Model Airplanes

CNN’s Thom Patterson is covering the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture airshow this week in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Follow him in real time on Twitter at @thompatterson.

(CNN)Really, it’s an anti-gravity machine.

That’s what I’m thinking as I stand under the looming shadow of Goodyear’s new Zeppelin. The helium inside this gigantic thing makes it repel gravity. Its natural inclination is to rise.

This week, this airship has been floating over an estimated half-million people at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Now, I’m actually about to fly on it!

As the airship’s metal gondola hovers just a couple of feet off the grass, I can see two pilots in the cockpit. At the back, a set of folding steps extends to the ground as if to say, “Welcome aboard Wingfoot One.”

Just the fact that an actual Zeppelin is flying at Oshkosh this year is a treat, even for the most jaded of aviation enthusiasts. The word Zeppelin conjures up visions from 1930s newsreels of huge airships cruising above the Atlantic.

Zeppelins also remind me of the Hollywood fantasy portrayed in the Jude Law film “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” It seemed like everyone in that 2004 movie had their own airplane or blimp.

I strap myself in along with a handful of other aviation adventurers, including Goodyear Vice President Pierre Jambon.

Finally, pilots Michael Dougherty and Derek Reid

Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/24/travel/oshkosh-airshow-new-goodyear-blimp-zeppelin/index.html

The second is more practical. Innovations in transportation almost always strike contemporary observers as useless, dangerous, rickety contraptions that don’t stand a chance of being anything more than curiosities. The loud, belching steamboat Robert Fulton launched on the Hudson River in 1807 was dubbed “Fulton’s Folly” by observers. The Wright Brothers’ first plane (which is now recapturing some of our imaginations thanks to a new biography by David McCullough), didn’t look particularly airworthy as its insubstantial frame wobbled along the North Carolina coastline. Henry Ford’s first cars were clanking, clattering, high-end menaces. When they first appeared, each of these transport modes was a one-off—an expensive home kit produced by hobbyists. And yet each developed over the course of a few decades into a dominant, economically efficient, safe standard.

Article source: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_juice/2015/07/solar_impulse_and_cricri_could_these_solar_powered_airplanes_lead_to_real.html

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Article source: http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/next-world-speed-record-180956002/

MikeWykeTulsaWorld

OK2Grow Allied Motion MW

Dave Hawes, director of engineering at Allied Motion, shows off a small 80,000 rpm motor used in the medical field as he gives a tour to 12 Tulsa-area high school students Wednesday in Tulsa. OK2Grow held a two-day Camp Innovation, which provided tours of four manufacturing plants to expose students to ideas about manufacturing careers.  MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

MikeWykeTulsaWorld

OK2Grow Allied Motion MW

Dave Hawes, director of engineering at Allied Motion, gives a tour to high school students Wednesday at OK2Grow’s 2-day “Camp Innovation” where they tour four manufacturing plants and learn lean production philosophies, with an eye on manufacturing carreers.  MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

Article source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/manufacturing/students-explore-area-careers-leadership-strategies-at-camp-innovation-workshop/article_5dc1a898-e6e4-5382-96fe-14ac54ce49b9.html

Mylan NV’s independent foundation, aiming to fend off a hostile takeover by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., exercised an option to acquire shares that let it control half of the company.

The move renders Teva’s attempt to win over a majority of Mylan shareholders much more difficult, unless it can persuade or force the foundation to reverse the action. The Dutch foundation, known as a stichting, said in a statement it made the decision in the best interest of Mylan’s stakeholders. The group doesn’t plan to keep the preferred shares any longer than necessary, it said.

Teva has proposed a $40.1 billion acquisition of Mylan to create a generic-drug powerhouse with more than $27 billion in revenue. Mylan has rejected the offer, saying that Teva is a poor cultural fit and that regulators would object to the deal.

“Mylan and Teva, although both large and successful players in the global market for generic products, have a highly dissimilar business approach, culture, financial model and related management compensation schemes,” the foundation said in the statement.

Mylan has argued it makes more sense to pursue its own takeover of drugmaker Perrigo Co. for about $32.7 billion. The company is planning a shareholder meeting to ask investors to vote in favor of that proposal, which Perrigo has rejected.

Teva said in a statement that it still believes its proposal is compelling.

“We are well advised on Dutch law, including the ability of Mylan stockholders to challenge this action in court, and are prepared to take the necessary

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-23/mylan-s-dutch-foundation-exercises-option-to-fend-off-teva