Here’s a cool airplane hack on how to land a 747 just in case.

Main Checklist

1. Get on the radio, and tell whoever’s listening that you are landing a 747.
2. Engage a single channel of the autopilot — light one of the buttons labeled “CMD.” Point the heading indicator in the direction indicated to keep the plane straight and level.
3. Find the checklists in the side pocket of the pilot’s and copilot’s seat. If the plane is a 747-400, engage the Automatic Landing System (ALS). If it is not a 747-400, see below under “Landing Without ALS.”
4. If you can’t find the checklists, use these:
   1. Before Descent
      1. EO’s system check completed.
      2. Pressurization set.
      3. All a/c packs on. Set the airfield altitude so the plane is depressurized on landing.
      4. Humidifier off.
      5. HSIs: Radio. Switch horizontal situation indicators to radio navigation mode.
      6. Auto brakes: set.
   2. Approach Checklist
      1. P.A. cabin call: “Cabin crew 15 minutes to landing.”
      2. Cabin signs and exit lights: on.
      3. Ignition: on. This sets the engine igniters for landing.
      4. Fuel system: set for landing.
      5. Fuel heat: check/off
      6. QNH: Set. So the altimeters read the airfield altitude on touchdown.
   3. Landing Checklist
      1. Gear check: handle down, handle in, light green.
      2. Speedbrake: armed.
      3. Hydraulics: checked.
      4. Landing flap: set at 25 degrees.
      5. SCCM’s report: received. The cabins are secure for landing.
      6. Find the Jeppeson charts. Locate the radio frequency.
      7. Find the flight management system’s buttons on the glareshield marked LNAV and VNAV.
      8. Put the Jeppeson map on a 100 mile scale using the EFIS control panel on the front panel. You’ll get a yellow FMC message on the middle screen when it’s time to land.
      9. On the control display unit between the pilots’ seats, twist the knob until the little numbers go down to 100 ft. above field elevation in the Jeppeson notebook.
      10. Get the aircraft set to land: press the LOC and G/S buttons on the glareshield. All three CMD lights will go on, and the system will automatically tune to the right ILS frequency.
      11. 1Turn on the autobrakes when the plane starts descending.

via sampottsinc

Concorde may be one of the fastest airplanes that most of us will ever ride in our lifetime and someone has made a 1:1 real life-size replica of the Concorde engine using what he learned from a $10 Concorde engine repair book he bought on eBay.

This engine might not run but I am sure the guy who made it knows almost every detail of what went into making the Concorde engine.

Design firm PostlerFerguson has created Olympus, a 1:1 model of one of Concorde’s engines, which will be on display in the window of Selfridges until October 22.

via crblog, Designer’s Page

Moller has been building flying cars for decades now based in Davis, California, the same town that I went to college.  I remember hearing about my friends who “saw” a flying car in the field at least couple times a month before I found out about it blogging.

Anyways, Moller has a new type of flying car called the Autovolantor which can “fly” over traffic occasionally but it’s not designed for full flights.

I like this new hybrid model as I found it useful to “fly” over a bad traffic area sorta like that Shell commercial back in the day.

via ohgizmo, PDF of Autovolantor Download

SX02 Flight Simulators with Surround Sound and 3 LCDs!

For gamers and flying enthusiasts, having a SX02 Flight Simulator in the house might not be such a bad idea.  Afterall, the SX02 Flight Simulators come loaded with surround displays (3 LCDs) and every control, peripheral you need to enjoy a good virtual flight in your livingroom.

There’s no cost information on the product page but do expect to drop at least couple grand on a setup like this.  (Better yet, go build one yourself with a real ejaculated jet plane seat.  But don’t ejaculate.  LOL)

With surround sound, you get surround vision as well. Utilising Matrox technology, we can format a triple screen layout, so you can be totally immersed in the cockpit. Experience surround graphics for yourself.

The SX02 fighter layout, featuring a centrally mounted HOTAS Joystick, a tension adjustable hand throttle, with digital programmable readout, Saitek adjustable flight pedals, a trackball for formatting the PC and a Logitech backlit keyboard, the SX02 Simulator will immerse you like never before.

