Flying is a highly controversial topic in climate debates. There are a few reasons for this. The first is the disconnect between its role in our personal and collective carbon emissions. Air travel dominates frequent travellers’ individual contributions to climate change. Yet aviation overall accounts for only 2.5% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This Read more about Climate change and flying: what share of global CO2 emissions come from aviation?[…]

The “Baby Boom” is finally here. After six years of development, Boom Supersonic is unveiling its XB-1 demonstrator. The craft is the company’s first supersonic plane, designed to prove the technology ahead of a full-size airliner, Overture. […] As we reported on back in August, Boom is looking to build the first supersonic civilian airliner Read more about Boom unveils the XB-1, supersonic testbed for Overture, supersonic airliner[…]

Amazon received federal approval to operate its fleet of Prime Air delivery drones, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday, a milestone that allows the company to expand unmanned package delivery. The approval will give Amazon broad privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers,” the agency said. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA Read more about Amazon Prime Air drone delivery fleet gets FAA approval[…]

We propose a prototype design of a propulsion thruster that utilizes air plasma induced by microwave ionization. Such a jet engine simply uses only air and electricity to produce high temperature and pressurized plasma for jet propulsion. We used a home-made device to measure the lifting force and jet pressure at various settings of microwave Read more about Jet propulsion by microwave air plasma in the atmosphere: AIP Advances: Vol 10, No 5[…]

The Air Force recently proved through a series of tests that its KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft can fly more efficiently just by mounting the cockpit window’s wiper blades vertically instead of horizontally. The potential fuel cost savings: about $7 million per year. Researchers with the Advanced Power and Technology Office, part of the Air Force Research Read more about Air Force Announces it Can Save $7 Million by Adjusting One Plane’s Windshield Wipers[…]

You can always count on Koenigsegg to do things differently. Take the Swedish brand’s newest car, the Gemera, a 1700-hp four-seat hybrid grand tourer that can crest 250 mph. In a world filled with more ultra-high-dollar supercars than ever, the Gemera stands out. And perhaps the most interesting thing about the car is its engine. Read more about How Koenigsegg’s 2-Liter 3 cylinder No-Cam Engine Makes 600 Horsepower[…]

researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS, aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and the Dresden University of Technology in Germany have co-developed a better way to keep planes free of ice and snow. It uses a technology called Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP), where a laser is split into multiple beams that overlap each Read more about Blasting Airplane With Lasers Makes It Harder For Ice to Stick[…]

What would happen if everyone in the world had access to nuclear reactor blueprints? We’re about to find out. A mechanical engineer-turned-tech entrepreneur has plans to, well, empower people around the world to build their own 100-megawatt nuclear power reactors. That’s much larger than some of the modular reactors designed by nuclear startups, but still Read more about Open Source Small Nuclear Reactors Designs[…]

One of the less-considered side effects of car features moving from hardware to software is that important features and abilities of a car can now be removed without any actual contact with a given car. Where once de-contenting involved at least a screwdriver (or, if you were in a hurry, a hammer), now thousands of Read more about Tesla Remotely Removes Autopilot Features From Customer’s Used Tesla Without Any Notice[…]

When Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybertruck last week, things didn’t go according to plan when lead designer Franz von Holzhausen tested the durability of the Cybertruck’s “armor glass.” He managed to smash two of the vehicle’s windows onstage with a metal ball, soon after smacking the door with a sledgehammer (unlike the glass, it Read more about Elon Musk Explains Why Tesla’s Cybertruck Windows Smashed During Presentation[…]

A Boeing whistleblower has claimed that passengers on its 787 Dreamliner could be left without oxygen if the cabin were to suffer a sudden decompression. John Barnett says tests suggest up to a quarter of the oxygen systems could be faulty and might not work when needed. He also claimed faulty parts were deliberately fitted Read more about Boeing whistleblower raises doubts over 787 oxygen system[…]

