This will be the last edition of Light Start for a while. We’ve already cut it down a little and now it’s time for Light Start to take a break/go on hiatus/have a freaking nap. We’ll be back and full-sized in January 2016.
When first class isn’t enough, you might want to take a seat on the plane’s roof
Right, like this thing isn’t going to have its own dedicated cleanup crew and vomit-proof surfaces. What you’re looking at, either in the header image or in the video (website has the latter, folks), is the Skydeck, an optional feature from aerospace company Windspeed. What the Skydeck is is a couple of seats that are either permanently affixed to the roof of the place or which can be placed there, inside a protective bubble. The point is to get passengers to sit and experience air travel from the top of the plane, something that a premium could be charged for. But… there’s that hurling risk we’ve mentioned. You’d need a fairly strong stomach to not lose your lunch the first time you see the plane bank through cloud from the very top. Or maybe that’s just us. The Skydeck is still a concept for now, but that will change if Windspeed get their way. We’re not sure whether to be impressed or afraid.
Source: Gizmodo
This is the V16 monster Devel Sixteen’s engine test
If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a Dubai company out to build the world’s most powerful road car. The car and company share the same name, the Devel Sixteen, and this V16-engined supercar is supposed to be quite unique. Able to switch between V8 (for normal driving) and V16 (for… we don’t know, actually) modes, the Devel Sixteen is supposed to be a 5,000 horsepower vehicle able to hit 560km/h – though to be fair we haven’t seen it do anything like that yet. What we do have is an engine test for the V16 block, which tops out at 4,515 horsepower – all that the testing equipment was able to measure, apparently. At some point they’re going to drop this thing into a car and we’ll see it on a track or, more likely, an airstrip. Whether the driver of this road car will survive… that’s another story.
Source: Devel Sixteen (YouTube)
One day the XSTAT 30 blood sponge gun could save your life
One of the largest risks when faced with a traumatic wound is that of bleeding out – losing so much blood that your body is unable to continue functioning. The solution is usually to keep pressure on a wound but that’s not always effective. The bleeding need to be considerably slowed or stopped and there’s now a more effective way to do that. And it comes in gun form. Called the XSTAT 30, this is a gun that ‘fires’ sponge particles which expand on contact with moisture, potentially filling wound cavities and staunching bleeding long enough for victims to get to a hospital. We mention this now because the FDA in the States has just cleared the XSTAT 30 for general use. It has been tested on battlefields and in combat for the past year and has proven to be an effective tool to “…help civilian first responders control some severe, life-threatening bleeding while on the trauma scene.” Which is why it’s being cleared for use on normal people instead of soldiers. Check out the video above to see the XSTAT 30 in action. On a jar of blue fluid rather than a trauma victim, we’re not monsters. Now if we could just ship it to paramedics worldwide, please?
Source: via Digital Trends
