Model Airplanes

The Land Rover Defender is an archaic, slab-sided agricultural work truck. Yet people are paying $200,000 for custom versions with extra layers of leather inside and outrageously overpowered engines. I’ve driven a lot of steroidal trucks, but East Coast Defender’s Chevy V8-swapped Land Rover was definitely one of the most… dramatic.

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For the handful of you unfamiliar with the Defender, it’s like a Jeep with more caché by virtue of being British and extremely rare in America. The model was only briefly sold in the U.S., and any “new” trucks coming here have to be over 25 years old and imported privately. Everyone loves them. The Defender is a legitimately stout off-roader with an earnest pedigree in adventure driving. Plus, only a few hundred were ever sold in the U.S. in the 1990s.

But the rarity makes them prohibitively expensive to be trail pigs, so many of the Defenders that are in the U.S. end up as showy third cars in Southern California. The beach bourgeoisie dig Defenders because the trucks are a little cooler than Jeep Wranglers (too common) and more chill than Mercedes G-Classes (too flashy.)

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Unless your Defender is this ridiculous wide-body, exo-skeletoned, V8-swapped monster prepared by East Coast Defender. Behold the “Project Beast:” A 430-horsepower collection of high-capability components created as an altar to attracting attention.

Even

Article source: http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/i-was-not-prepared-for-the-brutality-of-a-corvette-powe-1791787682

On Wednesday, Boeing (NYSE:BA) reported solid earnings for the final quarter of 2016. Just as importantly, the company offered a relatively favorable outlook for 2017, punctuated by its guidance that free cash flow will rise by roughly $550 million year over year, reaching nearly $8.5 billion.

After the earnings release, Boeing executives spent some time discussing the company’s results and outlook with analysts and the media. Here are five key points that they emphasized.

Expecting a soft landing for aircraft orders

For 2017 we expect our new order intake to be approximately the same as what we captured in 2016.
— Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg

Boeing has experienced a fairly sharp decline in its annual order intake over the past few years. Between 2012 and 2014, Boeing received 3,990 net commercial airplane orders: an average of 1,330 per year. By contrast, net orders plunged to 768 in 2015 and 668 in 2016. Some analysts expect another big decline in orders this year.

Aircraft order activity has cooled off since 2014. Image source: Boeing.

However, Muilenberg expects order activity to remain stable relative to 2016. Aircraft deliveries will continue to outpace orders, but not by an alarming amount. Given the massive size of Boeing’s backlog — it still has about 5,700 firm orders on the books — a minor slowdown in order activity like this isn’t a cause for worry.

Financial metrics will continue to improve beyond 2017

We are expecting growth in key financial metrics for 2018; growth in revenue, deliveries, BCA

Article source: http://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/28/5-things-boeing-co-management-wants-you-to-know.aspx

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Andrew Left
source

Bloomberg

TransDigm Group (TDG) is an airplane-parts makers that counts
Boeing as one of its largest clients.
The company’s growth depends on debt-fueled acquisitions.
After it acquires a company that makes unique aerospace
parts, it raises the price of those parts.
On Thursday the stock’s price closed at $251, but Citron
Research thinks it should be hovering around $166.

Since his election to the office of the President of the United
States, Donald Trump has spent much of his time tweeting threats
to US companies who do things he doesn’t like.

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There are a handful of things Trump doesn’t like about corporate
America, but for our purposes, we’ll focus on just one –
companies that charge the government entirely too much money.

In December he hit airplane maker Boeing, the maker of the
president’s Air Force One 747 jet, over this.

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future
presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion.
Cancel order,”
he tweeted.
It’s his jet, so we suppose he can

Article source: http://nordic.businessinsider.com/transdigm-group-targeted-by-short-sellers-andrew-left-2017-1/

AVOCA, Ind. (AP) – For most folks, when a lawn and garden power tool breaks, it either winds up in the parts graveyard, the recycling center or salvage yard. There’s not much else that can be done. Right?

Not so, says Fred Baker, who lives on Graves Addition Road north of Avoca. He has found a unique way of disposing of dead chainsaws. He decorates his property with them.

The Lawrence County native retired a few years ago after 30 years as a Teamster truck driver in the Indianapolis area. Although working in Indianapolis, he maintained his home in Lawrence County. He has lived in the same place since 1971.

Baker started decorating his property with old chainsaws a few years ago.

“I’ve always had a fascination with them,” he said. “I cut my own wood and tinkered with the saws when they weren’t working. I needed something to go in the corner of the yard. I liked the idea of collecting chainsaws.”

What he did in the corner of his yard is build a totem pole of chainsaws. The pole is surrounded by several chainsaws stuck, blade first, into the ground, forming a fence around the pole.

“I pick them up at flea markets and yard sales,” he said. “A lot of them came from my friends at DD; Saw Shop in Salem.”

Baker said a lot of people stop by and take pictures.

“It’s really pretty in the summer,” he said. “We have a lot of flowers around the place. I take care of the roses

Article source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/29/lawrence-county-man-gets-crafty-with-chainsaws-cre/