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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.
Twitch chat successfully barrel-rolled a ‘Flight Simulator’ plane
Twitch chat users successfully flew a plane in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Virgin Galactic reveals its Mach 3 aircraft design
Virgin Galactic unveils its Mach 3 high-speed aircraft design and plans to work with Rolls-Royce.
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.
Garmin's new nav system can emergency land small planes
Flying in a small plane is thrilling (and at least slightly terrifying) when things go as planned. It's another story when the pilot of the small plane is, for whatever reason, suddenly unable to fly or land it. Most passengers would have no idea what to do. And for that reason, Garmin has introduced Garmin Autoland. With the push of a button, equipped planes can navigate and land themselves.
Boeing's folding wingtips get the FAA green light
Passengers on Boeing's new line of 777 planes might not have to take a bus from the gate across the tarmac, despite much larger wings potentially making it difficult for the aircraft to navigate terminals. That's because the company received Federal Aviation Administration approval today for its folding wingtips -- those will let the planes stop at airport gates big enough to accommodate typical 777 models.
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.
Malaysia Airlines will be first to monitor its planes by satellite
Three years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the South China Sea, starting an multinational hunt for the plane. Despite rumors of a sophisticated hijacking or seizure of the aircraft by a foreign government, it was presumed lost in the ocean. To prevent another disaster over open water, the UN pushed for particular plane signal system that can be tracked from the ground or by satellite. But Malaysia Airlines just struck a deal to use a network of the latter that will enable them to monitor their planes anywhere they fly on earth -- including over the polar ice caps.
Watch DARPA's autopilot system fly a turboprop plane
It'll likely take a long time before DARPA's autopilot system flies military planes on its own, but this latest demonstration proves that it works. Aurora Flight Sciences, the aviation company that's developing the technology for the agency, has successfully tested it on a Cessna Caravan turboprop aircraft. Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System or ALIAS is comprised of a robotic arm and a tablet-based user interface with speech recognition, among other components. When installed on a plane, it acts as the co-pilot in charge of flying the aircraft -- its human companions can chill and spend their time keeping an eye on the weather or looking out for any potential threats.
Amazon launches 'Prime Air' with a cargo plane, not a drone
The first time we heard about Prime Air it was emblazoned on drones Jeff Bezos showed off for 60 Minutes in 2013. Now Amazon is revealing the logo on a flying machine that operates on a much larger scale. Amazon One is just one of its 11 dedicated planes, and the Boeing 767-300 will be flying this weekend at a Seattle airshow. The company says that maintaining its own air cargo network -- the planes are leased from shipping partners, with plans to expand to 40 over the next couple of years -- will help it keep shipping speeds up.
Solar Impulse completes its round-the-world journey
In March 2015 Solar Impulse 2 took off from Abu Dhabi and tonight it has successfully returned, completing a 40,000km+ round the world trip. It managed the feat "without using a drop of fuel," becoming the first to manage the feat thanks to sunlight, piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg. Its arrival is a bit delayed, partially due to some problems with heat-related battery damage, but just making the trip helps the project's goal to show off the potential of transportation powered by green energy sources.
Solar-powered aircraft completes its flight across the US
Solar Impulse 2 continues its slow creep around the globe, this time completing its journey across the US by landing in New York City. It first arrived in the continental US back in April when the solar-powered aircraft touched down in San Francisco, and now has completed its 14th leg since leaving Abu Dhabi in March of last year. It's not the fastest way to get around -- especially given delays due to battery damage -- but it is very green, which is the whole point. Next up is an Atlantic Ocean crossing, with a destination in either southern Europe or Northern Africa. Check below for video of the latest flight.
Don't even think about vaping on a plane
There are a number of public places where smoking is banned but the use of e-cigarettes is not. Well, you can take commercial flights off of that list. The US Department of Transportation banned the use of the smoking devices on planes that are leaving from or coming to the States. In other words, the no smoking rule that was already in place for tobacco products was expanded to include electronic cigarettes as well.
UN group bans lithium battery shipments from passenger planes
Lithium-ion batteries, like those commonly used in laptops and smartphones, are no longer allowed to be shipped as cargo on passenger planes, the United Nation's International Civil Aviation Organization decided this week. There's no need to worry about your carry-on gadgets here -- the ruling applies only to shipments of lithium batteries in the cargo area of a commercial airliner. The new safety measure goes into effect on April 1st, and it should hold tough until ICAO and its partners can implement new, fire-resistant packaging standards for lithium batteries. That's expected to roll out by 2018.
ICYMI: Cheaper exo suits, radical plane design and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-132582{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-132582, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-132582{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-132582").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A Berkeley robotics company is building exoskeleton suits for children with neurological conditions. Australian scientists are testing an implantable bionic eye. And a Ukrainian inventor is proposing to redesign planes with a detachable section that could land safely in case of an in-flight disaster.
Flying the Icon A5, an almost affordable personal plane
As we cut through the skies over the Hudson River and traced a loop around the Statue of Liberty, I spent as much time glancing down at the instrument cluster as I did peering out the window. That might seem like a huge waste of time given the views I was taking in but I couldn't help it: It's not often I wind up in the cockpit of a plane looking at dials and readouts, much less ones that make sense to me. That's because a pilot and I were tooling around in an Icon A5, a $189,000 "light sport" amphibious aircraft that's eager to shrug off the complexity of (relatively) cheap aviation. After nearly ten years of development and fighting for FAA approval, the A5 is almost ready to make the skies accessible to the well-heeled.
NASA working with students on Mars airplane concept
NASA is hard at work on designing the perfect aircraft to land on Mars. Just a couple of weeks ago, the space administration showed a new wing shape it is testing for future Red Planet-bound planes. As part of furthering these developments, NASA recently brought on a few students to help with its Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars program, otherwise known as Prandtl-m aircraft. The participants built a boomerang-shaped plane made of carbon fiber, which was then tested in an aircraft hangar and a different set of higher altitudes outdoors. Unfortunately, NASA says test flights didn't turn out as expected every time, namely due to the complexity of having an adequate launch system in place. One option, for example, was to have a radio-controlled plane that would take the research aircraft to the necessary altitude and have it be released.
Fast in-flight WiFi is coming to Europe
While in-flight WiFi is now pretty common in the US, connectivity in Europe is a little harder to come by. But that could soon change if a new joint-venture between UK satellite company Inmarsat and operator Deutsche Telekom gets off the ground. The two companies today announced the launch of the European Aviation Network, a new framework that combines LTE and satellite networks to deliver high-speed internet across the continent.
NASA starts testing light and flexible plane technology
NASA has successfully completed a series of tests making sure that the X-56A Multi-Utility Technology Testbed (MUTT) aircraft can withstand flights up to 130 knots in speed. See, the X-56A isn't your typical aircraft: it's a remote-controlled test model the space agency's using for the development of flexible flight tech, which will be used for lightweight, eco-friendly planes. NASA needs to test the technology extensively, since planes with pliable wings are typically more susceptible to strong winds and vibrations. In fact, this recent round of testing only completed all of the agency's "stiff wing objectives." X-56A 2.0 -- yes, this is the second version, as developer Lockheed Martin already put the first one through the wringer in 2013 and 2014 -- doesn't have its flexible wings yet. Those special airfoils will be attached in the next few months before the aircraft takes off for its first flexi-wing flight in early 2016.
