“It might look disconcerting to see a @LockheedMartin Martin @Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter flying itself…but, don’t worry, we’ve got this! DARPA’s ALIAS technology just enabled the first ever flight of this iconic chopper…with nobody onboard. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2022-02-08
It might look disconcerting to see a @LockheedMartin Martin @Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter flying itself…but, don’t worry, we’ve got this! DARPA’s ALIAS technology just enabled the first ever flight of this iconic chopper…with nobody onboard. https://t.co/El9GkznLmwpic.twitter.com/TvxrmHQVLH
Turbojet engines are an incredible piece of 20th century engineering that except for some edge cases, have mostly been replaced by Turbofans. Still, even the most basic early designs were groundbreaking in their time. Material science was applied to make them more reliable, more powerful, and lighter. But all of those incredible advances go completely out the window when you’re [Joel] of [Integza], and you prefer to build your internal combustion engines using repurposed butane canisters and 3D printed parts as you see in the video below the break.
To understand [Integza]’s engine, a quick explanation of Turbojet engines is helpful. Just like any other internal combustion engine, air is compressed, fuel is burned, and the reaction produces work. In a turbojet, a compressor compresses air. Fuel is added in a combustor and ignited, and the expanding exhaust drives a turbine that in turn drives the compressor since both are attached to the same shaft. Exhaust whose energy isn’t spent in turning the turbine is expelled and produces thrust, which propels the engine and the vehicle it’s attached to in the opposite direction. Simple, right? Right! Until the 3D printer comes in.
Sadly for 3D printed parts, they are made of plastic. Last we checked, plastic isn’t metal, and so 3D printing a turbine to give the extremely hot exhaust something turn just isn’t going to work. But what if you just skipped the whole turbine part, and powered the compressor with an electric motor? And instead of using an axial compressor with tons of tiny blades that would likely be impossible to 3D print with enough strength, you went with a sturdy, easy to print centrifugal compressor? Of course, that’s exactly what [Integza] did, or we wouldn’t be talking about it. The results are fantastic, especially considering that the entire machine was built with 3D printing and a home made spot welder.
Tesla’s Fremont Factory could have its production capacity increased, according to CEO Elon Musk. Tesla is “considering expanding [Fremont] significantly,” Musk said in a Tweet last night.
Following Musk’s heavily publicized jab at President Joe Biden on Tuesday night for not mentioning Tesla in the State of the Union Speech with the likes of Ford and GM, who received Biden’s praise for electric vehicle projects resulting in employment opportunities. While Biden commended Ford for $11 billion invested and 11,000 new jobs and GM for $7 billion and 4,000 new employment opportunities in Michigan, Musk hit back with a valid point.
“Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined,” he said, alerting “the person running this account” to give Tesla more credit.
Ford this morning said it’s separating its electric vehicle and internal combustion businesses into separate units. Why it matters: The creation of distinct business lines — called “Model e” and “Ford Blue” — underscores how auto giants are reorienting around EV development. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free. How it works: Ford said the two units would be “strategically interdependent” and share relevant tech. Together with the Ford Pro commercial services line launched last year, Ford said the three units will begin to separately report profits and losses in 2023.
Pure lithium metal is a promising replacement for the graphite-based anodes currently used in electric vehicle batteries. It could tremendously reduce battery weights and dramatically extend the driving range of electric vehicles relative to existing technologies. But before lithium metal batteries can be used in cars, scientists must first figure out how to extend their lifetimes.
A new study led by Peter Khalifah—a chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University—tracked lithium metal deposition and removal from a batteryanode while it was cycling to find clues as to how failure occurs. The work is published in a special issue of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society honoring the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning battery researcher John Goodenough, who like Khalifah is a member of the Battery 500 Consortium research team.
“In a good battery, the rate of lithium plating (deposition) and stripping (removal) will be the same at all positions on the surface of electrodes,” Khalifah said. “Our results show that it’s harder to remove lithium at certain places, which means there are problems there. By identifying the cause of the problems, we can figure out how to get rid of them and make better batteries with higher capacities and longer lifetimes.”
