The Airbus A350 is Made Up of 3-D Printed Parts, Why France is Buying More Shares in Air France KLM, and More.

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • France is buying more shares of Air France KLM so they can be assured of winning a vote that will give them certain control into the future — a rule that shareholders get double voting rights when they’ve held shares 2 years or more.

  • Harvard engineering students devise the ultimate barbecue smoker. (HT: Marginal Revolution) My guess is that it is perfect in theory, but it won’t taste anything like this.

  • An 8 year old boy was smuggled into Spain inside a suitcase. The greatest gift in life, I think, is being born in a developed country. (HT: Paul H.)

  • The Airbus A350 uses more than 1000 3-D printed parts.

  • Last month I wrote that Austin could adopt rules that would kill off barbecue in the city with new regulations to fight the smell of barbecue.

    I predicted that a world renowned place like Franklin Barbecue could absorb the costs and wind up benefiting by eliminating its smaller upstart competitors. It turns out even Franklin is afraid.

    “If this resolution passes, we would be forced to close or move,” owner Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue, widely considered to be the Austin’s best, told the food website Eater. “It would destroy Austin barbecue.”

    …”Our smokers are on the second floor so the smell dissipates before it drifts down, and we make sure our fires have a complete combustion so you don’t get that gross-smelling creosote,” Franklin told the Times. “And we make sure kids in the neighborhood get food for their birthday parties—so the positive emotional associations with the smell of his barbecue get imprinted early.”

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. 3-D printing is not new, and the recent wave of consumer/hobbyist printers may give your readers the wrong impression. That recent wave was made possible because the first lot of patents expired – the commercial market has moved forward by leaps and bounds.

    People who are only familiar with the home market may think that this headline means that the A350 is made of flimsy PLA or other plastic; commercial 3-D printers, however, can use entirely different processes and much more advanced materials (for instance, laser sintering of titanium.)

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