Comment Re:How archaic (Score 1) 253
BA038 incident wasn't due to pilot error. Ice may have been involved, but that was ice within the FOHE and outside the pilots' control.
Comment Re:Fuel Savings (Score 1) 253
Airlines all have fuel arrangements with vendors for discounted fuel, but they're certainly paying more than $3 a gallon.
At the pump, my local airport is currently charging nearly $7 a gallon in the NYC metro area for Jet-A.
Comment Re:Cool! So I guess we can purchase (Score 1) 253
The apps are nothing new. ForeFlight and WingX are the two main products for general aviation.
Comment Re:Fuel Savings (Score 2) 253
Actually, I was thinking more directly than that. 11,000 iPads are -- without a volume discount (so its a high estmate) -- would be $5.5M roughly. 326,000 gallons fuel -- (if its the same fuel price as you find at the pump) would be roughly $1.1M. So while it might make a lot of sense long term, its going to take 5 years of fuel savings to recoup the investment in iPads. If jet fuel is more expensive than car fuel, it has to be 5x as expensive to make it worth it in a single year.
They save not only the weight of the paper manuals (what the original fuel savings calculation references), but also the ability to roll out updates to all pilots quickly and cheaply. In addition, Jeppesen paper subscriptions are very expensive. Quite a bit cheaper on the iPad, yielding further savings.
Comment Re:10x Stronger than X property??? (Score 1) 244
10x stronger by weight, by volume, what?
Comment Lightspeed Zulu (Score 1) 110
The Lightspeed Zulu is a headset designed for airplane and helicopter pilots, but has a bluetooth interface. It has active noise cancellation that's much stronger than that of the Bose QC series, and it also has a music input if you want to pump in an iPod. I've used the Zulu's in a helicopter sitting on the edge with the door removed doing aerial photography, and when calling someone else they couldn't tell I wasn't sitting in a quiet office. Truly unbelievable. They're about $850 though.
The World's First Commercially Available Jetpack 303
ElectricSteve writes "It's been a long time coming. While Arthur C. Clarke's geosync satellites have taken to space, and James Bond's futuristic mobile technology has become commonplace, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us — until now. At $86,000, the Martin Aircraft jetpack costs about as much as a high-end car, achieves a 30-minute flight time, and is fueled by regular gasoline. A 10% deposit buys you a production slot for 12 months hence." Here's a video of some indoor test flights. This isn't Buck Rogers's jetpack — it's about 5 by 5 feet and weighs more than the average human. You won't be able to commute with it (the FAA has not certified this class of device) so it's recreational only for now.
Comment Photosynth for the sky? (Score 1) 48
Is this just Photosynth for the stars, finding common points and linking the images?
Submission + - Iridium satellite crashes into defunct Russian sat
i22y writes: A nearly 1500lb operational Iridium communications satellite collided with an out-of-service Russian communications relay satellite. Excerpt: Asked which satellite was at fault, Johnson said "they ran into each other. Nothing has the right of way up there. We don't have an air traffic controller in space. There is no universal way of knowing what's coming in your direction." The damaged Iridium satellite is being replaced with a spare that is already in orbit, and service impact is negligible.
Ultra-Sensitive Camera To Measure Exoplanet Sizes 62
Roland Piquepaille writes "US astronomers and engineers have built a new camera to precisely measure the size of planets moving around distant stars. This camera has been dubbed OPTIC — short for 'Orthogonal Parallel Transfer Imaging Camera.' According to the research team, it is 'so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles.' I'm not sure if this analogy is right, but the team said it was able to precisely define the size of a planet called WASP-10b which is orbiting around the star WASP-10, about 300 light-years from Earth."
Feed news.com: Special edition Eclipse 500 microjet on the block (com.com)
Blog: Microjet manufacturer releasing one early version of much-anticipated model to highest bidder
Comment Nikon has supported this for years (Score 1) 144
Nikon's D1x and D1h cameras allowed for connection of a GPS. Possibly the Nikon D1 as well. IIRC, the Kodak DCS720 and 760 supported it too. Nikon's current flagship model, the D2x, supports this feature. It allows for embedding of GPS data in the image header.
