Aircraft. Hammerhead UAV takes to the skies over Italy

There was an unusual shape in the skies over Italy last week as the Piaggio Aero Company and Selex ES successfully completed the first flight of the aptly-named Hammerhead UAV on Thursday, November 14, near the Trapini Air Force Base. The aircraft was remotely controlled from the ground, with no crew on board, while two chase planes kept the UAV in sight during the flight.

The Hammerhead is a derivative of the Piaggio Avanti II turboprop executive transport, a fast and high flying aircraft that was designed and manufactured in Italy. The Avanti II has a patented “three lifting surfaces” design, with a small canard wing in the front of the aircraft, a thin, high aspect ratio wing, and an elevator on a tall T-shaped tail. Piaggio claims that this configuration is highly efficient and lets this aircraft get excellent gas mileage.

Also unusual are the pusher engines – the Pratt and Whitney PT6A-66B 850 shaft horsepower engines are mounted backwards, with the propellers in the back of the aircraft. The company claims this arrangement is more efficient and results in a smoother ride as it allows the wing to fly in clean air.

This is not the first time the plane has been airborne, as on the 8th of August it made a short flight, lifting off and then immediately setting down again on the same runway. The flight on November 14th was more ambitious, as the aircraft climbed away from the airport and cruised over the Mediterranean Sea for about 12 minutes before returning to base and landing safely. Cruise speed for the test was 170 kts (195 mph/315 km/h), and the landing gear and flaps remained down for the entire flight, which is a normal precaution on first flights.

The main purpose of the November 14 flight was to check out the Remote Vehicle Control and Management System (VCMS) and the Ground Control Station. The VCMS was provided by Selex ES, which is partnering with Piaggio in the development of the UAV system. The Mission Management system is based on the existing Selex ES skylSTAR software, which is designed to support patrol and surveillance missions. It has data fusion, data management, and video exploitation features that service missions from border control, wide area surveillance, environmental data collection, and disaster control.

"The first flight achievement demonstrates the huge progress made by Piaggio Aero, together with Selex ES and the support of the Italian Air Force, in the development of this new generation of Unmanned Aerial Systems. We are proud to have been able to reach this result only two years after the launch of the program, and we look forward to completing this ambitious project that brings together the efforts of leading players in the aerospace and defense domain and will allow Piaggio Aero to gain a primary position in the international surveillance and security industry with the P.1HH HammerHead to enter into service in 2015." said Alberto Galassi, CEO of Piaggio Aero.

Piaggio may be a familiar name, but not for aircraft. The company was originally founded in 1884, working first with locomotives. It began designing aircraft engines in 1915, and was a major force in aviation in the 20’s and 30’s. After the war, the son of the original designer invested in making scooters, and the famous Piaggio Vespa (or Wasp in Italian) was born. The design of the scooter was influenced by the aeronautical engineers on the aircraft side of the business. There are millions of Vespa’s worldwide, and it has become a cultural icon.

Today, Piaggio Aero is a completely separate business. Work on the Avanti or P180 began in 1979, with the aircraft taking 10 years to develop into a production aircraft. It was reborn as the Avanti II with the involvement of one of the sons of Enzo Ferrari, and today the two companies have a close relationship.

The Avanti II is a high speed turboprop that can reach an altitude of 41,000 feet and cruise at Mach 0.7, which is on par with many small jets. The fuselage is designed as one continuous aerodynamic curve, which creates a cabin that is largest in the middle. The Avanti is not just a transport aircraft, but is also available configured as an air ambulance, or as a manned “special missions” aircraft with surveillance equipment.

The UAV version, the Hammerhead, is slightly different from the passenger plane. The wings are a bit longer, and the airframe has been stiffened. To accommodate transportation, the wings can be removed easily. Flight endurance has been increased to 16 flight hours. While this endurance is impressive for a manned aircraft, it is not exceptional for unmanned aircraft of this size, which commonly fly for 24 hours or more.

