January 21, 2016

Adverse Weather Could Impact Shipments

Larry Bartle shovels new snow from around his cars in Lafayette, Colo., on Friday, Jan. 5, 2007, where an overnight winter storm left a foot of snow. This is the third snowstorm to hit the Colorado front range in three weeks. (AP Photo/Peter M. Fredin)

A blizzard watch has now been posted for the New York City region where we are located, which will take effect early Saturday and into Sunday. As a result, we will not be making any outbound shipments on Saturday, and, depending upon the weather conditions, may hamper further operations into Monday. Currently we are expecting a minimum of 6-12 inches of snow, with greater accumulations possible depending upon the track of the storm. So, we will conclude any outbound shipments this Friday and ride out the storm, hopefully resuming normal operations on Monday.

Aftermath: Well, we got socked pretty hard here in New York City. In fact, news reports are indicating this was the second snowiest storm on record for NYC. Unofficially, I’m guessing we got around 28 inches of snow, so its going to take us some time to dig out and get things up to speed. Likewise, its going to take other businesses, such as the Post Office, some time before they too can resume operations. We’re hoping that by Monday everything is back on track, otherwise we’re looking at Tuesday to resume accepting inbound and making outbound shipments.

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The USA’s FVL Begins to Take Shape

V280

As 2016 dawns, so does the look and feel of the the US Army’s FVL (Future Vertical Lift) program. Intended to replace the aging AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk in the not-too-distant future, the FVL looks to incorporate advances in technology that will help keep the aircraft flying well into the mid 21st Century. Two competing designs are beginning to take shape; one by Bell, dubbed the V-280 Valor, and the other by Sikorsky-Boeing, and known as the SB-1 Defiant.

 

S1Defiant

The Valor resembles the V-22 Osprey, in that it makes use of a tilt-rotor wing for added lift and range, while the Sikorsky design makes use of a pair of contra-rotating overhead blades for improved performance.

According to Flightglobal, “No funding has been allocated for FVL thus far, but the army expects to firm its performance requirements once the demonstrators fly. FVL might not surface in the army’s upcoming fiscal year 2017 budget submission, but Bell hopes funding will be made available in 2018 or 2019 to get things moving.”

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