Model Airplanes

US Navy calls off search for three missing sailors

Lucas Tomlinson has the details.

Even before the Navy cargo plane crash Wednesday, the number of U.S. troops killed in plane crashes had skyrocketed this year along with the total number of crashes overall compared to this point a year ago, a Fox News investigation has uncovered.

So far this year, there have been 22 U.S. military non-combat plane crashes flying routine operations. That’s up 38 percent from this time last year.

The number of American troops killed in these plane crashes has more than doubled.  Following the announcement by the 7^th Fleet Thursday night that it has ended its search for three missing American sailors hundreds of miles off the coast of Japan, the number of U.S. service members lost to plane crashes in 2017 stands at 37. That is more than 130 percent higher than the number killed in non-combat plane crashes at this point in 2016.

Many on Capitol Hill say years of budget cuts are taking a toll. 

NAVY SUSPENDS SEARCH FOR 3 SAILORS MISSING AFTER PLANE CRASH

“Perhaps the greatest harm to our national security

Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/24/us-troops-killed-in-plane-crashes-skyrockets-in-2017.html

Westminster, CO, December 12, 2017 –(PR.com)– Lessons learned from The Danse, a digital arts company, that can benefit any product development team.

The Danse is an engineering company, but they do not manufacture a product you can put your hands on…they create digital reality. To create the digital reality, they often use 3D mechanical CAD tools and thus face the same problems any engineering/manufacturing company does with the underlying 3D data – from problems with geometry to challenges with massive file sizes. The Danse strives to make the 3D virtual world as realistic to real life as is possible and practical. Digital representations are becoming more realistic and technically accurate throughout the video game, animation and entertainment industries. Compare the first Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport game to Forza Motorsport 6; the cars are more realistic and accurate than ever.

Airplane Maintenance image is courtesy of The Danse (www.thedanse.com).

Digital, A Reality
How does one achieve “reality” for these 3D digital applications? In many cases, 3D engineering CAD models are utilized in the 3D virtual world created with industrial strength 3D CAD systems like SOLIDWORKS®. These models represent the actual “blueprints” utilized for design and manufacturing in the tangible form. However, these CAD models are created by engineers and purposed for various manufacturing processes. Re-purposing those designs to create realistic art for animation, entertainment, and artistic applications is a combination of artistic ability and technical prowess.

Powerful technology. Real solutions. Real problems. The Danse (www.thedanse.com), established in 1999, provides cost effective simulations and animations

Article source: https://www.pr.com/press-release/738723

The Air Hogs Sky Shark was a free-flying model airplane powered by compressed air. When it was released in the late ’90s, it was a fairly innovative toy featuring a strikingly novel compressed air engine made entirely out of injection molded plastic. Sales of these model planes took off, and landed on the neighbor’s roof, never to be seen again.

A few weeks ago, [Tom Stanton] revisited this novel little air-powered motor by creating his own 3D printed copy. Yes, it worked, and yes, it’s a very impressive 3D print. That build was just on a workbench, though, and to really test this air motor out, [Tom] used it to propel a remote-controlled plane through the air.

The motor used for this experiment is slightly modified from [Tom]’s original air-powered motor. The original motor used a standard 3-blade quadcopter prop, but the flightworthy build is using a much larger prop that swings a lot more air. This, with the addition of a new spring in the motor and a much larger air tank constructed out of plastic bottles results in a motor that’s not very heavy but can still swing a prop for tens of seconds. It’s not much, but it’s something.

The airframe for this experiment was constructed using [Tom]’s 3D printed wing ribs, a carbon fiber boom for the tail, and only rudder and elevator controls. After figuring out some CG issues — the motor doesn’t weigh much, and planes usually have big batteries in the nose

Article source: https://hackaday.com/2017/12/11/a-remote-controlled-air-plane/

Reports from pilots, citizens, and law enforcement of unmanned aircraft sightings in restricted airspace, or other apparent violations, continue to increase dramatically in the U.S., with the FAA receiving more than 180 such reports each month. There have been 1,696 reports in the first nine months of this year versus 1,761 in all of 2016. In 2015 there were 1,214 reports, and just 236 in 2014, the year the agency started collecting data.

The FAA said it wants to send a clear message that operating drones around airplanes, helicopters, and airports is dangerous and illegal. “Unauthorized operators may be subject to stiff fines and criminal charges, including possible jail time.” To date, no drone operator has been convicted or jailed, but the agency said it has “levied civil penalties for a number of unauthorized flights in various parts of the country, and has many open enforcement cases.” As of mid-2017, the FAA said that more than 770,000 drone operators were registered since the registration requirement went into effect in February 2016.

Meanwhile, the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network (ASN) reports 17 collisions worldwide since 1997 between aircraft and drones (including model airplanes), one of which was fatal. In August 1997, the two people aboard a Grob motor glider were killed in a collision with a model airplane in Germany.

To date, the only corporate airplane encounter with a drone shown in the ASN database occurred on Oct. 12, 2017, and involved a Canadian-registered Beech King Air B100 on a charter flight with

Article source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-12-11/drone-sightings-rise-us