Computing

Virgin’s In-Flight Tablet Testing Goes High-Gear In May

Gizmodo AU

We learned back in February that Virgin Australia would be trialling the Samsung Galaxy Tab as an in-flight entertainment option, and that only business class passengers would be in the first round of testing. But it turns out the trial is even more restricted than that: it’s only running for a single week. Fortunately, there’s better news ahead.


April 25, 2012
News

Here Are The 61 Organisations With Permission To Fly Drones In The US

The US Federal Aviation Administration has released a list of all the organisations in the US that are allowed to fly drones. There are 61 of them, and while it includes the players you’d expect, there are also a lot of random ones that somehow made it.


April 24, 2012
Geek Out

New F-18 Cockpit Display Looks Like An Awesome Video Game

This is the new LCD display in the cockpit for the new revision F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. It looks like an awesome ’90s arcade video game. One that doesn’t allow you to insert a coin to continue when you die.


April 20, 2012
News

Jetstar Flight Aborted 120m Before Landing Because Pilot Was Texting

It’s pretty widely accepted that you shouldn’t text and operate a vehicle. Especially when that vehicle is a commercial aircraft. Apparently, one pilot hasn’t taken that advice to heart.


April 18, 2012
News

Pilot Almost Crashes After Mistaking The Planet Venus For An Aeroplane

We’ve all felt tired to the point of being loopy, but most of the time we’re not in the cockpit of a 767, confusing a planet for another plane and sending ours into a nosedive.


April 17, 2012
News

Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Someone Mistakes Phone For Bomb

OH MY GOD THERE’S A BOMB ON THE PLANE. That’s what one passenger on board thought when he saw a mobile phone being charged inside the aeroplane bathroom. The plane, headed for America, had to make an emergency landing in Dublin, Ireland, to deal with the “bomb”.


April 13, 2012
Gadgets

How To Use Your Electronics During Takeoff Without Getting Busted

I’m no engineer, but I know this: If personal electronics could bring down a plane, Al Qaeda would just assign a group of followers to send simultaneous text messages from the next flight out of Jerusalem. Update: Or… don’t. Just don’t.


April 12, 2012
News

American F-15 Fighters Intercept Korean Air Boeing 777 Because of Terrorist Threat

Two US Air Force F-15 Eagle fighters launched into Canadian airspace to intercept a Korean Air Boeing 777 on April 10, 5.30am Pacific Time. The plane was going to Seoul when it received a bomb threat shortly after takeoff from Vancouver, British Columbia.


April 11, 2012
Science

The Secret To Bats’ Super-Efficient Flight Could Help Make Better Military Drones

When a team of biologists, physicists and engineers at Brown University put their heads together to look at batwings, they discovered how wings on everything from military vehicles to batman could become 35 per cent more efficient.


March 23, 2012
Geek Out

Flying Bird Man Admits Flying Bird Man Is Fake

You’re looking at the Internet Bird Man, who captivated the web’s attention for dozens of hours and divided us between sceptics and the faithful. It was a hoax! It turns out he even made up his name.