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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completes its second test flight (video)
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo might not have the flashiest name, but a lack of nominal originality didn't stop it from completing its second test flight today at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Back in April, SpaceShipTwo's first flight hit an altitude of 55,000 feet (traveling at Mach 1.2) before descending, but this time around, the little rocket plane that could one-upped itself. After being ferried to a height of approximately 40,000 feet by carrier-craft WhiteKnightTwo, the ship soared to an impressive 69,000 feet at Mach 1.4 while the engine roared for a total of 20 seconds. The outing, led by pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols, also marked the first test of the craft's wing-tilting re-entry system. According to Virgin's Sir Richard Branson, SpaceShipTwo's progress means that the company is still on track to launch its commercial service in 2014. To see the test flight for yourself, check out the video after the break.
Everybody is flying, and everybody is crabby
Ben Huh is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cheezburger. He will be speaking at Expand NYC this November. Unidentified internet humor company founder planking during a flight. Plenty of people travel more miles than I do, but in 2012, I spent 171 days on the road. 2013 so far? 120 days. When I started Cheezburger, I didn't expect to travel this much, but my role has increasingly become chief evangelist, recruiter and promoter. Technology's impact on travel can be felt every step of the way, starting with weight-saving undergarments to the constellation of GPS satellites we take for granted watching over us. Everyone is used to complaining about air travel: Food is terrible (if there is any); the TSA is getting worse; seats feel smaller; we've suffered a string of computer-system-generated delays; horrific crash photos make the rounds on social media like wildfire; and airlines are charging fees, fees, everywhere. Having traveled intensively pre- and post-9/11, the air-travel experience has actually gotten much better. Yet we live by the Louis C.K. Rule: Everything's amazing, and nobody is happy. Let me count the ways from front door to hotel door.
Google Now's voice query support gets ported to Google Search: ask, and you shall receive
Google Now's a solid product, but it's reach is also fairly limited... compared to Google Search, anyway. Now, the company's voice element in Search -- which was updated in a major way back at I/O in May -- is gaining some of that Now flair. In the coming days, Google will be rolling out a smarter Search to all US, English-speaking users on desktop, tablet and smartphone, regardless of platform. You'll need only to tap the microphone icon instead of typing in a search query, and then ask humanistic questions about your upcoming flight(s), reservations, purchases, plans and photos. Naturally, you'll need your flight confirmations sent to Gmail and your photos stored in Google+, but if you're already neck-deep in Google's ecosystem, the newfangled functionality ought to serve you well. For a few suggestions on questions to try, check out the company's official blog post. (Hint: don't ask what your Facebook friends are doing tomorrow.)
LIDAR system uses lasers to detect clear air turbulence before it hits
Fact: turbulence is no fun at all. Aside from the brief moments of bone-deep terror it can cause passengers, clear air turbulence (CAT) can also prove costly for airlines in terms of damages. To help pilots deal with difficult-to-spot areas where CAT is likely to occur, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is spearheading a new joint European project known as DELICAT. Essentially, the DELICAT program calls for planes to be equipped with a light detection and ranging instrument (LIDAR) that emits short-wave ultraviolet lasers. Radiation then bounces off oxygen and nitrogen particles in the air, indicating fluctuations in air density that signal the presence of CAT pockets. Until the end of August, the DLR will run test flights in a specially modified Cessna Citation plane to both show off LIDAR's capabilities and to give researchers invaluable data on CAT patterns. Though the system is still in its infancy, the folks at the DLR hope that the technology will one day become a standard part of commercial air travel.
Solar Impulse ends cross-country US flight slightly early in NY due to torn left wing
Solar Impulse has successfully hopped its way across the US, completing the final leg of its journey from Washington Dulles International Airport. While today marks the end of the effort at New York's JFK airport as expected, the solar-powered aircraft landed a roughly three hours early -- this, due to an eight-foot tear in its left wing discovered over Toms River, New Jersey. According to the crew, the breakage posed no significant threat to pilot André Borschberg, but it did mean a planned fly-by of the Statue of Liberty had to be nixed. If you'll recall, this was the first US-based trip for Solar Impulse, which the team used largely to raise further awareness about energy efficiency. Aside from that, you can bet some extra publicity can't hurt before a future model is set to make a flight across the world in 2015. Relive Solar Impulse's Across America start at Mountain View, CA here and get more info about the full endeavor at the source link. Livestream wrap-up embedded after the break.
