The Flying Car

The Long Wait for Sky Cars from the “Wrong Brothers”

It took just two men and their commitment to their belief to set the ball rolling in aviation. It is now one hundred and nine years long from those first steps by the Wright brothers. The sector over the years has seen wonderful innovations like the supersonic, vertical take off and landing jets among many others. All this not withstanding, it is yet to attain the availability and ease of ownership that the motor car has. Hence that long desire of most men to have a vehicle that can fly is yet to be met. Well maybe not for much longer, as companies like Terrafugia seem to be breaking new ground in that sphere.

The Woburn, Massachusetts based company having completed test flights for its prototype the Transition, is set to start making deliveries next year for the orders it has. A single craft goes for as much as $279,000, which still makes it way out of common reach.

In the Netherlands, other companies seem to be coming up with their own variations. One of note is the PAL-V One by Baileybrugweg based PAL-V Europe N.V. Its vehicle takes the gyrocopter approach, offering a two seat hybrid car.

While welcome adaptations in the quest for the flying car, the major handicap these vehicles seem to have is that they fall short of existing vehicles from which they make their hybrids.
Take for example, the Transition looks awkward for a car, and its speed of 110km/h is not exactly top notch for road vehicles. So the key at this stage according to its CEO is to tap into that special niche that doesn't fly too far afield and yet needs a means to get around when on the ground.
Image source: Terrafugia, Etsu, and Pal-V

What is your view of the future of flying vehicles? Share them in the comment box below.

Lifi: The Dawn of Visible Light Communication

In the “new world” your average neon sign, store front lighting or lamp post won’t just be there to illuminate. They will peddle digital information as well as offer high speed access to the Internet. This is the dawn of the “Lifi Age” and it is all being made possible by Visible Light Communications System.

 It is interesting to note that information transmission via visible light spectrum actually predates that over radio waves. Alexander bell in 1880 actually demonstrated the transmission of speech over modulated sunlight using what he called the Photophone. So far today, visible light communication has already achieved 500Mbits/s and this can only get better.The Visible Light Communications Consortium initiated in 2004, has a lot of role to play in the coming years to facilitate the growth of this promising alternative in data and information dissemination.

Smart Ammunition for Modern Warfare

A Bullet for You

Fighting techniques in warfare can save an outnumbered or under-equipped side from total annihilation. Take for instance the Taliban against the US army. The former makes use of concealment to have a fighting chance against the technologically superior US forces. The art of concealment has been at the heart of warfare for decades. Guerrillas apply it, small units up against mammoth troops apply it. Shooting from behind cover is bread and butter of concealment. Here a rock, concrete structure, a ditch or steel structure becomes very handy. Well that was then, not any more, thanks to ATK- an American company, and Heckler & Koch, their German collaborator.  

The two firms have launched field tests for their XM25, a new rifle which hopes to counter the advantages of shooting from a cover. The XM25 fires a 25mm round and weighs 6 kg. The gun borrows an idea from Henry Shrapnel's original artillery shells. You don't have aim directly at the target, aim just at a place in its proximity, fire and the bullet does the rest. A timed fuse tells the bullet when to explode, unleashing the fragments that do the job. Actually a small computer inside the bullet is the fuse.

The bullets are programmed by another computer in the rifle before they are fired. This feeds it with details like the distance to the target. The bullets own computer then takes over once fired. This gives the instruction to detonate the calculated distance has been reached. The shrapnel from the detonation has a kill radius of several meters (specifics are classified).

The rifle has had favorable field testing in Afghanistan, with the US army ordering 36 more units. A complete kit of rifle, thermal sight and a four-round magazine is said to cost $35,000. This according to the company is said to come down as automated bullet production begins at ATK.
In all, the era of the concealed gunman is set to come to an end. Hiding behind cover is no longer a guarantee of safety.
Image source: ATK