Model Airplanes

The airplane the Smithsonian can’t have taxis down a grass strip in Stevensville, Maryland, picking up enough speed to ease itself into the sky above Kent Island. It’s an uncommon plane: The Brunner-Winkle Aircraft Corporation built just 220 “Birds” in Brooklyn between 1928 and 1931, and perhaps 60 are still around. But that’s not why the “Nation’s Attic” would like to own this particular biplane. The real attraction is its first owner, who according to Civil Aeronautics Administration records was a Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh of Englewood, New Jersey.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s famous husband bought the Bird to help her learn to fly. She eventually flew over five continents and spent nearly six months surveying Atlantic flight routes using other planes. But she learned in the Bird, which Charles Lindbergh ordered with a special low passenger seat in the front because he was so tall.

An attorney named Mike Pangia owns the Bird now. He bought it from Joe Fichera, who spent much of his life restoring airplanes for the Smithsonian. It’s still hangared at the brick Fichera home on Kent Island, which looks like any other midcentury ranch but backs onto Kentmorr Airpark. A former engineer named Bill Morris turned an old potato farm into a community of aviation enthusiasts in the early ’50s, developing a subdivision and a restaurant five miles from the Bay Bridge, down Romancoke Road. Pilots used to joke about going to the restaurant for a “$100 hamburger.” Bill—whose daughter Annette married Ted Lerner—named the airplane he

Article source: https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/08/30/smithsonian-love-get-hands-lindberghs-old-plane-owner-wont-stop-flying/

Let’s be honest: We’ve all probably judged the safety of an airplane by how new and modern it looks. It’s hard not to. But is it superficial to be taken in by new seats and better lighting, or are older airplanes actually less safe?

“It depends,” Bruce Landsberg, the former president of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “There are no clear-cut answers.”

There are some general rules of thumb, though. “It’s ultimately about maintenance. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck, a matter of design, or a matter of how the plane is used or abused,” Landsberg says, noting that consistent maintenance is the key to a long airplane life. He says that maintenance requirements for planes have become much more stringent, adding that “the FAA and airlines have become a whole lot more sensitive toward aging aircraft.” (For instance, all aircraft used for commercial flights must pass a safety inspection every 100 hours of flying time.)

It’s common to see 20-, 25- and even 30-year-old planes in use, because Boeing and Airbus build passenger aircraft to last much longer than an automobile.

“The core of a plane is very expensive, and they are overbuilt. They are extremely durable. They have to be,” Landsberg says.

They are “overbuilt”—or constructed tougher than actually needed—because airplanes operate in high-stress environments, running anywhere from 65 to 85 percent of their maximum power compared to an automobile, which is typically running at 25 percent of its power. Meanwhile,

Article source: https://www.cntraveller.in/story/are-older-planes-more-dangerous/

Two years ago, I took a look at how General Electric was harnessing the power of YouTube creators to tell its story. Well, I recently took a look at GE’s social video strategy and discovered that the company, which was founded in 1892 by Thomas Edison, is using sponsored videos – particularly on Facebook – for both B2B and B2C digital video marketing strategy.

GE Sponsored Video Content

According to Tubular’s Dealmaker software, GE’s corporate brand has been working with 15 partners who have uploaded 100 videos to the main social video platforms so far in 2017. Combined, this sponsored content has more than 15 million views and over 200,000 engagements, making the videos a significant medium to carry the brand message to a wider audience.

The most popular sponsored video is “This paper airplane has taken 9 years to make.” Uploaded to The Future Is Now’s Facebook page on June 19, 2017, this sponsored content currently has 5.7 million views and 109,000 engagements. It tells the story of Luca Iaconi-Stewart, a 25-year-old paper artist from San Francisco, who created a model Boeing 777 completely out of manila file folders. He even replicated the GE90-115B, the world’s largest and most powerful engine.

GE’s second most popular sponsored video is “This is additive manufacturing.” Uploaded to I Fucking Love Science’s Facebook page on May 3, 2017, this sponsored content currently has 2.5 million views and 33,500 engagements. It shows an

Article source: http://tubularinsights.com/general-electric-sponsored-video/

Let’s be honest: We’ve all probably judged the safety of an airplane by how new and modern it looks. It’s hard not to. But is it superficial to be taken in by new seats and better lighting, or are older airplanes actually less safe?

“It depends,” Bruce Landsberg, the former president of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “There are no clear-cut answers.”

There are some general rules of thumb, though. “It’s ultimately about maintenance. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck, a matter of design, or a matter of how the plane is used or abused,” Landsberg says, noting that consistent maintenance is the key to a long airplane life. He says that maintenance requirements for planes have become much more stringent, adding that “the FAA and airlines have become a whole lot more sensitive toward aging aircraft.” (For instance, all aircraft used for commercial flights must pass a safety inspection every 100 hours of flying time.)

At some point, there will be something so expensive to fix, the airline will say it isn’t worth it and turn the thing into scrap aluminum.

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It’s common to see 20-, 25- and even 30-year-old planes in use, because Boeing and Airbus build passenger

Article source: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/are-older-planes-more-dangerous