Lifeboat Foundation

Unless you’re a physicist or an engineer, there really isn’t much reason for you to know about partial differential equations. I know. After years of poring over them in undergrad while studying mechanical engineering, I’ve never used them since in the real world.

But partial differential equations, or PDEs, are also kind of magical. They’re a category of math equations that are really good at describing change over space and time, and thus very handy for describing the physical phenomena in our universe. They can be used to model everything from planetary orbits to plate tectonics to the air turbulence that disturbs a flight, which in turn allows us to do practical things like predict seismic activity and design safe planes.

The catch is PDEs are notoriously hard to solve. And here, the meaning of “solve” is perhaps best illustrated by an example. Say you are trying to simulate air turbulence to test a new plane design. There is a known PDE called Navier-Stokes that is used to describe the motion of any fluid. “Solving” Navier-Stokes allows you to take a snapshot of the air’s motion (a.k.a. wind conditions) at any point in time and model how it will continue to move, or how it was moving before.

Articel from Unilad. The article contains a You Tube video as well on the car’s flight. It looks fantastic to me. To think that flight technology can be made this compact.

It’s not really like the flying car’s we see in sci-fi films, but this may be the first step. Besides, I’m not sure flying cars were practical anyway.

Continue reading “Incredible Test Flight Footage Shows Flying Sports Car Taking To The Skies” »

We must admit, despite all the great promises made by companies over the years, we never thought we’ll get to the point where we’ll actually see flying cars become road legal. Yet this is exactly what Dutch company Pal-V announced this week.

Chief technology officer of Turkish aviation firm shares video of Turkish engine’s test phase — Anadolu Agency.

Ford is making an electric version of its popular Transit delivery van. The vehicle, which is called “E-Transit,” will be revealed on November 12th.

I don’t know about you, but I am totally here for the growing trend of putting electric propulsion in classic cars. Much of the pioneering work has been done by small aftermarket shops: Zelectric and EV West in California, Electric Classic Cars in the UK, and so on. But increasingly, OEMs are giving it a go as well. For a while, Jaguar was preparing to sell a (very expensive) conversion kit for its XKE-engined cars, although sadly that has been cancelled. Volkswagen has been working with eClassics on an electric conversion of the Type 1 bus. And here in the US, the annual SEMA show has featured some factory-blessed high voltage hot rods for the last couple of years.

SEMA is going virtual this year, and one of the cars that Chevrolet will show off will be a 1977 K5 Blazer—called the Blazer-E—that previews the company’s new eCrate aftermarket powertrain. The build team traded the Blazer’s huge 6.6L V8, with its meagre 175hp (130kW), for the 200hp (150kW) motor from the Bolt EV, which connects to the Blazer’s four-wheel drive system via a four-speed auto that replaces the original three-speed transmission.

The fuel tank and exhaust also went in the recycling bin, and a 60kWh lithium-ion battery pack was mounted in the Blazer’s cargo area. This is also from the Bolt EV and includes all the wiring and power electronics one needs to manage a modern battery EV powertrain.

Fiat Chrysler, a lagger when it comes to electrification, confirms that it plans to make an electric Ram pickup truck.

Almost every automaker under the sun is planning to make an electric pickup truck:

Since being taken over by the Volkswagen Group in 1999, every modern Bugatti has been a heavy beast. Fast, thanks to their quad-turbo W-16s, but heavy. But Bugatti made its name not just on opulent GT cars, but lightweight race cars. Maybe modern Bugatti can do the same.

The Bolide is a concept for a modern Bugatti lightweight. It takes the all-wheel-drive drivetrain from the Chiron—albeit with a hotter engine tune—and marries it with a featherweight chassis. The projected numbers are hard to conceptualize. One-thousand eight-hundred twenty-five horsepower; a 2733-pound dry weight; a top speed well above 300 mph; a Le Mans lap of 3:07, and a Nürburgring lap of 5:23. So, faster than an LMP1 car and in the league of the Porsche 919 Evo. Madness.

“We asked ourselves how we could realize the mighty W-16 engine as a technical symbol of the brand in its purest form—with solely four wheels, engine, gearbox, steering wheel and, as the only luxury, two seats,” Bugatti boss Stephan Winkelmann said in a statement. “Important aspects of our considerations were fine-tuning our iconic powertrain without any limitations as regards the weight-to-power ratio”

Australian radio host Annabelle Brett, who works at Mix 1–6.3 Canberra, cleverly used her Tesla mobile app to mess with the two would-be thieves who attempted to steal her Model 3.

The theft attempt started when the radio host received notifications on her phone early one morning stating that her Model 3’s alarm was triggered. After receiving the notifications, Brett went to her locked garage where she had parked her Model 3 and discovered it was missing.

Unfortunately for the would-be thieves, Brett’s Model 3 is equipped with safety features like Sentry Mode, which continuously monitors a Tesla’s surroundings when it is left unattended. Through these features, footage from the car’s suite of cameras could be retrieved.