The Cool Blue Blog

Engine Start

I haven't been able to blog much recently, but there's a good reason for that.

Almost 4 and a half years ago I began working on an electric braking system for the new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Well, things are heating up as we approach first flight.

In Mid April Dreamliner ZA001, which is the first Flight Test aircraft, had its classification changed from "production status" to "Flight Status". Soon after that, the aircraft was moved to the paint hanger at Boeing's Everett facility. On May 3rd, it emerged looking mighty pretty.

The above photo shows ZA001 heading to the Fuel Dock where it was fueled and had the entire fuel system checked for leaks and such.

On May 13th, the Hamilton Sundstrand auxiliary power unit was started up and today, at 9:31 PT, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines were fired up and ran for about an hour before being shut down. They were fired up again later this afternoon for some higher power testing.

Boeing's official release indicates that today marked, "The first all-electric start of a commercial jetliner engine on a commercial jetliner."

Jon Ostrower explains

The 'more-electric' architecture of the 787 will start the engines electrically, rather than drawing bleed air for the start. The system replaces pipes and valves for the bleed air system with cables and contactors.

In a very simplified way, the electrical power sources - the tail cone's auxiliary power unit or an external ground car - convert electrical power with two 250 kVA variable frequency starter generators (VFSGs) that sit on gearboxes and act as motors to begin spinning up the engine.

ZA001 is heading steadily towards it's first flight sometime around June 21st when our electric braking system will get it's first real-world test on the aircraft. The 787-8 will be the first commercial aircraft to be fitted with electric brakes.

Here's a look at the brake

Here you can see the four actuators that are located in front of the carbon heat sink. All together, our system controls 8 brakes.

The team I led wrote the software that controls the actuators and they've been working hard over the past four and a half years to make this system work.

As you can imagine, this close to flight test, we've been very busy making sure all goes well during the testing.

I'll be back to regular blooging soon.

Lightning LoPinto

My oldest Grandson, Thomas "Lightning" LoPinto took the Vermont State Youth Wrestling Championship for his weight class which would be 75 pounds or so given that he's only 10 (almost 11). Not only did he win, but he went undefeated the whole season.

Being one of the smallest competitors in his weight-class, his great advantage over his opponents is his speed. That along with his tenacity and aggressiveness.

Congratulations, Thomas!

White Christmas

Yesterday, on the first day of Winter (which also happens to be my #2 daughter's birthday) it snowed. For almost 24 hours, it snowed.

This is the result.

We are on track to have the whitest Christmas in the 20 years I've lived here.

Go Global Warming

We will never forget

This is a reprint from 2005 with new links added at the bottom.

On September 11th, 2001 my son was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) for his specialty as a Combat Medic. A month later, he was heading home for leave prior to his first duty assignment with the 1st Cavalry Division. We made arrangements to meet in NYC where we would spend the night before taking a plane home the next morning. I told him that he would soon be going to war and I wanted him to see what it was he would be fighting for. We would visit "Ground Zero", the site of the World Trade Center attack. We ate in Times Square and when we were done, we headed for the subway station to take the train downtown. On the way, we found a statue that was to be delivered to a fire station, abandoned for the time being in the street. It had been turned into a shrine; the first of many we would encounter on our trip into the heart of darkness.

We made our way downtown and got off the train close to wall street. The smell that hit us upon exiting the subway station was something I had never experienced before. The closest I could come to describing it was being stuck in a classroom after a thousand erasers had been clapped, a metaphor that many probably are not even be able to relate to. It was the smell of vaporized concrete. Businessmen in suits, who we saw leaving work, were wearing surgical masks when they left their buildings. We proceeded west towrds Church St but we couldn't get that far; the area was cordoned off at Broadway. The smoking pit and ruined buildings that was the World Trade Center site was still apparant.

As we walked down Broadway we saw that the walls of the buildings lining the cordoned-off areas had become both shrines and desperate announcements for information about people missing since the attack. My youngest daughter added her thoughts to the wall.

And there were debates

The trip back to the hotel was somber. I could see my son thinking. The only word I heard him say while we were at the site was "Bastards". Today he serves in Iraq with the 25th Infantry Division. And while he's not sure about the people of Iraq,  he is sure of two things: the Islamic-fascists who perpetrated the attacks on 9-11 are in Iraq and what he and his brothers and sisters in the military are doing what they are doing both for us at home and the children of Iraq

Remember that day and those we lost here.

Blackhawk reprints the poem The Day We Became One People.

Here we are seven years on and we're still debunking the myths from 2001. Clearly, OBL is not a "Truther" because he believes he is responsible for the attacks.

We will never forget

The following is reposted from last year with some new links at the bottom

On September 11th, 2001 my son was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) for his specialty as a Combat Medic. A month later, he was heading home for leave prior to his first duty assignment with the 1st Cavalry Division. We made arrangements to meet in NYC where we would spend the night before taking a plane home the next morning. I told him that he would soon be going to war and I wanted him to see what it was he would be fighting for. We would visit "Ground Zero", the site of the World Trade Center attack. We ate in Times Square and when we were done, we headed for the subway station to take the train downtown. On the way, we found a statue that was to be delivered to a fire station, abandoned for the time being in the street. It had been turned into a shrine; the first of many we would encounter on our trip into the heart of darkness.

