Flying Car Crash Lands After Botched Test Flight

Keep your wheels on the ground for now

Keep holding your breath on the future of flying cars. An AeroMobil—one of the most recent iterations of the vehicle we’ve been dreaming of since The Jetsons—suffered a nasty crash during a test flight last Friday, but one that fortunately caused no injuries.

The AeroMobil 3.0 is just the latest of a seemingly endless fleet of flying cars that’s perpetually promised as being just a few years off. Earlier this year at SXSW, AeroMobil’s CEO announced an exceedingly optimistic 2017 release date for this here “Ferrari with wings.” Maybe not so likely.

Stefan Klein, a co-founder of AeroMobile, was piloting the vehicle during the crash and was lucky enough to escape with only minor scrapes and bruises and—one assumes—sprained dignity.

According to reports, the flying car started to go into a tailspin near an airport in Slovakia before deploying a parachute to soften its rough landing. And while Klein escaped mostly unscathed, photos from the scene show that the car certainly did not.

In a statement released about the crash, AeroMobile takes the opportunity to look on the bright side and highlight how the parachute totally worked:

During one of the test flights that took place on May 8, 2015, the inventor and test pilot, Stefan Klein, encountered an unexpected situation and activated the advanced ballistic parachute system in an altitude of approximately 300 meters (900 feet).

The system has proved itself fully functional and landed the entire vehicle without any injury to the pilot.

Maybe before we tackle the flying cars, we should just get a handle on the self-driving ones.

These Planes that Once Ruled the Skies Can Still Fly

Valiant Air Command C-47

A troop transport used by American forces in World War II and the Vietnam War which also saw use by Canada and Britain

Beechcraft Model 18 / AT-11 Kansan

A recon and training craft used during World War II, variations of the craft remain popular among aviators

Aermacchi MB-339CB

A plane flown by the Italian military as a training jet in the 1970s, which also saw some military use in conflicts at the Falkland Islands and between Eritrea and Ethiopia

VAW-12

An early warning aircraft flown in the post-War years from 1948 to 1967

North American P-51D Mustang

A fighter plane flown by the Americans and the British in World War II which also saw use in the Korean War

Douglas TBD Devastator

A 1930s era bomber decommissioned just after American involvement in World War II was underway after a great number were destroyed at the Battle of Midway

North American T-28 Trojan

An Air Force and Navy training craft later used by the South Vietnamese in the Vietnam War

Cirrus SR22 Generation 5

A single engine plane that contains a whole plane parachute in case of emergency

Grumman TBF Avenger

The World War II torpedo bomber was one of the first aircraft to use this style of folded wings

Goodyear FG-1D Corsair

One of the fastest planes in the World War II fleet, it could reach speeds of more than 400 MPH and was one of the first planes to utilize a reverse gull wing design

Curtiss P-40K-10-CU Warhawk

A popular World War II era plane used by the British, the Americans, the Australians, and the Canadians

P-51D Mustang

A bomber often equipped with machine guns, it served a combat role in downing just under 5,000 Axis power planes during World War II

Scottish Aviation Bulldog T.1

This model was often employed by the Royal Air Force as a training plane

Scottish Aviation Bulldog 101

This model was often used by Sweden and used as a trainer craft

UH-60L Black Hawk

A heavily armed Army transport vehicle, models of which are still used today

L-39 Albatros

A Czech fighter jet used by the Eastern Bloc in World War II, it’s an easy to handle aircraft now used in training and in air shows

Grumman HU-16 Albatross

An amphibious search and rescue vehicle used in the Vietnam War

USAAF C-45 Expeditor

Another variation of the Beechcraft Model 18 used in World War II and the Korean War as a light transport plane

Vultee BT-13 Valiant

An “unnecessarily complicated and overpowered” used as a World War II era trainer

Ryan Navion B

The “Poor Man’s Mustang” saw use in the early Air Force as a training and drone plane, as well as being common among civilians

North American T-28 Trojan

Used by the Air Force, Navy, and Marines in post-war years, it saw some combat in the early Vietnam War

North American P-51 Mustang

Another model of the Mustang

Amazon’s Delivery Drones Might Track You By Your Phone

Hunting you down…to deliver that dish soap you ordered

Amazon’s delivery drone dream is very slowly inching toward reality, anda recently published patent gives some insight to the way the service would probably work.

