Mark Senior, of Egg Harbor Township, holds up a tiny remote-controlled drone he bought at Hobbies R Us in Millville.
Vivian Jerrell, of Millville displays her best selling, low-cost quad copter, Thursday Jan. 8, 2015, at Hobbies R Us in Millville.
Quad copters are pictured, Thursday Jan. 8, 2015, at Hobbies R Us in Millville.
Beyoncé, Sheryl Sandberg, Taylor Swift, Hillary Clinton, and many other successful women are frequently hailed as modern-day feminist icons, but commentators on the state of women’s empowerment have overlooked one important addition: Tina Belcher.
It’s understandable why Belcher has gone unrecognized. She’s different. Unlike the aforementioned, Tina (that’s what her fans call her) is 13 years old, the daughter of a working-class father—and not even a real person. She’s a cast member on Fox’s animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers, and she behaves nothing like a pop star, politician, or business leader. She spends her time “logging fantasy hours” with (i.e., daydreaming about) her crushes, helping out around the family’s titular diner, and writing friend fiction. That’s like fan fiction, except it’s about her friends.
Like similar prime-time cartoons—The Simpsons, Family Guy, and King of the Hill—Bob’s Burgers features a nuclear family made up of quirky individuals, any one of which—child or adult—is likely to take on the leading “parent” role. Bob, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Home Movies), is a cynical, hard-working, loveable father and husband who worries about business matters while his wife Linda (John Roberts), an excitable optimist, takes care of family issues and counterbalances Bob’s glass-half-empty outlook. The children—Louise, Gene, and Tina—often help around the restaurant or in their apartment upstairs, chiming in with quips and moderately helpful suggestions. When Linda wonders how to afford baseball lessons for her son, Louise responds: “You
Article source: http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/in-praise-of-tina-belcher-bobs-burgers-animated-sitcom-subversive-feminist-97493/
The drones are coming. Not as flying deliverymen that bring diapers, books or soup cans to your home, a vision put forth by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to much fanfare a little more than a year ago.
Instead, drones will help spray crops, inspect high-voltage power lines and hover over movie sets to provide directors with new vantage points. They will also work for insurance companies, real estate agencies, ski resorts and dozens of other businesses.
Eventually.
For now, this all remains theoretical. Except for a few locations, U.S. airspace is closed to commercial drones. Regulators say the danger is too great, and they want to go slow easing unmanned aircraft into the already crowded skies.
Advocates of the young drone industry complain that the long wait is keeping them grounded. Big-money investors are generally staying away, waiting for clear government guidelines. And the blanket flight prohibition has prevented companies from experimenting and advancing the technology. That includes developing sophisticated collision-avoidance systems or finding ways for the aircraft to navigate without human help.
“Most of these drones have very limited safety features,” says Maryanna Saenko, an analyst with science and technology consultancy Lux Research. If one crashes, “it’s a four- or five-pound brick coming out of the sky.”
Most Americans associate drones with the military, which uses unmanned aircraft to survey battlefields and hunt terrorists. In a similar manner, businesses of all kinds envision using them to perform jobs that are too difficult
Article source: http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=020002344YJ4
Autoclave cure produces composite parts of the highest quality and lowest void content. All other things being equal, it’s still the best insurance against part rejection. But today, all things aren’t equal. The world in which part performance is everything and cost is no object is passing away, even in previously “cost-plus” defense and space-exploration sectors. Demand for faster production, particularly in the part-per-minute world of automotive composites, has exposed autoclave cure, with its lengthy temperature ramps, to the charge of “production bottleneck.” Part consolidation and elimination of labor-intensive assembly steps — strategies made possible by the nature of composites and which justify their higher cost — have progressively increased the size of composite parts. Corresponding increases in autoclave volume have caused the autoclave’s purchase price and operational costs to skyrocket out of reach for all but the biggest, most well-funded fabricators (read more in “Out-of-autoclave prepregs: Hype or revoltuion?” under “Editor’s Picks,” at top right). Further, regardless of part size, the autoclave can make pre-production development cost-prohibitive and can discourage prototyping of tooling and parts, especially in prospective and/or one-off or few-of-a-kind programs.
