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May 11, 2011
 

The world's largest model airport

I can't help but think my son (and daughter) would go bananas over this. Nothing like years of hard work and attention to detail coming to life and rekindling that sense of childhood joy. As it turns out, this is just one of eight installments at one of Germany's most visited tourist attractions - Miniatur Wunderland.

About the video:
Frederik and Gerrit Braun, energetic twin brothers with no shortage of dreams, have just finished construction of the world's largest model airport. With 40,000 lights, 15,000 figurines, 500 cars, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches, 300 buildings and 40 planes, Knuffingen Airport is both a wonder to behold as well as a technological tour de force. The best part of Knuffingen is that it's alive. Forty planes and 90 vehicles move about autonomously. Located in Hamburg, Germany, the model is based on Hamburg Airport.

Read more about this amazing model airport and the other miniaturized cityscapes of Miniatur Wunderland here:

Filed under  //   Minatur Wunderland   airplane   airport   creativity   model   toys  

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July 20, 2010
 

Tinkerbell and bird-like UCVs

Flowvis-top

 

Fascinating article on some work being done at MIT to create an automated algorithm that would allow an airplane to land like a bird on a wire. MIT Associate Professor Russ Tedrake, a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Rick Cory, a PhD student in Tedrake's lab are pioneering the work.

While it's still very early in the development process, I really enjoyed the quote from Mr. Cory at the end of the article because it sums up the power of the creative/innovative mind:

Cory will be moving to California to take a job researching advanced robotics techniques for Disney, [but] he hopes to continue collaborating with Tedrake. "I visited the air force, and I visited Disney, and they actually have a lot in common," Cory says. "The air force wants an airplane that can land on a power line, and Disney wants a flying Tinker Bell that can land on a lantern."

And this is exactly right.

More interestingly, this also makes a strong statement about the innovativeness of Disney, which is looking at the same technology the Air Force is, only they just want to entertain people with it.

Video
Image via Jason Dorfman (MIT/CSAIL)

Filed under  //   Air Force   Disney   MIT   UCV   airplane   aviation   biomimicry   innovation   technology   unmanned combat vehicle  

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