First and foremost, it wouldn’t just be a replacement for UPS with drones just mindlessly dropping packages at your door all the time. Instead, Amazon envisions a system where the drones actually track you via your phone to find an optimal delivery destination. Maybe the office as opposed to home, or a moving target like that boat you totally own, or even 10 feet in front of you on the sidewalk.

That, or to hunt you down during the robot apocalypse.

USPTO

Ah yes, just drop it off at my yacht

Other details in the patent suggest that Amazon’s drone fleet would have a number of different kinds of drones in it with different shapes, sizes, and designs of airborne carriers for different sizes and weights of packages. It only makes sense, as does the bit where the patent mentions the drones would use infrared sensors, radar, sonar, and other cameras to find safe landing zones and avoid hitting things.

While the FAA recently granted Amazon an exemption from laws prohibiting commercial drone use, there’s still a long way to go. Testing is a long way from a rollout, and the details in the patent don’t necessarily describe what Amazon is planning to do, but just a few ideas it’s gotten patented. But it’s just another piece of evidence to prove Amazon is really serious, and a glimpse into what the drone delivery future could look like. And how awesome it would be to have delivery drones stop by your yacht.

Tough Jobs: Experimental Aircraft Test Pilot

Our Q&A with veteran test pilot Mark “Forger” Stucky on what it takes to fly for Virgin Galactic, the US Air Force and even United Airlines

As a boy, Mark “Forger” Stucky dreamt of being an astronaut. As the lead test pilot for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, he’s about as close to that dream as he can be to without actually leaving Earth’s atmosphere. The career pilot graduated from the US Navy Fighter Weapons School (you know it as Top Gun) and spent three decades flying more than 170 different models of aircraft for the US Marine Corp, the US Navy, the US Air Force, United Airlines, and other outfits. He says SpaceShipTwo is the greatest aircraft he’s ever flown — technologically exciting and viscerally thrilling, but also challenging. The danger of the job was never clearer than last year, when one of the prototypes crashed during testing in the Mojave Desert, killing another test pilot. Stucky was not on-board at the time.

What’s your job title?

I’m the lead test pilot for the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo program. I’ve been with Virgin Galactic since early February 2015, but I’ve been on the program as the test pilot for Scaled Composites, the company that built SpaceShipTwo, for the previous six years. Prior to Scaled I was 30 years in the military and government.

How did you decide to be a test pilot?

One of my earliest memories was John Glenn’s flight. I was enthralled by the concept of flying in space. I knew that to do that, you had to be a test pilot. I wanted to do that from a young age, even though I never thought it would be possible. Nowadays, the majority of test pilots come through the military program. You become a military pilot. You put in for test pilot school. Every six months they have a selection for a few guys and hopefully you’re one of them. You need the aptitude, but you also need the right degrees or a scientific career to be successful in the test pilot curriculum and then in the job itself. You can do it through the civilian side as well.

“NOWADAYS, THE MAJORITY OF TEST PILOTS COME THROUGH THE MILITARY PROGRAM.”

There’s a fully accredited civilian test pilot school here at Mojave, California (where Virgin Galactic is based). You can pay your money and go for a year-long program. But that’s something that an individual can’t do on their own unless they are a multi-millionaire. It mostly happens if you’re an engineer and a pilot who starts flying a lot for his company, and they decide to make you a test pilot. They will foot the bill. A lot of foreign governments do it, too. China sends a lot of pilots over to that school because they’ll never get into the United States military schools.

How many hours of flying do you need?

