planes

Switzerland's famed Solar Impulse solar plane has chalked up another successful flight, this one designed to see how it would manage flying across the country and landing at its busiest airports.

Powered solely by solar energy, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype took to the skies Tuesday morning to start the first leg of its multicity flight. Lifting off from home base in Payerne at 8 a.m., Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg flew the plane to Geneva, reaching the city's international airport a little before 12:30 p.m.

At the airport, curious visitors were allowed … Read more

Switzerland's Solar Impulse is ramping up for its next flight--this one designed to see how well it plays with other aircraft.

With weather conditions expected to be favorable, Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg will fly the solar plane from its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, tomorrow between 8 and 11 a.m. Central European Summer Time and land at Geneva between 12:30 and 1 p.m.

After Borschberg and fellow Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard speak with the media and invited guests for a special information session, Borschberg will pilot the plane back home to Payerne … Read more

It's not an exaggeration to say that there are iPhone apps for almost everything. And in my neverending quest to find apps for airline geeks, I came across a title that allows you not to locate your gate, track your flight, or find your seat, but to actually search for planes in the air.

Plane Finder by Pinkfroot uses a mashup of Google Maps to show current flights in a given area. The accessible interface doesn't resemble a radar scope taken from an air traffic controller's screen; instead, flights appear as plane-shaped icons that trail a path … Read more

Boeing has won an $89 million government contract to build and fly an unmanned solar-powered plane that can--eventually--stay aloft continuously for up to five years. Yes, that's five years.

The defense contractor will develop the SolarEagle aircraft for the Vulture II program run by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA. Scheduled to get off the ground for its first demo flight in 2014, the plane will likely serve as an electronic sensor and military communications platform. But it could eventually turn into a less expensive alternative to communications and reconnaissance satellites.

"SolarEagle … Read more

A Swiss team hoping to one day circle the globe in a solar-powered plane intends to take the craft out for a spin around Switzerland as soon as weather conditions become "favorable."

In a blog post, Solar Impulse said its plane is scheduled to lift off from an airport in Payerne, Switzerland, and then head for Geneva. After a stopover, the plane will pass over the Lake of Geneva, the regions of Fribourg, Bern, and Aarau and then land at the Zurich airport.

Earlier this year, the plane, known as HB-SIA, registered a couple of successful test flights--including … Read more

The Spanair plane crash that killed 154 people two years ago Friday may have been partly caused by malware, according to reports.

El Pais, Spain's top newspaper, reported Friday that Spanair's mainframe was contaminated with Trojans at the time that Flight JK 5022 to Gran Canaria crashed just after take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport.

The mainframe was supposed to raise the alarm when three similar technical problems were noted, but did not do so due to the infestation, El Pais said.

According to the report, investigating judge Juan David Perez has ordered Spanair to turn over relevant … Read more

Good news, everyone! Twitter's getting its own servers and Skype will now run in the background on an iPhone. But beware: The IPocalypse is nigh, Apple now has more software insecurity flaws than anyone, and robots can now move faster than you can blink.

This 4th of July weekend, you might, either at its beginning or its end, find yourself wishing your car could fly.

Thanks to a new FAA decision, this wish might seem slightly less Peter Pan and slightly more Peter Perfect.

It seems that the soaring minds behind the Terrafugia Transition have secured a remarkable weight exemption from the FAA, allowing it to carry such vital necessities as crumple zones, airbags, and a structural cage on its revolutionary flying car.

No, the airbags won't help much in the air. But road safety is just as vital for this dual-purpose flying … Read more

With all that oil gushing out of the hole in the Earth, we have to ask ourselves this question. And if this happens, what then? Well, flying cars and pedal powered Porsches, obviously. Even Eli, our special guest, knows that!

Rocket car blasts off on Coke and Mentos

Personal electric mini-plane could fly by 2013 (thanks Frontline!)

Audi ‘travolution’ syncs cars to traffic lights, saves fuel

Pedal-powered Porsche is world’s lightest, slowest

Firefox plug-in blacks out BP across the Web

BP Global PR

If It Was My Home

Nuking the oil spill: a crazy idea that’s building steam… Read more