Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, you read that right. A maniacal Frenchman piloted a home-made rocket-powered bicycle to what he claims was a speed of 163 mph. On a bicycle. Holy crap!

François Gissy developed the rocket bicycle with the help of the Swiss company Exotic Thermo Engineering, which created the hydrogen peroxide powered propulsion unit. A GPS placed on the bike was used to measure the speed. The video is quite short, as François holds on to the rocket bicycle as it rushes past a car.

He made the run on a disused air force runway this past Sunday and the speed record is as yet unverified. Other sources state that the bicycle went much slower, but we’ll soon find out if this really was the fastest bicycle on Earth.

[via Bikeradar]

A group of British researchers at a company called Reaction Engines has announced new aircraft technology that could make air travel much faster. The researchers have created what they describe as “the biggest breakthrough in propulsion since the jet engine.” The Sabre engine use a fancy compressed helium cooling system able to cool air entering the engine from 1000°C to -150°C in 1/100 of a second.

The technology is able to cool the incoming air at incredible speed and without creating any ice that could cause problems. The new cooling system could allow jet engines to run at much higher levels of power than is currently possible without overheating. The researchers believe that aircraft using these engines could reach speeds of over 2000 mph, propelling an aircraft from London to Sydney in about 4.5 hours.

The company also believes that these engines might allow aircraft to go from atmospheric flight to space flight in a single stage. The aircraft engines may also be able to gather enough oxygen from air at low altitudes to create their own fuel before switching to internal fuel sources for higher speed travel.

[via Telegraph]

The last time we saw an EV pit itself against a BMW, it wasn’t a good day for the German car. On this occasion, the beemer is the EV, and it’s one that all the others will officially have to enjoy viewing from behind. The car in question is the Rimac e-M3, the fledgling EV-firm owner’s personal custom ride, and it’s just been officially acknowledged as the fastest accelerating electric vehicle (with some category caveats). The record-breaking run actually happened April 2011, but it seems the FIA isn’t quite so fast when it comes to making things official. The Croatian driver covered the first eighth of a mile in 7.549 seconds, needing less than five more for the same distance again (1/4 mile in 11.808 seconds). This is where the official-dom ends, but the total mile was completed in 35.347, which is still pending the FIA nod. Happy as driver Mate Rimac is, he already thinks there’s something faster. What might that be? His new pre-production Concept_One of course. Catch the car in action after the break.

Continue reading Rimac e-M3 breaks EV acceleration records, soon to be dethroned by its own creator (video)

Filed under: Misc, Transportation

Rimac e-M3 breaks EV acceleration records, soon to be dethroned by its own creator (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Oct 2012 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the last few years, we haven’t seen the kind of gains in computing speed that one might expect if you’re strictly following Moore’s Law. We’re beginning to run into limits on the frequency of any single CPU or GPU, and one of the modern ways to get past this limitation is through the use of parallel computing architectures.

However, programming for parallel chips hasn’t been an easy transition for traditional programmers, and the technology has largely remained the domain of high-end engineering projects. However, one company is pushing an initiative to bring parallel computing to everyone.

Adapteva has been producing multicore chips with 16 cores for a little over a year now, and is now testing a 64-core chip. The plan now is to produce a low-cost parallel processing kit for as little as $99. The hope is by providing fully open source hardware and software, development for and adoption of parallel processing would increase dramatically. As this takes hold, the plan is to launch a computing platform called “Parallella.” According to Adapteva: “Once completed, the Parallella computer should deliver up to 45 GHz of equivalent CPU performance on a board the size of a credit card while consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. Counting GHz, this is more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W.”

By launching its first kits on Kickstarter, the company aims to drive production costs down dramatically, and in exchange will open source the chipset as well as all documentation and software. The $99 kit will put an Epiphany-III based Parallella board in your hands, including a dual-core ARM A9 CPU, as well as 16 Epiphany cores on board and development software.

A pledge of $199 or more will get you the upcoming 64-core Epiphany-IV board – if the project is able to reach a stretch goal of $3 million. With 17 days left to go, the project has raised nearly $300,000 of its $750,000 goal, so there’s a way to go. If you’re into tinkering with the latest in technology, and want to see what you can do with an extremely powerful chip, then you might want to get in on the project and pledge.

I’ve always had a fascination with flight. My favorite aircraft is the SR-71 Blackbird. The Blackbird was a spy aircraft that ventured into enemy territory for many years with nothing but speed and altitude for defense. That aircraft held flight records and still holds many to this day despite having been retired for years.

A group of aerospace engineers is set for a test flight of an aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider today over the Pacific Ocean. This new plane is even faster than the SR-71. The goal of the test flight is to cruise at 3600 mph for 5 minutes. At Mach 6, a passenger aircraft would be able to fly from Los Angeles to New York in 46 minutes – though it probably would be quite uncomfortable for its passengers at that speed.

The WaveRider will be attached under the wing of a B-52 bomber and carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu. The aircraft will then release and accelerate on its Mach 6 journey. The goal of the X-51A program is to perfect hypersonic flight for use by military and commercial aircraft as well as spacecraft and more.

[via Seattle Times]