We all know that Air Force One transports the President around but what about the presidential candidate? Well for Mitt Romney, he used an airplane from a small airplane company in Michigan who will get it back now and have to “de-Romneyize” it: strip the logos, change the seats and clean it up. More »
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.
“No worries, we can watch this movie on my iPad on the plane,” I announced with confidence.
“Oh really? Cool. Let’s do that!” she replied, proud of her little nerdy man.
Yup. I was cool. I was going to rip a DVD that we just bought to watch on my iPad on a long flight to Korea. How amazed would she be when that movie so easily pops up on the Retina display as we ease into complimentary wine and processed air for a good 13 hours!
And then I tried to actually complete the task of getting a movie from a DVD to an iPad.
Continue reading This is the Modem World: It’s my movie
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This is the Modem World: It’s my movie originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Amidst heavy criticism—and in the middle of a Presidential race that will be key to its future—the beleaguered F-35 Lightning II program keeps marching on: Lockheed Martin has completed the fighter’s first weapons test, successfully dropping a 2,000-pound bomb from its left internal weapons bay over the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake’s test range. More »
Imagine walking down a quiet street and suddenly, a body just falls out of the sky. It’s a crazy, horrifying thought. But it’s nearly what happened in a suburb of London last weekend, when a stowaway hiding in the undercarriage of a plane en route to Heathrow plunged to his death. Sounds like a freak situation, but just how often does this madness happen? More »
Any eyes in San Francisco that weren’t focused on Apple’s announcements yesterday might have noticed something peculiar in the skies over the Bay area. As part of the ZERO1 Biennial—a months long festival celebrating the coming together of art and technology—an artist known only as Ishky used several planes to skywrite the first 1,000 digits of Pi over the city, in a piece cleverly (and obviously) titled Pi in the Sky. More »
The FAA has approved American Airlines to be the first commercial airline to have its pilots use iPads in “all phases of flight,” rather than the 35lb paper reference manuals they’re used to. More »
If I was a pilot and I saw a plane headed straight toward me, I’d figure I was doomed. If I was a pilot and I saw a plane stuck to my own plane, I’d figure we were both doomed. Luckily for these two pilots in Holland, who hit each other in mid-air and then found themselves stuck to one another, they managed to pull away from each other and land safely on the beach. Amazing. [YouTube via The Awesomer] More »
NASA isn’t just interested in extra-terrestrial exploration, but in pushing the boundaries of atmospheric flight as well, which is why it’s just awarded $100,000 in funding for the supersonic plane concept shown above. As you can see, the symmetrical plane is basically all wing, and that’s because it has two different configurations based on how fast you want to go. For normal, subsonic flight, a plane needs a decent wingspan to get off the ground and sustain flight at lower speeds. But, when you want to go supersonic, large wings become a bit of a drag, which is where the concept’s bi-functional design comes in. The plane begins its journey in the long-winged setup, but spins 90 degrees amongst the clouds to use its stubby wings for efficient faster-than-sound flight and “virtually zero sonic boom.” Gecheng Zha from the University of Miami has been touting his concept for quite some time, but now he’s got the cash to refine the design, run simulations and do some wind tunnel testing, with the potential for more funding in the future. Unfortunately, the concept is, at best, decades from becoming a reality, but we’re sold on the ninja star-like design. Guile, however, is not impressed.
Filed under: Transportation
NASA awards $100,000 grant for sideways supersonic plane concept, sonic boom not included originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In an effort to make flying in the cheap seats a bit more comfortable, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics have completely redesigned airplane seats giving passengers control over their individual climates. So one day fiddling with a vent might not be the only futile way to get comfy. More »
Folks over in the US of A have been utilizing Gogo’s up-in-the-air wireless amenities for quite some time now, which isn’t something we can say about our dear neighbors from The Great White North — unless, of course, you count the company’s current Aircell’s Gogo Biz service. That said, Gogo’s finally received the go-ahead to bring its in-flight WiFi goods to both commercial and business planes that are traveling within Canada and cross-border to the States, allowing the internet provider to deliver “seamless service” all-around. According to Gogo, the network will be fully operational by the end of next year, with the company assuring fellow Canadians that they, too, can “soon experience the same technology that has a proven track record of performance and reliability in the U.S.” Hit the PR below to delve into the formal nitty-gritty.
Continue reading Gogo gets the green light to provide in-flight WiFi over Canada
Filed under: Transportation, Wireless
Gogo gets the green light to provide in-flight WiFi over Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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