The Spanish Civil War more or less put an end to the company’s beautiful V12 luxury cars in 1938, when the Catalonian government decided to seize control of its factories and use them for aircraft engines and other war supplies. But old Hispano-Suiza cars are still in hot demand by collectors, inextricably linked with the sepia-tinted royalty that once drove them.

And now, it seems, the brand might be back. A new car, and a new effort to resurrect the marque, has just been unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, with Miguel Suqué Mateu (great-grandson of the original founder Damián Mateu Bisa) at the helm. Where Koenigsegg made his latest car a tribute to his dad, Suqué Mateu decided to kick the new Hispano-Suiza company off with a shout-out to his mum.

Hence, the Carmen. The company is presenting this as the vanguard of a new “hyperlux” segment in the “cars for really rich people” market. Hypercar-adjacent performance, with exquisite luxury is the goal here, so let’s see how they’ve done on the former.

Not bad! The Carmen will roll with a fully electric powertrain, boasting two motors for a rear-wheel-drive 750 kilowatts, or 1,019 horsepower. That’s clearly enough to earn a hypercar sticker, and it’s also enough to hurl the Carmen from 0-100 kmh (0-62 mph) in less than three seconds, much like a nicely specced Tesla. Top speed is electronically limited to 250 km/h (155 mph), which is a perfectly loopy speed to attempt in real-world driving and more than enough to reduce you to a lightly smoking set of dental records if you cock things up on the road.

The liquid-cooled battery is a T-shaped unit, running up the spine of the car and sprouting out sideways behind the seats much like the pack in the Pininfarina Battista. The Carmen’s battery is designed around volume rather than capacity, taking up 560 liters of precisely-positioned space designed to help the car mimic the weight balance of a mid-rear engined supercar. Using current battery technology, it’ll carry about 80 kilowatt-hours of energy. By 2020, when the car will hit the road, Hispano-Suiza expects it to roll with denser cells, giving it a 105 kilowatt-hour capacity and a range over 400 km (250 mi).

The Carmen will boast one of the most carbon-intensive auto bodies in history, with carbon composites used for “the vast proportion of vehicle structures.” This begins with a carbon monocoque chassis, and extends to some unusual carbon crash structures as well as a carbon rear subframe.

The body panels are carbon, even if they’ve been painted to look like aluminum. The seats are carbon. The upholstery support panels are carbon, and they’ve even used composites in electrical insulation and sound and vibration damping. The result is an ultra-lightweight chassis that Hispano-Suiza claims is stiffer than that of any other hypercar. The whole car weighs in at just 1,690 kg (3,726 lb).

Suspension is double-wishbone at both ends, with adaptive damping and variable roll stiffness distribution. There’s traction control, stability control and ABS braking – and it’s worth noting the Carmen uses a brake-by-wire system that activates the regen braking for the first part of the pedal travel before troubling the whopping six-piston hydraulic brakes on their 380-mm carbon ceramic discs.

The interior looks highly snazzy, and fits with the luxury grand touring concept of the car, as much as you can expect to grand tour with an electric at this point. You enter via upward-opening scissor doors and nestle your booty into hand-trimmed, hand-sewn, electronically adjustable, heated leather and Alcantara seats. Breathe in, driver, and enjoy the pleasant pungency of your very own custom interior perfume. Personally, I’m going for Alpine Glade, like the spray in my toilet.

The steering wheel is retro deluxe, and the dash is wood veneer, but the clocks are digital on glass, and somehow it all kind of works together. There’s a Swiss watch buried in the dash panel and LED mood lighting throughout. An art deco triangle for the gear selector sits by a 10.1-inch navigation touch screen with Bluetooth audio and a parking camera. The whole thing looks like it was designed by a futurist from the 50s or 60s.

And that certainly carries over to the exterior design, which is one of the most eye-catching efforts we’ve seen in years. The front looks familiar enough; since the motors and batteries are liquid-cooled, there’s space for a radiator and a chunky front grille. The front hubcaps are the first indication things are gonna get weird, concentric art deco silver circles receding into a cone shape. An aggressive wheel arch gives a tip of the hat to the huge fenders of the 30s and 40s, and initiates a sharp, low line toward the back.

The cabin is relatively composed with its tinted glass, but when we move to the rear wheels with their aerodynamic covers, it starts looking like a space ship. The Carmen’s rear proportions are Kardashianesque – a smooth roofline flanked by wing-like wheel arches tapers back to an abrupt halt. This is mirrored from beneath by a curvaceous set of rear diffusers, and these two silver lines sandwich a blacked-out inner layer with stark red tail lighting.

It’s a peach. There’s nothing on the road that looks even a little bit like it. I want to see it painted yellow and used in a gritty Dick Tracy reboot, where Dick Tracy is played by Scarlett Johannsen.

Hispano-Suiza has put this prototype together in just nine months, with a design and build team of just 25 people. After it leaves Geneva, it’ll go back to Spain for testing and development at the Institute for Applied Automotive research, as well as the racetracks and mountain roads of the Iberian peninsula over the next six months. And then, hopefully, we’ll get the good news that it’s going into production for the lucky few who can afford its multi-million dollar pricetag.

Welcome back, Hispano-Suiza, we like your style.

Source: Hispano-Suiza

If a meteor detonates in the Arctic with the magnitude of a medium yield nuclear device and there’s no one to hear it, does it make a boom? That’s the not very comforting question posed by the fireball exploding off the coast of Alaska as captured by five of nine cameras on the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard the Terra spacecraft.

According to Cornell University, the Earth is struck by up to 84,000 meteors over 10 grams in size each year, and many times more that are smaller than grains of sand. Almost all of these burn up high in the atmosphere, but NASA says that two or three times a century our planet is hit by meteors that are large enough and volatile enough to generate a city-smashing blast.

The doors appear at this stage to open as one unit that tilts forward from the front of the Twike, which we’re not sure will be a great idea in wetter areas. There’s a trunk in back for carrying cargo, making it quite a practical little vehicle.

The price? Well, these are short-run vehicles, so Twike is expecting to charge as much as EU€50,000 (US$56,700) for a fully pimped out Twike 5 with 120 mph (190 km/h) capability and a range up to 310 miles (500 km). Lower power/battery specs will be available, down to a EU€30,000 (US$34,000) model that ships without any battery whatsoever.

Twike says its vehicles can be driven on a range of different car and motorcycle licenses in the EU, depending on its power output. We took a look at the prototype Twike 5 chassis at Geneva, and while the prices are obviously a severe deterrent at this point, we love the idea of working a bit of exercise into what’s otherwise dead time during your commute. There’s no word on when this machine will make it to production just yet.

We’ll stick with our ebikes for the moment, but this fitness commuter class is one to keep an eye on for sure!

Source: Twike

Incorporating a total of over 200 LEDs, Wayv consists of three waterproof components … there’s an adjustable harness that fits over a backpack or jacket, a helmet unit that attaches to the rear air vents of most third-party helmets, and a handlebar-mounted wireless remote. The harness and helmet unit both have a large red X in the middle, which serves as a tail light, plus there are amber turn indicators to either side. The harness has a set of indicators on the front, as well.

According to the system’s designers, the remote’s thumb-lever design allows users to operate the unit without removing their hand from the handlebar grip. It’s also a bit like automotive indicator controls, which people are used to from driving their cars.

It should be noted that there isn’t a brake light feature, though, which some other systems do have.

