Want to see history made in the blink of an eye? About two weeks ago we wrote about Gamera, the University of Maryland’s human-powered helicopter that is chasing after the Sikorsky Prize, a $250,000 purse offered to anyone who can meet a set of ambitious flight criteria with a human-powered helicopter. Gamera isn’t there yet, but with pilot Judy Wexler pounding away at the pedals the team did hover for about four seconds, setting a world record for the first woman to achieve human-powered helicopter flight.
Tag: Technology
Heal
Heal – Animated Trauma, from Ghost Productions on Vimeo.
This brilliant animation begins with a man doing restoration on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The ladder he’s working from is knocked out from under him and he sustains serious injuries when he falls to the ground. Can modern science put him back together? Perhaps, but he may have some trouble getting through airport security from now on.
A Military Helmet That Can Sustain Rifle Fire
It’s the wave of the future: a military helmet that allows soldiers to survive being shot in the head by high-powered rifles.
“When we found out that a strain of material was capable of sustaining rifle fire, then I started to move in the integration portion of putting it into a ballistic system,” said John Bourque, the inventor of the helmet.
He says new metal super alloy, named Kryon, will provide thousands of good paying jobs right here in Arizona over the next several years.
“The manufacturing jobs that are going to be created by an Arizonan for Arizonans..you know there’s a lot of things to be said for that,” said Bourque.
As for how the helmet works, we were invited to take part in a live demonstration.
With one pull of the trigger, you can see the end result: no bullet hole.
“History in Arizona. A helmet that sustains rifle fire.”
Commander Bob Lewis of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office in Naples, Florida says this technology will not only save servicemen and women, but it will protect his deputies.
“My job is to support my operators. It is my job to seek out the best technology out there to keep them safe, so that they go home at the end of the day,” said Lewis.
Currently, the helmet is produced by the hundreds. The company’s goal is to bump that number up to the thousands.
SmartBird – Bird Flight Deciphered
Video Description:
SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds – one of the oldest dreams of humankind.
This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature.
New approaches in automation
The functional integration of coupled drive units yields significant ideas and insights that Festo can transfer to the development and optimisation of hybrid drive technology.The minimal use of materials and the extremely lightweight construction pave the way for efficiency in resource and energy consumption.
Festo already today puts its expertise in the field of fluid dynamics to use in the development of the latest generations of cylinders and valves. By analysing SmartBird’s flow characteristics during the course of its development, Festo has acquired additional knowledge for the optimisation of its product solutions and has learned to design even more efficiently.
Formation Flight with the Breitling Wingwalkers!
Video Description:
After the last sneak peek, JETMAN officially presented his formation and precision flight abilities to the press for the first time on July 2nd during the Breitling Flying days in Buochs, Switzerland, by flying together with and around the Breitling Wingwalkers for 3 minutes… and now it’s there for you all to see!
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