LEO Flight introduces the concept electric Solo JetBike, a hovering personal air vehicle for pilots without a license. Described as a one-person electric aircraft, it operates at low altitude and uses electric propulsion instead of propellers. The vehicle, which follows the still-concept LEO Coupe car-like aircraft, runs on what the team calls a proprietary electric-jet propulsion system, which uses multiple electric jets. They’re small and enclosed within the frame, as the company hopes this can eliminate propellers entirely.

The concept electric Solo JetBike by LEO Flight measures 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet, compact enough to fit in the owner’s garage. When they park it on their property, they can also plug in and recharge the vehicle using the port from their house, similar to how electric cars charge at home. Design-wise, the frame of the vehicle includes a roll-hoop structure, which surrounds the pilot and provides protection in case of a rollover or impact. The structure also serves as the mounting point for the multiple electric jet units, which cause ‘low noise,’ as the company describes it.

all images courtesy of LEO Flight

Pilots need no license to operate the personal air vehicle

For the electric Solo JetBike, LEO Flight installs solid-state batteries as its power source to store the electrical energy that powers the jet propulsion system. The company has also designed the air vehicle to operate under FAA Part 103 regulations, covering ultralight vehicles. This classification means pilots do not need a license to operate the vehicle, and the regulations set weight limits and operational restrictions for vehicles in this category. The electric Solo JetBike by LEO Flight then has electronic systems that limit its performance parameters, with its speed limit sitting at 60 mph and the altitude limit being 15 feet above ground level to keep the vehicle within regulations.

The company says that the flight time ranges from 10 to 15 minutes per charge, and it depends on how the pilot operates the vehicle and the battery charge level. After the battery depletes, the pilot must land and recharge before flying again. The noise level measures approximately 80 decibels during operation, which may be roughly the same volume as a garbage disposal or a busy street. The enclosed jet design is dubbed to contribute to the noise reduction compared to open propeller systems. The multiple jets distribute thrust across several points on the frame, so if one jet fails or loses power, the others continue to operate. So far, the electric Solo JetBike by LEO Flight has undergone prototype testing, and the company has opened its pool of pre-reservations with no release date yet.

view of the LEO Flight LX1-R Technology Demonstrator which is set to be applied to the Solo JetBike

the prototype test aims to validate the performance, safety, and controllability of the personal air vehicle

the altitude limit is 15 feet above ground level

view from below of the prototype

current design version of the electric Solo JetBike by LEO Flight

the electric aircraft operates at low altitude and uses electric propulsion

it is compact enough to fit the owner’s garage

the vehicle uses multiple electric jets instead of propellers

the frame of the vehicle includes a roll-hoop structure

project info:

name: Solo JetBike

company: LEO Flight | @leoflightcorp

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Meet the Ford Nucleon, an atomic-powered concept vehicle with a nuclear reactor that Ford Motor Company never produced. Presented to the public in 1958, the project proposed a car that would run on nuclear power instead of gasoline. It came from the car manufacturer’s Advanced Styling Studio, whose premise was to work on projects that looked 10 to 20 years into the future. The American industrial and automotive designer George W. Walker led the styling division of the atomic-powered car Ford Nucleon.

He believed that concept cars should create publicity and reportedly told the designers to develop ideas that would pique the public’s interest, even when the technology didn’t exist yet. Joining him were James R. Powers, who drew the Nucleon design, and Alex Tremulis, who headed the Advanced Styling Studio. The Nucleon project started as an exercise in packaging, with the leads asking the styling team to design a vehicle with a heavy power source mounted in the rear instead of a front-mounted gas engine. James Powers realized that placing a heavy reactor in the back meant the passenger cabin needed to move forward to balance the weight. This created the cab-forward design that defines the atomic car Ford Nucleon’s overall look.

