Wright Model B

The Wright Model B was an early pusher biplane designed by the Wright brothers in the United States in 1910. It was the first of their designs to be built in quantity. Unlike the Model A, it featured a true elevator carried at the tail rather than at the front. It was the last Wright model to have an open-frame tail. The Model B was a dedicated two-seater with the pilot and a passenger sitting side-by-side on the leading edge of the lower wing.

Besides their civil market, the Wrights were able to sell aircraft to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps (S.C. 3, 4, and 5) and to the United States Navy as hydroplanes (AH-4, -5-, and -6), in which services they were used as trainers. Furthermore, the Wrights were able to sell licenses to produce the aircraft domestically (to the Burgess Company and Curtis, which designated it Model F), as well as in Germany. The deal with Burgess was the first license-production of aircraft undertaken in the United States and most of the approximately one hundred Model Bs produced were actually built by Burgess. A modified Model B, redesignated Model EX (for Exhibition) achieved fame as the Vin Fiz Flyer, the first aircraft to cross the United States. Burgess also planned a refined version as the Model G, but this was never built.

Allis-Chalmers Model B

The Allis-Chalmers model B was a tractor produced by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing company from 1937 to 1957. With over 125,000 units produced, the model B became one of the best selling tractors for Allis-Chalmers and most loved tractors of its time. Known best for its versatility and adaptability, the model B was also one of the longest production tractors for Allis-Chalmers as well. Over the years of production the B came in several different variations including the Asparagus B, Potato Special, and the IB industrial tractor. The Model B was designed by Brooks Stevens an industrial designer and graphic designer.

History of the B

In the early thirties, Allis-Chalmers tractor division manager Harry Merritt studied the farm census figures and discovered that of the nearly seven million farms in America, some four million were of 100 acres (0.40 km²) or less. Furthermore, the million or so tractors at work on American farms were nearly all on the larger ones. Although the Fordson tractor and then the first-generation row-crop tractors, including the Farmall, Allis-Chalmers's own Model WC, and others, had been gaining significant market penetration and making mechanised agriculture ever more popular, Merritt concluded that there was a need for four million small, inexpensive tractors to fill the needs of the small farmers still using horses. Merritt set out to build the tractor that would finally put the horse out to pasture.

Lost in Space

Lost in Space is an American science fiction television series, following the adventures of a family of pioneering space colonists whose ship goes off course. It was created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between 1965 to 1968 The first television season was filmed in black and white, with the second and third seasons filmed in color.

Though the original television series concept centered on the Robinson family, many later story lines focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith, played by Jonathan Harris. Smith, along with the Robot, was absent from the pilot as the addition of their characters was decided once the series had been commissioned for production. Originally written as an utterly evil but careless saboteur, Smith gradually becomes the troublesome, self-centered, incompetent foil who provides the comic relief for the show and causes most of the episodic conflict and misadventures. In the unaired pilot, what causes the group to become lost in space is a chance encounter with a meteor storm, but in the first aired episode, it is Smith's sabotage and unplanned presence on the ship that sets the ship off course into the meteor field. Smith is thus the key to the story.