Using some relatively inexpensive and readily available technology you can find at any well-stocked electronics store, Alaina Gassler, a 14-year-old inventor from West Grove, Pennsylvania, came up with a clever way to eliminate the blind spot created by the thick pillars on the side of a car’s windshield. […] Her solution involves installing an outward-facing Read more about Car Blind Spots solved by 14  year old by projecting live camera feed onto pillars blocking view[…]

Crouchley’s idea, which just won second place in the annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge, is to build pneumatic tubes next to existing train tracks. Magnetic shuttles would travel through these vacuum tubes, connected via magnetic arm to trains traveling on the existing tracks. This system would utilize current train tracks, thereby cutting infrastructure costs and, Read more about 13 year old thinks up New Hyperloop design, builds on existing rail infrastructure[…]

A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to clean up floating plastic from the Pacific Ocean by moving into rivers, too, using a new floating device to catch garbage before it reaches the seas. The 25-year-old university dropout Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup to develop and deploy a system he invented when he Read more about Dutch inventor who cleans plastic from oceans unveils device to scoop plastic out of rivers[…]

In a continued effort to reduce Europe’s carbon footprint and to make energy bills cheaper for European consumers, the Commission today adopted new eco-design measures for products such as refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and televisions.Improving the ecodesign of products contributes to implementing the ‘Energy efficiency first’ principle of the EU’s Energy Union priority. For the Read more about EC rules make household appliances more sustainable by forcing right to repair[…]

Borrowing a trick from the Air Force, whose planes can complete long-range missions thanks to in-flight refueling from tanker aircraft, researchers at UC Berkeley showed off a novel way to keep small drones in the air almost indefinitely: flying replacement batteries that can be swapped without landing. The use of four propellers not only helps Read more about Flying Replacement Batteries Could Massively Boost a Drone’s Flight Time[…]

The self-driving freight truck startup TuSimple has been carrying mail across the state of Arizona for several weeks. UPS announced on Thursday that its venture capital arm has made a minority investment in TuSimple. The announcement also revealed that since May TuSimple autonomous trucks have been hauling UPS loads on a 115-mile route between Phoenix Read more about UPS Has Been Delivering Cargo in Self-Driving Trucks for Months (with 2 people on board)[…]

In a series of ground-breaking flight trials that took place in the skies above north-west Wales, the MAGMA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrated two innovative flow control technologies which could revolutionise future aircraft design. MAGMA, designed and developed by researchers at The University of Manchester in collaboration with engineers from BAE Systems, successfully trialled the Read more about BAE Systems uses MAGMA demonstrator to roll and pitch jet aircraft without using moving surfaces[…]

The US firm Aireon says its new satellite surveillance network is now fully live and being trialled over the North Atlantic. The system employs a constellation of 66 spacecraft, which monitor the situational messages pumped out by aircraft transponders. These report a plane’s position, altitude, direction and speed every eight seconds. The two big navigation Read more about Satellite plane-tracking goes global[…]

Boeing will make standard on its troubled new airliner a safety feature that might have helped the crew of a jet that crashed shortly after takeoff last year in Indonesia, killing everyone on board. The equipment, which had been offered as an option, alerts pilots of faulty information from key sensors. It will now be Read more about Boeing to make safety feature standard on troubled Max jets[…]

A new type of electric vehicle power using “refillable” technology has taken another giant leap in advancing alternative energy with testing that shows it could provide enough energy to run a car for about 3,000 miles. The technology employs a novel type of “flow” battery that is being successfully tested in golf carts and industrial Read more about Refillable’ technology could provide enough energy to drive an electric car up to 3,000 miles[…]

The first ever “solid state” plane, with no moving parts in its propulsion system, has successfully flown for a distance of 60 metres, proving that heavier-than-air flight is possible without jets or propellers. The flight represents a breakthrough in “ionic wind” technology, which uses a powerful electric field to generate charged nitrogen ions, which are Read more about First ever plane with no moving parts takes flight[…]

Since October, a mysterious flying object has been seen moving through the skies over the South Island of New Zealand. It looks like a cross between a small plane and a drone, with a series of small rotor blades along each wing that allow it to take off like a helicopter and then fly like Read more about Larry Page’s Flying Taxis, Now Exiting Stealth Mode – The New York Times[…]