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Boeing has announced that it has accepted the Oshkosh Defense military truck that will carry a Boeing-built laser beam control system for the U.S. Army's High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) program. Boeing received the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) on Dec. 17 at the Oshkosh facility in Oshkosh, Wis. "This demonstration program has successfully transitioned from the design phase to the fabrication phase," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. "This transformational, solid-state laser weapon capability will provide speed-of-light, ultra-precision capability that will dramatically improve warfighters'...

OSHKOSH - Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold got an earful at his town hall meeting in Winnebago County on Thursday. "The majority of senior people feel that they are getting screwed pardon my French," Pat Braasch of Oshkosh said during the one-and-a-half hour session. While all topics were on the table, healthcare dominated the discussion. Some expressed concerns about cuts to Medicare. Others asked why a plan that's expected to extend coverage to more than 30 million of the uninsured, would be negotiated behind closed doors.

BAE Systems has filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking the agency to review the decision by the U.S. Army to award a contract to a competitor for the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) rebuy program. After a detailed analysis of the information provided by the Army, before and during the formal competition debrief, the Company believes that the Army did not properly evaluate the proposals, consistent with the Government's stated requirements, and the Army failed accurately to assess the various risks associated with the different proposals.

We have a candidate for the Darwin Award. He hasn't won it yet, but he has to be in the running as a potential candidate. Up in Oshkosh, Wis., it is sill cold and the lakes are still frozen, for the most part. But this is now official spring and the frozen north is beginning to thaw. At least partially. It is also a part of the country where ice fishing is popular. For those not familiar with the sport, it involves going onto the ice of a frozen lake, chopping a hole through to the water and then sitting...

New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin publically debuted his 'Martin Jet Pack' Tuesday at AirVenture, the world's biggest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Martin strapped his 16-year-old son into the pack and he hovered above the ground for a cheering crowd. Martin invented the 'Jet Pack' 11 years ago in his garage. It consists of a 200 horsepower water-cooled piston engine that runs on gas and uses car fanbelts to drive two fan propellers that spin inside what looks like two oversized soup cans. Martin say the fan design is much more efficient than an unshielded rotor of a helicopter....

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Two planes at an experimental airshow collided while landing Friday, killing at least one of the pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The accident with the two World War II-era P-51 Mustangs happened at 3:17 p.m. CDT (2017 GMT) after the planes finished a performance at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual show, the FAA said.

Oshkosh Police are looking for two lemonade bullies. 11-year-old Austin Cundy set up a lemonade stand Tuesday at his grandparents house in Oshkosh. Austin says two teenage boys kept riding their bikes past the stand. One of them stopped, beat him up and took his wallet with the lemonade money inside. Austin also lost his library card and student ID. "It makes me mad that it happened," Austin said. " I was going to save that money for camping and then buy my mom a birthday present." Austin is still a little shaken and hopes that it doesn't happen to...

The Model 162 SkyCatcher will be Cessna Aircraft Co.'s entry in the Light Sport Aircraft category. Cessna made the announcement and rolled out a full-scale mockup Sunday during the opening day of the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual convention in Oshkosh, Wis. The two-seat airplane has an initial price of $109,500 for the first 1,000 airplanes ordered, then the price will be $111,500. Keeping the airplane in the $100,000 range was one of the goals set by Jack Pelton, Cessna chairman, president and CEO, during the program's development. Cessna announced its LSA program during the 2006 EAA convention and has been...

Presenting the Eclipse Concept Jet (ECJ), a single-engine four-place aircraft created by Eclipse Aviation as the ultimate tool for evaluating the emerging single-engine jet marketplace.

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin (AP) -- Police and federal investigators tried Sunday to determine why a teen fell from a festival ride and died. Lifefest attendees gather near the site of the woman's death to write messages and leave condolences. Elizabeth K. Mohl, 16, of Neenah, was killed Saturday after falling 40 to 50 feet from a ride called Air Glory.

OSHKOSH, Wis. - A new combat truck with a V-shaped bottom designed to withstand blasts from roadside bombs is performing with such success in Iraq that the U.S. military is pressing a Wisconsin company and others to churn out hundreds more in the coming months. About 200 prototypes of the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles have been deployed in Iraq since 2004, said Capt. Jeff Landis, spokesman for the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. No Marine has died while in one of the trucks, Landis said. "This is the best vehicle available for safety and survivability," he said. "The MRAP...

