Solar Impulse 2 breaks records by reaching California

Last night, Solar Impulse 2 completed the Pacific Ocean crossing leg of its round-the-world flight. According to the Solar Impulse organization, the aircraft with founder and chairman Bertrand Piccard at the controls touched down in a night landing at Moffett Airfield in Mountain View, California on April 23 at 11:44 pm PDT after a flight time of 62 hours and 29 minutes from Kalaeloa Airport, Hawaii.

Taking off from Kalaeloa on April 21 at 6:15 am HST, the one-man, solar-powered airplane reached a maximum altitude of 28,000 ft (8,634 m) and an average speed of 40.4 mph (65.4 km/h) as it covered a distance of 2,810 mi (4,523 km). During the day, power to the electric motors was provided by the solar panels on the upper wing surfaces while special batteries kept it aloft at night.

According to Solar Impulse, Solar Impulse 2 set several records during the Pacific flight, including distance, speed, duration, altitude, and altitude gain for an electric airplane. These records are still pending US FAA confirmation.





Piccard at the controls of Solar Impulse 2 in Hawaii

During the flight, on April 22, Piccard addressed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 175 heads of states in New York via a cockpit video link as part of the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Yesterday's landing finished the ninth leg of the Solar Impulse 2 circumnavigation. The next destination is New York, followed by Europe or North Africa, with the voyage ending at its starting point in Abu Dhabi, where Solar Impulse 2 took off in March 2015.

Solar Impulse 2 was stranded in Hawaii due to damage sustained by the power system during the record five-day flight from Japan to Oahu. Due to over-insulation, the batteries that sustain Solar Impulse 2 during the hours of darkness overheated. After landing, ground crews discovered that the batteries had been extensively damaged and the weeks required for repairs meant that the daylight/weather window for the next leg was missed, requiring the delay.

"Solar Impulse showcases that today exploration is no longer about conquering new territories, because even the moon has already been conquered, but about exploring new ways to have a better quality of life on Earth," says Piccard. "It is more than an airplane: it is a concentration of clean technologies, a genuine flying laboratory, and illustrates that solutions exist today to meet the major challenges facing our society."

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The World's first flying hotel - The Hotelicopter

March 30, 2009 The double deck Airbus A380 has set new high standards for luxury accommodation in the air but, unless you can afford to deck out your own A380 as a private jet, the Hotelicopter concept aims to top this airborne opulence by equipping a four story converted heavy lift aircraft with 18 luxuriously-appointed room hotels.

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Modeled on the Soviet Mil V-12, the largest helicopter ever built, of which only two prototypes were built in the 1960s, the Hotelicopter company would like us to believe they purchased one of these prototypes in 2004 with the Hotelicopter now ready for its maiden flight in June 26th. We're not sure that we do, but we like the concept.

While the computer generated images of the Hotelicopter show a lot of imagination, the specified Maximum Takeoff Weight of 105850 kg (232,870 lb) is actually exactly same as that of the original Mil V-12 which is highly unlikely given the Hotelicopter has at entire 3 story luxury hotel added onto it. No need to remind readers that it is April 1st this week.

The design outlined at the Hotelicopter site includes soundproofed rooms, each boasting a queen-sized bed, fine linens, a mini-bar, coffee machine, wireless internet access, and all the luxurious appointments you’d expect from a flying five star hotel - there's even the promise of room service.

The original Mil V-12 was an amazingly large helicopter which absolutely dwarfs any heavy lift Helicopter in use today. Each rotor had a diameter of nearly 115 ft (35m), mounted at the end of a large wing, making the distance from the tips of each rotor blade wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The two Soviet built V-12s did fly and still hold the helicopter heavy lift world record of 44,205 kg (88,636 lb) at a height of 2,255m (7,398 feet) set on August 6th 1969 but were simply too big and difficult to maneuver to be practical so never reached production.

Hotelicopter has announced a travel schedule for the flying hotel starting with the inaugural flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport June 26th 2009. Tickets will be on same at an undisclosed price once their reservation system is open. We'd like to believe it will happen, but...

