Last year, Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) garnered a lot of media and investor attention when it changed its name from Facebook, but so far as the public can tell, they haven't done too much more than change the stationery. But there are signs that's...
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Don't worry if you've never heard of ELYSIS - most investors haven't. And yet it is set to have a massive impact on the global drive toward a net zero carbon economy. Not just that, either. ELYSIS can also help lower the cost of producing...
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Nike Inc. (NKE) is world-famous for its Air Jordan and other brands of sneakers and athletic apparel. Those products, of course, are why the company reported $10.9 billion in revenue last quarter and more than $44.5 billion in 2021. Most folks,...
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On June 7, 2014 - 60 years to the day after Alan Turing's death - a "chatbot" called Eugene Goostman fooled 33% of judges at a Royal Society competition into thinking it was a real human. It fulfilled Turing's 1950 prediction that by the year 2000,...
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There's some very profitable news hiding behind the record 39.1 million Americans who quit their jobs last year during the COVID lockdowns and layoffs. This trend, known as the Great Migration, has led to a significant boom in new businesses. A...
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In mid-1944, the Allies of World War II were putting the finishing planning touches on Operation Overlord, or, as it’s more popularly known, “D-Day.”
To pull off the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, and to successfully land more than 13,100 Allied paratroopers, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his fellow planners needed maps – and plenty of them.
Maps of miles of French beaches and rugged cliffs, maps of rivers and estuaries, maps of country roads and highways, farms and hedgerows.
They needed geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, sourced from spies, POWs, air and naval patrols, – any source they could lay hands on, even old tourist guidebooks. This intel helped ensure a successful invasion and the eventual liberation of western Europe.
The need for solid, accurate geospatial intelligence hasn’t diminished in the nearly eight decades since then. If anything, it’s become even more important. Former National Geospatial Intelligence Agency chief Robert Cardillo acknowledged as much during the D-Day anniversary ceremonies not long ago.
And its not just for the military, either. Companies up and down the private sector have come to increasingly rely on good GEOINT; it’s indispensable to civil engineers and construction, insurance companies, logistics, and many others.
Fortunately, they don’t have to shake down spies or dig up old Fodor’sguides to get the goods.
From 5 million people in 2016 to 221 million in 2021, the number of people who have used cryptocurrencies grows each year. In the United States, around 15% of people use cryptocurrencies and some projections hint that number could hit 100% by...
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If the market's choppy action has you feeling confused, that's a very natural reaction - to short term news. With inflation, skyrocketing gas prices, and war in Europe dominating headlines, we've seen major indexes show one-day swings of as much...
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If all goes according to plan, U.S. soldiers are about to get what promises to be game-changing technology for their helmets: an advanced augmented reality (AR) headset that will vastly improve communication and battlefield awareness.
As such, it’s the kind of force multiplier that would come in handy in a war against, for example, the Russians, who are continuing their siege of Ukraine.
With the military version of what was originally a civilian headset costing about $3,500 each, the total five-year contract for the tech’s creator comes to a stunning $21.9 billion.
Here’s the thing. The firm supplying the new devices is much better known for personal and cloud computing, as well as gaming, and ranks as one of the top names in tech today.
In the 1960s, as the United States and Soviet Union set their sights on outer space and the Moon, the United Kingdom and France embarked on an expensive joint “moonshot” of their own: Concorde, the world’s first supersonic passenger airliner.
Concorde – at the bleeding edge of 1960s and 1970s aviation technology – transported passengers in fine style across the Atlantic Ocean in a matter of three or four hours, shrinking exponentially the distance between the global cultural and financial command centers of London, Paris, and New York.
Concorde flew for British Airways and Air France for nearly 35 years. It was a glamorous technological triumph, but a commercial failure, never able to sustain the passenger numbers needed for profitability. Concorde’s first and only fatal accident, in 2000, threw its problems into sharp focus, and the supersonic liner made its final flight into London Heathrow in 2003.
There have been no civilian supersonic flights to speak of in the 19 years since.
But there are tantalizing signs this is getting ready to change – and we can all look forward to faster travel across a smaller world in the near future.
After the Concorde stopped flying, there were still people with deep pockets exploring the possibilities of supersonic flying. Aviation consultant Brian Foley has said over the past two decades that he’s heard two thoughts frequently:
“The first is that no one denies there’s a market for supersonic jets,” and “The other thing is that manufacturers keep saying it will be within 10 years.”
Billionaire Robert Bass partnered with Boeing (BA) but recently gave up on his quest to build eight to 10 supersonic business jets.
Yet two other companies are still working on their version of the supersonic jet. Boston-based Spike Aerospace and San Jose-based Exosonic Inc. are working on projects, and Atlanta-based Hermeus Corp. is working with the United States Air Force on its supersonic vision.
Trouble is, most of these firms are still on the drawing board.
But a hungry, Denver-based aviation startup is hard at work on a radical new airframe – capable of hauling up to 88 passengers at speeds in excess of Mach 2.2, or about 1,600 miles per hour. That’s more than twice as fast as a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in normal cruise.
And whereas the competition is still in the drafting phase, this company is getting ready to fly its very own demonstrator this year.