Eurocopter Moves One Step Closer to Whisper Mode
Just about every helicopter operator is quite familiar with noise complaints. Whether it be the local news helicopter or even a medical helicopter, many people on the ground don’t like the sound created by rotary-wing aircraft. This week Eurocopter unveiled its most recent effort to reduce helicopter noise with the radical-looking Blue Edge rotor blade. The new blade has been tested on one of the company’s EC155 helicopters and was shown to reduce noise 3 to 4 decibels, according to the company. In addition to the Blue Edge rotor blade, the company also introduced something called Blue Pulse technology. Also designed to reduce helicopter noise, the Blue Pulse system uses three flap modules in the trailing edge of each rotor blade. Piezoelectric motors move actuate the flaps 15 to 40 times per second in reduce the “slap noise” often heard when a helicopter is descending.
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Cool Home Aquariums
Perhaps no freestanding aquarium has as high a head-turning quotient as the Silverfish from the France-based Octopus Studios design company. The Silverfish’s most striking design feature is obvious from the photo to the right—multiple bulbous fish tanks interconnected by water-filled tubes allowing fish to swim freely around the entire system. Taken together this aquarium looks like a large model of some molecular structure. But here’s what’s most cool about the Silverfish: Every aquarium is constructed by hand. Octopus will not only install museum-quality heating and filtration systems but also incorporate personalized silk plants and lighting. Don’t like any of the standard Silverfish stands? Provide the company specifications for your own.
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BMW HP Knust Is A Zero Emission Bike Powered By Hydrogen
Zero emission technology is what our future solely relies on. Every auto company nowadays is concentrating on developing vehicles that run clean on alternative sources of fuel. Coming up to the occasion, BMW has also escalated research efforts to use hydrogen as a transportation fuel. In its efforts, BMW has got some help from a group of design students at ISD of Valenciennes, France, who have come up with a BMW-badged motorcycle. Called as BMW HP Knust, this bike is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell with a lithium polymer battery for electrical energy storage. The bike uses a 20 liter cryogenic hydrogen tank to store hydrogen along with electronic brakes and controls, and electromagnetic suspensions that together offers a sustainable and comfortable ride. This aluminum frame motorcycle with tubular parts in steel and carbon has a Brushless engine that stir up 100kw.
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Massive £22bn Air Force 'boneyard' Revealed In High Resolution By Google Earth
It's where old planes go to die - a 2,600-acre patch of U.S. desert where several generations of military aircraft are stored in what has been dubbed 'The Boneyard'. The $35billion (£22billion) worth of outdated planes is kept as spare parts for current models at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Some planes are merely stored at the base between deployments, but for more than 80 per cent of the 4,200 aircraft that call it home, it is a cemetery of steel - 350,000 items to be called on when needed.
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