SOLAR-POWERED FLIGHT

Electric Airplane Maker Unveils Solar-Charging Trailer

By Jason Paur  Email Author  September 12, 2012 

 The German electric airplane maker PC-Aero is at the Berlin Air Show this week unveiling its latest effort towards making sport flying not only solar powered, but mobile as well. The company’s Elektra One is a single-seat electric airplane that uses both batteries and solar cells to increase the endurance during flight and is capable of flying more than 100 miles per hour.

The airplane made its first flight in 2011 in the hands of veteran test pilot Jon Karkow. Designed by Calin Gologan, the Elektra One is part of a bigger package Gologan imagines will one day lead to pilots being able to fly without needing an external power source.

PC-Aero has been touting the idea of a solar hangar that could be used to keep the Elektra One for a few years now. The design would include enough solar panels to provide 2.4 kilowatts of charging. Now the company is expanding, or at least mobilizing, the idea of a solar hangar as a power source.

The company’s new solar trailer builds on the long-standing tradition of sailplane pilots who usually store and transport their gliders in trailers. Like many electric airplane designs, the Elektra One borrows heavily from the sailplane world with high aspect ratio wings and lightweight composite structures. The wings are easily detachable, so it’s logical to keep the airplane in a trailer, eliminating the need for an expensive hangar at an airport.

The trailer is designed to have the same 2.4 kW peak power capability as the hangar. Gologan believes this kind of electricity generation could provide up to 300 hours of flying in the Elektra One per year based on the sunshine available in southern Germany (which is far from a sun-drenched desert).

Gologan is aiming for some impressive performance numbers as well. The airplane can fly at more than 100 miles per hour, but he’s hoping for a cruise speed of around 90 miles per hour and a range of up to 600 miles. Though the speed is likely to be even less in order to achieve that level of range. The company says almost half of the airplane’s power requirements will come from solar cells that are laminated into the top of the aircraft.

At last year’s NASA Green Flight Challenge, a few of the competitors did manage to fly for more than two hours while maintaining 100 miles per hour, so the goals for the Elektra One are possible. Though most electric airplanes that have flown so far aren’t quite getting the same kind of range, including the small electric powered ultra light we flew back in 2010. But recent improvements to the Elektra One including reducing the airframe weight, could help the company achieve the ambitious goals of flying for several hours at a time on electricity generated from the airplane’s own travel trailer.

PC-Aero hopes to certify the Elektra One in Germany by the end of this year.

More on: http://www.wired.com

Peter’s Comment

Solar powered aircraft have been around for a few years now and have made some incredible flights.

In 1981 Solar Challenger, designed by Paul MacCready, made the first solar-powered flight across the English Channel.

The first through the night solar flight (26 hours and 9 minutes) was made in Switzerland by Andre Borschberg in 2011 in Solar Impulse. The aircraft climbed to 28,000 feet while charging the batteries and descended slowly on reduced power until sunrise and landed after making a second climb to altitude, proving that continuous solar flight was possible.

SHARES VERSUS PROPERTY

Investment:
Research pumps shares

By Tamsyn Parker Wednesday Sep 12, 2012 NZ Herald

Grosvenor director Peter Christensen says a $10,000 investment in New Zealand shares
in 1971 would have been worth $787, 128 at the end of last years. Photo / Richard Robinson

Study finds 40-year return on stocks more than twice that of property

Investors would have been more than two times better off putting their money into the local share market than residential property over the past 40 years, according to research by KiwiSaver provider Grosvenor Financial Services Group.

Grosvenor director Peter Christensen says a $10,000 investment in New Zealand shares in 1971 would have been worth $787,128 at the end of last year - an average of 11.2 per cent growth a year. The same amount of money invested in houses would have grown to $367,352 - an average annual return of 9.2 per cent.

Christensen said historically investors had favored property investment and many were convinced it offered higher returns for a lower risk.

"However, long-term data proves shares and equities consistently outperform property as [an] investment," he said.

But property investor Olly Newland said it was very difficult to base returns from property on average prices.

