Airspeeder wants to be the “first electric flying car race,” its CEO told Insider. It also wants you to know flying cars are closer than you think.
Category: transportation – Page 337
The U.S. Air Force is planning to put its futuristic flying car through a series of tests next year that will help determine how the service can use the vehicle, at home or deployed.
The Chinese behemoth that makes electric-car batteries for Tesla Inc. and Volkswagen AG developed a power pack that lasts more than a million miles — an industry landmark and a potential boon for automakers trying to sway drivers to their EV models.
A US company says it will have a nuclear-powered prototype vehicle on the road within two years.
Laser Power Systems from Connecticut is developing a method of propulsion that uses thorium to produce electricity to power a car engine.
Thorium is an element similar to uranium and because it is such a dense material it has the potential to produce massive amounts of heat.
According to Laser Power Systems CEO, Charles Stevens, just one gram of thorium produces more energy than 28000 litres of petrol. Mr Stevens says just eight grams of thorium would be enough to power a vehicle for its entire life.
Circa 2015
If you’ve ever scanned the comments section on an electric car or bike article, you’ll be familiar with this complaint: “that’s not green, it’s just a coal-powered vehicle.” Well, not this one. The Immortus is an electric car built to generate its own power through some 7 sq m (75 sq ft) of solar photovoltaic paneling. You can charge its battery off the mains if you have to, but if conditions are sunny, the inbuilt solar panels alone will let you drive at more than 60 km/h (37 mph) for an unlimited distance.
The Immortus is based on solar race car technology with the project originally founded by Australia’s Aurora Solar Car Team, which has competed in a bunch of solar race events across the world. Hence the light weight and the shape of the Immortus, which combines maximal sun exposure with extreme aerodynamics, including covered wheels.
Unlike the solar racers, though, it’s designed to approach practicality on the road, with a 0–100 km/h (62 mph) time that will be less than seven seconds and a top speed over 150 km/h (93 mph). It’s also a two-seater with a modest luggage capacity for daily driving. Melbourne-based EVX Ventures, creators of the Immortus, even list fun as a priority, saying it should handle like a well-balanced sports car.
OSLO (Reuters) — The sale of electric cars in Norway overtook those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines last year, with German auto-maker Volkswagen replacing Tesla as the top battery-vehicle producer, new data showed on Tuesday.
Switzerland’s Manta Aircraft is working on a flexible hybrid-electric canard aircraft design that will be capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) or efficient short take-off and landing (STOL) operations. A one-third scale model has been built, and the team is preparing for its first flight tests.
The ANN1 and ANN2 aircraft are single-and tandem double-seat versions of the same airframe – a carbon composite-bodied plane shape with a small V tail, a large reverse wing at the rear and a smaller canard wing at the front. Forward propulsion is provided by four ducted electric fans hanging under the front edge of the rear wing, and for VTOL operations these can tilt to face upwards.
Balancing the pitch of the aircraft in a VTOL lift or hover are four more ducted fans in the nose and tail sections, bringing the total to eight props – a decent number for redundancy. On the prototype, these are exposed; if the ANN platform makes it to production, little covers can close over these props to reduce drag in forward flight.
The U.S. Navy is testing out a new solution to the age-old problem of prepping for painting. Instead of chipping, sandblasting or hydroblasting, it is adopting technology from the aerospace sector: laser ablation.
Teams at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard are already using a laser paint stripping system that was originally developed by Missouri-based tech company Adapt Laser for use on aircraft components. The device peels off rust, paint, oil and other contaminants without leaving any residue or damaging the substrate. Instead of a dust of chips, rust and blasting grit on the surface, it leaves clean and ready-to-paint bare steel, according to the Navy.
7th Fleet’s shipyard at Yokosuka (Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center, or SRF-JRMC) is looking at bringing laser ablation into its yard in order to improve conditions for its workforce and accelerate its workflow. When considering prep time, the stripping process and post-stripping cleanup, laser ablation may be faster than some traditional surface preparation processes, according to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).
Lilium has selected Lufthansa’s training arm to develop a programme that will deliver a pipeline of qualified pilots for its developmental electric air taxi, as the Bavarian start-up solves another part of its pre-launch puzzle.