The World's First 'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' For Transporting People Is Unveiled At The CES Show In Las Vegas

Daily Mail: The MEGADRONE big enough to carry a passenger: Chinese firm says self-flying craft could be used as a smart taxi

* The all-electric vehicle has four arms with eight propellers at the end allowing it to travel up to 60mph
* Ehang says the 184 is autonomous, so all the passenger has to do is enter their final destination into an app
* FAA regulators have not approved the drone for human use in the US, but Ehang is hopeful they will do soon
* Cost is yet to be revealed and the company claims a commercial version of the craft will be available this year

A Chinese drone maker has revealed a giant quadcopter big enough to fit a passenger.

EHang claims to be building the world's first 'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' for transporting people.

Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas and called the 184, the all-electric vehicle has four arms with a total of eight propellers at the end.

'You know how it feels to sit in a Ferrari? This is 10 times better,' George Yan, co-founder of Ehang said in an interview with DailyMail.com.

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CSN Editor: They have their work cut out for them .... but my gut is telling me that this product is going to do well .... especially if they can bring down the price.

Interpreting Global Flight-Path Maps

Global Flight-Path Maps: Five Interpretations -- BBC

Michael Markieta's images depicting flight paths across the planet attracted huge interest from our readers. What do the maps reveal? We asked five experts to give their interpretation.

The art critic

Wow, it's beautiful. It is not only dealing with two-dimensionality, it's trying to create three dimensions, or four dimensions - giving you a notion that you are travelling across the surface of this image.

It's almost like contemporary fractalisation - based on fractals, those beautiful divisions of science and nature. A number of artists have exploited them. Max Ernst based a lot of his surreal landscapes on fractalisation.

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My Comment: Northeastern U.S., Europe, and northeastern Asia .... those are the hot spots for air travel.

Real Time Map That Shows You Every Plane In The Air Right Now

Flightradar 24 makes it possible to track flights all around the world

Rush Hour In The Skies: Real Time Map That Shows You Every Plane In The Air Right Now -- Daily Mail

At any given moment there are an estimated 5,000 commercial airplanes in the skies over the United States and now there's a website that enables you to track them, in real time, on a map.

Flightradar24 makes it possible to track flights all around the world, whether commercial airliners, private jets or military aircraft.

The website's flight map is updated every couple of seconds. Using the map you can track a specific flight, mark out its route, the airport from which it departed and where it is supposed to land. You can even see its altitude and speed.

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Editor: Flightradar24's website is here.

10 Workplace Secrets Of Flight Attendants

10 Shocking Secrets of Flight Attendants -- Mental Floss

Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet. We begged Poole to reveal 10 workplace secrets.

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My Comment: Diet Coke ... hmmmm ...

A Successor To The Concorde?

Artist's impression of the new supersonic commercial passenger aircraft which will fly at speeds of 2,500 mph

The Race To Build A Successor To Concorde: Boeing, Gulfstream and Nasa Join Forces To Create A Supersonic Jet Capable Of Flying From London To Sydney In FOUR HOURS -- Daily Mail

Aircraft enthusiasts are waiting with growing anticipation for the unveiling of plans for a supersonic jet that may be able to fly London to Sydney in just four hours.

U.S. builders - helped by the Nasa space agency - will reveal the prototype successors to Concorde at the Farnborough air show next month.

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My Comment: Being cooped up in an airplane for more than 4 hours has always been a pet peeve for me. Cutting that down to a quarter of the time will get no objections from me. But .... I suspect that the ticket prices will be expensive.

The Amazing U-2

High Spy: The Amazing U-2 -- Air & Space Smithsonian

Who would have thought that the Lockheed U-2, Kelly Johnson’s late, uninvited, and losing entry into a 1950s Air Force competition for a reconnaissance aircraft, would still be flying intelligence-gathering missions almost 60 years after its first flight? Challenged for its role as the sultan of surveillance by reconnaissance satellites, by Lockheed’s Mach 3 glamour puss, the SR-71 Blackbird (retired in 1999), and most recently, by the big Northrop Grumman surveillance UAV, Global Hawk, the U-2 flies on—above 70,000 feet, for as long as 12 hours at a time.

