Solar Flight has just unveiled the world’s fastest two-seater solar-powered plane at the AERO Global Show for General Aviation in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The Sunseeker Duo continues the company’s exploration of solar-powered flight which started with their first Sunseeker I model designed back in 1990. The new fuel-free plane features solar cells 50 percent more powerful than those used by the previous models; this allows the plane to climb for up to 25 minutes running solely on batteries. After leaving Germany, the team led by Eric and Irena Raymond will transport the Sunseeker Duo to Italy for further test flights.

Read the rest of Sunseeker Duo: World’s Fastest Solar-Powered Two-Seater Plane Unveiled at AERO Friedrichshafen

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Post tags: AERO Global Show for General Aviation, energy efficient airplane, fuel-free airplane, green transportation, photovoltaics, solar aircraft, Solar cells, solar flight, Solar Flight Inc, Solar Power, solar powered plane, Sunseeker Duo, sunseeker plane

SolarWorld and PC-Aero just announced plans to launch two new solar-powered electric aircraft at the AERO Global Show for General Aviation in Friedrichshafen, Germany this month. The show, scheduled to begin tomorrow, will feature the SolarWorld eOne prototype aircraft and an improved Elektra One Solar.

Read the rest of SolarWorld and PC-AERO Unveil Two New Solar-Powered Airplanes

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Post tags: AERO Global Show for General Aviation, electric aircraft, electric plane, Elektra One Solar, elektra one solar plane, ILA Berlin Air Show, lithium ion battery, PC Aero, solar powered aircraft, solar powered plane, SolarWorld, SolarWorld eOne

Read the rest of Luminair’s Spherical Tree Tents Let You Camp High Up in the Branches

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Post tags: alternative camping, camping, eco-tourism, eco-travel, elevated tents, forest camping, hanging tent, luminair, suspended tend, tree houses, tree tents, Treehouses

Arthur Kupreychuk’s creative design for a train station in Sevastopol, Ukraine, consists of a passenger terminal building with a cloud-shaped canopy suspended above it. The supporting structure of the canopy is similar to the structure of an airship. “The shell is filled with helium, and an aluminum frame consisting of longitudinal and transverse trusses makes the external form hard,” Kupreychuk explains. “The gas is inside a rigid framework in bags made of a gas-tight material, facing is made of fiberglass uniform panels.” The cloud-shaped mass would hover over the green-roofed main terminal of the train station, making it one of the most unique train stations in the world.

Images © Arthur Kupreychuk

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Post tags: airship, Arthur Kupreychuk, blimp, floating architecture, green design, green roof, helium, Sevastopol, surreal architecture, train station, train station design, ukraine, Under the Cloud

Read the rest of Former Greenhouse Transformed into a Vibrant Eatery in Amsterdam’s Quirky Old Shipyard

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Post tags: Amsterdam, Architecture, centraal station, NDSM, noorderlicht cafe, Recycled Materials, Restaurant, shelter, sustainable food

In 2011 we wrote about Solar Ship, a helium zero-emissions cargo plane that is capable of delivering much-needed goods to people in remote areas where vehicles simply cannot reach. Today, Solar Ship is now one step closer to reality after receiving a grant to build a next-generation airship that could fly critical supplies to First Nation communities in North America. In order to realize their goal, they are turning to crowd funding to raise much-needed additional financial support.

Read the rest of Solar Ship Receives Grant to Build Emissions-Free Airship to Deliver Supplies to Disaster Areas

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Post tags: African delivery system, delivery disaster relief, green delivery, green transportation, indiegogo funding solarship, solarship delivery plane, solarship disaster relief, solarship helium solar powered cargo plane, zero emissions transportation

Arizona-based PhotonFlightTeam has unveiled plans for a lightweight, solar-powered airship that would be a more sustainable and cost effective alternative to airplanes. The team is raising funds with a newly launched IndieGoGo campaign that would allow them to test the prototypes and proceed to more advanced stages of design.