I don’t know what it is for the civilian test pilot school but for a typical military, when I went through, they wanted 1,000 pilot-in-command hours of a high-performance jet aircraft. I think they have since lowered that to 750 to be reflective of the fact that it’s harder to get time these days, because of budget cuts and because the simulators are better. There’s less actual flying required now.

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You mentioned having the aptitude for being a test pilot. What makes someone good?

I think the main thing is the interest in learning and not just flying from point A to point B. You’re trying to understand what makes an airplane fly, what makes it better, and all the theory that goes into it. It’s a different kind of flying — really high-risk. I’d say there is a good percentage of pilots that would have no interest in being a test pilot because of the perceived danger.

Have you gotten in any tight situations?

Sure. It comes with the territory.

Anything that stands out particularly?

I had an inadvertent spin in SpaceShipTwo in a glide flight a couple years ago.

When an incident like that happens, do you want to go right back up or are you mentally spooked? How do you respond mentally?

If you didn’t screw up – and in my case I hadn’t screwed up; I was doing exactly what we had planned and simulated – then you have to stand down and take a hard look at the data. You have to ask why it didn’t work. Where did our simulation, our wind tunnel model, break down? What do we need to do to fix it? Sometimes it can take a few days for a procedural change because you’re now smarter about something. Other times it can take several months to do a redesign of something, to change an aerodynamic surface or put an aerodynamic Band-Aid on it.

How much input do you have in the procedural adjustment process? Are you working in concert with the engineers and talking them through what happened in the cockpit?

It’s very important as a test pilot that you say what you are feeling. You can’t say, “Well, I think it’s due to this,” or “I would do this to fix that.” You really don’t know. You should just say what you’re experiencing and let the data speak for itself. It’s important to work with the engineers so that the fix is something that makes sense operationally. It might make great sense to make a simple fix, but it might not work within the requirements of the mission. You need to make sure that you’re thinking not just for the flight test side, but also for operational pilots. You have to make sure that the end user, the normal non-test pilot, will find the solution normal and easy to use.

“IT’S VERY IMPORTANT AS A TEST PILOT THAT YOU SAY WHAT YOU ARE FEELING.”

Did you like flying commercial?

I didn’t go commercial until things were drying up at NASA. I had a lot of friends tell me that I would hate commercial flying; I actually enjoyed it. You had to find your own challenges in other ways. You had to pick the best route to be as efficient as possible, to minimize turbulence for the passengers, to be on time, to be smart, to do a good job on the approach. You’re trying to be as professional as possible. Punctual out. Punctual back on the ground. And don’t spill the coffee in the back.

What’s the most fun aircraft that you’ve ever flown?

SpaceShipTwo.

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SR-71 Blackbird

What do you like about flying SpaceShip Two?

I’ve flown the SR-71 Blackbird surveillance plane and prior to SpaceShipTwo, I would have said that. But SpaceShipTwo gives you a mix of everything. It’s an unbelievable feeling while it’s boosting. It’s fun to glide. It’s just fun to fly. It really has your attention. Some planes that are a physical challenge make you feel good when you do well in them but there are also airplanes where you feel like you are cheating death. Ultimately, those are not fun. In SpaceShipTwo, I don’t have that feeling. At least not yet.

“LIKE A CATAPULT SHOT OFF AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER WHEN IT’S IN ROCKET-BOOST.”

With SpaceShipTwo, it’s like a catapult shot off an aircraft carrier when it’s in rocket-boost, but that feeling lasts for a minute instead of a second and a half. The whole time you’re actively flying it — pointing it where you need to go. It’s 3Gs, eyeballs-in so to speak, like a catapult shot, but then you’re doing a 4G pull-up into the vertical. It’s a mix of spaceship, fighter plane, and business jet all in one.

Why a Five-Day Solar Flight Over the Ocean Is So Challenging and Dangerous

Five days, 4,000 miles, no fuel

Next week, pilot André Borschberg will take off in the solar-powered plane Solar Impulse 2. After he does, he’ll be in the air for five days, traversing the Pacific Ocean on his way from Nanjing, China, to Honolulu, Hawaii alone. It only gets crazier from there.

