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Somerset County 4H Fair Celebrates 70th Anniversary Aug. 9-11

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Writer

BRIDGEWATER, NJ – The 2017 Somerset County 4-H Fair celebrates its 70th anniversary beginning Wednesday, Aug. 9, continuing on Thursday, Aug. 10 and concluding Friday, Aug. 11 at North Branch Park off Milltown Road.

The fair is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.all three days, with free shuttle buses running from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. each day of the Fair from Raritan Valley Community College on Route 28 in North Branch.

There is no admission or parking fees, and you won’t find a midway or carnival rides.

First opened in 1947, the fair will continue with its traditional focus on agriculture, while recognizing the accomplishments of the Somerset County 4-H clubs.

The fair remains a showcase for visitors to see a variety of 4-H projects in action – twirling, go karts, rockets, magic, model airplanes, R.C. cars, model trains, and other 4-H clubs compete and perform. The Arts Science Tent, and Prep Tent (for the youngest 4-H’ers) are packed with exhibits, activities for visitors, demonstrations, and performances.

Ten other 4-H tents house a variety of animals including dairy cows, beef, alpaca, horses, dogs, herpetology, sheep, goats, poultry, rabbits, and small animals. Most animal tents have a petting area and information about how to join 4-H.

The food at the fair is provided by 20 non-profit organizations.

More than 1,000 youth are involved in the county’s 4-H Youth Program with more than 300 regular volunteers and hundreds of people who help all year long.

“For me, 4-H allows me to be my true self: a theater artist,” said Ashka Sha,

Article source: https://www.tapinto.net/sections/arts-and-entertainment/articles/somerset-county-4h-fair-celebrates-70th-anniversa

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Summer aviation camp inspires future pilots

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Writer

Olivia Leclerc recently had “the best day” of her life at Grove Field Airport, north of Camas.

Leclerc, 9, of Portland, made that statement shortly after having the opportunity to fly Kent Mehrer’s airplane.

It was her first time riding in and flying a small plane.

“Amazing,” Leclerc exclaimed. “We were so high up. It feels weird to walk again.”

Her friend, Jakob Almgren, 9, of Portland, flew Mehrer’s plane, a four-seat Piper Comanche, from Grove Field to Kelso, Washington.

Then, Leclerc flew the aircraft back to Grove.

“I took off and landed the plane,” Mehrer explained later. “When we’re flying between locations, each (child) had their hands on the controls, maneuvering the plane en route.”

Their flights occurred on July 15, during the last day of the annual Camas-Washougal Aviation Association’s aviation camp. The five-day science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) camp is conducted in partnership with the Pearson Field Education Center, of Vancouver.

Leclerc wants to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force and someday fly F-15s.

She said she knew she wanted to be a pilot when she was “really little,” at the age of 2, riding a commercial airplane to Chile. One of her favorite characters, Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker, is a pilot. And many of her family members have aviation backgrounds: Her grandfather, Rodger Hauge, of Washougal, served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, and later became a helicopter pilot, and her great-grandfather, Oscar Hauge, flew C-47 transport planes in World War II and F-9 fighter jets in the Korean War.

Rodger

Article source: http://www.camaspostrecord.com/news/2017/aug/03/summer-aviation-camp-inspires-future-pilots/

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A Rockwell Collins Deal Keeps Looking Smarter

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Writer

Rockwell Collins Inc. shareholders just got another reason to like the company’s takeover of B/E Aerospace.

Shares of the $18 billion avionics company flirted with their worst decline since the financial crisis on Monday, after Bloomberg News reported Boeing Co. was seeking to develop competing navigation systems and flight controls for its jets. Boeing isn’t Rockwell Collins’s only customer, but it’s a big one.

An agreement to supply displays and controls on Boeing’s 777X was expected to generate $2 billion in revenue for Rockwell Collins over the life of the program, while a 2015 Bloomberg Intelligence analysis estimated the company could earn as much as $800,000 for each of the planemaker’s 737MAX aircraft. So I can see why shareholders freaked out.

But those revenue opportunities won’t vanish. For one thing, Boeing aims to bring its avionics offerings to the market next decade, suggesting it will be more inclined to put its products on new versions of planes, rather than reconfigure ones currently in production. And even then, it’s not clear Boeing can come up with something on par with what Rockwell Collins can deliver.

