Crave

The Zephyr aircraft flies purely by solar power.

(Credit: QinetiQ)

After 16 days, the Olympics concluded with 43 world records being broken. However, there's now another record that's no less exciting.

QinetiQ claimed Sunday that its propeller-driven aircraft called Zephyr flew for 83 hours and 37 minutes nonstop, more than doubling the official world record set by Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk in 2001.

The Zephyr is much different from the Global Hawk, which is about the size of a fighter and requires a runway for taking off and landing.

Zephyr, on the other hand, is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber aircraft that weighs less than 70 pounds and is designed to launch by hand. The little aircraft flies on solar power generated by amorphous silicon arrays covering the aircraft's paper-thin wings. It's powered day and night by lithium sulfur batteries that are recharged during the day using solar power.

QinnetiQ claims that last year, Zephyr also managed to stay up in the air for 54 hours on another flight.

However, both the Zephyr's reported flight times didn't meet all criteria laid down by The World Air Sports Federation--the governing body for air sports and aeronautical world records--and will probably remain unofficial.

Nonetheless, Zephyr's impressive fight time opens up a lot of potential for the aircraft the fields of earth observation and communications relay.

(Via Associated Press)

(Credit: The Design Town)

Forget all that tired Star Wars paraphernalia. If we had our way, we'd design all computer hardware in stealth mode instead.

First we'd start with that Meizo LCD that doubles as a TV, with its B-2 bomber angles. Then we'd add an "Aircraft Mouse" from The Design Town, a unique company described as "a habitat for creative individuals who seek the perfect design that expresses who they really are." We're not sure about all that--we just like jets with blinking lights, like this LED-outfitted mouse seen on GeekAlerts.

We're still in need of a matching keyboard to complete the ensemble. But at least we've already got a "StealthSwitch."

The X-48B takes a breather from wind tunnel tests in 2006.

(Credit: Boeing)

Get out bat signal. The Caped Crusader is going to want one of these.

Boeing calls the design of its new flying-wing lookalike, the X-48B, a "blended wing body." That's for obvious reasons: the aircraft's wings blend smoothly into the fuselage, where older flying wings were really just, well, wings.

The experimental X-48B has made a half-dozen flights so far, all at Edwards Air Force Base in California since the middle of July, and is in the shop for a brief stint as researchers do some scheduled maintenance and start poring through the aeronautical data. It'll make a flurry of test flights again before the end of the year. Along with Boeing, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory are taking notes.

Don't go reaching for your Red Baron leather helmet, goggles and scarf just yet, though. See, this is just an unmanned scale model, with a wingspan of 21 feet. You wanna fly it, you'll have to keep both feet on the ground, though the remote-control apparatus is apparently full-fledged airplane equipment.

To find out what the plane looks like in flight, when a full-size model might be ready and how today's blended-wing design evolved from the 1940s-era flying wing, see "Photos: The blended-wing design of Boeing's X-48B."

Australian pilot Michael Coates and his short-wing Pipistrel were the big winners at the PAV Challenge.

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News.com)

There's a lot of room for novel aircraft design between the gargantuan (the Airbus A380) and the flimsy (that balsa wood toy that never flew the way you wanted it to).

One such design that's getting some attention these days--from no less than the likes of NASA--is the "personal aircraft vehicle." The notion here is that small propeller-driven planes could someday become the Camrys and Escorts of the skies, whisking commuters to the office or on short business trips while also undoing the gridlock that defines the automotive life for so many of us working stiffs.

Over the weekend, a small bevy of aerospace engineers and airplane enthusiasts headed to an off-the-beaten-path airfield in Santa Rosa, Calif., for the inaugural edition of NASA's PAV Challenge--a contest intended to assess key qualities of potential aerial commuting craft. A prize purse totaling $250,000 awaited entrants who scored best on matters such as engine noise, fuel efficiency and overall niftiness.

For a look at some of the people and planes vying for the prize money, check out News.com's gallery, "Photos: Commuter challenge in the skies." Terrafugia's futuristic flying car was present in spirit only, but there were some sleek Slovenia-built Pipistrels on hand. Those of us who had a fleeting childhood fantasy of being an ace fighter pilot will have to dream on still about pulling into the office parking lot with the vintage Yak-3; it was there for display only--and apparently is an oil hog to boot.

