Model Airplanes

Every day, Wall Street analysts upgrade some stocks, downgrade others, and “initiate coverage” on a few more. But do these analysts even know what they’re talking about? Today, we’re taking one high-profile Wall Street pick and putting it under the microscope…

The past six months have seen shares of airplane parts supplier TransDigm Group (NYSE:TDG) get pummeled — down 20% from their previous value. But not to worry, say analysts at Vertical Group: Things are about to get better.

In fact, as explained in a write-up on StreetInsider.com today, Vertical thinks the fact that TransDigm stock has declined so much in price gives investors “a good entry point” on the stock. Today, Vertical thinks you should “buy the dip,” as StreetInsider.com puts it.

But before you take Vertical Group’s advice, here are three things you should know.

Will TransDigm stock really crash and burn? Image source: Getty Images.

1. A bit of history

In the first two weeks after noted short-seller Citron Research published a negative report on TransDigm in January, the stock lost nearly 15% of its market capitalization. Labeling TransDigm an industrial version of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) — they literally called it “the Valeant of the Aerospace Industry” — Citron alleged that TransDigm’s business model was unfair to its primary customer, the U.S. taxpayer, and would ultimately prove unsustainable.

As the analyst explained, much like Valeant, TransDigm’s standard operating procedure is to buy up smaller airplane parts suppliers (more than 50 acquired so far), fire their staff,

Article source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/14/transdigm-stock-upgraded-what-you-need-to-know.aspx

Turkish pilot, engineer and entrepreneur Vecihi Hürkuş, the first Turk to design and build an aircraft, has inspired young generations for decades.

Fatma Akyürek, a math teacher in a school in Samsun’s 19 Mayıs district, volunteers as an after-school teacher offering model airplane courses to children as part of the “Küçük Vecihiler Yetişiyor” (Raising Little Vecihis) project to support the education of her students.

Akyürek began the project at Şehit Arif Çetin Secondary School in the district’s Karagöl Quarter after being inspired by the late aviator Vecihi Hürkuş, one of the most important names in the history of Turkish aviation; she hoped to contribute to the development and education of students living in rural areas across Turkey.

Akyürek, also a certified model airplane instructor, volunteers her time to teach students model airplane installation during workshops held at the school during lunch breaks and after-school hours every weekday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Akyürek said she aims to prepare students in local village schools, who have never been on a plane or seen one before, for the future.

Akyürek emphasized that she began to offer model airplane training courses to students at the school after her project was approved by school administrators, saying: “I wanted to make sure that students living in rural areas make the most of their free time in a fully beneficial way. Thus, I endeavored to impart to these children the love of aviation at the same time.”

Akyürek pointed out that she volunteered to launch the project to help prepare children for

Article source: http://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2017/03/16/new-generation-of-aviators-follows-the-footsteps-of-celebrated-turkish-pioneer

Donald Trump has long had a thing about Air Force One. He denigrated the presidential jet on the campaign trail, calling it “a step down … in every way” from his own plane, a gilded Boeing 757. He mocked Air Force One’s fuel-guzzling engines and blasted President Obama for taking it to campaign rallies and on vacation. Then, one Tuesday in December, after Trump won the presidency but before he had a chance to ride on the aircraft, he picked up his Android phone and tweeted about a nascent project to replace the presidential jet with an even more powerful and capable craft. “Costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” he wrote at 8:52 a.m. “Cancel order!”

At Boeing Co.’s offices in Washington, D.C., executives hastily canceled their routine morning strategy meeting. The Air Force One project, known blandly as the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program, hadn’t been the topic of any recent news coverage, but within minutes it was leading every cable news channel. When the stock market opened, Boeing shares dipped a little more than 1 percent.

Trump’s criticisms were a bit off. For one thing, Air Force One is larger and faster, and equipped with incomparably more sophisticated technology, than Trump’s 757, which he bought used. (One previous owner: a budget Mexican airline.) And nobody involved in the program knew what “more than $4 billion” referred to. Boeing executives noted that the only public expenditure so far was a $172 million contract to

Article source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-14/trump-force-one-is-ready-for-takeoff

By JOHN ROGERS
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Goodyear has let the helium out of the last of its fabled fleet of blimps, but the company’s flight program will continue.

About two dozen employees were on hand early Tuesday to witness the deflation of California-based Spirit of Innovation.

But shed no tears, blimp fans, you’ll still see a familiar blue-and-gold form floating over your favorite sports event or awards show.

Although the blimp’s replacement, Wingfoot Two, will look about the same when it arrives at Goodyear’s airship base in Carson later this year, it will be a semi-rigid dirigible.

Such aircraft, one of which has already replaced Goodyear’s Florida blimp, have a frame, which means they maintain their shape when the helium is drained. Blimps, on the other hand, go flat. Wingfoot Two, currently operating in Ohio, will be replaced by yet another dirigible when it leaves there for Southern California.

Far more important to Goodyear is that the new airships are faster, quieter, larger, easier to fly and more maneuverable than the blimps it introduced more than 90 years ago. Still, the company plans to keep calling the new models blimps.

“Because a Goodyear Semi-rigid Dirigible doesn’t roll off the tongue,” laughed company airship historian Eddie Ogden.

Crew members Tuesday yanked a rip line to open a section at the top of the blimp’s big gas bag, known as an envelope. It took about two minutes for it to crumple to the ground.

Ogden said Goodyear employees watched the deflation with mixed emotions.

“There were a couple tears

Article source: http://www.news9.com/story/34799120/goodyear-deflates-blimp-but-keeps-familiar-form-in-flight