Delivery Drone Target Practice And Blimp Bathrooms In This Week's Beyond Cars Roundup

It seems like planes are dropping out of the sky all the time right now. Some fell from turbulence, others for entirely unknown reasons. The most recent dramatic dive, however, comes from the scariest cause of all: An actual mechanical issue with a Korean Air Boeing 737. - Amber DaSilva Read More

Walmart recently partnered with drone delivery startup Wing to offer packages shipped same-day by air. There is a laundry list of hurdles to overcome in order for this to be a reality, from regulatory approval, technological integration, and simply making it cost-effective to operate. One of the hurdles that Walmart and Wing have recently stumbled over is gun owners. Last week a Florida man admitted to shooting down a Walmart delivery drone, which he claimed was surveilling him, with a 9mm pistol as it flew over his home. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Blimps are so fascinating to me. Like, what do you mean that giant bag of helium is just floating up there? Wild. Anyway, the pilots and other passengers onboard the Goodyear Blimp have got to spend a lot of time up there when they’re floating over sporting events and doing other official Blimp business. It got me thinking: where the hell do these people shit when they’re up in their blimp amongst the heavens? - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

It was apparently quite common for Europeans to get imported squirrels from China and North America as pets way back in April of 1999. The squirrel trade was booming. A big shipment of squirrels transported by KLM Royal Dutch airlines from China was halted at Schiphol airport en route to an alleged Greek squirrel collector in Athens. According to reports from the time, the squirrels arrived without proper documentation or a return address in China, and the airline was unable to find a new home for the squirrels. The squeaky ground animals, along with hundreds of other turtles and birds, were disposed of in “the most humane” way the Dutch could think of: being hand-fed into a giant shredder. - Bradley Brownell Read More

If there’s one thing you generally don’t want, it’s rockets losing control. Especially while they are still here on Earth; it’s why count downs are such a big deal. Unfortunately, a rocket in China, just could not be contained. It literally slipped the surly bonds of both Earth and its ground team over the weekend for 30 seconds of glorious, sky-bound freedom, before crashing into the side of a mountain. - Erin Marquis Read More

I think I’m done with cars. I’m tired of driving, and I just don’t want to deal with them anymore. No, I’m not resigning and moving to Amsterdam to ride bikes and yell about car brain. I just realized recently that every time I need to go somewhere, I’ve been grabbing my motorcycle helmet instead of my car keys. Even though it’s the middle of summer in Atlanta, and it’s hot as hell, if I go grocery shopping, I ride the bike. When I was leaving to visit my parents, I took the bike. There’s just something about motorcycles that makes getting around so much more enjoyable than being in a car. - Collin Woodard Read More

The true force of nature was out flexing its muscle in Florida this weekend, when a tornado hit the region. The storm was so strong that it started throwing pickup trucks aside as if they were nothing more than kites floating on a breeze. - Owen Bellwood Read More

Just a little guy of a plane managed to get tangled in some trees after failing to gain altitude following an aborted landing last week. The Cessna 150 crashed while trying to land at the equally tiny Banks Airport on Swan Island in Maine on June 25. - Erin Marquis Read More

Turbulence is getting worse, and the latest incident of severe “rough air” landed 36 people in the hospital and even bounced one passenger above the overhead luggage space. An Air Europa flight from Spain to Uruguay encountered extreme turbulence, and it left several folks with neck and skull fractures. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Sometimes, when you believe in yourself and the things you’ve built, you put yourself in situations that are very dumb and funny. It’s extremely Aussie behavior to attempt to sail your half-motorcycle half-hang glider contraption across a very wide river without any kind of contingency plan if things go awry. Kale Makeham’s revolutionary transit device, the Kite Bike, crashed right into the Murray river, the longest river in Australia, and he didn’t even have a floatation device or even a plan for getting the bike out of the river. Thankfully he was not hurt in the process. - Bradley Brownell Read More