Ford Nucleon Scale Model, 1958 | image courtesy of The Henry Ford Museum from its collections

bubble’ houses cabin, referencing fighter jet cockpits

The resulting vehicle was part of an exploration of future transportation that included flight, nuclear power, and aerodynamics. It measured 200 inches in total length with a wheelbase of 69 inches (the wheelbase is less than 6 feet on a 17-foot car). This means the vehicle had large overhangs at both ends and that the front wheels sat under the passenger cabin. The rear wheels are positioned far back to support the reactor weight. The short wheelbase would allow the car to turn in cities, but it created handling problems with the heavy rear load. Then, the passenger cabin extended beyond the front axle. This cab-forward design served two functions. First, it balanced the weight of the nuclear reactor behind the rear axle. Second, it maximized distance between occupants and the radiation source. The cabin features a cantilever roof, which allows a windshield with no pillars and a curved rear window. 

A ‘bubble’ houses the cabin, an element referencing fighter jet cockpits and appearing on other 1950s concept cars like the Lincoln Futura. Since the nuclear reactor would generate waste heat that must leave the system, James Powers placed air intakes at the front edge of the roof to channel cooling air toward the reactor at the rear. The team also added more intakes into the roof support pillars. The rear section of the atomic car Ford Nucleon holds the Power Capsule with twin tailfins that could stabilize it for high-speed travel. The fins created a V-angle that drew attention to the reactor location, and the bumpers retracted to reduce air resistance during highway driving. Ford planned to make the body panels from aluminum to reduce weight to offset the lead shielding that the reactor required. Then, the propulsion system would work as a closed-loop steam cycle.

scale model of the Nucleon, a 1958 Ford Motor Company styling conception for an atomic-powered car | image courtesy of The Henry Ford from its collections

drivers would not need to refuel the car with nuclear reactor

A small nuclear reactor using Uranium-235 fission would generate heat, and then this heat would transfer through a primary coolant loop to a steam generator. The steam generator would turn water into high-pressure steam, and the steam would drive turbines. One turbine would power the propulsion system. Another turbine would run cooling pumps and electrical generators. After passing through the turbines, the steam would cool in a condenser and return to liquid water. The system would pump this water back to the boiler to repeat the cycle. 

Ford recognized that car owners could not handle uranium fuel rods, so the company proposed a service model based on the replaceable Power Capsule. Owners would never refuel the car, and when the core depleted after 5,000 miles, the driver would visit a specialized Ford station. Technicians would remove the entire Power Capsule and install a fresh one.  The atomic car Ford Nucleon started to face problems that made production impossible. The main issue was radiation shielding weight. A fission reactor releases neutrons and gamma rays, and gamma rays need dense materials like lead or tungsten to block them.

the project would run on nuclear power instead of gasoline | image courtesy of The Henry Ford from its collections

Neutrons require hydrogen-rich materials like water or concrete to slow them down.  A reactor producing 100 to 200 horsepower would need shielding that weighs approximately 50 tons. George Walker stated the design assumed reactor bulk and shielding weight would decrease in the future, but this assumption was reportedly wrong. The physics of how radiation interacts with matter cannot change through engineering, making the 50-ton shielding around the concept vehicle immovable. The second problem of the atomic car Ford Nucleon was heat rejection. 

The concept vehicle only had air, and the roof intakes James Powers designed could not remove the waste heat the reactor would produce. The third problem was accident safety since a traffic collision that breached the containment vessel would release radioactive steam and core material. Even if the vehicle was never produced in the end, a ⅜ scale and non-functional model of it exists today at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, inside the Driving America exhibit. The museum has loaned it to other institutions, including the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas. Studio photographs from 1957 to 1958 show Ford built at least two models during development. One was plaster for studying forms. One was fiberglass for the final show model. The surviving artifact is the fiberglass version.

nuclear reactor mounted in the rear | image courtesy of The Henry Ford from its collections

project info:

name: 1959 Ford Nucleon

company: Ford Motor Company | @ford

museum: Henry Ford Museum | @thehenryford

location: 20900 Oakwood Blvd, Dearborn, Michigan

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The Tiny House project in the commune of Niederanven marks the first use of 3D printing for a full residential structure in Luxembourg. Designed by ODA Architects in collaboration with Coral Construction Technologies, the structure covers 47 square meters of usable space, with each printing phase lasting less than 28 hours. The main purpose of the project is to test how 3D printing can produce housing in a faster and more affordable way in hopes of relieving the housing crisis that the country has been confronting.

