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The world’s largest aircraft is no more, at least temporarily. For years, the largest operational aircraft has been the Hybrid Air Vehicles’ (HAV) Airlander 10, a giant blimp-like contraption that can hold around 20 passengers and bares resemblance to a certain piece of human anatomy, some have said. The company built a prototype vehicle to test the concept, but according to HAV, that prototype is being retired. That’s not the end for the concept, however, because the Airlander 10 is going to go into full production for a new prototype that will eventually serve commercial purposes....

Media Platforms Design TeamAUSTIN, TEXAS—At SXSW, the arsenal of essential stuff you need to get by doesn’t consist of gadgets. It’s made up of apps. Southby has traditionally been known to launch apps that help put you on the map (Twitter and Foursquare), but interestingly, this year, we’re using apps that do the exact opposite of that: They’re ones that help us fly under the radar and give us handy tips—or fun and frivolous things to do with people who we already know....

Downtown Atlanta has taken on a new shape with the distinctly different look of Mercedes-Benz Stadium now defining the skyline. “The way we sent it to architects was, if you come in and show us a building that looks like any other building, you’re out,” Rich McKay, president and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, tells Popular Mechanics.Coming in at about $1.5 billion, the 71,000-seat home of the Falcons will open on August 26....

Media Platforms Design TeamJigsaws are a must-have DIY tool; they are the perfect companion for a myriad of woodworking projects around the house. A 12-volt cordless version is plenty for most homeowners, and the smaller the better for storing one around the house.The new Bosch JS120BN 12V cordless jigsaw ($120) is the most compact jigsaw on the market. Don’t let the size fool you. It still runs at 1,500-2,000 strokes per minute, and the 12V battery platform also powers their compact drill/drivers, oscillating tool, LED work lights, radios, and vacuums....

Media Platforms Design TeamTest Location: Itasca State Park, Minn.Cost: $4.32Weight: 6 ouncesRun Time: 25 minutes/tank1.) Get Soup, Tools An 18.8-ounce Campbell’s Chunky soup can fits perfectly inside an 18.5-ounce Progresso soup can. With modifications and assembly, the pair combine to form a small cylinder that issues a controlled, hot alcohol-based flame for campsite cooking.Obtain the soup cans, eat the contents, and rinse the interiors. You also need a hacksaw; a tube of J-B Weld high-temperature epoxy; a yellow bottle of Heet methanol fuel; furnace cement; a ¼-inch-diameter, 3⁄8-inch-long bolt; a ¼-inch hex nut; an 8-inch-diameter round cake pan; a file; a tack hammer; a size 5 sewing needle (or an equally slender nail); and a drill with a 3⁄8-inch bit....

Billions of dollars. Hundreds of miles. A gauntlet of engineering challenges and regulatory snarls. These are just a few of the reasons that bridges, highways, and other enormous infrastructure projects are the domain of governments or big corporations. And they’re among the reasons you might be surprised that the most serious attempt to build the Hyperloop plans to rely on the crowd—not on the feds.The Hyperloop took the tech world by storm in August, when Tesla Motors and SpaceX chief Elon Musk released his plans for a transportation system to take passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a half-hour, a system that he said would cost in the neighborhood of $6 billion to build....

A state-owned rail company in China has built the prototype for a blazingly fast maglev train. The new prototype, built by the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), is being designed to carry passengers at 373 mph (600 km/h). China hopes the train will be serving passengers in 2021.“Take Beijing to Shanghai as an example — counting preparation time for the journey, it takes about 4.5 hours by plane, about 5....

A drone needs a flat spot to land. That fact may sound simple and obvious, but it also limits their usefulness and where they can go. Now, though, Yale researchers inspired by the animal kingdom are figuring out ways that drones could perch like a bird or a bat.“Birds can be observed placing their feet on some support while still flapping their wings and bats are known to hang upside down while grasping some suitable surface,” says Kaiyu Hang, a postdoc at Yale....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe world of technology is filled with big-ticket acquisitions that always whip tech journalists in a frenzy. In recent months the big purchases have come from Google, Facebook, Lenovo, and Comcast as they snatch up small (and in some cases pretty big) companies to help strengthen their brand. Apple has been a noticeable absentee from the recent rash of corporate capitalism, but in a rare move, all-but-confirmed rumors suggest that Apple is gearing up to purchase Beats Electronics....

When you’re about to carve a 57.4-foot-diameter tunnel under the Pacific Northwest’s largest city, you do your homework. That’s why the engineers at the Washington State Department of Transportation and its contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners, rattle off the top of their heads facts about the monumental engineering project they’re about to undertake. Next spring crews will begin churning earth as they undertake a 1.7-mile-deep bore tunnel to replace a viaduct under downtown Seattle that is aging and vulnerable to earthquakes....

