The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has moved into the next phase of its Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors program, or CRANE. The project is centered on an experimental uncrewed aircraft, which Aurora Flight Sciences is developing, that does not have traditional moving surfaces to control the aircraft in flight.
Aurora Flight Sciences’ CRANE design, which does not yet have an official X-plane designation or nickname, instead uses an active flow control (AFC) system to maneuver the aircraft using bursts of highly pressurized air. This technology could eventually find its way onto other military and civilian designs. It could have particularly significant implications when applied to future stealth aircraft.
A subscale wind tunnel model of Aurora Flight Sciences’ CRANE X-plane design. Aurora Flight Sciences
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a press release regarding the last developments in the CRANE program yesterday. Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, announced it had received a Phase 2 contract to continue work on this project back on December 12, 2022.
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The design that Aurora ultimately settled on was more along the lines of a conventional plane. However, it has a so-called Co-Planar Joined Wing (CJW) planform consisting of two sets of wings attached to a single center fuselage that merge together at the tips, along with a twin vertical tail arrangement. As currently designed, the drone will use “banks” of nozzles installed at various points on the wings to maneuver in the air.
A wind tunnel model of one of Aurora Flight Sciences’ initial CRANE concepts with a joined wing. Aurora Flight Sciences
A wind tunnel model showing a more recent evolution of Aurora Flight Sciences’ CRANE X-plane design. Aurora Flight Sciences
The aircraft’s main engine arrangement is not entirely clear. An chin air intake under the forward fuselage together with a single exhaust nozzle at the rear seen in official concept art and on wind tunnel models would seem to point to a plan to power the aircraft with a single jet engine.
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Interestingly, Aurora’s design “is configured to be a modular testbed featuring replaceable outboard wings and swappable AFC effectors. The modular design allows for testing of not only Aurora’s AFC effectors but also AFC effectors of various other designs,” a company press release issued in December 2022 said. “By expanding testing capabilities beyond Aurora-designed components, the program further advances its goal to provide the confidence needed for future aircraft requirements, both military and commercial, to include AFC-enabled capabilities.”
Aurora has already done significant wind tunnel testing of subscale models with representative AFC components as part of CRANE’s Phase 1. The company, along with Lockheed Martin, was chosen to proceed to that phase of the program in 2021.
“Using a 25% scale model, Aurora conducted tests over four weeks at a wind tunnel facility in San Diego, California. In addition to 11 movable conventional control surfaces, the model featured 14 AFC banks with eight fully independent controllable AFC air supply channels,” according to a press release the company put out in May 2022.
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Getting rid of traditional control surfaces inherently allows for a design to be more aerodynamic, and therefore fly in a more efficient manner, especially at higher altitudes. An aircraft with an AFC system doesn’t need the various actuators and other components to move things like ailerons and rudders, offering new ways to reduce weight and bulk.
A DARPA briefing slide showing how the designs of traditional control surfaces, at their core, have remained largely unchanged after more than a century of other aviation technology developments. DARPA
A lighter and more streamlined aircraft design using an AFC system might be capable of greater maneuverability. This could be particularly true for uncrewed types that also do not have to worry about the physical limitations of a pilot.
The elimination of so many moving parts also means fewer things that can break, improving safety and reliability. This would do away with various maintenance and logistics requirements, too. It might make a military design more resilient to battle damage and easier to fix, as well.
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The CRANE program and Aurora Flight Sciences’ design is of course not the first time AFC technology has been experimented with. U.K.-headquartered BAE Systems, which was another one of the participants in CRANE’s Phase 0, has been very publicly experimenting with various AFC concepts since at least 2010. The most recent of these developments was an AFC-equipped design called MAGMA. Described by BAE as a “large model,” this aircraft actually flew and you can read more about it here.
“Over the past several decades, the active flow control community has made significant advancements that enable the integration of active flow control technologies into advanced aircraft,” Richard Wlezein, the CRANE Program Manager at DARPA, said in a statement included in today’s press release. “We are confident about completing the design and flight test of a demonstration aircraft with AFC as the primary design consideration.”
We were recently playing in the menus of a 2023 BMW X1 when we came across a group of screens offering exactly that sort of subscription. BMW TeleService and Remote Software Upgrade showed a message that read Activated, while BMW Drive Recorder had options to subscribe for one month, one year, three years, or “Unlimited.” Reactions from the Car and Driver staff were swift and emotional. One staff member responded to the menus with a vomiting emoji, while another likened the concept to a video-game battle pass.