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Nissan unveils the world's fastest electric racer at Le Mans

Le Mans in France, home to one of the world’s most prestigious 24-hour races, was Nissan’s site of choice to unveil its prototype electric speed racer. Touted as the fastest electric race car in the world, the oddly named ZEOD RC is being charged up and made ready to make its racing debut at the infamous track in 2014.

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Nissan’s awkwardly-named Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car (ZEOD RC) is premised off the same platform as the stylistically contentious DeltaWing. Unlike its gas powered DeltaWing brethren that use a traditional 1.6 liter engine with turbocharger, the ZEOD RC uses an electric-only system similar to Nissan’s Leaf Nismo RC. But where the Leaf Nismo RC only delivered 107 hp and a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph), the ZEOD RC is expected to be capable of speeds exceeding 300 km/h (186 mph).

This will not only make the ZEOD RC the fastest electric racer in the world, but also help it to put chase to petrol-powered racers thanks to its lightweight architecture and advanced aerodynamics. However Nissan admits this is a test bed vehicle and as such drivetrain details were unavailable.

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Full-scale X-Wing replica touches down as world's largest Lego model

A certain Jedi Master, species unknown, once said, “size matters not.” But he obviously wasn’t referring to the latest Lego creation from the Lego group. Taking the title of the world’s largest Lego model is a 1:1 scale replica of an X-Wing, complete with R2 unit, made up of 5,335,200 Lego bricks and taking 32 Lego master builders 17,336 hours (around four months) to complete.

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As any Rebel engineer worth their salt will know, the full-size replica stands 3.35 m (11 ft) tall and 13.1 m (43 ft) long, with a wingspan of 13.44 m (44 ft). Its weight of almost 20,865 kg (45,997 lb) means the model will be less than easy to transport, even if you have unlearned what you have learned.

Constructed in Kladno, Czech Republic, to celebrate the upcoming premiere of the Lego Star Wars-based three-part animated series, The Yoda Chronicles, on Cartoon Network, the Lego X-Wing is currently on display in New York’s Times Square. It will be moved to Legoland California Resort in the coming months, where it will remain grounded for the remainder of the year.

Unlike the 1:12.5 scale "Universal-Motor-Geräts (tool)" model that took the title of the world’s largest Technic model in 2011, the 1:1 scale Lego X-Wing won’t be available for consumers.

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Terrafugia announces its plans for a VTOL "flying car"

Although countless small companies have tried to commercially developflying cars over the past several decades, we’re still not seeing Blade Runner-esque vehicles cruising over our rooftops ... yet. Terrafugia is one of the groups currently trying to change that situation – a fully-functioning prototype of its Transition fixed-wing “roadable airplane” is currently undergoing flight tests, and was recently cleared for civilian use by the US Federal Aviation Authority. It still requires a runway for take-off and landing, though, which kind of clashes with many peoples’ flying car fantasies. Well, today Terrafugia announced its plans for a hybrid-drive vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) vehicle, known as the TF-X.

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Like the Transition, plans call for the 4-passenger TF-X to feature wings that fold into its sides, allowing it to fit on roads and in garages when in fully-electric ground mode. When it’s time to take off, however, those wings will extend into their flight position, and retractible propellers will open out of two 600-hp electric motor pods – one on each wing tip. Each pod will contain 16 separate motors, to keep everything in the air should one or more of them malfunction.

Initially, those props will be pointing upwards, allowing them to pull the TF-X up off the ground. Once the vehicle is sufficiently airborne, however, the propellers will rotate forward, allowing it to move ahead. Once the TF-X has gained enough forward momentum, the two wing-mounted propellers (butnot the wings!) can once again be retracted, with a 300-hp internal combustion engine powering a single large rear-mounted ducted prop while cruising. The wing props will be re-engaged as the landing site approaches.

The engine will charge the batteries used by the electric motors, although they can also be charged simply by plugging into an electric vehicle charger when parked.