He suggested investors would do better to compare the performance of the top 50 suburbs rather than the median price across all property as that meant including small towns.

If the median price of all houses were used, then Newland said a comparison should be made with all listed companies including the small penny-dreadful stocks.

Grosvenor researcher David Beatty said it could not use the figures from all listed stocks as the All Ordinaries index did not go back far enough.

"The NZX50 is the most quoted figure when it came to the share- market and the most used by investment experts," he said.

Beatty said he did not believe including all listed companies would change the figure much.

But Andrew King, president of the Property Investors Federation, said the comparison was flawed and the research was marketing for shares.

"They don't take into account rental income but will take into account dividends on shares," he said.

King added that banks would not lend on shares while they would lend money on property.

"For $10,000 you could buy a $50,000 property back in 1971 and the returns would be a lot higher."

Beatty said the survey had not included rental income in its investment return from property because it was difficult to find reliable data going back to 1971. It was also decided that a lot of rental income was eaten up by the costs associated with property.

Christensen said he was not anti-property, he just wanted people to diversify their investments.

"The message is any wise investor will go into a spread of different asset classes," he said. "By investing in other asset classes you can get a better return than just property . . . . “

More in the Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz

Peter’s Comment

Shares have several distinct advantages over residential property and not all the advantages have been shown above.

For example, investing in shares allows a greater spread of investment dollars. For the price of one house an investor can have shares in dozens of listed companies, in a number of industries, or in many countries. It’s an old rule: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And a house is an expensive basket.

The New Zealand Tour Commentary

Also, if you need the cash, or you see a better opportunity elsewhere, a house usually takes months to sell and reach settlement and the fees take a huge bite out of the proceeds.

Shares can be traded online in minutes and the proceeds banked within three days. That makes it possible to use the highs and lows in the market and individual companies to pick up quick profits over and above those shown in the 11.2% above. It is this trading for quick profit strategy that makes shares the most attractive place for money with sharp investors making an extra 10-20% a year.

Others prefer to just invest and wait for it to grow while banking, or reinvesting, the dividends.

Naturally, an investor would steer clear of a company that could be vulnerable to an unexpected three month period without income (unless it was a seasonal business). But a residential property investor faces that prospect all the time. The tenant may suddenly leave and it could take three months to find another tenant, or worse six months to repair the damage.

True, a company could have an unexpected loss of income due to a strike, fire or other forced closure. But the wise investor has many other small investments and one company faltering or even failing completely will have little effect on the overall portfolio. Spreading the risk is like free insurance.

I suggest that a reason for not including rental income in the figures above is that it is so widely variable. Often with residential property after one allows for repairs, rates and periods without a tenant, there is little or no net income.

AIRLINERS OF THE FUTURE

Airbus Presents Measures to Reduce
Industry's Environmental Footprint

By Jens Flottau jens_flottau@aviationweek.com 
Source: AWIN First  September 06, 2012

Airbus on Sept. 6 will unveil five measures it says will make the aviation industry environmentally sustainable by 2050 despite projected growth for global air transport.

In its “Future by Airbus” vision, the manufacturer describes how an optimized air traffic management system alone would help reduce average flight times by 13 minutes within the European Union or the U.S. This projection does not include any air traffic management initiatives that could be developed in the coming decades.

Airbus also foresees a new method for takeoff, with renewably powered propelled acceleration allowing aircraft to climb steeper and reach cruise altitude faster. This in turn would allow airports to build shorter runways and minimize land use.

Once in cruise, aircraft should be able to self-organize and select the most efficient routes, says Airbus. On dense routes, aircraft could fly in formation, like birds, to take advantage of drag reduction opportunities.

In Airbus’ vision, aircraft will descend without using engine power or air brakes and would be able to decelerate quicker and to a lower final approach speed enabling them to use shorter runways.

On the ground, Airbus proposes autonomously and renewably powered carriages that would move the aircraft from runways to gates or parking positions. This would enable them to shut down the engines quickly after landing and save on fuel consumption.

