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Wärtsilä 31SG coming off the factory line in Vaasa, Finland. Photo credit: WärtsiläFinnish technology group Wärtsilä has introduced a gas-fueled version of its Wärtsilä 31 marine engine, which is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most efficient 4-stroke diesel engine. The engine, dubbed the Wärtsilä 31SG, builds on the efficiency of the successful Wärtsilä 31 engine, but with added flexibility and efficiency compared to its conventionally-fueled and dual-fuel predecessor. “The defining feature of the Wärtsilä 31SG is its ability to achieve simple-cycle efficiency levels in excess of 50 % (compared to around 40 % with modern gas turbines),...

The explosion occurred during a "qualification test" of a Merlin engine, the type that powers SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the Post reported. (The two-stage Falcon 9 has nine Merlins in its first stage and one in its upper stage.) SpaceX has suspended engine testing while it investigates what caused the incident, which didn't injure anyone, the Post added. In a statement provided to the Post, SpaceX representatives said they didn't expect the explosion to affect the company's launch schedule. SpaceX has experience investigating accidents. In September 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad during a routine preflight...

A flight has been canceled after a 76-year-old woman was found flipping coins into aircraft engine, the airlines said Thursday. The 8L9960 flight, scheduled Wednesday from Anqing, east China's Anhui Province, to Kunming, Yunnan Province, did not depart until 10 a.m. Thursday after a thorough safety check, said a statement by Lucky Air, a Kunming-based low-cost airline affiliated with HNA group. The flight was grounded after airport workers noticed the woman, surnamed Fang, throwing something at the engine while boarding and later found a coin on the ground. Fang is in police custody. A similar case was reported in late...

The state-owned Aero-Engine Group of China was created by combining a group of existing aircraft-engine companies, according to local media reports. It has about 50bn yuan ($7.5bn) in registered capital and will develop both military and commercial engines. China already makes its own planes, but has struggled for decades to develop engines that meet global requirements. 'Strategic move' China currently buys its commercial aircraft engines from General Electric and United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney. China's military jets uses Russian-made engines. President Xi Jinping called the new creation of the new company a "strategi

Driving force: an Ant combines microscopic gold balls with a polymer gel to propel nanobots. Medicine is one potential application =============================================================================================================== High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1af0efea-1045-11e6-bb40-c30e3bfcf63b.html#ixzz47bCzo78r Scientists have developed a microscopic engine, the smallest in the world, that they say is the first one capable of driving nanobots, including medical robots that could travel through the body. The prototype device, known as an actuating nano-transducer or...

The DoD IG opened an investigation today, regarding allegations made by former United Launch Alliance (ULA) vice president Brett Tobey. DoD IG will be looking into national security space launch protocols. This investigation will include, but is not limited to, site visits, interviews and documentation review with DoD and ULA personnel. http://spaceksc.blogspot.com/2016/02/lipstick-on-pig.html "We all agree" that we must end dependence on Russia RD-180 (kerosene/LOX), and make our own (Hydrogen/Lox),engines here in the U.S.

**SNIP** The Specialty Equipment Market Association says the companies it represents support a $1.4 billion industry, selling car racing products and aftermarket vehicle parts. The business association contends that the EPA rule under consideration would make it illegal for businesses to sell car parts intended to convert traditional production engines to engines that don’t meet emissions standards. The EPA intends to finalize its proposed regulations this summer and it has reopened public comment on the issue. Three other congressmen have signed McHenry's bill: U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Bill Posey, R-Fla., and Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.,...

BEIJING: China has built a potent military machine over the past 30 years but is struggling to develop advanced engines that would allow its warplanes to match Western fighters in combat, foreign and Chinese industry sources said. The country's engine technology lags that of United Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Rolls-Royce, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. China's Defence Ministry, in a brief statement to Reuters, said there was a "definite gap" between Chinese military technology and some developed countries, adding Beijing would continue to strengthen...

Defence giant BAE Systems to buy a stake in Britain's Reaction Engines, which is developing revolutionary SABRE engines for ultra-fast aircraft How an aircraft fitted with the SABRE engines might look ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hypersonic air travel and cut-price satellite launches will move a step closer when BAE Systems buys a stake in a UK company developing engines able to power aircraft at 2,500mph and into space. The FTSE 100 group is set to purchase 20pc of Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines for £20.6m, in a deal that will see the defence giant’s expertise applied to research on the privately-held company’s engine, which combines...