Before you start picturing yourself flying a TF-X off of your driveway, however, Terrafugia does state that the vehicle will require a clearing at least 100 feet (30.5 meters) in diameter for takeoff. This means that users will most likely drive their vehicle to and from designated landing sites similar to those used by helicopters, and fly between those sites.
That said, unlike the case with a helicopter, the designers believe that it should only take about five hours to learn how to fly the TF-X. This is largely because users will have the option of flying it in automatic mode, in which they just input the location of their destination landing site (along with some back-up secondary choices), then leave the navigation to the vehicle.
It will subsequently travel at a cruising speed of 200 mph (322 km/h), going up to 500 miles (805 km) without needing to refuel or recharge. While cruising in automatic mode, it will be able to automatically avoid other air traffic, along with inclement weather, restricted airspace and tower-controlled airspace (which pilots would require additional training to fly in). It will also automatically land itself at the destination (if weather allows), although the pilot will be able to override that function if they notice any hazards at the chosen landing site.

Should the TF-X just crap out completely in mid-air, the pilot can activate a parachute system to keep it from crashing to the ground. Likewise, if the onboard control system detects that the vehicle is being piloted in an unsafe manner, it will automatically declare an emergency and contact the relevant authorities. Should the pilot be unresponsive to prompts by the system, it will automatically land the vehicle at the closest airport.

All of this is still at least 8 to 12 years away, though, as that’s how long Terrafugia figures it will take to develop a commercially viable product. The only estimate on price is that it could be “on-par with very high-end luxury cars of today.”

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Kepler discovers smallest habitable-zone Earth-like planets to date

NASA has announced that the Kepler space probe has discovered two planetary systems that include the smallest planets yet found that lie in the "habitable zone." The systems include three super-Earth size planets, with one of them being a habitable-zone exoplanet that is the closest in size to Earth yet discovered.

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Launched in 2009, the Kepler spacecraft is tasked with finding exoplanets orbiting other stars. So far, it has detected 2,740 candidates and 122 planets have been confirmed. The planets announced today at a media conference discussing the most recent findings of NASA's ongoing Kepler mission orbit the stars Kepler-62, which is 1,200 light-years from Earth, and Kepler-69, which is 2,700 light-years away. Both are in the constellation of Lyra.

Kepler-62

Kepler-62 is a K2 dwarf star about two-thirds the size of the Sun and one-fifth as bright. It’s also seven billion years old as compared to the Sun’s relatively youthful five billion. Five planets have been found orbiting it and two, Kepler-62e and 62f, lie within the star’s habitable zone, where the surface temperature might be suitable for water to exist in liquid form. The other three are so close to the star that they orbit only every five, 12 and 18 days, so they are far too hot to sustain life.

The planets in the habitable zone of Kepler-62 include Kepler-62e, which is 60 percent larger than Earth, and Kepler-62f, which orbits Kepler-62 every 267 days and is only 40 percent larger than Earth, making it the smallest habitable-zone planet yet discovered. The Kepler spacecraft carries no spectrographic equipment and can only determine the size and orbit of a planet, but NASA believes, based on previous studies, that Kepler-62f may have a rocky rather than gaseous composition.

Kepler-69

Kepler-69 is a smaller system with only two planets, 69b and 69c, found so far. At first glance, it seems a better candidate for life than Kepler-62 because Kepler-69 is a G-type star like the Sun, though it’s only 90 percent of the size and 80 percent of the brightness. The nearer planet, Kepler-69b, is twice the size of Earth, but is so close that it’s year is only 13 days and too hot. However, Kepler-69c is only 70 percent larger and orbits at a period of 242 days. Unfortunately, while its sun resembles ours and the planet is in the habitable zone, NASA suspects that 69c is, in fact, a super-Venus and may be as uninhabitable.
"We only know of one star that hosts a planet with life, the Sun. Finding a planet in the habitable zone around a star like our sun is a significant milestone toward finding truly Earth-like planets," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute.

The Kepler spacecraft simultaneously and continuously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars every 30 minutes, watching to see if any planets pass in front of them. If one does, it causes the light from the star to dip momentarily. By studying how long and how large the dip is, scientists can determine how large the planet is and how far it orbits from its star. This technique first discovered planets larger than Jupiter, but smaller ones have also been detected as the technology matures.

NASA points out that the search for Earth-like planets will take some time. For Kepler to detect Earth from another system would take three transits of Earth across the Sun, which would take three years.

