Cold War Aircraft Used To Seat 120, Now Sleeps Two

If you're thinking to yourself, "that's sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite," well, you're right. But it's only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft. More »

Declassified UFO Files Reveal Military Engagement, Near-Collision

The UK Ministry of Defense has just declassified nineteen secret files detailing UFO encounters over the past decades, one of them involving a USAF Sabre fighter pilot who was ordered to fire at will against an unidentified flying object in British airspace. Unfortunately—or fortunately—lieutenant Milton Torres lost the contact after the UFO left the scene at a whooping 9,941 miles per hour. According to him, it had the proportions of an aircraft carrier: More »

Orlens Glider Concept is Green, Recyclable Air Transport of the Future

This concept glider, dubbed Orlens, is attention-grabbing through its rather beautiful shape alone. But when you look into how it would work, you can see that designer Roland Cernat has put a lot of thought into its greenness. It would be made of entirely recycled materials, and be recyclable itself, would have photovoltaic cells atop the wings for energy for eco-friendly propulsion and have an aerodynamically-efficient body. The body too would be made from a flax-based bio-compound that would be CO2 neutral. It's pretty much what green personal air-transport of the future should look like, which is why it's just won Roland the Lucky Strike Junior Designer Competition. Impressive, and I'd love to take it up and give it a spin, were it not just a concept. [Inhabitat]

Buy Your Own V22, Kinda: Bell 609 Civilian Tiltrotor Gets Rolled-Out

Forget the improbable promises of the Falx tiltrotor: Bell aircraft has rolled out its 609 civilian tiltrotor for real. Looking and flying like a smaller cousin of the military V22 Osprey, also a Bell vehicle, the 609 will undoubtedly please millionaire business people since it can perform all the rooftop-landing duties of a normal helicopter, but flies twice as fast and can fly 9 passengers up to 25,000 feet altitude. Plus, it'd be undeniably cooler to turn up at your meetings in something that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi flick versus something that reminds people of Magnum, PI. More »