February 2007 ISSUE
World Watch
Trade in Your SUV for an Airplane
BY GAIL HELGASON
Freelance Writer
 |
AN AIRPLANE IN every GARAGE? |
Here’s a new way to impress the neighbours — park an airplane
in your garage. It may sound far-fetched, but a story in Mechanical Engineering
(New York) predicts those small planes of science fiction could be a reality
by the end of the decade.
The Transition, developed by Terrafugia Inc., weighs about 600 kilograms and
has wings that fold twice. It is designed to fit into a garage that can hold
a large sport utility vehicle.
Although it will run on premium gasoline rather than expensive aviation fuel, the Transition will be a bit pricier than your Xterra. CEO Carl Dietrich of Terrafugia estimates it will cost about $148,000 US.
The design recently won the $100,000 Entrepreneurship Competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Chinese Design Challenges Vertical Traditions
The new headquarters for China Central Television, to be completed in Beijing
in 2008, will rely on form rather than height to achieve landmark status, reports
Civil Engineering (Reston, Va). The idea is to “challenge the banality
of the vertical,” says civil engineer Craig Gibbons of Arup Hong Kong,
which is providing structural and geotechnical services.
The shape of the proposed 234-metre-high building has been described as two criss-crossed Zs. It will resemble a three-dimensional canopy, with two towers that slope at six-degree angles. The building will provide more than 450,000 square metres of floor space.
Design and construction challenges include seismic concerns and movement of the towers in relation to each other during construction.
Engineering Art
Art and engineering don’t mix. Right?
Don’t tell David Snider, an engineering professor at the University of South Tampa in Florida. He teaches a popular course that merges fine art with engineering, reports Mechanical Engineering (New York).
The aim is to broaden the perspective of both engineers and fine arts students by examining art from an engineering point of view. The introductory course discusses the work of nearly 100 artists. Topics range from early theories of light to an in-depth look at cameras.
Olympic Building Dialogue on Track
The method used to select a management team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London
has already set records, reports the Engineering News-Record (New York). The
selection marked the United Kingdom’s first use of a new procurement style
called “competitive dialogue.”
The procurement process took six months and aimed to achieve “a clear understanding” of what the Olympic Delivery Authority needed and what solutions participants could offer. “The approach was tailored for complex projects on which owners might be unable to specify objectives or procurement options,” the publication states.
Under the system, there’s no preferred bidder stage and no significant
changes can be added after the negotiation is complete.
Winner of the $200-million contract is CLM Delivery Partner Ltd., a U.K.-U.S.
consortium.
See a Sunken Sub
Thanks to some innovative engin-eering, a German submarine captured by the U.S.
navy in 1944 has a new, underground home at the East Pavilion of the Chicago
Museum of Science and Industry.
The submarine is the only one of its type captured by the United States. Codebooks on board resulted in safeguarding many Allied shipping routes.
Civil Engineering (New York) explains that the submarine, U-505, is now housed in an elaborate, climate-controlled, underground bunker. Designing the space proved challenging, partly because linking it with the museum meant underpinning the pavilion while digging 10 metres below the foundations and nine metres below the water table.
Maps Galore
A “map motherlode” has recently been acquired by East View Cartographic
of Minneapolis, says Engineering & Mining Journal (Englewood, Colo.).
The company acquired many rare items when it purchased the collection from the Telberg Geological Map Service. These include most geological maps and atlases published in China since the end of the Cultural Revolution, geological maps and atlases from almost all African countries, and one of the most complete collections known of Soviet geological and geoscientific maps and atlases.
Geological maps are among the most difficult to acquire and can rarely be reordered, notes Kent Lee, East View’s president.
Engineer a Better Potato Chip?
Engineers working for Frigemo, a Swiss processor of frozen potato and other vegetable
products, have come up with something aimed at making consumers and shareholders
happy.
They’ve installed a processing technology called Optyx, which is three times better than previous systems at identifying defects, reports Food Engineering (Troy, Mo.). The image-processing technology uses four colour cameras to automatically detect and remove defects from the product stream.