It is time to push past the 50/50 biofuel blend. (Dynamic Fuels biokerosene)
Or perhaps just a price reduction. As it turns out, the bio-fuels used in the airline tests are far more expensive than standard jet fuel. As KLM Royal Dutch Airline, the sector leader of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, stated, "[to meet true sustainability, the price has to] come down substantially and permanently."
Also, more efficient planes should be on the list "to do."
I used to work for a guy (MUCH smarter than me) who would look at something I was working on and say "if this was an airplane would you fly on it?". We were not making aircraft but I always got the message. It made me think things through much more thoroughly.
This seems to be more of a publicity stunt more than anything. Seems to me that they should be testing this fuel on an engine test stand somewhere rather than flying a billion? dollar aircraft around so they can take pictures.
Rob, Liz is the one who's been writing on biofuels in aircraft. I've written about them in shipping (and in Europe, not here): in that case, they're to be blended for use in existing engines. Liz, do you know the answer?
Great to see renewable resources being developed for airline fuel. As this develops further, one interesting trend to watch will be the price of corn and other grains as the demand between food and fuel grows.
I do like the line about local shrubs being used, so hopefully more useable land can be created using this strategy.
UK-based Plastic Logic and French company ISORG have created what the pair tout as a first in flexible printed electronics: a large area, conformable, organic image sensor printed on plastic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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