Popular Mechanics (September 2005)

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CONTENTS

VOLUME 182 NO. 9

98

Solar Express One adventurer’s plan to fly a solar-powered plane around the world, packing 880 pounds of batteries— and not one drop of fuel.

The Coolest Building on Earth

The United States’ new $165 million Antarctic research station is the most ambitious outpost to date on a continent already full of extremes. Take a trip to 90 degrees south—the world’s coldest construction site.

104 Looking for a Miracle

Gas-saving devices make big claims. But can these cheap (or pricey) add-on gadgets really boost mileage? We’re willing to try anything once.

116

Bright Lights, Low Volts The latest low-voltage kits make it easier than ever to create dramatic outdoor lighting.

120 You Are (Absolutely, Precisely) Here

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACOBSEN (THIS PAGE)

It isn’t just for driving anymore. With the technology spreading into everything from watches to cellphones, GPS will change your life.

The new Amundsen-Scott South Pole station will be completed in 2008.

Popular Mechanics (ISSN 0032-4558) is published monthly by Hearst Communications, Inc., a unit of the Hearst Corporation, 959 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A. Victor F. Ganzi, President, Chief Executive Officer; George R. Hearst Jr., Chairman; Frank A. Bennack Jr., Vice Chairman; Catherine A. Bostron, Secretary; Ronald J. Doerfler, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Hearst Magazines Division: Cathleen Black, President; Mark F. Miller, Executive Vice President; George J. Green, Executive Vice President; Raymond J. Petersen, Executive Vice President; John A. Rohan Jr., Vice President and Group Controller. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40012499. Send returns to Quebecor World, P.O. Box 875, Windsor, ON N9A 6P2. CANADA BN NBR 10231 0943 RT. Registered as second-matter at the Post Office at Mexico D.F., Mexico, June 20, 1950, © 2005 by Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 7170, Red Oak, IA 51591. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: Popular Mechanics will, upon receipt from its reader of a completely new or renewal subscription order, undertake fulfillment of that order so as to provide the first-copy delivery either to the Postal Service or alternate carriers within 6 to 12 weeks. If for some reason this cannot be done, you will be notified promptly of the issue date that will begin your subscription, with a request for any further instructions you may have concerning your order. Please address all such orders to us at Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 7170, Red Oak, IA 51591. Should you have any problem with your subscription, please write Joan Harris, Customer Service Department, Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 7170, Red Oak, IA 51591 or call toll-free 1-800-333-4948. Please enclose your mailing label when writing to us or renewing your subscription. Subscription prices: United States and possessions, $24.00 for one year; $42.00 for two years. Canada and all other countries add $16.00 for each year. MAILING LISTS: From time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies who sell goods and services by mail that we believe would interest our readers. If you would rather not receive such mailings, please send your current mailing label or exact copy to: Popular Mechanics, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 7024, Red Oak, IA 51591-0024.

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C O V E R I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y F I C T I O N P I X E L

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We cannot be responsible for loss of unsolicited queries, manuscripts or photos. For return, they must be accompanied by adequate postage. AS A SERVICE TO READERS, Popular Mechanics publishes newsworthy products, techniques and scientific and technological developments. Due to possible variance in the quality and condition of materials and workmanship, Popular Mechanics cannot assume responsibility for proper application of techniques or proper and safe functioning of manufactured products or reader-built projects resulting from information published in this magazine.

POPULAR MECHANICS • SEPTEMBER 2005

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CONTENTS

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / VO LU M E 1 8 2 N O. 9

T E C H

W A T C H

24 Cable Connection

A 3.5-mile-long cable-stay span bridge, built to take a beating.

U P G R A D E

37 Split Decision

An affordable log splitter that’s one big step up from a maul.

N E W

C A R S

48 Grins on Wheels

A meatier roadster for Miata lovers; Chevy’s PT Cruisercome-lately; two great new bikes; and loads of Spy Reports.

C O L U M N S

58 In the Hot Seat

Steel spiders monitor a rumbling Mount St. Helens.

62 Digital Makeover

Our digital family unpacks the ultimate home theater system.

69 Long-Term Tests

Farewell Nissan Titan; updates on the Scion xB, Porsche Cayenne S and Subaru Outback. Still think of diesels as dirty, smoky beasts? Think again.

H O M E

J O U R N A L

125 Poetry in Motion

Woodworking plans! A porch glider that will be the most popular seat in the house.

129 Homeowners Clinic

Smart stormproofing; plus, our National Hardware Show picks.

C A R

C A R E

137 Saturday Mechanic Master tips for achieving a streak-free windshield.

142 Auto Clinic

When fuel pumps go bad; brakes that stop on a dime; and more.

T E C H N O L O G Y

147 Remote Possibilities M O N T H LY

16 EDITOR’S NOTES 18 LETTERS 20 TIME MACHINE

133 KEEP IN TOUCH 135 READER PROJECT 160 THIS IS MY JOB

Home automation: now within every couch potato’s reach.

