newVideoPlayer("GE_turbine_gawker_gawker.flv", 475, 286);Witness the mother of all big mechanical toys: the GE90-115B turbofan engine, the most powerful gas turbine engine in the world with a 127,500-pound maximum takeoff thrust, even if it’s rated at a maximum 115,000 lb. It may not look big on video, but with a 128-inch fan tip diameter, up close and personal this thing is amazingly huge. Surprisingly, you won’t find this engine on the Airbus A380: it was specifically designed to power the Boeing 777.
Like every other red-blooded American boy, I enjoy the notion of propelling a piece of lead at up to Mach 8 and at “extreme” ranges. That’s why I was glad to hear that BAE Systems has delivered a rail gun capable of such feats, and that the US Navy signed for the package.
newVideoPlayer("suvcrush_gizmodo.flv", 475, 376);If you have always wondered how Australian miners amuse themselves when they are bored, wonder no longer. It is way cooler than any of us expected: they take a massive mining truck and use it to destroy land cruisers that are found unoccupied, all for funzies. Is there anything more fun than destroying large metal based structures with larger metal based structures? The video of the event indicates that there isn’t. Don’t believe us? Hit the video for the truth behind real good times. [Liveleak]
The folks at G4 networks Attack of the Show are vying for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records tonight with a 13 foot arcade console that they believe is the world’s biggest. Is that big enough to set a world record? You can find out tonight when AOTS airs at 7pm and 11pm EST. With any luck the segment will reveal some more specs on the machine —and if you are really lucky Oliva Munn will flip out and start kissing every woman in the studio. [G4]
At one of Toronto’s locations of The Bay department store, four giant screens have suffered from the infamous Blue Screen of Death for days. You’d think that someone would, I dunno, turn off the freakin’ screens. Or, at minimum, there’s gotta be some 2.4gHz nanny cam feed they could leech for at least a few days before anyone complained. Because after the first 24 hours or so of BSOD, we begin to think that they like the aesthetic. [freshdaily]
The Computer Game Museum in Berlin has accomplished two things to make fanboys, such as ourselves, very moist. Firstly, they have created a museum dedicated to computer games and secondly, the institution has produced a mahoosive reconstruction of the classic Donkey Kong game using scaffolding. That is large. Lap it up fellow fanboys, lap it up. Oh, imagine how burly that large cardboard Donkey Kong would be—I wish he’d pick me up and hold me in his muscular primate arms… [UrbanRetroLifestyle]
Mitsubishi just unveiled a pretty amazing set of giant screens set up to create a walk-in panorama. Consisting of a whopping 17 pairs of 67-inch panels arranged in a 340-degree near-circle, this $1.3-million setup creates a feeling of total immersion. The screens are all DLP, and in total it’s packed with 27 million pixels. It was custom-built for a rich, secretive customer, but Mitsubishi hopes to start producing the setup for museums and other such institutions in the future. Holy crap do I ever want to play video games on this thing. Let’s make that happen, Mitsubishi. [Iza via Pink Tentacle]
Get ready for some monster-sized TVs for monster-sized prices. Shinoda Plasma Corp of Japan is prepping some 3x2m modules for sale to manufacturers, which would provide the guts for 142-inch plasma displays. They won’t be cheap, however, with prices for manufacturers running in the “several tens of millions of yen.” With 10 million yen equaling about $87,500, you can see how these things will be on the insane side of the pricing scale. But still, a 142-inch plasma screen TV! You’re gonna need to build a bigger living room, Mark Cuban. [Tech-On!]
This is the ultra-high resolution multi-projector VR system that will be used for training at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Built by Lockheed Martin, it uses Mersive Sol Server technology to automatically and seamlessly combine multiple projectors in one gigantabolous immersive display, thanks to camera-based fully-automatic calibration, edge blending and colour correction. The result is stunning, but wait until you see it in motion after the jump.
newVideoPlayer("a380_gawker.flv", 475, 286);The Airbus A380, the biggest commercial jetliner ever put into production, at long last took its first trip—and it didn’t hit any icebergs. Out of a possible 850 travelers, 450 were on board in this seven-hour Singapore Airlines trip from, well, Singapore all the way to Sydney. This means that, today Airbus officially steals the Sizemodo trophy from Boeing, even though, as the delayed 787 demonstrates, the future of commercial airlines may not be determined by the size of the planes. [BBC News]
AU: I was quite looking forward to seeing this sucker make a pass over the city. Damn that weird, crappy weather completely ruining any chance of a good bit of geeky plane spotting. -SB
