flight

Two scientists will board a suborbital flight in 2027 to do the first real study of menstruation in microgravity

by

If all goes well, in 2027 Virgin Galactic will launch Operation Period-01, a suborbital mission aimed at studying something that has never been done before: the effects of microgravity on menstruation. The first woman to travel to space was Valentina Tereshkova. He did it in 1963. Since then, around 100 women have traveled beyond Earth. However, in all this time it has not been studied how microgravity influences something that happens to the vast majority of adult women a few days a month for several decades of their lives. For whatever. Now, two engineers and astronauts in training want to solve the problem and both the Redshift laboratory and Virgin Galactic have made available the means to study menstruation in space, specifically in a suborbital flight. A study to close a gap that should never have been opened. Since space travel began, has been studied how microgravity affects bone density, muscle atrophy, sleep, cardiovascular function or mental health, among other issues. No trace of something that affects 50% of the population. For this reason, the two scientists who direct this project, Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram, consider that there is a gap when it comes to studying the health of astronauts, which must be closed. What is known. In reality, there have already been women who have menstruated in space without posing operational difficulties. That is to say, beyond the generation of waste, they have not had the slightest problem in carrying out their functions within the mission. Therefore, we know that, in principle, menstruation symptoms do not worsen in space. However, as these scientists remember, everything that is known is due to historical records, not to well-designed research. Since there have been few cases of women menstruating in space, there is not enough information to draw solid conclusions. It is well known that microgravity affects fluid dynamics. This has a lot to do with menstruation. Therefore, it is logical that it should be studied further. For now, Bangalore and Abiram have done it in their laboratory, as part of the studies carried out by the organization Operation Period. Until next year they will not be able to do it in a real microgravity environment. History teaches us that it is necessary. In 1982, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel to space. The second in the world to do so, after Tereshkova. According to her own account, when supplies for the ship were being prepared, she was asked if 100 tampons would be enough. 100 tampons for a mission that would last a week. With this it is clear that the people in charge of preparing these supplies do not have much idea about menstruation. Although they also offered her a makeup kit that she rejected. It seems like they had no idea about many things. On the other hand, it is known that in the 70s there were doctors who feared that women would travel to space, for fear of the effects of microgravity on menstruation. They thought that remnants of the endometrium could move into the abdomen and cause something similar to endometriosis. Today we know that, in principle, this does not happen, because it has not happened to any of the women who have menstruated during their missions. However, despite their “concern,” it never occurred to any doctor or scientist to conduct studies on the development of menstruation in space. Sally Ride was offered to bring 100 tampons for a week Most prefer not to have menstruation in space. There are female astronauts who have spoken openly about their management of menstruation in space. This is the case of the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who in 2022 he made statements about her personal case and that of some colleagues. She explained that they have a large arsenal of pads and tampons and that the management of menstruation in space is similar to what is done on Earth. However, the systems that process and recycle urine are not as good with menstrual blood. Extra filters are needed and can be tedious. For all this, many astronauts choose to suppress their period through the consumption of contraceptives. The freedom to decide. With their study, those responsible for Operation Period-01 hope that future astronauts will be able to make more informed decisions about the management of menstruation in space. If they finally want to take contraceptives, no problem. The bad thing is that, nowadays, since they have not studied in depth how microgravity affects menstruation, they prefer to avoid it directly. If suitable filters have already been found for urine recycling systems, that should not be a problem. Applications here on Earth. These scientists believe that, by studying menstruation in extreme conditions, their development could be much better understood and that knowledge applied here on Earth. For example, it would be useful in the study of reproductive medicine, as well as underdiagnosed diseases that affect menstrual health, including endometriosis and PCOS, which, by the way, recently a new name has been proposed. Breaking records. Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram will carry out experiments that have never been done in space. It is not outer space, but it is a suborbital flight with real microgravity. That said, it should be noted that this is not the only thing in which they hope to overcome barriers; Well, if everything goes according to plan, they would become two of the youngest South Asian women to travel to space. It is clear that they are two women who want to break molds. It is great news that there are scientists like them. Image | Magnific/NASA In Xataka | Period pain in adolescence is not “normal”: massive study links it to increased risk of chronic pain in adulthood