Daily iPad App: FlightRadar24 lets you spot planes using your iPhone
Every once in a while, I travel to the big city of Portland, Maine, and swing by the airport to watch a plane or two. I have a radio to listen to the control tower, so I know when planes are landing or preparing to take off. It's fun listening to the radio chatter, but these FAA-sanctioned conversations tell me little about the plane itself and its flight. To fill in these blanks, I recently started using FlightRadar24 Pro. FlightRadar24 Pro is a universal app so it runs on the iPhone and the iPad. It's convenient on the iPhone, but I prefer the slightly larger screen of the iPad mini, which is perfect for a visual, mapping app like FlightRadar24. When it launches, FlightRadar grabs your location and shows you the planes that are near you. The app is regional so you can see planes even when there are none directly overhead. It's also a real-time view so the planes move along their flight path while you have the app open. When you tap on a plane, a pop-up window shows information about the plane model, the flight and the plane's current speed and altitude. Besides the map view, FlightRadar24 Pro includes a 3D view that lets you peer through the cockpit of the plane. It's rendered for a mobile device so the land and water textures are decent, but not great. It's no Microsoft Flight Simulator. There's also a handy flight path view that shows the entire flight of the plane. Since I live on the Eastern seaboard, there are a lot of international flights overhead and it's fun to see how the planes fly over from Canada, the Middle East and Europe. FlightRadar24 Pro is available for the iPad for US$2.99. There are a few in-app purchases that'll let you add on flight model graphics for 16 planes, arrival tables and unlimited alerts. If you want to try out FlightRadar, you can download a feature-limited free version that lets you track overhead flights, but lacks the details on the plane and its flight. If you prefer not to buy an app, you can also just Ask Siri about those planes overhead.
American Airlines finishes rolling out iPad flight bags
Some airlines and aircraft makers have made a big deal of moving to tablet-based flight bags, but few can say they've made a complete switch. American Airlines can -- it just finished deploying iPad-based kits to all its cockpits, which can use the tablets at every stage of flight. The move lets the carrier ditch paper charts and manuals across the board, with an according round of savings in fuel and weight. Regional partners haven't made the leap to digital, although that may come soon: American Eagle Airlines will have the choice of using iPad flight bags starting on July 10th. While most of us in the passenger seats will never notice the difference, the shift will likely help American's bottom line.
FAA planning to let you use your gadgets in flight
I know those flight attendants are just doing their job, but I've always resented being made to "turn off" my iPhone and iPad during pre-flight announcements. Ever since Mythbusters disproved it, I've never believed that there was a problem between my iPad's wireless connection and the airplane's signaling (especially in Airplane Mode, which is what it's for, right?), and I've always secretly suspected that turning things off was just a ploy to make me rewatch those safety instructions yet again. Now, finally, it looks like the FAA is ready to relax those rules, after another report saying that there are no issues between consumer wireless devices, and airplane tools. The regulations themselves date back to the 1960s, when wireless devices were indeed very different, and it's about time these rules were laid to rest. Note, however, that the report doesn't mention actual phone calls -- this change, if made, would only be about turning devices on and off, not full wireless interaction. Certainly, there are good reasons to keep flight passengers quiet and paying attention during pre-flight announcements, and if that's what this is all about, then they should say that. But the "wireless interference" story has always been bunk, and hopefully, if this report is finalized, we should see the FAA turn the rule around officially in a few months. [via @martinvars]
Airbus Bag2Go smart luggage wields GPS, RFID to skip airport hassles
Many of us avoid flying with checked baggage when possible, and for good reason: even a simple delay can sour a whole trip. Airbus' new Bag2Go prototype could save us from having to pack light, however. The smart luggage carries a raft of sensors that work with an iOS app to bypass the usual airport drudgery. Its RFID chip lets travelers check in their bag and link it to every step of their itinerary; in theory, couriers can ship baggage to the hotel at a lower cost than usual. Bag2Go should also provide some reassurance through GPS tracking and alerts to any possible tampering. Airbus is still early into development, but it foresees a business model where customers can either buy a Bag2Go suitcase at a premium or rent one for a long vacation. As for us? We'll just be happy if our luggage avoids an unexpected detour to Belize.
