AG-600 amphibious flying boat

AG600 https://t.co/Z9QRmtFp3g pic.twitter.com/TsS5mB4EDf

— dafeng cao (@xinfengcao) October 30, 2016

2016 ZhuHai AirShow

An Autonomous Robot Contest: "Overcoming Obstacle 2016"

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Teli

Teli, an autonomous, self-navigating vehicle system on a Toyota Land Cruiser body, was built by the Beijing Institute of Technology and is optimized for off-road travel, compared to the Google Car's urban and highways mission.

"Overcoming Obstacle 2016" is a competition supported by China's military, akin to the U.S. military's DARPA Grand Challenges. The month-long contest ended on October 18th in Beijing, with several finalists in each of the five categories.

The first group, Category A, involved highly autonomous cars. The finalists included modified from civilian SUVs, alongside a tracked vehicle, "SMART 1", from the Military Institute of Transportation.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

SMART 1 UGV

The SMART 1 unmanned ground vehicle, built by the Military Institute of Transport, may have its basis in earlier Chinese autonomous robot experiments that used old armored vehicles. This chassis appears to be from an airborne fighting vehicle.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Desert Wolf

Desert Wolf, using a 4x4 chassis from the QL-550, an armored recon vehicle, is another 2016 finalist for the all-terrain category.

Category B was all-terrain autonomous vehicles. The finalists included two 4x4 robots built from military recon vehicles (by the China Academy of Sciences, and the National University of Defense Technology's Desert Wolf).

China News

Category C

Category C, small, personal, and urban task robots, included several entries from civilian entities.

Category C involved small, tracked robots, designed for tasks like urban reconnaissance and bomb disposal. Beijing Motors and Qingdao Hi Tech Corporation were among the five finalists.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Run 1

Norinco, China's top defense manufacturer of armored vehicles and munitions, entered the Run 1 quadruped robot into the legged robot category.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Iron Horse

Team Siyuan, from Beijing Jiaotong University, provided this multi-legged robot with Klann linkage-style legs (each of its four feet is made of two pairs of interconnected legs), offering exceptional stability on rough mountainous terrain.

Category D's legged robots provided some of the most interesting Overcoming Obstacle 2016 entries. The three finalists included two "Da Gou" quadruped robots from Shandong University and NORINCO, and the Iron Horse, a 'crab walker' from Beijing Jiaotong University, which had pivot-jointed Klann linkage legs to provide greater stability and simplicity. It bears some resemblance to Chinese research on a many-legged, auto-cannon-armed design disclosed in 2014.

China News

Sino MULE

The "Sino MULE", developed by the 5th Department of Armored Engineering Institute, has six independently articulated wheels to roll across difficult terrain while carrying heavy loads.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

Robot train

These modular robots can be attached as a convoy, and can be programmed and order on autonomous tasks, like following designated persons and vehicles,

Category E was robot cargo trucks. One finalist was a 6x6 truck from 5th Department of Armored Engineering Institute with independently articulated wheels, like similar to the MULE robot. Another 6x6 robot truck built by the Beijing Institute of Mechanical Research was seen carrying a simulated load. Sunward Equipment provided another finalist, consisting of two four-wheeled robots attached to each other, as a sort of robotic road-bound train.

Hu Yu, Qian Xiaohu via Weibo

North Spirit

Beijing Institute of Mechanic's North Spirit 6x6 robot is built for carrying large payloads (relative to its size) quickly over rough terrain.

The vivid display at "Overcoming Obstacle 2016" is a good reminder that China's research in military robotics continues to grow, and in a widening range of fields. Other areas to watch include bringing in advanced intelligence (another field in which China is becoming a world leader), swarming unmanned systems, and unmanned-manned pairings. Popular Science    
   

Y-20 Aircraft

Y-20 is the largest military aircraft currently in production. It has a payload capacity of 66 tons and a range of 7,800 kilometers. The aircraft made its first flight in 2013

   

 

Model of Y-20 at Zhuhai, a sign that WS-20 engined for Y-20 is coming soon.

