Dramatic GE engine explosion on Boeing 767 poses puzzle for investigators

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The nearly catastrophic explosion of an engine that caused a fire on an American Airlines Boeing 767 just short of takeoff in Chicago on Oct. 28 occurred when a specific part that had never before failed broke into pieces.

The breakup of a heavy metal disk that rotates in the engine core reveals a new risk to airline passengers that, however rare, has already spurred a scramble by engine-maker General Electric and government safety agencies to find and fix the vulnerability.

“The risk will be eliminated,” said John Goglia, a former National Transportation Safety Board member with more than 40 years’ experience in the aviation-safety industry. “Will it be eliminated before the next one? That’s the real question. Everything relies upon the timeliness of the system to correct itself.”

American Airlines Flight 383 to Miami was speeding down the runway at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago when the second-stage disk of the high-pressure turbine broke apart inside the right engine with a loud explosion that blew metal shrapnel out through the engine casing.

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Hot metal ripped through the wing, igniting aviation fuel. In an update last week, the national safety board, often called the NTSB, described how the pilot aborted the takeoff just seconds before reaching a speed at which he would have had to leave the ground. Slamming on the brakes as the jet reached a speed of 154 miles per hour,

Article source: https://www.abqjournal.com/887234/dramatic-ge-engine-explosion-on-boeing-767-poses-puzzle-for-investigators.html

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Inside the 21st-Century Craze for Redesigning Everything

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Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/13/magazine/design-issue-redesign-craze.html

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The Real Losers And Winners: We’ve Got Some Work To Do Edition

Losers

Data

The polls were wrong. Donald Trump won the election without ever holding a lead in the national polls. He also won in particular states in which he never held a lead. Every statistical model based on polling deemed Hillary Clinton the overwhelming favorite. Even Nate Silver, who was criticized in the days leading up to the election for being comparatively pessimistic, thought Clinton had a greater than 70 percent chance of winning.

The reason that analysts and pundits were so optimistic about Clinton’s chances is that she held narrow leads in several crucial states, giving her multiple paths to victory. It seemed reasonable to assume that even if some of the state polls were wrong and she lost a few of those contests, they couldn’t all be wrong. The problem is that none of these polls were truly independent — if the polls in, say, Pennsylvania overestimated Clinton’s chance, then polls in states with similar demographics were also likely to overestimate her chances. The only quantitative analyst who got the presidential election right was radio host Bill Mitchell, whose memes-and-feelings model had Trump with a 100 percent chance of winning. I look forward to his new data-journalism start-up.

Barack Obama

This is the legacy of the first black person to be elected president: to hand over the office to a man who asked to see his birth certificate. Obama already had a mixed legacy, as is the case with almost all politicians: successes leavened with failures, decisions

Article source: http://www.mtv.com/news/2953022/the-real-losers-and-winners-weve-got-some-work-to-do-edition/

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Surface Book i7 review: Still unique and still blazing fast

It’s always been difficult trying to find the right category for Microsoft’s hybrid tablet/laptop Surface Book. And now with the new Surface Book i7 in hand, it’s even harder to figure out just what square hole to put this round peg into.

Before we get too far into the review, let me say that the Surface Book i7 is incredibly fast for a laptop in its class, offering no less than twice the performance of the original Surface Book, which itself outstripped all others in its day. Even better, it has stupidly long battery life that bests all the laptops we’ve tested.

Done. Fini. Move along, right? Well, not quite. The world isn’t the same as it was a year ago and the Surface Book i7’s competitors have been hard at work too, and there are aspects of Microsoft’s hybrid device that aren’t perfect.

Microsoft

The Surface Book i7 is hard to define but still pretty damned fast.

What it is

If you’re not up on current events, the Surface Book i7 is the second iteration of Microsoft’s “convertible” laptop. The top half is a beautifully proportioned 13.5-inch tablet with a  “PixelSense” screen that has touch and pen support.

The keyboard base (aka the Performance Base) is home to a discrete graphics chip, which takes the Surface Book’s performance beyond that of any other laptop in its class.