The Nexus Telegraph: Still moving in WildStar
The downside to writing about WildStar in this stage of the game's lifecycle is that because of the very nature of beta tests, I'm going to be spending a lot of time speculating instead of talking about certainties. Last week, I speculated. I was wrong on some points, as I found out when I got a letter from Carbine clarifying some things that had previously been ambiguous enough for speculation. The upside to writing about WildStar in this stage of the game's lifecycle is that sometimes I get letters from development staff letting me in on valuable inside information. Aside from being able to clarify my previous incorrect speculation, I also have for you a number of other important bits of information regarding the game this week, including a brief discussion of whether or not the game will allow for flight on a regular basis. So since that's well worth discussing, let's go ahead and just make this column another dialogue about movement.
Google adding quick action buttons, real-time flight status to Gmail
Responding to an invitation or checking in for a flight soon won't require any typing at all, assuming you're using Gmail to manage your inbox. When the situation calls for it, new quick action buttons will pop up in an email, letting you accomplish simple tasks without reaching for the keyboard. For event RSVPs, you can even mark your attendance from the main inbox view -- a preview with all the key details will pop up, letting you respond with a simple Yes, Maybe or No. On the air travel front, flight confirmation emails will now display your flight status in real time, along with a check-in box, which will boot you directly over to the carrier's site. As you've probably guessed, Google will be rolling out these new features gradually, so if they haven't already appeared in your browser, you're certainly not alone.
Daily iPad App: Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is an excellent game sold badly
My birthday was last week on May 6, and Firaxis must have heard about that because in recent weeks they've released not one, but two great turn-based strategy games. First, Haunted Hollow was released as a great, original free-to-play title, and now the legendary Sid Meier (of Civilization and Pirates) has released a game called Ace Patrol, available as a free download on iOS. Ace Patrol is excellent -- it's a turn-based dogfighting game, where you manuver pilots in WWII around a battlefield, climbing, diving and swooping around into position all while trying to accomplish certain goals or take out the other side. Progression in the game is marked by "maneuvers," so pilots who have leveled up have access to more and advanced moves. Weapons fire for free, but you've got to line up closely to the enemy, preferably behind them, to avoid any incoming attacks. Unfortunately, as good as the game itself is, Firaxis really missed the mark on this one's freemium plan. The in-app purchases on Ace Patrol are just plain confusing -- you can play through a number of missions for free, but then when you spend some money to unlock the rest of the missions, you (currently -- I'll bet this is fixed soon) don't get to keep your progress. Additionally, while in-app purchases give you access to other nations, you also sometimes need to pay to get your lost pilots out of being captured. Fortunately, there are "superpacks" you can buy (which essentially open up the game's content), but the whole scheme just isn't well-thought-out. Haunted Hollow's IAP was clear and well-designed, but the same care hasn't been taken here, unfortunately. Still, Ace Patrol is an excellent game, a very well-designed set of battles put together by a master game developer. There are quite a few of these turn-based battle simulations to go around (Leviathan Warships is another recently released variant, though that one takes place on sea and is more complicated than Ace Patrol), but Ace Patrol does an excellent job of combining really deep strategy with easy and accessible gameplay. Grab this free download right away for sure.
Solar Impulse sets off on its journey across the US (video)
Early this morning at Moffet Air Field in Mountain View, California, Solar Impulse finally took off on the first leg of its barnstorming tour across the US. Of course, this isn't the first time the sun-powered plane and its pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, have flown long distance, but it is the first time it's taken wing through American airspace. Why has it come across the pond? To raise pubilc and political awareness about the benefits of going green and increasing energy efficiency -- and perhaps pick up an additional sponsor or two for its second-gen aircraft (currently in development) meant to fly around the world in 2015. "With the technologies we have onboard, we can divide by two the energy consumption of our world, and produce half of the rest [energy we need] with renewable sources" according to Piccard.%Gallery-187494% This first portion of the journey will end in Phoenix, and it'll take around twenty hours to get there, as the plane's meager output limits its average speed to around 40MPH. Should any of you want to join along with Piccard and Borschberg as they fly across the country, you can hit the Solar Impulse Across America website to see a livestream from the cockpit, along with real-time altitude, air speed and battery status of the aircraft. And, you can watch a video of Solar Impulse taking off on its North American journey and hear Borschberg talk about learning to fly it after the break.