But yes, there is an app. It allows users to initially sync the system, plus it lets them turn the harness or helmet unit on or off, adjust their brightness, switch them between steady and flashing modes, and check their battery levels.

On the subject of batteries, one USB charge reportedly ought to be good for five days of use for the harness (at 30 minutes per day), one week of use for the helmet unit, and two weeks for the remote.

Should you be interested in getting a Wayv setup of your own, it will be the subject of a Kickstarter campaign launching next Monday (Mar. 11). That project will be accessible via the link below. A pledge of £75 (about US$98) will get you a complete system, when and if it reaches production. The planned retail price is £140 ($182).

Source: Wayv

The Infinity Seat has actually been available for some time now, although the E2 model was just released this year. Designed in response to user requests, it’s 1.25 inches (32 mm) shorter than the standard version. Among other things, this allows road racers to more easily drop down onto the top tube when going downhill, maximizing their aerodynamics.

In general, though, the idea behind the Infinity Seat is that the rider’s sit bones and pubic bones are suspended in mid-air, with the fleshier sides of the buttocks absorbing the rider’s weight over a wider area. This is claimed to greatly reduce butt pain, along with genital numbness. In fact, in tests performed in Arizona, pressure mapping of the Infinity Seat as compared to some popular conventional saddles did apparently show a marked decrease in pressure points and friction temperature.

Because there’s not much to it, the seat is also quite light. The E2 tips the scales at 245 grams, and features a flexible polymer body, steel alloy rails, and neoprene closed-cell padding that’s hand-wrapped in Italian leather.

Given that the roads are still covered with snow and ice where I live, I tested the E2 by putting it on my road bike, then riding on a set of rollers. Perhaps more so than with other saddles, it’s very important that you get the angle, seatpost height and other factors just right. To that end, “Dr. Vince” actually offers to guide buyers through the setup process via a Skype chat. Given that most customers probably won’t bother with that, though, I decided that I should also just follow the provided instructions.

Upon first trying it out, I noticed that one really sits in the Infinity Seat, not on it. And it doesn’t feel like you’re sitting in nothing – your butt is still pressing down on an immovable object, so you are aware of the edges of the saddle. After several rides, though, I have to say that the thing really is comfortable. Because it isn’t easy to stand up while doing so, roller-riding does tend to lead to a lot of rear-end and “down there” discomfort, but that wasn’t a problem with the E2.

One thing that should be noted, however, is that the Infinity Seat isn’t ideal for mountain bikers. Because it’s a bit wider than a regular saddle, along with the fact that it sort of kicks up at the rear, all-terrain riders would likely have some difficulty sliding off the back to transfer their weight rearward on steep descents.

And yeah, it does look kinda weird. Depending on the buyer, that could either be a selling point or a detractor.

The Infinity Seat E2 is available via the company website (linked below), and is priced at US$297. Buyers can also go for the more general-use $297 E1X, or the fancier $397 E3.

Product page: Infinity Seat

Kiwano’s latest monowheel features LG battery cells stowed away in the scooter’s handlebar stem for 25 miles (40 km) of range for every one hour on charge. The 1,000 watt hub motor tops out at just 12 mph (19 km/h), which is less than the original but should be zippy enough for most riders. It should be able to tackle 30 percent inclines though.

The company’s Auto Deck Smart Control System is reported to make riding fairly straightforward – just step on the slip-resistant, fold-out foot pegs, lean forward and off you go. As with similar setups, the rider leans left or right to turn and back to come to a stop.

LEDs light top front and bottom back, an LCD display shows battery status, speed and trip info, and there’s a built-in, fold-down kickstand. A companion app allows for customization, such as changing handling modes, setting launch angle and can even activate a follow-me mode. The app can also serve as a digital key for peace of mind security.

Available now for US$1,299, buyers can choose urban or all-terrain tires, as well as optional accessories like an actioncam mount, additional charger and Kiwano helmet. The video below has more.

Product page: Kiwano KO1+

(For the source of this article, and to watch a video of the Kiwano in action, please visit: https://newatlas.com/kiwano-ko1-plus-electric-monowheel/58869/)

Skopinski has retained the industrial aesthetic for the aviation-grade aluminum frame with welded steel swingarms and head-turning color schemes, so the new member of the EV4 family won’t look too out of place in an identity parade.

The Mountain Cart features two 1,000 W BLDC rear hub motors controlled by an electric throttle on the handlebar. Top speed is reported to be 40 km/h (25 mph), and there’s a 36 V/23 Ah battery pack under the front rack that offers a range per 3-4 hour charge of 50-80 km (30-50 mi).

(For the source of this article, and to watch a video of it doing a “testing jump,” please visit: https://newatlas.com/ev4-mountain-cart-electric/58795/)

The cluster of elite car auctions associated with Rétromobile grew in strength yet again this year with official auction house Artcurial and the world’s largest collectible car auctioneer RM-Sotheby’s both achieving their highest totals ever in Paris. Bonhams’ annual total dropped slightly from previous years, but the overall result was an all-time high auction total besting US$90 million in sales.

The foundation for the auctions, the audience attending Rétromobile, also grew again this year to an all-time high of 132,000 over the five days of the exhibition, besting the 121,884 visitor record set in 2015 when the Barnfind of the Century (the Baillon Collection) went on sale.

Automobile auctions appear to have made the digital transition far better than most industries, and although the marketplace may no longer be the rampant bull market we saw a few short years ago, with youngtimer classics now very much in vogue thanks to changing demographics, the collectible car industry looks in better shape than ever.

Here’s a selection of the more interesting lots that sold in Paris.

$15,672 | €13,800 | 2018 Bugatti Type 35 Child’s Car

Auction Description: Bonhams

This Bugatti Type 35 Children’s Car is not one of the Bugatti Bebes produced by Bugatti in the 1930s, which have recently fetched prices of $99,000 and $110,000, but a hand-built replica created by a German enthusiast in 2018. The car is 2.9 meters (9.5 ft) long and runs a 6.5-bhp gasoline engine.

$45,078 | €39,795 | 1961 Renault 4CV R1062 Beach car

Auction Description: Artcurial

Though the Fiat Jolly is the established star in this genre of beach cars, with a record price of $170,500, that’s a lot of money for a car with a 500cc or 600cc twin-cylinder motor and not a lot of space. There were far fewer of these cars produced using a Renault 4CV base car, there’s more room, more power (750cc four cylinder engine) and a considerably more reasonable price tag. It will never have the cachet of a Fiat Jolly, which had a string of celebrity owners such as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Mae West, Aristotle Onassis, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Grace Kelly, Henry Ford II, Gianni Agnelli, ad infinitum, but it is rarer and better so … it’s surprising that the price wasn’t more than this given the estimate of €45,000 to €65,000.

$135,024 | €119,200 | 1944 Volkswagen 166 “Schwimmwagen”

Auction Description: Artcurial

Given that the record price for a Volkswagen Schwimmwagen is $230,724 (€149,500) set by Bonhams in Monaco in 2008, this amphibious vehicle might have sold for a whole lot more. It is a very close relation to the Volkswagen Beetle, because it is derived from Porsche’s Type 60, and hence has a common ancestor with the Beetle and the WW2 German Army’s Kübelwagen. Schwimmwagens are rare because so very few survived the war, with other recent auction results including $138,712 (KR840,000) by RM-Sothebys in Denmark, and $141,743 (€110,000) by Pierre Bergé & Associés in Brussels in 2013.