150 Tech Clinic

Freeing your entertainment system from the wire jungle.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES WESTMAN (LOG SPLITTER), CHAD HUNT (DIGITAL MAKEOVER), JOHN LAMM (JAY LENO)

74 Jay Leno’s Garage

James B. Meigs

you could

win $100,000

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF David Dunbar

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

DEPUTY EDITOR

Jerry Beilinson

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AUTOMOTIVE

to build your ultimate workshop.

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t o l e a r n h o w, v i s i t

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WIX oil filters last 35% longer than the leading brand.* That means 3,000 miles is a breeze. And compared to the 7,000 RPMs we do every Sunday on the track, keeping your car’s engine clean is a proverbial walk in the the park. To find out more about the toughest filter in the business, get clicking over to wixfilters.com. WIX. The #1 filter in NASCAR. ®

*Based on SAE test HS-806 of street-application filters.

PM

EDITOR'S NOTES

CONTRIBUTORS

The Solar Frontier

P

James Meigs

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SEPTEMBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

Maybe it was his Michigan upbringing. “I don’t feel the cold,” says J E F F R U B I N , who has traveled to Antarctica 13 times and reports on a new South Pole research station for this month’s story “The Coolest Building on Earth.” But the Ohio-based writer says the remote vastness never fails to leave him awe-struck: “You really, really feel like you’re no longer part of the world—literally.” Rubin, whose obsession with the coldest continent began on a Time assignment in 1987, is also author of Lonely Planet: Antarctica, a travel guidebook now in its third edition. How does an illustrator draw a plane that doesn’t exist yet? Lots of research, says DADE ORGERON, the Seattlebased computer graphics artist who conceptualized Bertrand Piccard’s solar-powered plane for our cover story, “Solar Express.” For inspiration, Orgeron studied NASA’s solar craft, the Pathfinder, as well as gliders and Cessnas. “I made a hybrid of those machines,” he says, adding that his background as a marine electrician also came in handy. “Relatively speaking, many of the principles are similar.”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAD DAVENPORT (DAN KOEPPEL), ALYSON ALIANO (JAMES MEIGS)

Popular Mechanics was launched in 1902, just a year before the Wright brothers made their historic first powered flight. In the years since, no topic has fascinated PM readers quite like breakthroughs in aviation. At the recent Paris Airshow, aeronautical adventurer Bertrand Piccard unveiled plans for a craft that might represent the next great challenge in aviation: a plane that can fly around the world on no fuel at all. Piccard calls his plane the Solar Impulse, and if he can deliver on his visionary plan, the solar-powered craft should UNDER CONTROL: PM contributor Jeff Wise over New York’s Central Park. He be able to stay airborne almost writes about solar aircrat this month. indefinitely (or at least until the pilot needs a break). Piccard has a history of pushing aviation’s limits: In 1999 he and a copilot made the first nonstop circumnavigation of the Earth by balloon. As with manned, high-altitude ballooning, solar-powered flight isn’t really practical; Solar Impulse will be painfully slow and will barely be able to carry a pilot, much less any useful cargo. But that’s part of what makes the project fascinating. “What’s so appealing about it is how technically difficult it is,” says PM contributor Jeff Wise, who wrote this month’s cover story on Piccard’s project (page 98). Wise, a licensed pilot, also wrote PM’s What Went Wrong analysis of the 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 (Jan. ’05). “Every single aspect of this system has to be absolutely optimal for it to work at all,” Wise says. “The solar cells, the storage capacity, the weight and stiffness of the structure—every single thing is going to be hard.” Solar cell arrays covering the plane’s enormous wings will squeeze every possible watt out of the available sunlight. But even so, Solar Impulse will fly more like a glider than like a powered aircraft. “I love the simplicity of it,” Wise says, “the idea of taking just what’s in the air— the light—and turning it into sustained flight. It’s extremely elegant. And the plane is going to look elegant. It’s one of those lovely moments where science and aesthetics intersect wonderfully.”

Adventure traveler and writer DA N KO E P P E L has used GPS to navigate the mountains of Belize by mountain bike. Nowadays, he’s using it to get around town. “It’s much easier—and safer—than using a 500-page road map,” says the Los Angeles-based writer, who reports on the future of this once-elitist technology for our story “You Are (Absolutely, Precisely) Here.” Koeppel recently published his fourth book, To See Every Bird on Earth (Hudson Street Press).

PM

LETTERS

Flying Cars Thank you for the wonderful article on Jesse James’s flying car (“Where the Rubber Leaves the Road,” July 2005). The article conveyed some feelings that the Wright brothers surely must have experienced when they prepared for their first flight. Your descriptions of the quick decisions that Jesse had to make, and the final risk that he took to get this car into the air, made this a very good read. Charles Hunter Charlotte, NC I was disappointed to see that the flying car on the front of your July issue had the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany all over it. What are you advertising and endorsing? Most folks know that the Iron Cross is a hate symbol used by the neo-Nazis. BJ Hickson Titusville, FL The symbol in question is a Cross Pattee, and it is a far cry from a swastika. Originally Christian symbols, versions of the Cross Pattee have been adopted by many groups over the centuries. It is the international symbol of firefighters, and, as any motorcycle fan could tell you, is part of the logo for Jesse James’s company, West Coast Choppers. One variation of the symbol, the Iron Cross, was (and still is) a decoration in the German military, dating back to early 19th century Prussia. Most famously, in World War I, it adorned Baron von Richthofen’s red Fokker triplane—which (as we

