Free Republic

In 2084, humanity had finally turned its back on burning the ancient remains of a bygone era, only to find itself shackled to the caprices of the sun and wind.In the year 2084, the world had reached an equilibrium of sorts — a strange, unbalanced balance that no one had aimed for but had settled into, like dust after a storm. The skies, once bustling with the egalitarian hustle of air travel, had quieted down, reserved now for the sleek, whispering jets of the elites: politicians who crafted the future from the clouds; entertainment superstars like Brittany Quick, whose laughter...

PALMDALE, Calif. — House appropriators don’t intend for the Pentagon to re-engine the F-35 with a new adaptive powerplant, the chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee (HAC-D) said this week. “It states pretty specifically in the appropriation bill that we’re not looking or seeking to change out the Pratt & Whitney engine,” Rep. Ken Calvert, a California Republican, said in a Wednesday interview with Breaking Defense at the inaugural North LA Defense Forum hosted by Rep. Mike Garcia at Northrop Grumman’s facilities here in Palmdale. “Unless there’s a catastrophic failure on the part of [current engine maker] Pratt &...

A Texas airport worker was killed after being sucked into a jet engine at San Antonio International Airport on Friday night, according to a report. Emergency crews were called to the tarmac just before 10:30 p.m. after reports that a ground worker had been “ingested” into the engine of a plane that had just landed. “Delta Flight 1111 was taxying to the gate, with one engine on at that time, and a worker was ingested into that engine at 10:25 p.m,” the NTSB said in a statement to KENS5. An investigation into the worker’s death is ongoing. “The NTSB has...

Eleven more U.S. airports plan to adopt a new way of landing planes that reduces both emissions and noise — all by having incoming planes turn off their engines and glide down to the tarmac like a paraglider. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Monday that planes heading to Orlando, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha, Neb.; Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base; Reno, Nev.; and six airports in South Florida soon would make idle descents to runways. It's a method called “Optimized Profile Descent,” and more than 60 U.S. airports already have it in place.

The winter is already brutal on your car because of the conditions, but drivers can make things harder by turning on the vehicle to let it warm up before driving. One thing some do when the temperatures are cold outside is to start the car and let the engine warm up a few seconds before driving. Several auto experts believe this may not be conducive to preserving the engine.

Former President Donald Trump was forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday after a plane he was traveling on suffered engine failure, according to reports. Politico reports, citing “two people familiar with the matter” that the incident occurred after Trump concluded his speech to donors in New Orleans and left to return to his home at Mar-a-Lago.

The compact, flat Koenigsegg Quark motor is designed to integrate easily into supercars and other vehiclesKoenigsegg VIEW 8 IMAGES Not one to let the inadequacies of existing technology stand in its way, Koenigsegg has been an innovating pioneer in modern powertrain technology, rethinking fundamentals with solutions like gearbox-free direct-drive hybrids and camshaft-free engines. Its latest breakthrough has come in the form of a compact electric motor that squeezes together the torque-heavy benefits of axial flux topology with the power-dense boost of a radial flux layout. The all-new Quark motor will help the boundary-smashing Gemera four-seat GT achieve sprint times formerly...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that it has successfully demonstrated the operation of a “rotating detonation engine” for the first time in space. The novelty of the technologies in question is that such systems obtain a large amount of thrust by using much less fuel compared to conventional rocket engines, which is quite advantageous for space exploration. On July 27, the Japanese agency launched a pair of futuristic propulsion systems into space to carry out the first tests. They were launched from the Uchinoura Space Center aboard the S-520-31, a single-stage rocket capable of lofting a 220...

A fan blade that snapped off a United Airlines engine mid-flight, causing it to rain debris over Colorado last month, had microscopic cracks, federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday. The engine part was last inspected more than four years ago. The Boeing 777 made an emergency landing back at Denver International Airport on Feb. 20 after the engine caught on fire soon after takeoff. No one onboard or on the ground was injured. The broken blade on the Pratt & Whitney engine had been used on 2,979 flights since its last inspection in 2016, the NTSB...

This post was updated 5JUL19, when I received word that the FDA approved Bremelanotide PT-141 under the name Vylessi. I updated this post, and subsequently added the name Vylessi to all mention of Bremelanotide PT-141, and added updated histories and commentaries at the end. We have a tendency to think inside the box. We try to improve what we know. We try to work within the framework of what we have. We actually do need to think "outside the box"... As a man gets older, your body changes. Your hair starts receding, and starts to fall out. You start to...