This hop from China to Hawaii is just one leg in a much longer 12-jump trip that’s taking the solar-powered plane and its two pilots around the globe. Shortly after Solar Impulse 2 touches down in Hawaii, its other pilot, Bertrand Piccard, will be taking it back up and across the rest of the Pacific on a four-day flight to Phoenix, Arizona.

Each leg has been a challenge, but these oversea flights are especially grueling. The pair have been preparing for them for years.

THE STAKES ARE HIGH; THERE’S NO BACKUP POWER SHOULD BANKED SUNLIGHT-ENERGY RUN OUT TOO EARLY

Five days is a long time—a commercial jet could make the same trek in some 12 hours—and it takes so long because the Solar Impulse 2 is slow. Its cruising speed is around 25 to 30 knots (roughly 30 miles per hour), Piccard tells The Verge. That is positively pokey, an order of magnitude slower than your average jet.

The tortoise speed is because its 17.4-horsepower motors and four propellers are powered only by the light of the sun hitting the panels on its 208-foot wings, which offers precious little energy compared to jet fuel. So little, in fact, that to make it through the nights, the Solar Impulse 2 has to climb up to roughly 28,000 feet in the morning, coasting down to as just a few thousand at night in order to save precious power.

Credit: Solar Impulse

That up-and-down path comes with a host of complications all its own. For one, at the upper the peaks of the oscillating path, the atmosphere is perilously thin. And because the Impulse 2 doesn’t have a pressurized cabin (left out for weight considerations), it’s all oxygen masks and shivers up there. Plus, pilots enjoy the perk of never sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time. The Impulse 2 is an amazing but fickle machine, and she needs a pilot’s attention at least three times every hour just to keep things on track. After all, the stakes are high; there’s no backup power should banked sunlight energy run out too early. Borschberg will have a parachute and a dry suit, but as Wiredpoints out, there’s still the danger of electrocution, and the unpleasantness of two or three days on a life raft to contend with.

To prepare for their four- and five-day trips, Piccard and Borshberg have both spent long stints in a a cramped simulator. That’s on top of the handful of 10-15 hour flights they’ve logged on the journey’s first half-dozen legs. But spending days seated with barely enough room to stretch is one thing when you’re in a hangar somewhere, and another when you’re above the ocean.

Credit: Solar Impulse

Pilot Bertrand Piccard on the way to Nanjing

For now, takeoff for the next leg is scheduled for sometime around or after May 11, 4:00 PM ET. It’s subject to change however, due to the very very specific weather required: The Impulse 2 needs sunlight for the first three days at least. With no options for an emergency landing, two out of three is bad. In addition, the Impulse 2, slow and light as it is, does not take kindly to wind. At times, headwinds have lead the plane to wind up flying backwards. So planning a flight of this length is ridiculously hard.

But if all goes as planned, two of the most grueling legs in the journey will soon be over, and the Impulse 2 will be that much closer to accomplishing its wildly ambitious goal of fuel-free circumnavigation. More solar power to ’em.

Source: Solar Impulse, Wired, The Verge

Watch Plane Buzz Unbelievably Close to Argentinian Boaters

Three men say they had a frightening close call while boating in Argentina when a plane roared what seemed like just inches overhead.

“We were scared at first,” said Mariano Bradanini, a passenger in the boat.

The men were participating in a fishing tournament and air show in Goya, Argentina, Sunday. “It was my second time in the tournament,” Bradanini, 35, added via Twitter. “The tournament is a very good experience.”

The near-miss was caught on their video camera as the speed boat cruised along the lake only to have the low-flying plane buzz the men inside.

“We always film our fishing with GoPro cameras,” Bradanini said from his home in Concordia, Entre Rios, Argentina. “We were really enjoying ourselves, and when we saw the plane, we got scared.”

The men can be heard laughing after the plane went by. “We didn’t know it would come so close,” Bradanini, who works in tourism and the media, said.