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My Comment: A collection of fascinating stories on the U-2.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Marks It's First U.S. Passenger Flight

Japan Airlines' Boeing 787 arriving at the gate at Boston's Logan International Airport. Photo: GE Aviation

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Begins First U.S. Passenger Flights -- Autopia

Sunday marked the first U.S. passenger flight for Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner, with Japan Airlines flying non-stop between Tokyo and Boston. The airline is the second to receive the efficient new composite airliner after fellow Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways. But JAL is the first to fly the Dreamliner to a U.S. city. The flight also marks Boston’s first non-stop service to Asia and the 787′s first transpacific flight.

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My Comment: A few years late .... but better late than never.

F-18 Navy Pilots Ejected While Flying At 170 MPH

Credit: U.S. Air Force

Navy Pilots Ejected From Jet Flying 170 MPH -- Discovery News

Yesterday, just minutes after an F/A-18D jet took off from the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virgina Beach, Va., the two pilots on board realized their aircraft engine had failed catastrophically. Immediately, they turned back toward the airfield, dumping jet fuel in order to reduce the aircraft's weight, a technique that could have helped them reach the runway just two miles away.

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My Comment: This could have been a catastrophic crash with multiple fatalities .... talk about good luck.

Who Screens The Pilots?

Fly For Fun

Are Airline Pilots Screened For Mental Health? -- Air & Space Smithsonian

The case of the ranting JetBlue captain—who went berserk when his co-pilot locked him out of the cockpit after noticing erratic behavior—got us wondering: how are airline pilots tested for soundness of mind?

Although the Federal Aviation Administration requires physicals every year for commercial pilots under 40 and every six months for those older, the FAA does not require psychological checks. The FAA-approved doctors order testing only if they think a pilot needs it.

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My Comment: After what happened with a JetBlue captain this week .... psychological screenings will probably soon become the norm.

Another Version Of The Supersonic Jet Of The Future

Supersonic Biplane This biplane concept is based on a design by engineers at Tohoku University. MIT/Christine Daniloff

The Supersonic Jet Of The Future Will Be A Biplane -- Popular Science

When supersonic travel inevitably returns to the skies, the airplanes are going to look a lot different. At least one design harks back to the early days of aviation with a biplane design, rather than a sleek delta-winged jet like the Concorde. This shape can apparently produce much less drag and therefore much less noise at supersonic speeds, MIT engineers say.

The decreased drag would make a supersonic biplane more fuel-efficient and it would produce a quieter sonic boom, because the shock waves propagating toward the ground would be canceled out. The trick is getting it to fly.

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My Comment: Cool.

Amazing Video: 'Jet Man' Stunts Alongside Fighter Jets Over Alps

WNU Editor: OK .... I am impressed.

A New Type Of Airship

New Type Of Flying Vehicle In Development -- Voice Of America

A California company is developing a new type of airship for transporting cargo and, possibly, passengers. It is not an airplane and not a blimp, but has elements of both. The vehicle uses new technology and has commercial and military applications.

The new flying ship from the Aeros Corporation is called an Aeroscraft, and is designed to carry more than 50 tons of cargo and make deliveries thousands of kilometers away.

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What Happened To That Superjumbo?

Down to earth, after a bang (Image: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images)

From New Scientist:

Debris rained down on the island of Batam yesterday morning after an engine appeared to explode on an Airbus A380 – the world's largest commercial airliner – flown by Qantas. The plane then dumped fuel for 2 hours and made an emergency landing.