With a capacity to carry 19,000 TEUs, the recently named MV CSCL Globe is the world’s largest containership by cargo capacity. But that’s not all it’s known for. The newbuild for China Shipping Container Lines is also noteworthy for being powered by what is physically the largest engine ever constructed.

New Zealand's Duke Engines has been busy developing and demonstrating excellent results with a bizarre axial engine prototype that completely does away with valves, while delivering excellent power and torque from an engine much smaller, lighter and simpler than the existing technology. We spoke with Duke co-founder John Garvey to find out how the Duke Axial Engine project is going. The Duke Axial Engine is lighter, more compact and already slightly more powerful than a typical equivalent engine, even though this is just a prototype Duke Engines' 3-liter, five cylinder test mule is already making a healthy 215 horsepower and...

In a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, Columbia University researchers present several devices powered by the shrinking and swelling of bacterial spores in response to changes in humidity. The initial prototypes may look like child's play, but the researchers are convinced that they've only just begun to tap the energy potential of the technology. ... In the new study, his team has cobbled together devices that create lifting and piston-like motions by harnessing the natural tendency of the spores -- which are commonly produced in great quantities for probiotic supplements -- to expand and contract. The devices contain strips...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – New Russian Navy destroyers, originally intended to be equipped with Ukrainian gas turbine engines (GTE), will receive Russian-made engines exceeding the Ukrainian analogues, a United Shipbuilding Corporation spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday. "The first three patrol ships of the project 11356 and the first two ships of the project 22350 are already equipped with GTEs manufactured in Ukraine. Subsequent ships of both projects will be equipped with Russian-made power units with characteristics superior to Ukrainian GTEs," the spokesman said. He added that the modernization of existing Russian GTEs has begun and will be finished in late...

The U.S. Air Force is taking a serious look at overhauling the nearly 60 year-old B-52 bomber—including a new engine for the ancient plane. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done before. The answers include poor planning, budgetary procedures that defied economic logic, and at least one bone-headed accounting error. The B-52 first entered service in the mid-1950s. Putting new engines on the “Buff,” or Big Ugly Fat (cough) Fella, became a possibility after 1978, when the commercial airplane business launched two modern engines, the Rolls-Royce RB.211-535 and the PW2000. Unlike the first...

We’ve grown accustomed to senseless liberal logic insinuating that anything that has to do with the color spectrum is somehow racist or racially charged, however; the most recent attack by The Guardian filth-spiller, Tracy van Slyke, is so stupid it just made me chuckle. Check out what she said about the demonic Thomas the Tank Engine. From The Guardian: For the record, all the “villains” on Thomas and Friends are the dirty diesel engines. I’d like to think there was a good environmental message in there, but when the good engines pump out white smoke and the bad engines pump...

Nearly six months after announcing that SpaceX would be testing Raptor engine components at NASA's Stennis Space Center, a ribbon cutting ceremony this past Monday officially unveiled the newly refurbished E-2 test stand. SpaceX has been working on the Raptor methane-fueled rocket engine since 2009. The new engine, a reusable engine is destined to be used in future versions of the Falcon Heavy and in the long term for the notional SpaceX Mars Colonial Transporter. Testing is set to begin within the coming days after the E-2 test stand activation is completed a spokesperson for SpaceX confirmed to SpaceRef. SpaceX...

As Turkey makes progress in its national fighter jet program, the most challenging issue remains the engine for the planned aircraft. The program contains the design, development and production of an indigenious fighter jet as Swdish Saab is under contract for pre-conceptual design As Turkey’s defense procurement officials and aviation engineers work day and night to finalize one of the three draft models for what will be the country’s first indigenous fighter jet, they face a most critical challenge: Should Turkey select a jet engine and build an aircraft based on that engine; or should it select an aircraft and...

The body of my lawn mower broke. Totaled. I purchased a new lawn mower. But I now have a 6.25 HP Briggs & Stratton engine that runs as good as the day it was bought. So what do I do with the engine? (It seems such a waste to get rid of it)

Frankfurt Motor Show: Germans learn a stunning truth.

ETH researchers redesigned the conventional diesel engine of a VW Golf to run on 90% natural gas. Credit: Tobias Ott / ETH Zurich Video at link. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an internal combustion engine that emits less than half the CO2 compared to a regular engine without compromising performance. This corresponds to fuel consumption of less than 2.4 l per 100 km. This natural gas-diesel hybrid engine is based on a system of sophisticated control engineering. The global energy markets are changing. New extraction methods are tapping into oilfields and natural gas deposits that have been inaccessible until...