Ethiopian Airlines completes first commercial 787 Dreamliner flight since grounding
Nervous flyer? If so, it's probably best you weren't heading from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on business recently. If you were, you might have found yourself onboard the first commercial 787 Dreamliner flight since the global fleet was grounded due to concerns over battery failures. The flight comes just days after the FAA approved Boeing's fix, prompting deliveries of the new craft to resume. With Japan already having cleared the 787 for takeoff, we can expect to see a few more of them in our skies soon. We're more interested in joining the mile-high Android club.
Priceline says mobile flight bookers like taking it easy
Priceline.com is one of the most well-known flight- and hotel-booking sites out there, and the company recently shared some information with TUAW about how its mobile device-based users tend to set up travel. The company identified three trends for the people booking flights from mobile devices like iPhones and iPads, presumably through the company's iOS app. First, those who booked air travel on mobile devices tended to be younger than the average purchaser of a flight ticket on a desktop. The average age for a mobile booker was around 32, about six years younger than desktop users. That still seems old to me, but it makes sense that the people booking flights tend to be older, as they're most likely to have the money for traveling this way. Mobile air bookers also tend to book things closer in advance, says Priceline, and about half of those booking flights by mobile device only booked one-way tickets, which the company says means those users like to make plans on the move rather than far ahead of time. Finally, mobile bookers had one big advantage: They tended to pay less for their tickets, with an average price of $283 as compared to desktop users' $315. I'm not sure that means mobile bookers have a nose for deals necessarily; maybe it just means that people tend to book pricier flights on the desktop in general. No matter what the reason, it's definitely interesting that there are such clear differences between Priceline's mobile users and those on the desktop.
Solar Impulse to fly across the US, pilots preparing for a trip around the world in 2015
We've been tracking the sun-powered plane known as Solar Impulse for years as it roved hither and yon. Today, Solar Impulse's pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, came to NASA's Ames research center to announce their plan to fly across America. The cross-country tour will begin in the Bay Area and end in New York, with stops in Phoenix, Dallas and Washington DC in between. Solar Impulse will also land in either Atlanta, Nashville or St. Louis, with the plane and its pilots set to stay in each locale for about a week to ten days to talk about the project before moving on. For the next month, Piccard and Borschberg will perform test flights around the Bay Area in preparation, and the plan is for the journey to start on May 1st, with an estimated arrival in Gotham sometime in early July.%Gallery-184318% The point of this new flight is to inspire and educate the public in general of the benefits of renewable energy and efficiency, and to encourage school children and university students in particular to "think off the grid" and innovate and invent on their own. To that end, the pilots will be broadcasting live transmissions and allowing the public to speak with them as they fly, in addition to providing access to flight planning information on the Solar Impulse website. Read on to learn a bit more about the Solar Impulse project and it's future plans.
Drifter, buoyed by a Kickstarter, heads toward release later this year
I first saw Drifter, developer Colin Walsh's great space trading simulation, at last year's GDC. Back then, the game was a great idea, though Walsh's Celsius Game Studios had plenty of work to do. In the year in between, however, Walsh carried out a successful Kickstarter, picking up over $80,000 in support for the title. As a result, the game is not only coming out on iOS but also being released on PC and Mac, and Walsh has picked up composer Danny Baranowsky to do the music, as well as an artist to help him with the game's assets and UI. I got to see the game again this week at GDC 2013, and Drifter looks terrific these days -- it's very clearly a love letter to the space trading genre (which includes games like Elite, Privateer, Freelancer, and EVE Online), an open world sandbox game on an epic scale. The universe the game creates (which is generated randomly every time you start a character) spans 10,000 light years, according to Walsh, and contains 20,000 star systems to travel through. You pilot your ship manually, and while the game as I saw it last year had a top-down view on a 2D field, the latest version has moved the camera to a behind the back view, which Walsh says really makes everything look that much bigger. Some of the larger systems might take a full hour to fly all the way across, if you were to just hit the accelerator and go. But instead of merely flying across the universe, of course, you can jump from system to system, with a short cooldown period in between each jump. During this cooldown period, you might be attacked by pirates, so every system has its own safety rating. Alternately, you could do the pirating, attacking any ships you find at will and trying to steal their cargo. Whether you come across goods by stealing them, by buying them, or even by mining them yourself (by blowing up various astroid fields you come across), the