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Scientists develop 'nanosphere' paint that could reduce planes' carbon dioxide emissions
A new paint using nanosphere-based ink could weigh just 10 percent that of traditional options. It could have financial and environmental benefits.
A Dash-8 commuter plane flew for 15 minutes with a hydrogen fuel-cell engine
Universal Hydrogen has announced that it completed a 15-minute test flight in a 40-seat Dash-8 commuter plane with the largest ever hydrogen fuel-cell engine.
Boom finds a new design partner for its Symphony supersonic jet engine
Overture test flights are now slated to start a year later than previously planned, but Boom still expects the supersonic jet to be certified for commercial flights in 2029.
Boom's supersonic jet is facing a lack of interest from engine suppliers
Boom may be in a bind with its supersonic Overture jet, as no jet engine manufacturers are interested in the project.
Delta confirms it worked with SpaceX to trial Starlink's satellite internet
SpaceX has been working to put Starlink internet on planes for quite some time.
Designers hope hydrogen-powered plane will fly halfway around the world without refueling
The zero-emission aircraft would supposedly match the speed and comfort of current midsize planes.
We won't have electric airplanes until battery tech improves
We are nearing the age of electric airplanes, just need the batteries to get stronger and lose a bit of weight.
Gogo in-flight internet has been renamed Intelsat
Consider the old name go-go-gone.
Luminar will bring its LiDAR tech to Airbus planes and helicopters
The companies hope to 'ultimately enable safe, autonomous flight.'
EU regulator says Boeing 737 Max is safe to fly
A software-based safety upgrade may not be ready for another two years, however.
A typo created a 212-story monolith in ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator’
Microsoft Flight Simulator users recently found an unusual landmark: a 212-story monolith towering over an otherwise nondescript suburb in Melbourne, Australia.
Boeing found another software bug on the 737 Max
Boeing is working to fix yet another software bug on its 737 Max, Bloomberg reports. The glitch involves an indicator light for the "stabilizer trim system," which helps raise and lower the plane's nose. The light was turning on when it wasn't supposed to. Boeing is already resolving the problem, and it still expects the 737 Max to resume flying by mid-2020.
The Morning After: PewDiePie is taking a break from YouTube in 2020
Welcome back! This week should be less busy, with fewer oblong-shaped gadgets to discuss (we got the new Xbox and talked all about the Mac Pro last week). In the run-up to the holidays, there's simply not as much big tech news. If you're planning to travel home or visit family, we've got gift guides that you might want to peep at. Something that we missed, though, are the dongles and cables to smooth your transit. I just flew back from New York to London on Saturday, and while it's no nine-hour flight (that's CES in Las Vegas next month), it's long enough to demand some gadget charging. The curse of an early adopter struck, however -- my bag was filled with USB-C cables for my iPhone 11 Pro, Switch and wireless headphones. Airplanes seats, if they have any charging ports at all, are old-school USB-A, so there's another difficult transition on the horizon, just after we accepted the death of the headphone port. A USB-C to USB-A dongle is now on my Amazon wishlist if anyone needs a last-minute stocking filler for me. Now, onto what happened over the weekend. -Mat
Recommended Reading: The 15th anniversary of 'Halo 2'
When 'Halo 2' invaded planet earth Anthony John Agnello, The Ringer In the latest installment of "things that will make you feel old," Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004 -- which makes it 15 years old. The Ringer takes an in-depth look at the game's legacy, including how it made video games a shared experience and its lasting influence on things like streaming culture. Oh yeah, it was also the best-selling entertainment (not just gaming) release of all time when it debuted. Insane.
All I want to do is chill and play 'Flight Simulator'
It's been a long day. You get home as the sun is setting and close the door behind you, throwing down your keys and sliding off your shoes. You grab a drink and sink into the chair in front of your PC. The screen boots up and -- click, click -- it's filled by a long stretch of asphalt backed up by the mechanical hum of a single-engine Cessna. You throttle the small plane forward, straighten out, and take off. As soon as you're in the air, you flip the perspective from inside the cockpit, surrounded by dials and gauges and window frames, to a third-person view just behind the plane. Suddenly, the land below stretches 600km in every direction, alive and dense with realistic detail. Above, an infinite sky is peppered with layers of mist and clouds. You pick a direction and fly.
Researchers designed a shape-shifting airplane wing
If you've had a window seat next to the wing of an airplane, you've probably watched as flaps on the wing engage and disengage as a plane takes off and lands. That's because in each phase of flight -- take off, landing, cruising and maneuvering -- the ideal wing parameters vary. Until now, we've made do by modifying rigid wings with hinged surfaces. But imagine if the entire wing could change shape -- that's what researchers led by NASA and MIT are working towards.
Rolls-Royce may use bug-like robots to assist airplane engine repair
Rolls-Royce showed off a handful of small robots this week that could aid in the inspection and repair of airplane engines sometime in the future. Though still under development, the tiny robots could lead to faster, less labor-intensive engine inspections as well as cost reductions for engine maintenance. The technologies, which were displayed at the Farnborough Airshow, are being developed in partnership with other companies as well as researchers at the University of Nottingham and Harvard University.
MIT's autonomous drone is equal parts albatross and sailboat
"The oceans remain vastly under-monitored," said Gabriel Bousquet, an MIT postdoc who led the design of a unique robot as part of his graduate thesis. "In particular, it's very important to understand the Southern Ocean and how it is interacting with climate change. But it's very hard to get there." Bousquet and his team designed a hybrid vehicle that can both fly above tumultuous seas and sail on them when things are calmer. The vehicle uses one-third as much wind as an albatross would and travels ten times faster than a typical sailboat, making for a very efficient way to survey the vast areas of the planet's seas.
Perlan glider sets altitude record for unpowered flight
Gliders may be inherently limited by their nature (they're dependent on rising air currents), but that isn't stopping them from achieving feats normally reserved for their powered counterparts. The Perlan Project and Airbus have set a new record for engineless flight with Perlan 2, which flew to a lofty 52,172 feet -- well above the 50,727 feet the previous record holder (appropriately, Perlan 1) reached in 2006. The trick was to fly in the right place at the right time.
Sony put me in a fake plane to test its noise-cancelling headphones
Sony makes an awful lot of headphones. Ranging from the cheap-but-passable to premium and pro-level items, it's been in the personal audio game for a long time. This year, it's following up on its award-winning wireless noise-cancelling MDR-1000X cans with the WH-1000XM2, adding more features and augmenting its already-capable noise cancellation skills. Naturally, at a show like IFA, that might not be enough to hold the attentions of Engadget's official audio dilettante (me), so Sony made a faux plane fuselage, equipped with some lounge chairs, Sony's top hi-def audio players and those new cans. It also threw in some fake plane background noise for testing purposes. Welcome aboard.
