Tag: BOEING

As part of a DARPA initiative, Boeing is developing a search-and-rescue aircraft that combines a helicopter's hovering capabilities with an airplane's long flight range. According to Aviation Week, Boeing will test a 20-percent scale model of the disc-rotor aircraft, called the CSAR DiscRotor, in a wind tunnel sometime next year. The aircraft uses rotor-mounted blades, much like a chopper, so ...

While it's out of the average person's price range, commercial space flight continues to move forward as government-funded space flight withers with a struggling economy. According to Space.com, Boeing, along with partner Space Adventures, plans to sell passenger seats aboard its Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft, which will make its first test flights by 2015. The cone-shaped ...

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Give your computer (Macs only) that Kubrick touch with the HAL 9000 screensaver, though we don't know why you would. [From: HAL 9000 Screensaver] BoingBoing ...

Houses built from recycled materials are a popular trend, but the materials for one woman's house came from an unlikely source. According to Treehugger, Francie Rehwald's Malibu Hills, California, home is being partially built with parts from a Boeing 747. Architect David Hertz is charged with converting the 230-foot-long and 63-foot-tall airplane into a house that will sit on 55-acres just ...

An ongoing, multi-billion dollar satellite upgrade will vastly improve the accuracy of the 38-year-old Global Positioning System (GPS), according to the Los Angeles Times. Scientists and engineers from Boeing Lockheed Martin are currently working on an $8 billion project that would make GPS accurate to within an arm's length, constituting a significant improvement over its current 20-foot margin ...

Share On Monday, Boeing revealed its newest unmanned spy plane, a boomerang-shaped, drool-inducing object that looks straight out of a Michael Bay film. The sleek Phantom Ray is 36-feet long with a 50-foot wingspan, and takes off this December. This bad boy can hit 614 mph while hovering around 40,000 feet, but its purpose seems a bit obscure. Fast Company reports that, aside from being ...

Plans to construct a "virtual fence" of cameras and sensors along the U.S. border with Mexico may be reaching the end of their days. Yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that work on the two pilot sections would be frozen, and that $50 million in funding would be diverted from the program to other projects. The official word is that the program has been temporarily ...

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's latest passenger plane, took flight today in Washington. [From: Engadget] The Auteurs rounds up the best film posters of the decade. ...

It's no secret that folks are trying to pinch every penny they can these days -- even bigwigs like Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, who incidentally is no stranger to cutting costs in unique ways. (Remember, this is the guy who wanted to charge overweight passengers extra and make folks pay to use the airplane toilet.) O'Leary is about to add one more idea to his 'cost-cutting greatest hits.' ...

The FAA has released a safety advisory recommending pilots turn off cell phones in the cockpit. Passengers are well-versed in powering off before takeoff, but during a recent en-route inspection, the first officer's cellphone began ringing as the aircraft sped down the runway for takeoff. The advisory states: During the takeoff phase, just prior to reaching V1, a rather loud "warbling" sound ...

Hot on the heels of the revelation that solar-powered, inflatable turtles are the future of mass transportation, Boeing is showing its vision of the heavy-hauling skies of the the near-future with its JHL-40 Skyhook heli-blimp, a craft it hopes will revolutionize the transport industry for remote, inhospitable places, like the Canadian Arctic. It is just what it sounds like -- a combination of a ...

Boeing's European outpost has achieved a technical feat that, while not expected to revolutionize air travel, at least shows progress in the effort to lower the overall reliance on very pricey (and, you know, scarce) jet fuel. Boeing Research & Technology Europe, which operates out of Madrid, has been working on the "Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane" since 2001. The goal has been to ...

Boeing's new 787 may look like most other commercial airliners on the outside, but under the paint, it's a technological marvel. In terms of construction, the thing is lightweight and so more fuel efficient than its predecessors. But the really impressive bits are the computerized ones that keep the thing in the air and pointed in the right direction. The craft has an integrated computer ...

The Boeing 727 is still the jet many people imagine when they picture air travel, despite the model's retirement from the skies a few years ago. For decades it was the most popular aircraft in service, and one enterprising person decided to take one of those thousands of grounded craft and turned it into a 24,000-pound limousine. The ... uh ... car is currently based in Chicago, seats up to 50 ...

United Airlines is giving you a little more for your money -- if you're flying International First or Business class, that is. For $2,500, you can now bask in the comfort of a United gadget-encrusted 'lie flat' seats. Both Business and First class have picked up some leg and elbow room, as well as filled up the new space with a 15.4-inch LCD screen that features 150 hours of on-demand TV and ...