Model Airplanes

The days of the Boeing 747 are numbered — but some travelers can take home a piece of this historic airplane.

Known lovingly as the “Queen of the Skies,” and widely acknowledged as the world’s first “jumbo jet,” the aging model is being phased out by many airlines. United Airlines is the most recent carrier to transition to other models, with their 747 fleet making a last international journey on October 29, and a final 1970s-themed domestic flight on November 7.

To celebrate the retirement of this world-changing airplane — which set the standard for size and passenger volume for decades — the airline is hosting an online auction exclusively for members of its MileagePlus rewards program.

To send the 747 off in style, frequent fliers can use their miles to buy fixtures, furniture, electronics and more from the United fleet. The airline has nine remaining 747 aircraft.

The auction kicked off with a number of fixed-price items; livery panels (priced at 80,000 miles) and iconic airplane windows (50,000 miles) — both from a plane that flew almost 100,000 hours over 26 years — have already sold out. 747 fans in need of new living-room furniture can still purchase a double- or triple-passenger row seat (275,000 and 250,000 miles, respectively) — though no guarantees about how comfortable

Article source: http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/united-airlines/united-airlines-airplane-parts-auction

Guests who visited the Wings Rotors Air Museum in French Valley Saturday, Oct. 21, were transported back in time to a 1970s-themed party honoring Vietnam War veterans.

The “Salute to Vietnam!” event began about 5 p.m. at the museum, located at 37350 Sky Canyon Drive. It included cocktails, dinner, raffles and music performed by the Temecula-based Phoenix Patriot Band.

Proceeds from the event went to support the museum, which is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring former military aircraft to flying condition with emphasis on aircraft from the Vietnam War.

“Since we’re basically a Vietnam-era museum, we decided to have our first fundraiser be a ‘Nam-era theme,’” Judy Rodgers, who fills a variety of roles for the museum, said. “So we’re paying tribute to our veterans, and we thought it would be fun to come dress in your 70s attire.”

Guests, many wearing 70s-style clothing, stopped to look at some of the aircraft on display.

There was a Bell UH-1B “Huey,” a kind of helicopter that was common during the Vietnam War, and a F4H-1F Phantom, a fighter plane designed for the United States Navy. Rodgers said the museum was hoping to procure the parts to make both of the aircraft operational.

http://myvalleynews.com/entertainment/airplane-museum-in-french-valley-throws-70s-style-party-honoring-vietnam-war-veterans/

The ocean can seem like an acoustically disorienting place, with muffled sounds from near and far blending together in a murky sea of noise.

Now an MIT mathematician has found a way to cut through this aquatic cacaphony, to identify underwater sound waves generated by objects impacting the ocean’s surface, such as debris from meteorites or aircraft. The results are published this week in the online journal Scientific Reports.

Lead author Usama Kadri, a research affiliate in MIT’s Department of Mathematics, is applying the team’s acoustic analysis in hopes of locating Malaysia Airlines flight 370, an international passenger plane that disappeared over the southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014.

Since the aircraft’s disappearance, authorities have confirmed and recovered a few of the plane’s parts. However, the bulk of the aircraft has yet to be identified, as has any reasonable explanation for its demise.

Kadri believes that if the plane indeed crashed into the ocean, it would have generated underwater sound waves, called acoustic-gravity waves, with a very specific pattern. Such waves travel across large distances before dissipating and therefore would have been recorded by hydrophones around the world. If such patterns can be discerned amid the ocean’s background noise, Kadri says acoustic-gravity waves can be traced back to the location of the original crash.

In this new paper, Kadri and his colleagues have identified a characteristic pattern of acoustic-gravity waves produced by impacting objects, as opposed to other sources such as earthquakes or underwater explosions. They have looked for this pattern in data collected

Article source: http://news.mit.edu/2017/ocean-sound-waves-may-reveal-location-incoming-objects-1026

Yesterday, Boeing (BA) reported earnings before the bell. For those who have missed my elaborate view on the results itself, you can read it here and I will provide a brief summary below. A look at the figures always is nice. But I think investors also should be aware of what is being discussed next to the numbers and there certainly have been positives there that I will discuss in this article. Whether this warrants an addition of Boeing shares to your portfolio is yours to decide, for me it is merely a reason to keep holding on to the shares that I currently do own.

Some say that Boeing sold off yesterday post earnings. As an investment Boeing shares returned over 85% of value (dividends excluded) to investors and I think if you combine with the 3% share price decline of yesterday with a flattish price development today, you can hardly speak of a sell off. Investors who have consistently looked at the cash flow performance and risk mitigations have been able to take a position in Boeing or expand their positions in 2016 or earlier. Another group has invested in Boeing after the Q2 earnings which positively surprised Boeing and awarded the company by settings its shares 10% higher. I think it is likely those people who have sold their shares yesterday locked in a gain of roughly 10%. That stands in high contrast with the gains that others have booked after consistent due

Article source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4116908-boeing-rocket-climbing-aircraft