Gearfuse

Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned fly swatter? I blame that damn rap music.

A fly will certainly know it’s facing impending doom when you cock your insect-targeted Glock in its direction. The Fly-Goodbye Gun features some sort of vacuum and internal tube adhesion system. While it does look pretty hardcore for a tool designed for small insect control, it’s really a kitten in disguise. A catch-and-release container allows no harm to come to the fly, other than a little scare perhaps.

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Just for the hell of it, Nokia decided to run a design competition, challenging competing designers to create headphones inspired by their favorite music. Some of the resulting designs, as expected, are pretty awesomely wacky. The design above is inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” complete with unearthed zombies and a pedophile werewolf.

After the jump, you can check out a second design called “I’m Flying,” which is apparently inspired by R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Piss On Teenage Girls Fly,” but reminds me more of A Flock of Seagulls for some reason. (more…)

Powering jet planes with eco-friendly biofuels such as algae has been done before and yet, I’m still being charged an arm and a leg by the airline companies who are still stuck in the past, burning up high emission jet fuels. Deep down in my heart I have always known that marijuana is not only a powerful medicine, but that hemp oil is also a useful and renewable energy source. Just ask DuPont.

Come early December, Air New Zealand will have a Boeing 747 fly off, powered by a new type of jet fuel made from marijuana. A mixture of both biofuel and conventional fuel will run one of the plane’s engines and the developers of the biofuel, UOP, are hoping it will cut down on carbon-dioxide emissions. They’re also hoping it will get everyone on board high as a kite.

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I know a lot of you out there are nuts about flying. It’s an expensive hobby, but someone’s got to do it. How else would I be able to get to Bangladesh? If you’re crazy about flying and I mean straight loony about it, then you won’t be afraid to learn how to fly all by yourself. Just kidding. No one in their right mind would let you jump into the cockpit of a plane without hours of experience behind a simulator. That’s where the CAE 7000 Series full-flight simulators come in.

British Airways Executive Club members have access to these top-of-the-line simulators which offer a wrap-around display, seating for a full cockpit crew, automated vocal warnings and full motion feedback. Even better – if you decide you want one in your home, it only costs fourteen million dollars to have CAE install and maintain it for you. Start saving now, because we both know that Microsoft Flight Simulator and Afterburner aren’t getting you anywhere. Neither will this thing, but it’s a better start.

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Since the days of The Jetsons and even long before that, mankind has dreamed of a fully operational hybrid flying car.  What would be better than being able to go airborne as soon as you hit some traffic? Moller International, the company devoted to making an affordable flying car, has announced their latest creation, the Autovolantor.

The flying car, although said to be revolutionary, is only capable of flying for about 15 minutes at up to 150 MPH. It’s fast but what happens when time runs out? You share the same fate as Steve Fossett, that’s what. I can’t see this vehicle becoming a commodity in my lifetime, though one can always dream.

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DJ Spock knows how to lay down the hot beats. As publicity stunt for the release of Star Trek Seasons 1, 2 & 3 on Amazon.com, CBS put this ad online that shows Spock, from Star Trek, hanging with Kirk on the Enterprise while mixing up some Vulcan rhythms that are so fly, your ears will turn pointy.  Bust out the beers, grab the Enterprise bottle opener, it’s time to get down.

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What in the blue fuck is this thing? The strangest looking compact three wheel concept car we’ve ever seen, even stranger than the Cerva MC08. It’s called the Kassou, which means “glide” in Japanese and it’s from designer Britisher Dunderdale. It came in second place at the Car Design News Contest 2008, most likely due to it’s unique flexible rubber neck that is capable of extending the driver seat for improved aerodynamics or increased inside headroom. A side-car could also be attached providing an extra storage for bags and even bikes.

Dunderdale’s design scored the highest for “unique and appealing design” within the professional designer category, but what’s the deal with the wings? It can’t glide or fly, so what’s the point? It wishes it could fly higher than Rick James and that Maverick Solo Jet, but that’s not happening with wings like that.

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Let’s face it, we all want to be as cool as The Rocketeer. Fighting Nazis as a masked hero with a jetpack doesn’t get any cooler. Now a jetpack is hitting the mainstream market. Martin Jetpack is the world’s first practical jetpack and it was launched in action at Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture, right around the time of Virgin’s White Knight 2 launch.

Though the FAA is labeling it as an “experimental ultralight airplane, equipped with a gas-powered, V-4 piston engine and two ducted fans that provide the lift,” we all know it’s a jetpack used to fight off zombie Nazis. With the Martin Jetpack, one is able to hover for around 30 minutes and reach heights up to 8,000 feet. Good luck completing that nauseating 15 hour flight training after purchasing one for $100,000. Which, surprisingly enough, is way cheaper than those Rocket Belts.

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While we aren’t at the point where we’ll be flying sky-high with cars like we’re the Jetsons, we’re getting there. The Parajet Skycar is the world’s first carbon-neutral flying car. In actuality, it’s a dune buggy with a parachute and propeller, able to reach altitudes as high as 15,000 ft.

If in the extreme circumstance the car stalls on you, well, you still got that parachute with ya’. It only takes about three minutes for it to go from land to air, which is faster than any commercial airline you’ll ever take. They’re planning to sell it for $70,000 dollars, unless of course air traffic control has something to say about it.

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“I’m not the chair they think I am at home, oh no. I’m a Rocket Chair!” or so says Sir Elton John. There are so many cultural references to be made here, I’m losing my mind. Whether it be the spousal abuse overtones of The Honeymooners or 1970’s pop-rock songs, it never ends!

Yet, I digress. The Rocket Chair is the creation of Ky Michaelson, aka the Rocketman. Take a seat and strap yourself in because the 500-pound thrust hydrogen-peroxide engine mounted on this baby will set you airborne for a exhilarating 45 seconds. There is so much thrust put out by this engine that all seven gallons of fuel are guzzled up in the short flight.

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