Hasta La Gadget!

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.

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.

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

The Federal Aviation Association announced back in 2011 that it would be rolling out what they call iPad Electronic Flight Bags for use in the cockpit to replace all of the flight manuals and paperwork. Finally, American Airlines is the first airline to get approval for the iPad, and they’ve given eager minds a chance to take a look at the new system.

Travel website Gadling got a sneak peek inside of an American Airlines cockpit where the iPads are just starting to roll out. The iPad Electronic Flight Bag essentially replaces 40 lbs. worth of flight manuals and other paperwork with one single iPad, as well as a HyperJuice external battery that acts as a backup battery to extend the iPad’s battery life an extra 24 hours if need be.

The iPad replaces a slew of manuals and books, including all the Jeppesen approach plates, company manuals, and operations manuals that pilots had to haul around all the time. All of that gets stuffed into an iPad, and the tablet gets attached to a mount that sits right beside the pilot for quick and easy access during a flight.

However, there’s still one manual that pilots will be required to carry around, even with the iPads, and that’s the Quick Response Handbook, which provides information on emergency procedures. However, it’s not that big of a manual, so pilots won’t see it as a big deal, especially since they’re getting rid of 40 pounds worth of paperwork already.

So far, American Airlines has approved the iPad for the Boeing 777, 737, and McDonnell Douglas MD-80, while approval for the 757 and 767 is forthcoming. iPad have to go through a series of tests from the FAA, just as rapid decompression in a hypobaric chamber, as well as testing of the iPad mounts.

[via Gadling]

American Airlines gets approval for iPad-equipped cockpit is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Boeing says it has a fix for the battery problems that grounded its new 787 Dreamliner, and tonight executives are answering questions about the fixes. A Q&A live streamed on Boeing’s website features president and CEO Ray Conner and VP / Chief Product Engineer Mike Sinnett talking about why they believe the airplane is safe to fly. According to Sinnett, the design of the battery has been changed, an enclosure was added and the charger has had its maximum charging levels reduced. For his part, CEO Conner plans “to fly on the very first flight.” Hit the link for the ongoing stream, and see if their explanations satisfy any doubts you may have, or check out a detailed list of the changes after the break.

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: Boeing, Boeing Airplanes (Twitter)

Google Glass is just a couple months away from being shipped to developers, and Google is hoping to have them available to the public sometime before the year’s end. In the meantime, people are pondering the implications of the new technology and are coming up with all the ways that Google Glass could be used, including JetBlue, which has come with their own concept for how the glasses could be used for air traveling.

On its Google+ page, JetBlue posted up a few concept images of what traveling could look like through Google Glass, with the caption, “we would continue to help the world view air travel through a whole new lens.” With Google Glass, you could check the status of your flight, get directions to baggage claim, look up taxi fare estimates, and even see where a good place to park would be.

Of course, $1,500 is quite a bit of money, and while a wearable computer like Google Glass could be worth every penny, most consumers won’t want to pay that kind of cash, especially when their handy-dandy smartphone can do the same kinds of functions. Then again, it seems Google Glass is all about the convenience factor and not having to carry around a smartphone at all.

Either way, JetBlue’s concept is actually really stellar, and it makes us want to get a pair for ourselves to make traveling easier. The airline’s Google Glass concept is a part of Google’s own marketing campaign that asks users to tweet or post the hashtag #ifihadglass and explain what they would use Google Glass for.

[via Business Insider]

JetBlue shows off Google Glass concept in airports is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After the recent fiasco with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners and their melting lithium-ion batteries, it seems that Airbus won’t be taking any chances and will be dropping lithium-ion batteries when building their new A350 aircraft. The airplane manufacturer is afraid that regulatory uncertainties will delay production of its new plane.

However, Airbus says that the reason for not using these unpredictable lithium-ion batteries has nothing to do with safety concerns, but rather scheduling and the possible delay of the A350 aircrafts, which are expected to ship to airlines sometime during the summer next year. Airbus says that they don’t want the ongoing battery investigation to interfere with their production schedule.

Airbus will switch back to traditional nickel-cadmium batteries in the A350, mostly because the technology has been proven solid over the years, and they believe in the safety of the tried-and-true batteries. Of course, Boeing’s bold step toward lithium-ion technology was unprecedented and an ultimate game-changer, but it was a risk that ended up turning sour for the airplane manufacturer.

Airbus expects its new A350 to make its first test flight sometime this summer, and it will then undergo further test flights over the year. The manufacturer plans to seek certification from European aviation authorities by early 2014, with an expected launch date of summer 2014, where the new plane will finally be ferrying passengers around the world.

[via WSJ]

Airbus to skip lithium-ion batteries in new planes is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.