Connecticut Ranks High With IP Innovation

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) report just released highlights Connecticut’s contributions to America’s innovation economy.

This study is part of GIPC’s state fact sheets, which provide a look at the roles innovation and creativity play in each state. Highlighted are local companies and facts demonstrating how innovation and creativity, safeguarded by strong IP rights, erve as a driving force behind economic recovery and future growth.

“Connecticut is a leader in America’s innovative economy,” said Dr. Mark Esper, executive vice president of the chamber’s GIPC. According to the study, Connecticut’s film industry generated $2.5 billion in gross state product and provided approximately 8,000 direct and 18,000 indirect jobs in 2005 alone.

“Connecticut has fostered an environment conducive to innovation and creativity, and the state’s economy has benefitted as a result. The Connecticut economy depends on this spirit of innovation and entrepreneurism,” added Esper.

Esper noted examples. The number of businesses in Connecticut involved with copyrighted works grew to more than 9,500 in 2008 – an increase of 6.8% from the previous year. General Electric (GE), based in Fairfeld, is a global infrastructure, finance and media corporation with 323,000 employees worldwide and presence in 160 countries. In 2008 alone, GE accrued $182 billion in revenues. Another notable example of a Connecticut-based diversified company is Xerox Corporation, a $17.6 billion leading enterprise in technology and services.

“Indeed Connecticuters are proven innovators,” said Esper. “Connecticut’s Mary Dixon Kies was the first woman to earn a patent for her invention of the process for weaving straw, which greatly expanded the apparel industry. Hartford, Connecticut born Noah Webster is widely recognized as the ‘Father of American Scholarship and Education’ with his development of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. America has a unique story to tell, and Connecticut plays a large role in this story.”

The Connecticut state fact sheet is intended to be a resource for legislators, policymakers, and the public to identify successful companies, inventors, creative artists, and innovators to better understand the role they play in our economy and society. As part of an easy-to-use, interactive map, the project can be accessed online at www.theglobalipcenter.com, as well as in a printable format.

The Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center is working around the world to champion intellectual property (IP) as vital to creating jobs, saving lives, advancing global economic growth, and generating breakthrough solutions to global challenges.

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

Sustainable Energy, GE Strategies

"The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time" - Thomas Edison, born Feb. 11, 1847

"Ecomagination" is GE's sustainable business strategy (renewable energy, water services, and clean tech) and the division is healthy and growing.

Steve Fludder, vice president since Oct. 2008, is featured in a Fast Company interview.

"GE has, historically, reinvented itself around opportunity. Eco touches on everything that we do, from energy, to oil and gas, aviation, transportation, health care. It's a fundamental redefinition of GE for the future . . . " - read the interview online, here.

General Electric corporate is Fairfield, Connecticut. The company operates through four segments: GE Capital, Energy Infrastructure, Technology Infrastructure, and NBC Universal.

Trivia: Edison General Electric merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric.

Flying Warthog, Flightline View

One pilot. One 30-mm seven-barrel Gatling gun. (Other weapons can load under the wing or fuselage. Or both.)

And the A-10 Thunderbolt II can fly at 420 miles per hour. For 800 miles.

Nicknamed the Warthog, the aircraft is armed with a General Dynamics GAU-8/A Avenger 30mm cannon, mounted in the nose of the aircraft (see above).

The magazine can hold 1,350 rounds of ammunition. The pilot can select a firing rate of 2,100 or 4,200 rounds per minute.

The two turbofan engines, TF34-GE-100, are supplied by General Electric, and each provides 9,065 pounds of thrust. The location of the engines, high on the fuselage, allows the pilot to fly the aircraft fairly easily with one engine inoperable.

The pilot is protected by titanium armor that also protects parts of the flight-control system. That means the aircraft can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high explosive projectiles. Manual systems back up their redundant hydraulic flight-control systems. This permits pilots to fly and land when hydraulic power is lost.

Many of the aircraft's parts are interchangeable left and right, including the engines, main landing gear and vertical stabilizers. The A-10 is scheduled to be flying with the USAF until 2028.

Source: USAF fact sheet, Langley AFB, Virginia.

Recent aviation industry contracts:

Awarded to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn, Dec 17, 2008, a $812,786,103 fixed price contract for funding of third program year of multi-year contract for Army Lot 33 consisting of 51 UH-60M and 12 HH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, and also tooling; program systems, and technical publications. Work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of 2012. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aviation & Missile Command, Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.

The Air Force is modifying a fixed price, fixed quantity contract to General Electric Aviation (Ohio) for $68,067,563. This contract action will provide newly redesigned high-pressure compressor and high-pressure turbine assemblies, newly redesigned aging engine upgrade components, initial provisioning spares and new technical data to support the life extension plan and aging engine upgrade initiatives applicable to F-16 aircraft. At this point, the entire amount has been obligated. 448 SCMG/PKBC, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. is the contracting activity.

Source: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense