The World's Smallest Train is a Car

By: Ameya Naik | Updated: June 30, 2015 13:36 IST

We've all plied on trains, may it be within the city or outside it and we are all aware how much time it saves, especially considering that city streets are filled to the brim with traffic. Suggestions run amok about how flying cars can ease the burden of traffic in the distant future but current options run from sensible stuff like carpooling to even using public transport. However, no one thought of railroads. Can we not have cars modified to run on rails?

Well, we can. Smart has transformed the latest generation of the Forfour into the world's smallest train. This is no April Fools joke and is in fact a real car with solid steel wheels to get it on the track. The car was designed by a team from the UK-based firm Interfleet, who usually deal with huge 70-ton, 16-litre diesel locomotives. This time however, they were dealing with something smaller, much smaller.

Modifying the tiny Smart forfour into what you see in the picture took the engineers six months and this included a lot of CAD modeling and a massive engineering overhaul. The standard alloy wheels on the forfour had to be done away with and this customized version came with massive 22-inch solid steel wheels, each weigh 80 kg.

The engineers even removed the car's steering system and to make sure the wheels remained locked in position they welded aluminum supports between the axles.

This one-off car was tested on a 16 km stretch of railway on the privately-operated Bluebell Railway which cuts a direct route through Sussex and a handful of commuters got the chance to ride in it too. The smallest train in the world did six runs at low speeds with a licensed train driver in the car and supervised by trained staff from the railway at all time.

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Source: The World's Smallest Train is a Car

The Future of Transportation: Flying Cars, Hyperloop, and Virtual Worlds

Four revolutions in transportation are taking place this decade.

This post is a look at how they will shape your life, your business and our world.

In 2011, Peter Thiel famously said, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters…"

Guess what? The flying car is coming, and so is a heck of a lot more.

In this post, I want to explore the latest developments in:

Autonomous Vehicles

Telepresence Robots and Virtual Worlds

Hyperloop

Point-to-Point Aerial Transport

Each of these will change where we live, work and interact.

Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous cars are coming and coming fast. Every major car company has autonomous cars under development. By 2035, it's expected there will be more than 54 million autonomous cars on the road, and this will change everything.

Saved Lives: There are 1.2 million people killed every year in car accidents. Autonomous cars don't drive drunk, don't text, don't have Alzheimer's, and don't fall asleep at the wheel.

Reclaiming Land: You can fit eight times more autonomous cars on our roads, making their land use more efficient. In Los Angeles, it's estimated that more than half of the land in the city belongs to the cars in the form of garages, driveways, roads, and parking lots.

Saved Energy: Today, we give close to 25 percent of all of our energy to personal transportation, and 25 percent of our greenhouse gases are going to the car.

Saved Money: Get rid of needing to own a car, paying for insurance and parking, trade out 4,000-lb. cars for lighter electric cars that don't crash, and you can expect to save 90% on your local automotive transportation bill.

Best of all, you can call any kind of car you need, when you need it. Need a nap? Order a car with a bed. Want to party? Order one with a fully-stocked bar. Need a business meeting? Up drives a conference room on wheels.

Telepresence Robotics and Virtual Worlds

In the US alone, business travel spending will top $310 billion in 2015 (Global Business Travel Association), or about 490.4 million business trips.

The idea of having to schlep your "meat body" from one location to another for a meeting will soon be old-school.

Instead you'll plug into a virtual world, or use a Beam robot to connect virtually. Already, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony, HTC, and Suitable Technologies are spending billions of dollars to develop the hardware and perfect the experience.

Beyond the advantage of saving serious cash and time flying from LA to NY, meeting someone "in person" will ultimately be a disadvantage. When I'm speaking to you over a virtual link or telepresence robot, I can watch your pupillary dilation, have my system pull up and recall facts about our last conversation, and enrich my interaction with you in countless ways.

In the next decade, you will attend conferences, meetings, interviews, keynotes and maybe even dates by telepresence and virtual worlds. Just the advantage of avoiding a full cavity search courtesy of airport TSA makes it worth it.

For me, I have 15 Beam robots between my offices at XPRIZE (Los Angeles), Singularity University (Mountain View), Human Longevity Inc. (San Diego), and Planetary Resources (Seattle). In a single day, I'll routinely hop between four cities with a click of a button.

Hyperloop

A few years ago, California proposed (and passed) a $69 billion high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In response, Elon Musk (founder of Tesla, SpaceX) published a paper on a conceptual transportation system called the Hyperloop that was "a cross between a Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table" and that could be built at 10% of the cost of the high-speed rail.

Guess what — Hyperloop is now in design and under construction. When it works, it will be able to transport people and cargo between cities at speeds faster than a commercial airliner (over 700 mph) with record energy efficiencies.

Hyperloop, which Musk dubs "the fifth mode," would be as fast as a plane, cheaper than a train and continuously available in any weather while emitting no carbon from the tailpipe.

If people could get from LA to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, LA to Las Vegas in 20 minutes, or New York to Philly in 10, cities become metro stops and borders evaporate, along with housing price imbalances and overcrowding.

A brilliant team of engineers is hard at work at Hyperloop Technologies, a company founded by investor Shervin Pishevar and former SpaceX Engineer Brogan Bambrogan.

I'm proud to be a founding board member along with Shervin, Brogan, Joe Lonsdale (Founder, Palantir and Formation 8), Jim Messina (Pres. Obama's reelection campaign manager), and David Sacks (PayPal, Yammer).

Point-to-Point Aerial Transport

As alluded to above, some version of the flying car is coming. This is being enabled by the intersection of three converging technologies: high energy density batteries, autonomous navigation powered by differential GPS, and lightweight, high-strength materials.

