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An old technology could make hybrid cars much cheaper. The automakers Volvo and Jaguar are testing the possibility of using flywheels instead of batteries in hybrid electric vehicles to aid acceleration and help engines operate more efficiently. The devices could reduce fuel consumption by 20 percent and would cost a third as much as batteries. Volvo will begin road-testing a car with the technology this fall. In a flywheel system, energy from the wheels is used to spin a flywheel at high speeds. The flywheel continues spinning, storing energy until that motion can be transferred back to the wheels via...

China’s Jet Engine Future July 13, 2011 By Gabe Collins & Andrew Erickson Rapid improvements in China's military jet engine capabilities have major implications for the global defence industry. Following is a guest entry from Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson, co-founders of China Sign Post. China's military jet engine capability is increasing at a rapid pace, with implications not only for China's independent military capabilities, but also for the global defence industry. Yet China also faces major impediments in achieving its strategic aim of establishing itself as an independent manufacturer in one of aerospace's most complex engineering technologies: high-performance turbofan...

Is the price of gasoline taking a toll on your wallet? Make your drive greener and more fuel efficient with the help of lasers. Everything else about an automobile is being retooled to be leaner and greener, so it was only a matter of time before spark plugs got a second look. While they might seem like an essential component for ignition, a group of Japanese researchers think their lasers can do a better job. "If you want save gasoline, cut CO2 and [emissions] with more power, new ignition should be required," said Takunori Taira, an associate professor of laser...

GE Brings Good Things To Hornet, Gripen Posted by Bill Sweetman at 4/21/2011 7:53 AM CDT If the Pentagon leadership is successful in its goal of shutting dwon the Joint Strike Fighter's F136 alternate engine program (and may I add that if they brought such zeal and sense of purpose to bear on other issues, the world might be a better place, but I digress) there will be an important consequence: the JSF program will acquire a new and powerful enemy, in the form of General Electric. Evidence of this trend may be coming to light. At yesterday's roll-out of...

A start-up, Liquid Piston, aims to greatly improve the efficiency of internal combustion.

Michigan researchers have built a prototype of a new auto motor that does away with pistons, crankshafts and valves, replacing the old internal combustion engine with a disc-shaped shock wave generator. It could slash the weight of hybrid cars and reduce auto emissions by 90 percent. The generator is about the size of a saucepot, and would replace the 1,000-pound power train in most cars — no transmission, cooling system, emissions regulation or fluids needed. Norbert Müller and colleagues at Michigan State University showed off the new motor prototype at a meeting with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects...

(CNN) -- A Delta Air Lines flight reporting an engine problem made an emergency landing Thursday at the Colorado Springs, Colorado, airport, officials said. Two passengers suffered minor injuries during the evacuation

At least two people have been killed after a passenger plane skidded off the runway following an emergency landing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport. The Dagestan Airlines flight, with 155 passengers on board, was forced to land because its engines had reportedly cut out. Dozens of people were injured in the incident. It is not yet known what caused the engines to fail and an investigation has begun. The Russian-built Tu-154 took off at 11:07am (GMT) from Vnukovo Airport, just outside Moscow. It was heading to Makhachkala - the capital of the Republic of Dagestan. One engine failed on take-off, the...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, star of "Titanic," was among passengers on a Delta Airline jet forced to make an emergency landing in New York after losing one engine, a report said Monday. DiCaprio, 36, "avoided disaster at 30,000 feet," UsMagazine.com reported. The plane, bound for Moscow, had to return to John F. Kennedy airport shortly after take-off Sunday when an engine suddenly shut down.

Eurojet pips GE in LCA engine bid Ajai Shukla New Delhi September 20, 2010, 23:35 IST Europe has an edge over the US in the tightly-fought contest to sell India a next-generation engine for the homegrown Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). Informed sources have told Business Standard that when the bids were opened last week, European consortium Eurojet bid $666 million for 99 EJ200 engines, against US rival General Electric, which quoted $822 million. Both engines had been earlier adjudged technically suitable to power the Tejas Mark-II. Therefore, according to the ministry of defence’s procurement rules, the vendor offering the...

Have you always wanted to assemble a car engine? If so you may want to consider buying a Corvette Z06 or ZR1, this is because there is a new build-your-own engine option available. This option will set you back $5,800 extra, don’t worry if you are worried that you will end up with an engine that does not run, as a General Motors technician will supervise you throughout the build.

Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A test vehicle equipped with the technology gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving, which is far better than more costly gas-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which gets 48 miles per gallon on the highway.

In the past year, the U.S. auto industry has reeled under market pressure, faced bankruptcy, accepted billions of dollars in government bailout money, and agreed to mandates for cleaner and more efficient vehicles. But for two brothers from Colorado with an automotive start-up company, things couldn’t be better. Levi Tillemann-Dick, 28, and his brother Corban, 24, are carrying on a dream they hatched with their late father, Denver inventor and businessman Timber Dick, to bring to market a radical new engine design that is much more efficient than a traditional internal combustion engine. The four-stroke engine used in gasoline-powered cars...

Researchers from Purdue University and Cummins Inc. have developed an advanced "closed-loop control" approach for preventing diesel engines from emitting greater amounts of smog-causing nitrogen oxides when running on biodiesel fuels. Operating truck engines on a blend of biodiesel and ordinary diesel fuel dramatically reduces the emission of particulate matter, or soot. However, the most modern and efficient diesel engines burning biodiesel emit up to 40 percent more nitrogen oxides at some operating conditions, and fuel economy declines by as much as 20 percent. Unlike conventional diesel, biodiesel contains oxygen, and the researchers have shown that this presence of oxygen...

The Ford Mustang will get not one, but two new engines next year. Ford Motor Co. announced Monday that it plans to introduce an all-new 5.0-liter, V8 engine for its 2011 Mustang GT in the spring. The V8 engine will deliver 412 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque - 87 more horsepower than the outgoing engine. "This is the right engine for the car," said Bob Fascetti, Ford's director of large gas and diesel engines. Monday's confirmation follows Ford's announcement in November that it will also provide an all-new 3.7-liter V6 engine with 305 horsepower in the Mustang when it...

Plug-in hybrids may generate more eco-buzz when the calendar flips, but diesels could prove more powerful in revving up the automotive economy. Those of us who remember diesel-powered hatchbacks of the '70s as loud, dirty and troublesome may have to adjust our thinking to see them as "Green Cars." But the diesel-powered Audi A3 TDI won the title of Green Car of the Year at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, following in the tracks of Jetta TDI, another diesel from Audi's parent Volkswagen. And there are more where those came from. In truth, diesels have become quiet, strong and...

According to an unnamed senior company source quoted in Autocar, Mercedes-Benz is currently deciding if it will launch a new range of three-cylinder engines. According to the source, if the German automaker chooses to go the three-cylinder route, the engine may be one cylinder bank of the company's well-regarded V6 line. If MB does go with an inline three, it will join fellow German automaker BMW in lowering its cylinder count. Apparently, though, taking this route is thought to be an expensive proposition that would require extra engineering in the form of a strengthened bodyshell, additional sound deadening and redesigned...

Eurojet proposes thrust-vectoring upgrade for Typhoon By Andrew Doyle Eurofighter and engine supplier Eurojet are stepping up their efforts to interest Typhoon customer nations in a thrust-vectoring upgrade that promises to bring substantial operational benefits and pay for itself through lifecycle cost reductions. Equipping the twin-engined Typhoon's EJ200s with thrust vectoring nozzles (TVN) could reduce fuel burn on a typical mission by up to 5%, while increasing available thrust in supersonic cruise by up to 7%, the engine consortium says. Eurojet partner ITP benchtested a TVN several years ago, and EADS earlier this year equipped its Typhoon cockpit simulator to...

Video of Engine Test Using traditional chemical rockets, a trip to Mars – at quickest — lasts 6 months. But a new rocket tested successfully last week could potentially cut down travel time to the Red Planet to just 39 days. The Ad Astra Rocket Company tested a plasma rocket called the VASIMR VX-200 engine, which ran at 201 kilowatts in a vacuum chamber, passing the 200-kilowatt mark for the first time. "It's the most powerful plasma rocket in the world right now," says Franklin Chang-Diaz, former NASA astronaut and CEO of Ad Astra. The company has also signed...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2009 – The F-22 Raptor and F-18 Hornet fighter jets are fast, screaming through the air at twice the speed of sound, but the SR-71 Blackbird was faster, flying Mach 3 until mechanical problems and exorbitant operating costs forced it out of service in the late 1990s. Now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is striving to build an engine that will propel a hypersonic jet at Mach 4 and faster, while also bringing new efficiencies to ships and ground vehicles. DARPA's Vulcan program kicked off this spring and aims to create the supersonic capability needed to...