Model Airplanes

After the press event announcing Continental Motors’s investment in its Mobile facilities (see sidebar), I was invited to their nearby Fairhope overhaul facility, located on Sonny Callahan Airport (KCQF), where repairs and overhauls of existing Continental and Lycoming piston aircraft engines are performed, and where they assemble and test the Titan line of Experimental engines.

Though this facility, too, will be upgraded soon (including a new paint center and a workflow revision), I was allowed to photograph nearly everything, and followed the path of an incoming engine through its various stages of inspection, testing, and assembly.

Individuals, fleets, and other shops send engines to Fairhope, some with obvious damage, some with little documentation. After cleaning, the disassembly team performs a visual inspection and then performs nondestructive testing using a traditional array of methods: Magnaflux, Zyglo, and ultrasonic. If a part is undamaged, Tony Campbell (general manager, CMS Fairhope) says, “We’ll check every dimension, looking for repairable or out-of-spec parts. We provide the customer with a quote for the repair or overhaul, and once it’s approved, we proceed with the repair or overhaul. However, if the anticipated cost of the engine repair or overhaul is beyond economic sense we will contact the customer.” There are several options. “We can offer a core allowance on a new or rebuilt engine from the factory, or swap his engine to a continuing time overhauled, zero time since overhaul. These three options offer a range of value propositions for the customer, including different warranties and content of

Article source: http://www.aviationpros.com/article/12325771/whats-in-a-continental-motors-services-overhaul

The Vision tagline is “the world’s first single-engine personal jet,” and that single engine explains a lot about what makes this plane so unusual. A one-engine jet, which was a dream of the Wisconsin brothers who founded Cirrus back in the 1980s, is now possible thanks not only to advances in engine tech but also because of carbon fiber composite construction. The single-piece fuselage is strong enough to allow those bigger windows, not possible on normal business jets made of multiple aluminum pieces, but light enough to let the Vision weigh in at just 3,572 lbs. empty and travel up to 1,380 miles at 276 mph (it’ll get up to 345 mph if you don’t mind shortening the range).

Using one engine rather than two means lower manufacturing costs, lower fuel costs, and lower maintenance costs, Kowalski says. It brings down the operating costs to just $700/hour. But it also means danger. When a multi-engine plane loses an engine, it limps to an airfield for repair. When a single engine-plane loses an engine, well, you get the idea. Which is why Cirrus, over the course of decades of building and selling thousands of propeller planes, imbued them all with its Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS).

Yes, it’s a parachute for your plane. Should the engine go down or the pilot be incapacitated, you can pull a red level in the cockpit and a big chute blasts away and then deploys slowly (read: not

Article source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a26553/cirrus-vision-jet-single-engine-plane/

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Amidst beautifully clear weather in the City of Angels this week, big awards rained down on teen scientists. Nearly 1,800 were in town to take part in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The top winner, 18-year-old Ivo Zell, received $75,000 for his design of a small “flying wing” drone.

The teen attends Schloss Hansenberg International School in Geisenheim-Johannisberg, Germany. The craft he created and flew was inspired by aeronautical research conducted in his home country early in the last century. His project earned him the Gordon E. Moore award. It is named for Intel’s co-founder.

Two other winners each took home huge awards as well. In all, about one-third of all finalists received some sort of award for their research. Together, those awards totaled roughly $4 million.

ISEF has been honoring young researchers since 1950. Created and run by Society for Science the Public (SSP), it is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Now sponsored by Intel, ISEF this year brought together students from 78 countries, regions and territories.

“Congratulations to all our finalists, as well as our top three winners on their extraordinary research projects,” says Maya Ajmera. She’s the president of SSP and publisher of Science News for Students. “As our world grows increasingly complex,” she notes, “we need [their] innovative, transformative ideas to identify new solutions to our world’s most intractable challenges.”

High flying design

On most of today’s aircraft, all parts of the wing — from the body of the aircraft out

Article source: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-garner-some-4-million-prizes-2017-intel-isef

It was in a building behind their home. The chrome legs and trim glistened in the light. The tough seats and chair backs were manufactured when America made just about everything, and made it well. They used the table to display garage sale items. I would pick up the items from the table to get a closer look at the kitschy design pattern.

It was like looking into a time machine.

The pattern, which was identical to the aqua colored table my parents had owned, took me to the 1960s.

I was back in my chair at breakfast, reading the back of a cereal box as I devoured my Cap’n Crunch. My mom would tell us to hurry or we’d be late for school.

I recalled discussions that took place over dinner. As Walter Cronkite talked about the latest news from the Vietnam War from the television set in the living room, my mom would ask my father how his day had been.

While they talked, I would sneak food to our dog or cat under that table.

After dinner was finished and the dishes washed and put in the drain rack, I would sit back down at the table to do my homework.

Other nights, my sister, cousins and I would be in the living room while my parents, aunts and uncles would sit around that table and play cards into the night. I can still hear their laughter and the sound of the coffee percolating. We played board

Article source: http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-Blogs/283895/columnist-john-moore-the-formica-dinette-set