"The Kepler spacecraft has certainly turned out to be a rock star of science," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The discovery of these rocky planets in the habitable zone brings us a bit closer to finding a place like home. It is only a matter of time before we know if the galaxy is home to a multitude of planets like Earth, or if we are a rarity."

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Aeros completes construction of Aeroscraft demonstrator

California-based Aeros Corporation has completed construction of itsAeroscraft airship proof-of-design sub-scale prototype. The 79-meter (260-ft) long aircraft will demonstrate the vertical take-off and landing and point to point delivery capabilities of the platform, paving the way for a planned full-scale craft that will be almost twice as long and carry payloads of up to 66 tons.

“The vehicle construction is complete and this is truly the beginning of a vertical global transportation solution for perhaps the next 100 years,” said Aeros CEO Igor Pasternak after the final configuration and vehicle systems integration functionality testing was completed.

Calling it “the world’s first rigid variable buoyancy air vehicle,” Aeros hopes the Aeroscraft will revolutionize global cargo transport for commercial and military sectors with its ability to load and unload cargo without re-ballasting or ground infrastructure and deliver cargo point to point more economically and with less emissions than existing methods.

Video of the completed Aeroscraft’s first (ground) movement can be viewed below, but we’re looking forward to video of its first flight in the not too distant future.

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NASA heli-capsule could let astronauts land anywhere

Space exploration once captured the world's imagination. In the 1960s and 1970s, children dreamed of satellites, lunar rovers, and walking on the moon. Today – decades after Sputnik, Neil Armstrong, and the Apollo missions – many children may not even know what a space capsule is.

Some of those children from the Space Race years, though, grew up to work at NASA. Public indifference be damned, those engineers are still dreaming of new ways of improving the wondrous technologies of yesteryear. If they have their way, one of the iconic symbols of that era – the space capsule – may have an upgrade on the horizon.

Rekindling an old idea

This model may help the researchers figure out how to use wind-powered propellors (Photo: NASA)

Researchers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are testing a rotor system that would let space capsules fly like helicopters. Originally proposed during the Apollo days, the idea had been abandoned in favor of easier (and cheaper) parachutes. The downside of parachutes, though, is that they require a water landing. So, today's NASA is reinvestigating.

A heli-capsule could land gently, and nearly anywhere. Imagine astronauts returning from a mission, guiding their capsule onto the roof of an office high-rise. Or perhaps they would softly land their vessel in a rural field. This level of control would provide a wider array of options for re-entry and landing.

The helicopter-like design wouldn't, however, be powered by an engine. The researchers are looking for ways to activate the capsule's blades without using any power. The idea is to use wind to activate the propellors – a concept that NASA says has been used in helicopters, but never in spacecrafts.

An engineer at Kennedy, Les Boatright, likens the project to modern mobile devices:

"A hundred years ago, there were cameras and there were phones and there were wireless devices to send Morse code and they were all separate technologies on their own. Now you have a telephone that does all three of those things and it's a merger of technology. Well, this is taking the capsule entry technology and helicopter rotor technology and merging those in an innovative way to make something that didn’t exist before out of two things that did exist before."

Early stages

NASA engineer Jeff Hagen prepares a model capsule for testing (Photo: NASA)

The helicopter/capsule project is still in the early planning stages, so any real-world implementation could be years away. The next stage would be dropping one of the capsules from a high-altitude balloon (perhaps they could ask Felix Baumgartner). It may then be used for retrieving samples from the International Space Station before being added to bigger space missions.

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First-ever manned flight of an electric multicopter takes place in Germany

By now, most readers are probably pretty familiar with quadracopters - small hovering unmanned electric aircraft, which get their lift from a set of four propellers. Well, make the whole thing larger, boost the number of propellers (and accompanying motors) to 16, and you get what German aircraft developer e-volo calls a multicopter. While the company has previously demonstrated unmanned drones, on October 21st it accomplished what it claims is a world first - a manned flight.

