aerospace

Following a bicycle down the runway at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., a solar-powered airplane took off on a coast-to-coast voyage across the U.S. this morning to promote the message of clean technology.

Piloted by Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA set off for Phoenix, Ariz., on the first leg of its Across America journey that will also take the slender craft to Dallas, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and finally New York in early July.

The goal is to go from one end of the country to the other without using a drop of fuel. … Read more

NASA has awarded a contract to explore ways to potentially expand the International Space Station.

The agency announced last week that Bigelow Aerospace has been awarded a $17.8 million contract to deliver to the agency an inflatable extension for the space station. According to NASA, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module "will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors."

Inflatable space technology is nothing new. In fact, the first passive communications satellites -- Echo 1 and Echo 2 -- were both inflatable. NASA determined in 1958 that the satellites would … Read more

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On this episode of Crave, we check out the Burrito Bomber engineered by Darwin Aerospace that literally bombs burritos into geo-tagged locations. We also get some NASA reassurance that the world may not end this month, which means we may actually get the chance to wear Lacoste's awesome polo shirts of the future. Also, dogs that drive? Yep. … Read more

We all wanted so badly for the Tacocopter to be real, but the supposed Silicon Valley quadrocopter taco delivery service was just a clever fake, designed to appeal to our most basic desires for Mexican food delivery by airborne gadget.

Just because we've had our hopes dashed once doesn't mean we shouldn't come back for more. A new hope has arisen. It's called the Burrito Bomber. As its name might suggest, the Burrito Bomber is a flying drone capable of dropping a burrito payload from the sky.… Read more

Millions of people around the world observed an unbelievable feat yesterday as Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon-slung capsule floating at the astonishing altitude of 128,097 feet and then safely landed in the record books.

Curiously, the best angle from the whole free fall jump so far -- Baumgartner's chest camera -- didn't make it to the general live-stream footage. The video from this perspective reveals just how terrifying and awe-inspiring our world looks at such extreme altitudes and the speeds (well upward of 700 mph -- or was that, um, downward?) at which he was traveling. … Read more

Canvas 14 from ACD Systems is an enterprise-class technical illustration program. With it, you can create, refine, and publish sophisticated illustrations, animations, and documents.

It combines the drawing and illustrating features of a premium graphics app, the 3D modeling and drafting capabilities of CAD, and the collaborative capabilities of a productivity suite in one surprisingly intuitive package. A quick-start guide, copious documentation, and a helpful sidebar called the Canvas Assistant made getting to know this capable but complex software easier than we expected.

To try Canvas 14 for free, you must select that option during installation and complete the process … Read more

I get quite a lot of e-mails from 7-year-olds. At least the content suggests they're 7-year-olds.

So I would like to dedicate the film I have embedded to them. For it reveals, once and for all--with a definitiveness that offers vast relief--what technology Santa Claus uses in order to bring the gift of, well, tons of gifts to the world's young and restless.

Larry Silverberg, associate head of North Carolina State University's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, has clearly spent much of his life attempting to solve the Santa problem.

I am grateful to WRAL in North Carolina … Read more

The North American Aerospace Defense Command will once again be tracking Santa Claus as he circles the globe on Christmas Eve, offering up-to-the moment online updates on St. Nick's progress in a number of languages and using Google Earth and Google Maps to display his flight path.

While the actual "tracking" starts at 3 p.m. on December 24 (GMT +8), visitors to the NORAD Santa Web site can view last year's flight path while waiting.

If you're out and about on Christmas Eve, you can also use iOS and Android apps to view Santa's progress. Santa watchers can track his updated progress on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter. … Read more

Honda Aircraft this week is one more step closer to making HondaJet a reality. The company, which plans to deliver light business aircraft in 2012, completed an FAA-conforming flight.

The nearly one-hour test flight took place on Monday from the company's Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C.

The HondaJet has already undergone a number of FAA structural tests and will have to pass on additional structural test and another flight test to be certified. The company plans to take HondaJet into full production at its Greensboro plant.

"We are very encouraged by our initial review of … Read more