The German newspaper Spiegel reports that the blimp was about to land at an airfield in Reichelsheim in western Germany when fire broke out in both engines.
The blimp was about 6 feet above the ground when the pilot told his passengers, all journalists, to jump to the ground while he tried to land safely. The blimp, part of an advertising campaign for the Goodyear tire company,was returning from an appearance at a local music festival, and the journalists had been taking aerial photographs.
The Daily Mail reports that as soon as the passengers jumped to safety, the pilot, an Australian, took the airship rapidly to a height of around 150 feet, making it impossible for the pilot to escape, eyewitnesses said.
Air France began Airbus A380 service to San Francisco International Airport yesterday, joining Lufthansa, which inaugurated SFO's first regularly scheduled A380 service a few weeks ago.
Here's a good video of yesterday's Air France arrival, including a runway-side view of the landing and the airport's celebratory fire truck waterworks display. Apologies for the musical soundtrack... it's not our fault.
The Bernal GT is a collector's-car road rally organized by a few gents from San Francisco's Bernal Dads Racing team. The Bernal Dads are the same bunch that created the oddball Molvo hybrid Miata/Volvo race car for the 24 Hours of LeMons, so it should come as no surprise that the Bernal GT is a serious road rally that refuses to take itself too seriously.
The rally is not competitve -- it's more of a group ride than a race -- but it does have a few rules:
You are eligible by one of the following:
A) Car of 1980 model year or or older
B) Rare and/or exotic car 1995 model year to 1981 Model Year (must be approved for exotic status)
C) If you have kids 17 years or younger and/or kids in car seats, newer cars can be submitted for approval, No minivans or SUVs
This posed a problem for Telstar Logistics, because while we do have a car seat and a kid to go with it, we nevertheless drive a SUV. But the rules say no SUVs. We were about to propose the long-shot idea of seeking approval to reclassify our fake fleet-vehicle SUV as a fake "roadside assistance service truck" when one of the Bernal Dads announced that he was looking for a volunteer to help solve a problem:
"I can't attend the rally this weekend," he said. "But my car still wants to go."
The car turned out to be a sexy-looking 1972 BMW 3.0 CS, so Telstar Logitics offered to help. "Hell yeah," we said. "We'll drive it!"
Keys were exchanged and perfunctory instruction was offered, and everything worked out swimmingly. At the meeting point on Sunday morning, many of the 25 or so vehicles that showed up for the Bernal GT came with both vintage provenance and kiddie car seats — and young’uns to warm them.
The rally roster included two Ferraris, several classic Volvos, a rare Mexican-made Renault Dinalpin, a 1964 Alfa Romeo, a 1956 Jaguar, a DeLorean (sans flux capacitors), and one mutant Porsche 914 that had been the recipient of an engine transplant from a Subaru WRX.
The cars were very serious, but their owners thankfully were not, which may explain why we witnessed the spectacle of a pack of children pile into a Ferrari to gobble down a box of donuts. (Somewhere, Enzo Ferrari was spinning in his grave.)
As for the BMW, it was a joy to drive; it was poised and well-balanced, and the motor delivered plenty of torque with a deep, thoaty growl. Listen for yourself during this uphill section of the rally filmed from the passenger seat on an twisting uphill climb near La Honda, California while chasing Ben Buja's Volvo 124 142:
It was an excellent day, and here's the complete photoset if you want to come along for the full ride:
Early on Wednesday 4th May 2011, in the skies above Mojave Air and Spaceport CA, SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial spaceship, demonstrated its unique reentry ‘feather’ configuration for the first time. This test flight, the third in less than two weeks, marks another major milestone on the path to powered test flights and commercial operations.
SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has now flown solo seven times since its public roll-out in December 2009 and since the completion of its ground and captive -carry test program.
This latest flight saw a 6:43AM (local) runway take off for VSS Enterprise, attached to its WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. At the controls of the of the spaceship were Scaled Composites’ test pilots Pete Siebold and Clint Nichols whilst Mark Stucky, Brian Maisler and Brandon Inks crewed the purpose built, all composite, twin fuselage WK2.
After a 45 minute climb to the desired altitude of 51,500 feet, SS2 was released cleanly from VMS Eve and established a stable glide profile before deploying, for the first time, its re-entry or “feathered” configuration by rotating the tail section of the vehicle upwards to a 65 degree angle to the fuselage. It remained in this configuration with the vehicle’s body at a level pitch for approximately 1 minute and 15 seconds whilst descending, almost vertically, at around 15,500 feet per minute, slowed by the powerful shuttlecock-like drag created by the raised tail section. At around 33,500 feet the pilots reconfigured the spaceship to its normal glide mode and executed a smooth runway touch down, approximately 11 minutes and 5 seconds after its release from VMS Eve.
Here's the video, which clearly shows the transition to and from SS2's feathered configuration. Amazing. The good stuff starts at around 01:50:
The super-sexy little van shown above was recently offered on eBay. It's a 1960 Lloyd LT600, but if you want it, it's too late; the auction listing ended last weekend.
Oh well. Luckily, you can still wait in eager anticipation for the upcoming Fall 2011 ABC-TV show that will be called (wait for it...) Pan Am.
