fly with the birds

12.03.08

Aero Boy

At age 14, he was setting model-airplane records. At 32, he was an international soaring champion. Now, almost 50 years later, his company, AeroVironment, designs the most innovative unmanned aerial vehicles. To Paul MacCready, it's all the same thing.

By Carl Hoffman Posted 05.13.2003 at 1:59 pm 0 Comments

It's a Tuesday afternoon at a small, radio control modeler's airport near Los Angeles, and the guy bent over his model Messerschmitt Me-109 looks serious. After a lot of fiddling, he squeezes gasoline into the little piston engine and connects his toolbox-cum-battery pack to the airplane. She's a beauty: deep forest green, meticulous iron crosses on fuselage and wings. "Flies for 16 minutes before

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speedy The Fastest Swimsuit on Earth
"At the Beijing Olympic pool, perhaps the only star bigger than Michael Phelps was his swimsuit. The Speedo LZR (pronounced "laser"), like Phelps, didn't disappoint: 16 of the 32 gold-medal winners wore the full-body suit, and another 13 wore LZR pants."
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speedy A Finish that Repairs Itself
"It won't save you from a key-gouging vandal, but the finish on the 2008 Infiniti EX and FX-model SUVs can erase scrapes caused by, say, car washes or stray branches."
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speedy Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser
"Truck-mounted IED-destroying lasers have already been tested in Iraq, but firing lasers from an airplane is a more difficult proposition."
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speedy A Spit Test for Heart Attacks
"This year, San Antonio EMT crews began using a spit test that detects cardiac arrest faster, more accurately and more cheaply than other diagnostic tests."

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Eleven Clever Tips for Digital Camera Owners
You've got the technology in your pocket, so make the most of it
Middleweight Camera Championship
A series of comparison shots from the showdown of smaller “big” cameras from Canon, Olympus, and Panasonic
Dude, Where's My Flying Car (and Jetpack, and Robot Armies)?
Whatever did happen to yesterday's beloved technologies of tomorrow?

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