Fuel is a key component of Airbus’ proposal, and the manufacturer says the use of biofuels hydrogen, electricity and solar energy will be required to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint.

Details of the proposals will be presented on Thursday evening in London.

More in Aviation Week:http://www.aviationweek.com/

Peter’s Comment

Airbus has come up with some interesting concepts here, but conspicuous by its absence is any suggestion of future supersonic airliners. At one time it was proposed that airliners would be so fast in the future that they would cruise in inverted orbit.

The concept of flying in formation on busy routes is not beyond the realms of future possibility and will be a natural extension, aided by precision technology, of what is happening now with approaching and departing parallel runways.

The ‘autonomously and renewably powered carriages’ could be improved versions of today’s terminal tractors, but all of that may be unnecessary after a complete rethinking of optimum airport designs.

The ideal airport of the future may well abandon the principle of designated runways as we know them now and be replaced by a circular layout with terminal facilities on a lower level at the airport’s center. This layout would allow aircraft to always land and take-off into the wind with minimum taxiing time.

There should be no doubt that future airliners will have lower take-off and landing speeds as well as higher cruising speeds. The flight envelop has been expanding progressively ever since the Wright Brothers first flew with a gap of about two knots between stalling speed and maximum speed.

With books like these holding your attention

you will never notice that you are flying inverted

For paperbacks:  http://www.gypsybooks.co.nz
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WEIRD PLACE NAMES

How Did They Name That Town?

Mars, Pennsylvania is home to the moving flying saucer

By LENA KATZ, JustLuxe.com

Aug. 31, 2012

Fact: There are 28 Springfields in the United States, according to the United States Census Bureau--and that's not even the most-recurring place name in the country. But for every uninspired destination name, there's one that's so wacky, you might wonder whether some town official from way-back-when named it on a dare.

In some cases, that's not far from the truth. But family names, language gaps and indigenous species have more to do with the far-fetched place names of middle America. Get your trivia fix right here.

The Town of Duck in North Carolina started off as an Outer Banks waterfowl hunting haven, and now is a charming beach destination that caters to families. Ironically, Duck has only been an official town for 10 years, so the namesake activity had long since disappeared before its inception…replaced by summer concerts in the amphitheater and family outings to Duck's Beach.

The town of Chinchilla, Pa., on the other hand, was named after an animal that never lived there in any quantity. According to a published report in the Northeast Pennsylvania Newsletter, Chinchilla was named by a woman sometime between 1880 and 1890. It might have been a postwoman or a postman's wife, but either way, it was someone who felt the original name—Leach's Flats—had to go. 

 There are varying accounts of how Hell, Mich., comes to have its name. The most popular is that George Reeves, the most notable of the first settlers and owner of the general store, told Michigan state officials who inquired what to name it, "You can name it Hell for all I care."

That was in 1841, and well into its second century, the tiny community of Hell has come to not only accept, but love its name. Businesses include Hell in a Handbasket and Hell's Kitchen—and on the semi-official website, you can buy the honorary title "Mayor of Hell" for a day, for $100.

Nobody is sure how the borough of Mars, Pa., got its name. The best guess from local historians is, it's a shortened version of Samuel Marshall, the forefather who helped bring in a post office. Regardless, town kitsch plays up the interplanetary. There's a flying saucer that moves to different locations around the town—and in case visitors can't find it, a flying saucer stencil on the welcome sign coming into town.

Valentine is barely a blip on the vast landscape of West Texas—except for a few weeks out of the year, when the post office gets inundated with requests to stamp love letters from Valentine. According to multiple sources, it was named by railroad workers after the day they founded it: February 14.

Not only festively named, the town of Santa Claus, Ind., is also cheerily Christmas-themed, with one tag line being "Celebrate Christmas every day of the year." According to the official community website, a child suggested the name during a Christmas Eve town hall meeting in 1852. It would take 80 years before anyone started establishing Christmas-themed shops and attractions to go along with the name, but today, there's Santa Claus Land of Lights, Santa's Candy Castle and the Santa Claus Museum as well as the official Santa Claus Post Office.