noted) inspired the paint job on James’s flying car. —Ed. Jesse James is a little late. There was a guy in Longview, Wash., in the ’50s, who had a car with wings that could fly. I saw it when I was a kid. John Parson Via E-Mail It was Glenn H. Curtiss, not the Wright brothers, who figured out how to fly a set course faster than anyone else: by banking into a turn. Jim Dilonardo Torrance, CA Yes, Curtiss pushed early aircraft to new limits. But the Wright brothers were the first to discover that yaw and roll control, used in a coordinated fashion, were the secret to controlled flight. —Ed. Car Noise It was nice that Ford fixed the problem with Jay Leno’s GT (“Home Delivery Recall,” July 2005). I wish they would do the same for us. My wife’s 1999 Ford ZX2 still runs rough at idle, still has radio/stereo problems, still has that rattle. We have given up trying to get any satisfaction from Ford. James F. Longley Allen, TX Your car comparison test left a lot to be desired (“Mustang vs. Corvette,” July 2005). A Corvette is far superior to any production Mustang. Phil Holland Houston, TX

To have a letter considered for publication, please include your full name and address, even if you correspond by e-mail. Send e-mails to [email protected]. We’ll withhold your identity upon request but will not print an anonymous letter. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and format.

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SEPTEMBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

Yes, the Mustang is a V8 musclecar for under $30,000, but I thought the idea behind a comparison was to see which vehicle performs better. I have never seen an article in which a Camry was picked over a Lexus because the price was better. Matthew DeKock Rolla, MO We, like most of our readers, feel that price, along with performance, luxury, safety and design, must be factored in when choosing a vehicle. —Ed. Grill Theory Great article about gas versus charcoal barbecues (“Thrilla on the Grilla,” July 2005). To get a smoky flavor on a gas unit, add chips to a commercial wood-chip box. By the time the grill is hot, the chips are smoking. There are flavored chips, too. Dave Kunze Sequim, WA Satisfied Customer My girlfriends think I’m crazy reading Popular Mechanics, but I love learning about all the new, techy gadgets, cars and planes. Keep up the good work. Amanda Naughton Austin, TX

TIMEMACHINE

1977

NASCAR’s Leg Up The French won Britain’s first international Grand Prix race—with an average speed of 72 mph. Meanwhile, it was the peak of Prohibition back in the States, where bootleggers were outmaneuvering the police in souped-up street cars—and unknowingly sowing the seeds for the first generation of stock car racing.

GRAND PRIX PARIAH

In sophisticated Grand Prix racing, having six wheels was like having a sixth toe when the Tyrrell Elf first hit the track. But with its aerodynamic, low front wheels, the Elf had the last laugh, earning 14 podium finishes—and a cult following.

1964

Early Stock Options As NASCAR turned 15, PM visited Ford’s racing division to see just how stock these stock cars were. PM found that “necessity [was] the mother of modification.” Aside from a few safetyrelated tweaks (a Cessna aircraft oil cooler helped beat friction by increasing oil capacity from 5 to 8 quarts), these were the same Ford Galaxies you drove to the grocery store.

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J U LY

SEPTEMBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

1911 SEP TEMBER

Racing’s Checkered Past It was the year of the first Indy 500 and renowned ex-racer Barney Oldfield was already calling for the sport’s end, citing one Vanderbilt Cup race where four died and 20 were injured. In his 10-page tirade, he compared racing to Roman gladiator fighting, saying it was “a source of considerable profit to hospitals, undertakers and cemetery societies.”PM

DECEMBER

Speedometers hit 75 mph and we were hooked. All hail motorsports’ dust and glory.

1926

Track Record

JANUARY

PM

PM

TECHWATCH SOLAR HOMES MICROWAVES TO THE RESCUE SPACE ROBOTS A SUPERSONIC PLAN

Cable Connection South Carolina has seen its share of bridgebusting disasters, such as the magnitude 7.3 “Great Quake” of 1886 caused by an offshore fault. Then, there are runaway boats— the Nicaragua Victory took out a chunk of Charleston’s Grace Bridge in 1947. And, of course, there are hurricanes. So the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is built to be tough. Almost completed, this 3.5-mile-long cable-stay span bridge is the longest of its kind in North America. Cable-stay design is cheaper and more efficient than suspension bridge building because anchorages aren’t required. But there has been no sacrifice in durability. “This bridge is designed seismically for 80 percent of California,” says project manager Wade Watson. It can withstand 190-mph winds. And to protect against runaway ships, the two 575-ft.-tall, diamond-shaped towers are anchored to massive limestone islands spreading from 1 acre on the surface to 5 acres on the bottom. Watson brags that the bridge is built for a 100-year life span. That’s a lot of hurricanes. — Neil Dunlop

