NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Watch All The Planes Land: Gotta-See Video

Growing up, I used to sit at the end of the runway by my local airport with my Dad and watch the planes come in. After 9/11, simply stopping by the fence is enough to get security in a tizzy, but here you can get all your childhood flights in 30 seconds.

Watch all the airplanes that landed at San Diego's airport for a whole day, but in one video. The clever thing is, rather than going with a simple time lapse, the videographers overlayed all the airplanes at regular speed. The shot is not only surreal but beautifully executed. I chuckled when that little plane caught up at the end. via iO9

Have a Gotta-See Video to recommend? Tweet it to @Discovery_News with the hashtag #GottaSeeVideos and don't miss today's Must-Read News Nuggets.

Watch more Discovery Curiosity video here.

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FCC Urges Use of In-Flight Electronics

In news that's sure to make Alec Baldwin happy, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow more electronics on airplanes. Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC sent a letter to the FAA requesting the agency "enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices."

The letter, which was first obtained by The Hill, was addressed to Michael Huerta, the acting administrator of the FAA, and explains that electronic devices are becoming more important in the lives Americans.

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"They empower people to stay informed and connected with friends and family, and they enable both large and small businesses to be more productive and efficient, helping drive economic growth and boost U.S. competitiveness," Genachowski wrote in the letter.

Afters year of grumbling dissent from disgruntled passengers, the FAA has finally agreed to review its policies about electronic devices during all junctures of the flight, even takeoff and landing. However, the review been in somewhat of a holding pattern.

"This review comes at a time of tremendous innovation, as mobile devices are increasingly interwoven in our daily lives," Genachowski wrote in the letter.

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As Nick Bilton pointed out in the New York Times Bits blog, the last time the FAA did any reviews of electronic devices on planes was in 2006, when tablets, smartphones and e-readers where just a glimmer in the eyes of tech developers and consumers. Even then, the FAA found no evidence that supported claims that electronic devices could or couldn't interfere with the plane. Yet passengers still had to abide by strict rules and turn off their gadgets during takeoff and landing.

However, earlier this year, the FAA gave clearance for pilots to use iPads instead of paper flight manuals.

Perhaps the FCC's letter could be the final push the FAA needs to extend those same rules to the rest of plane.

via the New York Times Bits blog

Credit: Mika/Corbis

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FAA to Reassess Device Rules: DNews Nugget

FAA Assessing Future Cell Phone Use for Passengers: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set the rules for what devices can be used when and where in United States (and above it). According to CNN, the FAA is set to reassess their current restrictions on mobile usage.

Likely, the only changes will come with non-broadcasting mobile devices -- hopefully including devices set to "airplane mode."

As of now, the FCC will not allow cell phone usage on airplanes, because the wireless capabilities can interfere with other networks running on the ground. Not to mention, a recent study claimed "75 instances in which consumer electronics were suspected of interfering with plane systems," said CNN.

High-speed internet has come to airplanes in place of the back-of-seat phones that are now as difficult to find as a pay phone.

It will be a long while before we can make cell phone calls on airplanes, and currently the FCC and FAA agree this is the best plan for now. However, a new government group, set to assemble this fall, will begin the process of studying, "current policies and procedures governing portable electronic devices." via CNN

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Airport Laser Lets You Keep Your Liquids

So, you're standing in the security line at the airport when you realize that bottle of duty-free Jameson is still in your bag. Also, you just cracked the seal on some not-so-easily-chuggable Kombucha. And that priced-gouged bottle of sunscreen you bought in Tulum? It was almost $10 and it's still nearly full.

Normally, these liquid-filled bottles would need to be surrendered to the trash can held by a smirking TSA agent. But have no fear frequent fliers, new screening methods may soon be clear for take off.

British company Cobalt Light Systems says they've developed a scanning machine that could put an end to those pesky restrictions that ban liquids in carry-on luggage.

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Cobalt says their Insight 100 machine could analyze bottles as big as three liters for explosives and do it in less than five seconds. Here's how:

Bottles are placed inside what looks like a microwave oven, however this machine is no warmer of leftovers. Rather, a laser is shined into the bottle to chemically analyze its contents with a technique known as Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS). Energy levels in the liquid molecules are able to shift the wavelength of the laser light. From these small shifts, bottle contents can be determined.

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Colbalt says the the Insight 100 exceeded the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) standard for use in airports with nearly perfect detection results and few false positives.

"We have worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years to refine the SORS technology and bring the Insight 100 to market," Cobalt's CEO, Paul Loeffen said in a press release. "It is a great achievement to have exceeded the European standards at this stage so that we are in a prime position to supply this unique bottle screener to European airports."

