Let’s pretend we are in science class for a moment. When a plane is traveling at the speed of sound, it is literally compressing the air at the front of the wing and leaving an area of negative pressure in the plane’s wake. What results is actually two sonic booms that are oftentimes experienced as a single sound. The sonic boom is a cool effect, but it’s not so good for people who live on flight paths, nor is it likely all that good for the wildlife in the area either. But we want to travel at that speed.  So, researchers at MIT and Stanford University have come up with a biplane design that effectively eliminates this problem. If you look lengthwise at the wings, you get a couple of triangles pointed at eachother with flat edges on the outside. In effect, the shockwaves get reflected, canceling out the sonic boom effect altogether.

The problem with this design, which was originally conceived by Adolf Busemann in the 1930s, is that it doesn’t generate enough lift at sub-supersonic speeds. The new design by MIT and Stanford allows for the wings to change shape over the course of the flight, giving you the best of both worlds. Shown here is one example as produced by Tohoku University in Japan. Ground level shock waves are reduced by 85 percent. It’s still a work in progress, but this could be the future of commercial flight.

[Source]

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Let me explain.

As a kid, the idea of a jetpack was nothing short of the coolest thing people could ever possibly create. And the idea was simple enough: Strap some firepower to your back and fly anywhere.

But my mental image of the jetpack has taken a bit of a beating lately, and the Jetlev is doing nothing to reverse that trend.

First off, firepower seems to be passé. It started with the Solo Trek XFV in 2000, a jetpack that used wind turbines rather than spitting streams of fire. Fine, NASA’s on board. It can’t be that bad. At least it’s a start.

Somewhere along the line, though, someone got the idea that jetpacks should be powered by water. Enter Super Mario Sunshine in 2002, a video game where Mario trades his dinosaur for a water-powered jetpack. It’s iffy, but it’s self-contained, gets him around and serves its purpose of cleaning up the island.

Then that “Kick Ass” movie a year or two ago. I don’t think a real, fuel-burning jetpack has ever looked lamer than with that nerdy kid flying it while wearing a scuba suit. And the water theme continues.

Now, the Jetlev has taken the worst aspects of all of these upsetting jetpack wannabes and made them tourist-friendly. It’s tethered to a modified jetski by an oversized garden hose that only allows riders to hover at 30 feet above the water.

The jetski pumps water up the hose and through the downward-facing nozzles behind the rider’s shoulders, giving lift and forward momentum up to 22 mph. But there is not a single practical application of this $99,500 embarrassment aside from letting drunken college students parasail in front of the boat rather than behind it. You can’t even use it to clean up the island since doing so would run the jetski dry and cut your “fuel supply.”

In reality, this is nothing more than a glorified fire hose that’s been robbed of its life-saving purpose. For shame.

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Travel laws for those with a laptop, smartphone or battery powered mobile device are once again about to get stickier, even shipments of said devices may get more expensive due to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposal regarding the transportation of small, battery powered devices by air.

Passengers traveling by air will be affected as the rules pertaining to extra lithium-ion batteries in your checked-in luggage will now affect alkaline and nickel metal-hydride batteries.  Any battery must be inside the device to be allowed in checked in luggage.  Extra batteries will be allowed in carry-on luggage.

There have always been exceptions on small lithium cells and batteries, which were stated to be less than 100 watts/hr, most laptop batteries carry 60-80 watts/hr. Small lithium batteries are in class 9 of hazardous material, it is a miscellaneous category including dry ice and magnetized goods.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that by not having the exceptions it is going to force vendors and transport companies to use better quality packaging.

“Under existing regulations, a flight crew may not be made aware of a pallet containing thousands of lithium batteries on board the aircraft, yet a five-pound package of flammable paint or dry ice would be subject to the full scope of the regulations,” said Minnesota Democratic representative and House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman, Jim Oberstar, in a statement. “That makes little sense.”

A complete copy of the Department of Transportation’s proposal can be found here.

George Kerchner, the executive director of Portable Rechargeable Battery Association in Washington D.C. has said “It will be a nightmare for passengers.”

Kerchner feels that we would be better off with stricter enforcement of the existing rules, not implementing new ones.  These changes could affect everything from button battery-powered hearing aids – tools – defibrillators and (brace yourself) your next shipment of iPads.

Kerchner said that if the U.S. creates stricter rules than the International Civil Aviation Organization, who is in charge of the rest of the world, it will be a huge financial hardship on manufacturers and shippers by changing/increasing the packaging, labels, and shipping details.  Not to mention the monstrous costs of all the workers here and overseas that will have to be “fully regulated hazmat” training.

“We’re talking about billions of dollars,” he also implied that any new costs would most  likely be passed on to the customers.

He did acknowledge the department’s data that there were 40 air transport related incidents since 1991 that did involve lithium batteries and devices that were powered by lithium batteries;  Kerchner stated that it is a small number compared to the 3.3 billion that were actually transported in 2008.

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