Model Airplanes

In 1998, the Guggenheim Museum in New York set attendance records with “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibit, when it parked Harley-Davidsons and Ducatis on the museum’s famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed spiraling ramp.

So what would happen if a museum created an exhibit devoted to bike design in the bicycle-crazy Twin Cities?

The University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Museum of Design will find out, starting Saturday when it opens “Design Cycles, A Bike Show” on the St. Paul campus.

With the new show, which runs from Jan. 24 to May 10, the museum will turn its gaze toward custom bikes, vintage cycling wrenches, internal gear hubs and bicycle jerseys.

In addition to an avid community of cyclists backed up by an extensive infrastructure of trails, Minnesota is home to several bike and bike gear companies, ranging from giant parts wholesaler Quality Bicycle Products to custom-frame artisans working in one-man shops.

Show curator Jean McElvain concentrates on products designed by Minnesota companies and craftsmen, documenting, for example, the start of the fat tire bike category pioneered by Surly, a Quality Bicycle Products subsidiary.

In addition to prototype Surly fat tire wheels, the show will have Surly fat bike models such as the Pugsley and the uberfat Ice Cream Truck.

PROBLEM-SOLVING, BEAUTIFUL

The intersection of artistry and design is illustrated by works from local custom frame builders such as Erik Noren, Curt Goodrich and Matt Appleman.

Appleman, of Minneapolis, is the only carbon-fiber frame builder in the state and one of a few in the country making custom bikes out of

Article source: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27383386/minnesota-bike-design-display-at-umn-exhibit

During the 1930s, with Europe preparing for war, the British government badly needed a way to detect the approach of enemy aircraft. It got one, thanks to a bookish-looking engineer named Robert Watson-Watt, who devised and successfully tested a primitive radar system in 1935. By the time of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a chain of radar stations along England’s eastern and southern coasts was providing enough warning of incoming Luftwaffe bombers to allow civilians to find shelter underground and Royal Air Force pilots to scramble their fighters into the air. King George VI recognized Watson-Watt’s accomplishments with a knighthood in 1942. Some historians even credit the engineer with Britain’s survival during those terrifying times.

Some 15 years later, when Watson-Watt was in his 60s and I was in my teens, he spoke at my Canadian high school. The best part of the talk for us was his story about having been pulled over in a radar speed trap. He read us a poem he had composed while waiting for his case to be called:

Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt,
strange target of this radar plot

And thus, with others I can mention,
the victim of his own invention.

His magical all-seeing eye
enabled cloud-bound planes to fly

but now by some ironic twist
it spots the speeding motorist

and bites, no doubt with legal wit,
the hand that

Article source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/increasing-use-of-radar-tests-spectrum-authorities?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+(IEEE+Spectrum)

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“Kids seem to hear ‘no’ so much,” said Al White, a member of the nonprofit Duluth/Superior EAA Chapter 272. “We want to give them the idea that if you dream about something, you can do it.”

While the multigenerational crew focuses on work to make the plane airworthy, the project’s success isn’t based on how soon the Aeronca takes wing.

“The measure of success is the number of youth who get involved in this and experience aircraft construction,” said chapter vice president Jim Nelson. “The more the better.”

After the plane was handed to the chapter in 2013, local EAA members inspected the craft and cleared it of debris, including birds’ nests and at least one mouse skull. Step by step, they set up project sessions for the youngsters. The partnership has been a win-win situation.

“It’s just as cute as can be, the kids are so excited,” Nelson said. “It’s a joy to work with them. Their faces light up, almost like when they take a Young Eagles ride.”

Some of the kids who have worked on the plane are members of Boy Scout Troop 16, based out of Asbury United Methodist Church in West Duluth. It’s been an exciting experience, troop leader Scott Tollefson said. A trio of the boys begs to work on the plane every time they meet.

“That’s what they want to do,” Tollefson said.

During a recent session, EAA members met to set the Aeronca’s wings aside in storage and tow the small plane’s fuselage into the chapter’s hanger. The restoration

Article source: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/3662277-rebuilding-plane-inspires-dreams-northland-teens