Airbus is testing AI in one of the most delicate maneuvers of a flight: landing

by

Landing a commercial plane seems, seen from the window, to be an almost routine sequence, but in reality, it is one of the most demanding phases of the flight, a maneuver in which pilots, navigation systems, weather conditions and airport infrastructure have to fit together with enormous precision. What Airbus is investigating now is whether the artificial intelligence can help with that fit. Their proposal involves cameras installed on the plane itself and artificial vision to analyze the runway references during landing in real time. What the company has put on the table is called Vision Landing Application. Airbus has presented it in the context of VivaTech 2026 as a technology still in the research phase, so we are not looking at something that will reach commercial aircraft tomorrow. However, the idea it leaves behind is quite simple to understand: saving all the distances with aviation, it is conceptually reminiscent of what we have already seen in autonomous terrestrial vehicles. Autoland is not new, but aims to evolve Here you have to separate two things that may seem the same, but are not. commercial airplanes They can now land automatically under certain conditions, but that does not mean that the system is always available, at any airport and regardless of the crew. They are needed certified aircraft, adequate infrastructure, authorized procedures and pilots trained to operate within that framework. As we can sense, the novelty that Airbus is exploring does not eliminate that reality: it tries to add another form of guidance, born within the plane itself, to an ecosystem where the pilot continues to be a central piece. Regarding the demonstration at VivaTech, it should be noted that we are not talking about a plane landing in the middle of the event or a commercial test carried out in front of the public. The exhibit was intended to explain how computer vision can improve automated landing procedures. It is less spectacular than imagining an A350 landing at a fair, but much more important to understand where the technology really is. Now, all this does not come from nothing. Airbus places it within an automation roadmap that began to take shape years ago with ATTOLa project launched in 2018 to explore autonomous taxiing, takeoff and landing using image recognition, without relying on conventional ground systems such as ILS or GBAS. Then other programs arrived: DragonFlyfocused on pilot assistance, automatic emergency operations and workload reduction during taxiing; and Auto’Matewith a different objective, in-flight refueling, but with very close technological bricks, such as cameras, LiDAR, high-precision positioning and AI algorithms. The next name in that chain is Optimizean Airbus UpNext demonstrator that the company describes as a kind of A350 cabin on wheels. It is not an airplane, but a test vehicle designed to bring sensors, systems and automation to the real environment of an airport without converting each test into a flight. This includes cameras, 4D radar, LiDAR, trajectory protection models, functions against runway incursions and even a virtual assistant to interpret air control authorizations. Vision Landing Application aims to be useful in at least two especially sensitive cases: remote airfields with little or no advanced infrastructure and environments where GNSS, the satellite navigation that many systems use as a reference, may be degraded, interfered with or directly unavailable. In these cases, the aircraft being able to visually interpret what is in front of it does not replace operational safety, but it does add a potential support network. The expression Airbus uses is “embedded AI”, but we can translate it more clearly as embedded AI. The difference matters: it is not an AI supported by external servers, but a capability integrated into the aircraft systems. In an airplane there is no excess energy, there is no excess calculation capacity and it is not enough for an algorithm to work well in a demonstration. To get closer to certification, the European manufacturer needs the behavior of the hardware and software to be controllable, traceable and compatible with the safety requirements of commercial aviation. This is one of the reasons why it is wise to avoid the easy jump to pilotless aircraft. What Airbus describes is much closer to a cabin with better aids than an empty cabin. Its systems seek to alleviate repetitive tasks, improve crew attention and add layers of information. If onboard AI ends up entering commercial aircraft, its first reasonable function will not be to replace the pilot, but rather to give it better tools. From there to the commercial plane there is still a long way. Airbus will have to demonstrate that this technology works reliably in very different scenarios, integrate it with the rest of the aircraft systems and go through a certification process designed precisely to prevent a promising innovation from reaching real operation prematurely. The Vision Landing Application does not change the way of landing tomorrow, but it does show a very specific direction of where at least part of the industry is heading. Images | Airbus In Xataka | Spain had a master plan for the European fighter. The problem is that Germany just got a girlfriend with a lot of “money”

