You guys might have heard about the US Airways Express Flight 4560 that landed on its belly last week. It was carrying 31 passengers plus crew, and through the skillful piloting of Captain Edward Powers, was able to land safely despite not having been able to deploy its landing gear. Well, there’s a video of the feat, albeit one apparently shot from the Newark terminal on a Nokia flip phone from 2001. Or a potato. Or something. Point is, you see very little, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
A few more details about the flight. On approach to Newark, Captain Powers noticed the landing gear wasn’t lowering properly. Even after repeated attempts, nothing was to be done. So the decision was made to retract fully and attempt a belly landing, but not before circling the airport for an hour to empty the fuel reserves and minimize the risk of a fire.
So while things don’t quite always work out, it’s reassuring to know that belly landings can be done and aren’t an automatic death sentence.
[ TheDailyMail ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]
Let’s get the moral aspect out of the way first: we’re not big fans of killing for sport. We’re not going to turn this into a debate on the topic, but we’re only covering the TrackingPoint XS1 because, frankly, that’s some impressive tech. What is it? It’s a rifle that takes so much guesswork out of aiming, a child could do it. Not that a child should, but we’re just sayin’. The company calls it a PGF, a precision guided firearm. And this is how it works:
To shoot at something, you first “mark” it using a button near the trigger. Marking a target illuminates it with the tracking scope’s built-in laser, and the target gains a pip in the scope’s display. When a target is marked, the tracking scope takes into account the range of the target, the ambient temperature and humidity, the age of the barrel, and a whole boatload of other parameters. It quickly reorients the display so the crosshairs in the center accurately show where the round will go.
The shooting mechanism is also different than a regular gun. Once you’ve pulled the trigger, the shot won’t go off until you line up the reticle with the previously set pip; at the precise moment they’re lined up, the bullet leaves. This eliminates a lot of the shakes associated with pulling the trigger and dramatically increases accuracy. But you can also change your mind and take the finger off the trigger altogether, and cancel your shot.
Hit the jump for a promotional video with a few seconds of the mechanism in action, as well as links.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ Ars Technica ]
Whenever we’re in contact with LEGO, we’re either stepping on them or creating things that look so little like what we intended that you’d be forgiven thinking they were made by a blind person. We’re challenged that way, but Japanese LEGO fanatic Talapz definitely isn’t. He made a fantastic reproduction of a Todai-ji Buddhist temple, which is pretty impressive on its own. But this one happens to pop-up, like a pop-up book. In other words, the temple is not visible at first, only a colourful box that resembles a suitcase. But when opened up, an intricate folding mechanism reveals the temple in all its glory. It’s pretty jaw dropping, and you can see it all in the video below. If you stick around to the end, he’ll explain how he did it.
VIA [ Technabob ]