Electronic-Geek.com » Flying

Real Life “Up” House Lifted by Balloons

Becky Stern — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:00:45 +0000

It took this crew the short span of two weeks to “fly the house” in this National Geographic project to create a real life version of the house in Pixar’s Up– lifted into the sky by balloons. “The real Up! Scientists recreate floating house from Pixar movie… and prove it really CAN fly” at dailymail:

The team from National Geographic have built a house inspired by the Pixar movie Up! that can really fly.

Using 300 helium-filled weather balloons, a team of scientists, engineers, two balloon pilots and dozens of volunteers, they managed to get the small house 10,000 feet into the air.

Of course it was not a real house, but a custom-built light weight one.

Executive producer Ben Bowie said: ‘We found that it is actually close to impossible to fly a real house.’

Producer Ian White added: ‘But what we can do is kind of fly a light-weight house and fly it safely with people on board.’

[via designboom]

Australia’s Jetstar Airways takes the training wheels off iPad rental program, wants the tablet ‘on every aircraft’

Vlad Savov — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:06:00 +0000

Here's a quick and easy way to escape the mediocrity of those tiny low-res LCDs embedded in the seat in front of you: slap down 10 Australian dollars and upgrade to the iPad's IPS goodness for the duration of your Jetstar Airways flight. This rental option has been available on the Australian airline's flights since June, but only in pilot form (insert your own jokes here), and the feedback has been good enough for the company to make it a fleet-wide policy. "Movies, music, magazines, books and games" will all come preloaded, so you shouldn't fret about having to shell out extra hunting around for content. Licensing agreements are expected to be finalized shortly, with the rental program rolling out in full this April.

Australia's Jetstar Airways takes the training wheels off iPad rental program, wants the tablet 'on every aircraft' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW, CrunchGear | Australian Business Traveller | Email this | Comments

Gallery of spherical cockpit panoramas

Thehoboprince — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:04:56 +0000

The field of panoramic photography needs some better terminology, IMHO: "360-degree panorama," it seems to me, could just as easily apply to a circular panorama of, say, the horizon, as it could to a fully spherical panorama that also includes up, down, and every other direction in space you could possibly look from a particular point. Or maybe the term is already out there and I just couldn't figure it out? If you're in the know, please share below.

Anyway! 360 Cities has a beautiful gallery of 14 fully-spherical panoramas of various airplane and helicopter cockpits. I think my favorite so far, if only because it activates my 1980s Cold War nostalgia gland, is the Mi-24D "Hind" attack helicopter cockpit. [via Boing Boing]

British airports now beaming holographic security agents (video)

Christopher Trout — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:22:00 +0000

They've brought you presidential election coverage and promoted worldwide access to PCs, and now they're telling you to take off your belt and throw out your hairspray. Starting today, London Luton and Manchester airports will beam in images of holographic agents to prep passengers for the security line. Holly and Graham -- you heard right -- and Manchester's Julie and John are meant to cut queues, as well as human inconsistency. According to Luton's Glyn Jones, "Holly and Graham are not going to have a hangover; they're not going to have a row with their partner the night before." Just what we need: an army of holographic squares taking our jobs and making us all look a drunken mess in comparison. Thanks, technology.

Update: So it appears these aren't traditional holograms -- they're actually huge sheets of glass that are cut out in the shape of people, with the projection beamed on them. It's the same tech that Gorillaz use on stage, made by a company called Musion. Check out another video where the camera moves around the side.

Continue reading British airports now beaming holographic security agents (video)

British airports now beaming holographic security agents (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BBC | LLA, BBC | Email this | Comments

Water-propelled jetpack is no dream, can be yours for $99,500 this March (video)

Vlad Savov — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:15:00 +0000

It's taken a long time since that 2005 patent was filed for, but Raymond Li is now finally ready to bring his water-propelled jetpack to the money-spending world. Nailing down a March 2011 launch date and a price of $99,500 hasn't been easy for the inventor, who says his efforts to procure capital and prototyping quotations were mostly met with incredulity -- "almost everyone thought I was crazy." His JetLev personal transporter relies on an engine and fuel tank (which remain on the water's surface) to pump H20 into a backpack that then shoots out streams of the drinkable stuff to keep your airborne. Top speed is 22MPH, max height is nearly 33 feet, and the fun factor is somewhere off the scale, whether you're talking metric or imperial. Levitate past the break for a video demonstration.

[Thanks, Suraj]

Continue reading Water-propelled jetpack is no dream, can be yours for $99,500 this March (video)

Water-propelled jetpack is no dream, can be yours for $99,500 this March (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PopSci | New Scientist | Email this | Comments