We reached out to BMW to ask about the menus we found and to learn more about its plan for future subscriptions. The company replied that it doesn’t post a comprehensive list of prices online because of variability in what each car can receive. “Upgrade availability depends on factors such as model year, equipment level, and software version, so this keeps things more digestible for consumers,” explained one BMW representative.
Our X1 for example, has an optional $25-per-year charge for traffic camera alerts, but that option isn’t available to cars without BMW Live Cockpit. Instead of listing all the available options online, owners can see which subscriptions are available for their car either in the menus of the vehicle itself or from a companion app.
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BMW USA may not want to confuse its customers by listing all its options in one place, but BMW Australia has no such reservations. In the land down under, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel are available in a month-to-month format, as is BMW’s parking assistant technology. In contrast, BMW USA released a statement in July saying that if a U.S.-market vehicle is ordered with heated seats from the factory, that option will remain functional throughout the life of the vehicle.
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In 2019, BMW announced it would charge customers $80 per year for wireless Apple CarPlay. After considerable public backlash, BMW walked back the decision and instead offered the technology for free. BMW is wading into mostly uncharted waters here. The court of public opinion forced BMW to reverse a subscription in the past. If people decide these newer subscriptions are as egregious as the old ones, will they force BMW back again? Or will they instead stick to automakers who sell features outright?
If the hardware is there, then you bought it and should be allowed to have it. If it’s externally processed data (eg an updated database of streets and traffic cameras) then a subscription is fine.
[…] Back in 2020, JetBlue became the first US airline to voluntarily offset greenhouse gas emissions from all of its domestic flights. That effort ends in 2023, the company announced this week.
The airline now plans to effectively cut its per-seat emissions in half by 2035. For flights to take off without generating as much pollution, JetBlue says its planes will need to run on sustainable aviation fuels [SAF].
“JetBlue views SAF as the most promising avenue for addressing aviation emissions in a meaningful and rapid way– once cost-effective SAF is made available commercially at scale,” the company said in a December 6th press release
Since 2020, JetBlue’s routes between San Francisco and Los Angeles have regularly run on sustainable aviation fuels. But the company’s eventually going to need a lot more SAF, which can be made from waste or crops like corn. It’s seen as a potential “bridge fuel” while electric planes and hydrogen-powered jets are still in development. JetBlue has inked deals with several companies to purchase more SAF, but it’s still in pretty limited supply and is more expensive than conventional kerosene jet fuel.
There are environmental challenges with SAF, too. Making and burning SAF still generates CO2 emissions. A lot of that CO2 is supposed to be canceled out by crops grown to produce the fuel, but there are also concerns about those crops leading to more deforestation.
Carbon offsets are supposed to cancel out the pollution from burning aviation fuel by reducing emissions elsewhere — usually through investments in renewable energy or forestry projects that rely on trees’ ability to trap carbon dioxide. But years of investigations and research have found that most carbon offsets on the market don’t actually represent real-world reductions in pollution.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management wants to know how residents aged 16 and older in the Netherlands experience their living environment.In that context, it was investigated whether people experience nuisance from the noise caused by GA (“small aviation”).T
he research shows that people experience little inconvenience from small aircraft.Most of the questions in the survey were asked of people who experience noise from GA (so-called “observers”).They are hardly concerned about their safety due to this type of air traffic, except about drones.They do worry about that.
Nearly two thirds of the observers can also enjoy overflying light aircraft.RIVM advises to continue to monitor the impact of helicopters and drones on the perceived quality of the living environment.
Britain’s Rolls-Royce (RR.L) said it has successfully run an aircraft engine on hydrogen, a world aviation first that marks a major step towards proving the gas could be key to decarbonising air travel.
The ground test, using a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine, used green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power, the British company said on Monday.
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Planemaker Airbus is working with French-U.S. engine maker CFM International to test hydrogen propulsion technology.
It said in February it planned to fit a specially adapted version of a current generation engine near the back of an A380 superjumbo test plane.
The aircraft manufacturer however told the European Union in 2021 that most airliners will rely on traditional jet engines until at least 2050.
A switch to hydrogen-powered engines would require a complete redesign of airframes and infrastructure at airports.
Eric Schulz, chief executive of SHZ Consulting, said in July that the changes in design are so massive it would take more than one generation of aircraft to get there.
Other technologies backed by companies such as Rolls-Royce include electric engines, which would be initially suitable for short flights, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Engines that are already in service can use a mixture of SAF and conventional fuels, but it is only currently produced in miniscule levels.
