Because when the A5 isn't being flow around...wherever people fly these days...its wings can fold up (manually or automatically) for storage in a large garage—which makes a lot of sense for a plane that features a dash that more closely resembles a car than a jet.

But maybe the best part is that the A5 comes with a parachute for the whole plane. So if you are too nervous/inebriated to land, just let the wonder of cloth do the work for you, landing you safely on someone's roof (and subsequently their living room). Order yours today for a refundable $5,000 deposit. [ICON via popmech]

We'll be honest, we don't even care that we'd be wearing video glasses. It looks like incredibly fun. [Product via Gearfuse]

[Video and images courtesy of Bob Parrish]

"This year we have 125 partipants," show organizer Frank Tiano told us, "with 40 hobby vendors and coverage from 35 magazined from all over the world." In a good weather day, Top Gun gets 10,000 drooling spectators.

Looking at the detail and size of these beasts, we can understand exactly why.

Frank also confirmed to us that the A-10 featured in Popsci.com was going to participate in the competition, as well as many other new entries. So if you are around, it's a complete must, Maverick's glasses not required (but recommended.) [Top Gun—photos by Palmer Johnson, DVD video available from Wildberry Productions]

NOTE: if you're planning on assisting the Top Gun 2008 event, contact us at tips@gizmodo.com if you want to collaborate with us.

Although similar installations already exist on military aircraft, this will be the first time urinals will be available on commercial flights. As well as using less water than conventional sit-and-flush toilets, the urinals could lead to separate loos for men and women—which can only be a good thing, as my experience as a frequent flyer on the Madrid—London Gatwick route attests.

Norbert Runn, Dassler's head of Business Development, expects the urinals to go in economy class, where the majority of passengers are men. He declined to say which airlines were considering the move, but the urinals, which take up less space than the current cubicles, could well be fitted on Boeing 747s and the 380 Airbus. [Telegraph]

Virgin America has been retrofitting their entire fleet with the necessary hardware whereas American Airlines is only running a trial on 15 planes. The service will bring a 2Mbps EVDO Rev. A connection and will actually be upgradeable to Rev. B or faster hardware in the future. So what's the fee for this magical in-flight service? Cross-country flights will cost $12.95 and shorter flights of 3 hours or less will be $9.95.

As for what limitations the airlines will set is still not clear, but with a spring launch, 2Mbs connection, and near $10 fee we can't help but be all hyped-up, so much so it's making us scream, "Let's gogo go!"[gogo via gigaom]

It's claimed that the truck now houses the largest turbine motor of any land vehicle in the world, with the ability to blow over a full-sized SUV behind it. Note to self: never, under any circumstance, park your car behind a firetruck that can likely fly into space under its own power...unless I can sneak some sweet free leftover minutes from a public meter...then it may be worth the risk. [lifeontop via crave]

There are six crew on the plane, which is missing a wing and a chunk of the tail. Gupta plays the role of captain, while his wife serves drinks and trays of airline food to the passengers alongside the other stewardesses.

As the passengers listen to Gupta's announcements regarding turbulence and the descent into Delhi, the fact that the bathrooms are out of order, the air conditioning is powered by generator and they are still seeing the same view out of the window does not faze the passengers one bit.

Just one percent of Indians have experienced plane travel for real, but Gupta's virtual flight—which includes a safety demonstration—wows his employees (who hope that their work as static air hostesses will lead to the real thing one day) as well as the customers. One of Gupta's Saturday passengers, a young teacher, described the experience as "more beautiful than [she] ever imagined." [Times Online]

The researchers behind the electric motor, known as the E-Flight Team, used 80 Lithium Polymer batteries and packed them into 10 safe boxes, each with a blowhole to safely direct fire or explosion out via an exhaust.

Current flying time is around 45 minutes, but Sonex, which declined to talk about prices and potential launch dates, is hoping to get this up to about an hour. [Sonex via Aero-News Network]

Rear-mounted "open-rotor" engines offer unrivalled environmental performance for short-haul flying due to their higher propulsive efficiency. However, the significant difficulties in fixing such a large engine beneath the wing of a narrow-body aircraft, make rear-mounting of the engines the best solution.