Don't live or frequently travel to Europe? Better double check what's in your bag.

[Via New Scientist]

Credit: Cobalt Light Systems

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Airplane To Make Global 'Green Flight'

Car companies aren’t the only ones advertising their gas mileage. Now airplane makers are doing it too, and bringing new technologies on line in the process.

This past Sunday, an airplane built by Pipistrel, a Slovenian company, left Ljubljana, to fly some 62,000 miles, circumnavigating the globe in about 2 months. The project is a collaborative effort with Penn State University.

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The plane is called a Virus-SW914. It’s light, weighing in at only 640 pounds with a maximum take-off weight of about 1,500 pounds. An ultralight in the United States weighs about 250 pounds, and in Europe the Virus would fall into that class.

To cut weight and increase fuel capacity, the plane has extra tanks put into the wings, as well as an all-electronic instrument suite. Dropping the weight will let the plane get as high as 30,000 feet. Cruising at about 170 miles per hour, a typical Virus engine gets about 36 miles per gallon, but the modified version will far outstrip that and go somewhat faster, at about 180 mph.

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The pilot, Matevz Lenarcic, plans to fly to Morocco, then to Senegal, and then across the Atlantic. After that he’ll take the plane up and down the coasts of South America, overfly the Antarctic and make his way across the Pacific to New Zealand, Australia, southeast Asia and back to Africa.

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The flight isn’t just designed to set records. Pipistrel hopes to show that small aircraft can make important contributions to climate science. It’s also an attempt to study the effect of black carbon and light-absorbing aerosols on the atmosphere. The flight path will take it to areas that don’t have good networks of sensors. A light plane can also look at several different altitudes, getting a three-dimensional picture of the atmosphere in a given area.

Pipistrel won the NASA’s 2011 Green Flight Challenge in October, marking the third time the aircraft manufacturer has shown its eco-friendly stuff. That plane, called the Taurus, was a different design that flew 400 miles on a gallon of gas.

Image: Pipistrel

Via Physorg

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Pentagon Tests Hypersonic Flying Bomb

Ballistic missiles have been the ultimate in long-range weapons for the last half-century, able to reach almost anyplace on Earth within an hour (sometimes less). On Thursday the U.S. Army tested a bomb that can reach ballistic missile speeds and more importantly, has directional controls.

The Pentagon didn’t give specifics about the weapon’s range or speed. Called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, or AHW, it was launched from Hawaii and hit a target in Kwajalein Atoll, some 2,500 miles away in about a half hour.

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Hypersonic speeds are defined as faster than five times the speed of sound, which is about 768 miles per hour at sea level. If this was truly a hypersonic flight that means the AHW was moving at least 3,800 miles per hour. At that speed it could hit any target on earth in three hours or less. The AHW is part of a program called Prompt Global Strike, and the goal is to build a weapon that can reach its target in an hour or less. The Congressional Research Service reports that some $240 million has been spent on the program so far.

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The test was for gathering data on aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies, according to a Department of Defense press release. The weapon is a gliding vehicle, launched a three-stage rocket to suborbital altitude. Unlike a ballistic missile it doesn’t travel in a long parabolic arc. The gliding gives it the ability to steer.

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This isn’t the first hypersonic vehicle the military has tested. In August, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency flew a hypersonic glider, launched from a rocket, which was supposed to go from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a 4,000-mile trip. That glider failed and was lost, but it provided valuable data used in the AHW test.

Image: DARPA

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Home Flight Simulator for Wannabe Pilots

OVO-4 Home Flight Simulator: $57,300

If you aren’t going any where for the holidays and have about $60K lying around, you can still fly. The OVO-4 Home Flight Simulator is a fully enclosed pod that can pitch and twist to recreate take off and landing as well as the shaking of turbulence. The recreated cockpit has flight controls and three 24-inch LCD displays that provide an outside view world from a pilot's perspective.

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The simulator runs on Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, which allows users to choose what airport to depart from and land in. It can even adjust weather conditions to match whatever the user feels like flying through. The special order item takes about 14 weeks to ship, which gives you plenty of time to acquire some catty flight attendants to bring you coffee and maybe a few sick bags to get you through those first few hits of turbulence. Consider it practice for your next transatlantic flight. 

Via: Dvice

Credit: OVO-4

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Flight Simulation's New Top Gun

If Maverick, Goose and Iceman had Barco's new flight simulator in their Top Gun flight school, there probably wouldn't have been so much time for (*ahem*) beach volleyball.

That's because the Barco RP-360, the first of its kind to offer such a view, is the ultimate in flight simulation and recreational activities.