It could eventually be produced by combining carbon captured from the air with green hydrogen, but the process is energy intensive and not yet available on a large scale.
Tesla has initiated a voluntary recall of more than 40,000 Model S and Model X vehicles thanks to a bad firmware update that could cause the cars to lose power steering “due to forces from external road dynamics,” also known as bumps.
According to a recall report [PDF] filed with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla believes around 1 percent of the 40,168 affected vehicles have the bug, which it said only affects Model S and Model X vehicles manufactured between August 2017 and December 2020 (which includes model year 21).
Those vehicles, when updated to firmware release 2022.36, got new calibration data for their electronic power assist steering (EPAS) system. The offending software rolled out on October 11 and was intended to update the EPAS system “to better detect unexpected steering assist torque,” instead of doing the exact opposite.
Per Tesla’s own investigations as reported to the NHTSA, the software caused at least 314 vehicles to misclassify bumps and potholes as unexpected torque on the EPAS system, leading to “reduced or lost power steering assist,” Tesla said in its NHTSA report.
As anyone who has driven without power steering knows, its absence doesn’t make a vehicle undrivable, but it does make it much more difficult, which Tesla said is the big risk from leaving the firmware unpatched. “Reduced or lost power steering assist does not affect steering control, but could require greater steering effort from the driver, particularly at low speeds,” Tesla said.
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In February the company was forced to recall 578,607 Model S, X and Y vehicles due to potential misuse of the vehicle’s “Boombox” feature that allows Tesla owners to play custom sounds on the outside of the car. The NHTSA forced Tesla to issue a software update that disabled the feature.
Another recall this past September saw Tesla recalling more than one million vehicles because, despite the fact that it’s been a common safety feature for decades, the windows on affected vehicles weren’t properly calibrated to stop and reverse when a limb was inserted.
Tesla even had issues with its $1,900 made-for-kids Cyberquad mini, which was recalled last month due to safety concerns and a lack of compliance with Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines.
Vi Bilägare gathered eleven modern cars from different manufacturers at an airfield och measured the time needed for a driver to perform different simple tasks, such as changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control. At the same time, the car was driven at 110 km/h (68 mph). We also invited an ”old-school” car without a touchscreen, a 17-year-old Volvo V70, for comparison.
One important aspect of this test is that the drivers had time to get to know the cars and their infotainment systems before the test started.
The screens in modern cars keep getting bigger. Design teams at most car manufacturers love to ditch physical buttons and switches, although they are far superior safety-wise.
That is the conclusion when Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare performed a thurough test of the HMI system (Human-Machine Interface) in a total of twelve cars this summer.
Inspiration for the screen-heavy interiors in modern cars comes from smartphones and tablets. Designers want a ”clean” interior with minimal switchgear, and the financial department wants to lower the cost. Instead of developing, manufacturing and keeping physical buttons in stock for years to come, car manufacturers are keen on integrating more functions into a digital screen which can be updated over time.
So in what way have these screens affected safety? Vi Bilägare gathered eleven modern cars from different manufacturers at an airfield och measured the time needed for a driver to perform different simple tasks, such as changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control. At the same time, the car was driven at 110 km/h (68 mph). We also invited an ”old-school” car without a touchscreen, a 17-year-old Volvo V70, for comparison.
One important aspect of this test is that the drivers had time to get to know the cars and their infotainment systems before the test started.
Each moment during the test is timed separately.
No backlighting
Tesla was not the first to introduce a touchscreen, but the American carmaker has always offered bigger touchscreens than most manufacturers, containing more of the car’s features. Even the windshield wipers are controlled through the touchscreen.
BMW iX also offers a touchscreen, but not as big as Tesla’s, and also more physical buttons. But that’s no guarantee for a system which is easy to use. The BMW’s infotainment system has lots of features, but it also has one of the most complex and complicated user interfaces ever designed.
Another sin is committed by Volkswagen and Seat. In order to save money, the touch-sensitive climate controls below the screen in the ID.3 and Leon are not backlit which make them completely invisible at night.
Voice control
The carmakers are keen to point out that many features now can be activated by voice. But the voice control systems are not always easy to use, they can’t control every function and they don’t always work as advertised, which is why the voice control systems were not tested in this experiment.
The results speak for themselves. The worst-performing car needs 1,400 meters to perform the same tasks for which the best-performing car only needs 300 meters.