Honda today announced plans to enter the growing very light jet market by formally launching sales of the HondaJet at OshKosh. The company made the announcment at the US Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) AirVenture 2006 air show in OshKosh, Wisconsin. The Japanese automotive company, which revealed the previously-secret project 12 months ago, will establish a new US company to pursue Federal Aviation Administration type certification and production certification. "We will have more information to share this [Northern Hemisphere] Fall," Satoshi Toshida, senior managing director of Honda Motor said. "But today we're excited to announce our intention to enter the very...

Warbird of the Day: Grumman Mohawk RV-1D Tue, 25 Jul '06 by ANN Correspondent John Dorcey The warbird area is a "must see" for most AirVenture participants. Veterans, history buffs, dads with kids in tow, and the curious all gravitate to the north end of the AirVenture grounds. This area, like most of the facility, has changed over the years. Today, visitors will find a greater variety of aircraft and more displays that are educational. Ed Finnegan, American Wings Air Museum, provided the history on this aircraft. Grumman built serial number 64-14262 in 1964 as an OV-1B. The aircraft was...

The Nemesis NXT is set to make its debut at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2006 in Oshkosh, Wis., this week. The creation of champion pilot and aircraft designer Jon Sharp and his wife Patricia, the air racer is available as a kit for those who wish to build one of the sleek aircraft themselves. Distributor SLO Air Inc. will join Nemesis at the air show, promoting and selling the aircraft kits. Nemesis NXT is scheduled to make two appearances during the daily airshows, and it will be on static display "front row center" near the homebuilding area the rest...

A true-to-life replica of the historic SpaceShipOne spacecraft is set to debut at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wis. The replica was built by employees at Scaled Composites in Mojave using the same composite molds as the original spacecraft. "To have SpaceShipOne built from the same molds, by the same people, is really something special," said Dick Knapinski , association spokesman. Designed by Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne shot into the record books with a trio of suborbital spaceflights above Mojave in 2004, making it the world's first privately funded manned space program. The last two flights to the...

OSHKOSH, Wis. - At the top of a 10-foot-high mound of dirt, Gary Schmiedel takes in the silence. The military truck he's driving barely hums just before it careens down a steep incline into a muddy pool. Normally the vehicle — a Heavy Expanded Mobility Technical Truck or HEMTT — would be so loud the occupants wouldn't be able to talk to each other, said Schmiedel, vice president of product engineering for Oshkosh Truck Corp. But this version is about as loud as a standard sedan, with a smooth ride, splashy computer screens and a comfortable interior. This isn't your...

OSHKOSH, Wis. - When SpaceShipOne rocketed into space over Mojave last year, claiming the $10 million Ansari X Prize, the feat represented, not the end of a journey to create the first privately funded, manned space program, but the launch a new era of human spaceflight. "We're on the verge of the most amazing period of human evolution ever," where humankind begins to move off this planet and into space, said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. Going into space is a "moral imperative," Diamandis told visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2005 on Thursday. The annual...

OSHKOSH, Wis. - Thousands of aviation enthusiasts heeded the Experimental Aircraft Association's call of "You've got to be there!" on the opening day of AirVenture 2005, filling the mammoth grounds for what promises to be a memorable week of flying, forums and fun. Monday's opening of the 53rd annual gathering was capped with the arrival of the ultimate experimental design, SpaceShipOne, and its carrier aircraft, White Knight. Designer Burt Rutan, longtime member and hero of the EAA, arrived on his now-famous futuristic craft to cheers from the crowd pressed along the ropes before the runway. "This certainly has got to...

Oshkosh police issue statement to clarify their actions in gun confiscation -- but 'muddy up the waters' instead In an embarrassingly misleading August 5, 2004 press release, the Oshkosh police department issued statements by police chief David Erickson to "clarify" the events of the July 17, 2004 shooting of officer Nate Gallagher. The police were not able to apprehend the shooter who fled on foot into the neighborhood. But the department's statements only validate property- and gun owners' concerns over the door-to-door searches and seizures of weapons that occurred that night. "In the course of the search [consent search] of...

Oshkosh police defend activity after officer was shot Associated Press OSHKOSH, Wis. - Police officials are defending their response to a shooting of an officer after a wave of criticism from Web sites and Internet message boards. The Oshkosh Police Department released a more detailed account this week of the investigation into the July 17 shooting of Officer Nate Gallagher. He was shot in the arm while standing outside his squad car, but was not seriously hurt. Police were originally called to the area after reports of an underage drinking party. No one has been arrested in the case. After...