The XPRIZE Foundation is working on a multimillion dollar Transporter XPRIZE to inspire progress in this arena.

Various designs are under development by a number of companies focused on the creation of personal transportation machines with vertical takeoff, vertical landing capability — think of human-carrying electric quadcopters. Something you can step into and tell it, "Please take me to downtown LA." It then lifts you up, and flies you at 500 feet to your destination.

One company, Zee Aero, is rumored to be funded by Google. This flying car can take off and land vertically using a plethora of small electric motors turning four-bladed propellers and is narrow enough to fit into a standard shopping center parking space.

Another design, e-volo's Volocopter (pictured above), is an electric two-passenger, 18-rotor vehicle.

I call these "flying cars" or "human carrying multi-copters" for point-to-point transport. They are a mix between a personal jet pack and your own autonomous, electric helicopter-on-demand.

For crowded cities, they are a godsend. But for places like Africa which has no passable roads (especially during rainy season), these future Transporters are the equivalent of Africa skipping the copper-line phone system and going straight to wireless.

The future of transportation is an exciting one — and a faster, cheaper, safer, cleaner, and more fun one.

Image Credit: e-volo

Source: The Future of Transportation: Flying Cars, Hyperloop, and Virtual Worlds

Could Flying Bikes, Cars Be Next? Toyota and U.S. Army Explore

Once Hollywood sci-fi, small hovercraft are gaining ground in the real world. The U.S. Army is looking at the "world's first flying motorcycle," and Toyota's luxury brand Lexus has built its own hoverboard.

Yet these and other levitating wonders won't hit the market anytime soon. They still have to undergo safety testing and regulatory scrutiny. And some are simply meant to amuse. Lexus' new Hoverboard, for example, isn't the forerunner of a flying car that Toyota says it's been studying.

"It's definitely something that works, but it's not something we plan to sell," says Lexus spokesman Moe Durand of the hoverboard, unveiled this week in a company video. It uses magnets and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors to lift a rider off the ground. So far, it only works when magnets are embedded underneath the road surface.

"It's really just for an ad," Durand says, citing the "Amazing in Motion" ad campaign to showcase Lexus' innovation. Though Lexus didn't build it as part of a push toward a flying car, he says it could eventually lead in that direction: "Is it dipping our toe in the water? Maybe."

An increasing number of companies, though, are vying to commercialize their hovercraft. Their prototypes may not look like Marty McFly's board in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II, but they're aiming to do all sorts of incredible things—transport troops over difficult terrain, move passengers in Elon Musk's vision of sonic tubular travel, or even lift buildings to avoid earthquake damage.

Chris Malloy built a helicopter-like Hoverbike in his garage in suburban Sydney, Australia. His website says he "combined the simplicity of a motorbike with the freedom of a helicopter to create the world's first flying motorcycle." Now he's the managing director of Malloy Aeronautics, a company based in the United Kingdom.

"We're doing a feasibility study for them," Malloy says of the U.S. Army. He says his craft, which uses propellers to hover, can do search and rescue missions, cargo delivery, disaster relief, and surveillance. Designed to come in manned and unmanned versions, he says it can do what helicopters do—at a lower cost, in tighter spaces, and without pilots.

This is the original prototype of the Hoverbike, which has two propellers. The current one is a quad-copter with four propellers.

Photograph courtesy Malloy Aeronautics

He declined to give specifics about the project. At the Paris Air Show earlier this month, Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford announced that Malloy's company is working to develop the Hoverbike for the U.S. military as a new class of Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle.

Malloy says he developed the Hoverbike for commercial, not military, use. "We've had lots of people who want to place orders," he says, noting he's not yet taking them. "We don't want to hurry our product into the market."

Technically, he says the company could begin production now, but he needs to do rigorous testing to prove its safety. He expects that could take at least three to five years, and he doesn't have the market to himself.

"We have competitors," he says, noting companies in New Zealand and elsewhere with similar prototypes.

Simpler hovercraft are emerging, too. In California, Greg Henderson has built the Hendo, a hoverboard that he says uses one fourth as much energy as a helicopter to lift the same weight. (Find out what it's like to ride one.) In October, his company Arx Pax plans to debut a new version that's smaller, lighter, and more powerful.

The story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

On Twitter: Follow Wendy Koch and get more environment and energy coverage at NatGeoEnergy.

Source: Could Flying Bikes, Cars Be Next? Toyota and U.S. Army Explore

People Still Insist This Flying Car Will Arrive By 2017, Despite Crash

Another day, another promise that flying cars are just over the horizon. It's like that movie Groundhog Day except Bill Murray's character wakes up once every six months to a new world where he's completely forgotten the media's promises of flying cars from six months ago.

From WGBH:

You are now living in the future.

No, it's not because you have access to the entire world's knowledge via a phone in your pocket. And it's not because of virtual reality, or the 3D printing craze.

The future is here because, in 2017, you'll be able to buy a flying car. Seriously.

Stop it. Just stop it. Your flying car is not coming by 2017. Even if we generously describe the AeroMobil as a flying car, it still hasn't even gotten approval from the FAA. I don't know how many times I have to write this post.

The funniest part about the WGBH writer's bizarre claim is that he discounts that whole "entire world's knowledge via a phone in your pocket." That's actually the future part, guy!

He's absolutely right that we're living in the future. Well, somebody's future at least. But it's not because so-called flying cars are on the horizon. They're not. They don't make any fucking sense. Stop saying that they're a symbol of the "real" future. I realize that flying cars have been promised to Americans for a century. But we need to stop fetishizing this one symbol as the only true barometer of future-ness.

