• Draganfly Draganflyer X6

    By Posted on 11.11.2008 Comments

    There are model helicopters, and then there are military unmanned aerial vehicles. The Draganflyer X6 is the first hovering craft that fits right in between. This small helicopter, the first to use six horizontal blades for a stable hover and speedy turns, is designed to supply aerial video to everyone from police to hobbyists. The pilot guides it by handheld controller while wearing video glasses that allow him to see what the chopper sees through a camera attached to a vibration-free mount on the vehicle’s belly.

    11.26.2008 at 10:23am - Comment by klark

    Pretty cool! The army could use them to scout areas without risking lives. They also could be used to find coordinates for artillary if they add a laser tracker and rangefinder to it.

  • Sony XEL-1 OLED Television

    By Posted on 12.9.2008 Comments

    Hanging a television on the wall is nice. Even better is sticking it on, like wallpaper. The first organic light-emitting diode TV isn’t that thin, but at three millimeters, it’s close. (Sony has prototypes that are one tenth as thick.) It also produces stunning colors and the highest contrast possible—from brilliant white to pitch-black. OLEDs have long promised these results, while presenting plenty of challenges. The achievement of taking OLED from a lab experiment to a consumer product is the top innovation of the year.

    Article Rating:
    11.19.2008 at 11:09am - Comment by klark

    That's neat; just make it a little bigger and turn it into a touch screen. It might be a good computer screen to start out.

  • NASA Mars Lander

    By Posted on 11.11.2008 Comments

    Aside from actual living things, the ultimate find for planetary science is the stuff that makes life possible: water. That’s exactly what NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander found in July, when its scooping device uncovered clumps of ice buried just beneath the surface of the Martian arctic plain. Guided by a team of scientists at the University of Arizona, the Lockheed Martin–built spacecraft has been up there since May, gathering soil samples using its robotic arm and capturing the highest-resolution images of another planet ever taken.

    Article Rating:
    11.19.2008 at 11:04am - Comment by klark

    pretty cool; what next?

  • Technology

    The Ice Plane Cometh

    By Greg Soltis Posted on 11.18.2008 3 Comments

    The South Korean air force showcased its new aircraft testing and evaluation center on opening day, September 8, by coating this F-4 Phantom fighter jet with ice. In the facility, engineers simulate conditions that a plane might encounter at 40,000 feet to determine if the craft’s composite structure—particularly in its wings—can endure the freezing temperatures without cracking.

    11.17.2008 at 04:35pm - Comment by klark

    Cool, but will it work?



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