Bird view of the Zhuhai Air Show  

 

‘Mysterious dragon’ filmed flying through Chinese mountains

A video showing a ‘dragon’ flying across a mountain range in China has left netizens bickering over whether the footage is real or fake.

Uploaded by YouTuber ApexTV, the five-minute clip has been viewed almost 200,000 times and apparently shows the mythical beast flying over an unnamed mountain range somewhere near the border between China and Laos.

 
 Giphy

Dragons are seen as a majestic creature in China’s folklore and the footage has captivated many, but some viewers have disputed whether the animal is a dragon or a flying dinosaur.

In the video, a person asks viewers if they think the creature is a “dragon or pterodactyl,” in reference to pterosaurs – flying reptiles believed to have become extinct 66 million years ago.


 Giphy

YouTube commenter Li Zeng has been convinced the video is fake. “It’s a cell phone device camera, so it’s pan focused and can’t focus on particular object,” they wrote.
Another user, who believes the footage forms part of a conspiracy theory, speculated if the dragon was in fact a drone. “I’ve read some articles about how scientists and engineers have combined knowledge and discovered the natural movement and aerodynamics of a bird so perhaps they have tried to replicate it on a machine,” s6ef4enko wrote.


Another Dragons

Dragons from the TV series ‘Game of Thrones’

Travel to Kashgar, Xinjiang's Best Silk Road Oasis

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Xinjiang Tajik

The Scale Of Aircraft Carrier Maintenance Is Ridiculous

Person, for scale, on the stairs. (Photo Credits: Daily Documentary/YouTube)




With a 134 foot beam, that’s the ship’s widest point at the waterline, the Nimitz pushes about 97,000 tons of water out of its way with propellors the size of suburban houses.

Salt water loves metal, but metal does not like salt. (Photo credit: Daily Documentary/YouTube)
One of the jet wing-sized rudders comes out of the vessel like a giant’s door hinge, and has to be completely sand-blasted and repainted before going back into service.

Man, this is frustrating when the chain fits in your hand! foxtrotalpha.jalopnik
Just putting a chain together is a laughably massive project when that chain has to hoist a 30 ton anchor into the air.
 
Nimitz sailing.


The Nimitz, deployed in 1975, is the oldest U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in service today. Just keeping a small boat alive in salt water that long takes some work, but when the ship is over 1,000 feet long the scale of maintained projects is just incredible.

This clip from the show Dry Dock takes us through just a few elements of a year-long maintenance regiment that the U.S.S. Nimitz was put through a few years ago before returning to duty. When it is active, the ship is home to over 3,000 servicemen and women and some 60 aircraft.

Aside from the very large and significant task of maintaining the Nimitz’s pair of nuclear reactors and of course cleaning the aircraft-catching cables, a lot of these chores are the same things your uncle dreads when he pulls is boat out of its slip for the winter and gets to work replacing things the ocean has eaten.

The sheer size and weight of everything on this vessel is just awesome to see. Gives you some good perspective on what this equipment is really like up close, and just how hard a Navy mechanic’s job can be. foxtrotalpha.jalopnik

The strangest animals you've probably never heard of revealed

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking some of these images are the work of Photoshop.

But no, all these animals belong to a gang of rare and somewhat comical-looking creatures that hide away in the farthest corners of the earth, and you might not have seen them until now.

From the African antelope with the freakishly long neck, to the tiny kangaroo-legged rodent which can bounce an astonishing ten yards, feast your eyes of the animal kingdom's most charmingly bizarre characters.

The gerenuk 

Gerenuks have long necks, disproportionally large ears and can stand on their hind legs while using their gangly forelegs to feed from tall trees

 

The gerenuk is, unsurprisingly upon inspection, the longest-necked antelope on earth. Found in the Horn of Africa, they take their name from the Somali term 'giraffe-necked', and they use their lithe appendages to reach high-growing foliage. 