You want to see what AeroMobil's flying car looked like in May?

Yep. It crashed. Because that's what flying cars do. And that's okay! Experiments crash.

But that's not the lone reason that this flying car isn't coming to showrooms by 2017.

We've actually had flying cars for decades. But nobody wants them. At least not in the form and price that all these companies like AeroMobil are trying out. We know how to make an airplane that also drives. We have for a while now. It isn't a question of technological breakthrough when it comes to the AeroMobil. It's a question of practicality—these vehicles need plenty of space to take-off and land, for example, and cost far more than even a luxury car.

Until we have affordable, driverless vertical take-off and landing vehicles, the flying car will remain a dream for the vast majority of humans on this Earth. And that's okay. I just ask that you stop telling me that these flying cars are two years away. If I'm wrong, I will literally eat the sun.

Source: People Still Insist This Flying Car Will Arrive By 2017, Despite Crash

'Back to the Future' hoverboard comes to life

The future is here already -- or at least the one imagined for Marty McFly -- with a carmaker unveiling a real, working hoverboard, like that used in the "Back To The Future" film franchise.

Toyota's luxury car brand Lexus says it has created a prototype that glides frictionlessly just above the ground with technology similar to that used in so-called maglev trains.

A teaser video posted online appears to show the hoverboard floating, although the sequence ends before a skateboarder actually begins to ride it.

While the hoverboard Michael J. Fox's character rides in "Back To The Future II" floats above anything -- except water -- the Lexus model requires magnets to be embedded in the ground, limiting its range to special tracks.

The project is "the perfect example of the amazing things that can be achieved when you combine technology, design and imagination," said Mark Templin, executive vice president at Lexus International.

Testing will take place in Barcelona, Spain "over the coming weeks until summer 2015," the company said.

A US team last year unveiled what they said was a working hoverboard, funded through the Kickstarter crowdfunding website.

Japan has expertise in magnetic levitation technology, which uses electrically charged magnets to propel vehicles along.

Central Japan Railway is aiming to put a superfast maglev train into operation in 2027.

The state-of-the-art train clocked a new world speed record in April in a test run near Mount Fuji, smashing through the 600 kilometre (373 miles) per hour mark.

The maglev hovers 10 centimetres (four inches) above the tracks.

According to Bloomberg News, Toyota has previously indicated it is working on maglev for cars.

"It's very confidential information but we have been studying the flying car in our most advanced (research and development) area," Hiroyoshi Yoshiki, a managing officer in Toyota's Technical Administration Group, said in June 2014.

"Flying car means the car is just a little bit away from the road, so it doesn't have any friction or resistance from the road," he was quoted as saying.

Lexus says it will reveal more details about its hoverboard on October 21, 2015, the day Doc, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer plug into their DeLorean time machine and go back to the future.

The video can be seen here: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7556151-lexus-creates-hoverboard-of-future/

Source: 'Back to the Future' hoverboard comes to life

Lexus Announces Creation of a Working Hoverboard—and Zoe Saldana Is Ready to Ride!

Back to the Future II called, and Lexus answered.

It's not April Fools, so we'll just have to take the Toyota-owned luxury automaker's word for it, that they have created a real, working hoverboard, called "Slide."

A skateboard that flies, people!

"There is no such thing as impossible," Lexus chief engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi is quoted in a pretty damn fly (yes, as in Marty McFLY) promo video touting the new technology. "It's just a matter of figuring out how."

The video then ends with the guy who was riding a regular skateboard a moment ago placing his skater-shoe-clad foot on the levitating board, joined by the hashtag #LexusHover.

Too cool to be true?

PHOTOS: Stars in eco-friendly cars

Well, according to Popular Science and likeminded publications, this could be the real deal.

The technology is out there, and Lexus said on its website that their board, crafted with natural bamboo, hovers thanks to magnets and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors.

"It's the perfect example of the amazing things that can be achieved when you combine technology, design and imagination," said Mark Templin, executive VP of Lexus International.

"It's very confidential information but we have been studying the flying car in our most advanced R&D area," Hiroyoshi Yoshiki, a managing officer in Toyota's Technical Administration Group, said at the Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit in Sausalito, Calif., a year ago. "Flying car means the car is just a little bit away from the road, so it doesn't have any friction or resistance from the road."

And you can bet a few celebs are excited.

"If this is real I'm going to need a coach—Jason Scott Lee or Greg Lutzka could one of you guys help?," Zoe Saldana wrote on Facebook, figuring a martial arts specialist and a professional skateboarder can help her get her bearings.

Alas, you can't buy one (or even pre-order) just, yet, but Lexus says that the prototype is going to be tested out in Barcelona in coming weeks and more info will be available later this year.

Maybe the Future really is now.

PHOTOS: Tech-savvy celebs

RELATED VIDEOS:

Source: Lexus Announces Creation of a Working Hoverboard—and Zoe Saldana Is Ready to Ride!

Daring Sci-Fi Drama 'Advantageous' Asks How Much Society Can Demand of Women

Courtesy Good Neighbors Media

Forget the sleek skyscrapers, flying cars, or holo-phone tech. What you really need to know about the near future of Jennifer Phang's daring and accomplished science fiction drama Advantageous comes from what a mother and daughter overhear in their cramped, stubbornly un-futuristic apartment. Somewhere, there's a woman crying, and the daughter places her head to the floor, listening. The mother asks, "Upstairs or downstairs?"

Will she submit to the Center's daring new de-aging procedure?

"Both," the daughter says.