You don’t need to buy ‘Flight Simulator’ to explore the world. Google Earth has just put it at our fingertips

by

I have long been a fan of ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator‘. That is why I followed with special interest his arrival in PS5: I wanted to try it beyond the PC, not only because of the possibility of piloting an aircraft, but because of something that has always attracted me to the game: exploring landscapes, looking for frames and using the photo mode almost as a small tool to explore the world from the screen. And that fascination makes sense precisely because Microsoft has worked for years to make ‘Flight Simulator’ much more than an airplane game. The company speaks in ‘Flight Simulator 2024‘ of its most detailed recreation of planet Earth to date, with improved elevation maps, more than 500 cities recreated with 3D models based on irregular triangular networks and more than 100,000 square kilometers of rural photogrammetry. The novelty is that now there is a much lighter way to get closer to that experience without going through a full game or installing anything on your computer. Google Earth announced last Friday that his flight simulator It is now available for all users. Fly without installing anything, directly from the browser Google Earth is not trying to sell us a full-fledged flight simulator, and that works in its favor. On their help pageGoogle describes the feature as experimental, available only in Earth on the web, and geared toward a casual exploration experience. He also warns that the flight physics is simplified, so if what we are looking for is a simulation in its most demanding sense, this is certainly not it. But it may be interesting to try it, draw our own conclusions and discover another way of exploring the world in images. If you want to start trying it, the path is quite simple. You just have to open Google Earth on the webenter Explore the Earthdisplay the Tools menu and click on Flight Simulator. The option appears within the menu itself. In a matter of seconds you go from the traditional map to a flight view, with the interface ready to start moving over the terrain. Once inside, the management also focuses on the immediate. Google allows you to control the plane with the keyboard: Page up to accelerate, Page down to reduce thrust, the up and down arrows to change the altitude and the side arrows to tilt the aircraft. You can also turn mouse control on or off by clicking inside the simulation. And if things go wrong, which can go wrong pretty quickly at first, the option to start over after impact appears. The most attractive part is that Google Earth dynamically loads 3D buildings and high-resolution images while you fly. This allows us to turn a very simple function into a quite interesting visual experience, especially if we choose recognizable areas and we change the basemap to Satellite when necessary. However, Google also warns that flying at extreme speeds or with a slow connection can cause temporary delays in loading. There are, in addition, known problems in some areas of the field, so it is best to assume it for what it is: a light and still experimental function. Then there is the other option, of course: taking a real plane. In specific searches on services such as Skyscanner we have seen flights from Spain for less than 40 euros, always depending on route, date and availability. Looking at an image from the browser is not the same as looking out the window and seeing how the landscape changes under the clouds. But that is precisely why it makes sense to bring it here: we are talking about different experiences, different ways of moving, looking and playing with the idea of ​​traveling. The interesting thing about Google Earth is taking a tool that many of us have used for years to explore the planet and adding a simple playful layer to it, free and accessible from the browser. It doesn’t always take a complex simulation to spark that curiosity. Sometimes a small, well-placed function is enough to make us look at the map again and want to get lost for a while. Images | Screenshots In Xataka | After marathons and combats, humanoid robots already have their next challenge: climbing Everest

