Transport & Infrastructure News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Icon of the Seas: World's largest cruise ship sets sail from Miami

21 hours ago

The world's largest cruise ship has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage, but there are concerns about the vessel's methane emissions.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group.

The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the Caribbean.

Environmentalists warn the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ship will leak harmful methane into the air.

Built at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, the Bahamas-registered ship has seven swimming pools and six water slides.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68118822

I still wonder why people make ships this big?

[weatheriscool]

DARPA's ground-effect X-plane will haul 100 tons of cargo
By David Szondy
February 01, 2024
https://newatlas.com/military/darpas-li ... face-lift/

Aurora Flight Sciences has updated the design of its Liberty Lifter seaborne military heavy-lift transport – a highly efficient X-plane the company is developing for DARPA that achieves bulk lift by using wing-in-ground effect.

Since 2022, DARPA has been developing the Liberty Lifter, which is a project to develop a relatively inexpensive seaplane that has the cargo volume of a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, yet can carry 100 tons of cargo. In addition, it is supposed to have a ferry range of 6,500 nm (7,500 miles, 12,000 km).

Aurora's candidate is in preliminary design Phase 1B of its development cycle, which places special emphasis on risk reduction in the steps for designing, building, launching, and flying the completed X-plane using low-cost manufacturing methods.

This involves Aurora teams building full-scale components, including part of the fuselage, using novel materials and then testing them before assembly. In addition, the company has built test models for water tests in a tow tank at Virginia Tech and is working on sensors for detecting and predicting surface waves.

[Time_Traveller]

Sadiq Khan unveils six new London Overground names including ‘Windrush’ and ‘Suffragette’ lines

5 hours ago

The London Overground has revealed six new names and colours for its branches as part of a rebrand, with names inspired by London's history and culture.

The overhaul will require one of the biggest changes in the history of the capital’s Tube map and is designed to make the network easier to navigate.

Its current lines on the Tube map have been described as a “mass of orange spaghetti”, making it difficult for some passengers to work out what train they need.



London mayor Sadiq Khan announced on Thursday the six branches would now be called Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty.

London Overground lines have all been coloured orange on the map since the network was created in 2007, but the overhaul will see each route represented on Tube maps as parallel lines in different colours.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 96685.html

[weatheriscool]

[Powers]

Does US export?

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/health/e ... index.html

[Tadasuke]

I still wonder why people make ships this big?

I personally love large ships and other vessels (100+ meters).

[wjfox]

Dubai wants to build the biggest airport in the world. Here’s how that’s going

Thu February 29, 2024

A little more than 10 years ago, in October 2013, a Wizz Air A320 arriving from Budapest made headlines by becoming the first commercial passenger flight ever to touch down at Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as Dubai World Central (DWC).

This brand new “greenfield” airport some 20 miles southwest of downtown Dubai was designed to become, in a not-so-distant future, the world’s largest and busiest. The vision was – and still is – for a futuristic mega-hub, ensuring that the emirate’s role as a major node of the global economy doesn’t run into capacity problems anytime soon.

[...]

“We have prioritized expansion and investments at DXB to meet our customers’ requirements and plans,” Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports CEO, tells CNN. “This will continue until all possible capacity is absorbed.”

[...]

Griffiths has been careful not to confirm a timeline, but in November 2023 he told the AFP news agency that when capacity is reached “we are going to need a new airport […] That is going to have to happen at some stage during the 2030s.”

“DWC is a thrilling prospect,” Griffiths told CNN in January this year. “The future Phase 2 development represents a significant opportunity, allowing us to build from the ground up in alignment with Dubai’s broader goals and growth plans.”

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/al-makto ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

Y-Combinator Backed Startup Making BREAKTHROUGH Super-Efficient Mach 6 Jet Engine
February 29, 2024 by Brian Wang

Electric motors are finally getting good enough in performance to capture efficiency gains from having a second turbine drive an adaptive cycle jet engine. This new jet engine will enable commercial flights anywhere in the world 3x faster than anything today for the same price.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/02/y ... ngine.html