Just as NBC is jumping into the period-drama game of Mad Men with Playboy, so too is ABC traveling back to 1963 with Pan Am, the Jack Orman-created drama (directed by The West Wing’s Tommy Schlamme) about the flight crew of the then-premier American airline company. Starring Kelli Garner, Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Michael Mosley, Jonah Lotan and Karine Vanasse, the series depicts the professional and personal intrigues of the well-traveled flight attendants and pilots. But there’s also an unexpected espionage subplot that’s set just as the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia was beginning to heat up, which gives the show an intriguing narrative spine that’s about more than just hairstyle malfunctions and extracurricular activities.
YouTube user nbolt produced a sweet little time-lapse video that compresses an Air France flight from SFO to CDG into just two minutes -- including a special cameo appearance by an aurora borealis.
I shot a photo roughly every two miles between take-off in San Francisco and landing in Paris CDG to make this airplane time lapse.
It can make 30+ knots. It has sleeping accommodations for more than 1000 people. And it can function as your own personal floating airport.
If you've ever fantasized about owning your own aircraft carrier -- or if you're dying to create your own real-life version of Snow Crash -- then you'll be glad to know that just two weeks after it was removed from military service, Britain's Royal Navy has put the HMS Ark Royal, an Invincible-class aircraft carrier, up for sale on the Ministry of Defense auction website.
The sale follows that of its sister ship HMS Invincible, which was towed away last week to a scrapyard in Turkey after being sold on the same internet site.
Although the Ark Royal could also be sold for its scrap metal, other proposals for it include a commercial heliport in London as well as a base for special forces to provide security at next year's Olympic Games.
And a move could be made to turn it into a nightclub and school in China.
Bidders have until 10am on June 13 to put their tenders forward for the ship. No minimum price is given.
Happily, even if you can't afford to buy the Ark Royal outright, you can certainly enjoy the thrill and satisfaction of clicking the "Add to Wishlist" button on the MoD's eBay-style auction website:
Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental, the latest, stretched version of the venerable 747 passenger airliner, had a successful first flight last weekend. Now Boeing has released some air-to-air photos of the big bird flying above Washington state. Quite a view!
Let's hope Japan also has some robotic firefighting equipment on hand, like the DOK-ING apparatus shown above. (Corporate slogan: "Don't send a man to do a machine's job." Amen.). The company says:
The MVF-5 is unique remote controlled fire fighting system developed to fight fires in hazardous and inaccessible areas. It is designed to help fire-fighters to do their job in the most challenging and dangerous conditions.
The MVF-5 is the third product launched by DOK-ING and was designed based on the development of the previous DOK-ING machines. The system is an example of a highly sophisticated robotic system incorporating the latest fire fighting technologies that enable users to extinguish fires with minimal personnel and vehicle damage. The remote-control system allows the user to remain outside the range of danger during operation.
The system is effective in clearing a path for traditional fire fighting vehicles in difficult terrain.
The standard operating tool mounted in front of the vehicle is a hydraulic arm and blade tool attachment which allows the system to grip and remove obstacles. The MVF-5 has a Ziegler water pump with a range of 55 m and tanks with a capacity of 1800 l of water and 600 l of foam.
The MVF-5 can effectively operate in the following locations:
The US Coast Guard released an aerial video that shows tsunami waves created by the earthquake in Japan battering the Northern California town of Crescent City:
A Coast Guard Air Station North Bend HH-65C Dolphin helicopter conducts an over flight of Crescent City, Calif., Friday, Mar. 11, 2011, after an earthquake near Japan caused a Tsunami to strike the West Coast.
Location: Crescent City Inner Basin Harbor, Crescent City, CA
Cause: Tsunami following 8.9 earthquake in Japan
Damage: • 47 vessels afloat but with some level of damage • 11 sunken vessels • 1 vessel grounded at mouth of Elk River • Large debris including rocks, logs, and vessel debris scattered about inner harbor and shore • Navigable waters status unknown • Significant damage to moorings and docks
It's got a mailbox, a front door, a cute little front porch, and... an N-registration number. That last detail is important, apparently, if you want to create a real-life flying house inspired by the floating house in the Pixar film "Up."
My Modern Met explains that the lighter-than-air house was created for an upcoming National Geographic Channel series called How Hard Can it Be?, and that it flew like a champ:
Yesterday morning, March 5 at dawn, National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers, and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a 16' X 16' house 18' tall with 300 8' colored weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles, and set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted. The entire experimental aircraft was more than 10 stories high, reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet, and flew for approximately one hour.
Telstar Logistics loves infrastructure. And if you're reading this Internet weblog, there's a good chance you're an infrastructuralist too. In a very literal way, infrastructure is the stuff that moves us, feeds us, shelters us, and allows us to live these lives that are so throoughly modern.
Document the structures of the built environment that symbolize contemporary life. Share the most impressive bridges, tunnels, airports, power plants, and other monuments to our ability to reshape and reconnect our world. This theme is a collaboration with Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics.
Telstar Logistics will help select the most sexy photos in the collection, and the best will be included in an upcoming photo feature on Pictory. But you can't get in if you don't submit your pics. So get 'em in fast.
Photos: From top, Oakland Bay Bridge by Ian Collins, Factory in New Mexico by Tim Melideo, Above San Francisco International Airport by Telstar Logistics.