It’s unclear whether the plane was part of the air show or whether the pilot made a mistake by flying too low, but Bradanini says the pilot knew what he was doing. “I’m sure he was experienced,” Bradanini said. “They did aerobatic shows every day, so we were scared, but then we realized that he was an experienced pilot.”

To be fair, Bradanini added, the tournament comes with some risks. “It’s not extremely dangerous, but in the beginning you have to be careful,” he said.

Despite the risks, Bradanini says he’ll be back again next year.

“There’s no doubt we’ll participate again.”

4 ways the aviation industry hopes to distract you from cabin crush

The future of business? Zodiac Aerospace’s FUSIO business-class seat was one of the cabin enhancements unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo.

(CNN)Breaking news: Economy class passengers dread crowded aircraft cabins.

Airlines and airplane manufacturers know this.

But instead of creating more room for passengers — a move that’d likely lead to a reduction of profits — the prevailing strategy when it comes to cabin upgrades is to distract fliers with better inflight entertainment systems and new seat designs that provide the illusion of enhanced comfort.

This, anyway, would seem to be the lesson from April’s Aircraft Interiors Expo held in Hamburg, Germany.

The aircraft cabin show attracted nearly 15,000 aviation industry attendees.

So what products did suppliers unveil to help us forget about our crushed knees?

Here’s a look at enhancements you might be seeing on a future flight.

Inflight entertainment: PXCOM/Lufthansa System’s BoardConnect

In-flight entertainment systems are getting upgrades that will allow passengers to do their trip-planning inflight.

PXCOM and Lufthansa’s BoardConnect system let you arrange travel while you travel.

PXCOM from France is betting we’ll be making reservations for meals, shows and other activities while en route to our destinations, booking tickets before we land so we can skip those long museum lines.

It’s partnered with Lufthansa System’s BoardConnect wireless inflight entertainment system to let us make those restaurant and other reservations on our choice of gadgets.

The companies also want us to wave goodbye to tired airline touch screens that aren’t as touch-friendly as our own handhelds.

BoardConnect revealed a seatback frame that lets airlines install latest-generation tablets faster than we can change a light bulb.

Well, pretty close.

Inflight Wi-Fi: More Exede speed

We love surfing the Web at 30,000 feet, but connectivity in the skies is often spotty.

To the rescue is ViaSat, whose Exede service already powers the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky (on JetBlue and United).

The company is going global by launching new satellites and partnering with more satellite providers.

Other inflight connectivity powerhouses, like Thales, are zoning in to compete with Exede’s speeds.

The race is on to give us the same Wi-Fi experience in the air that we enjoy on the ground — uninterrupted and everywhere we fly.

Economy seats: Panasonic Jazz seat

Not every economy-class seat we saw at the show came with narrow armrests, slim cushions and lots of uncomfortable company.

Feeling moody blue or brighter? The economy-class Jazz seat lets you choose your light.

Panasonic has partnered with aircraft seating manufacturer B/E Aerospace and design gurus at Formation Design Group and TEAGUE to develop a seat worthy of its high-tech label.

Its new Jazz seat isn’t just comfortable (relatively), it’s pretty darned handy.

The Jazz features custom stands for smart phones and tablets with inductive charging to power them inflight, a personal reading light with mood lighting options and stands to store our precious electronic companions.

Premium seats: Zodiac Aerospace FUSIO

Premium cabins are feeling the space crunch too, with some airlines eliminating first class on select routes and adding more seats in business class.

Zodiac Aerospace’s FUSIO private VIP cabin is an elegant fix for those troubled by the trend.

The FUSIO gives airlines what they want (a seat that takes up less cabin space), but it’s loaded with entertainment and comfort features.

It even features a new seat setting called Zero-Gravity, which gives the illusion of floating in space.

It’s likely airlines will be banking on this sort of high-tech magic as they make their future cabin choices.

It’s worked for them in the past.

