Cutting Edge

Solar plane midway through first intercontinental flight

The solar plane took off Thursday from Payerne, Switzerland, bound for Morocco. It landed safely Friday on a planned three-day technical stopover in Madrid, where it will get a new pilot.

If successful, the 1,550-mile journey will be the longest to date for the craft, which last year completed it's completed its first international flight from its home in Switzerland to Brussels.

Pilot Andre Borschberg took the jumbo jet-size plane on its first leg. His colleague Bertrand Piccard will take the helm for the second stretch to the Moroccan capital Rabat.

According to the Solar Impulse Web site, more

The real business of the DIY movement

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Since 2006, Maker Faire has offered tens of thousands of people an annual celebration of the best and brightest in the do-it-yourself movement.

But while everyone from individual tinkerers who have built small rockets to two people doing amazing things with Diet Coke and Mentos to paper airplane masters and crafters making magic out of felt has had a venue for the last five years to showcase their innovative projects, there's never been a forum for the growing number of people and companies that are developing the new business platforms that are merging manufacturing and making. more

The event that really 'won' the west

On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads made transcontinental travel possible for the first time in North America when the "golden spike" was driven connecting the two rail lines at Promontory, Utah. It's no exaggeration to say that in one fell swoop, the world had grown immensely smaller with the amount of time required to move people and freight passage from East Coast to West Coast got reduced from months to just six days. In doing so, the door to the industrialization of great reaches of this still-young country had swung open and the United more

Google's self-driving cars win big in Nevada

Nevada is known as being one of the most lenient states when it comes to gambling, fireworks, and getting married; and now it's extending that easygoingness to driverless cars.

As of today, Nevada is the first state to let Google's self-driving cars on the roads. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles issued the tech giant the first license to see just how these cars act and react on busy streets and highways, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

"We're excited to receive the first testing license for self-driving vehicles in Nevada," a Google spokesperson told CNET. "more

Take to the skies in your personal multicopter

You might think aviation experts would dismiss this eccentric aircraft, which has no fewer than 16 propellers, but some are taking the Volocopter very seriously.

Built by Germany's E-volo, the unclassifiable thing recently received the Lindbergh Prize for Innovation at the Aero-Friedrichshafen 2012 airshow.

The Volocopter is a 175-pound, electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) craft that has redundant propellers for safety. E-volo says it's very easy to control, with simple joystick steering. Could this be the personal transport of the future?

"We believe that the development of the Volocopter holds significant promise to radically change short distance transportation," said Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh. "It has a long development path ahead, but if this innovative design reaches the commercial market it will dramatically change the way we move about the planet."

At long last, Boeing delivers the first next-gen 747

EVERETT, Wash.--Get ready, aviation fans. Seats aboard Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental are almost ready for you. And today, at an event here, Boeing finally handed over the keys to the first of the next-general planes to a commercial airline customer.

The new airplane, which Boeing first unveiled at a huge ceremony here a year ago, has been in testing since then. But today, Lufthansa became the first airline to officially own one of the aircraft, the first of 20 it has ordered, and of 130 total orders Boeing has received for it.

Presenting...a truly mobile startup. Literally!

SAN FRANCISCO--There's a whole lot of mobile startups these days, but how many of them are actually, you know, mobile?

A company called Needle is, and if you'd wandered near South Park here today, you would have seen its so-called Mobile Contact Center -- essentially a huge RV -- parked on the street with several employees working away inside.

Ostensibly based in Salt Lake City, Needle contracts with retail partners to provide them experts to chat with end users. The idea is that there's likely no one better suited to explaining a product, or answering questions about more

Planetary Resources seeks to mine asteroids' riches

Space startup Planetary Resources today launched an ambitious plan to capture water and precious metals from near-Earth asteroids, a feat founders say would enrich earthbound society and enable further space exploration

The two-year-old company announced its plans at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, where its founders said that technology has advanced to the point that space-mining valuable natural resources is now economically feasible.

Some asteroids that pass near the Earth may hold water -- a vital commodity for making spacecraft fuel and supporting the lives of astronauts. And that's just the beginning. A single 500-meter-wide asteroid could contain more

Asteroid mining: Land grab in space

As people come to terms with the limits of the Earth's natural resources, startup company Planetary Resources is eyeing another source: space.

The company, founded by XPrize Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis and aerospace engineer Eric Anderson, will launch at the Museum of Flight in Seattle later today. Its list of advisers includes Google CEO Larry Page, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron, and the former Microsoft chief software architect and space tourist Charles Simonyi. Other advisers are Google board member and investor Ram Shriram and Ross Perot Jr., son of the former presidential candidate.

Planetary Resources' goal more

Cadillac pushes pedal on self-driving car

A self-driving car doesn't necessarily mean handing the keys over to a robot.

General Motors' on Friday said it is testing semi-autonomous technology on its Cadillac cars called Super Cruise that takes over freeway driving. It could be available by mid decade, the company said.

It's a sign how the technology for autonomous vehicles is advancing rapidly and how what's called a "self-driving car" can take different forms.

GM said that two of its 2013 Cadillac luxury sedans, the XTS and the ATS, have a Driver Assist package that already incorporates a number of sensors to detect more