A lower design cruise speed to reduce drag and a shorter design range to reduce weight. Will someone please tell Mr Harrison to duck, because there's another plane heading straight for his ear.

Noise reductions are expected to come from a gear box between the engine and the open-rotor blades keeping them subsonic during take-off and landing, the use of the rear empennage to shield the ground from engine noise, and airframe improvements (such as no slats on the front of the wing).

The airframe will be made of advanced weight-reducing materials similar to those used in current projects like the Boeing 787, which itself is estimated to be 27% more fuel efficient than the aircraft it will replace in many fleets.

Nothing about improving their rotten food, though, which without a doubt increases EasyJet passengers' gas emissions. [EasyJet press release and O'Reilly-GMT]

The standard USB-capable version costs you $34.99, but the $44.99 version will come with an iPod tip that supports the nano, the nini, 4G, 5G, and the iPhone. There's even a bundle with mini USB chargers for BlackBerry, Motorola, and Windows Mobile phones for the same price. If you're looking for both, then $49.99 Power Executive Bundle should satisfy.

Product Page [InFlightPower via MacWorld]

There've been 70 successful firings on the ground, and the laser should be enough to destroy "many" missiles depending on how fast the 747 can reach firing distance. The eventual goal is to have the laser planes—each worth a cool $1.5 billion—make up the US' laser plane fleet.

Political battles over the Airborne Laser [Crave via Sci Fi]

A week on, we have our answer. Swedish Airforce investigators have concluded that the incident was all down to a problem with the pilot's hi-tech pants. Find out what led to the pilot saying "Sayonara cockpit" and "Hello parachute canopy" after the jump.

The pilot was wearing a standard air-force-issue G-suit, also known as Speed Jeans, inflatable pants which blow up as the G-Forces increase during high-energy movements. These blow-up trousers squeeze the pilot's legs, thus preventing blackouts, tunnel vision and, I suppose, impure thoughts about that hot chick with the ear protectors and neon lollipops who's been waving him into the hanger this past month.

What the investigators think happened is that the pants, in their aerated state, nudged against the ejector button and caused the pilot to whoosh-boom outtathere before he could even say, "Mälmø, we have a problem." It seems that fingers are being pointed at the trousers. "When subjected to large forces the suit fills with air," said Mats Helgesson of Central Command. "This is thought to have affected the ejector switch."

Now, Justin Timberlake's people might have called Janet Jackson's nipple-slippage during that Super Bowl performance a "wardrobe malfunction." If that was a wardrobe malfunction, then exploding strides leading to a high-speed fighter jet having carnal relations with the ground are verily (I say unto thee) a wardrobe atrocity. For the moment, the Swedish air force has restricted the newest-gen Gripens, whose pilots wear the wrong pants, to a paltry maximum 3g. Older models (and pants) are, apparently, not affected. – Ad Dugdale

Defective automatic trousers hurl pilot from plane [The Register]

In it, you've got a bar, many couches, beds, meeting rooms, stairs, some more couches, and even a place to house your BMW for when you get off. This is the way Bond would fly. If he could blow $15 million of his government's money on a poker game, he can afford a fancy plane. – Jason Chen

BMW presents Bond-style 787 cabin concept for Russian tycoon [Flightglobal]

During the trial run, each customer will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about the service at the end of the flight—hopefully most people will be smart enough to write that the service drove them to contemplate gruesome suicide, otherwise Air France will be deploying the tech, which uses a "leaky cable" for signal conversion, on all of its flights.

We can only hope that if worse comes to worst, the probable $2.50-a-call fee will cause fliers with "leaky" mouths to do their best to keep them plugged. – Matt Buchanan

Air France to trial in-flight mobile use from July [Silicon via Crave]

Wi-Fi in the Sky [WSJ via the Consumerist]

Video of the aerial cam after the jump:

This info came to me by Wired's Geek Dad Blog, which is maybe their best blog yet. Maybe that's because more than a few editors there are entering parenthood right now. I can feel the excitement for both their kids and the granular tech coming through in each post; that's something you don't feel in every big-picture tech story.