The 3D printed Tiny House also shows how a structure can work with low energy use by installing solar panels on the roof to power up the home. The electricity also supplies energy to the film-based heating system under the floor, eliminating the need for water pipes or radiators. The architect’s goal is to keep the house simple to run and maintain, and in fact, the team has filled the walls with insulation made with low-impact materials after printing to reduce the energy use in the long term.

all images courtesy of ODA Architects | photos by BoysPlayNice

Green areas surround the cement structure

Going through the design of the 3D printed Tiny House, the interior has clear zones for different activities. When a person enters the house from the south side, they arrive in a small entrance hall, where a corridor starts. It connects the entrance with all the main rooms, which leads to the bathroom, a technical area, and at the end, the bedroom. To the left of the entrance is the living space combined with the kitchen and dining room in one continuous area. 

This construction also has a door that opens to the terrace on the south side to give access to the outdoor space and connects the interior to the surrounding open areas. A main design idea is to connect the 3D printed Tiny House by ODA Architects with nature around it. The entrance in the center of the south wall gives quick access to the garden, and the structure has openings that face the north and northeast green areas to fulfill this design vision.

the Tiny House project is designed by ODA Architects in collaboration with Coral Construction Technologies

prototype can show potential affordable housing in europe

The company Coral Construction Technologies says that the project shows how 3D printing is used to build residences in a market with high housing costs. It adds that Luxembourg requires around 7,000 new apartments per year, but current output delivers under 4,000, and this gap produces high prices and long development timelines. A small 47 m² apartment in Luxembourg City costs more than EUR 560,000, but the 3D printed Tiny House runs an estimated cost of about one-third less and can be placed on sites not suitable for larger construction. 

The construction reduces the need for manual labor, but on the upside, there’s less use of heavy machinery and decreased waste because the printer follows exact digital instructions. The municipality of Niederanven integrates the 3D printed Tiny House into the Hei wunne bleiwen program, which aims to provide starter housing for young residents who take part in community programs. The house is expected to be rented to its first tenant for a ten-year lease, and in addition, the project includes a plan to plant 21 trees to offset emissions from the production process. So far, the current structure stands as a prototype, with the goal to use it to inform future decisions about whether this method can support larger programs for affordable housing in Luxembourg and other European countries.

the structure is located in the commune of Niederanven

the project covers 47 square meters of usable space

each printing phase lasts less than 28 hours

the house runs on low energy use through the solar panels on the roof

view inside the project

view of the bedroom

under and strips of light illuminate the spaces

view of the bathroom

the architect’s goal is to keep the house simple to run and maintain

project info:

name: Tiny House

architecture: ODA Architects | @odaarchitects.lu

construction: Coral Construction Technologies | @coral_3dcp

collaboration: ICE Industrial Services, HSF System

photography: BoysPlayNice | @boysplaynice

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Can electric cars double as power generators for homes without electricity and neighborhoods experiencing blackouts and outages? In the recent announcement of Polestar, the company is using its Polestar 3 to supply energy to homes with bi-directional charging. The brand is working with the home energy company, dcbel, to make the first version of the system in California in the US. The setup comes in three main parts. Drivers bring over their Polestar 3 model next to their house. Then, they set up the home energy unit from dcbell called Ara.