Read the rest of PhotonFlightTeam Start Fundraising Campaign to Build a Solar-Powered Airship Made from Recycled Aluminium

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Post tags: airship prototypes, aluminium airship, blimp design, fundraising, green design, green transportation, indiegogo campaign, PhotonFlightTeam, recycled materials vehicles, Solar cells, solar-powered airships, zero-emission airships, zero-emission flight

Read the rest of Fuel-Efficient Aeroscraft Airship Prototype Nearing Completion

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Post tags: Aeros, aeros craft, aeroscraft, aeroscraft prototype complete, airship, blimp, cargo transportation, eco design, green design, green transportation, low carbon transportation, sustainable design

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Post tags: Art, Design, eco design, floating bridge, floating structures, futuristic bridge, hanging bridge, helium, Leonardo da Vinci, Olivier Grossetête, Pont de Singe, public art, sustainable design, Tattum Japanese Garden, UK

Apple has caught some heat for its controversial, car-dependent Cupertino campus proposal, but an anonymous tipster has leaked an updated rendering to Inhabitat that would way up the controversy on the much-hyped, circular Apple campus. It looks as though the wild speculation about the campus’ spaceship-esque shape may not have been as out there as we thought, since it appears that someone over at Apple (possibly Steve Jobs?) was envisioning the new flying-saucer shaped campus as a massive airship. While we have little to go on other than this image, it appears that the campus is being designed as a high-tech intergalactic spaceship! It begs the question: What does Apple know that we don’t?

Read the rest of New Leaked Image Reveals Apple’s Cupertino Campus Could Double as Spacecraft

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Post tags: apple, apple building plans, apple campus, apple campus aircraft, apple cupertino campus, apple new building, apple offices, apple renderings, apple spaceship, apple’s new campus, apples new offices, building in cupertino, cupertino building, cupertino campus, cupertino city council, green architecture, Green Building

Now that the holidays are over and winter snowdrifts are sweeping the nation, it’s easy to daydream about a relaxing getaway in a distant land. We’ve seen an incredible array of eco friendly resorts spring up around the world that bring you closer to nature while providing top-notch luxury accommodation. Whether you’re dreaming of a romantic, isolated beach paradise, a cozy geodesic chalet in the alps, or even a forested mountain lodge fit for a hobbit, read on for 7 eco-luxe resorts sure to get the travel bug biting!

Read the rest of 7 Gorgeous Eco Resorts For a Green Escape

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Post tags: Alila Villas Uluwatu, eco resort Northern Patagonia, eco resorts bali, eco resorts chile, eco resorts fiji, eco resorts Germany, eco resorts swiss alps, eco resorts Tasmania, eco resorts Vietnam, global island resorts, island eco-resorts, island resorts, jean-michel cousteau resort, Magic Mountain Lodge, michael graves resort, morris archtect oil rig resorts, saffire resort, six senses resort, star island bahamas resort, sustainable island resorts, whitepod

Google is no stranger to eco initiatives with their many investments in solar power and alternative energies, but unfortunately they still do have quite a few guilty carbon pleasures like their fleet of private jets. But at least they’re trying to make the place that houses these planes green by possibly restoring and repurposing NASA’s Ames Research Center Hangar One. The iconic, curved building is currently one of the largest structures of its kind, and is large enough to house all eight of Google’s planes so it’s a win/win.

Read the rest of Google Wants to House Its Own Private Jet Fleet in NASA’s Hangar One

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Post tags: Ames Research Center, eco design, Google, Google jets, green design, Hangar One, Largest Freestanding Building, Moffett Field, nasa, repurposed hangar, Repurposed Space, sustainable design, U.S.S. Macon

Yesterday, American Airlines completed the world’s first commercial biofuel flight by traveling from Houston to Chicago powered by a mix of 40% Solazyme algae biofuels and 60% traditional jet fuels. Tomorrow, Alaska Airlines will attempt a similar feat, flying 75 planes with a 20% cooking oil biofuel blend. The flights are impressive, but more surprising is the news that they’ve become something of an industry scandal – insiders claim that American Airlines heard of Alaska’s plans and rushed to beat them in becoming the first airline to go green with biofuels. So what is the real impact of these flights?