Big differences
The easiest car to understand and operate, by a large margin, is the 2005 Volvo V70. The four tasks is handled within ten seconds flat, during which the car is driven 306 meters at 110 km/h.
At the other end of the scale, Chinese electric car MG Marvel R performs far worse. The driver needs 44.6 seconds before all the tasks are completed, during which the car has travelled 1,372 meters – more than four times the distance compared to the old Volvo.
BMW iX and Seat Leon perform better, but both are still too complicated. The driver needs almost a kilometer to perform the tasks. Lots can happen in traffic during that time.
Dacia Sandero and Volvo C40 perform well although they both have touchscreens. However, they are not overloaded with features. Volvo shows that a touchscreen doesn’t need to be complicated.
A flying car called “Switchblade” can now be sold in the US market.
This three-wheeler can fly at a height of 16,000 feet (4.8 km)in the sky.
It runs on premium gasoline and has a maximum air speed of 200 mph (321 km/h)
A flying sports car named Switchblade recently passed the safety tests of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and now it is ready for market launch. Its creators at the Oregon-based company Samson Sky claim it took 14 years to develop this innovative vehicle. Interestingly, Switchblade can be easily parked inside a residential garage, and it is suitable for both roadside driving and flying.
Although Switchblade is not the first flying car to get clearance from FAA (in February 2022, Terrafugia Transition became the first flying car to get FAA approval), it might become the first flying car available to the public in the US. Samson Sky has started taking online reservations for Switchblade, and over 1,600 people have already shown interest in buying the car. The estimated starting price for Switchblade would be $150,000.
Switchblade is a three-wheeler sports car that comes with foldable wings and a retractable tail. Within three minutes, these flexible components can turn this roadside vehicle into a small aircraft capable of flying at 16,000 feet (4.8 km). The top speed of this two-seater flying machine ranges between 125 mph (201 km/h) (on-road) and 200 mph (321 km/h) (during flight).
The official website of Samson Sky mentions that the car comes equipped with a hybrid electric drive and fly system, a climate-controlled cabin, front and rear crumple zones, and a parachute that covers the whole vehicle to ensure complete comfort and safety of its users. It runs on 91 octane gasoline, one of the most common and readily available premium automobile fuels in the US.
When asked about the motivation behind Switchblade, CEO of Samson Sky, Sam Bousfield told The Hill, “The speed at which we do things is the biggest motivation for me. You start knocking down targets and really getting things done – it really fires up the team,” He further reveals that for him, “road + sky = endless possibilities”. He has always believed in this idea, and Flying cars have been his childhood dream, so this is another reason why he has been able to work on flying car technology for so long.
Can Switchblade become a mainstream vehicle?
Bousfield claims that only a few years are left before we see flying Switchblades in the sky, but like any flying car, Switchblade has its own challenges. For instance, the vehicle has been approved by the FAA, but that only means that Samson Sky can sell this vehicle. The buyers might still need to get permission from local authorities before they drive or fly Switchblade for the first time since it is not an ordinary vehicle.
Another complicated matter is insurance. Switchblade is a flying vehicle, and there is no company in the US that offers flying car insurance. However, the insurance laws in most American states require drivers to carry active vehicle insurance with them. While addressing this issue, Sam Bousfield anticipates that until companies come up with suitable insurance policies, Switchblade buyers might need to buy both car and aircraft insurance.
Flying cars have been a century-old dream and now it seems like we are very close to seeing the idea turn into a reality. The challenges discussed above are real, but hopefully, they will be resolved by the time Switchblade arrives on the market. What’s more interesting is that Switchblade isn’t the only flying car that is ready to launch. There are other players as well, and it would be fascinating to see which of them we see first on the road.
Every new car sold in the European Union will soon include anti-speeding technology known as intelligent speed assistance, or ISA. The EU regulation (part of the broader General Vehicle Safety Regulation) goes into effect today, and states that all new models and types of cars introduced to the European market must include an ISA system. The policy doesn’t apply to any new cars that are in showrooms today — at least, not yet. By July 2024, every new car sold in the EU must have a built-in anti-speeding system.
“The roll out of ISA is a huge step forward for road safety and has the potential to dramatically reduce road traffic injuries and fatalities. Car manufacturers now have the opportunity to maximise the potential ISA presents for creating safer roads for all,” said the European Commission in a press release.
For those unfamiliar with ISA, the term describes a whole raft of systems that can detect road speed limits via front-mounted cameras, GPS data or both. Depending on the specific ISA and how it’s configured by the driver, the technology can provide reminder feedback about the speed limit, automatically adjust cruise control to match the road’s speed or even reduce power to the motor to slow speeding vehicles.
