Day: January 7, 2016

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NASA Is Making Progress Toward Hybrid-Powered Airplanes

NASA's Hybrid Plane Concept

NASA

NASA’s Hybrid Plane Concept

NASA’s endeavors inside the atmosphere don’t get nearly as much attention as their off-world missions, but they could have a big impact on our planet.

Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center are working on developing a hybrid plane that will function kind of like a hybrid car, relying on both fossil fuels and electricity to power itself through the sky. Scientists are working on all components of the hybrid system, developing new hybrid electric engines, but also working to improve small pieces, like insulation around the wiring in the aircraft.

“These systems use electric motors and generators that work together with turbine engines to distribute power throughout the aircraft in order to reduce drag for a given amount of fuel burned,” Amy Jankovsky, a NASA engineer said. “Part of our research is developing the lightweight machinery and electrical systems that will be required to make these systems possible.”

The researchers think that these advances could make flying up to 30 percent more fuel efficient. Considering that commercial airlines in the United States used over 8.9 billion gallons of fuel last year, that’s a huge chunk of gas saved, and a large reduction in carbon emissions.

Of course, the researchers at the Glenn Research Center aren’t the only ones looking into how to make airplanes with a lower carbon wingprint. Check out this infographic of the past, present and future of electric flight.

NASA’s other work in airplanes includes making shapeshifting wings for aircraft and crash-testing planes to improve safety features.

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Amazon is selling its own processors now, too

Amazon’s come a long way since its humble beginnings as an online book store. It sells everything from groceries to its own Kindle and tablet hardware, runs streaming services complete with original shows, and has a huge cloud-computing business among other interests. And now Amazon’s started pushing its own line of processors, plunging its finger into yet another pie. You won’t find its ARM-based "Alpine" chips among the T-shirts and homeware on Amazon’s online store, of course. They are being sold directly to manufacturers and service providers through subsidiary Annapurna Labs, a chip designer Amazon acquired early last year.

The Alpine chip range is intended for products like WiFi routers, storage devices and connected home products (internet of things things), with companies including ASUS, Netgear and Synology already counted as customers. As Bloomberg notes, the chips are also a good fit for data centers, but are more suited to storage and networking tasks, not high-performance servers where Intel reigns king. Apart from being an interesting milestone in Amazon’s campaign for world domination, it getting into the processor business will resonate little with us everyday consumers. But, when you finally commit to buying a smart home hub after comparing numerous Amazon reviews, that hardware may well turn up with an Amazon brain inside, too.

Via: Bloomberg, The Verge

Source: Annapurna Labs

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