A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT IN JET ENGINE DESIGN has generated excitement in aviation circles.  Dave Demerjian of WIRED magazine starts his story:

Pratt & Whitney has spent the better part of two decades developing the geared turbofan engine that burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year. It’s being called one of the most exciting developments commercial aviation has seen in years…

“It’s technology like that geared turbofan that’s going to drive fuel efficiency forward for this industry in the short and medium term,” says Earnest Arvi of the Arvi Group. “Alternative fuels show great potential, but they’re decades away.”

What makes this fan jet different from the others is the geared turbine.   Current jet engines have fans that suck air into the combustion chamber, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel, and ignited. Then it’s blown through a turbine, generating thrust. It works, but it’s inefficient because the fan is connected to the engine and turns at the same speed as the turbine. Fans work best at low speed, while turbines work best at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney solved that problem with a gearbox that lets the fan and turbine spin independently. The fan is larger and it spins at one-third the speed of the turbine, creating a quieter, more powerful engine the company says requires less fuel, emits less C02 and costs 30 percent less to maintain.

 The new engine is expected to be in production by 2013.

Pratt & Whitney photo

For the full details, read the complete article HERE and you also learn some other interesting tidbits such as:  If every commercial flight in the U. S. could shave 1 minute off its flight time, there would be a savings of 1.9 million tons of fuel annually.

A BRUSH FIRE WAS STARTED ABOUT 20 MILES NW OF LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, Saturday when a private airplane crashed onto a mountain.

CBS / Rick Plummer photo

The single-engine Piper Cherokee had four people on board and was flying from North Las Vegas to Byron, California, when it struck a power line and crashed.  All four passengers perished when the plane hit and broke into flames at the 7,000 ft. level of Mt. Charleston.

CBS / Plummer

Fire officials say the fire spread and climbed the steep and parched terrain of the Spring Mountain Recreation Area and came within a half-mile of a housing subdivision.  Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon says nearly 40 homes are threatened by the 12-acre fire.

CBS / Plummer 

Authorities have ordered an evacuation of the subdivision. They expect to fully contain the blaze by 6 p.m. Sunday.

Fox News has the STORY.
Las Vegas Channel 8 has a video REPORT.

AT THE SIX FLAGS AMUSEMENT PARK NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Saturday, a 17-yr.-old boy was killed when he was struck by the Batman Coaster inside a restricted area.

The Batman ride carries the passengers
upside-down through a series of
inverted loops.  (AJC photo)

The teen and another boy had left the park earlier in the day to buy some lunch outside.  Instead of returning through the entrance gate, they climbed over the park’s security fence in another area.  Once inside, they then climbed  a safety fence that surrounds the ride, even though it is plainly marked with Danger and No Trespassing signs. 

There is speculation that he was looking to retrieve a hat that he had lost earlier while riding the coaster.  While climbing around the coaster ride, the cars came by at about 50 mph and struck the youth killing him instantly by decapitation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the full STORY.

The AP filed this video report:

THE WARWICK TOWNSHIP FIRE CO. IN BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, has its tower truck trapped inside the firehouse this morning.  About 8:10 pm on Saturday a pickup truck came careening into the front of the station, destroying the tower’s bay door and knocking down several chunks of the building’s facade.

WPVI Ch. 6

The tower suffered some body damage, but does not appear at first to be mechanically impacted.  There was also some plumbing and electrical damage in the station.

Police are attempting to figure out why the driver, who was alone in the pickup, drove into the building even though it is set back some distance from the roadway.  He was the only person hurt in the crash and was taken to a hospital for undisclosed injuries.

phillyBurbs has the STORY.

A MAJOR FIRE IN A SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX has destroyed three businesses.  The fire began Saturday evening just before 8 pm Mountain time when a grass fire migrated into the industrial park.

KSL-TV

Fire officials believe that a passing train sparked a fire in the dry grass which rapidly spread.  With nobody working in the area, there was no alarm sounded until the fire got ahold of the buildings that housed a pallet manufacturing firm, an insulation company, and a metals recycling plant.

KSL-TV

Along with the large stocks of wooden pallets, there were several truck trailers parked alongside the buildings and the interiors had many propane tanks inside.  When the FD arrived, the propane tanks were already exploding and the response was quickly upgraded to four alarms.  The high outdoor temperature brought the need for extra help to rotate crews.

The Salt Lake Tribune has the STORY.
KSL-TV has more and a good VIDEO.

KTVX Ch. 4 filed this video report:

Yesterday’s dinner was one of those that I look forward to every year:  The season’s first BLT’s.  What a treat!  Naturally, you can only make those with fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, thus the limited time frame to really enjoy this culinary delight.

You might want to think about that for tonight’s dinner, if it’s as hot where you are as it is here.

We’re on Sunday schedule today, so it’s just inside drills and emergencies.  Let’s get this equipment checked out while I make the coffee and then we’ll start the day with a little photo art.

THE “GREAT CATCH” VIDEO THAT WE HAD POSTED for a few days at the top of the right sidebar has another story behind the story.

I imagine that many of you already know that it’s a staged stunt, but a lot of others never gave it a thought.  Surprisingly, only one person wrote to tell me that it was a bit phony.  So here’s the rest of the story:

The complete clip is actually a Gatorade commercial.  I don’t know how much they’ve actually run it on tv beyond the Super Bowl, but the ad agency leaked it out onto the Web in January knowing that it would fly the universe in short order.

The first part of the clip is from an actual ballgame between Fresno and Tacoma and is genuine up until you hear the crack of the bat as the ball is hit.  From there on, the digital artists take over.  Using a mathematical calculation of what the trajectory would be, a camera pans what would be the flight path of the ball.  Back at the studio, a digital technician put a ball image onto the picture at the correct place.

Then, as you might guess, actors take over the rest of the action, including the acrobatic “ball girl.”  It must have been great fun putting that one together.  “Batter up!!”

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MARYLAND, IS BEING SUED BY THE PARENTS of a man who died when he drove his motorcycle into the side of an ambulance last September 14.

According to the police report, the county fire department ambulance was  exiting a shopping center at a traffic signal which was green in his favor.  A motorcycle driven by a 21-yr.-old Virginia man went through the red light and ran into the left side of the ambulance, causing fatal injuries.

Now the family has come up with a couple of witnesses who say that the ambulance is the one that had the red light.  However, witnesses at the scene at the time told police that the motorcycle went through the red signal and their investigation confirmed that, so no charges were filed against the ambulance driver.

In a statement that’s sure to impress the judge that hears the civil suit,  the mother told the Annapolis Capital newspaper:

(The) determination was based largely on the police report and Mrs. Sergent said the police can’t be trusted.

“The police department and the fire department are family,” she said. She said the investigating officers talked to several of her witnesses, but refused to take a statement from at least one. “They covered up something this man did wrong,” she said.

“They figured they could get away with accusing him because he was young and from out of state,” she said. “His light was green.”

The fire department, the firefighters union and the county attorney are all backing the firefighter.  Assistant County Attorney Michael Lord said, “…we certainly stand behind our firefighter and plan to defend this.”

Read the full story in the Capital HERE.