Elon Musk’s Boring Company started out as a Twitter joke the CEO made while stuck in traffic. “Traffic is driving me nuts,” he wrote. “Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” A few months later, Musk has a company, a bunch of concept art, and an ambitious plan to revolutionize transportation.About a month ago, The Boring Company released its first promo vid, showing a network of high-speed tunnels ferrying cars from place to place....

Twenty-five-knot gusts sweep across the Pacific, scooping up kiteboarders and flinging them into the sky. Atop a seaside bluff, the wind races through the grass in long lines, the prairie version of ocean waves, and buffets a panel delivery truck parked at the end of a dirt road. The logo in peeling paint on the side reads TOM’S QUALITY SNACKS… FOR EVERY TASTE. But there are no chips or Choco Tacos inside....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis drone will self-destruct. It’ll take a little more than five seconds, though.Lynn Rothschild of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California created this drone made mostly of mycelium, the vegetative part of fungus that you’ve seen commonly in mushrooms. Coated in cellulose to make it strong, the material is sturdy enough to form the basis of a small drone airframe.The idea is that a biodegradable drone could break down and disappear into a few innocent-looking constituent parts if it were ever to crash in enemy territory....

Media Platforms Design TeamBy now Apple has settled into an orderly pattern of once a year. The world of the Android operating system, by comparison, has become a constantly evolving battleground for dominance. That has made Android a platform for some of the most sophisticated smartphone hardware you can buy, as well as a confusing mess of overlapping software layers and OS iterations. refreshing its iPhoneAndroid updates come roughly twice a year, but not all hardware manufacturers update at the same time, and to differentiate their products, these manufacturers throw proprietary software layers on their phones, then cellular providers add widgets and extra apps....

A viral video of an “air saw” suspended from a helicopter has left Twitter users’ heads spinning.The 10-blade saws were first introduced in the 1980s to clear limbs in difficult-to-reach locations.Designs for the first helicopter-suspended saw, a canopy chopping contraption, were patented in the 1950s. If you’ve been on the internet this week, you’ve probably seen this video of a giant chainsaw suspended from the bottom of a helicopter.We spoke to a different company, Aerial Solutions Inc....

Your wife has started to sound like a detergent commercial, bragging about the spilled coffee stains she’s gotten out of your shirts. The kids are making excuses about why they’d rather ride their bikes to the mall than get a lift in your car, and even the dog has started to get carsick. Wake up, Bunky, and realize that your vehicle’s ride has gone, literally and figuratively, downhill. Hey, there are over 60,000 miles on the odometer, and the tires are starting to develop little concave “cups,” sure signs it’s time for new shocks....

In India, the vast majority of the year’s rainfall happens during the monsoon season. When, where, and how much rain falls is vital to the country’s agriculture and economy. But predicting the monsoon is notoriously difficult; it’s considered the most complex weather phenomenon in the world. The country currently relies heavily on statistical predictions that are shaky at best. So in a bid to finally solve the weather, India is investing $60 million (₹4 billion) in buying a supercomputer to predict monsoons....

Media Platforms Design Team1) Jay talks about early alt-fuel carsMedia Platforms Design Team2) Jay talks about being environmentally responsible in the collector-car hobbyMedia Platforms Design Team3) Jay discusses extreme diesel power with Gale BanksMedia Platforms Design Team4) Jay unveils a biodiesel supercar at the SEMA showMedia Platforms Design Team5) Jay builds and drives his biodiesel supercarMedia Platforms Design Team6) Jay discusses his stationary steam engineMedia Platforms Design Team7) Jay discusses the 100-year old electric carMedia Platforms Design Team8) Jay talks about hydrogen fuel and drives a hydrogen-powered BMWMedia Platforms Design Team9) Jay talks about his flex-fuel 600-hp CorvetteMedia Platforms Design Team10) Jay’s eco-friendly custom motorcycleMedia Platforms Design Team11) Jay installs a wind turbine and solar array for his green garage (and here)Media Platforms Design Team12) Jay makes his case for steam powerBen StewartBen is a lifelong enthusiast of anything with wheels....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe’ve now got the full, final report, and are making our way through it. At first glance, it’s much more thorough than the excerpts that leaked out, and does include a broader, more contextualized analysis than the previous week’s headlines would have indicated (and, much more context than the excerpts included).And, not so suprisingly, many of the prescriptions in the House report echo those in our March cover story, for instance, that disaster recovery contracts should be negotiated before a disaster....

If you thought Lego cars were little more than a few plastic bricks with simple wheels slapped on the bottom, there’s a full-size, functional Bugatti Chiron that would like to have a word with you. Unveiled at the Grand Prix Formula 1 event in Monza, Italy, the model is made of over one million Lego Technic pieces, down to its very engine: a block of over 2,300 Lego Power Function motors and over 4,000 Technic gear wheels that give the replica Chiron a respectable 5....