Research shows vital work at UD
The headlines and stories about the German airline copilot who purposely flew a large airliner into an Alpine mountainside in France last week were horrific.
But if it were not for the research by scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute, we may never have known why the plane crashed and killed 150 people. Investigators found the plane’s black box in working condition in spite of heavy damage.
Reporter Dave Larsen reported last week on the research UDRI has been doing on black boxes since 1990. UD has the only facility in North America with the capability to conduct impact-shock testing on memory modules on aircraft flight data and voice recorders to determine whether the data stored on the modules will survive a plane crash.
Researchers at the Impact Physics Laboratory simulate aircraft crash impacts by shooting a black box memory module out of a 12-inch-diameter, 40-foot-long cannon at 350 mph, Larsen reported.
This is the kind of research that goes on at UD and other universities here that goes unnoticed, and demonstrates how higher education research can help improve product development for the business community.
Gap could hurt first-time homebuyers
For years, the Dayton area has been acknowledged as one of the most affordable metro areas in the nation. If the area has not been listed as the most affordable, it has been somewhere in the top five in the nation.
That could change in the near future for first-time buyers if median home prices continue to outpace wage growth in the Miami Valley.
In the past two years, the median home price has outpaced wage growth in 76 percent of U.S. housing markets, including the Dayton area, according to an examination by RealtyTrac, a national source on housing data.
In the Dayton area, the average wage increased 3.7 percent in the past two years, while the average median home price increased 14.6 percent, according to RealtyTrac.
Dayton’s gap between the two compared much better than other metro areas in Ohio. The average wage in Columbus increased 1.3 percent and the median home price rose 18.7 percent. In the Cincinnati area, which includes Butler and Warren counties, wages improved 3.9 percent and home prices increased 16.8 percent during the same time period.
Are you still waiting?
Have you noticed a change in the amount of time you watch the clock tick before a medical or dental