fbpx

Human Progress Logo Human Progress

01 / 05
How the World’s Biggest Plane Would Supersize Wind Energy

Wall Street Journal | Air Transport

How the World’s Biggest Plane Would Supersize Wind Energy

“Mark Lundstrom, an MIT-trained rocket scientist and Rhodes scholar, has spent more than seven years with an engineering team designing the WindRunner, a gargantuan cargo plane. If completed, it will be the largest plane by length and cargo volume.

The plane’s purpose is to carry wind turbine blades the length of football fields. The blades, among the world’s longest, are currently used only for offshore projects because of transportation limitations onshore. Opening vast swaths of land to the largest turbines could transform wind energy, which has seen a slowdown in new U.S. onshore projects and price turmoil for offshore projects.

The result would be land-based wind power installations with a blade tip reaching about 300 feet higher than the current average.”

From Wall Street Journal.

Axios | Motor Vehicles

Uber to Add Volkswagen Robotaxis to Its Growing AV Fleet

“Volkswagen and Uber announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy thousands of electric, autonomous ID. Buzz minivans on the ride-hailing network across multiple cities, starting in Los Angeles.

Why it matters: It’s the latest in a series of global autonomous vehicle partnerships for Uber, which aims to blend robotaxis with human-driven vehicles on its network.”

From Axios.

New York Times | Motor Vehicles

Major Advances in EV Batteries Are Announced by CATL

“The Chinese manufacturing giant CATL, the biggest supplier of batteries for the world’s electric cars, said on Monday that it had made technological advances..

The biggest surprise by CATL was an announcement about auxiliary batteries for electric cars. The batteries would share space in the underbody of cars, where there is now only one large battery.

The auxiliary battery would be the first commercially available electric vehicle battery that would not use graphite as one of its poles, CATL said.

Removing costly graphite will eventually make the batteries cheaper, after some initial costs, and will allow 60 percent more electricity to be squeezed in each cubic inch of the battery…

CATL … also said it had made more progress in the speed of charging main batteries. The company said its new system would allow an electric vehicle to be charged enough in five minutes to drive 520 kilometers, or 320 miles.”

From New York Times.

Axios | Space

Katy Perry, Gayle King Safely Return from Blue Origin Space Flight

“Singer Katy Perry, CBS anchor Gayle King and other well-known women set off to space on Monday morning in Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight mission.

Why it matters: This is the first all-woman space crew in U.S. history.

The flight was led by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ commercial space company. Minutes after taking off, the crew experienced weightlessness. Then they soon safely returned to Earth.”

From Axios.