As Patrick Brannelly, vice president product at Emirates put it a few years ago: “In 1992, when Emirates was the first to install personal screens on every seat for all classes, including economy class, they recorded a 20% increase in overall customer satisfaction.

“Why would they think that the … service is better when the only thing that is changed is the improvement of the entertainment system?”

MILITARY SECRET AIR FORCE SPACE PLANE GETS DARTH VADER-STYLE ENGINE

SECRET AIR FORCE SPACE PLANE GETS DARTH VADER-STYLE ENGINE

6 kW laboratory Hall thruster

The Air Force’s secret robot space plane is going to try out a new engine. The X-37B has so far spent a total of 1367 days tooling around in Earth’s orbit, doing classified things. Yesterday, the Air Force Research Lab announced that on its fourth flight, the X-37B will come with a new fuel-efficient engine for maneuvering in space.

Hall thrusters were developed first by the Soviet Union duringthe 1960s, as a way for satellites to correct their course while in orbit. Apparently the engines were so effective the United States didn’t believe they were real at first. Now, Hall thrusters are commonly used on satellites anddeep-space probes. They’re a kind of ion engine, which means the Air Force’s secret space robot will soon have an engine similar to that used by Darth Vader in his specialty Twin Ion Engine (TIE) Fighter.

Hall thrusters get their name from the Hall effect, where an electrical field is produced perpendicular to a magnetic field. Set up in an engine, this electric fieldaccelerates ions from a noble gas like xenon, propelling it outwards fast enough that they can provide thrust for the vehicle.

In a press release, the Air Force Research Lab described the purpose of the upcoming test:

The experiment will include collection of telemetry from the Hall thruster operating in the space environment as well as measurement of the thrust imparted on the vehicle. The resulting data will be used to validate and improve Hall thruster and environmental modeling capabilities, which enhance the ability to extrapolate ground test results to actual on-orbit performance. The on-orbit test plans are being developed by AFRL and administered by RCO.

Putting an engine like this on a secret space plane means that the Air Force, which includes space in their mandate, will learn how to maneuver unmanned vehicles efficiently outside the Earth’s atmosphere. That’s essential for any future space fighters that may come to be, but I wouldn’t count on the Air Force developing actual TIE fighters just yet.

Navy drone makes history with refueling maneuver

Washington (CNN)The latest version of unmanned naval aerial combat vehicles achieved another first on Wednesday when it conducted its first aerial refueling test, the Navy announced.

While flying off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, the X-47B, an unmanned vehicle designed to eventually operate off naval aircraft carriers, successfully connected to an Omega K-707 refueling tanker and received more than 4,000 pounds of fuel, the Navy said in a press release.

“What we accomplished today demonstrates a significant, groundbreaking step forward for the Navy,” Capt. Beau Duarte, the manager for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation program, said in the release. “The ability to autonomously transfer and receive fuel in flight will increase the range and flexibility of future unmanned aircraft platforms, ultimately extending carrier power projection.”

The X-47B receives fuel in flight April 22nd.

This is the latest in a series of firsts for the remotely piloted plane that the Navy hopes to develop into a battle-ready aircraft that can operate safely alongside its manned counterparts aboard aircraft carriers.

In 2013, an X-47B became the first unmanned aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, although all other aircraft were removed from the deck before the test flight. Last year, it became the first such aircraft to take off and land alongside a manned plane, an F/A-18 Hornet on the USS Theodore Roosevelt

It was not known going into the test whether the aircraft would be able to effectively maneuver its probe used to take in fuel with the tanker’s drogue, also called the basket, in the same way a pilot would be able to position their aircraft in a refueling operation.

“In manned platforms, aerial refueling is a challenging maneuver because of the precision required by the pilot to engage the basket,” Duarte said. “Adding an autonomous functionality creates another layer of complexity.”

A part of the Navy’s Unmanned-Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike system, the X-47B will eventually be developed into follow on aircraft the Navy hopes to deploy into operation in 2020 or beyond.