A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war

by

Exactly a decade ago, the Dutch police presented a plan that seemed straight out of a medieval movie: training eagles to shoot down drones in full flight. That project lasted less than a year, because the birds They were too unpredictable and the propellers too dangerous even for them, but 10 years later it seems that they were not so wrong. The stork that left a Russian drone behind. In the middle of a war where Ukraine and Russia compete to automate battlefield, a seemingly trivial video has become an unexpectedly powerful metaphor. what we see: A Russian interceptor drone chases a Ukrainian white stork in mid-flight until the bird suddenly makes a sharp turn, leaving the device chasing shadows. The scene lasts just a few secondsbut it summarizes something much deeper: modern warfare is obsessed with creating machines that imitate capabilities that nature perfected millions of years ago, although we are still far from achieving it. The image is especially symbolic because the white stork is one of the national animals of Ukraine and because the video inadvertently exposes the enormous limitations that many drones continue to have when faced with an enemy as seemingly simple as a bird. The great military obsession. For years, military engineers they try to replicate the capabilities of birds flight. Modern drones can travel hundreds of kilometers, transmit video in real time or attack targets with enormous precision, but they remain much less agile than animals capable of instantly changing the shape of their wings, taking advantage of thermal currents or performing extreme maneuvers without losing stability. The video stork It does exactly that: detect danger, alter its trajectory and escape from a device specifically designed to intercept moving targets. The difference reveals a key problem with today’s autonomous war. Drones still rely heavily on relatively predictable trajectoriesimperfect sensors and reaction capacities much lower than those of biological organisms evolved to survive in the air. Drone warfare as an ecosystem. The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated the evolution of drones to unprecedented levels. Let us remember that at the beginning of the war they were relatively simple reconnaissance tools… and now there are coordinated swarmsinterceptors aerial FPVplatforms long range suicide bombers and autonomous systems capable of searching for targets by themselves. In parallel, the sky begins to fill with absurd situations and almost surreal where birds and machines share the same airspace. In the early years there were trained eagles to shoot down police drones. Today, just the opposite is happening: drones that chase birds because their radar signatures are too similar to those of enemy devices. Some species, such as storks or pelicans, are comparable in size to certain military drones and create enough confusion to cause real errors in combat. Nature is several steps ahead. The episode also leaves an uncomfortable conclusion for the military industry: the capabilities that militaries desperately seek already exist in nature. Birds master something that drones still cannot combine well: agility, energy autonomy, collective coordination and instant adaptation to the environment. An albatross, for example, can travel entire oceans taking advantage of wind currents Without spending much energy, Harris hawks or eagles coordinate extremely complex cooperative attacks. no centralized communicationand storks use thermals to gain altitude practically free. Meanwhile, defense engineers still experience with deformable wings, biomimetic systems and algorithms that allow drones to react with the same fluidity. The result is paradoxical: the more autonomous military technologies advance, the more evident it is that they continue to try to achieve abilities that a bird naturally possesses. A video that says much more. The Ukraine War will probably be remembered as the drone laboratory most important in modern history. Both sides are learning in real time how to automate attacks, saturate defenses and dominate airspace at low cost. But he stork video points towards something even more important: the winner will not necessarily be the one who has the most drones, but rather the one who manages to build capable systems to adapt to the environment with the flexibility of a living organism. Therein lies the great technological race that is beginning to take shape. Armies no longer just want fast or cheap machines, they also want platforms that learn, react, collaborate and survive like animals. And while Russia and Ukraine transform the sky into a permanent surreal experiment, a simple stork has just remembered that nature, for now, continues playing in another league. Image | Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back. In Xataka | The war has entered the phase of mathematics: cheap Russian missiles are destroying the scarce Ukrainian interceptors

new scrub on the most critical flight in its history

by

After postponing the release date several times, it seemed that, finally, version 3 of Starship I was going to take flight. However, flight 12 of the SpaceX giant had to do a scrub after stopping and restarting the countdown several times. In principle, the company is expected to make a new attempt today, at 5:30 p.m., local time in Texas (00:30, Spanish peninsular time). However, it has not been completely confirmed. A countdown that never ends. During the countdown prior to the launch of Starship there were several arrests. This occurs when engineers detect problems that they must solve for the imminent launch. After the necessary checks, the clock was moving again, but then it stopped again. It stopped up to 5 times. Unfortunately, not all the technical problems were solved, so a scrub was finally chosen. This is similar to the launch abort, although the abort occurs when ignition and scrubbing have already begun before ignition. The technical problems. The first stop in the countdown occurred shortly after T-40. That is, when there were 40 seconds left until the launch. At this point, engineers had to check the quick-disconnect grilles for their final setbacks. After this point, the countdown began, but not for long, as it stopped again at T-35 to manage the pressures of the quick disconnect system. Next, the big part came in the T-28. First, a problem was detected in the water diverter. This seemed solved, but when the countdown was reactivated, not even a second passed. He stopped again at T-28 so that the sensors on the arm that controls the quick disconnect system could be checked. And if that were not enough, there was one last stoppage, also in T-28, due to an error in the hydraulic pin that maintains said arm. Did not carry out the necessary retractionso it had to be reviewed. There were already too many problems and they could not be solved properly, so the launch was cancelled. SpaceX has a lot at stake. This is a very important release. It is not just another Starship flight, but the first in which its version 3 will be tested. Both the ship itself and the Super Heavy rocket incorporate a large number of modifications that should make its flight much more efficient. This is very important for future SpaceX missions, but also so that the company can maintain the proposed timeline for joining the Artemis missions as human landing system. If the flight failed, the losses, both economic and confidence, would be immense. It is important to solve even the smallest incident so that everything goes well. another try. Another attempt is expected this afternoon in Texas. In fact, the roads around the Starbase launch pad will be closed from 10 a.m. local time. That is, 17:00, Spanish peninsular time. Unless engineers cannot resolve all the issues, there will be another flight attempt today. We’ll see if this is the definitive one. Image | SpaceX In Xataka | SpaceX is preparing the largest IPO in history: the fact that it is doing so right now is no coincidence

