Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials in existence.
“In the same units, the toughness of a piece of silicon is one, the aluminum airframe in passenger airplanes is about 35, and the toughness of some of the best steels is around 100. So, 500, it’s a staggering number.” —
It is working with CERN to push the boundaries of clean aerospace.
Airbus and CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, have joined forces to launch Airbus UpNext, a project whose aim is to evaluate how superconductivity can contribute to the decarbonization of future aircraft systems, according to a press release by the aircraft manufacturer published last week.
It consists of a Super-Conductor for Aviation with Low Emissions (SCALE) demonstrator that aims to promote the adaptation and adoption of superconducting technologies in airborne electrical distribution systems.
Pelorus, a provider of experiential travel and yachting, has partnered with Swedish aviation company OceanSky Cruises, the “airline of airships,” to promote the advancement of ultra-sustainable airship travel.
Pelorus will provide thorough research, planning, and logistics as OceanSky’s “expedition partner” to create individualized private experiences before, after, and onboard OceanSky Cruises’ fleet of premier “lighter than air” airships, according to a press release by the company last week.
The plane is a direct rival to Airbus and Boeing aircraft.
The world’s first COMAC C919 aircraft was delivered on Friday to its first-ever customer, China Eastern Airlines (CEA), reported Aviation Source News.
Ken Chen/Wikimedia Commons.
This is a milestone in China’s aviation industry, as it marks the first large Chinese-made passenger aircraft to ever be built in accordance with international airworthiness standards and owning independent intellectual property rights. It lines up in direct competition with Airbus SE’s Airbus A320 and Boeing Co’s Boeing 737 aircraft.
A research team of fusion scientists has succeeded in developing “the nano-scale sculpture technique” to fabricate an ultra-thin film by sharpening a tungsten sample with a focused ion beam. This enables the nano-scale observation of a cross-section very near the top surface of the tungsten sample using the transmission electron microscope. The sculpture technique developed by this research can be applied not only to tungsten but also to other hard materials.
Hardened materials such as metals, carbons and ceramics are used in automobiles, aircraft and buildings. In a fusion reactor study, “tungsten,” which is one of the hardest metal materials, is the most likely candidate for the armour material of the device that receives the plasma heat/particle load. This device is called divertor. In any hardened materials, nanometer scale damages or defects can be formed very near the top surface of the materials. For predicting a material lifetime, it is necessary to know the types of the damages and their depth profiles in the material. To do this, we must observe a cross-section of the region very near the top surface of the material with nano-scale level.
For the observation of the internal structure of materials with nano-scale level, transmission electron microscope (TEM), in which accelerated electrons are transmitted through the target materials, is commonly used as a powerful tool. In order to observe a cross-section very near the top surface of the tungsten with TEM, we firstly extract a small piece of the tungsten sample from its surface and then fabricate an ultra-thin film by cutting the extracted sample. The thickness of the film must be below ~100 nm (nanometer) to obtain high resolution due to the high-transmission of the electron beam (IMAGE 1). However, it has been extremely difficult to fabricate such an ultra-thin film for the hard materials such as a tungsten. Therefore, it has been almost impossible to obtain the ~100 nm thickness level by using conventional thin-film fabrication technique.
Twitter is rumored to re-roll-out its flopped Twitter Blue subscription tomorrow, which will once again enable people to pay real cash money to get a blue check next to their name. Hopefully, this time, it won’t lead to mass impersonation and misinformation, but who can say? Yet already, some users are noting that when they click on an existing blue check (not of the $8 variety), they’re served with a pop-up that says, “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”
This is especially funny when it appears on accounts like The White House, or even Elon Musk’s Twitter itself. To be fair, is Elon Musk really notable? He didn’t even found Tesla.
An electric vehicle for around $7,300? You heard that right. Honda announced today a new light commercial electric van set to launch in spring 2024 that’s ideal for both personal and business use.
With a starting price of 1 million yen, which currently amounts to about $7,300, Honda’s new electric commercial van is about as cheap as it gets for new vehicles (ICE or electric).
The new EV is based on Honda’s light commercial N-VAN, released in 2018. However, with the rising demand for zero-emission EV options for business and personal use, the automaker will carry the qualities current customers love the most (large storage space, ease of use, flexibility), converting it into an electric workhorse.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently provided a teaser on what will be happening during the company’s AI Day 2 event this Friday. Considering Musk’s recent comments, it appears that AI Day 2 will be filled to the brim with exciting discussions and demos of next-generation tech.
This is not Tesla’s first AI Day. Last year, the electric vehicle maker held a similar event, outlining the company’s work in artificial intelligence. During the event, Tesla held an extensive discussion on its neural networks, Dojo supercomputer, and humanoid robot, the Tesla Bot (Optimus). Interestingly enough, mainstream coverage of the event later suggested that AI Day was underwhelming or disappointing.
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute recently created OmniWheg, a robotic system that can adapt its configuration while navigating its surrounding environment, seamlessly changing from a wheeled to a legged robot. This robot, introduced in an IEEE IROS 2022 paper, pre-published on arXiv, is based on an updated version of the so-called “whegs,” a series of mechanisms design to transform a robot’s wheels or wings into legs.
“Quadruped and biped robots have been growing in popularity, and the reason for that might be the search for ‘anthropomorphization’ that the general audience commonly engages in,” Prof. Andre Rosendo, one of the researchers who developed the robot, told TechXplore. “While ‘being capable of going everywhere we go’ sounds like an exciting appeal, the energetic cost of legs is very high. We humans have legs because that is what evolution gave us, but we wouldn’t dare to create a ‘legged car,’ as we know that this ride wouldn’t be as comfortable or energy efficient as a wheeled car ride.”
The key idea behind the recent work by Rosendo and his colleagues is that while legs make robots more relatable, giving them a human-or animal-like quality, they are not always the optimal solution to ensure that robots complete tasks quickly and efficiently. Instead of developing a robot with a single locomotion mechanism, the team thus set out to create a system that can switch between different mechanisms.
The car will allegedly have less ambitious self-driving capabilities initially and it’s debut date has been pushed back to 2026.
Apple’s ambitious electric vehicle (EV) will allegedly have fewer self-driving capabilities for its launch date, the latter of which has been pushed back by a year, from 2025 to 2026, according to a Bloomberg.
The car is still in the pipeline and is reported to be set up with more conventional car features and designs than other autonomous EVs.
