Model Airplanes

James (Jim) Urso, 84, beloved husband of Polly (Daboll) passed away peacefully at home Sunday, May 13, 2018. Jim was born January 13, 1934 in New Britain CT. He was the eldest son of the late Sebastiano and Maria Urso. Jim served in the US Navy aboard the USS Cadmus from 1956-1958. Jim had many interests and hobbies but none greater than fishing. He never missed opening day at the Salmon River with his son and brother. He was an avid boater, the captain of the Lord Jim out of Noank. Jim was an accomplished artist and his passion for the sea showed in his oil paintings. He was employed by the New Britain Herald of Herald Square in New Britain. He began his career in 1961 as a machinist in the composing room and as the newspaper evolved he ended his career in 1994 as a computer technician. Jim will be forever remembered for his love of Volkswagen beetles that he rebuilt and painted with the help of his son in law. Jim will be dearly missed by his family. He and his wife Polly shared 59 years together in Southington, Old Saybrook, Florida, and Canton. He leaves his son James Urso Jr and wife Lynne of Shrewsbury, MA and his daughter Charlene Plourde and husband Doug of Avon. His children will forever remember their time with him on forest marches, flying model airplanes and rockets, and racing slot cars. Jim shared his hobbies and passions with his most

Article source: http://www.courant.com/obituaries/hc-obituary-james-urso-20180515-story.html

Ever since Boris Popov introduced his “ballistic recovery systems” (BRS) for small airplanes in 1980, skeptics have continued to question their value. Popov came up with the idea of a whole-airplane parachute after surviving the structural failure of his hang glider, and Cirrus Aircraft subsequently incorporated the safety feature in its SR20/SR22 models. On its website, BRS Aerospace claims 380 lives have been saved by the system, which deploys a parachute that gently returns a disabled aircraft to the ground.

Recently an independent academic study confirmed how effective the system is in saving lives. The analysis, written by researchers from Ohio’s Wright State University and published in the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, found a 13-fold decrease in the odds of a fatality when the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS, developed with Popov’s company, BRS Aerospace) was deployed in an accident, versus when it was not.

Based on National Transportation Safety Board accident data from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2016, which included 288 Cirrus accidents and 57 deployments, the findings “suggest that [ballistic parachute recovery systems] could play a significant role in the next major advance in improving [general aviation] accident survival,” according to the authors.

Despite its import, the research has received little attention. “The last time I checked, the paper has not been cited by anybody,” said Dean Olson, lead author of the study with grad students Mustafa Alaziz and Adrienne Stolfi.

Even Cirrus and Popov were unaware of the study.

“Wow, this is pretty neat,” said

Article source: https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/those-parachutes-small-airplanes-really-do-work-180969057/

DOUGLAS COUNTY – While the National Transportation Safety Board hasn’t learned exactly what caused a plane to crash Friday night in Douglas County, it said the aircraft had a built-in parachute that was never deployed.

The plane was a Cirrus SR22 and this specific make has a safety feature built into all of its airplanes.

It’s called Cirrus Airframe Parachute System, or CAPS, “the most significant safety innovation in over a half-century of general aviation,” according to Cirrus’ website.

RELATED | Questions surround deadly plane crash in Douglas County

“There is a rocket with a parachute attached to it in the back of the airplane behind the baggage area,” said Bob Stedman, owner of Independence Aviation. “It’s designed and manufactured into the aircraft. You buy a Cirrus, you get CAPS. It’s just part of it.”

Stedman has a lot of experience with Cirrus aircraft. He said in his business’ fleet, there are 12 airplanes and 11 of them are Cirrus.

“You pull the CAPS handle, the rocket fires off, it takes the parachute out of the back end of the airplane right behind the baggage bay,” Stedman said. “The parachute deploys in about six seconds and then it lowers the aircraft to the ground in a flat position.”

The system is designed to save lives and a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information proves it has. The NCBI studied 268 accidents involving Cirrus planes. In 211 instances, the parachute wasn’t deployed and 82 of them were fatal. Of the 57 accidents where the

Article source: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/planes-parachute-not-deployed-before-crash-in-douglas-county/73-551752019

Israel is employing small remote-controlled airplanes to battle the phenomenon of incendiary kites in the Gaza Strip, Hadashot news reported Friday night.

The military is using the planes, armed with cutting knives on their wings, to cut the kites’ wires, thus preventing them from carrying their payload of firebombs over the border and sparking fires in Israel.

According to the report on Friday the tiny aircraft’s operators managed to down seven kites flown towards Israel.

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For the past several weeks, Gazans have been regularly flying kites outfitted with containers of burning fuel, often including charcoal and bags of sugar to ensure a long, slow burn.

The kite tactic was introduced as part of the weekly “March of Return” demonstrations at the border fence, which began on March 30 and are due to continue through mid-May.

The kites have regularly sparked fires in Israeli fields, and the army has struggled to thwart the new weapon.

Article source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-using-model-airplanes-to-combat-gazas-attack-kites/