aviation

JetPack Aviation Completes First Test for Speeder “Flying Motorcycle” Platform

by Cristian Curmei from https://www.autoevolution.com If you’ve had any doubt that flying cars and motorcycles would become a reality in your lifetime, take the Speeder from Jetpack Aviation as a welcoming example to break your doubts. Better yet, preorders are open for just 20 pieces. Here’s what we know. Recently, JetPack Aviation (JPA) successfully completed the first test flight on a full-scale P1.0 hovercraft. Why is this a big deal? Well, simply put, the P1.0 is the base construction for the company’s future product, the Speeder, which will be set up on the now-in-construction P1.5 platform. For over ten years, JPA has been focused on creating micro-VTOLs aimed at human and AI-operated flight. Based in the San Fernando Valley, just north of Los Angeles, California, this team is currently at the forefront of bringing the world the first fully operable personal VTOL, or as some folks call it, “a flying motorcycle.” Now, the test was a tethered flight, but, during operations, you can see that the tether is mostly there in case of engine failure. Even the swaying that occurs at one point is all desired. Since that video shows just the frame of the Speeder, I’ve also introduced a video that shows where JPA wants to take the Speeder. What this successful test means for this company is a whole lot. Mainly, it means that there something to show investors. With this trial, JPA is now at sparkling like a diamond in a coal mine with what seems to be a whole lot of clarity. So much in that the company has officially opened up preorders on the first 20 Speeders. However, they’ve probably all been sold by now, even though they’re running for a $380,000 (€322,713 at current exchange rates) base price for just the recreational version. Yes,

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2019 federal spending package increases infrastructure funding

It took a while, but a 2019 spending package was finally approved by Congress, signed by President Trump, and enacted February 15. In addition to the $1.375 billion for southwest border barriers, the package also includes full-year 2019 funding levels for important federal infrastructure programs, including the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Engineering News-Record reports. The 2019 package is the second year of a two-year, bipartisan House-Senate budget deal that included a pledge to raise overall federal infrastructure spending by $20 billion over 2017 levels. It sets the federal-aid highway obligation ceiling at $45.3 billion, up $1 billion, or 2 percent, from 2018 and equal to the amount authorized in the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which comes from the Highway Trust Fund. The legislation also contains $3.25 billion more from the general fund for highways, up from $2.525 billion in 2018. A 2019 “bonus” amount includes $2.73 billion for states, up from $1.98 billion in 2018, and $475 million for bridge replacement and rehabilitation, more than double the 2018 amount. Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants received $900 million for 2019, down 40 percent from 2018, but it was not discontinued as President Trump suggested. The program was originally called Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER. The Federal Transit Administration will receive $13.4 billion for 2019, down $67 million from 2018, with transit formula grants getting $9.9 billion and capital investment grants receiving $2.5 billion, down from $2.6 billion in 2018. An additional $700 million, down from $834 million in 2018, goes for transit infrastructure grants, which include bus facilities and “state of good repair” projects. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program was frozen at 2018’s $3.35 billion, an amount that comes from the Airport and

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