This video has been out for a month or so but I just saw it. Don’t know if the flying platform will develop into a practical recreational system but it’s quite an impressive technical accomplishment regardless: Video: Watch incredible footage of farthest flight by a hoverboard record set by Canada’s Catalin Alexandru Duru – Guinness World Records

The MIT spinoff company 24M has unveiled a new approach to lithium battery manufacturing that it says can reduce the cost by a factor of two. The standard li-ion construction process involves coating the active materials onto long strips of an inert tape material that adds bulk and weight to the battery but does not contributed directly to energy storage. The 24M process gets rid of the tape using a new approach developed by Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, who has been involved in previous battery ventures including A123. The energy and power density of the battery is thus increased. The new manufacturing system also eliminates a great many processing steps, so it reduces the manufacturing cost as well.

The company has been working in stealth mode for several years and this week made its public debut: 24M Introduces The Semisolid Lithium-Ion Battery: Company Emerges From Stealth With $50M In Private Capital And A Revolutionary New Technology That Will Slash Today’S Lithium-Ion Battery Costs By 50% – 24M.

Articles about 24M:

• The story of the invention that could revolutionize batteries—and maybe American manufacturing as well – Quartz
• Batteries: New lithium ion startup wants to take on Tesla – Fortune

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Tesla Motors‘ Gigafactory under construction in northern Nevada is also intended to lower costs but through sheer economies of scale more than by new manufacturing or battery technology advances. The Tesla batteries are intended both for the company’s cars and for energy storage systems for the home (Powerwall) and utilities and industry.

Li-ion batteries have progressed in a steady but rather slow incremental pace despite periodic claims of big breakthroughs. Nevertheless, I expect Elon and others at Tesla must still have some concern that a new development like that of 24M or Sakti or whomever might make their giant battery factory obsolete before it can pay off the investment in it.

Here are a couple of recent videos in which Elon Musk talks about Tesla and the Gigafactory:

Malloy Aeronautics of the UK and SURVICE Engineering Company in the state of Maryland are teaming on development of the Malloy Hoverbike under a US Army grant.

• U.S. Defense Department to develop UK hoverbike – Reuters
• The US Army Is Developing Hoverbikes – Popular Mechanics

Here is a press release from an event at the Paris Airshow last week:

Lt. Governor Rutherford Announces Maryland, U.K.  Companies
Have Teamed Up On New Hoverbike Technology 
U.K.-based Malloy Aeronautics opens office in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 16, 2015) – At the Paris Air Show, Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford joined with SURVICE Engineering Co., a Belcamp, Md.-based defense firm, and U.K.-based Malloy Aeronautics, an aeronautical engineering firm, to announce that the two companies have teamed up on the development of Hoverbike technology for the U.S. Department of Defense. SURVICE and Malloy are working on the Hoverbike as part of an ongoing research and development contract with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The Hoverbike is being developed to operate as a new class of Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle (TRV).

As part of this strategic alliance, Malloy Aeronautics has also announced that they have established a U.S. office in Belcamp adjacent to Aberdeen Proving Ground to complete work on the Hoverbike. A model of the Hoverbike is on display at the Paris Air Show, which runs through June 21.

“I am pleased to join with SURVICE Engineering and Malloy Aeronautics to announce their partnership on the Hoverbike, which represents a new frontier in aviation,” said Lt. Governor Rutherford. “We are also very excited to welcome Malloy and look forward to working with them to grow their operations in Maryland.”

“Establishing an office in Maryland was a clear business decision,” said Chris Malloy, managing director of Malloy Aeronautics. “The proximity to the Army Research Laboratory and U.S. defense decision makers, access to the world-class facilities through the laboratory’s Open Campus initiative, and the co-location with our strategic business partner, SURVICE Engineering, were all factors in favor of Maryland as the best choice for Malloy Aeronautics.”

“Maryland companies do a tremendous amount of research and development (R&D) for the U.S. military,” said Jeff Foulk, SURVICE chief executive officer. “If there is a new military technology being developed, there’s a good chance that some aspect was designed, built or tested in Maryland.”

With about 400 employees, SURVICE is a specialty engineering firm that has been providing R&D support for the U.S. Department of Defense and other industry sectors for more than 30 years. Formed in 2012, Malloy Aeronautics is an entrepreneurial aerospace company that develops, markets, and sells drones and Hoverbike technology to commercial and military markets.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is the nation’s premier laboratory for land forces and is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America’s Soldiers.  RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

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Find more videos of the Hoverbike project at MalloyHoverbike’s channel – YouTube.

Here is a video of a test of flight of their Drone 3 1/3 scale version, which was funded with the help of a Kickstarter campaign:

I’ve occasionally posted here over the years about the Martin Jetpack company in New Zealand. The company has grown from a garage project into a company now valued at around $250M on the NZ stock exchange. The Jetpack, which actually flies via gasoline engine driven twin ducted fans, will go on sale in 2016 starting with a focus on the emergency first responder market.

This week at the Paris Airshow, the company announced the signing of four different agreements:

• Success in Paris! – Martin Aircraft
• Martin Aircraft has over $40 million in jetpack deals – Next Big Future

The agreements include:

• An agreement with Beijing Flying Man Science & Technology Ltd involves the parties working towards the future delivery of a Martin Aircraft package with an initial tranche of 100 manned Jetpacks, 50 unmanned Jetpacks, 25 static models and 25 simulators. It is noted that at this stage the agreement is a strategic co-operation agreement and any sales are dependent upon a successful supply agreement.
• An agreement with Beijing Voyage Investment Ltd a subsidiary company of well-known Chinese-based AVIC International Holdings Ltd for the intended future delivery of manned and unmanned Jetpacks, simulators, and static models.
• An alliance agreement with Czech Republic-based Martin Aircraft Company s.r.o. to establish a European sales centre for the Martin Jetpack.
• An alliance agreement with New Delhi based M2K Group Ltd to establish a regional sales presents in commercially important India market.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by senior government representatives of New Zealand, China, India and the Czech Republic, along with the Chair of Martin Aircraft, Mr Jon Mayson, Chairman of KuangChi Science and Martin Aircraft Director Dr Ruopeng Liu, and Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of Martin Aircraft, Mr Peter Coker.

Here is a promotional video from the company highlighting the use of the Jetpack for emergency services:

And this video gives the story of how the company raised money and eventually had a successful IPO:

Elon Musk is not planning to to develop his Hyperloop mass transit idea with a company of his own. Instead, he is encouraging others to develop it. Today SpaceX announced that a short test track will be built near the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, which will be used for

an open competition, geared towards university students and independent engineering teams, to design and build the best Hyperloop pod. To support this competition, SpaceX will construct a one-mile [1.61 km] test track adjacent to our Hawthorne, California headquarters. Teams will be able to test their human-scale pods during a competition weekend at the track, currently targeted for June 2016. The knowledge gained here will continue to be open-sourced.

The details of the competition are described in SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition (pdf).