Gizmodo Australia » automotive

Aeroplanes Getting Stronger Seats And Better Pillows Airbags

Mark Wilson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Starting this fall, all new planes will be required to have heartier seats that can withstand 16x gravity without popping out of place. Plus, they’ll be getting airbags in select areas.

As of now, plane designs that were certified before 1988 are permitted to have seats that can withstand just 9x gravity. And airbags are pretty much only found in cars. But beginning October 27, newly manufactured planes with these old designs will need the incorporate the new seats and airbags in places like first/business class where seats are far apart and exit rows where passengers can simply hit a wall.

So do these standards actually matter, or do they just placate nervous fliers? We’ll let this particularly humorous passage from the NYT answer that question:

In some airline crashes, the strength of the seats is irrelevant because the crash is not what the engineers call “survivable.” In other crashes, still violent but not as much so as exploding in midair or breaking up in flight, the passengers’ survival depends on suffering little or no injury in the first phase of the accident, as when a plane runs off the runway, and then getting out of the plane quickly to avoid a postcrash fire.

Ahh, those witty engineers. [NYT]

80s Superhero Alert: Motorcycle Features Full-Sized Sidecar

Mark Wilson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:02:52 +0000

The sidecar always seemed like a precarious way to ride a motorcycle. So maybe it’s a good thing that this ridiculous yet awe-indicting “Snaefell” fit a whole 2-seater car on the side of a bike.

It’s the product of 10 years and $US20,000 worth of custom work, a combination of a Kawasaki 1000 RX the and a Citroën Xantia…along with who knows what else (though Laverda is name-dropped, too). And it reminds us how wonderful the world would be if only more of our transportation were designed by the M.A.S.K. team. [Snaefell via Auto Motto via DVICE]

BioBot Makes Bio Diesel at Home!

Mark Wilson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:45:00 +0000

You would think that making your own Bio Diesel at home would be a tough, multi-stepped procedure that has a few dangerous spots to misstep. Well before the BioBot, a system that makes Bio Diesel from old cooking oil, you would have been right. Unfortunately, after the BioBot, you would have been right, too. Here is their simple, 8+ step process to make gas at home. And don’t worry, that chemistry beaker is just for show!

Needless to say, we’re being more than a little hard on the BioBot. In reality, it’s a geek-worthy device that can produce almost 20 gallons of gas per cycle. But unless you work at a french fry factory and have a BS in biochemistry, it’s probably worth leaving this method to the pros.

If you’re still interested, the BioBot runs $US5000 and is said to pay for itself in two years. [BioBot via New Launches]