cranes

11.21.09

Flight of the Navigator

Humans help endangered cranes find their homes

By Catherine Schwanke Posted 04.10.2009 at 11:12 am 1 Comment

Photographed from an ultra-light plane last December, these whooping cranes are being taught to fly south for the winter. Almost completely wiped out by 1940, there are now 536 known captive and wild whooping cranes in North America. But those raised in captivity will not migrate to warmer climes automatically -- they have to learn the skill.

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READ MORE ABOUT > airplaces, aviation, cranes, flights, GPS, gps navigation systems, may 2009, megapixels, migration, ultralights

Podcast: How it Works

From Army choppers to concrete-smashing drills, Popular Science staff tell host Chuck Cage How It Works

By Popular Science Staff Posted 03.27.2009 at 3:00 pm 0 Comments

From the world's tallest mobile crane to NASA's new escape system for the Orion crew capsule, from the meanest drill to the Army's new Blackhawk upgrades, in this episode of Cocktail Party Science, host Chuck Cage sits down with Popular Science's Sr. Associate Editor Seth Fletcher to find out How it Works.

Download the episode here, or subscribe to the iTunes feed.

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READ MORE ABOUT > army, chuck cage, cocktail party science, cranes, Drill, helicopter, how it works, nasa, podcast

The Tallest Mobile Crane

This portable crane can hoist millions of pounds all day long, then drive home like any other 18-wheeler

By Michael Dumiak Posted 03.23.2009 at 10:57 am 10 Comments

Built for tasks like lifting 55-ton generators to the top of 300-foot windmills, the Liebherr 11200-9.1 might just be the world’s most monstrous truck. The 108-ton 18-wheeler doubles in weight when the boom—-which with extensions can reach 47 stories—-is attached. Fully assembled, it can lift up to 2.6 million pounds. Without the boom, it can drive on public roads, so getting it to a job site requires five fewer trucks than it would take to haul in and assemble an equally large fixed crane. It’s also far easier to move from place to place once it’s on-site.

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READ MORE ABOUT > april 2009, construction, cranes, engineering, how it works, how it works 2009, windmills