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August 31, 2007
The Chamber's Pilot Program
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| The Chico Chamber of Commerce and all of
the people involved in organizing and volunteering for the Chico Airfest
2007 deserve some credit. The Airfest appears to be well marketed and also
seems to be growing into a large event for our community. This program will
draw in lots of people in the region and contribute to our economy, and
that's part of the Chamber's mission. More information can be found about the Chico Airfest 2007 at the Chamber's web site (here's a good page). The main event will be held on Saturday at the Chico Airport, but there is a dinner planned for tonight. On Saturday the gates are open from 8AM-4PM and tickets are $15 at the gate ($12 if you buy them online today). Aircraft on display or performing include the F-18, F16, P51, Japanese Zero and more. Chico Velo is even providing a bike valet service on Saturday. The aerospace industry has been the backbone of our military power since World War II. The creation of new stealth technology aircraft in the last 30 years has dramatically increased our country's capacity to project military power. These advances have assured our dominance in global affairs in the last century and more will be required to continue that into the future. The same technology and industry that developed our nation's powerful military assets have been leveraged to create our space program and many other scientific spin-offs. Aerospace advances have even helped develop our economic system. Even new growing markets, like those based on Internet sales, have capacity based on the aircraft. Without Fed Ex and UPS who can ship products anywhere in a day the Internet would have suffered from inefficient delivery and been at a competitive disadvantage. Some of the more famous military aircraft will be on display tomorrow. It should be a good show. But if you'd like to see one of the newest aircraft produced by the aerospace industry for our military check out the video below. Watch it until at least the 0:55 second mark. |
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  CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Greg Redeker, see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at August 31, 2007 06:16 AM
Comments
Upside down P-51?
Posted by: Gregg Payne at August 31, 2007 06:59 AM
Gregg,
Wouldn't that be a 12-d? But no that's not it.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at August 31, 2007 07:16 AM
CI Challenge: It is an aircraft.
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at August 31, 2007 08:34 AM
Mark,
Actually, it is an image of an aircraft, I wasn't able to post the actual aircraft :) But I need more details.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at August 31, 2007 08:36 AM
I'm a big supporter of aviation (actually aviation supports my family) and my kids love the Airfest, but can anybody in the blogosphere explain why the Airfest is on Labor Day weekend? Are we trying to keep kids off the river or something? Why hold the airfest on a weekend when thousands of Chicoans leave for the holiday. It seems to me that moving the show to a later date would attract more people in the local area. Chico is not exactly a destination city.
I'm already getting that sheepish feeling for not knowing this CI challenge on top of not being able to pull that Boeing symbol from the recesses of my Sierra Nevada addled cranium.
Posted by: Sean Baber at August 31, 2007 08:38 AM
OK, how about a wing engine?
Posted by: Gregg Payne at August 31, 2007 09:05 AM
Sean,
I've got no idea.
I know Chico used to be a Labor Day destination, specifically because of the river. The Chamber or other Airfest organizers may have a different impression of whether it still is, or if not, can be.
Maybe someone from the Chamber will address this?
I cropped this particular challenge to make it a little harder. Had I not done that it would have been an easy guess.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at August 31, 2007 09:19 AM
Gregg,
I'm looking for a specific aircraft for the correct guess.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at August 31, 2007 09:20 AM
OK, it is specific airplane. Wild guess... Is it the Enola Gay?
Posted by: Tom Hall at August 31, 2007 11:22 AM
Looks like the engine boom from a P-38 Lightning. The tie-in would be that the plane was made by Lockheed, and there is a Lockheed Avenue out at the Chico Municipal Airport, the site of this weekend's airshow.
Posted by: Greg Redeker at August 31, 2007 11:51 AM
To be more specific, it is the port engine boom of "Happy Jack's Go Buggy".
Posted by: Greg Redeker at August 31, 2007 11:58 AM
Greg,
You've got it. In addition to those tie-ins the joint strike fighter competition between Lockheed Martin and Boeing was won by Lockheed Martin whose prototype F-35 Lightning II is shown on the Youtube video above.
FYI: I was looking for P-38 Lightning for the answer.
In 1996 the military provided $750 million to each Boeing and Lockheed to develop and demonstrate next generation fighters as a competition to win the contract. Lockheed Martin won the competition and a $200 billion contract (that's billion with a "B").
Nova has a great show on the competition called Battle of the X-Planes.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/xplanes/
Lon
Posted by: Lon at August 31, 2007 12:05 PM