geekosystem

There's been a lot of focus on hybrid cars in the last few years, but what about other modes of transportation? A team of NASA engineers have shown a new manufacturing method for their "hybrid-wing" design that might cut fuel consumption in half. NASA estimates it could be 20 years before the new production method becomes commercially available, but the technology could begin to help improve conventional aircraft much sooner. Maybe they could use it to fix the battery on the 787?

People can be touchy about air travel these days, so a shirt with the words "prepare to die" written on the front might not be the smartest choice of apparel for a trip through the friendly skies. "Prepare to die" sounds intimidating, but it's all about context. The phrase, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," is frankly downright inspiring, but when Wynand Mullins wore his The Princess Bride shirt with that line onto a plane, he found out the other passengers weren't fans, and he was ultimately asked to remove it.

An airline losing your luggage is one of many terrible things about flying. You land in a new place, go to the baggage carousel and wait, and wait. And wait. Bags that look like yours come down the chute, but are picked up by other travelers. You start to worry. Eventually you realize your bag's not there at all. Then you talk to someone at the airline who tells you that not only is your bag not at that airport, but they have no idea where it is. GlobaTrac has introduced the TrakDot, a small cellular device to track your luggage so you can at least tell the airline where they sent it. Then you can tell them where to stick it.

Sure, Louis C.K. wasn't wrong when he chastised folks for complaining about in-flight Wi-Fi connections, but that doesn't mean they're wonderful either. Some airlines have them, others don't, and it always seems to be a weird and different method to connect every single time you fly. Then it goes down, or it costs way too much to even bother with, but sure, it's still a cool thing to have. Now, more airlines should start to embrace in-flight Wi-Fi thanks to updated regulations from the Federal Communications Commission. You'll be able to complain on even more flights soon enough!

Wi-Fi on airplanes is great as an idea, but the sad reality is that W-Fi on airplanes is actually terrible. Anyone who tries to connect their device to an in-flight Wi-Fi connection is in for a spotty, frustratingly slow experience, and as more people start using Wi-Fi enabled devices, it's only going to get worse. Boeing wants to improve in-flight Wi-Fi, so they've begun a new process for testing signal strength using sacks of potatoes as stand-ins for humans. Makes sense. As far as most airlines are concerned, we're all just sacks of potatoes anyway.

America is under attack. There's a serious threat targeting the country's air travel system that, if left unchecked, could lead to put hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens in jeopardy. What's the cause of this growing problem, you ask? Little kids waving laser-pointers at airplanes. The FBI is concerned about it, so they've created a new task force, the Laser Strike Working Group National Initiative, devoted to study and stop people who try to blind pilots with lasers.

Frozen waste from the various aircraft flying overhead at any given moment is often referred to as "blue ice." Contrary to popular belief, it is exceedingly rare for any of this waste to actually escape as planes require it to be manually released from the outside. This means that a pilot can't decide to suddenly deposit the plane's waste wherever they feel like, as the tank isn't accessible by them, but leaks aren't impossible, just uncommon. The Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, is now investigating claims that two Long Island homes had their roofs punctured by falling waste this past Sunday.

This shocking video from a Chinese airshow captures the heart-wrenching seconds before an FBC-1 "Flying Leopard" (Xian JH-7) nose dives straight into the ground. If you watch closely, you can see a pilot eject before the plane crashes. Chinese news sources are reporting that he is recovering, having suffered only mild injuries. However, the FBC-1 is a two-seater aircraft, and the second pilot is reported as "missing." This is the second crash of an FBC-1 since 2009.

Everyone needs a hobby, from video games to historical re-enactors. But this weekend in Valdez, Alaska, pilots of all stripes will be showing off their skills in the Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) Competition at the annual Valdez Fly-In and Airshow. Far from the comforts of large, well-kept airports, pilots operating in the backwoods need mere feet to land and takeoff, opposed to the 1,000 to 1,500 feet typically used.  This weekend, they'll prove it. And these aren't your everyday small aircraft, either. Wired writes about the modifications to one young entrant's plane, to help him compete:

The massive 35-inch tires are inflated to less than 3 psi to absorb the impact of landing on rocks and other debris. They also give the wing a high angle of attack to aid in decreasing the takeoff and landing distances. The engine has been stroked out an additional 15 cubic inches (375 total) and puts out around 210 horsepower. To help balance the heavier engine, the composite propeller weighs just 14 pounds. The result is helicopter-like performance.

Just how little space do these pilots need? Read on after the break to see a video of a super-slow landing, and shockingly fast take-off.

No, we're not talking about something from Axe Cop. Or Dr. McNinja. This is an honest-to-god RC airplane that looks like a shark. We can just see a gaggle of them chasing Adam West across a theme park. Also in our nightmares. We see them in our nightmares. (via Neatorama.)

Kenyan IT professional Gabriel Nderitu has built an airplane from scratch using a 4,000 RPM Toyota NZE engine, aluminum-sheeted wings, and a 74-inch wooden propeller. All told, the project has cost Nderitu about $5,500. The aircraft isn't yet 100% flight-ready, but Nderitu hopes to take it for a spin next week -- assuming the Kenyan authorities let him fly it. Either way (although the scenario in which he flies it is admittedly more awesome), this is quite an impressive feat. (via AVWeb, Gizmodo)

Unsettling news from this morning's USA Today: When the paper analyzed federal flight accident records, they discovered that "More than half of the 522 fatalities in U.S. airline accidents since 2000" could be traced back to problems with the flight simulators that pilots use to learn how to fly commercial airliners. While on the whole, flight simulators are a good thing for air safety, in that they allow pilots to log training hours without real-life passengers on board, current simulators oversimplify certain key aspects of flight -- which is made worse in that many airlines don't warn their pilots of the simulators' limitations.

IFE services recently announced that it has agreements settled with six airlines and ongoing negotiations with several more to distribute airline-specific PSPs to be used as in-flight entertainment.

All the necessary considerations have supposedly been made by IFE: The PSPs are designed to "to be comfortably held or positioned on a seatback tray," which really seems like its inherently true of any portable gaming device, but sure. Also, these PSPs will have an extended battery life offering between 5.5 and 11 hours of gaming time. This is a pretty wide range, which is a bit worrisome.

That 11 might just be there to impress people, and 5.5 hours can still leave a lot of time left over on a long international flight. Still, this is a pretty cool offering, and it's far superior to the crappy personal-screen solitaire-esque offerings we're often stuck with now.