Remember when I was all excited because someone put one of the Tim Burton era Batmobiles on eBay? Well I’m glad the auction was removed because it allowed me to save my money for this Airwolf replica instead. Unfortunately this Airwolf was never affiliated with the TV series, but was created for a helicopter museum in Tennessee. It is pretty accurate though, since it was built on an existing Bell 222A airframe and the side panels, nose panel and other details were all made from the real Airwolf’s specs and plans. In other words, this is probably as close as you’ll ever get to owning one.
Like the series, the helicopter museum is no more, which is why their collection is now up for auction. At the time of writing the latest bid was $38,900, but the reserve hasn’t been met. And if you plan on making your own bid, just keep in mind this is strictly a replica and can’t actually be flown out of your secret mountain base. Also Ernest Borgnine is not included.
Yesterday, in Switzerland, Yves Rossy made the first official demonstration flight of his jet powered personal flying wing. He was dropped from a plane at 8000 feet and spent 5 minutes flying (horizontally!) over the mountains at speeds of up to 186 MPH before parachuting gently to the ground. The wing itself is 8 feet across, and is powered by four Jet-Cat P200 jet turbine engines outputting 50 pounds of thrust each with a flight time of up to 10 minutes. There’s no integrated control system besides a throttle; Yves controls the direction of the wing entirely with his body. The engines enable him to ascend (up to 1000 feet per minute) but don’t bet on being able to take off from the ground all by yourself. Not that you’ll be getting one of these anytime soon… So far, there’s only the one, and no plans to produce more, and even if there were, you can bet you wouldn’t be qualified to use one.
I’ve never flown first class. Not once. I know that if for some reason it ever happens, it’s going to make the rest of my life flying economy that much more depressing. But finally, finally, someone has come up with a seat configuration that looks like it’ll make the whole experience suck not nearly so much. Designed by Thompson Solutions, Cozy Suite seats are arranged on a diagonal, which somehow allows more seats to be stuffed into the airplane, while also offering numerous advantages to the occupants, including lots more privacy and a place to rest your head. You also get 2 more inches of legroom, an average of 2 more inches of seat width, and best of all, the seat reclines by sliding down and forward, having no effect on the seat behind you, which means I’ll be able to relax a little bit without feeling like a total jerk.
Delta (or DeltaWest or whatever it’s turning into) should begin retrofitting its Boeing 777 and 767 economy classes with Cozy Suites in 2010, which is not soon enough… These seats are better for passengers AND carriers, so let’s all get with the program, shall we?
Although you can’t buy one, the F-117A Night Hawk stealth fighter is perhaps one of the coolest gadgets to be produced in the last few decades. The entire fleet of 52 planes was informally retired on Tuesday in order to free up money for F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightning IIs. They’re not going to be sold off to museums or scrapped or anything like that; they’ve proven their combat effectiveness and will be held in reserve in case they’re needed again at some point in the future, which is the same thing that happened to the battleship Missouri. Anyway, after the jump, I just thought I’d post some pics of this excitingly chunky, totally badass airplane. Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to remote control helicopters, I’m a bit of a snob, in that I own one of these and know how to fly it without crashing (most of the time). R/C helis like the one I have allow for the same range of control as a real helicopter: pitch, yaw, roll, and throttle. That’s four axes of control. Most of the little PicooZ helicopters have so far been only two channel: you can go up and down, and left and right (they keep going forward on their own). That, for me, takes away the whole point of flying a helicopter… The ability to hover. The PicooZ Tandem Z and the PicooZ 3 Channel Helicopter are new additions to the PicooZ micro R/C heli lineup, and that third channel adds a forwards/backwards control, letting you hover these little guys. The third addition (the yellow one in the picture) is only two channel, but it’s extra-tiny. Otherwise, the stats on these are about the same: infra-red control, 20 minute charge, 10 minute flight, trim control, LED, made of something crash resistant, and multiple frequencies are available.
You’re looking at about $80 for the Tandem, and $60 each for the other two. Available now from Red5; it’ll probably be under the Air Hogs brand when it shows up in the states.
Isn’t she a beauty? This is Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the solar system’s first commercial passenger spaceship that we know of. It was just announced on Wednesday, along with its mothership, White Knight 2. SpaceShipTwo is designed to ferry 6 civilian passengers and 2 crewmembers 68 miles above the surface of the earth, where they’ll spend a few precious minutes in weightlessness, drinking in the view, before descending back to the ground at a peak force of 6 gravities over 20 seconds. All for just $200,000.
