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TECHNOLOGY A23
                                                                                                                          Wednesday 13 January 2016

Chinese drone maker unveils human-carrying drone 

The EHang 184 autonomous aerial vehicle is seen at the EHang booth at CES International in Las                                    it looks like a small helicop-    ing to lay out guidelines for
Vegas. The drone is large enough to fit a human passenger.                                                                        ter but with four doubled         drone use, and a human-
                                                                                                                                  propellers spinning paral-        passenger drone seems
                                                                                                          (AP Photo/John Locher)  lel to the ground like other      certain to face strict scru-
                                                                                                                                  drones.                           tiny.
RYAN NAKASHIMA               what it calls the world’s first             the cloth off the Ehang 184                              The electric-powered              Federal Aviation Admin-
AP Business Writer           drone capable of carrying                   at the Las Vegas Conven-                                 drone can be fully charged        istration administrator Mi-
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Chinese     a human passenger.                          tion Center during the CES                               in two hours, carry up to 220     chael Huerta was at CES
drone maker Ehang Inc.       The Guangzhou, China-                       gadget show. In a compa-                                 pounds and fly for 23 min-        but could not immediately
on Wednesday unveiled        based company pulled                        ny video showing it flying,                              utes at sea level, accord-        be reached for comment
                                                                                                                                  ing to Ehang. The cabin           through a spokesman.
                                                                                                                                  fits one person and a small       Ehang co-founder and
                                                                                                                                  backpack and even has air         Chief Financial Officer
                                                                                                                                  conditioning and a reading        Shang Hsiao said the
                                                                                                                                  light. With propellers folded     company hopes to sell
                                                                                                                                  up, it’s designed to fit in a     the device for $200,000
                                                                                                                                  single parking spot.              to $300,000 beginning this
                                                                                                                                  After setting a flight plan,      year but acknowledged
                                                                                                                                  passengers only need to           it occupies a legal “grey
                                                                                                                                  give two commands, “take          area.”
                                                                                                                                  off” and “land,” each con-        “The whole world never
                                                                                                                                  trolled by a single click on      had something like this be-
                                                                                                                                  a Microsoft Surface tablet,       fore,” he said.
                                                                                                                                  the company said.                 A passenger would have
                                                                                                                                  It is designed to fly about       no controls as a backup, he
                                                                                                                                  1,000 to 1,650 feet off the       said. In the event of a prob-
                                                                                                                                  ground with a maximum             lem the company plans
                                                                                                                                  altitude of 11,500 feet and       a remote control center
                                                                                                                                  top speed of 63 miles per         that would take over the
                                                                                                                                  hour.                             vehicle and ensure it lands
                                                                                                                                  U.S. authorities are just start-  safely, he said.

Powerful replacement in works for climate-modeling computer 

                                                                         modeling of effects, the                                 lihood of drought and tic sea ice from decade to
                                                                         center said.                                             change the extent of arc- decade?
                                                                         A more powerful comput-
This photo shows the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center                  er will allow researchers to
(NWSC) “Yellowstone” supercomputer, among the 60 fastest in              see results in higher resolu-
the world, used to study weather, climate, oceanography, and             tion, like a higher density of
other areas of earth science in Cheyenne, Wyo. “Yellowstone”             pixels sharpens images on
will be replaced in 2017 by an even faster machine, officials            a television or a stronger
announced Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. The new supercomputer, to               telescope brings a greater
be named Cheyenne, will be at least 2 1/2 times more power-              number of far-off galaxies
ful, the National Center for Atmospheric Research said.                  into focus, explained Rich
                                                                         Loft, the center’s director
                               (Alan Rogers/Casper Star-Tribune via AP)  of technology.
                                                                         Scientists since 2012 have
MEAD GRUVER                  in the world. The new super-                been using the Yellow-
Associated Press             computer, to be named                       stone supercomputer near
CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP)       Cheyenne, will be at least                  Cheyenne for a range of
— One of the most power-     2 1/2 times more powerful,                  research that also includes
ful computers in the world   the National Center for At-                 modeling air pollution and
dedicated to climate         mospheric Research said.                    ocean currents.
change, weather and oth-     Capable of 5.3 quadrillion                  The atmospheric research
er earth science research    calculations, or petaflops,                 center plans to install
will be replaced in 2017 by  per second, Cheyenne                        Cheyenne later this year
an even faster machine,      will be some 100,000 times                  and put it to work early
officials announced Mon-     faster than a typical home                  next year. Questions it
day.                         computer. The speed pro-                    might help answer include:
The Yellowstone supercom-    vides unprecedented de-                     — Is the California drought
puter in Wyoming currently   tail in climate-change pre-                 a fluke or due to global cli-
ranks among the 60 fastest   dictions, including regional                mate change?
                                                                         — Can scientists predict
                                                                         the intensity of solar flares
                                                                         — streams of radiation re-
                                                                         leased by the sun that can
                                                                         endanger satellites and
                                                                         astronauts — during an up-
                                                                         coming solar cycle?
                                                                         — How might climate
                                                                         change increase the like-
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