Boeing's Hydrogen-Powered Spy Plane Can Fly for 4 Days

(Popular Mechanics) The future of spycraft looks pretty heavy, if this new Boeing plane is any indication. Adding to today's parade of pretty new planes, Boeing unveiled a hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft system Monday that will stay aloft at 65,000 feet for four days.

The Phantom Eye is not exactly sleek, but it's one of the greenest aircraft out there -- its only byproduct is water.

The aircraft heralds a potential new market in data and communications collection, Boeing says. Later this summer, it will be shipped from Boeing's Phantom Works facility in St. Louis to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center for ground and taxi testing. The debut flight will likely take place next year and should last four to eight hours, a mere preview of the aircraft's apparent capabilities.

In terms of power, Phantom Eye is a lightweight -- it has two 2.3 liter, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 hp each, not much more than your average car. This makes sense, because Ford provided the engines, according to a Boeing news release.

The plane has a 150-foot wingspan and can carry up to a 450-pound payload, Boeing says. It will cruise at 150 knots, or 170 miles per hour.

The prototype of a high-tech British roboplane capable of attacking targets as far away as Afghanistan was unveiled by defense contractor BAE Systems in the U.K. Monday.

It's the latest effort by Boeing to build aircraft powered by hydrogen. The firm claimed firsties on a hydrogen fuel cell aircraft back in 2008 when a different Phantom Works division flew a manned aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Phantom Eye evolved from Boeing's Condor aircraft, also powered by a piston engine, which made history by reaching a top altitude of 67, 028 feet. Its likely descendants include the Phantom Ray drone, which looks like a slim B-2.

Boeing's Hydrogen-Powered Spy Plane Can Fly for 4 Days

Former F1 engineer unveils new Efficient City Car

The former Formula One engineer who created the iconic McLaren F1 supercar has officially unveiled the T.25 -- his idea for a new class of city car.

Murray and his team based in Shalford, south east England, have been working on the design for the past three years and, until now, have kept the exact details of the car firmly under wraps.

The car made its first public appearance on Monday at the UK's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford.

At less than eight feet long and a little over four feet wide, the T.25 is smaller than Daimler AG's popular Smart car, and a petrol engine model will retail for around $9,000.

The centralized driving position -- also a feature of Murray's McLaren F1 -- and central instrumentation and controls are perhaps its most obvious traits borrowed from Formula One.

Former F1 engineer unveils new Efficient City Car

Now Charge your batteries while doing Exercise Via Jumping [VIDEO].

The Scientist are creating many ways for producing alternate source of energy. Here is one the Blizzard concept of recharging your batteries.

This new jump rope concept called the E-rope has turned up at Yanko Design.

Now Charge your batteries while doing Exercise Via Jumping [VIDEO].

Potatoes powering our Energy Needs.

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has just introduced what they're calling "solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes." In short, it's a potato powered battery, and it's as real as you're hoping it is.

The simple, sustainable, robust device can potentially provide an immediate inexpensive solution to electricity needs in parts of the world lacking electrical infrastructure, but we're hoping that it can work a similar amount of magic for developed nations as well.

Researchers at the Hebrew University discovered that the enhanced salt bridge capability of treated potato tubers can generate electricity through means readily available in the developing world. This cheap, easy to use green power source could substantially improve the quality of life of 1.6 billion people, comprising 32% of the developing non-OECD populations, currently lacking access to electrical infrastructure. Such a source can provide important needs, such as lighting, telecommunication, and information transfer.

Potatoes powering our Energy Needs.

Green Tyres, i mean not in color but in nature.

GONE RENEWABLE Synthetic rubber, produced using biotechnology.

86 percent of the tire’s environmental impact revolves around how it affects fuel consumption. Only 12 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with tires arise from the raw materials and manufacturing.

Tire makers say that fuel economy improvements of 4 to 8 percent over conventional tires are typical for these energy-saving designs. The low-rolling-resistance designs use silica-based mineral fillers, rather than just the standard carbon-black reinforcing fillers, to reduce friction.

the research laboratories at several tire makers are making progress toward reversing the trend of increased petroleum content. One of the first to pursue this path was Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which has a global alliance with Goodyear in the Dunlop brand, for the Enasave tire it introduced in Japan in 2006. Among other changes, Sumitomo engineers substantially reduced the amount of petrochemicals by cutting the amount of synthetic rubber in half, to 11 percent of the tire’s composition from about 22 percent.

Green Tyres, i mean not in color but in nature.

Inventor of Photosynthesis-Based Solar Cells Wins Millennium Tech Prize.

A Switzerland-based chemist who invented solar cells that mimic photosynthesis is the winner of a million-dollar technology prize announced Wednesday. Michael Gratzel invented low-cost solar cells that can be turned into electricity-generating windows, mobile solar panels and other devices.

He won the $960,000 (€800,000) Millennium Technology Prize, awarded every other year by Finland's Technology Academy.

The cells use nanocrystal films to produce power from sunlight, the BBC reports. The particles are so small that they don't scatter light, and can collect solar energy from all sides. The cells are fairly cheap to make — they use dye squeezed from berries, for instance — which the Finnish academy said could be a breakthrough for solar energy.

Inventor of Photosynthesis-Based Solar Cells Wins Millennium Tech Prize.

Cow may help to run small computing center at a bank.

Google's and Microsoft's data centers can be now powered by Cows manure. This might be strange to hear but it might be possible,  says Hewlett-Packard engineers.

With the right skills, a dairy farmer could rent out land and power to technology companies and recoup an investment in the waste-to-fuel systems within two years, Hewlett-Packard engineers say in a research paper to be made public on Wednesday.

Cow may help to run small computing center at a bank.

MIT-designed plane to use 70 % less fuel.

A 'green airplane' designed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-led research team is likely to use 70 per cent less fuel than existing ones while slashing noise and emission of nitrogen oxides.

The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), presented to the Nasa last month as part of a $2.1 million research contract.

MIT was the only university to lead one of the six US teams that won contracts from Nasa in October 2008. Ed Greitzer, professor of aeronautics and astronautics was the principal investigator of the project.

MIT-designed plane to use 70 % less fuel.