So it goes for the un-wealthy — and aging — women in Phang's future. (The script is by Jacqueline Kim, who plays the lead, and Phang herself.) That mom, Gwen Koh (Kim), is an underpaid public face for the Center for Advanced Health and Living, one of those big companies with an aggressively nonthreatening name that so much S-F plotting depends upon. She's had the gig long enough that the company's noticed that that face of hers isn't exactly as it used to be, so they're looking for a younger model. Meanwhile, Gwen's adolescent daughter, Jules (Samantha Kim), is at the age to be sent to a pricey private school. That money is due soon, and Gwen can't afford this if she loses her job, which would mean Jules faces a life without "advantage." We know that's a terrible thing because of the film's many examples of economic deprivation: those weeping neighbors, a homeless girl sleeping in the shrubbery outside an office, news reports about teen prostitution.

And Gwen herself, of course. The first half of the film is an inventive, intense study of aging and class struggle in a youthocracy only just a bit more pitiless than ours today. Gwen hustles for job interviews, considers selling her eggs, and, checking the balances in her accounts, has to bark at a robo-banking voice that most desperate of instructions: "Cancel automatic payment."

"I can't let her become one of these women so desperate that they would do anything," Gwen says of her daughter. But, this being an S-F story with a Center for Advanced What-Have-You, Gwen has one terrifying option open to her after exhausting all others. Will she submit to the Center's newest, most daring de-aging procedure — allowing her, if all goes well, to once again be the face the Center desires?

Of course she does. The film's third act centers on an upsetting surprise, a trick of casting certain to shake the audience, a twist that demands we consider just how much beauty-minded societies demand of women.

Structurally, this guarantees that the film fails to satisfy according to the terms of conventional movie storytelling. Challenging viewers this way — denying clean resolutions, chucking out the urgent drama of the first hour of movie — is bound to alienate some audiences. But from its arresting first scenes, Phang's film is as much about why? as it is what next? Before the big switch, Jules, sensing the pressure her mother is under, straight-up asks why she, the daughter, even exists. It's a tremendous relief that Gwen's answer comes so quickly, and is so persuasive. Later, in that slower, more ruminative ending, her words echo — and prove all the more powerful.

Advantageous

Directed by Jennifer Phang

Film Presence

Opens June 26, Cinema Village

Source: Daring Sci-Fi Drama 'Advantageous' Asks How Much Society Can Demand of Women

The Volocopter Wants to Be Your Personal Flying Machine

The Volocoptor prototype. (Credit: e-Volo)

If a quadcopter drone and helicopter somehow reproduced, the offspring would be a Volocopter.

The Volocopter is a novel mode of transportation built by the German company e-Volo. The prototype aircraft, currently in testing, runs purely on electricity and features a two-seat cabin, 18 rotors, and a simple joystick control. It's a flying machine that's so unique that it cannot be classified into any known category, and the team at e-Volo hopes the Volocopter will someday satisfy a market that flying cars, to this point, have failed to.

Go, Go, Volocopter

The team at e-Volo flew the Volocopter via remote for the first time in 2013, but they are hard at work preparing the craft's computer system's for its first manned test flight, which they hope to conduct in a few months. If all goes well, the Volocopter could make its big debut at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisc., Wired reports.

The design was so unique that German officials created a new class of aircraft so e-Volo could get a license to fly it.

Engineers hope the Volocopter will bring the gift of flight to the masses, which has always been the vision of flying car manufacturers. But in order for a flight system to broadly appeal to consumers that want to fly to and from the grocery store, it has to be simple and safe. And unlike most flying car prototypes, the Volocopter has both of these things going for it. Its construction and mechanics are incredibly simple, and the design is also redundant: Even if some of the rotors fail, the Volocopter can still be operated safely.

The Volocopter takes off vertically just like a helicopter, but unlike other aircraft, it runs on battery packs. Currently, the copter can only fly for 20 to 30 minutes on a charge, but engineers are working to develop a hybrid model that could extend flight-times to over an hour. They also want to design a larger version that could carry four to six people. As it stands, the e-Volo team plans to sell the two-seated model for $340,000 apiece.

Talk about taking FPV flying to an entirely new level.

Source: The Volocopter Wants to Be Your Personal Flying Machine

Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car'

Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car' - Condé Nast Traveler Thank you!

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A recap of the biggest announcements made at the commercial airline event of the year.

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The Dreamliner shows off.

In 1909, the Paris Air Show made its debut—the first air show ever—and since it moved to Le Bourget airfield northeast of Paris in the 1950s, it has grown to become the most important event on the commercial aviation calendar. This year, aircraft manufacturers will show off their latest innovations from June 15 to 21. Here are a few of the biggest announcements made just on Day One.

The world's largest commercial aircraft may get even larger. Airbus is floating a proposal to its airline customers to stretch the Airbus A380-800 and add seats to the double-decker, reports FlightGlobal's David Kaminski-Morrow. The lengthened plane, which would likely become the A380-900, would increase max seat capacity to nearly 650 (up from 544), but wouldn't see the skies until 2020 at the earliest.

Boeing has been showing off. In a rehearsal flight on Thursday, ahead of the opening of the air show, Boeing's 787-9 Dreamliner (painted for Vietnam Airlines) showed off its agility with a high-angle take-off—seeming to shoot straight up into the air—and by banking hard left and right like an oversized Blue Angel in the skies above Le Bourget. The video, released by Boeing, is going viral.