The Hammerhead can carry a variety of payloads, and seems to be mostly destined for maritime patrol, not surprising for a country with an enormous coastline like Italy. The most visible payload is the EO/IR (Electro-Optic, Infrared) camera ball on the front, which is made by the US company FLIR. The aircraft also carries a marine radar, a SeaSpray 7300, and is equipped with AIS (Automatic Identification System), a transponder system that identifies ships at sea.

Source:Gizmag

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal,'The U.S. has to have a foreign policy. Well-defined, well-structured".

     In an article published today on the Wall Street Journal it reports, 'The U.S. has to have a foreign policy. Well-defined, well-structured. You don't have it right now, unfortunately. It's just complete chaos. Confusion. No policy. I mean, we feel it. We sense it, you know."'

Members of the Saudi royal family have voiced their displeasure with the Obama administration's approach to the Middle East through private channels and recently in public as well. None of them puts it quite like HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.

One of some three-dozen living grandsons of the first Saudi King Abdulaziz, this prince is a prominent but atypical royal. His investment company made him the Arab world's richest businessman. He strikes a modern image for a Saudi, employing female aides and jet-setting on a private Boeing 747. He's at ease with Western media.

The prince holds no important government post in Saudi Arabia, but it's hard to shake the impression that here is the uncensored id of the reserved House of Saud.

Mr. Alwaleed struggles to understand how a wing of the GOP can shut down the government and threaten a debt default. His company has a significant economic bet on the U.S. through Twitter and New York's Plaza Hotel, among many holdings. As for President Obama, his second term is "going downhill completely," he says, adding on several occasions the disclaimer that "this is the impression I have in Saudi Arabia." But it's clear that the Saudis believe that the president's political troubles shape his actions in their region.

Mr. Obama's recent Hamlet act on Syria surprised and infuriated Riyadh. After the worst chemical-weapons atrocity of the war, the American leader heeded long-standing calls for military intervention, then hedged by asking for congressional approval, then nixed airstrikes in favor of a disarmament pact with Syria's Bashar Assad. The civil war continued—with Assad and his Iranian allies lately taking the upper hand. Mr. Alwaleed says of Mr. Obama: "He blinked."

Then came the autumn outreach to Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, leading to this week's negotiations in Geneva on Iran's nuclear program. Another "impression" from the prince: President Obama's falling popularity explains his "overeagerness" for an agreement made "very fast to at least put one issue in foreign policy aside" because "he's wounded now across the board." The Saudis view the Shiite theocracy in Tehran as the biggest threat to the Sunni Arab world.

A frequent Saudi complaint these days is that this White House doesn't listen to them or reveal its true intentions.

"Frankly speaking," Mr. Alwaleed says, during the first Obama term "his communication was almost nil," aside from a brief visit with King Abdullah in Riyadh in 2009. Ronald Reagan and every president since cultivated personal ties, but "Obama is very cold because he is very, very immersed" in domestic policy.

Hillary Clinton, who logged 956,733 air miles in four years at the State Department, came to Saudi Arabia once. "She was not really tackling the Middle East," the prince says. In less than a year at Foggy Bottom, John Kerry has called on the Saudis three times, and the royals appreciate his engagement.

 Susan Rice, the national security adviser, was explicit last month in an interview with the New York Times  that the White House had adopted a new policy to scale back America's involvement: "We can't just be consumed 24/7 by one region, important as it is."

As the U.S. distanced itself from Egypt after July's military coup, Russia has offered Cairo arms and support. The Chinese are in no position or mood to take the baton of regional enforcer from the U.S., which polices the Strait of Hormuz to keep it open for oil tankers and protects friendly Gulf states. But the Saudis are getting along better by the day with Beijing, says Mr. Alwaleed, adding that "China is very eager to fill any vacuum that the United States may create." Bluff, threat or prediction? Check back in a few years.