Machines can disarm bombs and beat us in chess, but when it comes to walking, humans still have a leg up. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have been working on robots that shuffle their feet with the gait, control and efficiency of human movement. Three bipedal robots have come out of the cooperative program, one from each university. The one seen here, named Toddler, was built at MIT. He uses a reinforcement learning algorithm to adapt to the given terrain, mastering each new surface within minutes. “The vision behind the program is to change the way people build walking robots,” says Toddler’s co-creator Russ Tedrake. “We hope to develop humanoid robots that would be suited for walking on Mars, handling toxic spills or developing new prosthetics.” If Toddler continues walking nicely, Tedrake promises to set him up with a shiny pair of knees. — Jennifer Beck

ARTHUR RAVENEL JR. BRIDGE STATISTICS Location: Charleston, S.C., over the Cooper River Started: April 2002 Cost: $632 million Length: 3.5 miles Longest span: 1546 t. Deck height: 186 t. above water Materials used: 745 miles of cable; 172,000 bolts; 90,000 tons of steel; 300,000 cubic yards of concrete. SCDOT

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P H OTO G RA P H BY RO B T H O M PS O N

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TECHWATCH

This Month

09/05

Best Bites The world’s biggest river fishing festival occurs in Cáceres, Brazil, from the 18th through the 26th. Fishing fans will cast their lines in the waters of the Pantanal wetlands, home of more than 270 fish species—including the friendly Serrasalmus spilopleura (piranha).

Highest Buckeyes

At midnight on Sept. 29, 18 teams of students from the United States, Canada and Spain will begin assembling a village of solar-powered homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The second annual Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the Department of Energy, challenges students to design homes capable of generating enough energy to meet the average American family’s needs—laundry, cooking, home-office work and 6 hours of TV per day. The “solar village” opens to the public the second week in October.

ST R O N G E ST F LO O R B OA R D S Construction on the massive expansion of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art draws to a close this month—more than doubling the museum’s space to 312,000 sq. ft. Illuminated by 1000 skylights, the Renzo Piano-designed addition has immensely strong bones with a floor load capacity of 10,000 pounds per square foot, enough to support an averagesize African bull elephant. The official opening ceremony is in November.

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Darkest Yard On the 24th, students from Mansfield University will re-enact the first nighttime football game using a playby-play script of the school’s groundbreaking match against Wyoming Seminary in 1892. The dynamopowered illumination for the original match was equivalent to four modern street lamps. The game was eventually called at 0-0 due to poor lighting.

BY AARON DALTON

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WARREN GRETZ (SOLAR DECATHLON), MICKEY GIBSON/ANIMALS ANIMALS (PIRANHA)

Sunniest Building Trend

From the 3rd through the 5th, the country’s oldest airplane extravaganza occurs over Ohio. The Cleveland National Air Show traces its roots back to 1929, when air races were the major venue for testing airplane improvements. This year, Navy pilots will put on an F/A-18F Super Hornet Tactical Demonstration.

PM

TECHWATCH

NEWS BRIEFS

Mini-Missile Defense

Galactic Sprawl

A microwave-based system may protect airports from shoulder-fired weapons. B Y N O A H S H A C H T M A N

Andromeda, the nearest major galaxy, is almost three times bigger than anyone realized. Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii have discovered that a farflung group of stars is rotating in sync with the stars in the inner disc, forcing scientists to redraw the galactic borders.

TERRORISTS’ POSITION

INFRARED SENSOR

BT, Phone Home British cellphone users will no longer have to count their minutes when they’re calling from home, thanks to a new service from British Telecom. The handset will behave as a normal cellphone outside, but at home it will connect to a wireless base station and be billed at landline rates, switching automatically— even midcall. Phone companies don’t yet offer this service in the States—but at least we don’t put lemonade in our beer.

INFRARED SENSOR

CONTROL CENTER

about the missile’s trajectory is sent to a control center, which in turn tells a billboard-size microwave array where to blast. It also can inform law enforcement about the launch location. Raytheon figures it could outfit an airport for $25 million, a fraction of the billions needed to adopt military countermeasures. But won’t big microwave blasts affect airplane avionics? Company execs claim that planes use a different frequency. But they won’t say whether they’ve actually tested their ray gun against a real aircrat.

SUPER SNOWMOBILE For scientists, traveling through Antarctica’s environment of rock, snow and ice is a slow and dangerous drive. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, designer James Moon created a concept vehicle called Ninety Degrees South that may one day ease the journey. This diesel-powered, two-person vehicle uses tracks and wheels to travel over any terrain. Up to 98 t. ahead, a separate pathfinder probe travels on a GPS-controlled route, using ground-penetrating radar to detect cracks and crevices, assessing risk.

SEPTEMBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

ILLUSTRATION BY FLYING-CHILLI.COM

28

MICROWAVE ARRAY

Security experts have been spooked ever since 2003, when terrorists tried to take down an Israeli passenger jet flying out of Kenya with a pair of Soviet-made, shoulder-fired missiles. Defense contractor Raytheon may have found a futuristic answer to the throwback threat: a microwave blaster that confuses the weapons’ guidance systems. The Vigilant Eagle system uses a series of passive infrared trackers, surrounding an airport, that look out for missile exhaust. When these sensors detect a launch, data

Smells Trustworthy Swiss economists have found that a few sniffs of a naturally occurring hormone makes people more likely to trust strangers with their money. Oxytocin was previously tied to enhancing trust in animal studies, and it plays a crucial role in mother-child bonding. Researchers think the hormone could help shy people overcome their distrust of strangers.