Many drivers in Europe are already using ISA-equipped vehicles, and major automakers such as Honda, Ford, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz sell certain models with these systems in the European market. According to a projection by the EU-funded PROSPER, a scenario such as this one, where ISA becomes mandated, could result in between 26 and 50 percent fewer fatalities.
As Autocar notes, ISA technology still isn’t perfect. During one test, the ISA system was occasionally “slow to respond” and at one point set the speed limit at 60 mph while driving through a quiet English village.
So… can you disable ISA easily then? At least it looks like the tech is contained in the car, hopefully not feeding your driving data and location to 3rd parties where it can be sold on and get lost.
A flying car capable of hitting speeds over 100mph (160kmh) and altitudes above 8,000ft (2,500m) has been issued with a certificate of airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority.
The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.
It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.
The certification followed 70 hours of flight testing and more than 200 take-offs and landings, the company said.
When someone buys a new car, they generally expect to be getting a vehicle that’s fully up-to-date, not one built with leftover parts. Tesla customers who don’t read the fine print, though, could accidentally end up paying the price for a “new” Model 3 with a years-old battery, one which Tesla acknowledges may have already lost almost an eighth of its total capacity.
Use of older batteries in new Model 3s was first observed on Twitter, where user William Hummel shared images of a disclaimer on Tesla’s website that notes up to 12 percent reduced range stemming from the cars’ use of batteries built as far back as 2017. These screen captures were not of Tesla’s online configurator as Hummel’s use of “new car” might lead one to believe, but from Tesla’s inventory page, where “new” Model 3s are indeed listed for sale with the range disclaimer shown, along with a partial explanation accessed via the “Learn More” button.
Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G “Sonny” White has reported the successful manifestation of an actual, real-world “Warp Bubble.” And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft.
“To be clear, our finding is not a warp bubble analog, it is a real, albeit humble and tiny, warp bubble,” White told The Debrief, quickly dispensing with the notion that this is anything other than the creation of an actual, real-world warp bubble. “Hence the significance.”
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“While conducting analysis related to a DARPA-funded project to evaluate possible structure of the energy density present in a Casimir cavity as predicted by the dynamic vacuum model,” reads the actual findings published in the peer-reviewed European Physical Journal, “a micro/nano-scale structure has been discovered that predicts negative energy density distribution that closely matches requirements for the Alcubierre metric.”
Or put more simply, as White did in a recent email to The Debrief, “To my knowledge, this is the first paper in the peer-reviewed literature that proposes a realizable nano-structure that is predicted to manifest a real, albeit humble, warp bubble.”
This fortuitous finding, says White, not only confirms the predicted “toroidal” structure and negative energy aspects of a warp bubble, but also resulted in potential pathways he and other researchers can follow when trying to design, and one day actually construct, a real-world warp-capable spacecraft.
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“This is a potential structure we can propose to the community that one could build that will generate a negative vacuum energy density distribution that is very similar to what’s required for an Alcubierre space warp.”
When asked by The Debrief in December if his team has built and tested this proposed nano-scale warp craft design since that August announcement, or if they have plans to do so, White said, “We have not manufactured the one-micron sphere in the middle of a 4-micron cylinder.” However, he noted, if the LSI team were to undertake that at some point, “we’d probably use a nanoscribe GT 3D printer that prints at the nanometer scale.” In short, they have the means, now they just need the opportunity.
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White and his team have also outlined a second testable experiment that involves stringing a number of these Casimir-created warp bubbles in a chain-like configuration. This design, he said, would allow researchers to better understand the physics of the warp bubble structure already created, as well as how a craft may one day traverse actual space inside such a warp bubble.
“We could go through an examination of the optical properties as a result of these little, nano-scale warp bubbles,” explained White at the AIAA conference. “Aggregating a large number of them in a row, we can increase the magnitude of the effect so we can see (and study) it.”
We believe our all-electric ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft is the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft, setting three new world records. We have submitted data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation who control and certify world aeronautical and astronautical records – that at 15:45 (GMT) on 16 November 2021, the aircraft reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over 3 kilometres, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km/h (132mph). In further runs at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down experimental aircraft testing site, the aircraft achieved 532.1km/h (330 mph) over 15 kilometres – 292.8km/h (182mph) faster than the previous record – and broke the fastest time to climb to 3000 metres by 60 seconds with a time of 202 seconds, according to our data. We hope that the FAI will certify and officially confirm the achievements of the team in the near future.