GOL will be the first Brazilian airline to offer broadband Internet access to its passengers, hooking up its entire fleet of 139 Boeing 737s with Gogo Wi-Fi connectivity. All of GOL's aircraft will also be outfitted with Gogo's wireless in-flight entertainment system, Gogo Vision, and its new live TV solution—Gogo TV. According to Michael Small, Gogo's president and CEO, "GOL is Gogo's first airline partner in South America and the first airline to commit to Gogo's television product. It also represents the largest aircraft commitment to our 2Ku technology outside of North America."

Is that a flying car? The "AirMule," an unmanned single-engine VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft from Urban Aeronautics, now has two updated prototypes; UA hopes to offer demonstration flights next year. With the look of a Black Hawk helicopter crossed with a flying car, the AirMule will ideally go where helicopters can't—including difficult search and rescue missions.

Garuda Indonesia is buying tons of new planes with a major aim at expanding its long-haul network from Indonesia to the rest of the world, especially European destinations (think non-stop flights from European capitals to Bali).

Amateur aircraft builders are drooling over the "Carbon Cub EX," a kit-built, lightweight carbon airframe CubCrafters airplane that's making its European debut. It's got "half the parts and is twice as strong" as the Piper Super Cub, which makes it ideal for backcountry flying for two people. The Carbon Club EX kit costs nearly $70,000 and requires approximately 1,000 hours to build.

Qatar Airways ordered ten more 777-8Xs, known as the world's longest-range jet, to complement the 50 777-9Xs they already have on order, all "continuing the tremendous legacy of the 777," according to Qatar Airways' chief Akbar Al Baker. The first 777X delivery won't come until 2020, at which point Qatar also hopes to be the launch airline.

Finally, Day One brought the announcement of the creation of a completely new biannual air show, to launch in Chengdu, China in 2017. Flight Daily News reports that the three-day show will take place at Guanghan Airport and will focus on the growing Chinese commercial aviation industry.

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Source: Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car'

Democrat’s New Legislation Mandates Flying Cars

Within five years, all new cars must fly. Used cars must fly within ten.By Jeff Knox

New Legislation Mandates Flying Cars FirearmsCoalition.org

Buckeye, AZ –-(Ammoland.com)- Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation requiring that five years after its passage, all handguns manufactured or imported into the U.S. must have "personalization" technology incorporated into them that prevents "unauthorized" users from firing them.

Okay, that's not flying cars, but it might as well be.

The comparison is very appropriate. Currently, there are prototypes and a few awkward, commercial examples of flying cars out there. None is practical or reliable, and few people would be willing to trust their lives to them. Nonetheless, they are out there.

Similarly, there are a few prototypes and commercial examples of "personalized" firearms – guns equipped with technology which prevents their use by "unauthorized" persons – but like flying cars, so-called "smart gun" technology is impractical and unreliable, relegating it to the realm of science fiction and movie fantasy.

The disarmist crowd has declared June to be "National Gun Violence Awareness Month" and June 2 as "National Gun Violence Awareness Day." In honor of the made up labels, lawmakers in Congress introduced the new "smart-gun" legislation as a means of garnering media attention and, apparently, to prove that they are totally ignorant about firearms and totally unconcerned with the protections of the U.S. Constitution.

Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Representative Carolyn Maloney(D-NY) introduced legislation to provide $2 million of our tax dollars per year for the next two years to go to research grants for development of "smart gun" technology, and require that all new handguns be equipped with this, currently non-existent, technology within five years. The legislation goes on to require that ten years after passage, any handgun sold – new or used – must be retrofitted with this technology. The legislation further orders that handgun production and sales be placed under the control of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; something anti-rights advocates have been trying to do for years.

Along with the $2 million per year for research and development of "personalized handgun" technology, the two Democrats introduced legislation to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with $10 million of your taxes per year to conduct "research" on "gun violence" prevention and firearm safety.

Possible Democrat presidential contender, Senator Elizabeth "Fauxcahontis" Warren (D-MA) is listed as the sole Senate cosponsor to Markey's "Handgun Trigger Safety Act," and is a cosponsor to his CDC funding proposal.

The CDC proposal also lists Schumer (D-NY), Gillibrand (D-NY), Durbin (D-IL), Murphy (D-CT), Blumenthal (D-CT), Schatz (D-HI), Hirono (D-HI), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Murray (D-WA) as cosponsors.

Democrats War on Gun Rights Both of these proposals are red herrings.

The "smart gun" legislation has no chance at all of advancing in the Republican-controlled Congress, and is totally unworkable, but it provides publicity and an opportunity for radical anti-rights advocates to spout their "gunsense" propaganda in the media, while painting Republicans and gun groups as obstructionist and unreasonable. By going so far over the top, and introducing various sub-proposals, the legislation offers a starting point from which its sponsors will attempt to work backwards, giving up the more outrageous aspects of the bill as a way of "compromising" down to the less crazy, but just as unconstitutional, aspects of the legislation.

Expect to see the research grant proposal and some form of the Consumer Product Safety Commission provisions tacked onto some unrelated, future legislation.

The CDC funding measure, which is improper to even be introduced in the Senate, since all appropriation is required to be initiated in the House, is a royal canard. In the first place, "gun violence" and "gun safety" are not diseases, and have no place in the research of the CDC. Secondly, the CDC has proven an inclination to fund bogus "research" by extremist anti-rights advocates like Dr. David Hemenway, who's outrageously flawed "studies" formed the core motivation for Congress to place restrictions on CDC spending on gun control advocacy. Note the restriction is on advocacy, not research. And it should be noted that "gun violence," and firearm-related accidental injuries have been steadily trending downward for two decades – a trend that Chicago and Baltimore, with their strict gun restrictions, are trying hard to reverse.