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New York To Sydney In Just 2hrs 30mins: Nasa To Develop 'Hypersonic' Passenger Jets That Travel At Five Times The Speed Of Sound

From The Daily Mail:

NASA is planning to build hypersonic jets that will fly through the Earth’s atmosphere and slash flight times around the world to a few hours at most.

The US space agency wants to manufacture a craft that would travel at five times the speed of sound and bring in a new age of aircraft akin to a turbo-charged Concorde.

Travelling at such speed would reduce the flight time from New York to Sydney to around two-and-a-half hours, from the 21 hours it is now.

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Revealed: Europe's Hybrid 'Helicraft' That Makers Hope Will Smash The Speed Barrier... And Steal U.S. Rival's Business

High-speed: The X3 is equipped with two turboshaft engines that power a five-blade main rotor system and two propellers installed on short-span fixed wings, creating an advanced transportation system offering the speed of a turboprop-powered aircraft and the full hover flight capabilities of a helicopter

From The Daily Mail:

A revolutionary winged helicopter that hopes to break the speed record has finally been unveiled after months of secrecy.

European group Eurocopter showed off the high-speed aircraft in a bid to counter U.S. rival Sikorsky's efforts to break the speed barrier by rewriting rotorcraft design rules.

The X3 hybrid helicraft - which combines forward-facing propellers astride two short aircraft wings with the familiar overhead rotor blades seen on any normal helicopter - is half-plane, half-helicopter in design.

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Unmanned Airplanes Coming To A Terminal Near You

Unmanned airplanes could carry cargo loads across unpopulated areas or the ocean. iStockphoto

From Discovery News:

Would you be willing to take off in a plane without a pilot?

Unmanned airplanes have almost become another branch of the military, dropping bombs, spying on terrorist camps and even threatening enemy aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now government and aviation experts are planning to make room for more robot aircraft over domestic skies: working as airborne traffic cops, patrolling the border and maybe even shuttling cargo between cities.

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U.S. Army Shows Renewed Interest In Zeppelins

In demand: The U.S. Army has ordered three new airships to be built and fitted with high-tech surveillance equipment so they can be used in Afghanistan

Are Zeppelins About To Take Off Again - Or Is It Just Hot Air? -- The Daily Mail

As we soar up into the grey skies above Lake Constance - propellers whirling, seat belts tightly fastened and everyone brandishing their cameras in excitement - something feels ever so slightly strange.

It could be the gentle breeze coming in through the wide open windows and the long ropes dangling in front of the cockpit in an alarmingly relaxed way.

Or perhaps it's the fact that the twin 200hp engines are so quiet I can hear my fellow passengers unwrapping toffees and whispering, and Hans-Paul the pilot clearing his throat and swallowing.

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Airbus Engineers' Plan For The Future Of Flying

From Der Spiegel:

What will air travel look like in the year 2050? A special team of engineers from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus have drafted plans for the future of flight. These include a completely transparent fuselage that will allow passengers to the see the stars above and city lights below.

The airplane dissolves into thin air, as if erased by an invisible hand. First the cabin roof disappears, then the floor, and from one moment to the next, the passengers feel like they have lost their grip on anything solid.

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A New Generation Of Helicopters Are Smashing Speed Records

Faster Helicopters More Rotors, More Speed -- The Economist

A new type of helicopter breaks speed records.

THE ability of a helicopter to hover and land almost anywhere makes it an enormously useful machine. But helicopters have their limitations, particularly when it comes to flying fast. In a recent series of test flights, a new type of chopper has begun smashing speed records.

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The Future Of Air Travel?

You Can Flex Your Quads In Flight! This new airplane seat is designed to mimic the incredibly comfortable experience of riding a horse. via USA Today

Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel: Slouching toward JFK -- Popular Science -- Popular Science

On your last flight, did you stare with envy at the people sitting in the exit row? Did you get a charley horse from trying to cross your legs under your tray table? Consider yourself lucky, pal. Your next budget flight might ask you to fly horseback style, squeezed onto a saddle in just 23 inches of space.

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