Read the rest of American and Alaska Airlines Complete World’s First Commercial Biofuel Flights

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Post tags: Alaska Airlines biofuel, alternative transportation, American Airlines biofuel, biofuel flight, eco-friendly plane, first U.S., green airplane, green transportation, world's first commercial biofuel flight, world's firts

People have talked about building futuristic airships for zero emissions cargo shipping for a long time, but most of these green blimps remain on the drawing board. One company, SolarShip, has taken the steps to bring its vision of a green shipping future to life by conducting the initial test flights for its solar helium plane. The prototype blends the concepts of airships and airplanes by placing a blimp lined with solar panels over an airplane cockpit and landing gear, and using solar power to propel the plane into the air. SolarShip plans to build three sizes of this ship: the small Caracal, the mid-size Chui, and the 30-tonne cargo hauler Nanuq. It appears to be the mid-sized Chui in the test flight video below.

Read the rest of SolarShip’s Solar Cargo Helium Plane Is a Futuristic Airship That Actually Exists

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Post tags: alternative transportation, green airship, green logistics, green plane design, green shipping, green transportation, helium blimp, helium blimp plane, solar blimp, solar plane, Solar Ship, SolarShip, SolarShip helium plane, zero emissions cargo plane, zero emissions shipping

Read the rest of Tinplate Girl Turns Old Tin Cans into Airships, Ray Guns, and Deck Chairs

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Post tags: crafted tin, green design, recycled material art, tincan gadgets, tinplate, Tinplate Girl

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Post tags: bamboo architecture, bamboo gallery, eco rennovation, Gateway Park, green building materials, Stan Allen Architect, Taiwan green building, temporary green building design

Read the rest of Project Utopia: A Floating Island Paradise at Sea

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Post tags: BMT Nigel Gee, eco design, floating artificial island, glass canopy, green design, Project Utopia, sustainable design, Yacht Island

This supermassive hangar once housed gigantic airships, and now it has been given a second life as an indoor tropical resort that holds the world’s largest indoor pool and water park. Located in the countryside between Dresden and Berlin, the building was modified to bring in lots of sunlight and the huge doors were welded shut to keep in the heat — even during the snowy German winter. Inside, a small oceanside village gives visitors a tropical escape.

Read the rest of Gigantic Airship Hangar Transformed Into Tropical Island Resort

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Post tags: Airship hangar transformed into water park, airship hangar water park, german water park, greman water park, indoor tropical forest, massive retrofit, Tropical Island Resort, world largest building, worlds largest water park, worlds larget indoor pool

Read the rest of Mountain-Like UP Lift Zeppelin Hangar Doubles As a Green Roofed Extreme Sports Center

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", eco design, extreme sports, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green roof, hangar, mixed-use facility, multi-purpose facility, open architecture, susainable design, Sustainable Building, Zeppelin, zeppelin hangar

We love that blimps and airships are making a comeback to rule the next generation’s eco-friendly skies. But whenever Lockheed Martin gets its hands on technology, we start to think about the less friendly purposes these zeppelins could be used for. Case in point, Lockheed’s new HALE-D (High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator) solar-powered blimp, which is a quicker and less expensive way to get a satellite orbiting at 60,000 feet for long-term weather monitoring, missile warning or targeting, communications, and of course good old-fashioned spying.

Read the rest of Lockheed’s HALE-D Blimp Is A Solar-Powered Spy Satellite

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Post tags: airship, alternative transportation, eco friendly aviation, eco-friendly airship, green transportation, HALE-D blimp, Lockheed HALE-D Solar Blimp, Lockheed Martin blimp, solar blimp