Gerenuks can also stand on their hind legs and use their gangly forelegs to feed - sometimes reaching up as high as eight feet.

Their somewhat comical stature is only enhanced by their large ears, which help them keep cool in the searing African heat. 

The ribbon seal 

Ribbon seals are rarely seen by humans and thus not well researched, but they populate Arctic pack ice and all have four white bands on their black bodies. dailymail

Ribbon seals inhabit pack ice in the north Pacific Ocean and the adjacent fringes of the Arctic Ocean, and due to their remote habitat, little is actually known about them.

Adults all have four white bands on their black bodies, but are born completely white.

It has been suggested that their distinctive markings help them identify one another during mating season, but that the pattern also works to camouflage them when seen from a distance against the broken ice and water.   

The sunda flying lemur 

Is it a bat? Is it a squirrel? No, it's a sunda flying lemur - and confusingly it isn't actually a lemur either, nor can it fly, but this beady-eyed colungo can do a mighty good job of gliding

The sunda flying lemur looks like a happy hybrid between a bat and a squirrel, with big beady eyes and furry wing-like structures. 

But all is not what it seems. Despite their name, these chaps aren't lemurs and they can't fly. They can glide rather effectively, however, for distances of around 300 feet. 

Sunda's live in various forests around South East Asia and belong to the colugo species. While gloriously graceful mid-air, they are known to be clumsy on foot. 

The maned wolf 

Is it a red fox on stilts? No, it's the only one of its species, the chrysocyon, and is a solitary mammal found in South America

This spindly-legged mammal is not a fox, nor, as its name suggests, a wolf. It is special enough to have its own species, the chrysocyon. 

The maned wolf lives across central regions in South America and possess big ears and very long legs. Unlike wolves or dogs, they mate for life with one partner and don't form packs.

Generally they are shy beings but if threatened, the fur on the scruff of their necks puffs up - thus the name. 

The fossa 

The fossa, with its chunky paws and long dexterous tail, is unique to forests of the African island of Madagascar and is most closely related to the mongoose

Another confounding-looking creature which seems hard to categorise, the fossa is most closely related to the mongoose. 

Until fairly recently, it was thought to be some sort of primitive cat. 

The fossa, with its chunky paws and long dexterous tail, is unique to forests of the African island of Madagascar, where it is the largest carnivore, but is sadly endangered due to having lost 90 per cent of its habitat, thanks humans.

The white peacock 

White peacocks lack the kaleidoscopic colour we are used to seeing with this bird, due to a genetic mutation which means they are missing melanin  

These startling peacocks are not albinos, but rather a subspecies of the blue peacock born by genetic mutation. 

White peacocks boast beautiful blue eyes but thanks to a lack of melanin have no colour to their plumage.

When two of them breed, their chicks are yellow but all turn white, so they have been mated and multiplied in captivity. Generally, though, they remain a rare sight. 

The white reindeer

Not an albino, despite the pinkish hue of its horns, this rare sight in Swedish Lapland is another example of a genetic mutation

Much like the white peacock, this magnificent creature is of the same species as a brown reindeer but is another case of a genetic mutation.

White reindeer, which appear in the wilds of Finland, Norway and Sweden, are extremely rare, though they have been born in captivity elsewhere, including England.

In their northern homeland, they are seen by some as magical and a signal of good luck. 

The Japanese dwarf flying squirrel

This little pocket-sized pipsqueak is native to Japan, and hidden under those furry armpits is a thin membrane which allows it to glide through the air. dailymail

The Japanese dwarf flying squirrel looks as if it could be straight out of a Disney film.

With huge cartoon-ish eyes, grey-striped fur and the ability to glide thanks to a fine membrane connecting its wrists and ankles, it's hard not to find these little chaps appealing.

They are found in abundance in sub-alpine areas of Japan, and sadly are even kept as pets in some parts of the world. 