How a seat change on flight KL592 has shown the cracks in the system

by

We’ve been talking about it for two weeks. hantavirus in Europe and the script is getting more complicated. It is no longer just the three dead, the rejection of the president of the Canary Islands, the air evacuations to Nebraska or the French emergency decrees. Now, in the last few hours, the plane thing is added. And the Health Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia investigate a third case: a passenger on flight KL592 who did not appear in the first scan because she had changed seats during the flight. The important thing here is not the virus. It never has been: hantaviruses have been known for decadesthe Andes variant has waging war for years and the WHO itself classifies the population risk as low. The important thing is the x-ray that traces everything about our international epidemiological control system. And what a picture… The way in which this outbreak has been detected (an autopsy in Johannesburg and not through active surveillance protocols), the failures of tracing (about thirty people disembarked before there was an alert) and the heterogeneous response of the different states are drawing the first serious “stress test” for a world that said it was prepared for the post-COVID world. But it wasn’t. Although the response is being good, effective and worthy of praise, there are three big gaps that we cannot ignore: how diseases are tracked in an increasingly complex world, what happens to the international health cooperation network (when there are people actively trying to dismantle it) and how is it possible that a change of seat can be, even today, enough to lose a contact. In the end, what differentiates this outbreak from that of El Bolsón in ’96 or that of Epuyén in 2018 is that, in addition to affecting a considerable group of Westerners, it has generated an enormous trail of cases internationally. We must not forget that the first deceased from the ship died on April 11 and no one identified the cause until three weeks later. In fact, the detection has had a lot to do with chance: if it had not been for the autopsy that was performed on his wife in Johannesburg, no one would have found out until a long time later. That allowed more than thirty people to get off the ship and move around the world. And how is it that we have ‘unlearned’? The best example is the EU cross-border tracking system which, although it has many technical and legal devices, has been hibernating since 2026. But there are many more, no country had updated protocols for a virus that, let us remember, was causing problems in one of the largest (and interconnected) metropolitan areas in the southern hemisphere. And that should lead us to reflect on how we are going to prepare for a world where these types of problems They are going to be more and more common. Image | Ministry of Health In Xataka | It is not so contagious, but it is very lethal: in Argentina the hantavirus went from 17% to 33% in the blink of an eye

