More than 16 teams with names like The Wing Nuts, Crooked Current Brewery and Our Fighting Ladies put their backs into competing to see which could be the fastest to pull a FedEx 757 a span of 12 feet. This is the eighth annual pull organized by the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which will merge with the Greater New England chapter based in Waltham, Mass. on Oct. 1. Made possible by FedEx and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the MS Jet Pull is a daylong event that includes family activities and a BBQ provided by sponsor Fire Works Catering. The pull usually raises in excess of $70,000 to fight MS, a lifelong disease with no known cure. Two thousand Rhode Islanders are known to have MS, but because there is no registry for MS as there is for cancer and ALS, the numbers are considered to be much higher, according to chapter president Kathy Mechnig. As for pulling a 757, Mechnig said competitors have shared there’s a trick to getting just the right amount of slack in the line once the plane starts moving. “The big hunky men don’t always win this,” she said. Times for the pulls were around seven seconds. (Warwick Beacon photos by John Howell)