In human terms, this means somewhere around a hundred bright and talented people suddenly unemployed in a time when finding work is almost impossible. And I’m certain there are former (remote) co-workers and friends among those to be shown the door today. I sincerely hope that they land on their feet — and somewhere more stable, if possible. They have my best wishes.

What does this “restructuring” actually indicate for LL? CEO Mark Kingdon says, “It will also enable us to invest in bringing 3D to the web and will strengthen our profitability.” Certainly, they don’t have so many paycheques, so yes… I can see that it’s about profitability.

In the word of the immortal Han Solo, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

One week from today, on Saturday, May 15, the latest creation from the labs of Cubey Terra (hey, that’s me) and Reitsuki Kojima will finally take to the skies. This project is the culmination of many months of design, planning, and long hours in the workshop.

Specifications, locations, and pricing to be posted at a later date.

Oh, and we also handed out the trophies at Abbotts Aerodrome for our big Orbiter Design Competition. All of the entries were great, and the judges were faced with some tough decisions. But in the end, we came down to these winning contestants…

• First place: DLM SSTO220 Argos Orbiter by Darsh Lucero
  
• Second place: ffOSS Fast Orbiter by Farrah Foss
  
• Third place (tied): Lynx Mk.I by Sunman Loring
  
  and Gryphon by Tank Kwaszes
  

Many thanks to all who entered as well as our judges. The winners will be on display through Monday, March 1st at Abbotts Aerodrome.

(Snapshots to follow soon!)

Drop by today and tomorrow to see the entries from these contestants:

• Darsh Lucero
• Differ Darwin
• Farrah Foss
• Flux Aldrin
• Phoneix Dreamscape
• Rocket Sellers
• Sunman Loring
• Tank Kwaszes
• THOR Baran

Click here to visit Abbotts Aerodrome now.

Display pads for contestants are available starting tomorrow. Deadline for entries is noon, Saturday, SL time (Pacific).

Now it’s 2010, and we’re six years old. To celebrate, we’re hosting a design contest — the third design contest in Abbotts history. The first contest challenged aircraft makers to build an original design aircraft from the Terra plane kit. The second contest asked designers to create a lunar lander. This, the third contest, is in a similar vein…

CAN YOU DESIGN AN ORBITER VEHICLE?

Objective: Design and build an earth orbit vehicle as well as its launch and re-entry method.

This means designing potentially two vehicles: a launch vehicle as well as the orbiter itself. Alternatively, maybe your orbiter is capable of achieving orbit on its own without assistance. Or perhaps it’s launched into orbit by a ground launch device, like a cannon or track, for example.

PRIZES

All entries will be judged by a panel of hand-picked SL aeronautics and aerospace enthusiasts.

• FIRST PRIZE: L$6000 and six months of free display/sales space at Abbotts Aerodrome.
• SECOND PRIZE: L$3000 and five Terra brand products of the winner’s choice.
• THIRD PRIZE: L$1000 and a JSA Airfield Kit by Jim Perhaps.

Winners will be announced in a presentation at 12:00 noon (SL time) on Sunday.

CRITERIA

• Your orbiter vehicle or vehicles do not necessarily have to be scripted. Unscripted entries are welcome.
• Your design must effectively represent:
  How the vehicle is launched and achieves earth orbit.
  How the vehicle survives atmospheric re-entry.
  How the vehicle lands or splashes down.
• Set up a display model of your orbiter vehicle (and launch method or launch vehicle) for the weekend of February 27/28 in Abbotts.
• Each vehicle (orbiter and optional launch vehicle) must be NO MORE THAN 31 PRIMS. Sculpted prims are allowed.
• Scale models are permitted where there isn’t room to display your full-size design.
• Provide a notecard describing how your orbiter works, how it reaches orbit, as well as how it might re-enter and land. We’re not necessarily looking for realism: science-fiction solutions to achieving orbit are perfectly acceptible (anti-grav units, anyone?), though if you propose technology that doesn’t exist, you will need to go into more detail in describing how, for example, your orbiter generates an anti-gravity field. Please use a notecard dispenser.
• Each entry must be created by the person who built it. So no buying an orbiter on Xstreet, for example, and submitting that.
• Team entries are allowed, but must be entered under one person’s name. If the entry wins, any prizes go to that individual.
• ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON OR TEAM.

HOW TO ENTER

Starting on Friday, February 26, bring your display model to Abbotts Aerodrome. We will provide display pads for each submission. Simply pay the pad a nominal L$5 non-refundable entry fee to claim it. (The entry fee is to discourage non-serious entries.)

Deadline: 12:00 noon (SL time) on Saturday, Feb. 27. Empty pads will be deleted even if claimed.

Remember: We have limited space and prim allocation in Abbotts, so be sure to arrive early to claim your pad and set up your display.

MAY THE BEST AEROSPACE DESIGNERS WIN!

What?? Air races… indoors?? That’s right! Tiny airplanes, each carrying a pilot, will tear around the mini track to beat the clock. Picture indoor mini go-karts that fly. By scaling down the size and speed of the planes, the indoor space feels to the pilots like a full-size race course.

Of course, visitors to the 2008 Relay for Life event will probably remember our tiny racetrack at the Relay’s Flying Aces team build, where we had a little racing oval with tiny biplanes. That worked with great success, and was roughly half the size of Level 3.

Soon I hope to hold weekly races. If those prove popular, we can maybe look at holding a trophy series.

But that’s all blue-sky right now. In the meantime, drop by Abbotts and check out our progress on the Level 3 track.

But even private estates have problems with private security, apparently. At one point, a few balloonists found themselves trapped between two flanking ban lines and unable to escape, even though they were all Fruit Islanders themselves, which led to shouts of “ban lines suck!”

Besides that small glitch, the flight went well — I was happy to see so many of my balloons in the air!

It’s official. Today the Terra Stingray enters final beta testing, in which a crack team of testers puts the plane through its paces and uncovers those little bugs that I missed in development. Since I last blogged about the Stingray, I added five more paint schemes, a selection of tail decals, a passenger seat, a glowy heads-up display, as well as a few other less visible details.

I don’t think I’ll release Stingray this weekend, since this weekend is the annual SL Relay for Life event. The folks at SLRFL are raising hundreds of thousands for The American Cancer Society (that’s US dollars, too!), so keep an eye on the official Linden blog and the SLRFL site for info about that event.