As part of their whole "National Gun Violence Awareness" campaign, the victim disarmament crowd has created a bunch of astroturf sites to call on people to wear orange clothing to identify them as supporters of gun control. While their objective is to steal some thunder from rights advocates, who have long worn hunter-orange hats and "Guns Save Lives" stickers as attention-getters, the idea is not working out quite as planned. Rights supporters have used the campaign to highlight criminal, anti-rights politicians such as former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former Guttenberg, NJ mayor David Delle Donna, and former California legislator Leland Yee, to name just a few. All voiced full-throated support for restrictive gun laws and all have wound up in bright orange jailhouse jumpsuits.

It's good to see all that orange.

About:The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition is a project of Neal Knox Associates, Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org

Source: Democrat's New Legislation Mandates Flying Cars

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to fly into State Street Theatre July 23-26

NEW ULM - A flying car, a cast of 50, a full orchestra, and amazing sets and costumes will dazzle audiences when the State Street Theater presents the musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Thursday, July 23, through Sunday, July 26, in the historic auditorium located at 1 N. State St.

Performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now on line at www.statestreetnewulm.org, at the box office at the auditorium on Wednesdays and Saturdays from noon - 1:00 pm, by phone (507) 359-9990, or at the door. All tickets are reserved: $17.50, $15 and $10.

The musical is based on the beloved 1968 film version of Ian Fleming's children's book, and features an unforgettable score by the Sherman Brothers (who wrote Mary Poppins). Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a family-friendly blockbuster that audiences will find "Truly Scrumptious."

An eccentric inventor, Caractacus Potts (played by Sam Patet) sets about restoring an old race car from a scrap heap with the help of his children Jeremy and Jemima, (Jared Gleisner & Katia Ostermann). They soon discover the car has magical properties including the ability to float and take flight. Trouble occurs when the evil Baron and Baroness Bomburst (Paul Henning & Nita Gilbert) desires the magic car for themselves. The family joins forces with Truly Scrumptious (Leah Shanks) and their eccentric Grandpa, (Kevin Sweeney). The hapless spies, Boris and Goran (Nick Wellmann & Tim Ziniel) provide comedy relief. Gene Brand plays Lord Scrumptious and Nick Jones plays the Toymaker. The villain Junkman and Childcatcher is played by Mark Santelman.

The play is produced & directed by Paul Warshauer, musical direction by Miles Wurster, and choreography by Missy Marti and Betti Kamolz. The associate director is Andrea Broman and stage manager is Vicki Kuehn. Vocal coaching is by Kent Menzel. Lights by Blake Bruns and Sara Willems. Sound is by Josh Menzel & Jason Olson. Props by Miss Vickie. The set is built by Reed Glawe and scenic painting by Derrick Hare. Costumes by Molly and Lolly from Mankato and the amazing car was designed and built by Mark Broman.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, New York and is sponsored in part by generous local sponsors and the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council.

For more information call (507) 359-9990.

Source: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to fly into State Street Theatre July 23-26

Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car'

Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car' - Condé Nast Traveler Thank you!

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A recap of the biggest announcements made at the commercial airline event of the year.

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The Dreamliner shows off.

In 1909, the Paris Air Show made its debut—the first air show ever—and since it moved to Le Bourget airfield northeast of Paris in the 1950s, it has grown to become the most important event on the commercial aviation calendar. This year, aircraft manufacturers will show off their latest innovations from June 15 to 21. Here are a few of the biggest announcements made just on Day One.

The world's largest commercial aircraft may get even larger. Airbus is floating a proposal to its airline customers to stretch the Airbus A380-800 and add seats to the double-decker, reports FlightGlobal's David Kaminski-Morrow. The lengthened plane, which would likely become the A380-900, would increase max seat capacity to nearly 650 (up from 544), but wouldn't see the skies until 2020 at the earliest.

Boeing has been showing off. In a rehearsal flight on Thursday, ahead of the opening of the air show, Boeing's 787-9 Dreamliner (painted for Vietnam Airlines) showed off its agility with a high-angle take-off—seeming to shoot straight up into the air—and by banking hard left and right like an oversized Blue Angel in the skies above Le Bourget. The video, released by Boeing, is going viral.

GOL will be the first Brazilian airline to offer broadband Internet access to its passengers, hooking up its entire fleet of 139 Boeing 737s with Gogo Wi-Fi connectivity. All of GOL's aircraft will also be outfitted with Gogo's wireless in-flight entertainment system, Gogo Vision, and its new live TV solution—Gogo TV. According to Michael Small, Gogo's president and CEO, "GOL is Gogo's first airline partner in South America and the first airline to commit to Gogo's television product. It also represents the largest aircraft commitment to our 2Ku technology outside of North America."

Is that a flying car? The "AirMule," an unmanned single-engine VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft from Urban Aeronautics, now has two updated prototypes; UA hopes to offer demonstration flights next year. With the look of a Black Hawk helicopter crossed with a flying car, the AirMule will ideally go where helicopters can't—including difficult search and rescue missions.

Garuda Indonesia is buying tons of new planes with a major aim at expanding its long-haul network from Indonesia to the rest of the world, especially European destinations (think non-stop flights from European capitals to Bali).

Amateur aircraft builders are drooling over the "Carbon Cub EX," a kit-built, lightweight carbon airframe CubCrafters airplane that's making its European debut. It's got "half the parts and is twice as strong" as the Piper Super Cub, which makes it ideal for backcountry flying for two people. The Carbon Club EX kit costs nearly $70,000 and requires approximately 1,000 hours to build.