During its record-breaking runs, the aircraft clocked up a maximum speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph) which we believe makes the ‘Spirit of Innovation’ the world’s fastest all-electric vehicle.
Italian automaker Alfa Romeo is developing an all-electric version of its four-door Giulia sedan. In an interview with Auto Express, Jean-Philippe Imparato, the company’s CEO, said Alfa Romeo would debut the EV sometime in 2024. Additionally, he revealed the car will be built on the STLA Large platform from its parent company Stellantis.
The conglomerate announced the architecture this past summer. At the time, it said it would allow its cars to go from zero to 60 in as little as two seconds, and allow for a potential range of up to 500 miles. Dodge, one of the other automakers under the Stellantis umbrella, will use the platform in the all-electric muscle car it plans to debut in 2024. Alfa Romeo could also offer a Quadrifoglio variant of the Giulia, but Imparato said that will depend on whether it can get the kind of performance that’s associated with the moniker.
BMW worked with another German company, Duerr, to create a new factory robot that can paint two-tone finishes, or create elaborate designs on a vehicle, without any in-between masking required. The robot’s called the EcoPaintJet Pro and instead of a traditional paint sprayer on the business end, it uses a contraption that’s not unlike the print head on your inkjet printer. Jets of ink, as small as half a millimeter in thickness, are sprayed through an orifice plate which creates defined edges as it hits the vehicle. When combined with the precision movements of the EcoPaintJet Pro’s robotic arm, intricate designs can be created with transitions between colors that look as crisp as if masking techniques, such as tape or stencils, had been used.
At the BMW Dingolfing plant in Munich, the new robot and paint technique is being piloted on 19 new BMW M4 Coupés that roll out of the factory with a special two-tone finish featuring M4 branding on the hood and tailgate
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The precision of the applied paint means there’s no overspray—excess paint that ends up inside a painting room that has to be cleared away and disposed of, resulting in wasted materials and the use of harsh chemicals. BMW also believes the EcoPaintJet Pro will result in lower energy consumption as it will change how the sealed and highly ventilated painting rooms in its factories operate. “Since paint separation is no longer required, the amount of air needed is also lower. At around 7,000 operating hours, this results in energy savings of more than 6,000 megawatt-hours and reduces the carbon footprint by nearly 2,000 tonnes per year.”
Rolls-Royce, best known in aviation for its jet engines, has taken an all-electric airplane on its maiden voyage. The “Spirit of Innovation” completed a 15 minute flight, marking “the beginning of an intensive flight-testing phase in which we will be collecting valuable performance data on the aircraft’s electrical power and propulsion system,” the company announced.
Rolls Royce said the one-seat airplane has “the most power-dense battery pack every assembled for an aircraft.” The aircraft uses a 6,000 cell battery pack with a three-motor powertrain that currently delivers 400kW (500-plus horsepower), and Rolls-Royce said the aircraft will eventually achieve speeds of over 300 MPH.
The Lamborghini Countach LPI800-4 is a futuristic limited edition that pays homage to the original and recreated for the 21st century. Head of design a Lamborghini Mitja Borkert took cues from the various iterations of the Countach to inspire his latest creation. The Countach’s distinctive wedge-shapes silhouette has been retained, with a single line from the nose to the tail, a design trait that runs through all V12 Lambos.
The final outline references the first LP500 and LP400 production versions. The face was inspired by the Quattrovalvole edition and the wheel arches have a hexagonal theme. There is no fixed rear wing as seen in later designs of the Countach. The distinctive NACA air intakes are cut into the side and doors of the Countach LPI800-4. Access for occupants is via the famous scissor doors, first introduced on the Countach and a Lamborghini V12 signature.
Under the slatted engine cover is, naturally, a V12 engine that can rev to almost 9 000 r/min. The 6,5-litre engine is naturally aspirated but it does have an electrical boost component integrated into the transmission that is powered by a supercapacitor. Total system power output is rated as 600 kW. Like all the modern V12 Lambos power is directed to all four wheels. Lamborghini says the Countach can blitz the 0-100 km/h run in just 2,8 seconds, can complete the 0-200 km/h dash in 8,6 seconds and it has a top speed of 355 km/h.
A few days ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came out with a 5-0 unanimous vote on its position on right to repair. (PDF) It’s great news, in that they basically agree with us all:
Restricting consumers and businesses from choosing how they repair products can substantially increase the total cost of repairs, generate harmful electronic waste, and unnecessarily increase wait times for repairs. In contrast, providing more choice in repairs can lead to lower costs, reduce e-waste by extending the useful lifespan of products, enable more timely repairs, and provide economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and local businesses.
