planes

Plan each maneuver in a WWI dogfight

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is a turn-based airplane dogfighting game that offers an interesting combat system for serious strategy-gaming fans.

As a turn-based strategy game, you'll plan and execute each plane's maneuvers and attacks one at a time, then watch the computer-controlled enemies execute their moves. Though it is fairly slow-paced relative to run-of-the-mill air-combat games, executing a balanced combat plan is definitely satisfying.

Set in World War I, Ace Patrol lets you fly in air combat missions using tactical maneuvers you earn as you level up your pilots. Your starting set of moves includes basic maneuvers, … Read more

Nook becomes a more tempting tablet

CNET Update gives the Nook a second look:

In this edition of Update:

- The Nook gets more attractive with full access to the Google Play store. (Put a Kindle app on a Nook? Madness!)

- Acer gets creative with its latest Windows 8 laptop, the Acer Aspire R7. (Touchpad above the keyboard? More madness!)

- The first solar-powered aircraft begins its long journey across the U.S.

- Learn to add an event to your Google calendar from inside an e-mail.

- Hotmail users must face the music and move on to Outlook.com.

- Staples puts 3D printing … Read more

ControlPlane for Mac 1.3.12 Review

Users may want the ability to have their system automatically change settings after certain actions. ControlPlane for Mac performs certain automatic functions well, but its confusing interface will make it useful for only a few users.

Installation occurred quickly over a high-speed connection, and setup did not require any user interaction. No technical support is available and ControlPlane for Mac's interface appears dated. No instructions exist, which is a problem for most users due to its complexity. Neither the menu nor the program descriptions make it easy to figure out its purpose. A row of buttons along the top … Read more

Futuristic X-51A fails in hypersonic bid

No one ever said it would be easy going Mach 6.

The U.S. Air Force's experimental X-51A Waverider failed yesterday in its bid to hit that hypersonic speed. Although the aircraft did separate as planned from its B-52 mother ship in midair, things quickly went wrong. Today's official Air Force statement, issued just minutes ago, describes things this way:

The X-51 safely separated from the B-52 and the rocket booster fired as planned. However after 16 seconds, a fault was identified with one of the cruiser control fins. Once the X-51 separated from the rocket booster, approximately … Read more

U-2 spy plane pilot Powers honored with Silver Star

Capt. Francis Gary Powers, the Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, was posthumously honored Friday in a medal ceremony at the Pentagon.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz presented the Silver Star Medal to Capt. Powers' children, Gary Powers Jr. and Dee Powers, in the Hall of Heroes, in tribute to Powers' "heroic action and his loyalty to the United States of America during a pivotal time in our nation's history."

"My sister, myself, my wife, my son, aunts and uncles, cousins, the … Read more

Solar plane midway through first intercontinental flight

Solar Impulse, a Swiss sun-powered aircraft, on Friday finished the first leg of its attempt at an intercontinental flight without using a single drop of fuel.

The solar plane took off Thursday from Payerne, Switzerland, bound for Morocco. It landed safely Friday on a planned three-day technical stopover in Madrid, where it will get a new pilot.

If successful, the 1,550-mile journey will be the longest to date for the craft, which last year completed its first international flight from its home in Switzerland to Brussels.

Pilot Andre Borschberg handled the first leg of the trip for the Solar … Read more

Pilot mistakes Venus for plane, sends own plane into dive

We've all driven down a road, looked away, looked back and mistaken a bear for the Abominable Snowman. Or a Toyota Prius for a car.

However, when you're in the air, slight errors of visual comprehension might be magnified.

For it seems that an Air Canada pilot, on his way from Toronto to Zurich, woke up from his scheduled nap and mistook Venus for an oncoming planet. Ah, no, that last "t" shouldn't be there. He thought it was a plane.

So, as CNN dives into it, he pressed the appropriate buttons and levers and … Read more

To succeed, ultrabooks need displays like the iPad, MacBook

For ultrabooks to succeed, the display needs to approach an iPad's quality or least match that of a MacBook--which uses higher-end displays.

A lower quality display can be a deal breaker for consumers in the age of the iPad, which boasts a high-quality, high-resolution in-plane switching (IPS) display.

IPS and high-quality TN displays offer viewing angles and contrast typically better than those used on most ultrabooks today.

This shortcoming has become apparent in more than a few reviews of the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook, which in almost every other respect is generally considered an excellent design. (Another review here … Read more

Air Force's U-2 aircraft get new lease on life

Score one for old-school aircraft against the upstart drones.

Perhaps it's just a brief respite from the seemingly inevitable winds of change propelling unmanned aircraft ever higher in the Pentagon's airpower depth charts, but the venerable U-2 spy plane has won a key vote of confidence over the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk. That victory came not in a head-to-head aerial dogfight, but in a more bureaucratic conveyance: the draft of the federal budget for the U.S. government's fiscal 2013.

"The Administration proposes to end production of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle," says … Read more