WWII Museum’s PT Boat Readies for Passengers
A cadre of volunteers navigate the regulatory labyrinth and a host of safety requirements to bring back to life an enduring symbol the nation’s can-do spirit and resiliency. Early next year, a 78-foot Patrol Torpedo 305 boat, being restored at the National WWII Museum, should be U.S. Coast Guard compliant and ready for passengers. The fast-attack PT-305, equipped with cannons, torpedoes and machine guns, served in the Mediterranean in 1944 and 1945, operating from Bastia, Corsica.
Elmer A. Sperry: Pioneer of Modern Naval Tech
Elmer A. Sperry casts a long shadow over the history of modern naval, nautical and aeronautical technology, one few people know much about, but should, for a man crowned both the “father of modern navigational technology” and “the father of automatic feedback and control systems,” as well as a pioneer of rocket and missile technology. “It is safe to say that no one American has contributed so much to our naval technical progress,” eulogized Charles Francis Adams III, Secretary of the Navy from 1929-1933, on the death of engineering genius Elmer Ambrose Sperry, June 16, 1930, at 69.
New Training Vessel for Kings Point
Department of Transportation Secures New Training Vessel for U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the Department’s Maritime Administration has secured a new training vessel for the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. In an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Academy will receive a space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship, the MV Liberty Star, which will provide a hands-on learning environment on which midshipmen can train using modern navigational technology…
The Ocean's At Our Doorstep
The fresh fruits and vegetables on your family table may be from the farms of Portugal, having made the six-day trip across the ocean in refrigerated containerships from Lisbon to the States. And nearly 2,000 passengers recently steamed into Venice aboard the Grand Princess, which, running the length of two and a half football fields, is the largest cruise ship in the world. About 90 percent of its passengers that day, as is the case every day on most cruise ships, were Americans. In Pennsylvania, hundreds of our products - among them Cannondale bikes, Cove shoes, JLG lifts, Freedom Forge Wheels, Letterkenny ammunition, and Empire chickens - travel by rail or truck to our ocean ports for shipment across the oceans of the world.