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As the creme de le creme of fighter jet training tools, Barco's RP-360 gives pilots a fully unobstructed 360-degree view while they fly virtual missions. The simulator allows trainees to fully immerse themselves inside an 11-foot acrylic sphere. Outside of the dome, 13 high-definition projectors shine laser-guided images onto the RP-360's outer surface.

"It's not an improvement, it's a new generation of simulators," Geert Matthys, research and development manager at Barco told Reuters.

"If a pilot has a cockpit where he can see 360 degrees, he also needs to be trained in a system which supplies 360 degrees, all deviation from real life can be dangerous," he said.

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The system, which looks like a giant snow globe crystal ball, can be used to train several pilots at once in a variety of fighter jets. The RP-360  has taken two years to develop and should be fully operational in 2012.

Until then, let's put on our aviators and take a Tom Cruise on the Highway to the Danger Zone.

[Via PhysOrg]

Image: Barco

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Airships Set to Take Flight Once Again

Every year millions of carefree people board cruise ships and never entertain a single thought about the sinking of the Titanic. Same goes for the millions of people everyday who travel and commute via plane, train or automobile. Unless you're severely phobic, chances are transportation disasters are the last thing on your mind as you embark.

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So why then does the mere mention of the blimp and zeppelin industry initiate an echo-chamber where all we hear is "Oh the humanity!". Perhaps we should let bygones be bygones and stop fixating on the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, for the dawn of a new age of 'air vehicles' may soon be upon us.

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British Company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, is leading the charge. They recently pulled down two major commercial deals, potentially indicating that the airship industry may once again be taking flight.

The company's modern airships are composed of semi-rigid lifting balloons, taking 40 percent of their lifting capacity from onboard engines that provide vectored thrust. Helium provides the remain 60 percent for liftoff.

Additionally, fan-equipped pontoons on the underbelly of the hull give the airship the ability to land on grass, concrete or water, without a ground crew.

Hybrid Air Vehicles most lucrative deal is a $517 million contract with Northrop Grumman to supply a Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) to the U.S. Army for deployment in Afghanistan in 2012. The second deal is with Discovery Air Innovations, who has agreed to buy vehicles capable of lifting 50 tons and flying 115 miles per hour.

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The military airships potentially would be used for surveillance and transport, while the Canadian contract intends use the air vehicles to deliver cargo in remote regions of the arctic North.

Hybrid Air Vehicles sees a bright future for their airships. The company seeks to tap the markets of mapping and geographic monitoring, humanitarian aid distribution, offshore drilling and luxury tourism.

[Via GizMag]

Photo: Hybrid Air Vehicles

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Water-Propelled Jetpack Makes a Splash

Cue the Mission Impossible or 007 theme songs and don your wetsuit because water-propelled jetpacks are on the market.

Unlike the famous Bell Rocket Belt and the fan-powered Martin Jetpack, the JetLev R200 uses water propulsion to achieve liftoff, enabling double-agents or thrill seekers alike to skim along the water at 22 miles an hour and soar to heights of nearly 30 feet.

Designers at JetLev Technologies have manged to minimize the weight and bulk of the jetpack by shifting the propulsion engine, fuel and related systems to a small, independent 10-foot boat that is tethered to the jet pack by a 33-foot hose. Thrust is generated by forcing water through the hose to nozzles on either side of the jet pack.

This design greatly reduces the thrust-to-weight ratio of the jetpack, which itself weighs around 30 pounds. Compared to Martin's 250-lb jetpack, the light weight JetLev R200 is capable of generating 500 pounds of thrust from its four stroke 250-horse-power engine. However, maximum thrust has been capped at 430 pounds.

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Thrust is controlled by twisting hand grips, while moving the control arms up and down changes the angle of propulsion nozzles. This allows pilots to move forward, in reverse and hover in neutral. By shifting their weight from side-to-side, pilots are able to turn.

Designed for both fresh and salt water, the jetpack is constructed of stainless steel and hard coat anodized aluminum with Teflon coating to protect against corrosion.

The JetLev R200 can accommodate pilots of all shapes and sizes, from 88 to 330 pounds. and 4.9- to 6.5-feet tall.

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Besides the obvious safety feature of the device only being used over water, the jetpack's other safety features include a 5-point quick-release harness, protective backrest and head support and inherent flotation device.

Intended it as a recreational device for holiday resorts, JetLev Technologies is planning to produce 70 units for delivery to target markets between May and July 2011.

If renting one at Club Med cramps your sense of daredevil espionage and foreign intrigue, tycoons anywhere can pick up the 2011 R200 model for a mere $99,500.

Credit: JetLev

[via Gizmag]

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