The House of Saud's concern about the U.S. these days isn't merely about foreign policy. The American energy revolution is also a potential threat. Driven by technological advances in shale exploration, the U.S. will pass Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world's top oil producer by 2015, the International Energy Agency said this month. Mr. Alwaleed hasn't looked at possible investments in shale—at least "not yet."

As for the Saudis' own bottom line: With America's reliance on imported oil declining, he warned his government a few months ago about the kingdom's unhealthy dependence on oil-export revenues. But Mr. Alwaleed also says the world will always demand Saudi Arabia's cheaply drilled crude.

 After July's coup in Egypt, Riyadh gave the new military-backed government $5 billion to tide the country's economy over for a few months. The rise of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and demands for popular democracy were unwelcome in Riyadh. Mr. Alwaleed notes that Saudi diplomacy also carries a fat checkbook in Jordan, Palestine and Yemen, which are in his words "under our hegemony."

"If you look at a map of the Arab world now, Saudi Arabia is very much the leader," says the prince. "America cannot afford to have the leader of the Arab world not be on the same wave length as the United States."

How did a translation app get 2 million users?

This past week, San Francisco had its Disrupt conference, and hundreds of startups and thousands of people poured into the convention center. Amidst the sea of people, several groups from Asia had arrived including the Chinese, Indian, Hong Kong, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean delegations. And my favorite startup of the mix is definitely Flitto. It’s a South Korean startup that built an app that has over 2 million users already.

How did a translation app get 2 million users?

Flitto’s two million users all came onto the platform during their beta testing. Flitto just came out of beta this week in sync with TechCrunch Disrupt. Now, how does an app that was still in beta get over two million users? You have to use it to find out.

Simon Lee, founder and CEO of Flitto, demoed the mobile app for me.

So, for example, let’s say you want to translate a sign that is in Korean, into English, so that you can read it. All you have to do is take a picture of the sign and upload it to Flitto, and within one minute, other users will translate it into English.

As Simon demoed, I was in awe as 5 or 6 translations were immediately submitted from actual users across the world. Within a few minutes, we selected which was our favorite translation and rated it at 5 stars. Once the best translation was selected, no more translations were submitted to the system. In other words, at any moment, you can get an accurate translation of anything from text to photos to audio of one language and have it translated, within a minute. That’s the power of this platform.

On top of the speed of Flitto’s translations, the coolest part has to be the fact that people can make money off of the platform. There’s one girl in Indonesia who makes $300 a month just by translating from Indonesian into English and vice versa. She only works 30 minutes per day on Flitto.

The quest to destroy Google Translate

If you’re a bilingual person like me, you know that Google Translate has been getting better as Google hacks the world’s books and it’s machines learn better linguistics and grammar. But no matter how good Google gets, it’s still not as good as an actual human. It’s better to throw a Mechanical Turk at the problem than a robot. Humans process language way more deeply than any computer at the moment, no matter how many CPU’s are behind it.

How the points work and how people make money

With Flitto now coming out of beta and launching worldwide, we’re bound to see some growth in its userbase. Currently, all users operate on a point system. They can buy points and redeem them for translations or get paid in points for their translations. It’s easy money for folks who are excellent bilingually and have some extra time to spare. Flitto also manages its userbase via a rating system.

If you are a translator, and you made the best translation, and the requesting user selects your translation as the best, then you get points. These points not only can be redeemed for money via PayPal or your bank account, but it also improves your overall rating. That’s how the Indonesian girl can make $300 a month. And that’s how Flitto gets so many users on its platform, there’s real incentive.

Try it out, you can get your translations or give translations onAndroid or iOS.

Simon showed me a comparison of Google Translate versus Flitto by translating a comic book (Yes, you can get your favorite comics translated!). After I got an immediate translation from a user of an English phrase into Vietnamese, we compared it to the Google Translation. The Flitto translation was way better. And even then, Flitto has Google Translate embedded in the app almost as a failsafe, just in case people don’t believe in the human element.

