Autonomous Planes Enter Testing Phase
You’ve probably heard about the various versions of autonomous cars being tested, but you may not have known aircraft are also riding the autonomous wave. With so much of aviation already controlled by a computer, this move comes as less of a surprise than driverless cars.
The latest test involves a Jetstream aircraft known as “the Flying Testbed” fitted with onboard sensors and autonomous systems taking to the skies over the UK. ASTRAEA (Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment), the group behind the test, has received £62 million in funding from a combination of private investors and the UK government. Continue reading
Rolls-Royce Backs Supersonic Car Project
Rolls-Royce has signed up to provide its EJ200 jet engine for the Bloodhound supersonic car project, which hopes to drive a car past the 1,000 mph mark.
The jet engine will help get the vehicle to 350mph, then ignite a rocket motor that will move the car at supersonic speeds. The current land speed record is 763mph, and members of the team that set that record are involved in Bloodhound. (That vehicle, the Thrust SSC, used a Rolls Spey 202 engine.) Continue reading
Round Lunar Pod Deemed Viable
Northrup Grumman has evaluated Golden Spike Company’s plans of a lunar landing pod, and determined the design is “viable.”
Golden Spike, founded by former NASA employees, plans to offer commercial moon flights to governments for $750 million a pop, using the “Pumpkin” pod, along with other technologies. Continue reading
Concrete Airplane Takes (Brief) Flight
Engineering students have a lot of experience building concrete canoes, as we documented back in 2012. Some students at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology have taken things a step further by designing a small-scale concrete airplane that can actually fly (sort of). Continue reading
Virgin Galactic Tests Spaceship Two
Alien presented a future in which the exploration of space was handed over to commercial, rather than governmental, oversight. Nothing good comes of this for the crew of the Nostromo, but hopefully this isn’t another case of science fiction prophesizing for future science fact.
The U.S. has already turned over a fair amount of the responsibility for space exploration to commercial enterprises, such as SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic has entered the race with the successful launch of its test ship, the Spaceship Two (SS2). Continue reading
- Forming Technologies Announces FASTBLANK for PTC Creo Parametric
- MakerWare 2.2.0 Released
- Helix Creation for CFD Simulations
- Moldex3D Releases eDesignSYNC v12.0 for PTC Creo
- Pointwise v17.1 R3 Released
- Luxion and GrabCAD Partnership Introduces Integration Between Platforms
- Cray Launches Hadoop Solution on Cray CS300 Line
- SEAL Swim Band Team Dives Into Pool of Design Challenges
- PTC Live Global 2013: This is Your Car, Reminding You to Change Oil
- Intel Haswell Signals Shifting Focus with Mobile Readiness and Power Efficiency
- COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b Introduces Single-Window Integration with Inventor and Excel, Five New Modules
- Dassault Acquires Apriso to Stake Out Manufacturing Operations Turf
- Amazon Launches 3D Printer Sales Department
- Autodesk’s Tinkercad Deal: A Boon to 3D Printer Adoption?
- Optomec Launches LENS 450 Metal 3D Printer
- Rapid 2013 Day 2: The State of the Additive Manufacturing Industry
- Multi Proto Lab Debuts at RAPID 2013
- Optimism Abounds at RAPID 2013 Conference and Exhibition
- RAPID 2013 is On