Is it an egg, a blimp or a bullet? Whatever you might want to call the shape of the Otto Celera 500L, it’s one that catches the eye. It looks like no other plane out there, and for a good reason: unique aerodynamics.
The shape of the Celera is designed to drastically reduce drag by allowing air to flow very smoothly over the surface of the plane. That makes the aircraft less power-hungry, which means it burns less fuel.
“This gets us four to five times the efficiency of other turboprop aircraft, and seven to eight times the efficiency of jet aircraft,” says William Otto Jr., CEO of Otto Aviation.
Think about the last time that you found yourself driving a particularly treacherous blind curve.
Pretty darned scary, I’d bet.
Indeed, I realize that even the mere act of thinking about such an alarming encounter can be traumatic, so no need to reflectively linger on that reenactment in your mind. Go ahead and change your thought patterns to something less stressful such as mulling over the latest online cat videos or perhaps that delicious scoop of ice cream you recently consumed.
Meanwhile, let’s have a heart-to-heart serious talk about blind curves.
When first learning to drive, few newbies are specifically instructed about blind curves. Sure, there might be discussions about what to do when reaching an especially sharp curve, but the whole conundrum of dealing with a sharp and blind curve is not necessarily resolutely covered.
Go to https://curiositystream.thld.co/NERD and use code NERD to save 25% off today, that’s only $14.99 a year. Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring today’s video. ~ In 1984 something strange happened in the village of Dodleston. A BBC Micro was sitting on a counter, when it suddenly started receiving mysterious messages, which appeared to come from the 16th century. This might have gone unnoticed had local teachers, Ken Webster and Peter Trinder, not investigated to find that information was so accurate, it would be almost impossible to fake. This whole event was documented in the book “The Vertical Plane”, published in 1989. But here, tonight, we investigate deep to find out exactly what this is all about.
Thank you to these excellent peeps. Please check out their channels; Ashens: https://www.youtube.com/theproxy. TristaBytes: https://www.youtube.com/c/TristaBytes. WhatHoSnorkers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmKA-MiHwHpuawrhPBsWzJg. Octavius King: https://www.youtube.com/c/0ctav1usKitten. Slope’s Game Room: https://www.youtube.com/c/djslopesroom. Ponder: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeOCi7IAMOp1WpJhKUqc_cQ
0:00–01:10 Introduction. 01:10–02:05 Curiosity Stream. 02:05–29:15 The Dodleston Messages. 29:15–35:52 Post Events. 35:52–40:35 Dissection. 40:35–41:53 Further Reading. 41:53–43:01 Credits.
Podcasts: Unexplained Podcast: http://unexplainedpodcast.com/episodes/2018/7/25/s03-episode-8-repeat-input-until-end. Mysterious Universe: http://podcastaddict.com/episode/29862737 Dark Histories: http://darkhistories.com/the-dodleston-messages-ghost-in-the-machine/
Books: The Mary Celeste Syndrome, John Pinkney: https://amzn.to/3kJVc29 The Vertical Plane, Ken Webster: https://amzn.to/3oyTlhK / https://ebay.us/v29hx3 Phantom Messages, William J. Hall: https://amzn.to/3cr41ch.
When Elon Musk has any news to share, you’re likely to hear about it first on Twitter. You’d think the guy who runs SpaceX, Neuralink, Tesla, The Boring Company wouldn’t have much time on his hands.
But as his companies grow, so do his number of tweets. They’ve been increasing steadily – as the Wall Street Journal notes in this graphic. His tweets are so frequent that when he announced he was taking a break from Twitter that one time, it made the news.
Ever since he opened up an account in 2009, he’s tweeted about 16,000 times. Other famous billionaires tweet far less. Bill Gates has sent 3,000 tweets. Jeff Bezos less than 300. This is said to be Mark Zuckerberg’s account which isn’t even verified. He’s sent 19 tweets.
Rolls-Royce claims that its all-electric aircraft, called “Spirit of Innovation”, reached a top speed of 387.4 mph (623km/h), making it the fastest electric vehicle in the world, a press statement reveals.
Rolls-Royce believes it has set three new world records, with the top speed for an electric aircraft, the fastest time to climb to 3,000 meters with a time of 202 seconds, and the fastest speed over 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) at 182 m… See more.
In a move that could peg it against electric vehicle market leader, Tesla, Apple has begun working aggressively on its fully autonomous electric car, Bloomberg reported. Developing a car has been on Apple’s agenda since 2014 but recent moves within the company signal a push towards making an Apple car a reality.
Given Apple’s history of taking regularly used products and transforming them into their must-have versions using excellent design, it is hardly a surprise. With Steve Jobs at the helm of affairs, Apple made the iPod even when music players were ubiquitous. Then the company revealed the iPhone when Nokia was still selling resistive touch screens as its premium product. And recently, the Apple Watch has become the “it” wearable even though there are other smartwatch options in the market. During a time where electric vehicles are in a surge, it only seems natural that the electric car is Apple’s next target.
Business travel is going egg-shaped. Otto Aviation’s Celera 500L was just put through its paces with its first flight tests, a press statement reveals. The aircraft was designed as a business aircraft that is much cheaper to run than today’s options.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the Celera employs an egg-like design that achieves laminar flow — the uninterrupted flow of air — when in flight, vastly reducing drag by allowing air to flow smoothly over the aircraft’s surface.
Sources “familiar with the matter” told Bloomberg that the team in charge of developing the Apple Car was previously stuck choosing between two different developments paths: a more traditional EV with some enhanced driver-assist features similar to what you get from a number of existing vehicles, or a more sophisticated EV capable of a true autonomous driving with no input from its passengers.
Now, based on Bloomberg’s report, it seems Project Titan (Apple’s codename for the Apple Car) and new project leader Kevin Lynch have decided to go the latter route, with Apple looking to create a fully autonomous vehicle with no pedals or steering.
Of course, deciding to make a true self-driving car is easier said than done, as no automaker has yet to release a proper Level 5 autonomous vehicle, defined as a car that can pilot itself without any human intervention under any conditions or driving situations.
The German plugin vehicle market scored over 54,000 registrations last month, a 12% improvement year over year (YoY), an impressive performance considering the overall market crashed35%. As a result, last month’s plugin share ended at 30% (17% BEV).
The yearly plugin vehicle share of the market stayed at 24% (12% BEV), an impressive result, especially if we look back to a year ago when the YTD market share was at 10%.
Interestingly, the current disruption is not only hurting gasoline and diesel sales, but is also starting to hit PHEVs, which were down 5% YoY in October. In the same period, BEVs grew 32%, allowing pure electrics to represent 56% of plugin vehicle sales last month, and flipping the YTD numbers to the BEV side (267,000 BEVs vs. 265,000 PHEVs).