Source: Techinasia

How Qoros Plans to Stand Out in China’s Crowded Auto Market

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,China’s Qoros Automotive Co. is betting that China’s drivers will want a new brand they’ve never heard of.
“As a new brand I will expect that there will be things to solve,” Stefano Villanti, head of sales, marketing and product strategy, said Friday on the sidelines of an auto show in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. “The critical part is having a very timely response from the market and to react fast.”

Founded six years ago as a joint venture between China’s Chery Automobile Co. and investment group Israel Corp., Qoros is hoping to capture a share of China’s market for midsize sedans. It hopes to differentiate itself from other Chinese and foreign brands by offering better quality cars with a European cachet.

To do that, it has hired about two hundred foreigners to help it design and make its cars, including Gert Volker Hildebrand, who helped redesign the Mini brand for BMW AG. The first hit the market this month.

It is entering the market at a time when competition is intensifying, with more Chinese auto makers trying to go upmarket, while many foreign automakers and their Chinese joint venture partners are moving to introduce cheaper models too. Chery is also the Chinese partner for the Jaguar Land Rover unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd., which also has expansion plans in China.

Analysts like Yale Zhang with consulting firm Automotive Foresight say that the biggest challenge facing the company is its newness. “If you can prove that you have good products and convince dealers and show momentum that consumer really like it, then it will help accelerate recruitment of dealers and their development in the market,” he said.

Shanghai-based Qoros earlier this year received a five-star score from Euro NCAP, a prominent European crash test, for its Qoros Sedan 3, which Mr. Zhang described as an “amazing” feat given that performance on similar tests by Chinese auto makers has been poor.

The company on Thursday said the Qoros 3 sedan has a price tag starting at 119,900 yuan ($19,600) in China. The price is higher than many domestic rivals, but Mr. Villanti says many of those that consider the price high haven’t experienced the product.

Built at a new factory near Shanghai, the Qoros Sedan 3 will go on sale in China as well as Eastern Europe, where Qoros wants to assess the reception of the vehicle before expanding into other markets in the region. The company said the plant has a annual capacity of 150,000 cars, which it expects to reach in two years from now. Qoros would not disclose sales targets.

F-F-Fear and Loathing on the Chinese Internet

  According to an article published on the Wall Street Journal,writing about fear and loath on the Chinese internet

"Mr. Pan, who boasts more than 16 million followers on Sina Corp.’s popular Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service, is typically a smooth-talker, whether in person or on camera. Facing a CCTV reporter’s question about the social responsibilities of influential Weibo users–known as “Big V’s” because a letter “v” marks their accounts as verified—Mr. Pan developed a sudden stutter.

“I-I-I I feel that ‘Big Vs’ — people with a lot of f-f-f-fans — should have even higher requirements of themselves, should have more d-d-discipline. You can’t be so c-c-casual,” Mr. Pan told his interviewer, punctuating each repeated syllable with a thrust of his hand as if to push the words out of his mouth (in Chinese).

The co-founder and chairman of real estate developer Soho China, Mr. Pan is one of a number of successful entrepreneurs who’ve earned large audiences online for their willingness to criticize the government. He has been particularly active on environmental issues. In 2011, he spearheaded what many regard as the clearest example of the power of social media to influence policy by the authoritarian state: a Weibo campaign that forced authorities in Beijing to finally release more accurate air-pollution data". 

"The CCTV interview came amid a government campaign to gain control over the more freewheeling social media, particularly by putting pressure on influential social media users. This week, China’s highest court issued a judicial interpretation saying Internet users could face up to three-years in prison for posting rumors or slanderous content that attracts at least 5,000 hits or is reposted at least 500 times. Last month, CCTV gave big play to a story on Chinese-American Charles Xue, another Big V known as Xue Manzi, who was detained on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes in a case interpreted by many social media users as a warning to Big Vs .

