Designing the Big Boom

Helicopter pilot calls on mechanical engineering background to create safer approach to producing controlled avalanches

It's a dangerous job: Fly a helicopter into the mountains and throw lighted dynamite out the cabin door to produce a controlled avalanche. To make matters worse, half the time the dynamite doesn't explode when it hits the snow, leaving another type of hazard for the people on the ground -- who must trek through this treacherous territory to find the duds or risk injury to innocent people hiking in the area after the snow melts.p>

"Having 200 kilograms of dynamite in the cabin and some guy in the back with a lighter or some matches always made me feel a little nervous," says Werner Greipl of Heli Rescue Consult.

He thought he could design a better solution.  Read more >>

Bentley Names 2006 BE Awards of Excellence Winners
Users honored for work in improving infrastructure.  Read more >>

TransMagic Joins SolidWorks Solution Partner Program
Company's data translation software addresses CAD/CAM/CAE interoperability problems.  Read more >>

L.A. CAD Acquires Knowledge Trax
Training services provider adds skills assessment and training development to its portfolio.  Read more >>

Hardware: 3DBOXX 8300 Series Workstation
BOXX Technologies introduces personal workstation with eight dual-core Intel Xeon processors.  Read more >>

General Software: ViewCafe v4
Spicer adds live document conferencing to its collaboration toolkit.  Read more >>

Visualization: Power Translators Pro
Translators from nPower Software will import large CAD models and assemblies into Autodesk 3ds Max and VIZ.  Read more >>