The two sides are held together with that same crazy hinge found on the first Surface Book. There were rumors Microsoft would give up

Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3139893/computers/surface-book-i7-review-still-unique-and-still-blazing-fast.html

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Drone Law And Drone Regulation: A Primer – Transport – United States

On August 29, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration’s
(FAA) new rule governing non-recreational use of small unmanned
aircraft systems or “drones” became effective. The new
rule – formally known as Part 1071 – is designed to
allow for routine business use of drones while “minimiz[ing]
risks to other aircraft and people and property on the
ground.”2 What follows is a short review of recent
developments in FAA drone regulation and the major civil liability
issues expected to result from drone use in American airspace.

Introduction

A drone3 is simply a powered aircraft with no human
operator on board. Referred to by the FAA as unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aerial systems (UASs), drones
“come in a variety of shapes and sizes and serve diverse
purposes.”4 “They may have a wingspan as large
as a jet airliner or smaller than a radio controlled model
airplane.”5

Drone or “UAS” technology is no longer the wave of the
future; the technology is already here. Potential advantageous
applications range from surveillance, to firefighting, to
agriculture, to delivery systems and more. Some experts predict the
global market for commercial drone applications may reach $127
billion by the year 20206; up from $552 million in
2014.7 But despite its promise, drone technology also
presents opportunities for misuse, accident, tortious activity, and
even intentional or illegal misconduct. Drone technology is
expected to raise new civil liability issues not only in the area
of traditional aircraft liability, i.e., negligence and product
liability claims arising from crash incidents and other events,

Article source: http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/540024/Aviation/Drone+Law+and+Drone+Regulation+A+Primer

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James P. Etcheverry (March 15, 1939 — November 5, 2016)

James P. Etcheverry, 77, a resident of Pullman, WA., passed away Saturday, November 5, 2016, at Pullman Regional Hospital. A Memorial Service will be Thursday, November 10th, at 10:00 a.m. at Kimball Funeral Home in Pullman.

James was born March 15, 1939, in Fruita, Colorado, to Pete and Isa Nix Etcheverry, the oldest of their five children. He grew up in Fruita where his dad was a sheep herder, and he often spent time up in the mountains watching the flock. Always an avid reader, Jim loved to read while the sheep quietly grazed. He graduated from high school in Fruita and immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Jim served as a sonar operator aboard Navy ships and saw duty in the South Pacific and beyond. Upon being honorably discharged he returned to his home in Colorado and began working at a gas station and auto repair business. While working there, he met Roberta Hopkins, and after a brief courtship they married on April 1, 1966, in Fruita. Jim worked his entire life as a heavy equipment operator, and they moved from job to job in their small travel trailer. Once they started to have children they settled in Carbondale, Colorado.

Jim was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He loved to fish, especially for trout in the Colorado streams. Hunting with his brothers or his in-laws was usually an annual activity as well. In addition to reading, he also

Article source: http://www.postindependent.com/news/obituaries/james-p-etcheverry-march-15-1939-november-5-2016/

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Airbus looks to define A320 Airspace with tick-tock model in play

At the recent APEX EXPO in Singapore, the talking points from Airbus EVP strategy marketing Kiran Rao and VP cabin marketing Ingo Wuggetzer were around the way key elements in aircraft cabins work together – from inflight connectivity, seatback entertainment and inflight power to the wider passenger experience and the benefits of the Internet of Things – and how advancements adopted on one type can trickle down (or indeed up) in the airframer’s portfolio.

The Airbus A350 version of this discussion is centered on the fact that the twinjet is a naturally “digital native aircraft”, while the A330 and re-engined A330neo will achieve their digital cred through Airbus’ “high-bandwidth connectivity” strategy, which now provides multiple high-speed Internet options to airlines.

As such, the European airframer’s work has begun to echo the “tick-tock” model followed by Intel, Apple and others, where one series of technological and #PaxEx innovations is made on the blanker canvas of the A350 platform, and then rolled out to the legacy A330 and A330neo architecture, as evidenced by the new Airspace cabin for these twinjets. Now Airbus is eyeing Airspace elements for the A320 family of narrowbody aircraft.

The golden thread of this work stretches back through the various A350 and A330neo cabin improvements announced over the past few years, from the recessed seat track power and entertainment cabling to the overhead bins, monuments and overall cabin presentation. Whether this is a carefully planned evolution of the message from Airbus for a twice-yearly cabin interiors news cycle, or whether it is reactive to developments — or perhaps a little

Article source: https://www.runwaygirlnetwork.com/2016/11/08/airbus-looks-to-define-a320-airspace-with-tick-tock-model-in-play/

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