Model Airplanes

Gary Berg, owner of G-Force Aerial Media, takes aerial photos and videos using professional drones. He is one of the only certified drone pilots in the Yakima area. Berg poses for a portrait here while flying his DJI Inspire quadcopter in his backyard in Yakima, Wash. on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. (Jake Parrish, Yakima Herald-Republic)

Article source: http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/business/take-gary-berg-g-force-aerial-media/article_21b921f2-65ee-11e8-aa27-730e629cb1b6.html

Dean Kamen started one transportation revolution when he invented the Segway Human Transporter, the first self-balancing, electric-powered transportation machine. So his views on the next transportation revolution, autonomous vehicles, are germane. And for the future of AVs, the industry that produces them and the consumers who ride in them, Kamen points to a previous paradigm shift in how we get around: airplanes.

As founder of DEKA Research and one of the world’s foremost inventors and engineering innovators, Manchester, N.H.-based Kamen became famous not just for Segway, which he introduced in 2001, but also for creations including the IBOT Mobility Device — a sort of wheelchair-cum-Transformers — a portable dialysis machine, a vascular stent and many more. His current focus is on bioengineering marvels such as an advanced prosthetic arm for returning injured shoulders.

Kamen was on hand in Detroit recently to preside over a national tournament for FIRST Robotics, another brainchild, which pits technology-minded teams of school kids against one another to build robots that compete in contests reflecting the skills, savvy and technical brainpower of their creators.

“There are engineers who think we’re ready for self-driving cars and others think that it’ll never happen,” Kamen told me. Sadly, he said, many engineers make those assessments with ideological motivations in assessing, for example, the safety-readiness of automated vehicles in the wake of recent high-profile accidents during which drivers seemed to be depending on autonomous systems, or autonomous systems failed under testing.

In that regard, Kamen said, he’s “shocked that no one is looking at

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebuss/2018/05/31/to-see-how-autonomous-vehicles-may-take-over-dean-kamen-says-look-what-happened-in-airplanes/

Kaden Steckenrider’s plane soars above Paducah’s Model Air Park.

PADUCAH — Pilots from across the region will descend on Paducah this weekend for the Paducah Aero Modelers Taking Flight for Charity. The model airplanes they fly are so much more than that. They are impressive, and sometimes very expensive, machines.

The youngest pilot there, 9-year-old Kaden Steckenrider, has found a passion and sort of therapy in flying.

Kaden and his dad, Stephen, pick up a plane that crashed onto the Model Air Park field.

Quiet blue skies come alive with the buzz of an engine. Kaden lives to fly.

“As soon as he grabbed it, he’s loved it ever since,” his mom, Trish Steckenrider, said.

Kaden said he has a few things on his mind while flying: “Is something gonna’ break, or is something not gonna’ break while I’m in the air?”

Getting ready is half the fun. Kaden and his dad, Stephen Steckenrider, make sure every piece is in the right spot.

Kaden lives with a visual processing disorder, and flying acts as a kind of therapy for him.

“Helping him get set up. Helping him fly,” Stephen said. “I knew nothing about flying when he first started.”

Trish said flying has actually helped Kaden. “It almost acts as physical therapy for him, because of the hand eye coordination that has to happen when you fly. It’s really helped him out a lot,” Trish said.

Kaden has a visual processing disorder, although he was

Article source: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/2018/06/01/model-planes-help-9-year-old-boy-soar-beyond-his-obstacles/