$197,136 | €174,032 | 1908 Mercedes-Simplex 35 / 45HP Recreation

Auction Description: Artcurial

This replica nearly doubled its low estimate (€90,000 to €120,000) for very good reason.

At least four cars are regularly claimed to be the world’s first sportscar. In 2016, we considered the validity of those claims, added another four contenders, and chose a new winner – this car. Follow that link for the long story on the history of what was essentially the first modern motorcar. Its reliability, speed, lower center of gravity and better protection for the occupants made it a favorite among royalty and the aristocracy … and racers who used it to win races at all levels.

This isn’t an original, but an exact, atom-perfect replica created at enormous expense by the legendary Pursang company of Argentina.

At this price, it represents a fraction of the cost of a replica from Pursang, and a substantial discount on the most recent Mercedes Simplex prices ($2,805,000 and $1,072,500). Authentic everything, made the same way as the original, and offering an authentic experience in every respect.

$241,610 | €212,750 | 1939 BMW 327/328 Sports Cabriolet

Auction Description: Bonhams

Introduced in 1938, the 327 sports-tourer featured a 55-hp version of BMW’s 1,971cc pushrod six cylinder engine, though it could be ordered with a sporting 80-hp Type 328 engine. In 1939, Autocar (UK) magazine timed a 328-engined Type 327 Sports Cabriolet at 96.77 mph (156 km/h) at Brooklands, validating what enthusiasts already knew – it was a rocket ship. One of only 428 produced, this is such a car, with matching chassis and engine and recently restored.

$241,610 | €212,750 | 1934 Lagonda M45 T7 Tourer

Auction Description: Bonhams

The Lagonda M45 was based on the company’s proven 3-liter model but fitted with one of Henry Meadows’ powerful 4½-liter six-cylinder engines. The esteem the car was held in by those that know can be best illustrated by the people who purchased it, and a near identical car to this was purchased new by Sir Malcolm Campbell, then the world speed record holder. Campbell’s car sold in 2007 for £111,500 ($230,324), which speaks volumes for this car.

$244,709 | €216,030 | 1936 Talbot-Lago T120 by Graber

Auction Description: Artcurial

The story of this car is extraordinary, and the body was created by Herman Graber for Chassis No. 90110, until it came to light that the original bodywork for that chassis was one of the fabled Figoni and Falaschi “Goutte d’Eau” art deco masterpieces, and one of only two examples with fully enclosed front fenders.

Hence, the bodywork was removed and replaced with the original configuration bodywork of the Talbot-Lago T150 C SS “Tear Drop” by Figoni and Falaschi and the car sold at RM-Sotheby’s Villa Erba sale in 2017 for €3,360,000.

The bodywork that had been removed was mated with a T120 chassis and a 3.0-liter motor provided to the car that was sold in Paris on Friday night for €216,030. The 4.0 liter insignia was kept on the body in respect for what it once clothed. The car was sold at that price with receipts totaling €295,000, so the restoration was therefore subsidized and the car was free. What a bargain!

$300,380 | €264,500 | 1937 Alfa Romeo 6C-2300 Berlina by Stabilimenti Farina

Auction Description: Bonhams

This is a fascinating car with a storied history, beginning with its bespoke body created by Stabilimenti Farina, the family of Italian automotive coachbuilders where a young Battista “Pinin” Farina learned his craft, and which also schooled such names as Pietro Frua, Felice Mario Boano, Giovanni Michelotti, Franco Martinengo and Alfredo Vignale. Most importantly, this car is highly original, having been in the collection of noted Iranian collector Fuad Majzub for many decades and purchased from his estate in 1991 by the vendor.

$364,566 | €321,840 | 1937 Peugeot 402 DS Darl’Mat Sport Roadster

Auction Description: Artcurial

This car is a collaboration between Émile Darl’Mat and Georges Paulin, and is unquestionably one of most elegant French sports cars of the pre-war period. The first of this model was run at Montlhéry, where it averaged 139.3 km/h (86.5 mph) for 24 hours, increasing demand to such a degree that the small company decided to produce a limited run. The cars finished seventh, eighth and tenth outright in the 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans, and fifth outright and first in class in the 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gorgeous, rare and fast, this car is equally at home contesting any concours d’elegance at the same time as being eligible for such motorsport celebrations as the Le Mans Classic.

$511,345 | €449,375 | 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Coupé

Auction Description: RM-Sotheby’s

A rare and beautiful car that was hand-built in limited numbers during an era of mass production. Just 98 such cars were built and this fully-optioned matching-numbers example was the show car at the 1956 New York Motor Show.

$540,098 | €476,800 | 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Convertible

Auction Description: Artcurial

A convertible version of the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Coupé which sold for $511,345 | €449,375 in this listing. For those with a sense of history, the mechanicals from this model were the basis of the famous 300 SL Gullwing and Roadster which rarely drop below seven figures these days.

$567,058 | €500,600 | 1937 Bugatti Type 57 Cabriolet by Graber

Auction Description: Artcurial

Renowned coachbuilder Herman Graber clothed nine Bugatti 57 cabriolets, and given their beauty, it isn’t surprising that they all still exist, closely held.

$894,609 | €787,750 | 1931 Bentley 8-Liter Sports Tourer

Auction Description: Bonhams

This is a replica, built from a genuine Bugatti Type 57 and it is sensational – read the auction description – in the flesh, it presents as worth far more than the price it fetched, which works out at a 98 percent discount on a real one, yet delivering exactly the same experience.

$1,107,156 | €977,400 | 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Corsica

Auction Description: Artcurial

$1,305,998 | €1,150,000 | 1928 Bentley 6½-Liter
Four Light Weymann Fabric Sports Saloon

Auction Description: Bonhams

$1,371,298 | €1,207,500 | 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing

Auction Description: Bonhams

$1,795,748 | €1,581,250 | 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540 K
Cabriolet A

Auction Description: Bonhams

$2,588,730 | €2,275,000 2018 Bugatti Chiron

Auction Description: RM-Sotheby’s

$18,968,675 | €16,745,600 | 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta by Touring

Auction Description: Artcurial

In selling for $19 million to an American collector, this 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta became the third most expensive pre-war car ever to sell at auction, behind a 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider by Touring that sold for $19,800,000 and Gary Cooper’s Duesenberg SSJ that sold for $22 million.

Having been in single family ownership for 43 years, this beautiful automobile has appreciated considerably in value since it was acquired for €10,000 in 1976.

“Serial problem fixer” Stephen Fries is as sick of traffic as the rest of us, and ready to start commuting in three-dimensional space. Unlike most of us, however, he’s not planning to wait for somebody else to make it happen. He believes that practical, road-drivable electric VTOL aircraft are possible today, using existing and proven technology, and he’s decided to prove it by building one.

The plan is similar to other electric VTOL aircraft being developed in this space: the Vahana from Airbus, the Lilium, the Joby, but with a few wrinkles of its own. Fries is planning a large cabin with space for five seats and a carrying capacity that’ll allow each passenger some 25 kg of luggage.

On the road, it will be fairly limited, with a top speed governed to 60 km/h (37 mph). The design sees an enclosed trike with two wheels at the back and a driven, steerable wheel (or dual wheel) at the front with a modest 70 kilowatts (93 horsepower) of power to get it moving. It’s designed for the skyway, not the highway. In road mode, it’s compact enough to comfortably fit in a garage or single car parking space.