Okay, so the personal jetpack is pretty cool, but I think the personal jet wing is even cooler. Although it can’t (yet) launch you into the air, the four rocket engines (not sure if they’re rockets or jet turbines) bolted onto the carbon graphite wing provide enough thrust to propel the pilot horizontally for 4-6 minutes at 115 mph, at around 8000 ft (after you’ve jumped out of an airplane first). Landings are accomplished via parachute. Yeah, so maybe it’s not quite as practical or versatile as the personal jetpack, but doesn’t it look badass, especially with the folding wingtips? Vid (it’s in French, but you just want to see the thing in action, right?) after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
The guys at Gizmodo are in Dubai for an air show, and spotted this bit of news. Sheikh Rashid, the ruler of Dubai, just purchased the first unit of the Aerion Supersonic Business Jet. And some jet! Even at $80,000,000 the bird seems to be worth every penny. It’s able to sprint up to 1.6 Mach, and cruise at 1.5 Mach where allowed, which is pretty much only over oceans. At this speed though, an Atlantic crossing is done in just two hours. Over land, it can fly along at 0.98Mach in the USA (due to regulations) at a similar cost-per-mile than competing subsonic private jets; in other parts of the world, where regulations only require no sonic boom to reach ground, it can speed up to 1.1 Mach without a boom. Its twin Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines produce 19,600 pounds of thrust and it has a ceiling of 51,000 feet.
Expect delivery around 2014, and if you’re serious about getting one, you can leave a $250,000 deposit now. Then, you can call me and buy me lunch, you rich bastard.
Looking for ways to entertain yourself in the evenings? How about flying a fake flying saucer over metropolitan areas? That sounded like fun to Steve Zingali, who built himself a 3 foot wide reinforced foam flying saucer that’s remote controlled and can hit 40 mph thanks to a tiny electric motor. Does it work? I’d say so:
Soon, Orange County motorists were chasing strange lights in the sky. Orange County’s Mutual UFO Network was taking calls about erratic, flying objects. And the Web site UFOinfo.com was posting reports of “glowing orbs” in south Orange County. One 53-year-old man reported a large glowing ball that “appeared to drip fire.” It traveled about five miles in a few seconds, he said, and left an “acrid type odor” in the air.
[Inventor Steve Zingali] is now connecting a 7.4-volt lithium battery to a foam toy with flashing lights that make it appear to spin. He starts the propeller and sends it into the night sky above the Aliso Viejo Town Center. Voices rise as quickly as the UFO: “Oh my God.” … “UFO.” Shoppers gallop up the hill, including Haywood Bagley, who told his wife: “I hope they don’t start shooting. If I go down, you get in the car, Baby.” At 400 feet altitude, the UFO (which weighs about a pound) looks like a mammoth spacecraft miles away, dancing, diving, hovering, now flitting away. “Oh my gosh, did you see it? There was a UFO bigger than my house!”
“We’ve had strange calls – people reporting UFOs and strange sounds in the air,” says Lt. Rich Paddock, police chief for Aliso Viejo. “But they’re not doing anything illegal. There’s no ordinance that says it’s illegal to fly a super-double-secret, gyroscopic UFO in county airspace.”
You know what this really is, of course… The government is paying this guy to fly his fake super-double-secret gyroscopic UFO around to distract attention from the real mega-triple-classified überscopic UFOs. It’s a conspiracy, man, and you can be part of it for about $1000.
In September, I posted an article over at BotJunkie about a robot helicopter that reminded me a little bit of Airwolf. After that, I rented some Airwolf DVDs on Netflix, and now that I’m hooked on the show (okay, not really, I remembered it being way more awesome than it actually is), I just had to show you this working Airwolf helmet which is currently for sale on eBay. When I say “working,” it means that the helmet is a padded fiberglass custom motorcycle helmet that will, in fact, protect your head. It also features a speed visor, an LED targeting bar, and a specially designed battery pack. Whether the speed visor and LED targeting bar also work in some fashion is unspecified. The helmet itself is painted in the original Airwolf color, “Phantom Gray Effect.” Totally badass, and yours for the buy it now price of $900. A just because it’s Airwolf Airwolf video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
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