Writing on Weibo, Mr. Pan admitted to being nervous about the interview, describing a phone conversation with another Big V who advised him to avoid it at all costs. “I said, ‘It’s too late, they’re already 20 meters away and walking toward me.’” Mr.  Pan wrote (in Chinese), then he quoted his friend saying: “‘Then just tell them you think slander and creating rumors are shameful.’”

In keeping with tradition, Weibo users opted to respond to the sight of Mr. Pan’s skittishness with an outpouring of snark.

“Old Pan s-s-s-scared to death,” wrote legal scholar and prolific microblogger Xu Xin, who then applied the stuttering meme to a number of his other posts.

“I thought my TV was broken,” wrote another Weibo user. “I pounded on it a bunch of times.”

Implementation of China’s Reforms Could Take(Some) Years

"The Chinese government on Friday detailed its reform blueprint for the coming decade in a 20-page document, announcing a slew of reforms both big and small. But how long it will take the country to implement the changes amid an immense bureaucracy, both nationally and locally, is unknown". As Bob Davis, from the Wall Street Journal reports:

"Under the Chinese system, the Communist Party sets overall policy direction, but central and provincial government agencies are charged with putting the plans into effect. As in many big government bureaucracies, China’s ministries are rife with conflicting interests and jealousies, wedded to traditional policies and frequently beholden to interest groups that benefit from the status quo. Its ministries have focused on economic growth as the No. 1 goal, at Beijing’s direction, helping to create a 30-year boom, but also producing environmental problems, dangerous debt levels and housing bubbles".

"Implementation of the economic strategy plan is a “hard slog,” said Standard Chartered economist Stephen Green. HSBC China economist Qu Hongbin, said he expects the reforms to be put in place in “one to three years, rather than one to three months.”

Xi Jinping: China Is Open for Business

       According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"The Communist Party’s reform blueprint had something for everyone – even foreign investors.

The document it released on Friday offered up a long shopping list of industries it said it would open up to foreign investment. Many are in areas where the U.S. has been agitating for greater access for years".

According to the blueprint, Beijing will “promote the orderly opening up” of the finance, education, culture and health sectors. Restrictions on investing in child care and elder care, construction and design, accounting and auditing, logistics and e-commerce will also be relaxed, as will limits on market entry for manufacturing.

Foreign financial firms have been limited to minority stakes in their Chinese counterparts of years. For example, a foreign firm can hold more than a 20% stake in a Chinese bank or trust company.

Of course, it remains to be seen what greater access looks like. Over the last couple of years Beijing has been moving to scale back foreign involvement in the accounting and auditing industry, and it seems unlikely to change course despite the blueprint saying accountancy will be more open to overseas investments.

But there is also increasing recognition in Beijing that many of the service areas where foreigners have been kept at arm’s length also require more capital and expertise. With an aging population, the country’s creaking health-care system needs a dose of best practice. Similarly,better logistics are need to help connect China’s hinterland provinces with export markets, and ensure the more efficient transfer for food and resources.

China is currently in talks with the U.S. to sign an investment treaty, an idea that the U.S. tried to promote years ago with no success. Recently the Chinese resurrected the idea, and made it a key part of talks with the U.S.

Central to the investment treaty is a negative list, which should free up the scope of U.S. companies to invest in China. China is hoping to use the treaty as a way of using an international commitment to drive domestic reforms, much in the same way that China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 helped spur the country’s economic opening.

http://www.arellanomarketing.com/inicio/segun-estudio-de-arellano-marketing-en-huancayo-33-de-la-poblacion-es-nueva-clase-media/

SEGÚN ESTUDIO DE ARELLANO MARKETING, EN HUANCAYO, 33% DE LA POBLACIÓN ES NUEVA CLASE MEDIA

23 octubre, 2013

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Arnaldo Aguirre de Arellano Marketing, la principal consultora de Marketing del Perú, estuvo en Huancayo para participar del IV Congreso Internacional de Marketing organizado por la Universidad Continental. Su exposición estuvo a referida a las tendencias del consumidor peruano y al perfil de la nueva clase media en el Perú.

