DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Edward 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:

Named Solar Airship One
Unique aviation technology powered by hydrogen and solar power
On hydrogen the air ship's range is 540 nautical miles
Solar film covering the top of the airship makes the range sustainably "endless"
Solar film lets the hydrogen fuel cells power the electric engines at night and fly perpetually in theory
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
Euro Airship says Airship One has 80% less fuel consumption and carbon emissions than any current aircraft
It has 15 separate gas "envelops" managed separately by software to increase maneuverability
Launch in 2026

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:

Druidish is being developed to enable AI-powered, autonomous drones to communicate with each other while swarming in military operations
There would be little or no need for human interfacing during the missions
The key hurdle is to get swarming drones, created by different manufacturers, to talk to and understand each other
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
This exciting new type of language and machine-to-machine conversations are being pursued by the US military and being enabled by AI
The Pentagon plans on deploying fleets of thousands of AI drones specifically competitive with China's AI technology advances
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.
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:

Synthetic snowmaking is being used to make-up for the snow shortfalls
European ski resorts dependent on snowmaking: 90% in Italy; 70% in Austria; 53% in Switzerland
Experts say 2200 European ski resorts are at risk of projected snow shortfalls this coming winter
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
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
In any event, many ski resorts around the world will have to reimagine winter.

Important Innovations Collection