Model Airplanes

Paul Catala

DAVENPORT — From 1908 to 1940, between 70,000 and 75,000 homes in the United States were built through using the mail-order Sear, Roebuck and Co. Modern Homes program.

And although thousands have become victims to neglect, despair or progress, Sears Catalog Homes can still be found across the United States, from Ohio, Illinois and New York, down into Central Florida and Polk County.

For 32 years just prior to World War II, Sears designed 447 housing styles with customers choosing an architectural style that fit their budgets, according to the online Sears archives. They were ordered through a catalog in what was called a “house in a box.” Within months, customers received their purchases via railway cars containing as many as 30,000 parts of a home and, like a toy kit, ready to be assembled on-site.

Although other towns and cities in Florida have higher concentrations of Sears homes, examples of what Sears called in its catalog “Honor Bilt Modern Homes” can be found in Polk County. One of those homes, in Davenport, is being marked for demolition.

The Sears homes weren’t ever considered particularly innovative, but they could be built within the framework of a homeowner’s imagination, using touches from multistory homes with elegant French doors and artistic glass windows to simple, quaint three–room, no-bath vacation summer cottages. They were built based on the current architectural trends using the homebuyer’s taste and preference.

According to Sears, its homes could be “assembled” at least 40 percent more quickly

Article source: http://www.theledger.com/news/20180114/polk-county-homes-from-pages-of-sears

Airline passengers are facing a fresh crime threat – and this time it is not from so-called in-flight steals – but the theft of travel bags and their contents from city-bound airport buses.

Police feared a wave of publicity over mid-air robberies – which saw more than HK$13 million worth of passenger property and cash pilfered from overhead luggage compartments on inbound flights between 2015 and 2016 – may have forced organised gangs to switch their attention to airport buses. The criminals banked on the fact that passengers who landed safely with their property intact would drop their guard.

How rampant is theft on planes flying in and out of Hong Kong?

The new twist in airport-related crime had seen “many, many” passengers fall victim over recent weeks, according to police sources, and prompted fresh warnings to bus commuters travelling to or from the airport to be extra vigilant.

The police’s public relations bureau would only formally confirm two cases brought to its attention by the Post, insisting that the problem could not be formally quantified because it “did not maintain the requested figures”.

Security staff at Hong Kong airport accused of stealing HK$1,500 from passenger

However, a senior police source said there was growing concern over the problem.

“There have been many, many cases involving travellers who have come off flights landing in Hong Kong and then taken airport buses into the city. Perhaps they feel the

Article source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2128175/gangs-thieves-target-luggage-passengers-taking-airport

They don’t like the word “crisis” at GKN, yet in recent months one of Britain’s biggest engineers has offered an interesting case study into what happens when things start to go wrong.

The company started the year with its investors in bullish mood. It had been missing cash conversion targets and profit margin goals, but the business model was sound. It was in the aerospace parts business when aircraft sales were at record highs; and it was in the automotive parts business during the greatest revolution in the industry since Henry Ford’s Model T.

At the 2016 full-year results, its shares took flight as any shortcomings were glazed over by the positive effects of translating overseas, dollar-denominated earnings back into the devalued pound, helping to…

Article source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gkn-s-bumpy-ride-on-path-to-a-break-up-5r6kcl5sc