We sat down with Fries to discuss where Macchina Volantis is at, what makes them the right team to make this happen, and what the next steps will be. What follows is an edited transcript.

Loz: So have you ever built an aircraft before?

Fries: No, I haven’t! But I’m a serial problem solver. I get annoyed when problems can be fixed and nobody’s fixing them. And I’ve been around boats all my life. I’ve designed, built, sailed and raced internationally. I’ve built vacuum bag molds … I’ve been sailing since I was nine, built a new boat every winter for the first nine years of my sailing life. I started out with steamed plywood, moved onto foam sandwich, then kevlar foam, and just kept going and going. Made my own carbon masts and put them together.

I’m quite au fait with this. I designed it in a freeware piece of software from NASA, aerospace software, so that’s how I know it flies. About this time last year we gave it to an aerospace company in Perth, and they third-party accredited the entire design.

We know it can be done. The ducts are available, you can currently buy them. The electric motors, we know we can get them. The batteries are available, in the sizes we need them. Better and cheaper ones will probably be available by the time we build it, so we prefer not to nominate anything in particular at this time.

Loz: In terms of emergency failure, have you given much thought to the “death zone” problem when you’re flying under 100 feet? Ballistic parachutes don’t have time to open out and be effective under that sort of altitude.

Fries: The way I envisage this aircraft, as soon as it clears any obstacles it’ll start going forward. And it’ll fly forward at such a rate that we hope we’ll be in winged flight within 60 seconds. We’re saying 100 seconds for sure. Once you’re there you can perform a controlled glide down even if you lose all but two motors.

Obviously these are edge case scenarios, but I see these things as a hundred times safer than a regular light plane. Those don’t have ballistic parachutes at all, they don’t have transponders. They can only land on a runway doing 100-plus kilometers per hour.

So we should start out being somewhat safer than the average kit aeroplane or experimental aircraft that’s out there flying today. At the moment, anyone can design an experimental aircraft, build it and fly it. You can get an experimental pilot’s license for 40 hours of training.

Loz: Have you got one of those?

Fries: No, I haven’t. I’m a sailor, not a pilot. This will eventually be far in advance of anything like that. It’ll be fully tested, fully computed, we’ll have a full detailed design and a fluid dynamics design.

But we’re looking at putting it into the experimental plane arena to get it out there and get it seen by the public. We’ll make it available as a kit. You’d put it together in our factory, under our supervision. The rules in relation to experimental planes require that the owner builds 51 percent of the plane. That might be a way to get it out there, get it seen, get it flying before we get it approved by CASA or the FAA in the US.

As far as using them as an air taxi, well, until it’s certified, you can’t make money out of it. The owner has to pilot it, and you can’t charge a fee for carrying people around. There’s a tiny loophole in that for carrying equipment or cargo. So that’s a potential early commercial use case. We’ll have the option that the seats can be removed and you can carry 450kg (990 lb) of cargo in there instead.

Loz: Why make your first aircraft a five-seater? Isn’t that a waste of space and weight? I’ve spent some time with Dezso Molnar, who’s starting up a Flying Car race series in the United States, and he gets angry when people even mention multi-seat roadable aircraft.

Fries: Well, I can make that thing a two-seater, and I’d save barely 20 percent of the weight of the vehicle. Yet I’ve restricted myself to one pilot and one joyrider. The pilot will be there much longer than people think, too – it’s a five or ten year job before these aircraft become autonomous and pilotless. Some people are happy to wait around for five or ten years until that happens, but I want something now!

Roads take up roughly 15 percent of the land space. Go upwards, and you can use 100 percent of the air space. Put every car on the road up in the sky and it still won’t look busy or cause traffic jams. It has to come about. It will come about. And I want a pilot to be able to take three or four passengers.

Loz: OK, so anyone can fly a drone, they’re a piece of cake. They self-stabilize, most of it is done by the flight controller. But as you go to forward flight, you’re tilting props, generating wing lift, changing flight dynamics … Are you moving to a different control scheme? Will this be difficult to fly?

It’ll be exactly the same as a drone. It’ll be self-stabilizing. And the air speed over the wing, that’ll determine how fast the props spin. You won’t have to worry about that at all. You want to turn? Turn the steering wheel.

There’s no rudders or flaps. We’re relying on exactly what a drone does to turn a corner. All it does is power one fan up, tilt it and goes around. When it’s in full winged flight, we just power one side up or slow the other down.

Top speed is around 150 knots. Don’t forget, we’ve got two fans in each duct. We can drive it very differently to a regular aircraft. Each duct has two contra-rotating fans, and we can control the speed of each fan very precisely. So we can do a lot with that.

Takeoff will be fully automatic, nobody has to touch it. Same with landing, you’ll look at your screen, choose a landing point, and the system will check to make sure there’s no power lines or anything else in the way, and it’ll land it for you. That’s the beauty of these systems – with cars, because there’s so much traffic around, you need your autonomous software to be centimeter perfect. Up in the air, you can be 10 or 20 meter perfect and you’re still safe.

We’ll allow manual flight when you’re in the air if you want it. You might just choose a takeoff point and a landing point, but how you get there is your own business. You might want to fly along the coast.

There’s a whole lot of benefits to a ducted fan setup as opposed to exposed rotors. They can land a meter from a tree and not worry about it. It won’t hurt people. But most importantly, it creates 40 percent more power just by putting a fan inside a duct. And we’ve got two fans … the second fan doesn’t have 100 percent of the first fan’s power, it’s more like 50 percent.

Noise-wise, it just sounds like an electric motor. But that’s why we can only go 150 knots – if we pushed it to 180 knots the fan tips are going so fast, they’d go supersonic. We don’t want that squeal.

Loz: So what’s your timeline like?

Fries: It’s all totally dependent on funding. If we get some VC funding, we can go straight into the detailed design. Our software partner is the excellent Anushka Bandara at Elegant Media, who will handle the integration of the flight control and navigation systems. I’ve worked with him on two mobile app projects. We’ve found our people to do the ducts in America and Perth. Our electric motors are going to be designed in Germany. Aerodynamic design is probably going to be done in Adelaide, and probably wind tunnel testing here in Melbourne, either at RMIT or Monash University. We’ve found our builder, who can build these exotic composite products for us, he’s a boat builder up in New South Wales, and he’s used to doing one-offs at cost-effective rates.

It’ll be carbon with a titanium Nomex honeycomb core. It’s a honeycomb shape, like a sandwich, normally made out of paper or plastic, but we’ll use titanium for extra strength. It’s well proven in super yachts and motor yachts, things like that. We’ll use Kevlar on the inside to help make it puncture-proof.

So it’ll all be dependent on when the funds arrive. We believe we can do detailed design in six to nine months, and then build it in another 12 months.

And we’re not asking for a lot of money in this case. There are companies out there with $90 million worth of investment behind them that don’t even have a full-size prototype yet. We’re looking for 10 million dollars, US. A million to complete the design, and 9 million to build the prototype. We’re marketing it around the 350-400 grand US mark.

Loz: That sounds cheap for a flying five-seater!

We’ve got a full component list, and we’ve priced it. It’s just a little bit more than a Cessna – but it’s current technology. Those aircraft are 60 year old technology.

We see a lot of our market being in the United States, partially because of the much bigger population over there. But we want to build the prototype in Australia.

Loz: What issues do you see getting them road certified?

