EAA Sport Aviation - February 2011

MARY JONES

COMMENTARY / EDITOR’S LOG

Vol. 60 No. 2 | February 2011

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, you know how that goes

WHEN WE STARTED PLANNING the content for this issue some months ago, the space shuttle’s last launch was scheduled for late February. Recognizing the impact that program and its inventions and technologies have had on aviation, we felt it appropriate to pay homage. What better connection than the fact that many astronauts, as well as many other members of the Johnson Space Center staff, are EAA members, homebuilders, and fellow fliers of general aviation aircraft.

So, we started down the path of preparing this month’s “Homebuilders in Space” feature (page 34). Since then we’ve learned that the shuttle’s last flight will likely be in April; so much for our timely connection! But, once we reach a certain point in production, it’s hard to bring the wheels of that train to a halt, so we’ve elected to celebrate the shuttle and its impact this month anyway. We’re happy to share the story of fellow EAAers who have contributed to all that the space shuttle has offered society.

Then, just a couple of days ago, we received a document from NASA, entitled NASA Spinoff 2010, highlighting some of the technology developments that have transferred from shuttle and other space research to many aspects of our everyday lives. For example, one technology that migrated from space uses to the medical community reduces fatigue failures in hip transplants, another spawned the development of better materials for sunglasses that reduce our eyes exposure to dangerous ultraviolet rays, and still another created better structural repair materials for the automotive and outdoor adventure markets. We have included a link to that document on www.SportAviation.org, and it is pretty interesting reading. Many companies have benefited from the Small Business Innovation Research grants that were offered as incentive to develop new products and technologies for the “space race.” Cirrus Aircraft and Ballistic Recovery Systems are two companies familiar to us who benefited and thus, in turn, so did we.

Speaking of www.SportAviation.org, I want to encourage you to visit that website every month after you receive your magazine. We created that page to make it easier for you to connect to the links we recommend that offer more information, videos, audio files, or whatever related to an article. Long, complicated website addresses are easy to get wrong when you’re typing them into your Web browser. At www.SportAviation.org, you can just click on the link, and it’ll take you directly to the recommended website.

Of course, in EAA’s online digital magazine, every link is “live,” and that includes links in advertisements, making it even easier to get where you want to go. If you haven’t checked out the digital version of EAA Sport Aviation, I encourage you to do that, too. It’s housed at www.Oshkosh365.org in the EAA Members Only section, and it’s free to all members. All you need to do is create a password to log onto Oshkosh 365.

In the course of learning more about the subjects of our other features this month, we found an interesting connection. Hoot Gibson (“Homebuilders in Space”), Dave Scott (“Model for Success”), and Robert Baslee (“Bringing Fantasies to Life”) share something in common—all of them have been avid model airplane builders at some period in their lives, or they still are. I can’t tell you how many homebuilders/restorers I’ve interviewed over the years who’ve talked about getting their aviation start by building models. That shows the logic of EAA’s recent collaborative agreement with the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). Because of that agreement, EAA members have free access to the AMA museum, as well as some AMA events. All EAA Young Eagles, up until the age of 18, have free membership in both EAA and AMA and free access to the online digital edition of EAA Sport Aviation. You can all check out that magazine via the link on www.SportAviation.org.

It’s all about promoting greater participation and sharing the spirit of aviation.

PUBLICATIONS STAFF Publisher: Rod Hightower Vice President-Membership: Adam Smith Director of Publications & Editor: Mary Jones Senior Editor: Steve Schapiro Associate Editor: Kelly Nelson Senior Art Director: Phil Norton Art Directors: Michael Annino, Olivia Trabbold News Editor: Ric Reynolds Copy Editor: Colleen Walsh Editorial Assistant/Layout: Dana Heimos Editorial Assistant: Meghan Plummer Multimedia Journalist: Brady Lane Manager, Electronic Publications: Fareed Guyot Webmaster: Sue Delrow Photography Staff: Jim Koepnick, Steve Cukierski Production/Special Projects: Kathleen Witman Editor-at-Large: J. Mac McClellan Contributing Writers: Charlie Becker, Mike Busch, Budd Davisson, Earl Downs, Kerry Fores, Fred Keip, Richard Koehler, Greg Laslo, Dave Matheny, Joe Norris, Bob O’Quinn, Lauran Paine Jr., Robert Rossier, Max Trescott, James Wynbrandt

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