P.S. I've done round ups of R/C Plane reviews for Wired, and I'd think many of those models I'd recommended then, are as good or better now.–Brian Lam

Geek Dad Blog [Wired]

Virgin Galactic, NASA Team Up to Develop Space-plane Travel [National Geographic News via OhGizmo!]

– Louis Ramirez

Radical New Boeing Aircraft Takes Flight [Business 2.0 via FayerWayer]

Also, you'll live in a gated community, so you won't have to worry about any pesky minorities or hobos making you uncomfortable. The good life, yessiree! –Adam Frucci

Heaven's Landing [via Oh Gizmo!]

Mexican Airline Rents iPods [Reuters]

The way the QSST is able to keep itself so quiet lies in its aerodynamics. Instead of creating two large booms like most supersonic planes, the QSST is designed to create many smaller ones. (boom, boom boom, boom, boom.)

Gizmodo sure could use one of these to get to all of the tech conventions around the world. Especially since I get so bored on long flights that Chen said that I'm like sitting next to a toddler.– Ben Longo

All Sonic, No Boom [PopSci]

The screens are 9-inch and touchscreen, which are powered by an actual individual PC running Linux. These are all interconnected via Ethernet, which grab streaming video off of three file servers in the plane's belly. You can listen to music, watch TV, get pay-per-view movies, or even order food from the touchscreen.

The best part? They ported a bunch of Linux games—including Doom— so you can play it right on the screen. – Jason Chen

Thanks Ibelli!

Lockheed Martin sheepishly admits that fixes are on the way, scheduled for the 2008 to 2013 timeframe. Meanwhile, those pilots better learn to talk fast. Maybe they could go to a school for auctioneers. – Charlie White

Fixing the Raptor [Defense Tech]

Apparently there are two types of WiFi service, which is then customized for each provider. The first is Connexion by Boeing, and the second is OnAir by Airbus. There's also a third type, cellular air-to-ground, which is only useful in continental US flights and isn't really adopted seriously yet.

You can bet we're booking one of these airlines when we go on vacation. Liveblogging from the plane? Oh yes.

– Jason Chen

The DEFINITIVE guide to Airline WiFi and Internet Access [OTBeach]

It's amazing to me when an airport doesn't have free wi-fi. I know it's another way to make money, but in an industry that goes bankrupt every few years anyway, why not give fliers golden EVDO cards upon entering a carrier's terminal?

Wi-fi Free Spot posted a list of airports with free wi-fi. Biggies like Dallas and Chicago (Midway and O'hare) aren't on the list - which is a shame. In fact, most airports with free wi-fi are smaller (which on one hand makes sense - expense - and on the other hand does not - resources).

Hit the jump for their best tip to find free wi-fi at any airport. And let us know if you have any wi-fi tips for travelers. – Mark Wilson

Free Wi-Fi in Airports [via randomgoodstuff]
ImageLink

"A Pilot has told me that most FBO's (Fixed Base Operators are the service stations for corporate aircraft) which are located at almost all airports large and small are offering unrestricted WIFI service in their facilities. Go to the general aviation facility for any airport, ask where corporate aircraft arrive and depart, go into the facility and ask them if you can use the WIFI capability. Most of these FBO's have waiting areas and some provide separate computer rooms (like a large phone booth) as well as the ability to print."

I just flew first class from Seattle to Dallas and it was horrible. I was upgraded during a full flight only to get drink service once (I'm actually using their horrid vocabulary) in 90-degree cabin heat. The only luxury was a seat designed for a normal human being. Next time I go first class, it will be on the United Arab Emirates. You get a luxury cubicle, full movie selection, noise-canceling headphones and lots of neat buttons. Just give me the buttons. – Mark Wilson

[via uberreview]