aviation

Note: This is a guest post. CNET News occasionally runs such pieces.

One of the compelling and challenging aspects of the current focus on alternative energy is the amazing array of technologies that are in various stages of development. Should a country, company, or individual investor place a bet on wind or solar? Batteries or fuel cells? Nuclear, anyone?

The trade-offs are endless. In the case of aviation, our path is somewhat clearer. There is no substitute for kerosene. Its physical and chemical properties have been optimized over 100 years to provide the best possible combination of energy content, density, … Read more

The founders of a company called Terrafugia are undoubtedly very, very clever.

All graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they formed the company four years ago with the aim of creating The Transition, a car that flies--not merely in the speed sense of "flies," but rather in the "takes off and does things planes do" sense.

The initial flight is planned for the end of this month or some time in February at an airport in upstate New York.

I am worried, not so much because I am suspicious of flying but because I am … Read more

"Join the mile-high club without the hassle of going to the airport," MotoArt says of its new Mile High Bed, which, like all of the company's products, is created from aircraft inventory.

At $35,000 (and no, those pretty flowers on the bedstand aren't included), this mod piece of furniture had better lift you to new altitudes of um, comfort and style. You could, after all, get a two-seat Cessna 152 for less. And seriously, if you're that intent on joining that proverbial action-in-the-sky club, might we suggest you just snag a couple of Southwest … Read more

If you're flying Delta Air Lines out of New York's LaGuardia Airport, you can now flash your cell phone to get onboard. On Tuesday, the airline rolled out a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to test out a "paperless check-in"--passengers download a boarding pass onto their cell phones and have it scanned by the TSA at the airport's security checkpoint as well as when they board the plane.

Fellow domestic carrier Continental is already testing a similar program.

The speedier check-in is limited to cell phone customers who can access the mobile … Read more

In the tech community, Las Vegas has somewhat of a bad rap. Sin City, after all, is home to so many large-scale industry trade shows (case in point: CES) that just mentioning the name is bound to induce a headache, and not in the I-got-plastered-and-lost-all-my-money sense.

The guys at Thrillist, the e-mail newsletter for 20- and 30-something dudes, may have changed that a bit. To celebrate their recent launch of a Vegas-centric newsletter (joining New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and soon Miami), as well as the fact that trendy airline JetBlue is one of their biggest sponsors, founders … Read more

United Airlines has been subject to some pretty bad press recently for being one of several airlines to slap a $15 fee on checked bags, but here's a perk: the commerical carrier announced on Monday that it's starting to install iPod and iPhone connectivity features in its airplanes.

More specifically, owners of Apple's media devices can hook them up to the planes' in-flight entertainment systems; they can navigate through music and video on the seat back televisions while charging the devices in the process. The connectivity technology has been manufactured by Panasonic Avionics.

United is the first … Read more

NEW YORK--Top Gun and Ender's Game fans take note: Rocket Racing is here.

It'll be like Formula One or Nascar in the sky, or at least that's what the leadership of Rocket Racing said at a press conference at the Yale Club here on Monday morning. The aeronautics entertainment start-up announced the debut of its long-awaited Rocket Racing League, which will have its first exhibition race on August 1-2 at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wis.

The science fiction-like Rocket Racing pits aircraft called Rocket Racers against one another in a high-speed dash around the … Read more

Record-setting balloonist and airplane pilot Steve Fossett hasn't been heard from since he took off in a private plane from hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Nevada ranch in early September 2007. The Nevada Civil Air Patrol called off the rescue search after two weeks without results, and the National Transportation Safety Board declared that his plane had been destroyed in a fatal crash.

Fossett's family is now lobbying an Illinois judge to declare him legally dead. Under the usual laws, the multi-millionaire's estate cannot be distributed according to his will until that declaration is official. They also … Read more

A new aquatic UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is skimming the briny deep. It's the Flying Fish, fresh out of the labs at the University of Michigan. According to its developers, the seaplane can take off, fly, and land autonomously in moderate seas some 6 feet high, all while performing surveillance functions and relaying information back to a home base. Considering the technical complexity of taking off and landing on pontoons in choppy water, this is no small feat. According to MSNBC: "The craft (has) to acquire data all the while, through the onboard inertial gyro sensors it uses … Read more