Help Oxford, Mass., celebrate its 300th! http://www.oxford300.com/ #history

Oxford, Massachusetts, would love your help to celebrate its 300th anniversary, or Tercentennial. 

The Oxford Tercentennial Committee officially kicked off its Annual Sponsor Program by announcing the names
of two major business contributors and one individual contributor in the annual program.

 

Click here (PDF) to read the story (see page 16)

This little town is in the southern central region of the Bay State, a part of Worcester County. Among other things, it is best known as the birthplace and home of Clara Barton, who was the founder of the American Red Cross. 

My family lived there through much of my adolescent years, from age 4 to 12. So, as you might imagine, this town provides me plenty of memories from my youth that live in me today. (Many of those memories are idealized under the glazing of time, of course. However, as historic as the town was then, much has changed, but so much of the setting and buildings have remained, unchanged. Inf act, I still know folks who live there now who lived there then. That's kinda nice for a guy who's lived in quite a few places over the decades.) 

Visit http://www.oxford300.com/oxford.aspx

- Jon Osterholm

###

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Goodbye, Piperjet - it's been fun

Today, at about 0830, Piper Aircraft's Piperjet prototype (actually, called a "proof of concept", as it is essentially a test device) took off from the Vero Beach, Fla., airport. This is apparently the last time that she will fly. The program was put on indefinite suspension, due to the market outlook for such a wonderful machine. Few had a chance to ride in her, and while I was not one, I certainly spent considerable time getting a sense of her lines, makeup and had lots of appreciation for the effort they put into it at Piper.

The pilot brought her off the ground, sliding mere feet above the runway, then pulled back and right, in stages of a pleasingly tight turn. Anyone who thinks that that flying vessel was put on hold because of issues with its design and flight capabilities is chasing a false ghost. It took to the air today almost like an acrobatic plane. (Almost!) Impressive! Another time, another, stronger economic setting. Thanks for the view, Piperjet!

You can still catch video of her on YouTube, and I hope someone who took video of this last flight will share it, as, today, that takeoff alone was worth seeing again and again!
- Jon Osterholm

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Former Piper CEO and FAA chief, Lynn Helms passes, age 86

The New York Times wrote on the passing of former FAA administrator J. Lynn Helms. AOPA linked to it the article in their daily Aviation Brief e-newsletter.

Just prior to his stint at the top of the federal air transport regulatory agency, Helms had boosted the position of general aviation manufacturer Piper Aircraft. 

Mr. Helms, a decorated pilot who left the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel in 1956, went on to a successful business career in aviation. In 1974, he became president and chief executive of Piper Aircraft — he was later named chairman — and was widely credited with turning around the company’s financial fortunes before Mr. Reagan appointed him to lead the F.A.A.

Helms was the FAA chief during a tense chapter in American aviation business history. He and his boss, the President of the U.S.A., managed a very well-known political scuffle between a federal union and the White House. The air traffic controller union, Patco, went on strike. Helms sought to replace the striking workers with replacements and military controllers, should the strikers not return to their jobs in 48 hours. President Ronald Reagan vowed that the workers would be replaced to avert a serious impact on flights, and his Administration followed through. The strike, due to its potential impact on transportation safety, was illegal. 

Mr. Helms’s contingency plans functioned better than expected, and with flight schedules pared down and supervisors, nonstriking controllers and military controllers staffing airport towers and radar centers, there were no strike-related disasters.

 

Widely seen as an effective manager, Mr. Helms was able to oversee the restoration of air service nearly to prestrike levels by the time he left the agency in January 1984, though problems with air traffic delays continued, and 1985, the year after he left, was among the worst in airline history for accidents and deaths.

Read the entire NY Times piece (written by Bruce Weber): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/j-lynn-helms-who-led-the-faa-dies-at-86.html?_r=1

- Jon Osterholm

(Note: Piper Aircraft is my employer. Any of my posts or comments here or anywhere do not reflect views of Piper Aircraft. They have a department for that, and I am not in it.)

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Why Steve Jobs idolized Robert Noyce (CS Monitor)

Robert Noyce was a great engineer. Call him an inventor. Call him a creator, a mentor to the origins of the Digital Age. He influenced Steve Jobs. 

Ms. Berlin writes that Jobs was one of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs mentored by Noyce after he left daily management at Intel in 1975. He served on the boards of half a dozen startup companies, and invested in many more.

Here's what Steve Jobs told Leslie Berlin, author of "The Man Behind the Microchip" about Noyce:

"Bob Noyce took me under his wing," Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs explains. "I was young, in my twenties. He was in his early fifties. He tried to give me the lay of the land, give me a perspective that I could only partially understand." Jobs continues, "You can't really understand what is going on now unless you understand what came before."

In a 1990 WGBH NOVA mini-series "The Machine That Changed the World," the interviewer notes that Robert Noyce took up hang gliding at age 40. He was an inventor and risk taker. To which Jobs replies:

"My observation is that the doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person. And if we really go back and we examine, you know did Leonardo have a guy off to the side that was thinking five years out in the future what he would paint or the technology he would use to paint it, of course not. Leonardo was the artist but he also mixed all his own paints. He also was a fairly good chemist. He knew about pigments [and he] knew about human anatomy. [Combining] all of those skills together, the art and the science, the thinking and the doing, was what resulted in the exceptional result." 

Read the article from Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2011/1212/Robert-Noyce-Why-Steve-Jobs-idolized-Noyce

- Jon Osterholm

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Life after movies: child star of 'It's a Wonderful Life' lost her parents before age 16

Life after a movie career: child star of 'It's a Wonderful Life' lost her mother, father before age 16.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-zuzu-of-its-a-wonderful-life-it-wasnt-such-a-wonderful-life-afterward/2011/11/21/gIQAYt3CLO_story_1.html

... after her film work ended, she grew up fast. “My mother died when I was 12, and right after my dad died in a car crash. I was 15 and had no family. The court sent me to live with my uncle and aunt in Missouri,” she said.

“They were kind of nutso religious fanatics who didn’t believe in movies, dancing, singing, that kind of thing,” she remembered. “I don’t think they believed in laughing, either.” ...

Yah, not exactly a happy Christmas-flavored nugget. The entire article is a good read for any fan of this movie, and the tasteful, fanciful movies of hope lost and found. 

- Jon 

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

A touch of local history: the Vero naval air station

A touch of local history in my area, on the Treasure Coast of Florida -- the naval station that became the municipal airport, in a series of photos. 

Vero Beach Naval Air Station - TCPalm.com

- Jon Osterholm

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous