Aerospace

Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier -- again

Chuck Yeager was 24 when he became the first human to break the speed of sound. And to celebrate the 65th anniversary of that history-making event, the 89-year-old former test pilot and now retired Air Force brigadier general did it again, flying in the rear seat of an F-15 that broke the sound barrier at 10:24 a.m. on Sunday.

Yeager, whose exploits were chronicled in the book (and film) "The Right Stuff," gained worldwide notoriety when his Bell X-1 -- a 30 foot, 11 inch plane with a 28-foot wingspan -- reached a speed of 700 … Read more

Baumgartner makes record-setting skydive

Latest update: October 15 at 5:38 a.m. PT

One false start was enough for Felix Baumgartner.

On Sunday, the 43-year-old extreme skydiver ascended to the upper reaches of the atmosphere above Roswell, N.M., in a bid to come racing back down in a supersonic freefall.

At first, Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos team said that the unofficial top speed of the freefall was 1,137 kilometers per hour, or 706 miles per hour. Later, they raised that to 1,342.8 km/h, or 834.4 mph.

The team's expectation was that 690 mph would be … Read more

Photo time capsule to last 'billions of years' in space

"When humanity disappears, a ring of dead spacecraft will remain as evidence of our existence."

That comforting thought is how nonprofit arts group Creative Time introduces a project by multimedia artist Trevor Paglen to put a photo time capsule in space, where it will orbit our planet for thousands of years, perhaps long after we've blown each other up or otherwise expired. … Read more

No supersonic skydive for Baumgartner tomorrow

Felix Baumgartner will not attempt his stratospheric skydive tomorrow.

Weather conditions continue to be less than ideal for the mission, in which Baumgartner plans to set several records -- most dramatically, becoming the first person ever to fly, or in this case freefall, at supersonic speed without the protection of an aircraft fuselage around him. In making the attempt, if all were to go according to plan, he also would make the highest manned ascent with a balloon (120,000 feet, or just under 23 miles) to get to his jumping-off point, and the longest sustained freefall (an estimated 5 … Read more

Baumgartner's supersonic skydive scrapped for today

Last update: 10:55 a.m. PT.

Felix Baumgartner wants to make history as the first person to achieve supersonic speed in freefall, but that won't happen today.

At about 10:45 a.m. PT, with Baumgartner in his capsule and his balloon just beginning to be inflated, the decision came to abort the mission because of gusting winds.

The liftoff had been scheduled to begin at about 5:30 a.m. PT, but was delayed as the weather conditions at the launch site in Roswell, N.M., failed to cooperate. Tomorrow's weather is apparently not looking favorable, … Read more

Popular Mechanics honors breakthrough innovations

What do Elon Musk, Leap Motion, Microsoft Surface and Windows 8, Autodesk 123D, and Dow Solar's PowerHouse Solar Shingles have in common?

They are all among the winners of Popular Mechanics magazine's eighth Breakthrough Awards. Awarded each year by a panel of the magazine's editors, the honors go to people and products that are seen to be leading the world of science and commerce forward.

This year's product winners are: The North Face Powder Guide ABS Vest and Backpack; the Lytro camera; Autodesk 123D; Microsoft Surface and Windows 8; Ford's 1-liter EcoBoost engine; Dow PowerHouse … Read more

Skydiver aims to go supersonic October 8, finally

If you're going to try to zip through the air faster than the speed of sound -- without an airplane, and straight down to boot -- well, that's not something you rush into.

And it's been a long haul indeed for Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who for years now has been planning to make a historic skydive from higher than anyone's ever jumped, and faster too. As in supersonic fast.

Today, the team behind Baumgartner finally put a long-delayed date to the skydive: October 8. OK, actually, that's a tentative date, since the final green … Read more

Remember invisibility cloak tech? It's useful for talking to satellites

That bulbous protrusion in the front of many planes and pilotless drones could become a thing of the past if Intellectual Ventures' second spinout company pans out.

Executives at the Bellevue, Wash. patent-holding company today are expected to unveil Kymeta, a 15-employee company that's applying so-called metamaterials to satellite communications. Its first products, most likely for aircraft, should be available commercially by 2015. Eventually, executives say, Kymeta's technology could find its way to ships, trains, and even come in the form of a personal satellite hot spot that's about the size of a typical laptop computer.

You … Read more

New radar tech helps pilots nimbly avoid severe weather

Say goodbye to turbulence and flying through nasty weather, and many of the costly delays that go along with such airborne unpleasantness.

That's the promise of the latest iteration of Honeywell's IntuVue weather radar system, technology that is designed to allow airline pilots to steer clear of rough weather.

Although IntuVue has been around for several years, offering pilots a three-dimensional view of weather up to about 370 miles in front of them, the newest version of the software adds warnings of up to 10 minutes for turbulence, hail, and lightning.

The IntuVue system, first unveiled in 2008, … Read more