MISSILE

PM

TECHWATCH

NEWS BRIEFS Dry Bones Brazilian paleontologists recently unearthed 11 Baurusuchus salgadoensis fossils. This 90-million-yearold crocodile likely weighed almost 900 pounds and lived on dry land. The similarities between the new find and fossils recently discovered in Pakistan suggest a land bridge once existed between South America and Indo-Pakistan.

Hot New Fuel Cell

Blinkfree Photos Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications has devised a system for digital cameras to prevent midblink photos. Instead of taking one shot, the camera snaps 15 frames in half a second, then analyzes the images to pick the one with the fewest blinking eyes.

CONTRIBUTORS: JAMES CAVERLY, DAVIN COBURN, SARAH DEEM, ALEX HUTCHINSON, MARK SPOONAUER

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AWIMR looks more like something out of War of the Worlds than the next big thing in astronaut safety, but this six-legged, 3-t.-wide robot may be clinging to the outside of spacecrat by the end of the decade. Northrop Grumman is developing the robot for NASA to handle routine maintenance and repair tasks in space, such as detecting and fixing leaks. AWIMR (Autonomous Walking Inspection and Maintenance

Robot) must first prove that it can walk in a simulated zero-g environment at Johnson Space Center and autonomously perform tasks to detect structural faults. Northrop Grumman hopes to have a 44-pound ’bot space-qualified and ready for deployment on the Crew Exploration Vehicle in 2010. Astronauts will control AWIMR using wireless links, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and a joystick interface.

Breaking the Waves Harvard students design a house that can stand up to the next tsunami. B Y C H R I S T O P H E R C O X modular structure incorporating concrete blocks and bamboo partitions. Instead of thin-walled shed construction, the house employs four smaller, thicker cores to increase stability. The layout has been adopted by the Prajnopaya Foundation, a charity headed by MIT’s Buddhist chaplain, Tenzin Priyadarshi, The tsunami-safe(r) house should cost about $1200. to build better homes in The Massachusetts Institute of Sri Lanka, where the December Technology Tsunami Challenge tsunami let thousands homeless. architectural competition called Computer modeling indicates the for a low budget and no-frills student-designed house would be materials. And the winning bluefive times more resistant to waves prints for a “tsunami-safe(r) than traditional Sri Lankan homes. house” drawn up by six students If tensions ease on this strifefrom Harvard’s torn island, Priyagraduate school darshi hopes to of design may fund a prototype not remain on the on the southeast drawing board coast by the end for long. of this summer The design calls and eventually to for a 400-sq.-t. build 1000 homes. 100,000 Sri Lankan homes were lost.

SEPTEMBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS (CROCODILE, TSUNAMI)

Scientists at Caltech have run an MP3 player using a new solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC). These tubular powerplants are among the simplest and most selfcontained fuel cells, but they must be very hot to run. Caltech’s SOFC can run without an external heater, making it highly portable. The bad news? The SOFC currently runs at about 1 percent efficiency; internal-combustion engines typically achieve 30 percent.

LET THE SPACE DROID DO IT

PM

TECHWATCH

Supersonic Dream

M ac hi ne

Just two years after the last flight of commuter planes. But just how seri the C ou on s i co s t rd he e, When the French and Japanese co Fra nv n governments announced at the Paris er ce sa an Airshow in June that the two countries tio d n? Jap would team up to develop a replacement for B Y an the Concorde, the international press ran with the a B E N re t story. Headlines promised the “Son of Concorde” was J A alk on its way, capable of Mach 2-plus flight. Global busiM ing ness executives would surely jump at the prospect of speeding from New York to Tokyo in 6 hours, wouldn’t they? We were intrigued, but the more we looked into it, the less substance there seemed to be. “I don’t think there’s an industrial reality to it whatsoever,” says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst for the Teal Group. “The amount of money involved is deeply embarrassing. It’s not enough to develop a replacement for a Piper Cub.” Consider this: The twin governments involved have allocated $5 million for the three-year Super Sonic Transport (SST) project. That’s $19.95 billion less than it took to develop the original Concorde, a plane that took 10 years to bring to market, then basically lost money on every flight. So maybe “develop” isn’t the right word. “This is a research project,” says Koichi Okada, a spokesperson for the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, the Japanese cosigner of the agreement. “We are not in the development stage.”

IN

But will the new SST ever make it there? Aviation analysts see a market for supersonic business jets, but not large transports. Two small American firms, Aerion and Supersonic Aerospace International, announced last fall that they were developing superfast corporate cruisers. So why all the fanfare about an airplane that has no market, doesn’t exist and probably never will?

5-MINUTE GENIUS TOPIC: WHAT IS NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION? EXPERT: CHRISTOPHE DUVERNE NFC FORUM CHAIRMAN

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“To make the ministries involved look like they possess a strength, competence and understanding of the market that clearly has eluded them,” says Aboulafia. “They might as well be studying a milewide nuclearpowered helicopter.”

