Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 3 Apr 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100330/1550518796/dailydirt-cool-new-planes.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100330/1550518796/dailydirt-cool-new-planes.shtml

Supersonic planes have a problem of creating a "sonic boom" when they travel faster than the speed of sound, causing all kinds of headaches for commercial and military operations. A new biplane design with twin wings would have a much reduced sonic boom, as each wing could cancel out the effects of the other (at least in theory & simulations). [url]

NASA is interested in liquified natural gas (LNG) propulsion for creating super fuel efficient airplanes. Planes fueled by LNG won't be ready for at least three generations of airplane technologies (aka N+3 airliners), so don't expect to see any before 2030. [url]

The first production aircraft to completely satisfy FAA spin resistance standards will likely improve the safety of non-commercial general aviation. Icon Aircraft's A5 amphibious light sport aircraft is a two-seater plane design that greatly reduces the plane's potential to stall out or go into an uncontrollable spin. [url]

To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100330/1550518796 Tue, 1 Nov 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110910/01035315889/dailydirt-impractically-powered-planes.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110910/01035315889/dailydirt-impractically-powered-planes.shtml

A solar-powered plane prototype was demonstrated at the Paris Airshow. Unfortunately, the plane requires almost windless conditions to fly, and it's not too fast. But it *can* stay aloft almost indefinitely (greater than 24 hours so far). [url]

The VoltAir is an all-electric plane concept with superconducting (!) electric motors... "VoltAir is an upstream research concept, not a near-term commercial approach." Duh. [url]

If superconducting electric motors seem plausible, then using a low-energy nuclear reactor (LENR) to power a plane is just around the corner. I'd like a Mr. Fusion generator for my DeLorean, too. [url]

To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110910/01035315889 Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110208/19473313015/dailydirt-robotic-planes-seriously-dont-call-me-shirley.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110208/19473313015/dailydirt-robotic-planes-seriously-dont-call-me-shirley.shtml

Northrop Grumman's X-47B is an autonomous combat aircraft that aims to be launching from and landing on aircraft carriers in a few years. Another trick will be aerial refueling, eliminating the limitation of onboard fuel capacity. [url]

Would you believe the CIA developed a dragonfly robot in the 1970s as a super-secret intelligence gathering tool? Would you believe they also developed mobile phones hidden in shoes? Robotic fish? Cone of silence? [url]

Last year, a solar-powered plane broke all the non-stop endurance records by flying for a week -- and it could have stayed up indefinitely. Cheap solar planes to replace telecommunication satellites would be a nice next step. [url]

The safety of flight automation is being studied -- finding out that both human error and automation errors can cause serious problems. Nobody's perfect. [url]

To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110208/19473313015 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 06:23:40 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101123/17282212000/while-tsa-looks-you-naked-child-finds-loaded-gun-magazine-left-southwest-plane.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101123/17282212000/while-tsa-looks-you-naked-child-finds-loaded-gun-magazine-left-southwest-plane.shtml any evidence that its efforts have actually made air travel any safer and continues to defend its security efforts as necessary, CNN is reporting that a child on a Southwest flight found a loaded gun magazine in a seatback pocket, which was kicked to the floor as the child climbed over the seats. Apparently, a law enforcement official (not an air marshal) who was allowed to take the clip on the plane, left it in the seat. Obviously, this is not a failure of the TSA, in that the mistake was by the law enforcement agent who left the clip, but the point is that it's impossible to protect against all threats on a plane, and many of the TSA's actions seem to be based on the fiction that it is possible. I have nothing against legitimate security that makes us safer, but there's little indication that that's what we're getting from the TSA.

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]]> feel-safer? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101123/17282212000 Mon, 4 Oct 2010 11:46:54 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101004/01091111266/plane-finder-phone-app-called-an-aid-to-terrorism-even-if-it-s-just-using-public-data.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101004/01091111266/plane-finder-phone-app-called-an-aid-to-terrorism-even-if-it-s-just-using-public-data.shtml Slashdot points us to the news that security experts and the US Dept. of Homeland Security are apparently worried about an application called Plane Finder, which is available on the iPhone and Android phones. Among other things, it lets you point your phone at an airplane in the sky, and it will provide info on that plane, including the height and speed, as well as its destination, and a "likely course." The fear, of course, is that terrorists could potentially use this to shoot down a plane.

Of course, in blaming this app, everyone seems to be missing the real target. This app is using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B), which is transmitted by many aircraft these days, and can apparently be read with a $200 receiver. In other words, if terrorists wanted that data, they'd go out and get that $200 receiver. The "problem" (if there really is one) isn't the Plane Finder app (which actually sounds kind of cool), but the fact that all that data is being made available publicly. Blaming the app sort of misses the point, because if the data is available so easily, you can bet those who wish to do harm with it, have already figured that out. In the meantime, the Plane Finder app itself doesn't appear to actually have that many downloads. The report claims 2,000 sales on iTunes, and in the Android store, it looks like less than 500 have been purchased. Of course, now that it's in the news...

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]]> look,-up-there-in-the-sky,-it's-a-clue http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101004/01091111266 Fri, 8 Aug 2008 17:58:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080808/0240241932.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080808/0240241932.shtml silly for Congress to pass an outright ban of talking on mobile phones in-flight, but that probably won't stop the effort from going forward. However, new research is showing how this may be even less necessary than many assume. First, contrary to the idea that most people are worried about in-flight phone use, most younger users seem to actually support it.

As for the concern that it would just be really "annoying"? It turns out that when you look at actual tests (what a concept), this turns out not to be a problem. Passengers develop their own etiquette for keeping quiet and not pissing off other passengers. In other words, social pressures can handle most of the worst scenarios without the need for any sort of law that bans it in all situations. But, of course, this is Congress we're talking about. They're not huge fans of basing laws on what actually happens, but on what will generate the best headlines.

Also, just to respond to some of the misconception in the comments to the previous post: the potential ban has absolutely nothing to do with the technology issues related to using mobiles on airplanes. It's entirely about the etiquette/annoyance issue. Most of those technical issues have been worked out by putting a "picocell" on the airplane itself to redirect the voice traffic in a more efficient manner, rather than having the phones try to connect directly to towers on the ground.

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]]> we're-congress,-we-don't-do-empirical-evidence http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080808/0240241932