set a flight ceiling

by

In 2025, just over 33.8 million of passengers. The one from Ibiza scored 9.1 and the one from Menorca 4.2. Although this enormous flow of travelers includes both residents and people who fly for family, work or study reasons, a good part are tourists who want to spend their vacations on the islands. That makes Aena terminals the great gateway to the Balearic Islands. Also in the new goal of efforts to prevent mass tourism from devouring the archipelago. In fact, there are those who are already talking about setting a flight ceilingjust as it has been proposed to reduce the limit of tourist placesthe vehicle entrance or the cruises. What has happened? What the Balearic Islands want have more weight when deciding what to do with their airports. A few days ago your Parliament gave the green light (with the votes of PP and the Més formation) to a proposal which reinforces the voice of the autonomous community in the management and planning of Aena’s infrastructure. To go ahead, the measure must still obtain the approval of Congress, something that is by no means guaranteed, but it shows a key objective of the Balearic Government: to prevent its airports from continuing to be an unlimited drain for mass tourism. What exactly do they want? The original proposal It started from the eco-sovereignty Més formation and has moved forward after incorporating amendments proposed by the PP, the party that heads the regional Government. Its objective is very simple: to give more weight to the Balearic authorities when deciding what happens to its airport network, in the hands of Aena. It is not about transferring ownership of the terminals, which now depend on the State, but about moving towards a “co-management” when it is time to set rates, frequencies or operational capacity. Aena already works with coordination committees in which different administrations sit, but they are only advisory bodies. That is, the airport manager does not have to follow their recommendations. In the Balearic Islands they want to apply two big changes to that model. First, reinforce the weight of regional institutions in the archipelago. Second, that their reports are binding in certain cases. Why is it important? Because beyond reinforcing the capacity of the Balearic Islands to decide what happens with one of its great entry and exit doors, the proposal has a much more specific objective: to become a tool to combat tourist overcrowding. In fact, that idea flies over the original textpresented by Més per Mallorca and Més Menorca in 2025. “Airport policy conditions the balance between visitors and residents, to the extent that the intensity of the flow of tourists and the average period of stay impact human pressure on the islands and, therefore, the satisfaction of residents with tourism and of tourists with the destination,” collect the initiative. Do they argue something else? “In recent years, an evident disconnection between tourism policy and airport policy has been revealed, which has resulted in a progressive increase in the number of flights and arrivals to the Balearic Islands, in a context of containment of the number of tourist places,” affects Més’s proposal, which states that one of the objectives of the new organization would be to set a “ceiling” of flights, passengers and merchandise. The training recalls that the Balearic airports have gone from moving 31.9 million travelers in 2014 to 47.4 in 2024. 48% more in ten years. Is the debate settled? No. Although the proposal has gone ahead in the Balearic Parliament thanks to the PP amendments that have rethought part of the original document (a red line What remains is the binding nature of the committee’s decisions), there is still a process that is as necessary as it is complex: the approval of Congress. Vox has already rejected the proposal in the Autonomous Chamber and PSOE and Unidas Podemos have opted to refrain. The truth is that the Balearic initiative is even more ambitious than the recently agreed between the central government and the Basque Country, which involves creating a “bilateral body for collaboration, coordination and management” focused on the three airports in the region. What makes the Balearic Islands different? From Mes it is alleged that the fact that the Balearic Islands is an archipelago gives even more relevance to airport traffic management. Mallorca, Menorca and the Pitiusas are, however, more than just part of an archipelago. They are also a destination they pass through every year. millions of visitors and in which tourism leaves one of lime and another of sand: although the sector moves billions of euros also has stressed the residential market and caused friction with the local population, who already has gone out into the street to protest against overcrowding. Més herself has demanded in the past curb uncontrolled touristification. Do you only look at airports? No. The debate on the overcrowding of the Balearic Islands and the measures to limit it has also extended to the tourist places of the archipelago, the vehicle entrance or the cruise traffic. In its original proposal, Més focuses, however, on the “complete disconnection” between these initiatives and the activity of the island airports. “The existence of these seat ceilings has not translated, in any case, into a containment of the flight schedule, which has been growing year after year, even in high season,” argues. Now the region wants to provide itself with a new tool that gives it greater control over its terminals. Images | James Stevenson (Unsplash) and Wikipedia In Xataka | Europe is back in “February 2020”: Lufthansa has canceled 20,000 flights and it is just the beginning of the crisis

China already has its “flying truck.” The HH-200 has just completed its first test flight

by

China has just put into the air one of those machines that, by concept and ambition, do not go unnoticed. It is not a new fighter jet like the J-35Abut rather a commercial unmanned aerial system for transportation, completed its first test flight on April 15. There is still no logistics network deployed, but there is a movement that allows us to understand where the Asian giant wants to move in the pilotless air transport of goods, especially within the framework of its commitment to the so-called low-altitude economy. First flight. After the entire development phase, the program has already left paper behind. CCTV places the inaugural test in Puchengin the province of Shaanxi, and explains that it lasted for 22 minutes, with correct operation of the onboard systems and stable evolution of the device during the journey. To be precise, this is the first real flight evaluation, and it has been completed satisfactorily. The figures of the device. Once the test is confirmed, the next thing is to take a closer look at what kind of aircraft China has in its hands. It is a system with a square section fuselage, high wing, double engine and double boom, with dimensions of 12.2 meters long, 16.8 meters wide and 3.7 meters high. In the operational section, it boasts a maximum load capacity of 1.5 tons and a maximum range of 2,360 kilometers. Furthermore, according to official information, it is capable of reaching a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour. The logistics part. Beyond dimensions or scope, one of the keys to the HH-200 is how its operations on the ground and in flight are planned. China News assures that the system has been designed with civil aviation standards and that it can perform the flight intelligently and autonomously from start to finish, with obstacle avoidance functions supported by AI. Added to this is a direct passage fuselage and a rear configuration designed to facilitate loading operations, allowing work with pallets, loading platforms and conventional forklifts, to the point that two operators could complete loading or unloading in five minutes. Where do you want to operate. The device is not only designed to move goods from one point to another under ideal conditions. Instead, it has a strong environmental adaptation capacity and can execute missions on short runways, high-altitude airports, extreme temperatures and adverse weather. China News gives us some interesting concrete examples: cargo routes in coastal and border areas, internal logistics routes between specific points and operations between islands in Southeast Asia, before opening the door to uses such as emergency rescue, remote sensing or agricultural and forestry tasks. From trial to market. After this first milestone, the next step will not be an immediate implementation, but an additional testing phase. It is expected that the vehicle will continue to accumulate flight tests before its eventual entry into service, an important nuance to avoid confusing initial technical success with operational maturity. Even in this scenario, according to China News, the project has 20 order intentions and closer cooperation with several firms. We have to wait to see if we will see the HH-200 beyond the testing scope. Images | CCTV In Xataka | Boeing has surpassed Airbus after years behind. That doesn’t mean I’ve regained control.