These realities have motivated the development of out-of-autoclave (OOA) epoxy prepreg (epoxy prepreg is the material form of choice for most autoclaved parts) and bismaleimide (BMI)-based alternatives that can be oven-cured. OOA epoxies and BMIs have seen significant development in tooling applications, but a relative newcomer, benzoxazine, continues to gain ground since structural composites-capable formulations were introduced in 2008 (see “BMI and benzoxazine battle for future OOA aerocomposites,”
Article source: http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/benzoxazines-for-ooa-tooling
Boeing Co. (BA) is nearing an agreement to sell three 747-8 freighters to Azerbaijan’s Silk Way West Airlines, a deal that would end a drought in purchases of the humpbacked jumbo jet.
Completing the transaction would be a boost for Boeing’s biggest, most-expensive model after 2014 ended with no net orders. That was the first annual shutout since the four-engine plane became available in 1966, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The companies are working toward a purchase agreement that would be valued at $1.1 billion at list prices, Chicago-based Boeing said today in a statement, without giving a projected timetable. Azerbaijan news media outlets reported earlier that the transaction was final.
Boeing has struggled to land orders for the 747-8, which debuted in 2011. It’s the latest version of the aircraft that opened up intercontinental travel to a mass consumer market in the 1970s and 1980s. Last month, Boeing said it will cut monthly 747 output to 1.3 by September from the current 1.5.
Silk Way West is a unit of Baku-based Silk Way Holding, which includes 23 companies working in the aviation industry and related services. The airline took delivery of two 747-8 freighters in 2014 and operates five other Boeing models.
The main cargo hold of a Co. Boeing Co. 747-8 freighter. Close
The main cargo hold of a Co. Boeing Co. 747-8
Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/boeing-sees-jumbo-jet-sales-drought-ending-on-silk-way-agreement.html
OLATHE, KS – Butler National Corporation (OTC Pink: BUKS), a leading manufacturer and provider of support systems for commercial and military aircraft and a recognized provider of management services in diverse business groups including the gaming industry, announces the availability of two new component solutions for sale for Learjets.
Incorporating new technologies, Butler National designed, manufactured and obtained Federal Aviation Administration Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) approval of a replacement rate sensor for use by the autopilot on the roll axis and yaw axis of the applicable Learjet 31/35/35A/36/36A/C-21A and 55 Series airplanes, and on the yaw axis on the Learjet Model 24/25/28/29 Series airplanes. The replacement rate gyro sensor is approved for installation under STC number ST02416SE. The new rate gyros are available for immediate sale and shipment.
Butler National also added another new STC to replace the existing stall warning accelerometer for the Learjet 24/25/28/29 Series airplanes and Learjet 35/35A/36/36A airplanes with the FC-200 autopilot. The new vertical accelerometer is STC (STC number ST02417SE) approved as an alternate means of compliance for airworthiness directive 82-01-05. The new vertical accelerometer is currently available for sale and shipment from Butler National.
Parts obsolescence is a never ending battle in the airplane business. Many aircraft, like Learjet 20 and 30 series airplanes are reaching their 40th plus year of operation. This makes replacement part acquisition a significant challenge. One Butler National research and development focus is providing new part alternatives to obsolescence issues with cost-effective new replacement parts for the Learjet airplanes.
The new Butler National
Article source: http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/butler-national-selling-new-learjet-component-solutions-20038171
Click photo to enlarge
Rancho San Antonio Park pulls in countless people from all across the South Bay to travel along its network of trails through a slice of pristine open space. While many park visitors are focusing their eyes straight ahead and side to side, many others come to Rancho to gaze skyward.
For years, the county park in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has provided space for local radio-controlled airplane hobbyists to earn their wings. The field is made up of pilots young and old, experienced and inexperienced, students and retirees. What ties them all together is a love for a hobby that is sometimes more than getting a plane off the ground.
“I love it. There’s always something going on there,” said Keyon Voussough, 11, from Palo Alto, who shares the hobby with his father.
The little planes can be seen taking off nearly every morning and well into the day. Many pilots armed with transmitters have been flying for close to a decade. Some only recently got their start and have become absorbed in a surprisingly therapeutic hobby.
“It’s kind of a stress relief with school going on,” said Christian Filloux, a high school student from Woodside. “It’s nice to take a few minutes every morning with friends and focus just on flying.”
Planes come in various forms. Some are assembled by way of kits with varying
Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_27238545/radio-controlled-airplane-pilots-take-sky-at-rancho
