Gizmodo: pneumatic

Cool Concept: Handheld Electric Pneumatic Gun

Brian Lam — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:59:59 EDT

Here's a great idea that DeWalt should get their asses on: A handheld 18-volt air gun that can be used to dust, airbrush, or fill up basketballs or bike tires. I'd get one if it meant less time on the bike pump, and it could start a new genre of krylon-free, duel-wielding graf artists. Found this cool gem of a fantasy gadget over at the newly designed and even sexier Core77 website. [Core77]

Gigantic LEGO Tomcat F-14 Ready to Take Off

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:26:00 EDT

We have seen some amazing LEGO aircrafts in the past, but this F-14 Tomcat has to be the most awesome LEGO plane to date. In fact, it's so technically complex—most parts, including cannons, swing wings, landing gears, brakes, flaps, air intake doors, are electric and pneumatically controlled—that builder Jeroen Ottens got a dream job in Denmark as a Technic designer. Looking at the list of features, we are not surprised:

• Electric controlled
• Canopy
• Cannon
• Swing wings
• Landing gear
• Landing gear bay doors
• Steering of front wheel
• 2 Engines
• Pneumatic compressor
• Pneumatically controlled
• Brakes (main fuselage+wings)
• Arrester hook
• Flaps (front & aft on main wings)
• Glove vanes
• Air Intake Control System doors
• Main landing gear lock
• Manual controlled
• Vertical flaps
• Differentially controlled stabilators
• Air fuel intake nozzle
• Ejection seats

It may not fly like the A-10 RC model, but Jeroen's creation is equally as impressive on its own right. [Flickr via Brothers Brick]

Inventor Demos Soft Pneumatic Exoskeleton, a Good Getaway Suit

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:45:00 EDT

We caught a quick glimpse of the Soft Pneumatic Exoskeleton before, but here inventor Che-Wei Wang demonstrates it on himself, explaining how the system gives added power to limbs at key moments. He can power it with a mini scuba tank or one of those CO2 cartridge for pellet guns, but the usage is limited by the capacity of gas you can carry. Ideal scenarios he says include hard landings—dudes involved in "parkour" street jumping could use it to avoid ripping up their kneecaps. Wang says future applications include a memory mode, where a famous athlete wears it to capture some signature maneuver that some punkass non-athlete can then copy, just by donning the same model exoskeleton and jacking the software. How's that for Johnny Mnemonic meets The Matrix meets Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? [CWWang.com; ITP 2008]