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Research & Innovation

Xplorair, car of the future, to fly in 2017

Since our last report in 2011, Michel Aguilar’s project, Xplorair, the flying car of the future, has moved up a gear. A French industrial consortium has been created, with four patents, and the concept of the thermoreactor jet engine validated by the engine manufacturer Turbomeca and the Institute of Pprime research, having been established. Advances that allow the designer the possibility of foreseeing the maiden flight of a fullsize demonstrator in less than three years’ time.

World’s most powerful aircraft wind tunnel

Welcome to the home of the most powerful aircraft wind tunnel in the world. Situated in the French Alps, close to the French-Italian border at Modane, the French National aerospace research centre (Onera) has an exceptional test centre. Inside a steel tunnel two giant fans produce transonic winds of speeds up to Mach 1, enabling aircraft manufacturers to conduct aerodynamic testing on their development aircraft.
Boeing is working on a VTOL aircraft for the Pentagon

It is just a prototype for now, but by 2018, the "Phantom Swift" developed by Boeing could conceivably used by the American army. Darpa, the American government agency responsible for innovations in defense technology, has launched the beginning of a call for tenders for the creation of a VTOL aircraft, and Boeing is, for the moment, the best placed.
Morpho launches the fastest contactless fingerprint sensor

At airports, identity checks always take time. So why not replace passports with fingerprints? This was the challenge of Morpho, a Safran group subsidiary, who, this week released the world's first and fastest, contactless, four fingerprint sensor. Called "Finger On the Fly" it is able to verify your identity in a jiffy.
ONERA’s alternative to drone batteries

The weakness of many electrical drones today, is the reduced autonomy of their batteries. A constraint that could disappear with a prototype micro-turbine designed by ONERA, and presented at the UAV Show, in Bordeaux (south west France).
Windowless business jets soon ?

How would you like to travel by ‘plane whilst travelling elsewhere? This is the idea launched by Technicon Design. Their project called Ixion, is a windowless business jet of which the cabin walls are covered with screens. Here’s how…
British Airways' "Happiness blanket"

To find out more about passengers' moods throughout a long-haul flight, British Airways recently conducted an amazing, to say the least, experiment. On 24th., June, on one of its routes between London and New York, four volunteer passengers tested the "Happiness blanket."
Airbus Defence & Space drops its rocket plane

At the beginning of May, and far from curious onlookers, Airbus Group's Defence and Space Division succeeded in dropping a quarter-scale test version of their rocket propelled SpacePlane. At 100 km. off Singapore ...