The University of British Columbia has created a car that can travel 3,145 Miles on one gallon of gas. The superior mileage is the result of awsome aerodynamics, light weight construction, a small displacement engine and conservative driving habits. It’s a single seat vehicle requiring the driver to lie down.

The team of engineers designed the vehicle for the annual Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Supermileage Competition which draws teams from the United States, Canada and India. Last year the UBC team won the competition with a vehicle that was able to travel 1,800 miles on a gallon of gas.

Wired sponsored a contest last month to design an international icon for ‘wireless internet access’ and the winning design (shown above) was submitted by Val Frixione of Los Angeles. Wired is working with NYC Wireless and other organizations to distribute the icon and have it gain global acceptance as the standard symbol of ‘wireless internet access.’

We recently wrote about Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, summarizing what it entails and some steps they took to get to the point of SpaceShipTwo. They have just releaed images of the concept interior of SpaceShipTwo. Here is a video from Virgin Galactic showing some concept footage of SpaceShipTwo.

The previous data transmission record was 2.56 terabits per second back in May. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has announced a new bandwidth record of 14 terabits per second over 160 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) of fiber optic cable.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic is based in New Mexico where it plans to construct a $225 million spaceport, due to begin construction in early 2007. Sir Richard Branson formed Virgin Galactic after watching SpaceShipOne, a craft designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, become the first privately manned rocket to reach space last year.

Virgin Galactic has a deal with Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites, to build five spacecraft, licensing technology from Allen’s company, Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Virgin Galactic plans to operate its initial flights from the Mojave base ahead of the projected opening of the New Mexico spaceport in late 2009 or early 2010.

Virgin Galactic revealed that up to 38,000 people from 126 countries have paid a deposit, $20,000, for a seat on one of its manned commercial flights, including a core group of 100 “founders” who have paid the initial $200,000 cost of a flight upfront. Virgin Galactic plans to launch flights in late 2008 or early 2009.

The air-launched SpaceShipTwo a.k.a SS2 (interior concept shown above was recently revealed) is designed to seat eight people – six passengers and two pilots – and be hauled into launch position by WhiteKnightTwo, a massive carrier craft currently under construction by Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said.

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