The first U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship, Freedom (LCS 1), the inaugural ship in an entirely new class of U.S. Navy surface warships, is seen conducting a speed run during Builders Trials.

Image Gallery ( 8 images ) August 13, 2008 The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is an entirely new class of warship designed to enable the U.S. Navy to operate in shallow waters for the many close-to-shore challenges it forsees in the coming years. The LCS is very fast, highly manoeuvrable, fully networked and quickly reconfigurable via 24 hour-installable mission modules to enable it to defeat threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast attack surface craft. There are two variants of the LCS, one a high-speed semi-planing monohull, the other a trimaran, and the first to begin trails is the monohull version from the Lockheed Martin team. Freedom (LCS 1) is currently undergoing “builder trials” on Lake Michigan, testing the ship’s propulsion, communications, navigation and mission systems.

The two variants are quite different, though both achieve the Navy’s requirements of being able to operate at full load with a draft of just 10 feet, a range of 1500 nautical miles at a sprint speed of 40+ knots, and a range of 4300 nautical miles at a speed of 20 knots.

One of the most interesting aspects of the LCS design is its ability to change the specific mission modules (Mine Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Surface Warfare) and have them fully tested and working WITHIN 24 HOURS.

After the completion of builder trials, the Freedom crew will begin preparing for acceptance trials.

If you ever wanted your own small plane, to take it for a ride ever once in a while, and escape from the daily routine, than this is your chance. This model was designed by a former Air Force F15 pilot, probably from his desire to own a small ‘iron bird’ to remind him of the good old days, and he decided to release it to the market, as the construction costs weren’t so high.

The Icon A5 can take off and land on water or dry land, and has controls resembling more the ones from a car, rather than a plane. A proof of its simplicity when it comes to flying is the 20 hours of flight training you are required to spend before lifting it up.

Its wings can be fold, so you can put it behind your car, and has a 32-foot wingspan. This kind of aircraft is restricted to fly above 10,000 feet in daylight, with a top speed of 140mph. The first line of Icon A5 is planned for release in 2010, and will be available for only $139,000.

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Kong Fanwen has came up with a keyboard which could be one of the coolest ever designed. The so-called “No-Key” keyboard consists of a glass and flat surface, and it needs a camera and appropriate lighting to make your typing very pleasant. No-Key’s camera captures the motion of your fingers and it sends the commands to the PC which makes us feel bad that it’s only a concept for now. One more thing: you can see from a picture below that it’s waterproof. How cool is that? Hopefully, it will be available very soon.

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