Back in the day, I was one of the first people to start using Google as a search engine. I liked it’s clean interface, and simplicity. Of course, over the years, other people also found this to be the preferential search engine. Unfortunately, Google became big, powerful and yes, evil. They siphon up your personal information with zero regard to fourth amendment protections. They sell the information to the highest bidder, and give it away for free if the person is part of a government agency. Unfortunately, people like myself VALUE privacy. And that means that I no longer can...

In a statement, Delta Air Lines said Flight 1425 was diverted “after receiving an indication of an issue with one of the aircraft’s engines.” An earlier statement from Delta called the failure a “possible incident” — an instant classic in corporate understatements. The company declined to say whether passengers were in danger or describe what went wrong. Media reports indicated Delta offered passengers $30 food vouchers as they waited for a flight out of Raleigh, and CNN reported the plane was back in service Wednesday after the engine was replaced. The aircraft involved is an MD-88, the oldest in service...

The Raptor engine is designed to power the spaceship currently known as Starship as part of the rocket assembly currently known as Super Heavy (previously dubbed the BFR). The first Raptor test fire took place in September 2016, when the company was targeting an uncrewed Mars launch in 2018. Three Raptor engines like this one are built in to the Starship Hopper, which has been under construction in Texas and which SpaceX will use to begin testing the rocket technology in real life. SpaceX plans to assemble 31 Raptor engines into the Super Heavy rockets, with another seven Raptors on...

A century of four-wheeled mobility.

Once upon a time, the straight six was a dominant engine design. Jaguar put them in its best cars, Jeep built its late 20th century reputation upon them, and almost every humdrum family car or pickup truck in America had one as standard—then they nearly died out. For years, V6 engines were killing off the straight six, also known as an I6 or inline six, and the entire design appeared destined for oblivion. But Mercedes-Benz has performed a resurrection. It brought back the straight six in the form of the M256, an entirely new engine design, to replace many of...

...snip... Weaver was a teenager in March 1968 when his dad offered to “buy me something new.” They lived in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and first visited Grabiak Chevrolet “down the road,” where the 19-year-old spotted a black 427 Corvette coupe that he “was interested in getting.” Except, “My God, the insurance was over $1,000 a year,” which was “a fortune” in those days. “So we went up to Yenko [Chevrolet] to see about getting a Camaro.” They entered a candy land of “at least 50 Z/28s, different colors, different gear ratios—4.10s, 4.56s, 4.88s.” Weaver recalled it like it was yesterday. “I...

Major European cities such as Madrid and Paris are discriminating against diesel engines due to officials’ concerns about the types of pollution oil-burners produce...The four-cylinder EcoBlue is the most advanced diesel engine Ford has ever produced. Starting with a clean sheet, engineers focused on developing an engine that has very low internal friction.

2018 Detroit Auto Show: Achates, Aramco Launch 37-MPG Pickup Engine John O'Dell January 15, 2018 Auto Shows, Detroit Auto Show Achates Power and Aramco Services have outfitted a Ford F150 with Achates' new compression-ignition, gasoline powered, opposed-piston engine the company says will deliver 37 mpg fuel economy without hurting truck's working capabilities. (Photo: Achates) FacebookTwitterLinkedInE-mailReddit The developers of a gasoline-engine pickup on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit hope to enter the national conversation on fuel efficiency and emissions reductions.Achates Power, a California-based engine developer, and Aramco Services, the transportation-focused U.S. arm of Saudi Arabian Oil...

I saw elsewhere on the net, that Linux Journal is ceasing publication. From their homepage: Linux Journal Ceases Publication EOF It looks like we’re at the end, folks. If all goes according to a plan we’d rather not have, the November issue of Linux Journal was our last.

Wärtsilä 31SG coming off the factory line in Vaasa, Finland. Photo credit: WärtsiläFinnish technology group Wärtsilä has introduced a gas-fueled version of its Wärtsilä 31 marine engine, which is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most efficient 4-stroke diesel engine. The engine, dubbed the Wärtsilä 31SG, builds on the efficiency of the successful Wärtsilä 31 engine, but with added flexibility and efficiency compared to its conventionally-fueled and dual-fuel predecessor. “The defining feature of the Wärtsilä 31SG is its ability to achieve simple-cycle efficiency levels in excess of 50 % (compared to around 40 % with modern gas turbines),...