The massive flight of investors and millionaires suggests that he has achieved it

by

For years, Dubai has been the promised land for millionaires from all over the planet who saw the United Arab Emirates as a idyllic place to live without paying taxes. The Iranian attacks with missiles and drones on different infrastructures in Dubai in recent weeks have changed that perception and the financial elite, especially Asian millionaires, are putting their feet (and fortunes) on the run. The city that seduced more than 81,000 millionaires Since 2014, it is now facing an unprecedented flight of capital and talent. The prestige that took decades to build is being tested in a matter of days. ​Explosions in the heart of the city. The last few weeks have left us images that few would have imagined in February. The Fairmont The Palm hotel, located in one of the artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, was hit for an explosion. Days later the remains of an Iranian drone demolished set fire to the iconic Burj Al Arab, the international airport has suffered damage from drone attacks and the american consulate has been the target of another drone attack. The city that boasted of being the safest in the world, in a matter of weeks, has become a scene of war. “The US-Israel war against Iran is undermining that crucial sense of security in Dubai. Dubai’s economic model relies on expatriate residents providing talent, muscle and investment capital. Stability and security are needed to attract skilled foreigners.”, assured to CNBC Jim Krane, researcher at the Baker Institute at Rice University. ​Asian money in retreat. However, the most visible impact is being felt among Asian investors, who had become one of the pillars of Dubai’s financial growth. According to data by Henley & Partners, Dubai is currently home to 237 centimillionaires (people with wealth of $100 million or more) and at least 20 billionaires Asia accounted for 47% of all multinational companies attracted to Dubai International Chamber in 2025, and around a quarter of the more than 2,270 foundations created in the Emirates have Asian ownership, according to data from the consulting firm BSA Law. Bloomberg published that the United Arab Emirates had attracted some 700 billion dollars from millionaires around the world, especially Asians. Singapore and Hong Kong, new chosen destinations. Grace Tang, CEO of Phillip Private Equity, pointed out to Reuters that between 10 and 20 of their customers, mostly Asian, are asking about how transfer your assets to Singapore to protect the value of its assets. Hong Kong also emerges as an alternative. For his part, Felix Lai, from the consulting firm JMS Group, counted to Bloomberg who had organized a private jet flight to transport 15 clients from Oman to Hong Kong at a cost of approximately $300,000. “They didn’t even care about the price,” Lai explained. “They just wanted to leave.” An advisor in Singapore who declined to be identified added that more than half of his 13 clients in the Emirates are seriously considering moving their assets: “Flying back and forth will be complicated even if the conflict ends tomorrow. It’s about trust.” Dubai’s economic model faces its biggest test. Dubai does not depend as directly on the oil industry as its neighbors, but its economy is based on its ability to attract expatriates, your investments and his talent. At the beginning of the year, the Dubai International Finance Center housed 1,289 entities linked to family offices (61% more than the previous year), and the 120 main families in the center jointly managed more than 1.2 billion dollars, according to CNBC. Although stock markets around the world have felt the earthquake resulting from the attacks in an area of ​​strategic resources for trade and energy, the impact of the conflict with Iran has been much more severe and direct for the Gulf markets. The Dubai Stock Exchange (DFM) has fallen more than 16.6% since the start of the war between the US and Israel against Iran. Fitch Ratings had already predicted before the war a real estate correction of up to 15% in 2025 and 2026. Everything indicates that they have fallen short the worst estimates of the financial consequences. Passing panic or structural change? Not all actors in the sector believe that this will lead to a permanent mass flight. Dhruba Jyoti Sengupta, CEO of Wrise Private Middle East in Dubai, pointed out to Reuters that his firm had not observed “serious conversations about capital flight” as its clients remain confident in the country’s long-term resilience. ​Nirbhay Handa, CEO of migration agency for millionaires Multipolitanpointed in Bloomberg “If uncertainty lasts a few weeks, some companies may pause their expansion, but stability will likely return quickly to Dubai as the situation improves.” What does seem clear is that the city will have to rebuild something much more difficult to build than its skyscrapers for millionaires: trust of those who chose it as a home for their money. In Xataka | A company wants to build a €4 billion megacasino in Dubai. The problem is that Dubai prohibits gambling Image | Unsplash (Wael Hneini)