Qatar Airways ordered ten more 777-8Xs, known as the world's longest-range jet, to complement the 50 777-9Xs they already have on order, all "continuing the tremendous legacy of the 777," according to Qatar Airways' chief Akbar Al Baker. The first 777X delivery won't come until 2020, at which point Qatar also hopes to be the launch airline.

Finally, Day One brought the announcement of the creation of a completely new biannual air show, to launch in Chengdu, China in 2017. Flight Daily News reports that the three-day show will take place at Guanghan Airport and will focus on the growing Chinese commercial aviation industry.

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Source: Paris Air Show Opens With Dreamliner Theatrics, AirMule's 'Flying Car'

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is flying back to Birmingham Hippodrome in 2016

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is flying back to Birmingham next year.

A new production of the musical about everyone's favourite flying car will play Birmingham Hippodrome in September 2016.

The show will feature new sets and stunning special effects, plus new choreography from Stephen Mear who won an Olivier Award for Mary Poppins.

Chitty was last at the Hippodrome in 2006 when it starred Brian Conley and Gary Wilmot.

Gary Wilmot and Brian Conley at Birmingham Hippodrome in 2006

In other musicals news, demand has been so high for The Bodyguard that it is staying an extra week. The show, based on the Whitney Houston film and starring Alexandra Burke, opens on August 5 and will not run until September 5.

Finally, Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty will return to the Hippodrome in July 2016.

Source: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is flying back to Birmingham Hippodrome in 2016

Cool Stuff

It doesn't transform into action toys, but the proposed SkyCruiser will transform from a car on the ground to a helicopter and a fixed wing airplane in mid-air.

Many flying car designs already in the marketplace mean you have to drive to the airport to take off. But due to SkyCruiser's vertical takeoff and landing capability, it will be able to take off from just about any reasonably open space.

Klossblade Aerospace Systems says its 5-seat electric hybrid aircraft includes four switchblade rotor arms with eight blades that fold out from the fuselage, allowing for vertical takeoffs and landings. Its electric motors deliver thrust, and once airborne, its switchblade rotors fold back into the vehicle's fuselage, so the vehicle again resembles and flies like a fixed wing airplane.

The switchblade rotor arrangement allows the SkyCruiser to hover and land in small areas while maintaining the aerodynamics of a conventional airplane, Gizmag reports. In addition, its electric motors – backed up by a 400 bhp internal combustion engine hooked to a 360 bhp generator feeding into 12 kW battery – provide for greater range and reliability. 

The company says its vehicle will enable travelers to travel directly from point A to point B, instead of going from point A to an airport in a car, and then from the landing airport to point B in a car. "Rather than spending three to four hours going from LA to San Francisco, for example, SkyCruiser takes you directly to your destination, point to point, in just a little over 1 hour." 

If Krossblade can bring it to market, SkyCruiser could be the flying car for people who don't have a pilot's license, Popular Mechanics reports, because of its autonomous technology. The company says it would have a cruising speed of 314 mph, a stall speed of 100 mph fixed-wing mode, and be able to carry 1,003 pounds of payload. 

SkyCruiser is expected to cost about $350,000 if it goes into mass production.

Though it is still very much in the concept phase, the company is already working on its smaller SkyProwler, a drone with the same VTOL capability. In March, the company raised more than $200,000 — more than twice the amount it hoped to raise — in a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development.

Drones: Where do we go from here?

Representatives of drone associations, research institutes, and universities; drone enthusiasts; and those curious about the growing drone industry gathered June 14 at the UAS Academy near Warrenton, Virginia, for RoboFest 2015.

comments IFR Fix: Two loud bangs

One stricken aircraft was in cruise; the other, near landing. Were these emergencies? Dramatic to ponder, but secondary to problem solving.

Source: Cool Stuff

Horrific moment a car appears to deliberately ram a group of cyclists off the road, sending one of their bikes flying

Shocking footage shows a group of cyclists being side-swiped by a car

It was captured on Morrison Road Midland, near Perth in Western Australia

A number of cars overtake the group of around half a dozen riders

But one swerves angrily towards the bunch hitting on the the cyclists

This sends the group tumbling off their bikes like dominoes  

By Freya Noble for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 19:57 EST, 15 June 2015 | Updated: 01:26 EST, 16 June 2015

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Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a car mowed down a group of cyclists, knocking the riders down like dominoes.

Video of the event captured on Morrison Road Midland, near Perth in Western Australia, on Saturday shows a troop of bike riders travelling along the side of the road.

A number of cars overtake them without a problem, before one in particular appears to get angry and hits a cyclist, sending him flying.

Scroll down for video 

The group were sticking to the left-hand side of the road two abreast as the law permits

A number of cars overtook the cyclist but this vehicle swerved towards the group

Shot through two cameras mounted on two different riders' wheels, the footage shows the cyclists travelling down the left-hand side of a wide road.

A car speeds up on their right hand side, narrowly missing three of them. The footage then cuts to vision from another bike.

It shows the speeding vehicle clipping the side of one of the bicycle, sending its rider flying off in the opposite direction.

That cyclist is flung into the one beside him and the group all tumble to the ground with a loud crash. A bike can also be seen flying through the air after its rider was flipped off it.

According to the Cycle Facebook page where the video initially appeared, the group caught up with the car at next lights, took down the number plate and reported the driver to police. 

'More importantly the riders are OK, cuts, bruises and a little missing bark, but they are fine,' the post said.

'This is a horrible crime, a Hit'n'Run is a most disgusting way to treat another human being. If you hurt someone, you own your error, you ensure everyone is OK and you deal with it.' 

