Model Airplanes

HEIGHTENED INSECURITY IN AFGHANISTAN: The latest quarterly report to Congress by the Pentagon’s special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction is rife with bad news about how the war against the Taliban is going. But the most telling metric is no longer available. NATO’s Operation Resolute Support has stopped producing its assessment of how many Afghans live in districts under government versus Taliban control and influence.

“Despite its limitations, the control data was the only unclassified metric provided by RS that consistently tracked changes to the security situation on the ground,” the SIGAR reports. “While the data did not on its own indicate the success or failure of the South Asia strategy, it did contribute to an overall understanding of the situation in the country.”

In a response that the independent watchdog included in an annex to the report, the headquarters of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan said the district stability assessment is no longer being produced because it was of “limited decision-making value” to the U.S. commander of the NATO mission, Gen. Scott Miller.

“The latest data from the few remaining publicly available measures of the security situation in Afghanistan — enemy-initiated attacks, general [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] casualty trends, and security incidents — show that Afghanistan experienced heightened insecurity over the winter months while the United States and the Taliban held talks in Qatar, thus far without the participation of the Afghan government,” wrote John Sopko, the special inspector general, in the preface to the

Article source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pentagon-watchdog-us-no-longer-tracking-key-indicator-of-progress-and-problems-in-afghanistan

Five months of work went into creating this incredible scale model of an Air New Zealand Dreamliner.

Ramy RC, from Frankfurt, Germany, created the remote-controlled miniature Boeing 787-9 – “and it turned out the most beautiful airplane I’ve ever built,” he said.

With no blueprints publicly available, Ramy had to painstakingly design and build everything himself, working from pictures to scale each part so it looked perfect.

But the parts also had to work – Ramy designs his planes so they can fly as remote-controlled craft, with most able to stay in the air for around 15 minutes.

READ MORE:
* Boeing 777X: The new flagship plane is nearly ready to fly
* On the hunt for New Zealand’s lost and forgotten airliners
* First Air France Dreamliner takes off
* Air NZ’s 787-9 takes off on first Perth flight

“I’m not an engineer or a pilot, It’s just my hobby, I learned everything by myself,” Ramy said. “I’ve been building airplanes for almost 7 years.”

Ramy builds the remote-controlled models with support from sponsors and his followers on YouTube

Article source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/112365320/an-air-new-zealand-dreamliner-in-miniature

LEXINGTON, Ohio — When you see Tim Corwin in his auto body shop, he may have in his hand a microphone for singing in a casino, or a wrench for repairing a high-end foreign sports car, or a joy stick for maneuvering a high-flying model airplane. He is at home with all of them.

He talks at a mile a minute about all of his passions. When I went to his auto body shop in Lexington, Ohio to interview him, he began to tell stories before cameraman Steve Pullen could pin a microphone to his lapel.  

His stories slip from one subject to another as easily as he maneuvers through his shop, which is filled with cars, papers, photographs of his rock group and model airplanes hanging from the ceiling.

He is the lead singer of the rock group Ohio Express. The members are grey-haired now, but they began when their locks had no grey and were cut in a Beatles style. 

“The band thing was something that came about when we were in the 60s and everybody is in high school,” said Corwin, describing the beginning of the group.

“The Beatles came out with ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and we thought, ‘Man! Wouldn’t it be nice to be in a band?'” he concluded with a smile as wide as the fins of a 1960 Buick parked just outside his shop.

With that, several guys from the Lexington and Mansfield area got together and began to strum a few tunes. In a short

Article source: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/rock-and-roll-music-vintage-cars-and-airplanes-in-flight-singer-with-ohio-express-still-going-strong-with-all-of-them/95-0112c085-e247-4fa8-bf5f-c1cef5ddb36d