3 ms·

Bonus video of 2011 news? http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/11/18/Worlds-lightest-material-invented/UPI-12751321636467/?spt=hs&or=sn http://www.upi.com/Scie

• cowpig 11y ago
  The headline "Boeing releases ...." led me to believe that this research had been done at Boeing. Is my assumption unreasonable or is the reporting disingenuous?
  • rcpt 11y ago
    The work was done at HRL, which Boeing owns a large part of (source: I worked at HRL). Also, from my understanding, the most interesting thing about this material isn't the weight but the manufacturing process. To build the lattice they used a specialized 3D printer which combines the beams from a few directions, cf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_microlattice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_microlattice
  • robotresearcher 11y ago
    HRL is jointly owned by Boeing, Raytheon and General Motors. The parent companies commit to spending a certain amount on research every year, and researchers compete internally for those funds. This must have been a Boeing-funded project. That unlikely ownership is an historical accident: those megacorps each acquired pieces of Hughes Aircraft, which built Hughes Research Labs, now HRL.