45-Foot-Long Paper Airplane Needed a Helicopter to be Launched

Range — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:00:11 +0000

What’s the biggest paper airplane you’ve launched? I’ve noticed that they tend to get a bit flabby when you use bigger sheets of paper, but that didn’t stop the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, from trying to fly a 45-foot-long paper airplane.

A helicopter was used to lift and then launch this jumbo paper airplane that had a 24-foot wingspan and weighed 800 pounds. It was part of the Great Paper Airplane Project and it successfully completed its maiden flight. It hit a top speed of 98 mph at an altitude of 2,703 feet.

Aeronautical engineers were inspired by the design of a 12-year old Arturo Valdenegro’s paper airplane, which beat hundreds of others in a regional paper airplane distance contest.

Unfortunately, here’s what it looked like after it landed:

[via Ubergizmo]

Short Throw Projector: 80-Inch Pic From 3-Inches Away

Technabob — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:18:28 +0000

Sanyo’s breakthrough short throw projector design may well revolutionize the front projector market. By radically altering traditional projection optics, they’ve been able to design a projector capable of filling a wall from as little as 3-inches away.

The LX-XL50 can be hung on a wall to project images directly below or above the location of the projector. The unique design prevents shadows from appearing on the picture.

While Sanyo’s initial target market for the LX-XL50 is classrooms and meeting rooms, I don’t think it will be long before we see similar projector designs for home theater installations. Sanyo initially plans to release the projectors in Japan in late 2007, with a worldwide release shortly thereafter.

[via Akihabara News]

Technabob » distance

45-Foot-Long Paper Airplane Needed a Helicopter to be Launched

Short Throw Projector: 80-Inch Pic From 3-Inches Away