helicopter

This week, you finally get to see the results of my high-flying Road Test of the HTC One X! I actually jumped out of a helicopter because we were so sure that this HTC One X commercial, touting its camera features to such an extent that it could be used in a midair fashion shoot, was a ridiculous put-on. You'll see in the segment whether I managed to get the shot, and whether the phone's camera and features performed as advertised.

Special thanks to the folks at GoPro, who helped us set up this shoot and loaned us … Read more

When Megaupload's founder Kim DotCom's mansion was raided in January, he claimed far too much force was used with unnecessary helicopters circling and elite forces arriving armed to the teeth. Now there's video to prove it.

Released by New Zealand's 3News, the video starts with a helicopter flying over DotCom's compound and landing directly in front of the massive mansion. Four armed officials jump out and run toward the house. As the helicopter takes off, ground forces are seen coming in through the gates.

DotCom's New Zealand home was reportedly worth $30 million. During the raids, … Read more

U.S. Army, welcome to the future.

If you happen to be in Farnborough, London, this week, you'll be able to see a demo of an Army pilot geared in the latest in wearable military technology -- a portable computing device that fits in a pocket and a display panel that can be strapped to a soldier's wrist.

The entire Aviation Warrior (yes, that's what it is called) system -- which includes a helmet equipped with a flip-down viewing monocle and taps into the cockpit's digital display -- may seem like something that belongs in Battlestar … Read more

Bart Jansen had two cats, named Orville and Wilbur, after the famous flying Wright brothers of Kitty Hawk. When dear Orville passed away, the visual artist and designer created a new kind of Kitty Hawk.

The Orvillecopter is a quadrocopter with Orville's skin stretched over it. Orville was killed by a car, Jansen mourned, and then he went about concocting a tribute.… Read more

Griffin has had a lot of success promoting its Helo TC app-controlled toy helicopter with an entertaining YouTube video. Now the company has released an amusing sequel to kick off the availability of its $59.99 Helo TC Assault, which fires nonlethal RedEye missiles from two spring-loaded launchers built into the mini copter's fuselage.

Like several other products that have started to use touch-based smartphone apps for remotely controlling ground and water vehicles as well as flying craft, the Helo TC assault is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones along with the iPod Touch. You download a free app, then clip on and connect the included "flight deck" accessory to your device and you're ready to start flying. … Read more

The cool smartphone-controlled Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter, first shown at CES in 2010, is getting some good updates that are being announced at this year's conference.

The biggest changes for the AR.Drone 2.0 are hardware and software improvements to make the device easier to fly. Better location and orientation sensors should make the drone more stable in the air, and a new pressure sensor will help it hold its altitude more accurately when it's more than a few feet off the ground (when the ultrasonic ground proximity sensor is ineffective).

On the software side, a new &… Read more

The Army of today is making plans for the helicopter of tomorrow -- fast, tough, and even semi-autonomous.

And with the Pentagon's target date of 2030 to begin fielding a fleet of these next-generation vertical-lift aircraft, one can only hope that the Army won't be overly beholden to designs based on the futuristic blueprints of today.

The term "vertical lift" is key here: the aircraft that eventually goes into the service would use rotors for lift, in helicopter fashion, but might also include wings in the manner of the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey or in an even … Read more

With a name like SkyNET, it's got to be scary. This flying robo-hacker deserves its "Terminator"-inspired moniker: Although it stops short of actually hunting humans, it's a potential nightmare for anyone with a wireless home network. Worse, it's a DIYer's dream: cheap and easy to build and fun to operate.

SkyNET combines a toy helicopter and a computer configured to attack Wi-Fi networks. The result is a drone the CIA would be proud of. The nasty little device can compromise computers on wireless networks and dragoon them into botnets. Botnets are widely used for hacking, denial-of-service attacks, and spamming.

The devious beauty of SkyNET is that by controlling the botnet from a drone rather than an Internet connection, the botmaster is harder to track down. To catch the bad guy you'd have to figure out that a drone is involved, spot the drone, and follow it back to its owner (assuming the black hat goes to pick it up). Either that or catch it and do a full-blown forensic investigation to figure out who made it.… Read more

The typical $40 remote-control helicopter comes with a tiny, imprecise controller. Griffin's just-announced Helo TC turns your iPhone into the flight stick , with your choice of onscreen or accelerometer controls. Price: $49.99.

The kit consists of a dual-rotor 'copter and the Flight Deck, a case/sled that cradles your iPhone and controls the flyer via line-of-sight infrared. It also plugs into your iPhone's headphone jack, thus allowing the Helo TC app to communicate with the helicopter.

Want to see it in action? Check out Griffin's promo vid, which is not only surprisingly polished, but also pretty … Read more