North American Eagle Using Modified Jet Fighter in Land Speed Record Bid

Originally Posted by Rachel Park, CAD Digest

When you talk about driving fast, conversation typically turns to motorsport – maybe NASCAR, certainly Formula 1, perhaps MotoGP, and the like. These sports command attention and produce excitement, with high profile teams in the public consciousness, and drivers who in the minds of mere mortals exist as demi-gods. It’s all down to one central element: SPEED. As a species, we are fascinated with racing and speed. These days, increasing vehicular speed goes hand-in-hand with superior engineering principles and high-grade computing power to produce milliseconds of extra speed for the vehicles that we watch and admire as they are raced along and around the track. Read full article »

The Terrafugia Transition: Is this the Start of a New “Aeromotive” Engineering Category?

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a plane. It’s a car? It’s both. The Transition®, from Woburn, Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, is a “roadable aircraft” that can go 107 mph in the air and 65 mph on the highway.

A team of MIT engineering students conceived of the vehicle while studying in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. According to Anna Dietrich, Terrafugia’s COO, the team “used the resources that were available at MIT and with our local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter to start building…a business while doing early conceptual design on the Transition itself.”

The market opportunity for the Transition arrived in 2004, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)  created the Light-Sport Aircraft classification to open the skies to more people. Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich surmised that the new breed of pilots would appreciate a little extra convenience and cost savings. Read full article »

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NX Helps TheAlloy Test its Mettle

Every 6 seconds, on average, someone buys a product designed by the Surrey, UK-based ID firm, TheAlloy. Established in 1999, the award-winning design innovation consultancy has been using NX since 2002 to drive performance in three key service areas: product design, interaction design and innovation strategy.

The company’s success is a function of competent, creative people using powerful design tools, and that’s a formula we can really get behind here at CAD/CAM Performance. According to company chairman, Gus Desbarats, “The flexibility of NX, the fact that it can do absolutely anything that we want it to do, is priceless to us … We have never ever had a situation where our creative intent has been restricted by the tool.”

With 40 to 50 projects running through the agency each year, TheAlloy relies on NX to keep things moving quickly. From concept to production, NX is there to help the designers save time and make better, faster decisions. Read full article »

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The 4N Watch: Way Ahead of its Time

Every now and then I like to talk about the innovative products that designers and engineers come up with, and how the right CAD tools enable them to work more creatively. Well, the 4N Watch (site in French), officially known as the 4N-MVT01/D01/42, is such a product.

This fascinating, handcrafted timepiece was designed in CATIA V6 and uses an analog mechanism to display digital time. Estimates put the price tag north of $200,000, and part of the mystique is that there are only 16 of the watches in existence. (Some reports suggest that there are actually 32, 16 of them with a platinum case and 16 with an 18K white gold case.)

Watch this video to see the watch in action:

Read full article »

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Thursdays with NX

In 1997, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom began its huge run on the bestseller lists. The book is a touching story about how a wise, older professor gave important life lessons to a former student, during regular Tuesday meetings in the months leading up to the professor’s eventual death.

The new Siemens PLM Software CAE Solutions Forum won’t bring a tear to your eye and the day is different—but the general idea is the same.

Through a series of five live webinars, held on the third Thursday of every other month beginning on February 16, you’ll gain insights and wisdom designed to help you live a better professional life. (The other dates are April 19, June 21, August 16 and October 18.)

By joining the forum, you can:

• Improve your efficiency with best practices shared directly from other companies
• Influence product direction through direct contact with development, marketing and business planning teams at NX
• Learn how to leverage the newest NX CAE software technology directly from Siemens PLM developers Read full article »

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