DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

 DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF              

By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane  

SOLAR AIRSHIP ONE - REVOLUTIONARY NEW AIR TRAVEL

                                                        Source:  Euro Airship

• France-based Euro Airship has built an aviation first: an air ship capable of circumnavigating the Earth without ever touching down on land to refuel.  Here are the facts:

1. Named Solar Airship One
2. Unique aviation technology powered by hydrogen and solar power
3. On hydrogen the air ship's range is 540 nautical miles
4. Solar film covering the top of the airship makes the range sustainably "endless"
5. Solar film lets the hydrogen fuel cells power the electric engines at night and fly perpetually in theory
6. Targeted initial flight is non-stop 21,598 miles around the Earth in 20 to 30 days at an average altitude of 19,685 feet
7. Euro Airship says Airship One has 80% less fuel consumption and carbon emissions than any current aircraft
8. It has 15 separate gas "envelops" managed separately by software to increase maneuverability
9. Launch in 2026

• This new tech appears poised to usher in a new, very green form of flying.

NEW LANGUAGE FOR DRONES - DRUIDISH

                                    Source: Stock & Pentagon

• The US Pentagon is spending millions of dollars to develop a new language for drones and, further in the future, other machines to communicate among themselves. They call the language Druidish.  Here's what we know:

1. Druidish is being developed to enable AI-powered, autonomous drones to communicate with each other while swarming in military operations
2. There would be little or no need for human interfacing during the missions
3. The key hurdle is to get swarming drones, created by different manufacturers, to talk to and understand each other
4. To achieve this, there are two requirements:  a new language - Druidish and a meshed network that allows the drones to talk among themselves without any outside connectivity
5. This exciting new type of language and machine-to-machine conversations are being pursued by the US military and being enabled by AI
6. The Pentagon plans on deploying fleets of thousands of AI drones specifically competitive with China's AI technology advances
7. Importantly, for consumers, there are big, non-military applications of Druidish for autonomous car-to-autonomous car, plane-to-plane and other machine-to-machine conversations.
8. The Pentagon is also requesting nearly $2 billion in additional funding for AI research.

SNOWLESS EUROPEAN SKI RESORTS REIMAGINE WINTER

                                              Source:  Stock

• Climate change is wreaking havoc with European ski resorts.  Less snow means less customers and resorts are looking for alternative activities.  Here's what we know:

1. Synthetic snowmaking is being used to make-up for the snow shortfalls
2. European ski resorts dependent on snowmaking:  90% in Italy; 70% in Austria; 53% in Switzerland
3. Experts say 2200 European ski resorts are at risk of projected snow shortfalls this coming winter
4. University of Grenoble's Hugues Francois estimates that even if  resorts could cover 50% of their slopes with synthetic snowmaking cannons, 71% of them would still face a snow supply risk with a 4-degree warming scenario
5. Some alternative activities being looked at by resorts include mountain biking, hiking, snowshoeing and ski touring where you don't need a skiing infrastructure of ski lifts, clearing forests and the expense of snowmaking with subterranean pipes
6. In any event, many ski resorts around the world will have to reimagine winter.

"Daily Innovation Brief"© By Edward Kane