game also supports a complicated economy, where every system has its own price structure and goods for sale. And Walsh says that though it's not done yet, there will eventually be a crafting/synthesis system as well, where you can make more complicated tech out of other materials you find. Finally, says Walsh, once the sandbox elements of the game are completed (and players can fly around the universe on their own, collecting goods and money as they'd like), he wants to try and put some story into the game, building up missions and quests to send people around the world. That's a large feature that may not make it into the game's first release, but Walsh isn't worried. Currently, the game is in beta for early Kickstarter backers, and then he's going to release it to other Kickstarter backers, before eventually showing it off to the public. And then Walsh says there's lots of room to grow -- he expects to support the game with new features and content after release, listening in close to what the community wants as the game is put together. I asked Walsh if he'd always planned to run a Kickstarter, and he confirmed that yes, even though he'd done quite a bit of work on the game before the campaign, "I've been thinking about Kickstarter since I started." The Kickstarter money has definitely pushed the process along, however -- in addition to gaining an artist and the budget to support one, it's given Walsh a strong community of space trading fans very interested in the game's development. The other Kickstarter backers should get their beta starting in April, and then Walsh is hoping for a May beta for the Mac and PC version. Soon after, sometime this summer, the iOS version should appear on the App Store, and after that, Walsh hopes to spread it to even more platforms, including possibly a Steam Greenlight release. There should be no substantial difference between the versions, though the PC version's graphics may be a little more high fidelity. But Walsh says he's working on a cloud save option, where players would be able to play on one platform, and then load that exact game somewhere else. Drifter looks like a great game -- Walsh definitely knows his space trading genre, and this is an excellent example of why these games are so popular with the genre's fans. Walsh has plenty of work to do, and it'll be very exciting to see where the game goes as he moves further and further into development. But this is definitely an example of a Kickstarter campaign really paying off, and providing a game's creator not only with a larger budget to put into action, but a dedicated community to support his work.
Qantas expands in-flight iPad program for passengers
Back in 2010, we reported that Qantas Airways' Jetstar flights would offer iPads to passengers as in-flight entertainment, and in 2011 the program began testing on the carrier's own jets. Now the Hindustan Times is reporting that the Australian airline has expanded the in-flight iPad program. Qantas's Boeing 767 aircraft (16 in total) operating on flights between Sydney and Honolulu are now equipped with iPads, which allow passengers to stream more than 200 hours of movies, TV shows and music during the flight. The music and video entertainment is streamed directly to the iPads over the plane's onboard WiFi via Qantas's inflight entertainment technology, Q Streaming. Qantas says that newspapers and magazines, interactive games and business / travel apps will be added to the service over the coming months. The market for budget airlines operating in and around Australia and Asia is increasingly competitive, and Qantas hopes the iPads will lure would-be travelers. Meanwhile, other airlines are making different choices for tablet technology; American, which already provides iPads for pilot flight manuals, is going with Samsung tablets running Android for flight attendants, premium passenger entertainment and maintenance workers.
Firefall's latest video explores the joy of flying combat
If you watch Firefall's most recent video, you would be forgiven for assuming that this game single-handedly pioneered aviation. That's OK, we suppose, because what Firefall offers in the way of in-flight service does look awfully enjoyable. Jetpacks, rocket boots, and glider wings are all on display as Firefall's characters rain down death and destruction while giving rude gestures to boring old terra firma. Check out the video after the break and let us know if you think that flight is an essential (and perhaps addicting) element for a sci-fi shooter.
FAA clears Boeing to fly 787 Dreamliners in limited testing, ferrying
Fans of the 787 Dreamliner haven't had much reason to cheer for the past few weeks when the FAA grounded all US jets over concerns of battery failures. While there's no update on the reported fix, Boeing can at least say that the 787 is clear to fly again. Sort of. The FAA has given permission to Boeing to conduct flight tests under certain conditions. The company has to conduct battery- and insulation-related pre-flight inspections, watch battery behavior like a hawk, use only its own pilots and fly over unpopulated areas. Harsh terms to be sure, although we won't have to wait for the dry runs to see the 787 airborne once again: the FAA also gave Boeing clearance to ferry one of the airliners from Fort Worth, Texas to Everett, Washington after some paint work. It went off without a hitch, as you'd infer from the photo above. We're still some distance away from once again hopping on Dreamliners for long-haul flights, but the aircraft will at least have a chance to flex their muscles before they resume their main duties.
