Design Engineer’s Weekly

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Our Favorite Stories of 2023

In this issue

• In Case You Missed Them…

• The Last Boeing 747

• Titan Submersible Simulation

• The World’s Smallest Nerf Gun

• The World’s Biggest Bumper Car

• Going Off-Road with Solar Power

• Digital Transformation in Pinball

In Case You Missed Them…

Since Design Engineer’s Weekly debuted in October, our cover stories have touched on design topics in sustainability, infrastructure, aerospace, automotive and, of course, artificial intelligence. We discussed Einstein’s influence on this year’s Nobel Prize in physics and explored how The Sphere in Las Vegas came to be. We looked back on design changes in Amazon delivery drones and ahead to the future of our satellite networks. We imagined how bespoke AI might help engineers and asked how much of an impact AI has actually made. We examined design trends from the LA Show, the effectiveness of carbon capture and volcano proofing in light of an impending eruption in Iceland. (That eruption finally happened on December 18.)

The Last Boeing 747 Rolls Out

The beginning of this year also marked the end of an era, when the final Boeing 747 ever made was delivered to Atlas Air on January 31st. It was the end of an engineering program that lasted more than five decades and saw 1,574 airframes built at Boeing’s Everett, Washington plant. We dug into the history and peered into the future to find out what this means for the fate of four-engine airliners.

Titan Submersible Simulation

The missing Titan submersible captivated the engineering community this summer, with armchair experts speculating about the causes of the incident and the likely fate of those onboard. After the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the submersible had indeed imploded, YouTuber and engineering PhD Ronald Wagner shared a simulation of the implosion and fracturing. We dug into the details to understand exactly what went wrong. 

The World’s Smallest Nerf Gun

Imagine shooting an ant with a 100-micrometer Nerf dart. That’s the latest engineering feat from YouTuber Mark Rober, who partnered with mechanical engineers at Brigham Young University to achieve it. Using photolithography equipment and carbon nanotubes, the team crafted a Nerf blaster the size of a fleck of pepper that can actually be loaded and fired. Even better, the designs are available for 3D printing.

An Unreasonable Facsimile

For those who wasted the first few months of COVID lockdown, bottle this bolt of inspiration for the next big one that hits: retired mechanical engineer Dan Hryhorcoff used his unexpected free time to build a gigantic, street-legal bumper car. Modeled on the 1953 Lusse Auto Skooters in operation at a local amusement park, Hryhorcoff’s amazing 13-footer contains a power plant pulled from a Chevrolet Aveo. Despite the pedigree of his vehicle, we suspect Hryhorcoff takes care to avoid collisions when he takes it out for a spin.

Solar-Powered Cars Shouldn’t Be Able to Do This…

What does it take for a solar-powered car to complete a 1,000 km test drive over some of the world’s roughest terrain? The key is the addition of a lithium-ion battery to the power system that doubled its conversion efficiency to 97%. Stella Terra, the world’s first off-road solar-powered car, nearly doubled its originally calculated range of 500 km in a journey that took it across riverbeds, through forests and along mountain trails to reach the Sahara Desert.

The Arcade Classic That Tilted Digital

Video games? Pffft. Everyone knows pinball rules. But did you know that today’s pinball machine designers have been going through their own digital transformation? Using simulation, rapid prototyping, data analytics and more, they’re cutting costs and improving manufacturability.