If airplanes are your large-scale luxury gadget of choice, News.com has a nice big gallery of exciting shots from July's Experimental Aircraft Association show in the skies over Wisconsin.

For a sampling of home-builts, antiques, classics, electrics, war birds, ultralights and rotorcraft, as well as cameos by both NASA and The Beach Boys, you have only to click on the image at left.

Oshkosh... It's not just for overalls anymore.

Maybe you'll fly inside a saucer someday.

(Credit: CleanEra, Delft University)

The grand Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus a380 may usher in an era of more fuel-efficient air travel, but their bird-shaped designs could look downright primitive later in the century.

Dutch aerospace engineers are imagining aircraft that look less like today's big-nosed winged planes, which haven't changed much in shape since the 1950s, and more like flying saucers. So maybe you can rest assured that those UFOs you spotted aren't signs of spying aliens, but instead are just your great-great-great-grandchildren traveling home for the holidays from a future when both saucer planes and time travel exist. The design comes from the CleanEra project at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. CleanEra stands for Cost-effective Low Emissions And Noise Efficient Regional Aircraft.

The project is geared to meet European goals to design quiet, lightweight, post-2025 passenger fleets that halve the globe-warming, air-polluting carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide spewed by today's planes. While radically re-imagining the architecture of aircraft with saucer shapes or even bringing back propellers, CleanEra's plans are also putting biofuels and hydrogen on the table.

By contrast, the new Boeing 787 already looks retro.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Airplanes emit up to 3 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, an amount that could double by the middle of the century as more jet-setters take to the skies, according to the International Governmental Panel on Climate Change. But the airline industry has a long journey ahead to make air travel cleaner and greener.

Click the copter for more on the Paris Air Show.

(Credit: Sikorsky Aircraft)

The 2007 biennial International Paris Air Show got under way Monday with a flurry of announcements, press conferences and flybys from some of the biggest names in the aviation business. The tarmac at Le Bourget Airport outside the French capital was crowded with aircraft of all sizes.

Much of the early buzz at the show went to the commercial rivalry between Boeing and Airbus, both of which have been heavily promoting two marquee aircraft. For Airbus, it's the A380 superjumbo; it's due to go into service with Singapore Airlines in October.

Let's face it: Most of us, when we travel, will forever be condemned to ouch--er, coach--class. But we can dream, right?

(Credit: Boeing Image)

Boeing has been teasing us for some months now with its promise of comfier airlifts in the 747-8 Intercontinental, an update of the now classic jumbo jet that's slated to enter commercial service in 2010. The interior is supposed to feel less like that of a plane and more like a room in your well-heeled neighbor's house. Some of the amenities include small bar tables and plusher seats. (Take a gander at scenes from the January unveiling: "Photos: Boeing's new way to fly.")

Now a unit of the aircraft giant, Boeing Business Jets, is talking up the 747-8 VIP. As the name implies, the emphasis is on "incomparable luxury" and "opulent features" including vaulted ceilings and video wall displays. And the company has the concept drawings to prove it.

(Credit: Boeing Image)

The china and the tablecloth are a nice touch, but one hopes they'll reconsider the faux tome-laden bookshelves.

Including its Skyloft area, the 747-8 VIP has a little more than 5,000 square feet of cabin space and can carry 100 passengers.

Boeing says that it's already got four orders for the VIP jet from "undisclosed customers." Too bad Google's Larry and Sergei have already gotten themselves tangled up in that mess over the second-hand 767 they bought not so long ago.

(Credit: SmartFish)

I won't even bother making the requisite jokes about how it's well past 2000 and we should all be behind the wheels of flying cars by now--that humor is so 2006. But I'm really digging the design of the SmartFish, a Swiss prototype for a hydrogen fuel-cell mini-aircraft that will optimally be more efficient than a car and will be able to travel at 560 miles per hour. Ooh, speedy. It'll be about 20 feet long and will hold two people, though the designers hope to work on a 20-seater version yet. (Perfect for your kid's soccer team.)

Sure, it's yet another flying car design, and we all know those have quite a few hurdles to clear before they can come to fruition, but the SmartFish is just sexy. Maybe being gorgeous will mean it gets put on the fast-track to production, you know, the same kind of rationale that lets supermodels jump the velvet-rope line at nightclubs.

(Via Gizmodo)