Model Airplanes

Imagine your airplane without electronics. It’s almost impossible to do.

In theory, a well-maintained airplane will fly for many years. However, if the parts needed to keep an airplane going are no longer being produced, a replacement to newer technology will be required if available.   

Many airplane operators don’t realize that parts obsolescence can be inevitable, especially in aviation. The longer the aircraft has been in circulation, the harder it can be to find parts. As new technology is introduced into the market, old technology becomes obsolete.

Electronics play a highly important role in aviation. They play such a large role that the word “avionics” was coined to refer to electronics in aviation. A simple way to think of avionics is the art of equipping an aircraft with electronic equipment.

The components that make up the avionics found in the cockpit weren’t originally designed for aviation; they were actually made for the average consumer. Avionics companies used technology developed for consumer electronics to build an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) to replace electromechanical displays.

However, unlike consumer electronics, airplanes are built to operate for decades. On average, consumer electronics have a life cycle of just a few years before something new comes out.

Consumer electronics have progressed rapidly, especially in the past 10 years. Due to continually ongoing changes in consumer electronics, avionics are highly susceptible to obsolescence.

This holds true for aircraft like the Beechcraft King Air. The King Air was first introduced in the 1960s and continues to be assembled to this day using the

Article source: http://www.aviationpros.com/article/12043676/beware-the-cost-of-avionics-obsolescence

Publisher: Carenado

Review Author:
Shawn Weigelt

Suggested Price:
$29.95

Introduction

“They sure don’t make things the way
they used to!” We’ve all likely heard one of our elders say this
about something modern and “newfangled” at one point or another in
our lives. Perhaps we smiled or rolled our eyes as we sarcastically
replied “uh-huh…sure, grandpa, whatever you say.”

Time marches on and things change. People, the wonderful
creatures of habit that we are, tend to resist all manner of change
and improvements to technology as we get older. Computer technology
and airplane design, for example, has come a long way since the
1970’s during the peak of general aviation airplane production.
Today we have sleek composite airplanes with full glass avionics that
do just about everything but replicate a hot mug of Earl Grey tea
(let’s see if anyone get’s that joke). Back in the late 70’s
however, there was an aluminum “spam can” airplane for just about
every owner and every conceivable civilian mission. The “Big
Three”, Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft, all had a high performance,
six-place piston single retractable in their respective stables. For
Cessna it was the 210 Centurion, with Piper the Lance/Saratoga, and
Beech had the A36 Bonanza. Of these, only the Bonanza is still
produced today. Apparently six-place retractable singles are a dying
breed.

Our wonderfully advanced modern plastic airplanes admittedly have
a lot of good things

Article source: http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?15628-Review-Carenado-C210M-Centurion-II-HD-Series

The U.S. military has flown 2,320 air strikes against Islamic State militants since Aug. 8 at a cost of $1.83 billion, hitting thousands of targets including tanks, oil infrastructure and fighting positions, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The strikes by U.S. forces amounted to about 80 percent of the total number carried out by a multinational coalition. In all, the partners have flown 2,893 air strikes, with 1,631 in Iraq and 1,262 in Syria, hitting 5,314 targets.

More than 60 countries are in the coalition against Islamic State. The United States,Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom conduct air strikes in Iraq. The United States, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates carry them out in Syria.

Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren confirmed that U.S. and Iraqi forces had also dropped propaganda leaflets on the city of Mosul to undermine support for Islamic State and its recruiting efforts.

Coalition strikes have hit 73 tanks, some of them U.S.-made Iraqi M1A1 Abrams tanks seized when Islamic State militants overran northwestern parts Iraq last year. They also destroyed 282 Humvee vehicles that had been taken from Iraqi forces.

The strikes targeted 408 Islamic State staging areas, 1,003 fighting positions and 87 oil collection points, Warren said.

An air strike can involve multiple weapons against multiple targets.

The tally covered air strikes conducted between Aug. 8, 2014, and March 18, 2015.

Article source: http://yalibnan.com/2015/03/20/pentagon-u-s-has-flown-2320-strikes-against-isis-at-a-cost-of-1-83-billion/

There is probably a particular valley that springs to mind when you think of American innovation. It’s the place where brilliant engineers and scrappy entrepreneurs with a hunch about a new way to solve a problem tinker late at night in their garages, until they come up with the perfect answer. And then they found start-ups that make them fabulously wealthy.

Forget about the valley you’re probably thinking of for a moment, and know this: Before there was Silicon Valley, there was the Miami River Valley where Dayton, Ohio is located.

If Silicon Valley has a beta version, it’s Dayton. By the early 20th century, Dayton had the most patents per capita of any American city. It was home to one of the world’s greatest concentrations of scientists and technicians. One-sixth of all corporate executives had spent a portion of their careers in the city.

“You can hardly get through a day today in 2015 without having a connection to Dayton,” says Alex Heckman, the Director of Education for Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park.

Carillon Historical Park is full of exhibits paying homage to inventions from the area.

A short list: the airplane, the cash register, the pop top on can of soda, Freon and air conditioning, the electric wheel chair, the modern parachute, magnetic strip technology for credit cards, stealth technology for aircraft, bar-code scanners, batteries used on satellites and scratch-and-sniff stickers.

Then there’s that whole trope about coming up with a world-changing product in your garage that Silicon Valley loves to celebrate. Well, before the

Article source: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/six-routes/finding-beta-version-silicon-valley