We made our way downtown and got off the train close to wall street. The smell that hit us upon exiting the subway station was something I had never experienced before. The closest I could come to describing it was being stuck in a classroom after a thousand erasers had been clapped, a metaphor that many probably are not even be able to relate to. It was the smell of vaporized concrete. Businessmen in suits, who we saw leaving work, were wearing surgical masks when they left their buildings. We proceeded west towrds Church St but we couldn't get that far; the area was cordoned off at Broadway. The smoking pit and ruined buildings that was the World Trade Center site was still apparant.

As we walked down Broadway we saw that the walls of the buildings lining the cordoned-off areas had become both shrines and desperate announcements for information about people missing since the attack. My youngest daughter added her thoughts to the wall.

And there were debates

The trip back to the hotel was somber. I could see my son thinking. The only word I heard him say while we were at the site was "Bastards". Today he serves in Iraq with the 25th Infantry Division. And while he's not sure about the people of Iraq,  he is sure of two things: the Islamic-fascists who perpetrated the attacks on 9-11 are in Iraq and what he and his brothers and sisters in the military are doing what they are doing both for us at home and the children of Iraq

Blackhawk reprints the poem The Day We Became One People. Greyhawk remembers Rick Rescorla and so does The History Channel with an hour long special about The Man Who Predicted 9/11. When you visit Mudville, add your signature to an online petition calling on the President to award the Medal of Freedom to Rick Rescorla.

September 11, five years later at Pajamas Media.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John, of Jerusalem of Rhodes, and of Malta and September 11, 1565 at OPFOR

Here we are six years on and we're still debunking the myths from 2001. Clearly, OBL is not a "Truther" because he believes he is responsible for the attacks.

Blackfive has a petition for Rick Rescorla to receive the Medal of Freedom

PajamasMedia: Memorializing 9/11 is more vital than ever

The Counterterrorism blog on 9/11 and The Inconvenient Truths about Jihad and Islamism

Memorial Day on Main Street

Someone remembered this Civil War Veteran laid to rest in the gaveyard across the street from my house.

Our town hosts the big parade in Vermont for Memorial Day. We had a flyover of F-16s. As I walked arounf town I took some pictures of the waiting crowd.

 

 

 

 

During the Parade, we were reminded of why we were here

 

 

 

We hope the next generation doesn't have to make that sacrifice. But we also hope they will remember those who did

 

You can view all the pictures I took here

The eyes of March

On March 15th, at 2:41pm, my eighth grandchild was born.

Her name is Jasmine Nichole Rivera and she weighed 7 pounds. It doesn't look like people will be easily able to take advantage of her.

Jasmine, welcome to our world.

The Santa Detatchment

Soldier-Powered Sleigh

Santa, played by Ken Rice, a civilian contractor with AAI Corp., and his six reindeer, Soldiers from Company E, 615th Aviation Support Battalion, prepare for launch on an unmanned aerial vehicle launcher at Camp Taji, Iraq Dec. 18. U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Winston Churchill.

We will never forget

The following is reposted from last year with some new links at the bottom

On September 11th, 2001 my son was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) for his specialty as a Combat Medic. A month later, he was heading home for leave prior to his first duty assignment with the 1st Cavalry Division. We made arrangements to meet in NYC where we would spend the night before taking a plane home the next morning. I told him that he would soon be going to war and I wanted him to see what it was he would be fighting for. We would visit "Ground Zero", the site of the World Trade Center attack. We ate in Times Square and when we were done, we headed for the subway station to take the train downtown. On the way, we found a statue that was to be delivered to a fire station, abandoned for the time being in the street. It had been turned into a shrine; the first of many we would encounter on our trip into the heart of darkness.

We made our way downtown and got off the train close to wall street. The smell that hit us upon exiting the subway station was something I had never experienced before. The closest I could come to describing it was being stuck in a classroom after a thousand erasers had been clapped, a metaphor that many probably are not even be able to relate to. It was the smell of vaporized concrete. Businessmen in suits, who we saw leaving work, were wearing surgical masks when they left their buildings. We proceeded west towrds Church St but we couldn't get that far; the area was cordoned off at Broadway. The smoking pit and ruined buildings that was the World Trade Center site was still apparant.

As we walked down Broadway we saw that the walls of the buildings lining the cordoned-off areas had become both shrines and desperate announcements for information about people missing since the attack. My youngest daughter added her thoughts to the wall.

And there were debates

The trip back to the hotel was somber. I could see my son thinking. The only word I heard him say while we were at the site was "Bastards". Today he serves in Iraq with the 25th Infantry Division. And while he's not sure about the people of Iraq,  he is sure of two things: the Islamic-fascists who perpetrated the attacks on 9-11 are in Iraq and what he and his brothers and sisters in the military are doing what they are doing both for us at home and the children of Iraq

Blackhawk reprints the poem The Day We Became One People. Greyhawk remembers Rick Rescorla and so does The History Channel with an hour long special about The Man Who Predicted 9/11. When you visit Mudville, add your signature to an online petition calling on the President to award the Medal of Freedom to Rick Rescorla.

September 11, five years later at Pajamas Media.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John, of Jerusalem of Rhodes, and of Malta and September 11, 1565 at OPFOR

Ol' Blue Eyes

Ain't my youngest granddaughter cute?