The Simworx Flight Deck can be adjusted fore and aft, up and down and is flexible enough to support a variety of control hardware formats, including a yoke and throttle quadrant for general aviation.

via bornrich, Product Page

DIY - How to Make your own RC Helicopter!

Although most of us would be better off buying an RC helicopter off the rack at the local hobby store, you can make your own if you want to with this terrific DIY guide on how to make your own RC helicopter.

Flying RC helicopter is really very exhilarating. Their versatility gives a RC pilot a complete access to the three-dimensional space in such a way that no other machines can! I have played RC helicopter for more than one year but still find that I have just learnt a few tricks that it can perform.

There are generally two micro-helicopters ( indoor ) in the RC market. I have already planned to buy one of them as they can fly inside the living room and even take off on ours hand. Unlike those operated by gas, these electric helicopters are very clean and give out no terrible noise at all. In one nightfall, I visited a web site, which is about how to make a hand made RC helicopter. I was totally impressed and started designing my own helicopter. Here is my helicopter:

via hackedgadgets, DIY Page

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Stanford computer scientists have figured how to teach autonomous helicopters how to do stunt maneuvers.

It sounds like a great idea to me if they can apply this to general robotics.

Stanford’s artificial intelligence system learned how to fly by “watching” the four-foot-long helicopters flown by expert radio control pilot Garett Oku. “Garett can pick up any helicopter, even ones he’s never seen, and go fly amazing aerobatics. So the question for us is always, why can’t computers do things like this?” Coates said.

Computers can, it turns out. On a recent morning in an empty field at the edge of campus, Abbeel and Coates sent up one of their helicopters to demonstrate autonomous flight. The aircraft, brightly painted Stanford red, is an off-the-shelf radio control helicopter, with instrumentation added by the researchers.

For five minutes, the chopper, on its own, ran through a dizzying series of stunts beyond the capabilities of a full-scale piloted helicopter and other autonomous remote control helicopters. The artificial-intelligence helicopter performed a smorgasbord of difficult maneuvers: traveling flips, rolls, loops with pirouettes, stall-turns with pirouettes, a knife-edge, an Immelmann, a slapper, an inverted tail slide and a hurricane, described as a “fast backward funnel.”

via engadget, Helicopter Site

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Perhaps, this MotoPod will let more people with personal airplanes to get around town easier by letting them stash their favorite dirt bike/motorcycle under the plane.

…basically a cargo pod that allows you to carry a street-legal motorcycle underneath your plane.
The motorcycle is a Yamaha XT225 which was selected because it was both economical and lightweight, and overall the pod and bike add about 500 pounds to an aircraft’s total weight. (Resulting in an airspeed cut of about 9 knots.) The bike does require a bit of assembly before it can be ridden, but the pod is easily lowered with a built-in powered winch and you can apparently be on the road just minutes after landing. The MotoPOD is expected to go on sale later this year with a price tag below $10,000 (including the motorcycle) but you can reserve one now for a fully-refundable $1,000.

via ohgizmo, gizmag, Product Page

Here’s a cool video of the A380 taking off. (See this post for what an A380 looks like inside)

I can’t wait to get a seat in one of these airplanes.

The cam feed can be shown on the seat-back displays and gives you an almost Superman-like view of the aircraft from 79-feet up at the top of the tail. It’s pretty amazing watching the behemoth aircraft surge slowly down the runway and into the air… and there’s another vid, showing it landing in to SFO as part of the recent Emirates tour.

via gizmodo - irintech - newlaunches

Yey, the Martin Jetpack is out.  It looks like a lot of fun, maybe even more so than hang gliding.

Little is known about the capabilities of this flying machine, though sources familiar with its design say it can fly 100 times longer than previous jetpacks. Historically, 26 seconds has been the endurance of previous technology. This being the case, the Martin Jetpack could potentially be able to fly for as much as 40 minutes at a time on a single tank of gas.

Other blog posts about the Martin Jetpack:

crunchgear - boingboing - make - engadget

Other online resources for Martin Jetpack:

Martin Jetpack launched at AirVenture Oshkosh