I’m glad you asked. The road certification will be harder than the flying certification at this point, because of the experimental category we can use to fly them initially. So going forward, one of the hardest parts will be the crash testing. We’ll have to prove the monocoque can take it.

Part of what we’re investigating right now is seeing what we can do to get it out there as a prototype, and maybe have some sort of road trial prior to crash testing.

If it ends up working better in America [due to looser road laws in the three-wheeler and motorcycle categories], we’ll take it over there if we have to. But we want to build it here. Australia has plenty of capability in building these sorts of one-offs cost-effectively at small volumes. This country’s skills in exotic constructions are second to none.

Loz: How do you expect to raise this kind of capital as somebody who’s never worked in aerospace before?

That’s why it can be so different! I spoke to a lot of aero folk early on, and they were so negative, it can’t be done. If you challenge an expert, it just doesn’t work if you’re trying to do something different. Experts are experts in their field, and they’ll try to protect their field. But we want to think outside of the field.

Being a yachtie and knowing aerodynamics extremely well, competing at international levels with sails, hulls and rigs I’ve built myself, I fully understand what’s required to get it done.

Having said that, I’d never do the final designs. I’m the project manager, and I’ve managed plenty of large projects before. $40 million dollar budgets, $20 million … they all require multi-talented teams. You bring them together all at once for a price, and for a time.

That’s where my skill is. Plus I have the initial ability to scope out the concept. But I’ll be relying on absolute experts to do the detailed design work, and managing the process with my team.

We look forward to following the progress of this project and wish Fries and his team the best of luck in securing funding.

Source: Macchina Volantis

“I often find tiny houses to be very inaccessible,” explains Greenfield on his blog. “At the festival I went to in Oregon there were plenty of houses in the $40,000-$80,000 range and even some as costly as $150,000. Don’t get me wrong, they were amazing tiny houses, but I know many people just find that idea to be totally absurd. There’s no way I could afford a tiny house that expensive, even if I wanted one, which I don’t. I love simple living, and living far more simply than most tiny house dwellers even.”

His tiny house measures just 100 sq ft (9.2 sq m) and was built using different recycled materials, such as pieces of fencing and plywood. The build was carried out with a lot of help from friends and only produced 30 lb (13 kg) of waste. There’s currently no insulation and Greenfield considered adding some or a wood-burning stove to keep the chill at bay, but says he’s been fine so far.

A good chunk of the snug interior is taken up by storage for Greenfield’s homegrown foods. A small desk is made from wood scraps and the floor is decked out in wood that was being thrown out from a house that flooded. The bed is made from more scrap wood.

Greenfield originally planned to live totally off-the-grid but it didn’t make sense to install solar power with the tiny amount of electricity he uses (the bill is roughly $100 per year), so he makes use of a hookup to power a deep chest freezer.

The kitchen is located outside in a little shelter made from leftover materials from the tiny house build. It has a small solar-powered light, propane camp stove, a solar oven, and a biogas stove. A fire pit is also nearby. The sink is fed by a rainwater collection system and the water is then reused for irrigation.

The toilet is also outside and is a composting system with two separate toilet seats, one for each type of waste. The resulting waste is then either diluted with water and poured onto plants, or composted for a year and used to grow more plants. The “toilet paper” is a mint leaf grown on the property, which Greenfield says is very soft. His shower is basically a bowl fed by rainwater, with burlap surrounding it for privacy.

As you’d probably guess, the $1,500 cost doesn’t include the purchase of any land and Greenfield has his tiny house installed in someone else’s garden in Orlando. Instead of paying rent, he helps out around the house and does garden work. Once he leaves in about two years, the owner will get to keep the tiny house.

Greenfield has a lot going on. He gives talks on sustainable living, and has also headed a campaign that strives to end food waste in the USA. Check out the video below to learn more on his tiny house and lifestyle.

Source: Rob Greenfield

The meta-study gathered data from 13 separate randomized control trials, all conducted to compare the effects of eating breakfast and skipping breakfast in adults. The results were pretty clear with the breakfast groups eating, on average, 260 calories more per day than those that skipped breakfast. Those that skipped breakfast also weighed an average of one pound (0.44 kg) less than their breakfast eating counterparts.

Of the studies included in the review that examined metabolic rates and hormone levels associated with appetite regulation, the data revealed no significant difference between breakfast consumers and breakfast skippers. Two studies examining changes in diet-induced thermogenesis, the metabolic process in which your body converts calories to heat, also found virtually no differences between the two groups.

All of this evidence adds up to a reasonably confident conclusion that breakfast consumption does not promote weight loss or play a major role in altering energy expenditure across the day. In fact, the researchers suggest that eating breakfast may, in some cases, have the opposite effect and hinder weight loss plans.

When you’re looking for a rugged off-road truck to serve as the basis of your world-conquering expedition rig, it’s hard to go wrong with a vehicle that can rightfully call itself the Unimog’s bigger, stronger brother. That’s the Zetros. Action Mobil has built Zetros expedition trucks before, but the Pure 5000 Zetros represents the first time it’s married the rugged Zetros 1833 A 4×4 with the type of compact Pure motorhome box it usually bolts to a MAN chassis. The MAN trucks aren’t exactly fragile snowflakes, but the Zetros’ big pronounced nose, cut chin and high, sturdy front wheel arches leave the Pure series looking more powerful than ever.

Designed to perform some of the world’s most difficult jobs in its hardest-to-reach corners, the two-axle Zetros 1833 comes powered by a 322-hp 7.2-liter six-cylinder turbo-diesel offering up to 959 lb-ft of torque permanently split between the front and rear axles. The truck also includes three switchable mechanical differential locks and a 1.69 off-road gear ratio. Beyond off-road adventuring, the Zetros spends its time working mines, battling raging forest fires, responding to emergencies and reworking landscapes.

(For the source of this, and many other interesting articles, please visit: https://newatlas.com/action-mobil-zetros-pure/57887/)

If you’re old enough to have had a mobile phone in the late 1990s or early 2000s then you may well remember the classic clamshell design – being able to snap your phone shut with a flick, a much more dramatic way to end a call than today’s screen tap.

The devices now coming down the line are truly foldable phones, though – complete with screens and internal circuitry that actually bend to take on multiple form factors, whether you want to use them as tablet-style devices, or handsets with screens on the front and the back.

Rumors of a foldable Samsung phone have been swirling for years now, and late in 2018 we finally got a proper look at a prototype, using what Samsung is calling an Infinity Flex Display. The phone itself is reportedly going to be called the Galaxy X or the Galaxy F (for Foldable), and it might even appear alongside the Galaxy S10 phones early in the year.

Samsung has scheduled a product launch for February 20 at which the Galaxy S10 phones are going to be unveiled – will a Galaxy X/F join them? Considering the bendable tech crammed into the phone, plus its rumored high-end specs (12 GB of RAM has been mooted) it’s likely to be a very expensive device – probably well into four figures.

Patents filed by Samsung suggest the phone display is going to automatically adapt to however it’s folded or unfolded, with the full screen measuring 7.3 inches corner to corner. Considering the company first teased the idea of a folding phone eight years ago, we’re expecting this to be one of the more polished and reliable folding handsets that arrive.

Sony

Industry insiders let slip that Sony was working on flexible display technology quite some time ago, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we saw a foldable phone from Sony during the course of 2019. As with LG though, specific details about the handset are hard to come by at the moment, so it’s not clear exactly what it’ll look like or how powerful it’ll be.

