Hypersonic Plane Could Revolutionize Commercial Flight

Outer space just seems a bit closer these days.

Just weeks after Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner awed the world with a stratospheric skydive, a California aerospace firm is hoping send even more people to the edge of space with a hypersonic aircraft capable of cruising at 3.5 times the speed of sound.

Mojave-based XCOR is currently busy constructing the “Lynx,” a two-seater commercial craft supposedly capable of cruising 62 miles above the Earth’s surface at speeds of more than 2,500 miles per hour.

“I’m excited as hell,” XCOR Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nelson told ABC News.  “It’s going to be the most exciting suborbital space flight you will ever take.”

The ride, the entirety of which takes about 30 to 45 minutes, consists of a rocket-powered ascent, several minutes of microgravity coasting near the edge of space, re-entry and a gliding landing similar to that of a space shuttle.

Though the Lynx is drawing comparisons with the Concorde, the supersonic passenger jet retired from service in 2003, Nelson stressed that the Lynx isn’t meant to fly from city to city.

“The Lynx will not fly from New York to Tokyo in 90 minutes,” he said.  “It’s designed to go up and come down. When you start going sideways real fast through the atmosphere, you build up a ton of heat.”

If you have a cool $95,000 to splash around, Lynx suborbital flight tickets are being sold right now on the company’s website.  A ticket includes a medical screening and g-force training for the passenger and “fellow space travelers.”

Despite the hefty price tag, XCOR apparently isn’t suffering from lack of demand.

“We’ve already sold over 225 seats, and those sales are accelerating,” Nelson said. “And those include both personal space flights as well as science flights.”

XCOR expects to begin offering flights on the new plane beginning in 2013 and hopes to conduct about four flights a day.

So what exactly is it like to take part in this suborbital joyride?

“You basically become a rocket,” said Nelson, describing take-off.  ”After about 50 seconds, you are past mach 1 and you continue to accelerate and climb.

“You’ll get fitted for a pressure suit, like Felix Baumgartner,” Nelson said. “The pressure suit is not too dissimilar to that.  You’ll also have a parachute you’ll put on, just in case.

“It takes only 4.5 minutes to get to the very top and hit at your peak rate of velocity of 3,300 feet per second,” he said. “That’s faster than the muzzle velocity of a standard rifle.”

Nelson added that his company doesn’t plan to enlarge the aircraft to accommodate more passengers in the near future.

“At the moment, we don’t have a plan to make it larger, but that doesn’t mean we won’t make a derivative in the future,” he said. “We think it’s the right vehicle for the right time. …  We are planning a future orbital vehicle and that will have more seats, we see Lynx as a stepping stone to a reusable orbital system.”

To that end, Nelson believes that within eight to 10 years, aircraft like the Lynx could be bringing astronauts to the international space station and back.

“It won’t be the Lynx, but it will be the son of the Lynx,” he said.

Nelson also hopes to take advantage of the Lynx’s capabilities to conduct a variety of scientific experiments, including those submitted to him by children and students.

“The long-term impact the Lynx is going to have is on kids and getting them energized again about science and mathematics and engineering,” said Nelson.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

One small step for Baumgartner, one giant pitfall for TV networks

Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking skydive from the edge of space proves that the future of television – even live television – indisputably lies online.

When Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon at the edge of space this weekend, we may have had a glimpse of the future. Not of the future of extreme sports, although I’m sure we will have more and more “Armchair Felixes” emerge. I’m talking about the future of broadcast television.

More than 8 million people watched the event live on YouTube, making it the most-watched live event in the history of the site. Some viewers even commented that the coverage on YouTube was better than the coverage provided by established news sources like CNN, probably because the production online was direct from the source (Red Bull Stratos) while the networks still felt the need to give more time to their talking heads and less time to Felix. Today’s consumer simply isn’t going to put up with that for much longer.

A weakening grip on the antenna

As consumers, we’re getting comfortable with having more control over our entertainment choices. You can only buy the songs you like from an album (if we buy music at all). Increasingly, you are no longer behind the trend if you wait to see a movie in your home (again, probably not purchasing it) rather than rush out to the theater.

TV is the last bastion of conglomerates dictating your entertainment experience to you, but as Baumgartner’s jump proves, even that is changing. So, what’s keeping you from dropping cable?

Maybe it’s the uncertainty of receiving your local network stations over the air like your grandparents did, reliving the memories of having to bang on the TV to get it to work. Or the prospect of walking a legal tightrope when trying to find something that may not be available in your market, like a certain sports event.

Chances are you know someone who has already made the leap. After all, there are now 5.1 million people who have eschewed the cable companies in favor of broadband solutions like YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix while receiving their network stations over the air. Traditional cable companies have lost on average about 750,000 subscribers each year for the past three years. Some of those people (like me) go to competing solutions marketed by Verizon or AT&T. Most, it is assumed, simply cut the cord.

Fast forward

So what does the future of TV look like when cable companies only provide the broadband Internet that allows the majority of homes in America to stream their TV, rather than operating as the middleman between the producers and the consumer? Perhaps the networks, as currently organized, no longer exist as well.

First, what happens to commercials? Does everything we watch live become pay-per-view? Perhaps that could bring even more democratization to the entertainment industry, allowing for what amounts to small-budget, independent TV shows. It also has the potential to turn the NFL into Don King, for better or worse.

The alternative is the sponsors producing content themselves, so that “American Idol, brought to you by Gillette” doesn’t just mean that Gillette wrote a check to Fox. It means Gillette actually pays Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj to bicker at each other. Conveniently, you have to go to Gillette’s YouTube channel or website to watch this week’s episode. That’s very close to what happened on Sunday with Red Bull.

For anything recorded, however, it’s business as usual. Your TV shows are available on whichever streaming service you prefer, except that the only middleman between you and the producers of the show is Hulu or Netflix, rather than NBC or Fox.

Eventually, YouTube’s business model might shift from providing content free with advertising to becoming the Kickstarter of television. If enough people are interested in someone doing something stupid on camera on a regular basis, they pay to finance that person’s channel. Established stars like Jerry Seinfeld and Louis C.K. have already experimented with this model on their own. Pretty soon the experiments will become the norm.

Is this a better world? Ask Red Bull. They just got 8 million people to watch what amounts to a very interesting commercial, not to mention getting live television outlets around the world to cover that commercial. Whether that translates into 8 oz. cans moving off the shelves remains to be seen.

Is this a better world for the consumer? So far I haven’t heard anyone complaining about the commercial-laden football they missed on Sunday afternoon while they were watching that Red Bull commercial.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

First Felix Baumgartner head-cam footage hits the Earth

Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian who happens to be the first person to break the speed of sound without mechanical gizmos, holds the record for highest manned flight in a baloon and highest free fall jump and fastest descent, filmed the whole extravaganza on his head-cam.

The video is now available to watch but it is pretty sickening if you’re the faint of heart – the whole earth is literally spinning ike crazy.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or you know, somewhere out of touch with under the social networks, and you’ve missed Felix Baumgartner’s feat – he ascended about 38 km in a baloon and then jumped feet-first back to Earth. It’s quite astonishing, really.

And in case you missed the live feed from the jump itself, you can have a look at the mission highlights video.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com