Boeing is working to fix yet another software bug on its 737 Max, Bloomberg reports. The glitch involves an indicator light for the "stabilizer trim system," which helps raise and lower the plane's nose. The light was turning on when it wasn't suppos...
Star Wars fanatics can hitch a ride to places far, far away on a special United Airlines jet decked out as the only Star Wars-themed commercial jet winging it across the galaxy. Or at least across North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Star Alliance’s United Airlines collaborated with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” – the epic conclusion of the Skywalker saga – to create a nose-to-tail Star Wars design on one of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft, plus inside some fun decor tweaks and themed services.
The exterior paint design features images of great Star Wars spacecraft, including X-wing and TIE fighter starships. The aircraft’s tail sports red and blue Jedi lightsabers against a black backdrop on each side, reflecting the two sides of the Force.
While it’s nothing at all like the Millennium Falcon (hats off to Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge!) the United plane’s interior does have some nice touches – mainly red and blue headrests with the emblems of the movie’s dueling factions, the Resistance and the First Order.
Keep your fingers crossed that inflight menus start offering Endorian Tip-yip and Smoked Kaadu Ribs like the ones at Disney’s Galaxy Edge. (Though the tough chicken I had on a recent American flight might have been Kaadu jerky.) The lucky first passengers were greeted with classic Star Wars-themed music during boarding, gate visits from costumed Stormtroopers, and limited-edition commemorative pins.
The flights also offer “The Rise of Skywalker” themed amenity kits (sorry, no freebies for you, Coach class) and a new inflight safety demonstration video featuring characters from the new film. It’s not a ton of fun under the Tatooine twin suns but worth a look:
Grounded fans can track United’s Star Wars-themed jet’s past and future flights via a special icon on the FlightAware online flight-tracking platform by entering the plane’s tail number, N36272, as the X-Wing starship.
Securing a Discovery Of The Year Award as well as a Platinum Winner Award at the European Product Design Awards in 2019, The Row-1 by Ciara Crawford surely has stumbled on a brilliant solution for a problem that no designer recognized before. The Row-1, simply put, is an inclusive-design wheelchair that lets disabled and elderly patrons at an airport go straight from the check-in desk to inside the airline, and de-board the flight at their destination. The wheelchair works exactly how you’d expect it to, allowing the disabled to cover large distances within an airport (with help from airline staff), but where it really shines is in the way it rolls right into the aircraft and secures itself to the airplane seat.
“1 million travelers with disabilities took 23 million trips over the past two years, spending $9 billion on their flights”, says Ciara, a design graduate from the University of Limerick, Ireland. The Row-1 aims at bettering their experience by eliminating the need and the associated discomfort of changing seats every time a disabled person boards or deboards a plane. The Row-1 wheelchair comes with a nesting design and inward-folding rear wheels that help it integrate itself comfortably into a seat the first row, giving the patron extra leg-room while keeping them closer to the washroom too. This way, the passenger never needs to change seats through their entire journey, with the exception of passing through the security check. The wheelchair is even equipped with its own seatbelt that proves useful within the airport while traveling on ramps and air-bridges, as well as inside the plane. The same wheelchair goes from the airport of departure to the airplane, and finally escorts the passenger out at the airport of arrival. The wheelchair even comes with its own joystick-panel for manual operation, as well as space under the seat for storing handbags.
Welcome back! This week should be less busy, with fewer oblong-shaped gadgets to discuss (we got the new Xbox and talked all about the Mac Pro last week). In the run-up to the holidays, there's simply not as much big tech news.
If you're planning to...
When 'Halo 2' invaded planet earth
Anthony John Agnello,
The Ringer
In the latest installment of "things that will make you feel old," Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004 -- which makes it 15 years old. The Ringer takes an in-depth look at the...
It's been a long day. You get home as the sun is setting and close the door behind you, throwing down your keys and sliding off your shoes. You grab a drink and sink into the chair in front of your PC. The screen boots up and -- click, click -- it's...
Think the BBQ grill on your back deck is impressive? Get a load of this custom-built grilling station, which was built into the side of a jet engine. As a bonus, if this thing gets hit by a bird, you can just toss it on the grill and hit it with some barbeque sauce.
The grill was built by the Delta Airlines TechOps team in Atlanta, Georgia, using scrap parts from a Pratt & Whitney PW2000 jet engine from a 757. Both sides of the engine can open up to reveal a grill and workstation, and each side has its own cooking station. The finished grill was installed at the Delta Air Lines Operations Control Center.
The video below shows the motorized door as it opens up, along with some cool blue illumination on the hinges.
This is a truly incredible build, and should make any backyard grillmaster jealous.
Spring is here, and that means it’s time to get out in the park and outside to enjoy the warmer weather. That also means running around flying a kite. If you have a kid or adult who likes military aircraft, this awesome looking kite is just the ticket.
The 6-foot-long kite looks like a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. It’s made from ripstop nylon attached to a fiberglass frame. Three under-fuselage attachment points for the string keep the kite stable. It ships with 175-feet of 85-pound test line that is very strong, so you should lose your precious kite. The kite also has a long orange tail to keep it stable.
If you've had a window seat next to the wing of an airplane, you've probably watched as flaps on the wing engage and disengage as a plane takes off and lands. That's because in each phase of flight -- take off, landing, cruising and maneuvering -- th...
Rolls-Royce showed off a handful of small robots this week that could aid in the inspection and repair of airplane engines sometime in the future. Though still under development, the tiny robots could lead to faster, less labor-intensive engine inspe...
Boeing is working to fix yet another software bug on its 737 Max, Bloomberg reports. The glitch involves an indicator light for the "stabilizer trim system," which helps raise and lower the plane's nose. The light was turning on when it wasn't suppos...
Welcome back! This week should be less busy, with fewer oblong-shaped gadgets to discuss (we got the new Xbox and talked all about the Mac Pro last week). In the run-up to the holidays, there's simply not as much big tech news.
If you're planning to...
When 'Halo 2' invaded planet earth
Anthony John Agnello,
The Ringer
In the latest installment of "things that will make you feel old," Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004 -- which makes it 15 years old. The Ringer takes an in-depth look at the...
It's been a long day. You get home as the sun is setting and close the door behind you, throwing down your keys and sliding off your shoes. You grab a drink and sink into the chair in front of your PC. The screen boots up and -- click, click -- it's...
If you've had a window seat next to the wing of an airplane, you've probably watched as flaps on the wing engage and disengage as a plane takes off and lands. That's because in each phase of flight -- take off, landing, cruising and maneuvering -- th...
Rolls-Royce showed off a handful of small robots this week that could aid in the inspection and repair of airplane engines sometime in the future. Though still under development, the tiny robots could lead to faster, less labor-intensive engine inspe...