Silicon Valley startup Opener recently debuted their Blackfly VTOL aircraft at this year’s AirVenture Oshkosh airshow in Wisconsin. Touted as “the world’s first ultralight all-electric fixed-wing extreme short/vertical take-off and landing (ESTOL/VTOL) aircraft,” the single-seat personal aircraft doesn’t require a pilot’s license to operate or need any unique skills, although it will require you to take an FAA Privet Pilot written exam and Blackfly familiarization. The ultra-light aircraft has been in development for the better part of nine years and has undergone 1,400+ test flights, covering 12,000+ miles, and fully USA flight approved. It’s not a long distance runner though, as it has a 40-mile range and a cruise speed…

NASA has awarded a piece of their $100,000 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge money to five teams for their entries in Phase 3: Level 1 of the contest. The competition is part of NASA’s ambitions to build a 3D-printed habitat for deep space exploration, including their endeavor to journey to Mars. https://youtu.be/KKPtMjUEnX8 The competition, which started back in 2014, is part of a three-phase challenge that centers on construction technology designed for sustainable housing solutions for both Earth and beyond. The first Phase pitted teams from different high schools, colleges, and businesses to develop various types of architecture that could utilize what 3D printer capabilities can offer. Phase 2 was divided into…

… and I’m not just talking about those square watermelons you’ve seen before. While square watermelons are the fruit’s most famous shape in Japan (you know, apart from its natural round structure), they aren’t the only shapes found in glorious Nippon. If the sight of a weirdly-shaped melon confuses you, you should know that growing such a fruit doesn’t require any high-tech gear or specialized seeds. All you have to do is make yourself a box of whatever shape you would like your melon to be. The box or mold has to be slightly smaller than the volume of the mature fruit so it can push the melon into shape…

If you are a user of Simplify3D, you want to read this. Simplify3D is a third party 3D print slicing and print operation software tool. The theory is that the default software tools usually provided by the 3D printer manufacturer are sometimes incomplete in function. Simplify3D attempts to fill the gaps with more sophisticated functions and options. While it’s a paid product (currently available for USD$149), its results are often better than those found with default tools and parameters. It can do some things rarely found in standard tools, potentially making printed parts stronger, for example. For some 3D printer operators, the extra cost of the tool is well worth…

There were scattered reports of Mackbook Pro users covering themselves in ash and eating gallons of ice cream earlier this week with Lenovo’s announcement of their new ThinkPad P1 ultralight mobile workstation. Ultralight mobile workstation. Yeah, I just used those words together in a sentence – TWICE. First though, I admit, ‘Ultralight’ is my word for their new laptop. (Lenovo just calls it their ‘thinnest, lightest and sleekest mobile workstation’.) But after eating fish & chips and getting my greasy hands all over a production unit one sunny Texas afternoon, a mobile workstation with these specs, at this weight, has all the fight in being able to wear those words.…

Infiniti’s 2019 QX50 is the first vehicle in their lineup to feature their VC-Turbo (Variable-Compression) engine that can change compression ratios on the fly for increased fuel efficiency. Standard automobiles typically have a single compression ratio that is expressed in a form such as 10:1, which compares the maximum to the minimum value of cylinder volume as the piston travels throughout its cycle. Simply put, higher loads require lower ratios to maintain efficiency, and vice versa. The engine works using a computer that signals an electric motor that moves an actuator arm to shorten the reach of the pistons inside the engine, which lowers the compression ratio during times when…