Model Airplanes

Thomson ReutersPratt and Whitney’s President Bob Leduc passes a signage during the opening ceremony of their first manufacturing facility in Singapore

By Tim Hepher

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Pratt Whitney’s new chief says the performance of suppliers is much better than year ago, easing concerns over its ability to execute a $10 billion gamble on a new engine as it seeks to reclaim a once revered status in the jet industry.

But the industry veteran said he knew how to find out whether the company’s make-or-break production goals for the latest short-haul airplane engine are under strain.

“I will get every engine serial number and will see the parts that are committed and if it supports the engine shipment date,” Robert Leduc told Reuters at the Singapore Airshow.

Speaking after opening a high-tech fan-blade plant in Singapore, Leduc also played down concerns over aircraft demand, saying the company had seen no deferrals or cancellations.

Once dominant in commercial aviation, Pratt lost its way in the 1990s after betting on the wrong category of plane and leaving the door open to General Electric and its French partner Safran , who now lead sales by volume.

It is seeking to regain its position with a fuel efficient engine for jets including the Airbus A320neo as well as Canada’s Bombardier

Article source: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-pratt--whitney-head-says-jet-engine-output-risks-easing-2016-2

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — The freshly-poured aluminum ingots — each the length of a car — are plucked from their water-cooled casts, as the massive rectangular slabs continue to give off waves of intense heat.

So begins the intricate process of turning molten aluminum into specially-engineered coils and plates that are used by some of the largest transportation, aerospace and military equipment manufacturers in the world.

At the Constellium Rolled Products plant in Ravenswood, the casting, sawing, scalping, heating, rolling, stretching and testing of high-grade aluminum is a well-choreographed process.

Depending on the aluminum alloy being cast and what manufacturing lines are operating at the plant that day, those 14,000- to 23,000-pound ingots can go on to become any number of products, including Bass Tracker boats, dump truck beds, tanker trailers, armor plating or aerospace parts for Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets.

That business model has been a successful one for Constellium, a global aluminum manufacturing company that took over the Ravenswood plant in 2011, and is currently investing more than $35 million in equipment upgrades at the aging plant, which was built by Kaiser Aluminum in 1957. The name Kaiser can

Article source: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/business/20160214/ravenswood-aluminum-plant-plays-big-role-in-a-global-industry

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished colleague Mr Valls, distinguished Mr Ischinger, my speech will be of a more general nature, but I hope it will be useful.

The first cold war ended 25 years ago. This is not long in terms of history, but it is a considerable period for individual people and even for generations. And it is certainly sufficient for assessing our common victories and losses, setting new goals and, of course, avoiding a repetition of past mistakes.

The Munich Security Conference has been known as a venue for heated and frank discussion. This is my first time here. Today I’d like to tell you about Russia’s assessment of the current European security situation and possible solutions to our common problems, which have been aggravated by the deterioration of relations between Russia and the West.

Before coming to this conference, I met with President Putin. We talked about his speech at the Munich conference in 2007. He said then that ideological stereotypes, double standards and unilateral actions do not ease but only fan tensions in international relations, reducing the international community’s opportunities for adopting meaningful political decisions.

Did we overstate this? Were our assessments of the situation too pessimistic? Unfortunately, I have to say that the situation is now even worse than we feared. Developments have taken a much more dramatic turn since 2007. The concept of Greater Europe has not materialised. Economic growth has been very weak. Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have increased in scale. The migration crisis

Article source: http://www.voltairenet.org/article190255.html

By IRA H. RUBENZAHL
Special to The Republican

In the 11 years I’ve spent leading Springfield Technical Community College as president, I’ve seen the tremendous progress the college has made in helping to prepare students for careers and addressing the regional challenges of matching students’ skills with area job requirements.

From the beginning, STCC’s mission has always focused on preparing students for careers in area companies or transferring to a four-year school to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

In 1967, Edmond Garvey, a retired Navy captain and the then principal of Trade High School, now known as Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy, founded the Springfield Technical Institute to provide post-high school vocational education to area residents. A year later, the institute became a part of the Massachusetts Community College system as Springfield Technical Community College and moved to its current home on the historic Springfield Amory site.

Much has changed since then:

In 1967, the college began with 800 students; we now enroll over 8,700 day, evening, weekend and online students.

In 1967, the college offered 12 technical academic programs; today STCC boasts 95 programs in allied health, business, engineering and science transfer, liberal arts transfer, nursing and technology.

In Massachusetts, we’ve seen a growth in the regional economy’s health care, information technology, financial services, and manufacturing industries. The number of jobs requiring an education beyond a high-school diploma has soared, but many of these jobs do not require a four-year college degree.

According to a recent report by Northeastern University, 1.2

Article source: http://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2016/02/stcc_president_ira_rubenzahl_says_colleg.html

Feb 10, 2016 | By Kira

We know that bigger doesn’t always mean better, but when it comes to 3D printing, the ever-growing list of absolutely massive, large size 3D printing ventures is hard to ignore. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the top 20 biggest 3D printers right now, and the various large-format 3D printing projects they are capable of.

Though you’d need a pretty powerful microscope to see the tiniest color picture ever 3D printed (small enough to fit inside a human hair), there’s no way you could miss the giant 3D printed airplane parts, 3D printed furniture, 3D printed cars and yes, even 3D printed buildings coming out of these colossal 3D printers.

Our list of the top 20 biggest 3D printers covers everything from industrial metal 3D printers, to record-breaking construction 3D printers, to low-cost 3D printers you could potentially keep at home. Read on to get all the details:

1. Cincinnati Incorporated’s BAAM: 3D printing an entire car

The Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine is an industrial size 3D printer designed for the purpose of 3D printing cars—namely, Local Motors’ 3D printed Strati, a full-scale 3D printed Shelby Cobra, and ORNL’s 3D printed utility vehicle that can produce and share clean energy with a 3D printed house.

With a build volume of 6 x 2.3 x 1.9 meters, Cincinnati Incorporated’s BAAM 3D printer comes with a host of exceptional qualities: its extruder and feeding system, as well as

Article source: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160210-the-20-biggest-3d-printers-in-2016.html