Star Wars: Rocket-Powered 21-Foot Long X-Wing Model Actually Flies (Updated: New Pics Show It Even H ( 2007-10-03 )

Andy Woerner and his crazy rocketeer friends have built a 21-foot long X-Wing model that can actually fly. Yes, this is a real X-Wing powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines complete with radio-controlled moving wings. It blasts off in California next week, and we talked with Andy about the project, and how they expect it will do. All the details and a full construction gallery after the jump.

The X-Wing model is huge. At 21 feet long and with a wingspan of over 19 feet it is, in fact, big enough to fly a kid in. However, knowing that it will be powered by solid-fuel rockets, they wouldn't put a kid, dog, monkey or Gizmodo editor inside, even if it uses three full parachutes to land.

After drawing the plans using CAD software, Andy's team and his friends at Polecat Aerospace (with the help of RMS Laser and Aerotech Consumer Aerospace) used laser cutting to make the pieces out of Baltic Birch wood. They also used solid aluminum for some parts, like the rods which are the pivot point for the wings.

Why solid aluminum rods? For the most impressive part of the project to work, not only does the axis have to be strong enough to support the stress of the launch but also it has to allow the wings to change position from folded to open while in flight—or, in the words of Red Leader, putting them in attack position, the X that gives the Rebel aircraft its name.

The wings, including the root sections and the outer panels are about 8' long and weigh 60 pounds a piece, including the motors. The motion mechanism had to be able to move all four of these simultaneously, while keeping them in position relative to each other. Additionally, the motion hardware had to be strong enough to keep the wings in position once they were at the extents of their travel.

They used an electric motor from a RC helicopter, reducing its 40,000 revolutions per minute to generate enough torque to move those massive wings. Still, the wings will take 35 seconds to travel from open to closed. Hopefully, they will be able to change before the flight ends, so they can get the full effect in the air.

The wings also hold the engines. Andy told us they are using "four solid rocket motors which are Class M, the kind that produce a red flame"—which as you probably know, it's also the same color of the X-Wing engines' glow.

Even with the aluminum rods, however, there's the possibility of structural damage. We asked Andy about how he expected the flight to go: "it's likely we will have a structural failure in the wings, but we are hoping it will hold."

If it holds, the X-Wing will be fully recoverable. It won't land on its own, but Andy pointed out that they "will use parachute recovery, with three man-rated chutes which will have radio control deployment," like the wings position control.

When I first learnt about the project there was one thing that didn't click for me: why the X-Wing? It doesn't seem to have the right shape to be a rocket. Maybe a better option would have been an Y-Wing or A-Wing. But an X-Wing? Well, according to Andy, "it was the one design from Star Wars that made the most sense to try to scale for rocket power." And on top of that, it just looks cool. I completely agree.

The X-Wing will launch next week, on October 10, and we can only wish the project the best of luck. Godspeed Andy and friends, godspeed. [Polecat Aerospace - Thanks Andy for your time and Anthony for the heads up]

Secret Facilities: Camouflaged Fridge Chills, Hides Beer at the Office ( 2007-09-13 )

Yes, fridges can hold any bottles and cans, but if you find one camouflaged as a photocopy paper box in the office supply room, you know that it can only hold one thing: beer. Or in my case, Guinness. And tequila, Cointreau and limes as well. Next: an ice box posing as toner. [Dethroner]

Google Only Ahead Of Microsoft In Search: Ballmer ( 2007-11-08 )

Geek To Live: Taking Puppy Linux for a Walk ( 2007-10-05 )

Booting Linux from an external drive with the applications and settings of your choice has never been easier after this week's release of Puppy Linux 3.0. Like Damn Small Linux, Puppy is small enough to fit on a USB thumb drive, and like Knoppix , you can boot it from CD. Puppy can also add your favorite open source applications to the desktop and save multiple user profiles back to your writable CD or thumb drive, too. Let's take a look at how you can take your operating system, apps, data and user settings to go with Puppy Linux.

What You Can Do with Puppy

• Rescue files from the host PC's hosed hard drive or perform various maintenance tasks (like imaging that drive)
• Compute on a machine without leaving a trace—like browser history, cookies, documents or any other files—behind on the internal hard drive

What You'll Need

• A CD or DVD burner
  
• Software that can burn an .ISO file to CD or DVD, like ISO Recorder
  
• A thumb drive (the roomier the better, 1GB recommended)
  
• A PC that can boot to CD or USB drive (check your system's BIOS for more, hit the Setup key noted during your computer's boot sequence)
  
• The Puppy Linux 3.0 .ISO file. Download it here. (Alternate location.)

Set Up and Boot Puppy Linux for the First Time

When Puppy boots you'll have to answer a few questions before you see a desktop: what keyboard layout it should use (most likely the first choice, U.S.), and what video resolution it should use based on your video card and monitor. The video setting can be a bit hit or miss, but you can test the various options to find the one that works. (While I didn't have any trouble on a 5 year old Dell PC, at least one Lifehacker reader had a bit of trouble.) Once you start up X (Puppy's windowing system), you'll get a desktop that looks like this (click to enlarge):

Puppy doesn't automatically mount your thumb drives or connect to the network, you have to do that for it. As the instructions embedded on the desktop say, click on the Connect icon (just once, not twice!) to get your internet access set up. Here's what that looks like:

Here you see Puppy recognizes my one network interface—in this case, an Ethernet connection, eth0. Clicking on that and hitting the "Auto DHCP" button got me online immediately, and I could use the built-in browser and chat client.

You don't have to set up your network connection every time you boot Puppy. Once you've acquired an IP address, Puppy will ask you if you want to save the settings for your next session. (More on session info saving below.)

The other thing you'll want to do is mount your thumb drive, which Puppy also does not do by default. Click on the Drives icon, then select your flash drive (which should be plugged in, if not, do so and then click Refresh).

Save Your Puppy Linux Settings to Writable CD or USB Drive

Next time you boot up Puppy with the USB drive plugged in (or from that writable disk), it will automatically detect your session settings and the desktop will no longer have the initial run wallpaper included. It will look more like this (click to enlarge):

From here you can further customize your Puppy session (use multiple workspaces, set your desktop background, timezone, shortcuts, etc.) To save your session at any point to thumb drive, click once on the "Save" icon.

Add Applications to Puppy Linux

Here you can see I'm adding Firefox, Thunderbird, the Gimp, OpenOffice.org and an interesting looking money manager called PuppyMoney. It's a virtual software buffet!

Booting and Saving to Only a USB Drive

More Puppy Help and Resources

• Puppy Linux Video Tutorials (these are especially helpful)
  
• The Puppy Linux Documentation Project
  
• Puppy Linux Forums
  
• Quick Start Guide to Using Puppy

You give Puppy 3.0 a try? Let us know how it went in the comments.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, likes getting her Linux to go. Her weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Snoring: Computerized Pillow Reduces Snoring and Gives Neck Massages ( 2007-10-03 )

German scientist Daryoush Bazargani has invented a computerized pillow that can stop you from snoring. Where this one improves on previous attempts is that it actually tries to stop your snoring itself, rather than just telling you how you should have slept the next morning. Bazargani's pillow inflates and deflates different chambers to adjust your head and clear your airwaves. And the best part with this pillow is that even if it doesn't work, which usually these types of devices don't, it can still give you a neck massage. That's right, a snore-stopping, neck-massaging, computerized pillow! Where do we sign up for one of these? [Reuters]