BRIGHTER LIGHTS LEDs have been decorating the rear ends of luxury cars for five years now, but despite their advantages (life span, brightness, styling flexibility) no manufacturer has yet installed LED headlamps on a production car. That may soon change: Engineers at Osram Sylvania recently told us that they hope to resolve heat dissipation issues with white LEDs in time for the 2008 model year. Expect to see them shining from the faces of cars such as the 12-cylinder Audi A8 (shown).

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES WESTMAN (PLANE)

“NFC is a low-power short-range wireless protocol that simplifies connections between devices—but it doesn’t replace Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The technology is still maturing, but there are three main applications: transferring data between devices; monetary transactions (major credit card companies are involved); and a contactless smart card function for access to everything from your office to the subway. An NFC-enabled phone could be placed near a movie poster with an embedded smart tag, and an automatic link would guide your cellphone to a URL to book tickets or download clips over the wireless network.”

ab ou t E R rev ivi T O F F ng su pe rso nic

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ROBOT DINOSAUR CAMERA ABUSE SLICER SHOWDOWN A CLOSE SHAVE GAS-FREE MOTORBIKES

Split Decision

The Manual Log Splitter is meant to be towed but, at around 75 pounds, is light enough to pull by hand.

The biggest chunks of wood we split with the Craftsman Manual Log Splitter were 12-in.-dia. rounds of seasoned oak, and we could have gone bigger. The machine didn’t struggle, though our patience was strained as we … slowly … worked … the levers that forced each log against the splitting wedge. The hydraulic tool has the look of a truck jack welded onto a steel base. It’s clever, compact when stored and relatively cheap ($229). In a John Henry-style split-off, a hand-swung maul was generally faster, and more fun. But the Craftsman generates 10 tons of force. Even the real John Henry couldn’t match that.

ILLUSTRATION BY FLYING-CHILLI.COM

One lever moves the log into place quickly; the other provides splitting force.

P H OTO G RA P H BY JA M ES W EST M A N

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W I L L

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B R E A K ?

We bought the Canon PowerShot S410, the most popular digital camera on Amazon .com—and then we treated it badly … very badly.

When Toys Attack

WE DROPPED IT Whoops! The PowerShot S410 took a 4-ft. tumble, knocking off the shutter button and popping open all the compartment doors. But when we snapped it all together again, it still took good pictures.

WE STEPPED ON IT

Breathe Easy

Laptop Theater Toshiba’s new Qosmio G25-AV513 may feel heavy at 9.5 pounds, but it’s quite light when you consider that it is not only a computer, but also a 17-in. LCD TV with an integrated tuner, a digital video recorder and a DVD player. It runs Windows Media Center, but it also can bypass the OS to play both TV and DVDs, and save battery power. $2999; www.toshiba.com

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WE DROWNED IT We bought a new PowerShot and submerged it for 15 seconds. The flash went off, the lens retracted and the camera shut down. We dried it out for three days, but when we turned it on, all we got was a buzzing sound and an “E18” error.

THE RESULT The PowerShot S410 took great pictures, and a hell of a fall. But lots of moving parts and open holes doomed it when worse “accidents” occurred.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BURCU AVSAR (ROBORAPTOR, JACKET), JAMES WESTMAN (STEPPED ON IT)

Patagonia’s new R1.5 Jacket looks like a superhero costume—but it fights cold, not crime. Constructed with “biomap design,” the R1.5 has variable textures for the ideal compromise between weather protection and breathability—for every part of your anatomy. $140; www .patagonia.com

For the 12-yearold in all of us, WowWee’s RoboRaptor is a 2 1⁄2-ft.-long robot dinosaur with stereo hearing, infrared vision, and touch sensors that help it react to its environment. RoboRaptor is controllable (barely) via wireless remote, or can be set to patrol an area in one of three moods: playful, cautious and hunter. $120; www .wowwee.com

Lens open or lens closed? We went for the worst-case scenario and stepped on the PowerShot with its 3x zoom lens extended. Don’t try this at home unless you enjoy the crunching sound of gears and lenses forced inside the camera housing. How’d it hold up? Not so well. Lots of whirring and clicking, but no pictures.

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Turning a Corner

There is a great big world of awkward angles and tight spaces for fasteners to hide in. That’s why we love the Ridgid 12-volt rightangle impact driver ($129; www.ridgid.com) and Milwaukee’s right-angle attachment ($59; www .milwaukeetool.com). Ridgid’s tool fits 2-in.-long hexshank bits and applies 650 lb.-in. of force, whereas Milwaukee’s attachment fits even shallow 1-in. bits and has a rotating handle to help apply proper pressure. The Message Is the Media Stuffed animals, baseballs, musical instruments and toy trucks. Sound like your kid’s closet? Try your new TV. Hannspree’s high-concept sets don’t offer much more technology than a 10- to 23-in. LCD screen and an S-Video jack. But with 100-plus playful designs, you may find more creativity around the screen than on it. $449 to $1399; www .hannspree.com

Sofa-Centric MP3s In an age of remote control, it’s surprising that you still have to get up to change the song when your MP3 player is hooked into your stereo. Belkin’s TuneStage for iPod puts the song selection back on the couch where it belongs. The transmitter and receiver package uses Bluetooth to turn your iPod into a wireless remote that streams music up to 33 t., even through walls. $179; www.belkin.com

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*

PHOTOGRAPH BY BURCU AVSAR (RIDGID)

*Uh, no … the iPod is not included.