In fact patent applications that have come to light suggest one of Sony’s future phones is going to be transparent as well as foldable, which means it might be one of the last to launch. Developing a phone that can bend in the middle is a difficult enough challenge on its own without adding transparency as well, but that’s what Sony seems to be doing.

We’ve seen concept videos showing off what the Sony foldable phone might look like – potentially with an 8-inch screen and potentially called the Sony Xperia Note Flex – but for the time being these are based on rumors and speculation rather than anything solid. All we know for definite is that Sony will want to keep up with the trend for flexible displays.

LG

The big phone manufacturers don’t like to get outpaced by their rivals, and it seems as though all of Samsung’s big competitors are gearing up for their own foldable phone launches. Based on leaked trademark applications, it looks as though the LG foldable phone could be called the Flex, the Foldi, or the Duplex (or perhaps all three).

As well as those trademark filings, we’ve seen plenty of other hints and links that LG has a foldable phone in the pipeline. There was talk that such a device would appear at CES 2019 – that didn’t happen, but we did see a rollable television screen instead, which proves that LG is busy investigating the potential of these flexible displays for all of its product lines.

LG has also been busy filing patents around foldable phone tech, so we know the company is at least considering how to get it to market. Other details on the LG foldable phone, like specs and sizes, are thin on the ground – but we have seen reports that the LG G8 will come with a dual-screen display, setting the stage for a folding phone later in the year.

Huawei

Huawei is one of the phone makers that has come out and confirmed it’s working on a foldable phone for the future, though exactly when we’ll see it and exactly what form it’s going to take remains to be seen. CEO Richard Yu has said the bending handset should appear at some point during 2019, though it’s unlikely to be before Samsung’s launch.

As with several of the other foldable phones in this list, we’ve seen concept videos and patent filings giving hints about what the Huawei foldable phone is going to look like – with the option of one screen doubling up as a keyboard, perhaps – but for now we don’t know whether they’re going to end up being anything like the finished product.

What we do know from Huawei phones of the last few years is that the company is unlikely to skimp on specs and features. Expect the foldable Huawei phone to come packing the most powerful internal components available, and quite possibly a triple-lens camera around the back. It’s also certainly going to be very expensive when it finally goes on sale.

Motorola

News that Motorola is working on a foldable phone should be no surprise to those who’ve been paying attention, parent company Lenovo has been dropping hints about the potential of folding screens since early last year, and mentioning them in the same breath as the Razr brand. Could the old-school foldable phone be getting a new lease of life?

Once again, there are patent filings to pore over: it does indeed look like the Razr form factor might be making a comeback, only this time the physical hardware hinge is going to be replaced with a bend in the screen. That might mean a keyboard or keypad at the bottom of the display, with apps above. There’s also a secondary display on the back.

It’s worth noting that patents don’t always match the finished product, or even end up being finished products at all – but they do give an idea of the way a company is thinking.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has recently teased the arrival of its own foldable phone by posting a video showing co-founder and president Lin Bin playing around with what we presume is a prototype. As you can see, the fold mechanism is a little different to the norm: there are two hinges, so the two sides of the larger display fold around the back of the device.

As one of the biggest phone makers in China, you would expect Xiaomi to be on top of whatever new tech is coming down the line, but we don’t know much else about its foldable phone beyond what’s in the video. The software interface certainly looks slick and responsive, adapting quickly to the change in form factor while a video plays on screen.

If Xiaomi is able to push out a foldable phone before the year is out, it’s most likely going to follow the template of the other ones mentioned here: high powered and expensive. Keep an eye on MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona in February, when we might well hear more about the Xiaomi foldable phone and the other folding devices on this list.

(For the source of this, and many other interesting articles, please visit: https://newatlas.com/foldable-phones-2019/58193/)

Though issues arise and buildings sometimes get delayed at the last hurdle, we’ve focused on projects that are, as of writing, expected to be completed in 2019. Read on below to see our pick and you can also hit the gallery to see more of each project.

CopenHill – BIG

First unveiled all the way back in 2011, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)-led CopenHill (aka Amager Bakke) is a power station in Copenhagen with a “smoke ring generator” that will expel a steam ring each time 250 kg (551 lb) of carbon dioxide is produced. It’s also topped by a ski slope for visitors and locals to enjoy.

The UN expects the global population to hit around 10 billion people by 2050, and the reality is our current food practices cannot support both that and the health of our planet. Indeed, the environment that supports human existence will begin to burst at the seams if we continue with the status quo. As associate professor of mathematics Andrew Hwang notes in The Conversation, in wealthy countries “we live as if our savings account balance were steady income.”

The EAT-Lancet Commission is a team of 37 scientists from various disciplines that take aim at this problem via the prism of food. The aim of the team is to establish a robust, scientific consensus on what constitutes a diet that is not only nutritious and healthy, but will be sustainable for the planet in the year 2050.

Along with its unique-looking carbon fiber frame, what really stands out on the NuBike are the levers that run from the pedals to a linkage on the rear hub. These allow riders to simply push up and down on the pedals, causing the rear wheel to turn. There are reportedly a number of advantages to this setup.

First of all, as mentioned, it’s claimed to be more efficient than a chain or belt-drive. According to Brown, because the levers are much longer than traditional cranks, riders are able to deliver more torque (and thus power) to the wheel for a given amount of effort. He also states that because the pedals just move vertically, riders can more effectively use the force of gravity to help push them down.

Additionally, the lever-drive system is said to be easier on the hips, knees and ankles, plus it doesn’t require users to pull an oily chain out of the way when removing the rear wheel. And yes, it does allow for multiple gears – the current road bike prototype has four, although Rodger tells us that future lower-priced models (such as kids’ bikes and cruisers) will have fewer.

The prototype weighs 22 lb (10 kg). By replacing the current 7075 aluminum levers with ones made of magnesium, along with making some other changes, it is hoped that the final commercial model will tip the scales at 18 lb (8 kg).

If you’re interested in getting a NuBike of your own, it’s currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. Assuming it reaches production, a pledge of US$3,600 will get you a sub-3-lb (1.4 kg) frame and drivetrain, to which you can add conventional components of your choice. The planned retail price for that package is $3,800.

You can see the NuBike in action, in the video below.

And perhaps not surprisingly, this isn’t the first commercially-oriented lever-drive bike we’ve seen. Korea’s Bygen announced one back in 2014, although there’s been no word on availability since.

Source: Kickstarter

(For the source of this article, and to watch a video relating to the NuBike, please visit: https://newatlas.com/nubike-lever-drive/58096/)

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The ongoing series currently spans eleven countries and while, so far, the project has centered mainly on European locations, Radisics is planning on photographing areas of Africa, South America and India in the very near future.

The project is structured as a story with seven primary chapters, or topics. These topics cover the entire story of Earth and water, beginning with melting glaciers and ending with drought that has left us with the patterns and remnants of long lost streams and rivers.

Research for each prospective photographic location begins with a large scout using Google Earth. “For each selected region,” Radisics explains, “I scan through the satellite pictures. That way, after hours of research, I may come across something truly remarkable which is also appropriate for the project. When this occurs, I dive into the location and continue the search personally on site.” 

One of the problems when it comes to understanding the oil and gas industry is that the terminology can be misleading. For example, when someone asks how much oil or gas there is, the answer is almost invariably that we have enough to last 20 years. That seems straightforward enough and argues for the phasing out of increasingly scarce fossil fuels, but the curious thing is that 20 years ago we had 20 years worth of oil and gas, and the same was true 20 years before that, and will probably be true in 20 years time.

