Miracles are out there

Awesome! I am so glad something is being done to assist all those brave "rough men" that have stood in harm's way for freedom. I salute you all on Memorial day.
"We honor our heroic and patriotic dead by being true men, as true men by faithfully fighting the battles of our day as they fought the battles of their day." David Gregg

Frodo4FingerZ we will miss you!

I was saddened to read about this today, a promising young engineer and artist has passed while doing something he dreamed of, I did not know him but after reading his blog The Grey Havens I knew him better.
My sincere condolences to his family.
This is the SANAE IV base where Dewald was stationed on in Antartica.

Andreas’ Personal Flying Suit

Andeas Petzoldt has been tinkering with this rig for years by the sounds of things, I wish him luck in finding a test pilot! As Lore Sjöberg mentions on his blog;

"Of course, it's hard not to imagine the test flight. With great ebullience, Andreas soars into the heavens. He sneers at gravity with contempt, a spurned mistress, a whore who embraces all but him. But suddenly he hears a horrifying choke and shudder and a sickening vertigo creeping up from his genitalia and into his bowels as he plummets back down to the ground, strapped to over 200 pounds of highly-explosive rocket fuel and whirring metal blades."

I am slightly more optimistic after visiting the site promoting Andreas's passion project and it would be amazing to have such a machine.

When huge is not enough...

To describe this ship. The LAURA MAERSK is the largest container ship afloat.
Quite impressive specs and with the latest technologies probably one of the most environmentally friendly... but the greens still disagree. Why not do a virtual tour and find out for yourself, I for one am impressed.

An Uri can jump...

Conceived in the desert of Namibia and built to be as rugged as the country that birthed it, is the Uri utility vehicle, great for any off road mission you plan.

The whole underside and body is sprayed with polyurethane to make it both rustproof and water proof.

Something that is needed when you use it for fishing trips along the Namib with it's salty air.
These great bakkies are now also being built in Pretoria.
The basic versions used to be only 2x4... and can usually go anywhere a 4x4 goes! It is all in the ultralight design and suspension set up. The newer 4x4 versions go where Unimogs fear to tread!

We have Liftoff... Independence day 2006

Mission STS-121 is launched on Independence Day... the best fireworks ever for NASA... It may be 3 days later than scheduled but I think one should never overlook coincidences.
We wish the crew Bon Voyage and a safe return, may this be a sign of more success in the future for NASA and all the people that strive to further the exploration of our Universe.

Diesel... der Vorsprung durch Technik

Lately I have been following the development of using Diesel engines in motorcycles, something that always puzzled me as to why there was a dearth of these creatures.
The problem has been a shortage of technology being applied in this field as well as no company willing to stake their life on the venture.
However I must say this is changing rapidly...
Over on The Kneeslider you can go and see what is being done. One company I want to single out is Neander Motor in Germany... hence the clone of Audi's motto, who are also leaders in the field of auto diesel power in my opinion.
Neander Motor's double crankshaft ohc turbo charges 1.4 Litre bike engine is a work of art as the pictures show, typical Teutonic excellence...



The motorcycle this brute is going to power is a semi chopper style cruiser. Not my favourite but very impressive to say the least. Another contender is the ThunderStar 1200 from Holland as per this Gizmag article, in Superbike format. The Neander would also do well in the Quad field as it is suited for this type of frame.
What I would like is the Neander single cylinder motor in a CS650 frame,That would be cool! Pity the CS has been dropped, I loved the belt drive... Maybe I should drop BMW and Neander a note...

Who needs Red Bull!

I always smile when I see a Red Bull advert but seems like this personal wing story is actually old news!


The SkyRay was first flown in 2002 already but the proposed use for Special Forces by ESG seems to be a latter idea. I love the header on their site "ESG gives you wings – the parachute system for special operations".
In any case I think this is amazing use of current technology in composite materials.
I wonder if we will ever see a Red Bull air race using these?

Awesome

Some amazing engineering going on in Dubai, money can buy anything I suppose.