The southern flying squirrel 

 This variation of airbourne squirrel lives in the US and Canada and is capable of gliding for distances of more than 100 feet

More widespread than its Japanese cousin, the southern flying squirrel is a remarkable critter found across the US and Canada.

They are nocturnal, and very social - choosing not to hibernate during winter but instead curling up together in groups of more than 20 and hiding in tree hollows.

Again, they don't actually fly but they are capable of gliding for distances of more than 100 feet. 

The Chinese water deer 

This primitive breed of deer has roots in China but has been introduced to other regions including the UK, and has long fangs in its jaws instead of horns on its head

Upon first glance, the Chinese water deer doesn't appear particularly peculiar, until you zone in on their mouths.

These primitive deer grow long fangs instead of tanduk, which they use to fight one another, and have a wide vocal range of 'barks' and screeches when alarmed.

Despite their Chinese heritage, around ten per cent of their world population now resides in the East of England.

The blue-footed booby 

The dance you see before you is the male (right) desperately trying to prove the impressiveness of his blue feet, which signify good genes, to the female (left)

Nice feathers, very impressive feet.

The blue footed booby is a bird found in tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean, and particularly the Galapagos islands. It gets its brightly-coloured walkers from the carotenoid pigments present in its food.

When mating season rolls around, males perform splendid dances to showcase these dazzling feet - and the bluer the better in terms of attraction. 

The caracal 

This tuft-eared feline may look serene but in fact, when enraged, it's one of the most vicious and formidable members of all the wild cats

The caracal is a medium-sized wild cat that lives in Africa, the Middle East, Persia and the Indian subcontinent. 

Once used in Iran and India to hunt birds, the caracal boasts handsome dark turfs on both ears and is often referred to as 'the desert Lynx'.

Don't cross one though. Caracals are known for being extremely viscous - the grumpiest and hissiest of all the wild cats in the world. 

The jerboa 

This peculiar-looking fellow has powerful legs which can propel it to distances of up to seven feet in height and ten feet in length through the hot desert sands of the Gobi and Sahara. dailymail

This teeny jumping rodent has a bit of everything going on. A mouse-like head, long cat-like whiskers, kangaroo-style hind legs and a long tufted tail.

It may look fragile, but the jerboa is supremely adapted to its boiling hot habitat, stretching from Asia to Northern Africa, where they happily make their homes in the Gobi and Sahara deserts.

Its incredible legs can mendorong it to distances of up to seven feet in height and ten feet in length, making it one of the bounciest little joy bundles you are likely to (not) come across anywhere.

The fennec fox 

Enormous ears distinguish the fennec fox from other members of its species, and are essential for dispersing heat in the hot environment of the Sahara, the only place they are found in the world

The fennec fox is a very small nocturnal fox with disproportionately giant ears which it uses to disperse heat, found only in the Sahara of North Africa. 

They have hairy feet which act somewhat like snowshoes to help them navigate over hot sand, and double up as good diggers for all their burrowing needs.

Fennecs live in small communities in wild underground dens, but alas, their adorable features make them prime targets for use in the captive pet trade. 

The dumbo octopus 

This rare deep ocean dweller is something of a mystery in many ways, but we do know it can change colour and grow up to six feet long

The dumbo octopus is a rare breed, often called the Blind Octopus due to its large but rather useless eyes.

It lives very deep in the ocean and can use jet propulsion to move through the water, as well as a crawling motion to cross the seabed.

Although not much is known about these shy ocean dwellers, they can grow up to six feet long and are capable of changing colour. 

The spoon-billed sandpiper

Sadly, this little wader bird, which breeds in north-eastern Russia and migrates to south-east Asia, is critically endangered

Fewer than 100 pairs of spoon-billed sandpipers remain in the wild, together weighing less than a single swan. Illegal hunting is the main culprit for this.

The tiny wader birds breed in north-eastern Russia and migrate to south-east Asia for winter.

Thanks to a dedicated effort from various conservation programs around the world, two females laid eggs for the first time in captivity earlier this year at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire. Hope remains, for now at least. dailymail