The last is the software that manages the energy flow between the vehicle, house, and electrical grid, transforming the car into a power generator while parked. The company says that when the vehicle sits at home, it can send stored energy from its battery into the house and transfer it back to the grid when the grid needs support. It is how bi-directional charging works, since the battery operates in two directions, meaning it can take in electricity from the home charger. Polestar is also already preparing a second version of this project in Germany and later in other European markets, when the brand releases a home charger called Zaptec Go2.

image courtesy of Polestar, showcasing its bi-directional charging plan

Case studies of using EVs to supply temporary energy

What Polestar is doing continues the documented cases of using electric cars as power generators. Reports have stated that during the Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which struck southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales in Australia, some EV owners used the vehicle-to-load (V2L) option to power up their appliances during the blackouts. This method sends power directly from an electric car battery to external appliances using an adapter plugged into the charging port or a cabin outlet. In the news, an Ioniq 6 owner powered up their lights and major household appliances and ran a small air conditioner for six hours using only 28 percent of its battery capacity.​

In Brisbane, a story shares that a family who owns an MG4 hatchback supplied energy to their appliances using their vehicle’s battery. There was also a report here where a 2013 Nissan Leaf connected a simple inverter to the electric car to turn it into a power generator and keep his and his family’s fridge running and devices charged while using roughly 10 percent of the battery capacity per day. Then, a Kia EV9 and Ford F-150 Lightning owner was able to convert his electric car’s energy into a power generator after losing grid power around his property.

image by chuttersnap | read more here

bi-directional charging can be useful for future blackouts

Other cases of using electric cars as power generators include the PG&E Pilot Program in California in 2023. The company collaborated with Ford to launch a residential pilot program in Northern and Central California and use the Ford F-150 Lightning as a reserved energy supplier. Phase 1 tested the vehicle-to-home backup power applications, with Phase 2 launching vehicle-to-grid capabilities in the second half of 2024 to let customers supply power during peak demand periods. A year later, in a 2024 study by Australian National University, 16 Nissan Leaf vehicles in Canberra provided the ‘first documented and real-world demonstration of vehicle-to-grid technology’ by responding to a grid emergency when a major storm caused Loy Yang A, a large coal-fired generator in Victoria, to fail. 

The four vehicles that were actively charging immediately began discharging power into the grid, while the 12 idle vehicles activated their discharge capability on their own. These 16 EVs, then, stabilized the national grid. At the moment, only a handful of electric cars can supply energy to homes as power generators. They’re quite expensive and over time may cause battery health degradation to the vehicles. Adopting bi-directional charging, however, is rapidly being explored, and once it has scaled up, it can be helpful to neighborhoods without electricity, even those in remote areas, to turn their electric cars into temporary power generators.

electric cars can be power generators for homes using the process caled bi-directional charging

image by Mike Bird, via Pexels

image by Ed Harvey, via Pexels

project info:

name: Bi-directional charging

companies: Polestar, dcbel | @polestarcars, @dcbel.energy

cases: PG&E Pilot Program, Australian National University

The post are electric cars the next power generators for homes without electricity? appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Google explores building data centers in space using constellations of solar-powered satellites to meet the computing demands of AI machines and models on Earth. Named Project Suncatcher, the research project expects to use the energy directly from the sun to run the data centers equipped with solar panels, which, as a result, can handle more computing power and energy used by machine learning systems and language models on Earth.

The proposal describes an AI space-based data center made of many small satellites, each equipped with solar panels, computing chips, and communication systems. These satellites would orbit the Earth in a formation, creating a cluster that works like one large computer network. The system would use Google Tensor Processing Units, which are chips made for machine learning and have already been tested for radiation and can survive about five years in orbit without permanent damage. The design includes solar arrays to collect energy, heat pipes and radiators to control temperature, and free-space optical communication links to connect the satellites.

image courtesy of NASA, via Unsplash

Google’s project suncatcher uses solar-powered satellites

An additional design element for Google’s AI data centers in space includes optical links that use light instead of radio waves to send data for faster communication between satellites and reduce delay. Each satellite would fly close to others in a formation about one kilometer wide, and the formation would be managed by machine learning models that control position and movement to avoid collisions. The satellites would orbit in constant sunlight to help the solar panels collect power without interruption, and the position also reduces the time needed to send data back to Earth (but the company says some delay in communication might still happen depending on ground locations).