This is because what that 20-year figure deals with are reserves or, rather proven reserves. These are oil and gas fields that have been found with 90 percent certainty and can be recovered given the economic, technological, and political conditions of today. Because oil and gas prospecting is incredibly expensive, the oil companies like to find enough reserves to last a generation and call it good.

A new study from Harvard researchers has now shown how fasting can increase lifespan, slow aging and improve health by altering the activity of mitochondrial networks inside our cells.

“Although previous work has shown how intermittent fasting can slow aging, we are only beginning to understand the underlying biology,” says William Mair, senior author on the study.

Mitochondria are a little like tiny power plants inside our cells. Last year a team of researchers led by Newcastle University successfully showed how mitochondria are fundamental to the aging of cells. The new research from Harvard shows how the changing shapes of mitochondrial networks can affect longevity and lifespan, but more importantly the study illustrates how fasting manipulates those mitochondrial networks to keep them in a “youthful” state.

Inside cells mitochondrial networks generally alternate between two states: fused and fragmented. Using nematode worms, an organism useful for studying longevity as it only lives for two weeks, the study found that restricted diets promotes homeostasis in mitochondrial networks allowing for a healthy plasticity between these fused and fragmented states.

In the space of a few short years, drone photography has become hugely popular, meaning there are more eyes in the sky than ever before. These flying cameras can be positioned out over waterfalls, above forests and in the midst of wildlife to show us perspectives on the world that simply haven’t been seen before.

In the mix here we have all manner of natural phenomena, from flamingos taking flight, to majestic waterfalls in Laos, to frozen lakes in Siberia where cracks are beginning to appear. This particular photo reveals a rocky coastline in Portugal.

The study examined the genetic data of over 400,000 people, homing in on the association between three genes for bitter taste perception and a correlating preference for certain bitter-tasting beverages. The three bitter taste receptor genes studied were responsible for generating the bitter profiles in caffeine, quinine and propylthiouracil (PROP), a synthetic bitter profile similar to that tasted in cruciferous vegetables such as brussel sprouts.

The results of the study somewhat surprised the researchers, with people most sensitive to the bitter profile of caffeine reporting the most significant levels of coffee consumption.

“You’d expect that people who are particularly sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine would drink less coffee,” says Marilyn Cornelis, senior author on the research. “The opposite results of our study suggest coffee consumers acquire a taste or an ability to detect caffeine due to the learned positive reinforcement (i.e. stimulation) elicited by caffeine.”

Kids grow out of stuff really fast and bicycles are no exception. We’ve seen several innovative grow bikes over the years, designed to effectively expand so parents don’t have to buy a new bike for their child every 12 months. The new Monkeycycle takes the idea of a grow bike to an impressive new level, with a clever design allowing a single bike to turn into eight different kits.

The first iteration for the Monkeycycle is its stroller formation. This is being offered as part of a stretch goal during the Kickstarter campaign so the company suggests it is still under development. The current stroller configuration outlined offers a locking brake for the rear axle, and a storage bag. This is claimed to still be six to eight months away from general release.

In keeping with Biomega’s e-bike naming convention, the Sin concept has been named after a city that inspired some of the design elements, which in this case is Singapore.

“Biomega has always been about creating a paradigm shift in the way society imagines transportation,” said the company’s founder Jens Martin Skibsted. “We feel that we are in an extremely strong position to design an EV that represents the frontier of the new mobility. We are working on a new spectrum of vehicles where, for now, the EV is the largest and the bicycle is the most compact; making Sin another step in the natural progression of our ongoing battle against the combustion car.”

Pitched as an affordable and sustainable solution to modern urban mobility, the 950 kg (2,094 lb) vehicle sports a body shell fashioned from lightweight composites (including carbon fiber) and aluminum crossbeams with a one-piece transparent roof and windshield, a see-through front section where the grille sits on a traditional car and transparent driver and passenger doors – all to allow for optimum view of the road.

First of all, just how does the original Plimp drone work?

Well, it’s basically a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) blimp with two wings, each wing in turn equipped with an electric motor/propeller. When it’s taking off, landing or hovering in one place, the wings rotate so that the props are facing straight up – this lets it move vertically. Once it’s ready to head for its destination, though, the wings rotate so that the props face forward, allowing for fast and efficient fixed-wing flight.

Additionally, thanks to the buoyancy provided by its helium-filled envelope and the lift provided by its wings, it will reportedly glide gently down to the ground at a speed of 9 mph (14 km/h) if its motors give out.

Capable of carrying ten people (eight passengers plus crew) or 2,000 lb of cargo (907 kg), it will use electric power for its vertical take-offs and landings, with a hybrid gas/electric system taking over for fixed-wing flight. That system should provide a range of 267 miles (430 km) at a speed of 86 mph (138 km/h), or 320 miles (515 km) at 63 mph (101 km/h) – those figures are for a fully-laden aircraft. Short sprints at 93 mph (150 km/h) will also be possible.

Its new carbon fiber frame drops the weight of the overall machine down to just 253 lb (114 kg), spot on the legal limit for FAA powered ultralights, and its maximum speed also tops our at 52 knots (60 mph or 96 km/h), again just under the legal maximum allowed by the FAA. Slipping into the FAA’s ultralight classification also allows the hoverbike to be operable with no pilot’s license.

Another new addition to this commercial iteration is a hybrid lithium-manganese-nickel battery, suggesting a flight time of between 10 and 25 minutes depending on the weather and pilot weight. There is also a remote-controlled drone mode that reportedly offers up to 40 minutes flight time.

So, if you are keen to grab a super expensive toy that looks a little dangerous, and can only really stay in the air for around 15 minutes at a time, then you can preorder a Hoverbike S3 2019 right now with a US$10,000 deposit. Full price is set at $150,000, and deliveries are slated to take place within two to six months from your time of reservation.

Take a look at the most recent Hoverbike design flying around in the video.

Source: Hoversurf

(For the original of this article, plus a video, please visit: https://newatlas.com/hoverbike-scorpion-preorders-on-sale/56988/)

The design isn’t as clean as what we first saw in the Project Livewire prototype fleet that made its way around the world starting back in 2014. In particular, the area around the footpegs is a lot busier to look at, but the overall lines are nice, paying homage to Harley’s flat tracking heritage and doing a decent job of working around the big, unattractive battery box that necessarily sits as a giant design black hole just where the beautiful Harley V-twin would ordinarily take pride of place.

All we know about the electric motor is that it’s a permanent magnet design, it’s painted bright silver to make it a visual feature, and it’s located under the battery box to keep the weight of the bike low and central for sprightly handling. This should certainly out-handle most of Harley’s current portfolio, particularly given the “premium high-performance, fully adjustable Showa suspension” it’ll run at both ends.

The shock will be a balance-free rear cushion-lite monoshock, the forks will be big piston, separate function, and the setup will be tuned for “composed control in typical urban riding conditions.” The Brembo monoblock brakes and dual 300mm front discs might give Harley riders their first good reason to reach for the front brake lever in many moons. They’re ABS units, as well, and traction control will also be standard when the Livewire debuts.

There will be seven selectable riding modes – four pre-programmed and three available custom slots for riders to set up themselves – and the main interface will be a full color, tilt-adjustable TFT touchscreen with Bluetooth connectivity, as is the style of these times.

