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In the century that's elapsed since the dawn of commercial aviation, air transportation has become pretty well refined. Yet paradoxically, it's easier to fly halfway around the world than to travel to a nearby city. As a result, many people shun air travel when taking short trips. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the high deserts of New Mexico, not far from the bi son grazing on Ted Turner's sprawling Armendaris ranch, lie some curiously otherworldly structures. The largest one presents a 15-meterhigh wall of glass on one flank, although the rest of the building appears to have buried itself in the adjacent earth, as if it had crash-landed there. Just a couple of hundred meters away sits a low-slung dome with something that resembles a giant eye budding from the top. "It almost looks like a spaceship itself," quips David Wilson, who handles media relations for the site. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kenya runs on mobile phones. There are almost 43 million in use by Kenya's nearly 50 million citizens, meaning the East African country has the 33rd highest mobile phone usage in the world. By comparison, it has fewer than 70,000 fixed landlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If you take the main road east out of Moriarty, N.M., turn south at a sign advertising glider rides, and then swing east again past the sailplanes ornamenting a two-runway airport, you will see hangar No. 76, the headquarters of Titan Aerospace. In this cavernous office-cum-workshop, engineers are developing the Solara?a line of solarpowered robotic airplanes capable of staying aloft for years at a time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congress mandated that the Federal Aviation Administration integrate robotic aircraft into national airspace by 2015. The FAA has since taken only baby steps toward that goal, but the topic has already sparked much debate?and worry. Initially, the agency, which has been grappling with this issue for the past decade, was focused on avoiding crashes and collisions. But the emphasis has shifted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned planes dominate the battlefield, yet airliners still have – and copilots - Time was when a uniformed man would close a metal gate, throw a switch, and intone, "Second floor–men's clothing, linens, power tools..." and the carload of people would glide upward. Now each passenger handles the job with a punch of a button and not a hint of white-knuckled hesitation. The first automatic elevator was installed by Otis Elevator Co. in 1924; the things became common in the 1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]