Important Innovations

Revolutionary VTOL Aircraft that Google's Larry Page is Backing Is It a UFO?  No, It's a New Personal Flying Machine The idea for the Blackfly was developed by Canadian entrepreneur Marcus Leng.  He innovated,  built it and flew it in his own backyard in Ontario nearly 10 years ago.  Today, his company Opener is located in Palo Alto, CA and has a major investor in Alphabet/Google's Larry Page.  Some commentators think it looks like a UFO but it's a lot more for your personal commute than that. Unique Electric VTOL The Blackfly is a revolutionary personal flying vehicle.  It's electric, a one-seater, with vertical liftoffs and landings and a lot of safety redundancies. It can take off from and land in both water and land. 8 small rotors across 2, fixed wings power its flight.  My journalist colleague Ed Kane has a great news blog with more detail on this incredible piece of aviation innovation at  https://importantinnovationscollection.b...

Mining the Skies Source:  Planetary Resources Targeting Asteroids It may sound like Star Trek but some US companies, innovators and dreamers are looking skyward to a future of mining highly valuable minerals in space, along with human colonization of space.  A favorite mining target is asteroids known to be rich in high value metals like platinum. Planetary Resources Planetary Resources, based in Redmond, Washington, is an American company that has been advised by Google's Larry Page and film director James Cameron.  It's deeply involved in the world's first commercial deep space exploration mission.  It's targeting asteroid mining because the company believes that is the key first step to establishing the groundwork for human colonization of space. Satellite Probes Underway The company has launched satellite probes and has selected the most promising asteroid targets for water resources that they intend to mine. They say the first need is to unlock ...