The long version of the “Nixing the Fix” report goes on to list ways that the FTC found firms were impeding repair: ranging from poor initial design, through restrictive firmware and digital rights management (DRM), all the way down to “disparagement of non-OEM parts and independent repair services”.
While the FTC isn’t making any new laws here, they’re conveying a willingness to use the consumer-protection laws that are already on the books: the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair competitive practices.
Only time will tell if this dog really has teeth, but it’s a good sign that it’s barking. And given that the European Union is heading in a similar direction, we’d be betting that repairability increases in the future.
A prototype flying car has completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.
The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.
Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, said it could fly about 1,000km (600 miles), at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.
It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.
‘Very pleasant’
The narrow wings fold down along the sides of the car.
Prof Klein drove it straight off the runway and into town upon arrival, watched by invited reporters.
He described the experience, early on Monday morning, as “normal” and “very pleasant”.
In the air, the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170km/h.
It can carry two people, with a combined weight limit of 200kg (31 stone).
[…]
“I have to admit that this looks really cool – but I’ve got a hundred questions about certification,” Dr Wright said.
“Anyone can make an aeroplane but the trick is making one that flies and flies and flies for the thick end of a million hours, with a person on board, without having an incident.
“I can’t wait to see the piece of paper that says this is safe to fly and safe to sell.”
It’s only fitting that Sabine is paid tribute at the track itself, after her much-too-young death back in March, following a fight with cancer. Turn 1 of the Nordschleife has been renamed, becoming Sabine Schmitz Kurve, to honor her at the start of every lap taken at a circuit that is, without doubt, hers.
Porsche
There had already been a commemorative lap led by the 1996 BMW M3 “Eifelblitz” car Sabine won the Nürburgring 24 Hour race with back in 1996 and 1997, driven by her longtime co-driver Johannes Scheid. It was a fitting tribute, as part of the 2021 version of the race, where 11 women racers were among the drivers trying to follow in Sabine’s tire tracks.
Renaming the first corner of the Nordschleife is even better though. Now, whenever you cross the start/finish line at track, Sabine Schmitz will be ahead, and every lap will start with her sending you on your way.
Hypercars with $3 million price tags aren’t usually synonymous with environmental sustainability. Christian von Koenigsegg, founder and chief executive of Koenigsegg Automotive, wants to change that. The Ängelholm, Sweden-based company is experimenting with ultra-high-voltage battery packs and biofuels using emissions from volcanoes to build environmentally “benign” and potentially even carbon-neutral cars, without sacrificing performance.
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If we take a pure electric sports car, they tend to be quite heavy because you need a quite large battery to have enough range and performance. That goes against the sporty nature of the car.
We electrify in a different way with more extreme cell technology for power output. And then we have extreme combustion-engine technology running on renewable fuels, but very good aftertreatment systems, and our free-valve technology where we can really make sure we combust extremely efficiently with very small engines to make the car lighter, more exciting, have better performance, but still being environmentally benign.
What we mean by agnostic is that we mix and match whatever makes the most sense at each given time and for each model. We’re not stuck in traditional combustion technology. The technology we develop there is really next-generation beyond anything else I’ve seen out in the marketplace, and also next-generation electrification, and combining these technologies in an interesting way to make our product stand out and be as competitive as we can with as little environmental footprint as possible.
You don’t have to pollute the planet just because you want to have a fast, interesting sports car.
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there is this technology from Iceland, it was invented there, where they cap the CO2 emittance from semi-active volcanoes and convert that into methanol. And if you take that methanol and you power the plants that do the conversion of other fuels and then power the ship that transports the those fuels to Europe or the U.S. or Asia, wherever it goes, you put the fuel completely CO2-neutral into the vehicle.
And of course with the correct aftertreatment systems, depending on the environment you’re in, you can kind of clean up the particles in the atmosphere while you’re using the engine. So you can be very much environmentally conscious doing that. It’s just a fun aspect of renewable fuels that are not talked so much about, but there are many, many other technologies that are coming up.
Southern California–based Hyperion Companies, Inc., and its Hyperion Motors division, is banking on cutting-edge, space-grade hydrogen fuel-cell technology to help consumers embrace the electric car market with much more vigor. Hyperion’s first salvo in the battle against combustion is the XP-1 prototype—a futuristic supercar with a claimed 1,016-mile range and the ability to haul to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds. Oh, and the recharge time is less than five minutes.