Cooling is a major part of the design. Because space has no air, heat from the chips must move through solid materials to the radiators, releasing heat into space, so the team plans to use advanced thermal interface materials to transfer heat efficiently without mechanical parts. The plan also focuses on modular satellite design by building smaller satellites instead of one large structure to reduce the risk and costs. If one satellite fails, others can continue operating. Launching smaller units is also cheaper, as future launch costs to low-Earth orbit are expected to fall to about 200 USD per kilogram by the 2030s. The research describes building AI data centers in space as a milestone since they could perform like a normal Earth-based data center. Later on, Google plans to test real satellite communication and flight control and, over time, improve each part, including better cooling, stronger chip protection from radiation, and automated fault recovery.

image courtesy of Allison Saeng, via Unsplash

image generated on Gemini using the prompt ‘solar-powered satellited’

image courtesy of Ian Battaglia, via Unsplash

project info:

name: Project Suncatcher

company: Google | @google

research: here

The post google plans to build AI data centers in space using solar-powered satellites appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

This is the Makeshift Traveler, a solar-powered backpack by HomeMore Project that comes with a sleeping bag and pillow and supports individuals looking for permanent housing. An initiative by the HomeMore Project, the accessory is tailored to the needs of the individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness, allowing them to sustainably navigate their situation until they obtain permanent shelter. For the team, the Makeshift Traveler should be the last backpack that the user will carry on their back, the mark that signals the end of their journey on the streets.

Looking at the design of the solar-powered backpack, the hardshell exterior allows for a weatherproof surface so the individuals’ personal belongings are safe and stashed inside regardless of the environmental conditions. On top of it lies the solar panel that stores the energy within the accessory’s battery bank, letting the individuals charge their devices using a USB port. The latter part also features cables to charge the backpack as soon as the user has access to a wall charger. At the bottom of the MakeShift Traveler, the HomeMore Project team embeds a urethane-coated nylon pillow in their solar-powered backpack. In this way, users can rest without needing to bring an extra pillow, lockable using a double zipper system to ward off thieves and protect the individuals’ personal belongings, too.

all images courtesy of HomeMore Project

Makeshift traveler includes useful kits in the accessory

The pillow and panel aren’t the only ones individuals have when they carry the solar-powered backpack by the HomeMore Project. The Makeshift Traveler also includes an FM/AM radio and a pair of headphones, a rechargeable LED flashlight with three modes, a 24-ounce water bottle, a rain pocket coat, a hygiene kit, a security lock, and a pair of bombas socks. There’s also a foldable tent included to temporarily shelter the individuals from extreme weather conditions, and outside, strapped at the bottom of the solar-powered backpack, the team from HomeMore Project even adds a sleeping bag with a nylon outer and a fuzzy inside to keep the users warm day and night.

The HomeMore Project worked on developing the Makeshift Traveler for 18 months after gathering first-hand feedback and observations in the Tenderloin Neighborhood of San Francisco, California, where many individuals seek shelter on the streets. On October 1st, 2022, the team launched the solar-powered backpack, delivering more than 1,200 models to individuals experiencing homelessness across 25 cities in California. In 2025, they’re set to launch the fourth and upgraded design of the accessory, anticipating a delivery of over 2,000 models in 2025 alone. The team has also set up a contribution page to allow readers to donate a Makeshift Traveler to those who need it.

HomeMore Project’s solar-powered backpack comes with a rolled-up sleeping bag

the kit includes a hygiene pack, a rechargeable LED flashlight, some socks, and more

detailed view of the solar panel on top of the accessory

view of the embedded weatherproof pillow

in 2025, the team is set to launch the fourth and upgraded design of the accessory

project info:

name: Makeshift Traveler

initiative: HomeMore Project | @thehomemoreproject

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