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Slicer Test

We enlisted a deli counterman, a stopwatch, a micrometer and 15 pounds of meat to test two home slicers against a pro model.

Our tester, Eusebio Mendez, makes dozens of sandwiches an hour at New York’s famous Carnegie Deli, where he’s worked for 17 years. His first impression of our home slicers: “These are toys! Too small.”

W H AT T H E P R O S U S E

Buzzworthy

Montezuma’s Defeat The original SteriPEN ($150) zaps waterborne microbes with a lethal dose of UV light, but it does nothing to filter metals, sand and debris. That’s why it can now be outfitted with a custommade prefilter ($10) that fits most Nalgene bottles. Just strain water, agitate for 90 seconds with the SteriPEN, and drink. www .steripen.com

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WARING PRO FS150

BIZERBA SE 12 L

If only our faces were perfectly flat, it wouldn’t be so tough to get a decent shave from an electric razor. Those of us with dimpled chins and square jaws will save a lot of awkward stretching with the Norelco SmartTouch-XL. Each of the three shaving heads floats on a springloaded pivot, while a secondary pivot system moves the entire surface of the razor to fit your face. $150; www.norelco.com

SLICERS FOR THE HOME

CHEF’S CHOICE 625

Price: Approx. $4000

Price: $160

Price: $180

Size: 28.5 x 24 x 25 in.

Size: 9.25 x 14.5 x 10.5 in.

Size: 14 x 10.4 x 10.8 in.

Features: 13-in. blade; 266 rpm

Features: 7.5-in. blade; 90 rpm; carriage flips up for cleaning

Features: 7-in. blade; 140 rpm; extra-large carriage area

PM’s thinnest turkey slice: .0760 in.

PM’s thinnest turkey slice: .0545 in.

Counterman’s critique: “A slicer’s angle is important. I don’t have to put as much pressure on the meat with this one. Definitely the better of the two. It would stand up in a deli … well, a small deli.”

Counterman’s critique: “There’s no angle! I have to push down on the meat. I guess for the home, that’s not a problem. It looks nicer; the adjustment knobs are easier to use.”

PM’s thinnest turkey slice: .0330 in. Street cred: Carnegie tears through thousands of pounds of pastrami alone each week with its German-made Bizerbas. The slicer claims the thinnest blade in the industry.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALYSON ALIANO (SANDWICHES AND COMMERCIAL SLICER), BURCU AVSAR (WARING AND CHEF’S CHOICE), JAMES WESTMAN (STERIPEN)

By Tracy Saelinger

30-SECOND TEST

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The ENV’s proton-exchange membrane fuel cell “Core.”

A Tree-Hugging Dirt Bike Behind the handlebars of a prototype fuel cell motorcycle. by Ben Stewart The first mass-produced hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles on the road may not look like family sedans or SUVs. In fact, it’s possible that they won’t even have four wheels. They’ll be motorcycles. Intelligent Energy, a British energy solutions company, has a fuel cell motorcycle that it hopes to bring to market by 2006.

The aggressivelooking ENV (pronounced “envy”) motorbike uses a 1-kilowatt fuel cell inside a detachable “Core”—about the size of a small suitcase. The Core unhinges from the center of the bike and could, theoretically, be plugged into another fuel cell vehicle. According to Intelligent Energy, the preproduction

prototype ENV will reach its top speed of 50 mph in 12.1 seconds and provide a riding range of 100 miles. We recently got a short

test ride on the ENV and saw both its potential and its drawbacks. Acceleration is instantaneous and quiet due to the electric motor

Easy.

Only the leader in antifreeze could make it so simple to give your engine the defense it deserves. Choose Prestone® Extended Life Antifreeze/Coolant for the patented protection of the #1 brand. Mix it with any color antifreeze or flush and fill to get advanced cooling system protection for any make or model car you drive.

Prestone Protection: Easy to Choose. Easy to Use.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BURCU AVSAR (BIKKE)

A l te r n a t i ve E n e rg i e s

that delivers the power. Unfortunately, the prototype was equipped with mountain-bike brakes and tires, causing it to get a bit squirrelly on low-speed turns. Beefier motorcycle parts are promised if ENV makes it to production. Refueling is said to take 5 minutes and cost $4 at your local hydrogen refueling station. Don’t have one of those in your neighborhood? The company is also planning a shoebox-size reformer that lets you make hydrogen at home from a variety of biofuels. Expect the ENV to retail for around $6000. www.envbike.com

Electric Ride A battery-powered scooter you can lift with one hand.

The Bikke is a 16pound electric twowheeler powered by an 18-volt lithium-ion battery contained within the frame. Parent company Trikke claims

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the Bikke can travel 11 miles on a charge at speeds up to 11 mph. The Bikke’s smartest trick is a power-saving strategy that starts the motor at 2 mph, leaving the torque-intensive task of pushing off to the rider. It doesn’t like hills (I found myself “Flintstoning” on inclines), or water (our first battery shorted out in wet conditions), but when the stars align and the Bikke hits cruising speed, the goofy fun factor is immeasurable. $399; www.trikke.com —Glenn Derene

Easier.

