Model Airplanes

More than a century ago, the first aviation pioneers figured out a way to use rigid wings with flaps to generate enough force to lift a heavy craft into the sky. It was one of the great advances in human history and also the beginning of a new era in transportation. Airplanes, and the airline industry that depends on them, are now among the world’s largest businesses, with air travel producing over US $700 billion in annual revenues.

However, commercial airlines spend more than 25 percent [pdf] of their operating expenses on fuel, earning the industry a reputation for razor-thin margins that will eke out just $39 billion [pdf] in profits this year. Meanwhile, modern aircraft wings and engines have reached near-peak levels of efficiency, making it exceedingly difficult for engineers to generate additional savings.

And yet, there is one promising strategy that remains—changing the shape of the aircraft wing during flight. For three decades, engineers at aerospace companies, universities, and defense labs have been working on twistable aircraft wings that could be instantaneously and minutely adjusted to improve fuel efficiency. With these wings, aircraft designers could get closer to optimal performance by increasing an airplane’s lift-to-drag ratio, which is a measure of aerodynamic efficiency, in response to variations in

Article source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/future-airplanes-will-fly-on-twistable-wings

Don and Jonna Bradway recently cashed out of the stock market and invested in gold and silver. They have stockpiled food and ammunition in the event of a total economic collapse or some other calamity commonly known around here as “The End of the World As We Know It” or “SHTF” — the day something hits the fan.

The Bradways fled California, a state they said is run by “leftists and non-constitutionalists and anti-freedom people,” and settled on several wooded acres of North Idaho five years ago. They live among like-minded conservative neighbors, host a Monday night Bible study around their fire pit, hike in the mountains and fish from their boat. They melt lead to make their own bullets for sport shooting and hunting — or to defend themselves against marauders in a world-ending cataclysm.

“I’m not paranoid, I’m really not,” said Bradway, 68, a cheerful Army veteran with a bushy handlebar mustache who favors Hawaiian shirts. “But we’re prepared. Anybody who knows us knows that Don and Jonna are prepared if and when it hits the fan.”

The Bradways are among the vanguard moving to an area of the Pacific Northwest known as the American Redoubt, a term coined in 2011 by survivalist author and blogger James Wesley, Rawles (the comma is deliberate) to describe a settlement of the God-fearing in a lightly populated territory that includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon.

Those migrating to the Redoubt are some of the most motivated members of what

Article source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article99163462.html

There, next to the half-eaten breakfast sandwich I’d left sitting on my bag, was my phone, tethered by a power cord to the suitcase below. Suitcase, breakfast table, and phone charger—that’s a multitasking trifecta few pieces of luggage can match.

Away is a newcomer to the luggage game, and its founders are hoping the bags stand out in the sea of boring, neutral-toned luggage in two ways. One is how they’re sold: directly to the consumer, like Warby Parker glasses, rather than through a department store or other third-party retailer. (Away founders Jen Rubio and Steph Korey worked there previously.) “You can’t look to how the incumbents are handling a situation,” Korey says. “In every area of your business, start from scratch.”

The second is the technology. In addition to be a quality carry-on bag that can hold a sandwich and clothes at the same time, the Away Carry-On has a built-in battery and two USB ports on the exterior to keep you powered up during those long layovers.

The $225 carry-on itself looks pretty ordinary: a lightly ribbed and pleasingly simple hard-shell exterior made of Bayer Makrolon polycarbonate, the typical retractable handle, and four nearly silent spinner wheels. Inside, things are little more impressive, with a flap and buckles for compression that actually works, a compact laundry bag, and that crown jewel for juice: a 10,000 mAh battery hidden beneath the lining.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/reviews/a22640/away-carry-on-charges-your-phone/

The day before this year’s LABACE show opened, Marco Túlio Pellegrini, president and CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, told AIN that Embraer’s aircraft offer Brazil a powerful facilitator of economic development. His statement came on the day that the Brazilian Senate was debating the legacy of president Dilma Roussef, who will be impeached on Wednesday if a two-thirds vote is reached, as is widely expected.