This does point to a further tightening of the screws on aircraft suppliers. Whatever avionics market share Rockwell Collins maintains at Boeing is at risk of being less profitable. Good thing it recently announced a merger to combat that very issue.

Adding food carts and airplane seats to its product portfolio with the $8.3 billion takeover of B/E Aerospace set Rockwell Collins up to triple its typical work-share on a

Article source: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-08-01/boeing-avionics-rockwell-collins-b-e-aerospace-deal-gets-smarter

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Boeing’s new electronics unit may cost its suppliers

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Writer

Boeing will once again make its own airplane computers and electronics, bringing the work back inside the company nearly 15 years after it shuttered and outsourced its electronics unit.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in an internal company message that the creation of a new avionics group will “further drive cost down” and help its customers.

But the announcement has left people in the industry wary about how it could impact the companies that currently supply electronics for the aerospace giant.

Those companies employ thousands of people.

For example, Boeing is one of the largest customers of Rockwell Collins, a company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that makes avionics and electronics for every Boeing commercial airliner. The company’s stock fell sharply on Monday when the news broke but bounced back on Tuesday.

A Rockwell spokeswoman said the company is “well aware that this is a long-term strategy for Boeing and do not anticipate any impact to our business in the foreseeable future.”

Honeywell, United Technologies and General Electric make a wide variety of technologies for Boeing today that run aircraft navigation, flight controls, information systems and other core avionics.

Honeywell said in a statement it would continue to exceed the needs of its customers, without mentioning Boeing by name.

Boeing, America’s largest exporter, continues to bring key manufacturing technologies back under its own operations. That marks a shift from a strategy it adopted in the early 2000s to outsource key portions of its manufacturing and design.

Today Boeing sees big profit in the in-house design of electronics — especially

Article source: http://gantdaily.com/2017/08/01/boeings-new-electronics-unit-may-cost-its-suppliers/

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Model airplane show set for takeoff

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Writer

The Edmonton Radio Control Society’s (ERCS) air show on Aug. 12 at Bremner Field will attempt to satisfy two appetites.

The first is hungry Edmontonians, as organizers will collect non-perishable food items for the Strathcona Food Bank as part of the gate fee. The second is to impress enthusiasts and casual spectators alike with a spectacle presented by model airplane fans, some of whom have spent half-a-century on the remote.

“model airplanes can do anything a real aircraft can do, and also what they can’t do,” said ERCS member Deryl Kartz.

Around 100 models of planes will go airborne at the annual ERCS air show, performing inverted spins, precision flying and candy drops for the kids in the audience. Manoeuvres will be judged by a panel, while spectators will be able to judge air fights, where one plane tries to cut a streamer off another.

“It’s sophisticated, you have to fly precision aerobatics and to get to that level, you have to practice virtually daily,” Kartz said. “Guys can spend $20,000 on their model airplanes and they do crash. They explode and burn to nothing, and there’s no insurance.”

ERCS president Muryl Marler describes the building process of model airplanes a hobby, but the flying part as a competitive sport.

“It teaches you so much about everything from construction to aerodynamics, geometry, math, balance, the list is endless,” Marler said.

“It’s a real step into math, science and technology. All the things I didn’t pay attention to in high school, I’m using it.”

Marler describes flying as an acquired

Article source: http://www.edmontonexaminer.com/2017/08/01/model-airplane-show-set-for-takeoff

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Boeing’s new electronics unit may cost its suppliers

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Writer

By Jon Ostrower

SEATTLE (CNNMoney) — Boeing will once again make its own airplane computers and electronics, bringing the work back inside the company nearly 15 years after it shuttered and outsourced its electronics unit.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in an internal company message that the creation of a new avionics group will “further drive cost down” and help its customers.

But the announcement has left people in the industry wary about how it could impact the companies that currently supply electronics for the aerospace giant.

Those companies employ thousands of people.

A Rockwell spokeswoman said the company is “well aware that this is a long-term strategy for Boeing and do not anticipate any impact to our business in the foreseeable future.”

Honeywell, United Technologies and General Electric make a wide variety of technologies for Boeing today that run aircraft navigation, flight controls, information systems and other core avionics.

Honeywell said in a statement it would continue to exceed the needs of its customers, without mentioning Boeing by name.

Today Boeing sees big profit in the

Article source: http://www.nbc-2.com/story/36026490/boeings-new-electronics-unit-may-cost-its-suppliers

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