Model Airplanes

From in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi options to food choices and seating arrangements, the differentiations between one airline and another have never been as distinctive for passengers as they are today. While the quality of in-flight entertainment and food choices are certainly important, perhaps nothing can dictate a flight experience quite like the comfort of an airplane seat. 

Aiming to streamline the design, testing and certification process of airplane seating, the Virtual Seat Solution from the ESI Group has helped designers and manufacturers virtually prototype concepts without the need for costly physical prototypes.  

Avoid Reinventing Parts for Automotive Seats

For its latest release, Virtual Seat Solution 2016, the ESI Group has included a number of improvements to the virtual prototyping software solution.

One improvement includes the ability to reuse previously modeled components through the iteration stage. The component parameters governing these reused parts can also be changed as the final design of the seating evolves. This new guided approach streamlines the process of generating new seat concepts while preserving important design details during the development process.

Another time saver is that the software automatically updates the performance details of the seat as the engineer adds new components. 

With updated certification guidelines built directly into the software, engineers can also build seat designs virtually based on set parameters without the headache of finding out after

Article source: http://www.engineering.com/DesignSoftware/DesignSoftwareArticles/ArticleID/12745/Virtual-Seat-Solution-2016-Expands-Aeronautics-and-Automotive-Seat-Design-Tools.aspx

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking a more aggressive tack against telemarketers, including calling for telecom companies to provide consumers with more tools for blocking unwanted robocalls at no extra charge.

Currently, robocalls and telemarketing calls top the list of consumer complaints to the FCC, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (pictured above) wrote in a post on the agency’s blog Friday.

“The Commission is committed to protecting consumers from unwanted calls and giving them more control over the calls and texts they receive,” he said. “We will tackle robocalls on as many fronts as possible, whether by implementing new rules, issuing tailored declaratory judgments, encouraging new pro-consumer innovation or urging the private sector to step up and stop this scourge.”

More Proactive Measures

The FCC already mandates a number of measures to deal with unwanted telemarketers. For example, since 2003 consumers have been able to block unwanted calls through the national Do Not Call registry, which requires telemarketers to have prior consent before contacting consumers by phone.

But in Friday’s blog post, Wheeler indicated that the agency will begin acting more aggressively to stop unwanted robocalls, including direct appeals to telecom providers to offer their customers more ways to protect themselves. Wheeler said he has already sent letters to the CEOs of major wireless and landline phone companies pushing them to immediately begin offering call-blocking services to their customers at no additional cost.

The chairman said he has also sent letters to intermediary carriers reminding them of their responsibility to facilitate blocking technologies.

Article source: http://www.toptechnews.com/article/index.php?story_id=121003SA4L57

If you’re a fan of fighter jets in general, and F-86 Sabres in particular, do any and everything you have to get down to AirVenture 2016 in OshKosh. According to EAA officials, they’re expecting a strong showing of Sabres.

One of the aircraft will be a brand new restoration, owned by Paul Kepler. The aircraft was restored with help from Heritage Aero in Rockford Illinois, and is an F-86E, originally built under license by Canadair.

Another Saber (serial number 48-178) expected to show is an early A-model, and holds the honor of being the world’s oldest flying jet. It was the 50th A-model Sabre to roll off the line in February 1948, and was made in the North American factory in Inglewood, California. This pioneering jet aircraft is considered to be a true icon of the machine age, as it doesn’t have a single semiconductor.

Details on Sabre 48-178 Coming to AirVenture 2016

In addition to being the oldest jet, it’s also the only A-model Sabre currently flying, and it has a long service history including time in Strategic Air Command, Air Defense Command, and the California Air National Guard. It was with the 94th Fighter Squadron of the 1st Fighter Group, flying in defense of the Los Alamos nuclear research facility. After its service, the Sabre was transferred to a Fresno technical college and then

Article source: https://disciplesofflight.com/sabres-airventure-2016/

Mike Hutchinson retired nine years ago, but his schedule doesn’t reflect a life a leisure. Other than the fact that he wears shorts to the office these days and works on outdated equipment, you might surmise he was still in the thick of his career as a software and systems engineer.

“It’s getting close to 40 hours a week,” says the lanky, bespectacled software savant, who joined the Sarasota Technology Users Group after retirement to learn more about his hobby, digital photography, and almost immediately got sucked into volunteering. “I became ‘the tech guy’ here pretty quick.”

“Here,” is a tiny cubbyhole he shares with up to 10 other volunteers as head of STUG’s “Refurb Project,”  which updates donated computer equipment and distributes it to nonprofits and individuals in need. Clunky, old-school desktops share counter space with bins of scavenged parts, from hard drives to mice. One container near the door  overflows with what Hutchinson calls “the trash” — anything beyond repair or too old to be useful.

Still, a lot of computers go out the door — 1,500 last year alone — to schools, veterans, seniors and college students and Hutchinson, who also helps with pickups and deliveries, has laid a hand on most of them. His original volunteer commitment has more than doubled, and ever since his cell phone number “somehow was given out” he’s become the contact for inquiries from potential givers or getters.

The payback isn’t huge — effusive words from a senior citizen who receives a laptop she couldn’t afford, or knowing

Article source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20160724/news/160729903

Facebook Aquila, an unmanned aircraft designed to stay aloft for 90 days and deliver the Internet to a 60-mile radius, completed its first successful flight.

What has the wingspan of an airliner and can fly on the power of roughly three hair dryers? The answer: Facebook’s Aquila, a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft that will beam the Internet to remote parts of the world.
On June 28, Aquila took its first flight, sitting on a type of trailer bed being pulled by a truck and finally disconnecting and elegantly lifting over a runway cutting through the vast, scraggly desert of Yuma, Ariz.
“After two years of development, it was emotional to see Aquila actually get off the ground,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared on Facebook July 21.
“But as big as this milestone is,” he continued, “we still have a lot of work to do. Eventually, our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time—something that’s never been done before.”

To accomplish that, Zuckerberg explained, Facebook’s engineering team will need to address some challenges. These include reducing Aquila’s weight (which is currently around 1,000 pounds); reducing the amount of energy required to keep Aquila cruising; reducing the load,

Article source: http://www.eweek.com/innovation/facebook-aquila-unmanned-aircraft-to-beam-internet-to-remote-areas.html

After years of development, Facebook’s solar-powered, internet access-providing drone has successfully carried out its first test flight.

While Facebook has been flying a smaller version over the past months that is one-fifth the size, the test flight on June 28 in Yuma, Arizona was the first time the actual drone, named the Aquila, flew.

The Aquila is a part of Facebook’s ambitious plan to provide internet connections to all parts of the globe, especially in areas where access is bad or virtually non-existent.

Upon the completion of the Aquila, Facebook said in a blog post that the drone will be able to beam down internet connections from a height of over 60,000 feet across regions covering a diameter of 60 miles. Aquila will utilize laser and millimeter wave systems for the task, and is expected to be up in the air for as long as three months before needing to land.

The laser that the Aquila will use is able to deliver data at speeds of 10s of Gbps, and is accurate enough to be able to hit a target the size of a dime from a distance of 10 miles away.

Amazingly, while the Aquila has a wingspan similar to an aircraft, it will only be consuming 5,000 watts at cruising speed. To put that into perspective, that amount of power is the same one consumed by three hair dryers, or a single high-end microwave oven. During the day, Aquila will fly

Article source: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/170974/20160722/facebooks-aquila-soars-in-test-flight-solar-powered-drone-will-provide-internet-access-to-everyone.htm