Model Airplanes

WAYNESBURG – John Brodak’s dream of building a model airplane museum is cleared for takeoff.

Plans construct an addition onto Brodak’s building in Cumberland Township to house the museum for model airplanes received conditional final approval Monday from the Greene County Planning Commission.

The 4,000 square foot addition will be constructed on a commercial building along Park Avenue now occupied by the Brodak Manufacturing and Distribution Co. which produces model airplane kits.

Brodak, the largest manufacturer of model airplane kits, has been planning the museum for several years and first presented plans to the commission in 2011.

To receive approval, Brodak must submit an approved storm water management plan and a maintenance agreement on storm water improvements and receive state approval of the erosion and sedimentation control plan. Brodak said Tuesday he hopes to have the paperwork completed in the next few weeks.

“I want to have (the addition) under roof by the end of August,” he said.

The museum, which will occupy 7,000 square feet, will include artifacts not only of the history of model aviation and but also of aviation in general, Brodak said. Brodak said his intent in constructing the museum is “to preserve the history” of model aviation.

Though there is a model aviation museum

Article source: http://www.observer-reporter.com/20160503/model_airplane_museum_planned_for_cumberland_township

Benjamin Anderson Soyars III, 37, of Las Vegas, was the instructor pilot who was killed when a single-engine, stunt-ride airplane crashed Saturday near Jean, the Clark County coroner’s office said Monday.

Steven Anthony Peterson, 32, of Rohnert Park, California, was the other person who died in the crash of an Extra EA300 registered to Vegas Extreme Adventures LLC, the coroner’s office said Sunday.

The coroner’s office said Soyars and Peterson both died of blunt force injuries during the accident.

The plane left Henderson Executive Airport around 4 p.m. Saturday, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

On its website, the Vegas Extreme Adventures company, also known as Sky Combat Ace, offers instructional aerobatic stunt flights and air tours, and in some cases allows customers to fly the aircraft with an instructor’s supervision. Prices range from nearly $300 to $2,000.

Calls by the Review-Journal to the company’s president, Richard “Tex” Coe, a former Air Force F-16 fighter pilot, were not returned Monday. A sign taped to the company’s entrance at 1420 Jet Stream Drive in Henderson states Sky Combat Ace’s office will be closed until May 9.

It’s unclear who was controlling the aircraft at the time of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating. A preliminary report from the safety board’s staff had not been released by Monday morning. The process can take five to 10 days.

“I cannot say who was in control at the time of the accident, as that would be speculation,” company spokesman Megan

Article source: http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/coroner-ids-pilot-instructor-killed-stunt-plane-crash

Ase/Shutterstock

The United States leads the world in the number of electric vehicles on the road, but the count is still tiny: about 350,000. That’s less than 1 percent of all passenger cars and trucks in the country. Recent market research suggests that number will climb steadily over the next several decades. But will it climb fast enough? When it comes to fighting climate change, that could turn out to be one of the most important questions of the next few years.

On April 22, world leaders gathered in New York City to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, in which they vowed to keep global temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, a limit the world is already more than halfway toward exceeding. Meanwhile, energy experts have begun to map out the fine-grain details of what meeting that goal would actually require. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that electric vehicles have a indispensable role to play. 

It turns out that one of the most immediate societal changes for average Americans in a climate-savvy future would likely be the electrification of just about everything. In other words, the hope of the planet could like in a force—electricity—we’ve known about for hundreds of years.

That might sound strange, given that electricity production is the number-one source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Coal-

Article source: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/04/electric-cars-coal-power-plants-climate-change