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 20 Aug 2007 @ 21:59, by ming. Transportation
Oh, I'd really like my own luxury submarine. It's my birthday soon. But $78 million is a bit expensive of course. This is the Phoenix 1000.The Phoenix 1000 is a 65-meter (213') personal luxury submarine. The initial design was originally executed for a client and now awaits a buyer. As proposed, the submarine would constitute the single largest private undersea vehicle ever built, and arguably, one of the most significant personal transportation devices of the century.
This design, which we have named the Phoenix 1000, has more than ample space. The total interior area of the submarine is in excess of 460 square meters (5000 square feet). The significant volume, coupled with very large acrylic viewports, and the potential for relatively large open spaces, results in a vehicle as luxurious as the finest of motor yachts.
Clearly, the Phoenix provides its owner with substantially more capability than a simple yacht - the opportunity to explore the depths of the world's oceans in perfect comfort and safety. The Phoenix is capable of making trans-Atlantic crossings at 16 knots yet can dive along the route and explore the continental margins of some of the most fascinating waters on earth. And unlike surface yachts, when the water gets rough, the submarine can submerge into a perfectly smooth and quiet environment, continuing on toward its destination, providing a ride unsurpassed in quality-unequaled by the finest motor coach or the most luxurious executive aircraft... I probably shouldn't even be looking in brochures that say 'perfect comfort', 'unsurpassed' and 'ample' in every paragraph. But a luxury submarine is a nice thing to dream about. More >
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11 Aug 2005 @ 14:32, by silviamar. Transportation
I'm miraculously alive after a pretty bad car accident in the motorway while coming back to Spain from Portugal after some days of vacations. It was bad luck to have the accident, but a very good luck to be alive and almost unharmed. I feel like if I were reborn and have a new opportunity to enjoy this life. More >
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 27 Apr 2005 @ 16:15, by ming. Transportation
Damn, I missed that it was today. The maiden flight of the Airbus A380. It took off from Toulouse Blagnac airport at 10:29 this morning. And apparently landed again. And I was asleep and didn't notice a thing. I could just have walked outside and seen it, I'm sure, as we live not far away and most planes into Blagnac fly over here. Anyway, this one weighed 421 tonnes at takeoff, the biggest and heaviest civilian plane that has ever flown. More >
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 18 Jan 2005 @ 15:00, by ming. Transportation
Today the Airbus A380 was officially revealed here at a big bash. Chirac and Tony Blair and everybody were there. No, I wasn't invited, but my daughter was one of the (250) hostesses telling people where to go. Airbus has passed Boing a while back in terms of being the biggest aircraft manufacturer. 57% of the market. And the new A380 is a huge thing that dwarfs a 747 and can carry up to 800 passengers, in two floors, and looking more like a hotel inside than a typical airplane. Airbus headquarters are here in Toulouse and this is where they assemble the planes, even if major parts are made in other places. The activity around Airbus is largely responsible for making Toulouse the most growing economy and population in France. And everybody here pays close attention. You could pretty much stop anybody on the street and they would proudly rattle off the specs of the A380. Lots has been done to pave the way for it. Custom-built barges and widened roads to transport the parts. Huge building for the assembly. And today the busses don't run in town, because the streets are blocked off so that Tony Blair and Gerhard Shroeder can drive to lunch undisturbed.
The plane isn't going to fly for another couple of months. I suppose it will, even though I don't intuitively grasp how. It will have to fly over my house when it takes off, so I guess I'll believe it then. But you won't see it in your local airport before next year. Richard Branson says he'll equip his Virgin versions with gyms, beauty parlours, bars, casinos and double beds. I suppose not in the economy class, but it still sounds like fun. More >
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 5 Apr 2004 @ 16:57, by ming. Transportation
From Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends. So, you didn't think a bicycle could have square wheels? Well, it all depends on the surface you're riding on.Stan Wagon, a mathematician at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has a bicycle with square wheels. It's a weird contraption, but he can ride it perfectly smoothly. His secret is the shape of the road over which the wheels roll.
A square wheel can roll smoothly, keeping the axle moving in a straight line and at a constant velocity, if it travels over evenly spaced bumps of just the right shape. This special shape is called an inverted catenary.
A catenary is the curve describing a rope or chain hanging loosely between two supports. At first glance, it looks like a parabola. In fact, it corresponds to the graph of a function called the hyperbolic cosine. Turning the curve upside down gives you an inverted catenary -- just like each bump of Wagon's road. OK, so here's an idea: What about wheels that dynamically change shape quickly enough that they always fit whatever road surface you're going over, so that you can always have a smooth ride. And we might become less attached to smooth surfaces. More >
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 5 Apr 2002 @ 16:52, by ming. Transportation
Now, this is fun. I'm drooling. Your own 213 foot luxury submarine from U.S.Submarines. It is just that the price tag is ... $78 million. But it comes with its own docking mini-sub, and can sit and be served dinner with your friends in the dining area, while looking out the big portholes. More >
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 18 Jan 2002 @ 11:56, by ming. Transportation
A test of a new public transport system is being carried out in Cardiff Bay, U.K. See the BBC Article . Unlike conventional public transport, this consists of small cars that running on tracks can automatically take themselves to the correct destination. This allows there to be a mesh of tracks and stations thoughout a city, as opposed to traditional transport which tends to run along corridor routes to a city center. An paper is available. Future versions may have dual control to allow people to drive the cars from the nearest station off the track to their homes, so that it can altogether replace traditional cars. More >
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 3 Dec 2001 @ 20:26, by ming. Transportation
Inventor Dean Kamen finally revealed his long awaited and much hyped personal transportation device, previously codenamed "Ginger". Despite the speculation, it doesn't fly and isn't driven by hydrogen or anything like that. But it is a very innovative, very cool new method of transportation. It is essentially a scooter with two wheels next to each other that a person can ride standing up, and that practically balances itself, and gueses what direction one wants to go in. It is meant as something in-between walking on foot and driving a car, something one can use wherever one would walk, but that would move 3-4 times faster. Articles at
Yahoo or CNN More >
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 16 Aug 2001 @ 22:39, by ffunch. Transportation
A zeppeliner from Zeppelin NT has carried it's first paying passengers on a one hour "tourist" flight in Germany, the first Zeppelin to do so since the infamous Hindenburg disaster. This comes after its return from the Paris Airshow where it was an unqualified hit with attendees. CNN has an article. More >
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