Model Airplanes

To say that I was amazed by all the aviation history that I saw during a recent visit to Dayton, Ohio, would be an understatement. The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) invited a group of aviation writers to the first Aviation Writers Summit in Dayton and shared with us many stops on The Aviation Trail, a series of 52 historical aviation sites open to the public and centered around the activities of the Wright Brothers.

My reaction, which mirrored that of my aviation writer colleagues, is common for anyone interested in aviation who hasn’t yet visited Dayton, according to NAHA executive director Tony Sculimbrene. Before the trip, if anyone had asked me about Dayton’s significance to aviation, I would have answered that it was where Orville and Wilbur Wright began researching their airplane designs and where much of early aviation history took place. That barely scratches the surface, as our journey on The Aviation Trail soon revealed. We spent three days on the Trail, and there was a lot that we didn’t have time to see.

We started with a private tour of the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, given by museum curator Dr. Doug Lantry. Although the museum has an online virtual tour that gives a great view of the collection (including amazingly high-resolution Cockpit360 views that are the only way to see inside the collection’s cockpits), seeing the aircraft up close is far more involving. And the exhibits are set up

Article source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2015-10-16/dayton-ground-zero-aviation-trail

LONDON (CNNMoney) –

An Italian company is determined to become the Tesla of motorcycles.

The Modena-based Energica Motor Company makes all-electric racing bikes that can go from 0 to 60 in under three seconds, and reach a top speed of 150 miles per hour. If you don’t know much about motorcycles, three seconds is pretty good.

The company started selling its first models just a few weeks ago. So far it has sold 10 bikes, for prices ranging from 25,000 euros ($28,500) for the standard “Ego” model, to 45,000 euros ($51,349) and more for the luxury limited edition “Ego45” model.

The bike’s battery gives it a 100-mile range, and can be recharged to 80% of its capacity in 30 minutes.

Despite its all-electric motor, it’s not completely silent. “It has its proper sound due to the mechanics of the motor,” Livia Cevolini, the company’s CEO, said.

“It sounds like a strong whistle: many people have compared it to the sound of a jet,” she added.

Energica is hoping to get a boost from the electric vehicles craze, sparked by Tesla. “Tesla is proof that there is room now more than ever for new brands once that technology is demonstrated,” Cevolini

Article source: http://www.wcyb.com/news/money/is-this-the-tesla-of-motorcycles/35859402

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The satellites do this by detecting how changes in the pull of Earth’s gravity alter the height of the satellites and the distance between them. “Say we’re flying over the Central Valley,” Famiglietti said, holding a cell phone in each hand and moving them overhead like one satellite trailing the other. “There’s a certain amount of water down there, which is heavy, and it pulls the first satellite away from the other.”

The GRACE satellites can measure that to within 1/25,000 of an inch. And a year later, after farmers have pumped more water out of the ground, and the pull on the first satellite has been ever so slightly diminished, the GRACE satellites will be able to detect that change too.

Depletion of the world’s aquifers, which supply at least one-third of humanity’s water, has become a serious danger, Famiglietti said. GRACE data show that more than half the world’s largest aquifers are being drained faster than they can refill, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, India, Pakistan, and North Africa.

Since California’s drought began in 2011, the state has been losing about four trillion gallons a year (more than three and a half cubic miles) from the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins, Famiglietti said. That’s more than the annual consumption of the state’s cities and towns. About two-thirds of the lost water has come from aquifers in the Central Valley, where pumping has

Article source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/climate-change/pulse-of-the-planet-text

by Veronika Meduna – Veronika.Meduna@radionz.co.nz

New research published today confirms that Antarctica’s icy cap will add significantly to future sea level rise, unless ambitious action is taken to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 onwards.

Nick Golledge, at Victoria University’s Antarctic Research Centre, led research that simulated the fate of Antarctica’s ice sheets under different warming scenarios, in an effort to assess Antarctica’s contribution to future sea level rise.

Photo: Victotria University

An international team, led by Victoria University researcher Nick Golledge, published results in Nature which show that only the most ambitious effort to curb emissions will stop Antarctica’s ice shelves from collapsing.

While melting ice shelves don’t contribute directly to rising sea levels because they float on the surface of the ocean, they play a crucial role in keeping the polar ice cap in place by acting as a break on the ice sheet.

Dr Golledge says the team’s research shows that a warming of 2°C or more locks in the disintegration of ice shelves, which in turn exposes the ice sheets to a warming ocean and precipitates melting.

He says Antarctica’s contribution to future sea levels could be as much as 40 centimetres by the end of this century – and, combined with the impact of an expanding ocean and the melting of Greenland’s ice and land-based glaciers, this could lift sea levels by

Reuters, 15/10 12:39 CET

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LONDON (Reuters) – British lovers of bridge lost a legal battle on Thursday to have their card game recognised as a sport, thereby denying it access to funding enjoyed by the likes of darts, model aircraft flying, and angling.

The English Bridge Union (EBU), which has 55,000 members, went to London’s High Court to argue that Sport England, a public body that provides grants to activities to help the nation get fitter, was wrong not to classify the card game as a sport.

The EBU said that the level of physical activity involved in playing bridge was not that dissimilar to that required to playing darts.

But the court rejected the EBU’s demand for a judicial review.

“The question that arises in this case is not the broad, somewhat philosophical, question as to whether or not bridge is a sport,” said Judge Ian Dove, saying the ruling was merely focused on whether Sport England had acted lawfully.

His conclusion said the case had centred on the phrase “physical training and recreation” which appeared in a 1937 parliamentary act and similar language used in a Royal Charter which set up Sport England.

He backed Sport England’s case that this did imply an element of physical activity.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)

euronews provides breaking

Article source: http://www.euronews.com/sport/3079235-a-bridge-too-far-uk-court-says-card-game-is-not-a-sport/