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The flight took place at an airstrip in southwest Germany, and lasted one and a half minutes. Thomas Senkel, a physicist and designer/builder of the multicopter, piloted the aircraft from a center-mounted seat, using a handheld wireless control unit. The flight consisted mainly of maneuvering the multicopter around within a fairly small area - no sense in getting cocky.
"The flight characteristics are good natured," Senkel said afterward. "Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot."

According to e-volo, its multicopter is simpler in construction and mechanics than a helicopter, and safer - it can reportedly land even with up to four of its motors failed, and its propellers experience much less wear. Onboard computers running custom firmware control the rotational speed of the propellers, dictating the attitude (horizontal orientation to the ground), altitude and direction of travel of the aircraft.
Potential flight times range from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on payload and battery capacity.
The e-volo team are also working on a commercial version of the manned multicopter, which they hope will be ready for the marketplace "at an affordable price" within the next few years. They state that a gas/electric hybrid model is a possibility, to increase flight time to at least an hour.
The first manned electric multicopter flight can be seen in the video below.
The world's first manned electric helicopter flight was achieved earlier this year. Technically, at least by current definitions, there's no such thing as a multicopter, but we expect it will become part of the language eventually.

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Solar Ship: The hybrid airship with a low-carbon twist

In recent times there's been a resurgence of interest in airships for military and commercial uses as evidenced by Lockheed Martin's High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator (HALE-D) and Hybrid Air Vehicles heavy-lift variant of Northrop Grumman's Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV). Like HAV's design, this concept from Canadian company Solar Ship is a hybrid airship that relies on aerodynamics to help provide lift, and like the HALE-D, it would have its top surface area covered in solar cells to provide energy and minimize its carbon footprint.

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Although the Solar Ship aircraft would be filled with helium, under normal circumstances they would rely on the aerodynamic lift provided by their wing shape to provide more than half the lift required to get them off the ground. Additionally, the aircraft could also fly when filled with plain old air. This means the aircraft will still be able to fly - and, more importantly, land safely - if there is damage that results in helium loss.

Solar Ship says the aircraft's electric motor can either be powered solely by the energy provided by the on board batteries, or by the solar panels covering the wing - a feat already achieved by a conventional airplane design in the form of Solar Impulse.

The company points out that such heavier-than-air airships provide numerous advantages over their lighter-than-air brethren. Firstly, no mooring infrastructure or ballast weight is required to keep the aircraft from floating away during loading or unloading, making them more practical for the remote locations in which they are designed to operate. Additionally, not relying on buoyancy for lift means the aircraft can be smaller than lighter-than-air aircraft carrying the same payload. They are also more structurally robust and more maneuverable and resistant to wind and weather conditions.

Small, medium, large

Solar Ship has designed three different concept aircraft, the smallest of which is the Caracal. This design has a claimed payload capacity of up to 750 kg (1,653 lb) for 2,500 km (1,553 miles) with a maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph).

Designed for remote areas where roads are a rarity and targeted at general, utility and ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) markets, the Caracal can take off and land on strips as short as 50 m (164 ft) long but carrying the maximum payload requires strips of 100 m (328 ft).

Next step up in size is the mid-size Chui, which is targeted at ISR and cargo markets. Under solar power it can carry up to 2,500 kg (5,512 lb) over distances of up to 5,000 km (3,107 miles) at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph). The take off and landing distances of the Chui are the same as the Caracal - 50 m (164 ft) empty and 100 m (328 ft) when fully loaded.

The third and largest Solar Ship class is the Nanuq, a dedicated cargo freighter designed to carry payloads of up to 30 tonnes (66,139 lb) for distances of up to 6,000 km (3,728 miles) at speeds of up to 120 km/h (75 mph). Empty the Nanuq can take off on strips 60 m (197 ft) long and land on strips 100 m (328 ft) long, while fully loaded requires a take off distance of 200 m (656 ft).

Solar Ship has already built and flown a 10 m (33 ft) prototype. The promotional video below provides a glimpse of the company's vision for the future in which it sees a wide range of uses for its heavier-than-air aircraft, from delivery of urgent medical supplies to remote communities and disaster relief, to environmental monitoring and military applications.

... and with several company's floating short take off hybrid airship platforms, this is definitely a space to watch over the next decade.

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