Apparently Christmas Eve is a popular time to name towns: Moravian missionaries named Bethlehem, Pa., based on their German patron's Christmas Eve sermon in the year it was settled (1741, according to East Pennsylvania historians).

Were it in any of 49 states, the town of Unalaska would make perfect sense. But there's nothing unalaskan about this town since it's in Alaska. If this seems like an oxymoron, stop thinking in Latin-based languages and look to the language of the indigenous Aleut. They named it Ounalashka ("near the peninsula") and in the 1700s, incoming Russian settlers Westernized it to the current spelling.

Don't go to Happy, Texas, looking for mood enhancement. It got its name because of nearby Happy Draw, a waterway serving cowboys in the mid-1800s. At the turn of the century, there were signs that Happy might boom. It got a post office…but not a railway stop. And thus it remained a small farm town, with a population hovering well below 700. There's not much to see there besides a grain silo and a welcome sign…but the slogan remains, optimistically, "The Town Without a Frown." 

And finally, there's Truth or Consequences, a town name that sounds like a game show…or possibly a Western romance title. Actually it's the latter. The New Mexico town voted to name itself that in 1950, after radio host Ralph Edwards publicly wished that someone would name their town after his program. Edwards came and broadcast his show live there the same year…and according to the Chamber of Commerce, he returned every year for 50 years.

ABC NEWS: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/

Peter’s Comment

And it doesn't end there. The following is from the pages of my travel adventure, Highway America, available in several eBook formats from Smashwords.

Plain City can be found in Utah a few miles north of Salt Lake City while Boring is a place in Oregon. On a more positive note Georgia has a Hopeful. The state of Indiana has a Boggstown, Dillsboro, Oldenburg and a Birdseye. In Ohio they have Singing Hills and Dry Run.

To download a free sample of this
e-book click here

A traveler can have Tea in South Dakota but will have to drive almost 2,000 miles to find Toast in North Carolina. A person from Hornytown in North Carolina can find Friendship in populous New York State, Intercourse in Pennsylvania and Climax in Michigan before going back to New York to recover at Sleepy Hollow.

Missouri has its fair share of odd and unusual place names too with Black Jack, Peculiar, and Useful to mention a few.  Utopia is found in Texas but so also is Cheapside and a place called Cut and Shoot. Kentucky has Cranks, Ages, Dwarf and Fancy Farm while Virginia has Rustburg and Goose Pimple Junction. Luck is found in Wisconsin, Shady Cove in Oregon, Flasher bares all in North Dakota, What Cheer takes heart in Iowa, but Dismal is a place in Tennessee. Kill Devil Hills (the actual place where the Wright Brothers first flew) is near Kittyhawk in North Carolina along with Intelligence and Blowing Rock.

Georgia has a Handy, an Enigma and an Experiment as place names. There’s Bad Axe, Michigan; Bayonet Point, Florida; Skull Valley and Surprise, Arizona; Accident, Maryland; Bitter End, Tennessee; Hazardville, Connecticut, Big Ugly, West Virginia and Frog Suck in Wyoming to puzzle over.

Wyoming is a treasure trove of place names and historical sites: Fort Supply, Buckboard Crossing, Names Hill and Register Cliff (where pioneers scratched their names) Muddy Gap, Devil’s Gate, Hell’s Half Acre, Lost Cabin, Lost Springs, Hole-in-the-Wall, Massacre Hill, Recluse, Spotted Horse, Freedom, Medicine Bow, Bitter Creek, Whiskey Peak, Steamboat Mountain, Battle Pass, Teapot Dome, Little America, Wamsutter, Cugwater and Tensleep.

Scattered across the country there is at least one Hookersville, Hawesville, Dogville, Humanville, Idiotville, Nuttsville and a Looneyville. One must assume that these final place names were named not by the actual unfortunate inhabitants but by settlers in neighboring villes, bergs, towns and tons . . . . 

Australia has its share of weird and wonderful place names too and perhaps the most spectacularly unpronounceable one would have to be Boonahnoomoonah which is not actually at a town at all any more since it lost its post office in 1939 but it’s still on most maps. Like the boomerang, I guess the mail kept coming back.