Footage captured in Perth at the weekend shows a group of cyclists being mowed down by a car

According to Cycle the driver was caught up with at the next lights and has their number plate recorded

Source: Horrific moment a car appears to deliberately ram a group of cyclists off the road, sending one of their bikes flying

Tale of a magical car

Actors Jimmy Berkenpas and Kirsten Durand try out the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang created by drag-racecar builder John Tebak for presentation at Theatre in the Country every weekend in June.

— image credit: Submitted photo

It will be magic when a "spectaculous" flying car takes to the stage as Theatre in the Country presents Chitty Chitty Bang Bang every weekend in June.

The musical production features nine actors from Mission, including Avery Krysciak, Glen Kask, Lawrence Locke, Spencer McAstocker, Abbey Neustaeter, Ezekiel and Diedre Salmon, Dawson and Demarra Vogt.

The rollicking musical tells the story of children who fall in love with a junkyard car and beg their father to restore it rather than have it fall into the hands of the selfish villain.

Theatre in the Country is believed to be the only ongoing dinner theatre group in the Lower Mainland. It has taken over the former Whonnock elementary school on 272nd Street and 100th Avenue, half way between downtown Mission and downtown Maple Ridge.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by spy-novel master Ian Fleming while he was convalescing from a heart attack.  A three-book series was published two months after he died, in 1964.  Four years later it was turned into a movie and in 2002 was adapted for the stage.

To enjoy the roast beef buffet and see the show with dozens of live special effect, call 604-259-9737 or go to theatreinthecountry.com.

Source: Tale of a magical car

A City-Building Game Of The Future, With Giant Buildings & Flying Cars

Building the cities of today is boring. DotCity wants to build the cities of tomorrow.

Inspired by everything from Mirror's Edge (duh) to Star Wars, DotCity is a city-building game that's less concerned with laying water 20th-century water pipes, and more worried about planning and expanding a megalopolis to make room for the breeding millions that our future cities will be home to. That means lots of very tall buildings, and 3D traffic jams made up of flying cars.

Interestingly (especially if you want to know more about how the cities will expand and populate), DotCity is the work of a mathematician, not a games developer.

Due initially for PC (in 2017!), it's looking for funding on Indiegogo.

Source: A City-Building Game Of The Future, With Giant Buildings & Flying Cars

Disabled man's terror after wheel comes flying off his car

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A DISABLED Newquay man has said he shed tears at the thought of endangering the life of another after a wheel flew off his vehicle as he drove it and into a garden, narrowly missing the homeowners.

Neville Rogers, 51, was returning home from a car boot sale at Mitchell on Saturday when the wheel suddenly flew off his Peugeot 2008 and over a wall at Tredinnick Farm on the A3076.

Fortunately the wheel – from the front passenger side – landed on a patch of grass, missing the house and its owners who were in the garden at the time.

It was only the previous day that Mr Rogers, who uses a Motability car due to his spinal problems, had had two new front tyres fitted at a garage in Newquay.

He said the thought of the tyre hitting somebody had brought him to tears.

"I am fuming this has happened, I was in shock and had tears, it was frightening," said Mr Rogers, of Higher Tower Road. "I'm still angry that my life and that of other people could have been endangered.

"I was going at about 40mph, and the front of the car suddenly dropped and the wheel just disappeared, it took me about 30 metres to come to a stop but the whole thing happened in quick motion.

"I saw the wheel bouncing over the wall and I was horrified. I went to the house and asked if it hit anything, and the homeowners said they found it lying on the grass. I'm still fuming now because if it had hit somebody, I dread to think how much damage it would have caused. I would never have lived it down."

Mr Rogers called the police as the vehicle came to a stop on a sharp bend.

"I had to call the police as it was just too dangerous," he said.

"I waited for two hours for the recovery vehicle to arrive and just sat on the wall with the residents, who were trying to calm me down.

"I've been without a car for a few days now, which is incredibly inconvenient as I can't walk any great distance due to my spinal issues.

"The wheel and axle are completely damaged, and I'm facing a fight with the insurance now. I shouldn't have to pay out for this."

A police spokesman confirmed they received a call from Mr Rogers shortly before 4pm.

"A person reported that a wheel had come off their vehicle, which was on a sharp bend blocking a lane," the spokesman said. "The road was cleared about an hour later, and the vehicle was removed."

Source: Disabled man's terror after wheel comes flying off his car

Theatre in the Country offers dinner and a magic flying car

Actors Jimmy Berkenpas and Kirsten Durand try out the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang created by drag-race car builder John Tebak for presentation at Theatre in the Country every weekend in June.

— image credit: submitted photo

It will be magic when a "spectaculous" flying car takes to the stage as Theatre in the Country presents Chitty Chitty Bang Bang every weekend in June.

Featuring five actors from Langley — including Maddie and Paul Beckett, Nicole Bencze, Brittany Grant, and Anna Towle — the rollicking musical tells the story of children who fall in love with a junkyard car and beg their father to restore it rather than have it fall into the hands of a selfish villain.

Theatre in the Country is believed to be the only ongoing dinner theatre group in the Lower Mainland.  It has taken over the former Whonnock elementary school on 272 Street and 100 Avenue, half way between downtown Mission and downtown Maple Ridge.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by spy-novel master Ian Fleming while he was convalescing from a heart attack.  A three-book series was published two months after he died, in 1964. In 2002 was adapted for the stage.

Shows are on weekends throughout June. Times vary by date. To partake in the roast beef buffet, see a magical show with dozens of live special effects and enjoy live theatre in a country setting, call 604-259-9737 or go to theatreinthecountry.com.

Source: Theatre in the Country offers dinner and a magic flying car