United can kick you off the flight for doing so

by

You’re so calm in your seat, and suddenly, you start to hear something nearby. It’s a TikTok video or a WhatsApp voice message that someone is playing at full volume. Because? Who knows. Maybe because that person wants everyone to enjoy that audio. Or maybe because he just doesn’t care. This habit of using your cell phone on speakerphone even when there are people around and you can be annoying is spreading like wildfire, but United Airlines has said enough is enough. If you want to use your cell phone, put on headphones. Until now it was a simple rule of elementary education, but at United Airlines they have turned it into a legal clause with drastic consequences. The American airline has updated their terms of service to make it clear that the use of headphones with a mobile phone, tablet or laptop in the cabin is no longer an option, but a safety requirement. Either you use them, or we kick you off the plane. The measure is not a suggestion from the company, but rather a novelty in its terms, according to which United Airlines reserves the right to deny transportation of a passenger, to expel them from the plane and even to permanently ban any passenger who refuses to use headphones while consuming audio or multimedia content. Now generating annoying noises is placed on the same level as serious infractions such as tobacco consumption. More and more connected in flight. United confirmed that update to its terms in a email to USA Todayand added that the inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity on its flights already recommended the use of headphones. Now being connected to the internet on flights is more common, which means that passengers can consume content on streaming platforms or social networks, or use messaging apps normally. The key: Starlink. But now they are also beginning to offer additional connectivity through the Starlink satellite network. The more bandwidth, the greater the risk that the plane cabin will become chaos with WhatsApp audio or YouTube videos at full volume that can disturb the rest of the passengers. In fact, they explain in United: “With the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like a good time to make it even clearer by adding it to the transportation contract.” Legal support. On CBS Travel expert Scott Keyes indicated that he was not aware of other airlines having adopted this rule, but he saw it as reasonable. The update is specifically included under the “Security” section of your contract of carriage. By categorizing it this way, the company obtains solid legal support to act if this problem arises. Shapes matter. The rise of mobility and social networks has meant that little by little we have seen how in many spaces people use their mobile phones with speakers without worrying about whether or not they are disturbing other people around them. That’s common on public transportation like trains, subways and buses, and United Airlines’ move could set an interesting precedent for re-educating users and reminding them that, as Keyes says, “This is in line with the way the vast majority of travelers behave and the way they would like others to behave.” If you don’t have helmets, they give you some. At United Airlines they understand that some users may not have their own headphones, and in those cases they offer a simple solution: offer free ones that, although of low quality, will at least avoid inconvenience to the rest of the passengers and allow the affected person to comply with the regulations. We will see, of course, what types of headphones they provide, because nowadays mobile phones rarely include 3.5 mm connectors. No video calls. At United they already had rules in this regard: in their terms of use as well make it clear that it is prohibited for passengers to make video calls after the cabin doors are closed. With Starlink, these types of calls via WhatsApp or FaceTime, for example, are technically possible, but United prefers to “protect the silence.” Noise as a logistical challenge. This movement, we insist, could mark a before and after for the rest of the air transport industry, and perhaps also for other means of transport. Airlines know that entertainment screens can end up losing a lot of meaning if users can have an internet connection on their devices. That becomes quite a challenge, which makes a regulation so that we don’t bother each other seems reasonable. In Xataka | Ryanair has left Seville without many flights. In exchange he has given him 500 million euros to repair engines

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.