Australia also has a Blow Clear, Bland, Broke, Break O Day, Cheepie, Doo Town, Burrumbuttock, Break-Me-Neck Hill, Come-by-Chance, Damboring, Diehard, Humpty Doo,  Nar Nar Goon as well as a Nowhere Else.

But pride of place for  place names must go to the United Kingdom with Beggars Bush, Boggy Bottom, Scratchy Bottom,  Crackpot, Giggleswick, Titty Ho, Wet Rain and Brokenwind. Yes, I’m still writing about towns – towns to make you laugh, and maybe laugh so hard that you have some broken wind.

And finally, New Zealand can boast the longest single word place name in the world with -
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu. It's a real place and it can be found in the south east corner of the North Island.

THE ASKER TRILOGY

NEW INSECT FOUND

Mystery stick insect discovered

By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature 4 September 2012

Conlephasma enigma: a stick insect like no other 

A mysterious new species of stick insect has been discovered living in the Philippines by scientists.

The stick insect is wingless, lives on the ground rather than in trees, and is spectacularly colored, having a green-blue head and orange body.

The insect also vents a foul-smelling spray to deter predators.

The stick insect is so unique that scientists have given it its own genus and do not yet know its relationship to other stick and leaf insects.

It looked so different from any other known stick insect in the world that we immediately realized it was something very special”

"Recently a colleague, entomologist Oskar Conle, showed us some museum specimens of a strange-looking stick insect found several years ago on Mount Halcon, a remote locality in the Philippine island of Mindoro," explains Marco Gottardo, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Siena, Italy.

The insect was found on the third highest mountain in the archipelago, which is considered one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world.

"We were baffled. It looked so different from any other known stick insect in the world that we immediately realized it was something very special."

Mr Gottardo and colleague Philipp Heller carefully examined the specimen.

"We concluded that it represented an unknown genus and species of stick insect," Mr Gottardo told BBC Nature.

The scientists have published details of the discovery in the journal Comptes Rendus Biologies.

"The new stick insect is wingless, with a stout body and rather short legs," says Mr Gottardo.

The scientists think these features are likely to be special adaptations for living in the low-growing vegetation of a montane rainforest.

Most tree-dwelling stick insects that live in the forest canopy have slender and elongated bodies and legs, thought to provide good camouflage among stick and leaves.

"Another unique characteristic is the spectacular color pattern. [A male] has dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with distinctive bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on its back," he adds.

It is more likely that the insect uses these striking colors to warn off predators, rather than as a form of camouflage.

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"In fact we have discovered that the new stick insect has the ability to release a potent defensive spray from glands located behind its head.

"The defensive substance is sprayed when the insect feels threatened, and has a strong distasteful smell, which likely functions to repel potential predators in a similar way to skunks," says Mr Gottardo.

The scientists have named the insect Conlephasma enigma.

"We have named the new stick insect with the specific epithet "enigma" because its systematic position in the tree of life of stick and leaf insects remains a mystery," says Mr Gottardo.

Many of the stick insect's distinctive features are unlike those recorded on other stick insects.

One feature, however, has been seen before. The microstructures of Conlephasma enigma's mouthparts are strikingly similar to those held by another group of stick insects. The problem is that these stick insects live in tropical America, on the other side of the world, raising the question of how two insects so far apart might share a similar trait.

The researchers hope that a more detailed molecular analysis of the stick insect's genetics may shed light on its true identity.

"We also hope that the discovery of this particular new insect species may draw attention into the problem of rainforest conservation in the Philippines, which are home to unique and still poorly known wildlife," Mr Gottardo says.

More on BBC Nature: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature

Peter’s Comment

This is a pleasant surprise reading about the discovery of a new species.

All too often we read about birds, animals and insects becoming extinct or endangered and this can lead to a misunderstanding of the continuing process of evolution.

It is almost certain that the number of species in the world is increasing all the time, rather than decreasing, and that for each species that does disappear there could be ten or more new species to take its place.