Like all electrics, it’ll happily slow-charge in the garage at home or work when plugged into a standard wall outlet. It’ll also support DC fast charging using the J1772 or CCS2 – IEC Type 2 connectors if you need to juice up faster.

To assuage any fears riders might have about gliding around on a silent motorcycle that can’t annoy passers-by, Harley has designed the Livewire motor “to produce a tone that increases in pitch and volume at speed.”

This idea excited me a little, because Harley has always paid attention to the sound of its bikes, going so far as to trademark the iconic “potato-potato-potato” sound of its engines at idle back in 1994. Electrics are much quieter than thumping v-twins, but there’s an opportunity for somebody to come out and start making electrics with an iconic sound that’s a bit more compelling than the turbine-like whine coming out of most I’ve ridden to date.

The homologation special

World Superbike (WSBK) is a production-based race series, which pits hotted-up versions of the actual streetbikes you can go and buy against one another in competition – as opposed to MotoGP, which is more like Formula One, in that each race bike is essentially a prototype that was never built for road use.

In order to race a given bike in WSBK, it needs to meet an exhaustive list of homologation regulations to keep the playing field as level as possible. No titanium frames are allowed, for example, and ABS systems have to be removed from the race bikes.

But you also need to prove that the bike you’re entering for racing is actually a genuine production bike that customers can buy and ride on the road. They can’t cost any more than €40,000 to buy, and the manufacturer has to prove it has built at least 500 units by the end of the year following the homologation inspection date.

We’ve come to expect electric bikes in every shape and size imaginable, but we weren’t expecting an on/off-road, full-suspension electric folder with 26-in wheels, fat tires and a 750-watt powertrain. But that’s exactly what the Moar e-bike, which is currently the subject of a crowdfunding campaign, promises – a powerful, rugged two-wheeler built for everyone from trail-riding weekend warriors to daily city commuters.

When the non-electric fat bike first began its popularity rise from endurance competition workhorse to trendy piece of kit parked in front of every microbrewery around, it seemed to run almost exclusively without suspension – maybe something about big, spongy tires not needing to be sprung, or perhaps it was more that suspension makers weren’t building components for the fat market.

But over the past three years or so, notable manufacturers like Surly and Trek have started rolling out big-tired bikes with front and rear suspension, providing an option for those that want a little extra spring. As those full suspension fat bikes were gaining a little traction, electric bike companies like Bad and Rad started introducing (unsuspended) folding, electric fat bikes. In short, the fat tire trend has been finding its way into all shapes and forms of bike … or maybe it’s been all shapes, forms and components wrapping their way around those wide, bloated tires.

1. Web browser: Firefox

Developed by the Mozilla Foundation, the Firefox web browser has been a mainstay of web users since its release in 2002.

Firefox puts privacy front and center. Its Private Browsing mode not only deletes passwords and cookies after a browsing session, it also detects and blocks tracking software now prevalent on the web.

LibreOffice

7. Image editor: GIMP

GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop and a powerful tool for photographers, designers or artists needing powerful image creation or editing software. (GNU is a license which makes software freely available.)

It includes numerous powerful features pitched at photographers, including quick fixes for barreling and vignetting, retouching tools, black and white enhancements.

It’s an extremely powerful tool which offers a Python development platform to create editing automations. It’s available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

GIMP

8. Antivirus: ClamAV

Antivirus package ClamAV detects not only viruses, but also trojans and malware and keeps an eye on email, Office files, PDFs, software signatures and archive files such as Zip and RAR formats among others. It boasts access to a virus database which is updated several times each day.

A number of job-specific third-party tools have been built to work with ClamAV, including firewalls, proxy servers, file transfer tools and POP3 email servers.

ClamAV is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It needs to be installed via a package or the source code, so it’s not as simple as downloading an installer, unfortunately.

ClamAV

9. Password storage: KeePass

Online security is a hotter topic than ever, and with the prevailing wisdom stating not to reuse passwords, keeping on top of all your logins is no easy feat. That’s were a password manager like LastPass, 1Password or the open source KeePass comes in.

It’s ultra-secure, using both the NSA-approved AES encryption standard and the Twofish algorithm co-designed by Bruce Schneier.

It’s not the prettiest, but KeePass is a lightweight yet powerful app worthy of consideration. It’s available for Windows, MacOS and Linux, and can be run from a portable USB stick.

KeePass

10. Operating system: Ubuntu

It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you want to go fully open source, your best bet is to run an open source Linux distribution as an alternative to Windows or MacOS.

Perhaps the best-known and most user-friendly version of Linux is Ubuntu, which began life as an offshoot of the Linux distro Debian in 2004. It comes with the afore-mentioned Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice pre-installed.

Unlike other Linux distros, software is easily installed by virtue of Ubuntu Software, essentially a built-in software store (with many of its wares available for free).

Though there’s never been an easier time to adopt Linux, caution is nevertheless advised. Replacing your currently-installed operating system straight off the bat isn’t advised. A dual-OS setup is a good way to test the waters.

Ubuntu

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Many times now, I’ve railed in these hallowed Web pages about how crappy the average motorcycle headlight is. When you lean over to go around a corner with a fixed headlight, you basically plunge the bit of road you’re riding toward into darkness.

These days, the vast majority of full-size motorcycles come with all sorts of fancy safety gear, such as traction control and lean angle-sensitive ABS. Blind spot warnings are on their way, and even side thrusters to push back against any sideways loss of traction. But there are still only one or two bikes on the market whose headlights can look around corners. It’s a joke.

The study builds on previous ASU research, which indicated that the chemically-reduced iron and aluminum in blue clay from Oregon was capable of killing free-floating bacteria. In the new study, a solution containing the clay was also shown to be effective when used on biofilms made up of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Basically self-supporting colonies of bacteria, such biofilms are present in about two thirds of infected wounds seen by physicians. Because they take the form of a coating that protects the microbes within, they’re often resistant to antibiotics.

“We showed that this reduced iron-bearing clay can kill some strains of bacteria under the laboratory conditions used, including bacteria grown as biofilms, which can be particularly challenging to treat,” says the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Robin Patel, senior author of the study.

The Tikku was recently built for Helsinki Design Week 2017 and has a total floorspace of 37.5 sq m (403 sq ft), split over three floors. The prototype model shown is divided into a work area on the first floor, a bedroom upstairs, and a small greenhouse/living space on the top floor.

It includes a dry toilet and electricity comes from solar power, but there’s no running water or kitchen. The idea is that thanks to its location in a city, the occupant should have easy access to water and food and whatever else they need.

However, Casagrande has bigger plans for the Tikku and envisions it also serving as an office, shop, workshop, hotel, and more, swapping out the interior and amenities to suit. He’s already started selling units and the starting price for a basic model comes in at €35,000 (US$41,500), not including transportation costs (nor of course some land to put it on).

The amount of plastic waste washing around in the ocean is a huge problem, one that the Ocean Cleanup Project hopes to help solve when it tackles the Great Pacific Garbage Patch next year. The world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic each year, according to Jennifer Lavers, a research scientist at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, much of which is never recycled and ends up bobbing about in the ocean instead.

Lavers led a research team to Henderson Island to find its beaches awash with vast amounts of trash. Counting the rubbish, the team calculated a concentration of 671 items per square meter (10 sq ft), the highest density ever recorded, which equates to an estimated 37.7 million pieces spread over the whole island.