For topping off, nothing’s more convenient than Prestone® 50/50 Ready-To-Use Antifreeze/Coolant. No mixing. No mess. Just pop it and pour it for advanced cooling system protection. Mixes with any color antifreeze and goes with any make or model car. Nothing protects better. And nothing’s easier to use.

Prestone Protection: Easy to Choose. Easy to Use.

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survey found there was an 18 percent failure rate among the original iMac G5 machines with 17-in. screens, and a troubling 31 percent failure rate for models with a 20-in. screen. (Recently purchased models had far lower failure rates—of around 11 to 12 percent.) To investigate further, we sought out the services of heat-imaging company Electrophysics. The company brought in a $100,000 thermographic camera. Surface thermographic images

of an original iMac G5 with the back cover removed revealed heat buildup around the hard drive and processor, and surrounding the capacitors on the midplane board. Did a bad batch of components or faulty design cause the failures? It’s hard to say. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment, other than to suggest that users who have a problem contact customer service. But that may prove a problem for users soon, as the standard one-year warranties begin to expire for early buyers about the time this issue of PM hits newsstands.

Taking the iMac’s Temperature At let, an image of one of PM’s own iMacs taken with an Electrophysics Jade MWIR heat-imaging camera. Above, the telltale “bloated” capacitors.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELECTROPHYSICS (HEAT PHOTO), BURCU AVSAR (iMAC INTERIOR)

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of them had to be sent back to Apple for repair or replacement. When we looked into the problem, we found a number of complaints about overheating power supplies and “bloated,” apparently heat-damaged, capacitors on the midplane circuit board. These were posted on Apple’s own online user forum as well as user groups such as MacOSG, TidBITS and MacInTouch. Complaints became so numerous that MacInTouch recently conducted its own reliability survey of iMac G5 owners. Of 1948 responses, the site’s

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POPULAR MECHANICS looks into the reliability of Apple’s groundbreaking desktop.

in late August 2004, it was hailed as a triumph of compact design. The entire computer, including the screen, drives and power supply, is contained within a sleek chassis with a 2-in. profile. Knowing that its powerful G5 processors ran hot, Apple integrated three fans. Within a few months, we began to suspect a problem as, one by one, POPULAR MECHANICS’s new iMac G5s started to overheat and then die. Eventually, 40 percent

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Is the iMac G5 Running Hot?

When the Apple iMac G5 was introduced

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NEWCARS ROADSTER AWD SPORTS CARS LUXURY SUVS CRUISER BIKES

Grins on Wheels Mazda’s roadster gets a little bigger, a little stronger and a lot more fun.

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Miata lovers will recognize the new MX-5 instantly. Mazda is now calling its third-generation roadster the MX-5 worldwide, dropping the familiar Miata appellation in North America—the only place it was ever used. In spite of its recognizable (though updated) lines, not a single component of this twoseater is shared with the previous generation. Oh, European models carry over the side marker lamp. Nomenclature aside, there’s a lot of improvement in the new version, starting with a wider track and additional overall width for increased interior roominess. The four-cylinder engine has grown to 2.0 liters and a horsepower rating of 170 hp. (If you opt for the automatic transmission, you get only 166 hp.) There are two manual transmissions, a five-speed and an ultracloseratio six-speed. The automatic is a six-speed with paddle shifters. What is unchanged is the Miata’s—oops, sorry—MX-5’s high fun quotient. Nobody will mistake this car for a high-performance exotic—but with the price comfortably in the low $20,000 bracket, it was never intended to be. During our days

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M A Z DA M X- 5

PRICE RANGE: $20,435-$26,700

NEWCARS

spent enjoying the roads through the lush greenery and black lava that are Hawaii’s Big Island, we found the MX-5’s roadholding and brakes to be superb. The manual convertible top is now even easier to onehand up and down, and the pedals are a delight to heel-and-toe in proper racing fashion. And the power gain more than makes up for the car’s added weight: A massive weight reduction program kept the new, larger and more highly contented car within about 20 pounds of the old one. Our only complaint was the ultramodernbut-cheap-feeling interior, crafted largely of hard, scratchy plastic. — mike allen

Spy

HHR means Heritage High Roof—a homage to the first Chevy Suburban.

CHEVY HHR

Come Again EUROPE

by Ken Juran

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COMANDing New Tech Mercedes is revealing its new S-Class in mid-September at the huge biannual auto show in Frankfurt. But since we were given an advance look at the factory, we’re sharing it with you. We’re also sharBenz’s S-Class’s ing our experirear profile mimics ence with the the Maybach. “simplified” COMAND system. Surprise! Though the joystick-like controller may look like BMW’s widely disdained iDrive, this new menu-driven display is intuitive (unlike iDrive) and it works easily (which iDrive doesn’t). This larger S-Class features a new 382-hp 5.5-liter 32-valve V8. Its electronic-shift seven-speed automatic is like the unit in the R-Class. Other innovations bring Brake Assist Plus in combination with Distronic Plus forward-scanning radar for even shorter emergency stopping. Inside, improved Pre-Safe accident recognition inflates all the seat bolsters and closes all the windows in anticipation of a collision.

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