Model Airplanes

I remember how thrilled I was when I first flew Virgin America in early 2008, less than eight months after the airline’s inaugural flight. My flight was from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco and when I arrived, I had been online the whole time, my laptop and phone were fully charged and I had three bottles of water that were magically delivered to my seat by a flight attendant after I tapped a few buttons on the seat back TV screen.

As a frequent Jetblue flyer (I’ve had Mosaic status since early 2014) and an occasional Alaska Airlines customer, I’ve watched with anticipation over which airline might acquire Virgin America based on recent acquisition chatter. So, with Alaska Airlines announcing Monday it will pay more than $2 billion to acquire Virgin America, how will this impact travelers?

For most flyers, the merger of Virgin America will have little impact on their travels. Virgin America launched in August 2007 and amassed a loyal customer base primarily on the West Coast where their route network is strongest. In total, Virgin America flies to 24 airports in the United States and Mexico. On these routes, Virgin offers a very good hard and soft product (seat comfort and amenities are hard products, and quality of service by flight attendants and food quality are soft products). One of Virgin’s most important roles, even if you don’t fly Virgin, is offering competitive prices,

Article source: http://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/04/business/what-virgin-america-acquisition-mean-flyers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Recommendations sent to the government could clear the way for commercial drone flights over populated areas and help speed the introduction of drone delivery and newsgathering flights.

The recommendations come from a group that includes drone manufacturers, companies that want to fly drones, airline pilots and other aviation interests.

The Associated Press has obtained a copy of the proposal sent to the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to the recommendations, drones weighing about a half-pound or less would be allowed to essentially fly unrestricted over people, including crowds, because the risk of causing a serious injury should something go amiss is low.

For three other types of drones weighing more than a half-pound, the recommendation is to let them fly over people under certain

Article source: http://wpri.com/2016/04/03/drone-advocates-send-recommendations-to-faa/

Grace Burleson majored in mechanical engineering at Oregon State University, but the prospect of spending her career tinkering with car components or even jet engines left her yawning.

She sought advice from her favorite OSU teacher, mechanical engineer Nancy Squires, who tried to interest her in turbulent combustion modeling, propulsion and gas dynamics. “She described to me what her research was in — like, jet engines and airplanes — but that didn’t strike a chord with me at all,” Burleson recalled.

So Squires sent her pupil to a new specialization emerging at OSU and a handful of other colleges: humanitarian engineering.

Humanitarian engineers dedicate their careers to improving the well-being of poor or otherwise marginalized peoples.

They work on water filtering, micro hydro power, low-cost green houses and clean-burning cook stoves.

Dubbed “engineering with a human face,” this speciality is attracting more women and minority students into a field that is traditionally a white male bastion, according to Professor Kendra Sharp, a mechanical engineer who directs the developing humanitarian engineering program at OSU.

The OSU program joins ranks of Penn State’s Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship program and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “D-Lab,” which stands for Development through Discovery, Design and Dissemination.

The OSU program excited Burleson. She did an internship researching water purification in Uganda, graduated with an honors engineering degree winter term, and is preparing her return to OSU to pursue an advanced degree involving humanitarian engineering.

“I

Article source: http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/34201334-75/oregon-state-university-students-practice-engineering-with-a-human-face.html.csp

Boston, MA – On New Year’s Day, a JetBlue pilot making the final approach to Boston’s Logan International Airport spotted what’s becoming a more common sight — a white object with flashing strobe lights hovering 700 feet off the ground. It wasn’t unlike the 24-inch, red and black “quad-copter” another pilot spotted flying 500 feet below his aircraft outside Boston last fall, or a contraption that sailed just 200 feet below a pilot approaching the Norwood Memorial Airport in October.

The Federal Aviation Administration has received more reports of drone sightings nationwide in the past six months than in the previous nine months combined, newly released numbers show. In Massachusetts, too, sightings appear to be climbing. As those numbers rise, so do officials’ worries.

Since the FAA started collecting data in November 2014, pilots, air traffic controllers and citizens have reported 41 drone sightings near airports in Massachusetts, from Boston’s busy Logan airport, to hubs in Norwood and Beverly.

That’s considered restricted airspace, and the uptick in reported sightings has officials on alert.

The FAA prohibits drones and model airplanes from flying higher than 400 feet or within five miles of an airport.