Pellegrini, speaking at Embraer’s new São Paulo offices, which offer a spectacular view of the city, said he believed the country was feeling that it had reached the bottom of the current recession and that its currency felt more stable – having blipped up against the dollar.

“Brazil is a large country, not well served by air – but the bizjet can help a lot to speed up the recovery,” he said, adding that Brazil’s entrepreneurs were largely unaware of the potential time savings for their companies. Business aviation would allow them to visit several cities in a day when such a trip by airlines would take several days, if possible at all.

He gave the example of a journey starting in São Paulo, with whistle stops in Brasilia, Recife and Curitiba, then back to São Paulo. All that very possible in one business day, using a small jet, he said, with the added advantage that executives can work en route, “and prepare for their next meeting.”

Embraer’s ambition is to break a deadlock and allow Brazil to see more charter companies and FBOs emerge. A business model

Article source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2016-08-30/brazil-needs-bizjets-says-embraers-pellegrini

PLATTSBURGH — The first Norsk Titanium 3D machine is expected to arrive here on Friday, Sept. 23, and renovation of a building as a training center has begun.

“Our New York team is excited and ready for the arrival of the first MERKE IV machine in Plattsburgh,” Norsk Senior Vice President of Operations Chris Bohlmann said Tuesday in a press release.

“We have been working around the clock to prepare our facilities for a smooth ramp-up process as the first lot of 20 Rapid Plasma Deposition machines arrive in sequence.”

WORKFORCE TRAINING

“Delivery of the cutting-edge production machine will enable workforce training opportunities and represents the next phase of the partnership between New York state, SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Norsk Titanium, which is expected to create nearly 400 jobs and over $1 billion in investments over the next 10 years,” the press release said.

The Norsk manufacturing plant is scheduled to come online in 2017.

The first MERKE IV Rapid Plasma Deposition machine is to go in a training center in Air Industrial Park in the Town of Plattsburgh.

The Development Corp. President and CEO Paul Grasso told the Press-Republican that his agency purchased the 67,000-square-foot building at the intersection of Martina Circle and Industrial Drive in order to lease space to Norsk for a training center and warehouse space.

Crews were hard at work Tuesday on renovations before delivery of the first machine later next month. The alterations include construction of an interior wall to separate 30,000 square feet for the training area and installation of Argon

Article source: http://www.pressrepublican.com/news/norsk-machine-headed-to-plattsburgh/article_d095dd74-6eb9-11e6-aac4-b3a9e4ce9cca.html

Don and Jonna Bradway recently cashed out of the stock market and invested in gold and silver. They have stockpiled food and ammunition in the event of a total economic collapse or some other calamity commonly known around here as “The End of the World As We Know It” or “SHTF” – the day something hits the fan.

The Bradways fled California, a state they said is run by “leftists and non-Constitutionalists and anti-freedom people,” and settled on several wooded acres of north Idaho five years ago. They live among like-minded conservative neighbors, host Monday night Bible study around their fire pit, hike in the mountains and fish from their boat. They melt lead to make their own bullets for sport shooting and hunting – or to defend themselves against marauders in a world-ending cataclysm.

“I’m not paranoid, I’m really not,” said Bradway, 68, a cheerful Army veteran with a bushy handlebar mustache who favors Hawaiian shirts. “But we’re prepared. Anybody who knows us knows that Don and Jonna are prepared if and when it hits the fan.”

The Bradways are among the vanguard moving to an area of the Pacific Northwest known as the American Redoubt, a term coined in 2011 by survivalist author and blogger James Wesley, Rawles (the comma is deliberate) to describe a settlement of the God-fearing in a lightly populated territory that includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon.

Those migrating to the Redoubt are some of the most

Article source: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/state/article98571442.html