“En el Perú estamos viviendo un fenómeno: el crecimiento y desarrollo de la nueva clase media, una nueva clase que es la fuerza que está moviendo el país”, expresó. Dijo que para entender a este nuevo segmento, es importante conocer la historia del Perú, pues “en la medida que entendamos al país, vamos a estar en mayor sintonía con él y podremos ofrecer nuestros productos e ideas con la seguridad de que sean acogidas”.

“De los 60 a los 90 en el Perú, ocurrieron todas las plagas que le puede pasar a un país: reforma agraria, hiperinflación, migración y terrorismo. Como producto de estos desastres, en las principales ciudades del Perú, vino un movimiento migratorio inmenso. De pronto, Lima que era una ciudad de 2 millones de habitantes se convirtió en una ciudad de 9 millones. De ellos, 6, prácticamente, viven en la periferia de Lima; es decir, no en la parte tradicional sino en lo que se formó alrededor”, explicó.

Señaló que del 2005 al 2013, en Lima centro, los ingresos familiares crecieron 17%, pero en las zonas periféricas, producto de la migración, crecieron 50% (lo mismo que en las provincias y sus zonas urbanas). “La Población Económicamente Activa creció del 84 al 94% y la inversión privada, en 8 años, creció 91%. Como producto de este movimiento de desarrollo, en el Perú, que era una pirámide, se fueron reduciendo las clases menos favorecidas y creció la clase media”, agregó.

Esta clase aprovechó el descuido de las grandes empresas que, copiando modelos extranjeros, dirigían sus productos a la clase alta. “Había un mercado al que estábamos ajenos y que hoy se pueden aprovechar”, subrayó el experto. Resaltó que una forma de ver los niveles es sectorizarlos por el nivel de ingresos, pero otra, más importante, es preguntándole a la gente a qué clase pertenece. “Finalmente, yo me voy a comportar de acuerdo a cómo me identifico y no necesariamente a cuán gorda es mi billetera”, señaló.

De acuerdo a estudios nacionales de Arellano Marketing (2013), las cifras indican que 72% de los limeños dijeron que se siente clase media; en Arequipa, el 84%, y, en Huancayo, 85%. Sin embargo, datos reales, señalan que en la Incontrastable un tercio de la población conforma este la nueva clase media (33%). “Comprendida como aquella que puede cubrir sus necesidades básicas y de manera consistente, excedentes para gastos discrecionales”, apuntó el expositor.

Pero no toda la clase media es igual, destaca. Esta se subdivide en dos tipos: 18% es clase media tradicional, que se diferencia por no tener antecedentes migratorios, manejar el concepto de familia conformado por papá, mamá e hijos, y tener trabajos formales dependientes. Mientras que, el 39% que conforma la nueva clase media, vienen de migrantes, su concepto de familia es extendida, viven en la periferia y su forma de trabajar es independiente, semi-informales, muchos de ellos comerciantes.

CARACTERÍSTICAS. Esta clase tiene patrones culturales propios (en música, comidas, moda). En su mayoría está conformado por personas que se dedican a brindar servicios de manera independiente. La importancia de bienes para ellos está conformado por: comida (38%), casa (13%), ropa (6%), educación (5%), educación, salud y transporte en 7%, cada uno, estética (3%) y cuidado personal (9%). “Sin embargo, sus necesidades no están bien atendidas porque se le estereotipa”, afirmó Aguirre.

Finalmente, dijo que: “el Perú no es un mercado de precio, pues el peruano busca valor accesible”. Por ello, estamos en el proceso de generar preferencia por las marcas en base al costo – beneficio. “Esta clase está más abierta a probar nuevas marcas. Compran de todo. Por tanto, es importante tener en consideración sus gustos, sus conceptos, sus patrones y tratarlos bien, sin distinción, porque este es un grupo grande, importante para los negocios”, aseguró.

Fuente: Universidad Continental / 19-10-2013