The Hyperion XP-1 prototype. Photo: Courtesy of Hyperion Companies, Inc.
Skeptics of the XP-1’s performance promises should consider three crucial factors: Hyperion was founded nearly a decade ago by a team of PhDs exclusively focused on hydrogen-based power and delivery, and Hyperion works in conjunction with NASA to utilize technologies developed for space travel in commercial applications. Lastly, the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans are planning to add a hydrogen-powered class by 2024, signaling that the element may play a vital part in the future of motorsports.
“Our vehicle represents the answer to ‘why hydrogen?’” says Angelo Kafantaris, Hyperion’s CEO. “It’s a no-compromise car that represents the best that hydrogen fuel-cell technology can be. Hydrogen is the cleanest, most sustainable energy source that’s not been properly utilized.”
An incredibly light new material that can reduce aircraft engine noise and improve passenger comfort has been developed at the University of Bath.
The graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel weighs just 2.1kg per cubic metre, making it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured. It could be used as insulation within aircraft engines to reduce noise by up to 16 decibels—reducing the 105-decibel roar of a jet engine taking off to a sound closer to that of a hair-dryer.
The aerogel’s meringue-like structure makes it extremely light, meaning it could act as an insulator within aircraft engine nacelles, with almost no increase in overall weight. The material is currently being further optimised by the research team to offer improved heat dissipation, offering benefits to fuel efficiency and safety.
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“We managed to produce such an extremely low density by using a liquid combination of graphene oxide and a polymer, which are formed with whipped air bubbles and freeze-casted. On a very basic level, the technique can be compared with whipping egg whites to create meringues—it’s solid but contains a lot of air, so there is no weight or efficiency penalty to achieve big improvements in comfort and noise.”
The Flaris LAR-01 has a number of striking stats, including being a ton lighter (literally) than its competitors, along with an unusually short-field landing capability, and detachable wings. But its most impressive number is the 250-knot true air speed,
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Garmin G600 avionics and Flaris Flight Assistance System flight computer, as well as the landing gear and emergency parachute system. But it also claims more impressive stats like the 250-knot TSA at 10,000 feet. Its 6,000-feet-per-minute climb rate, adds the company, is equal to combat-trainer aircraft. Oh, and the required length of the runway for takeoff is just 650 feet
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It is able to transport four people to a distance of 1,550 miles in less than 3.5 hours
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Accommodating a pilot and four passengers, the LAR-01 has a 4,078-pound maximum takeoff weight, with a service ceiling of 46,000 feet. Its expected range is 1,350 nautical miles. Flaris says the $1.5 million price tag as well as the fuel and operating costs will be much lower than competitors. With an empty weight of 1,543 pounds, the company added that the composite frame is a ton lighter than other VLJ-class aircraft.
Behind the stats is a cool-looking design with a “car-like cabin” that offers good headroom and large windows with a Garmin G600 avionics suite. A parachute is designed into the jet’s nose area. Measuring 28’6” across, the semi-elliptical wings are built for both high speeds and a 62-knot stall.
Flaris is attempting to move beyond a traditional light jet, noting the LAR-01 can take off from grass airstrips and short airfields, and the wings detach, so the jet can be trailered and stored in a home garage.
A court in Norway has found Tesla guilty after it was sued by owners who complained of reduced battery capacities and charging speeds. It has been ordered to pay 136,000 kroner ($16,000) each to buyers of certain Model S owners, a judgement that could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Nettavisen .
Owners in Norway and elsewhere complained about drops in range of up to 30 miles following a 2019 software update, as Electrek reported. They also noticed reduced DC fast-charging rates at Tesla’s Supercharger stations. The issues reportedly involve 2013-2015 models and Tesla said at the time that the aim was to “protect the battery and improve battery longevity.” The company added that it would only affect “a small percentage of owners.”
Some owners saw precipitous drops in battery capacity of up to 11 percent, compared to the normal gradual declines expected. Those issues have led to lawsuits not only in Norway, but in Denmark, the US and elsewhere.
Tesla reportedly failed to reply to the suit, so the judgement was made in absentia. As a result, the 30 owners behind the lawsuit will be awarded $16,000 each unless Tesla appeals. EVs are huge in Norway, however and Nettavisen notes that there are over 10,000 buyers of the affected models in Norway — as such, the lawsuit could get considerably more expensive.
