Community Meals Program, which funds the Orange Food Pantry.

Children’s events

Free-build robots: July 27 at the Moore-Leland Library, 172 Athol Road. 3 to 4 p.m. Free-build robots that exhibit a wide range of behaviors using Cubelet blocks. Limited to 8 participants ages 6 and up. Registration is required for this program. Summer Reading Program

Article source: https://www.recorder.com/Orange-Library-Lowdown-26520929