If you want to find out why Honda has such a great appeal to every car enthusiast, you just have to take a look at one of the companyΒ’s smallest cars, the Honda Beat from 1991. Within its tiny size it contains every value, characteristic and quirk that gave Honda its reputation. The Beat is a small 2-seat roadster with a 3 cylinder midship positioned engine that powers the rear wheels. Its size and performance are dictated by the rules of the Kei-car class in Japan, where cars under 3.3m length with engines up to 660cc and under 64ps had some insurance and tax advantages (in 1998 length increased to 3.4m). Only a year before Honda had launched the groundbreaking NSX and the Beat was a smaller version that not just looked similar but by being a bespoke design it kept the essence of the NSX concept but optimized it for its size and role.

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The first SpaceShipTwo aircraft made its first free flight piloted by Scaled test pilot Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. It is a great milestone for Virgin Galactic and private funded spaceflight. The SS2 called VSS Enterprise (not the most imaginative name for a spacecraft) was released from the WhiteKnightTwo (Eve) mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft (+50% higher than most airliners). Its first flight was without a rocket engine but nevertheless it was a very important event.

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The city of Athens organize for some years now a technology fair called Athens Digital Week. This post is about the Robotics section, which was by far the most popular section of the exhibition (at least when we were there). You can read below a small report from the exhibition.

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This is another ingenious robotic concept by Festo. The 'Bionic Handling Assistant' is a robotic arm similar to an elephant's trunk that uses artificial pneumatic "muscles" to operate. It is a fully working prototype and much like the other Festo robotic concepts, it uses off the shelf equipment made by the company. It is developed by the network of researchers (Universities, companies etc) that consist the "Bionic Learning Network.

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Ikuo Maeda has been the leader of Mazda's design team for almost a year and the Shinari concept is the first sample of the company's new design direction. Maeda san, himself a long time employee of Mazda, replaced Laurens van den Acker who now works for Renault. Car design is a very time consuming process and many years will pass until a car fully design under the new leadership will arrive in showrooms. The Shinari is a big 4-door coupe/sedan, a very popular sector and it will be presented in the 2011 Geneva motor show. There are no plans for a derivative production car, it is just a sample of the current trend although it is quite realistic and it could enter production with relatively minor changes.

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If you always wanted to launch your own satellite you should definitely follow the work of Song Ho Jun. He is a multi-talented artist and engineer that formed the 'Open Source Satellite Initiative' which is a collaborative and open effort to make a fully customizable and affordable satellite. This is equally an engineering and an artistic endeavor, reflecting both sides of Song Ho Jun's work.

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What once was the ultimate defense secret, developed in the infamous Groom Lake Nevada military base (or Area 51 as most people know it) now it is available in the public domain of Youtube. Only a few days ago Lockheed publish the video of the first flight of the F-117. The flight took place 29 years ago in 1981, when the aircraft '780' (the first F-117) became airborne piloted by Hal Farley.

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One of the most attention grabbing concepts in the recent AUVSI symposium (the biggest in the UAV community) was the VARIOUS by Lockheed. Its name must be one of the most elaborate (or silly) and stands for "VTOL Advanced Reconnaissance Insertion Organic Unmanned System". As its name suggests it is a VTOL aircraft that can perform various missions and can be operated from sea vessels. Its main technology point is the fan in wing (or vertifan) that allow it to take off and land vertically.

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Custom chopper bikes have long departed from tuning and engineering, for decades now this field is moving to an area between what we can consider as expensive toys (performance bikes where performance is a mean, not the aim) and art. Shinya Kimura is one of the best examples of what inspired custom bikes could and even should be.

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