How the hell did they cram an aircraft engine inside this van?

This rather nondescript van is being powered by something much more beastly than your usual pistons: an actual airplane turbine engine. Seriously, over in Russia they crammed a real gas turbine engine inside this van (it fills up the whole van, basically) with gigantic hoses, an humongous fuel tank and a sweet control panel. It's so powerful that it's used to help power planes.

English Russia relayed some details from ZhZhitelya, who documented this monster machine of a van and it's basically used as a generator for smaller planes. These airplane cars allow planes to not use their main engines while on the ground and still provide air conditioning, electricity, etc. to the cabin.

Here's some translated text that explains the purpose of ramming a turbine engine inside a small van:

Look, almost all the aircraft you will see a small hole behind - this nozzle APU. Why not put some engine easier or a bunch of batteries and starter motor in the car?... Now it becomes clear purpose of these hoses and this [van]. The auxiliary power unit may be damaged, or you may need to provide the voltage or quickly warm up the plane after a long winter parking. In these and other cases, the [van] with a gas turbine engine in the cabin to help.

Whatever the reason, what a fun ride.

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às 07:15

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Russia plans state-backed Web search engine named after Sputnik: report

A woman passes by an office of Russian telecoms firm Rostelecom in Moscow, November 21, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

MOSCOW | Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:58am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - State-controlled telecoms group Rostelecom plans an internet search engine named after the Sputnik satellite, Vedomosti newspaper said on Friday, though analysts said the aim to muscle into the highly competitive Russian market was doomed.

The government has made moves to boost control over the Internet, but a state-backed search engine, to be called www.sputnik.ru, would face leading search engine company Yandex, with 62 percent of the market, U.S. giant Google and Mail.Ru.

"Search engines are a completely different area from the telecoms service business in which Rostelecom is involved," said VTB analyst Ivan Kim in a research note. "With its lack of expertise, the venture is unlikely to meet with success."

Rostelecom did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the project, to be named after the first man-made satellite, which was launched in October 1957.

The new search engine may have to be used by state institutions as a default tool, said Vedomosti, citing sources at Rostelecom and other Internet companies in its report. It said the project had cost $20 million so far.

Kim said the plan looked like it was imposed on Rostelecom by the state and would most likely be a cash drain.

Russia, with the largest internet audience in Europe, has increased state control over the Web, including launching a black list of sites distributing content such as child pornography, but which critics said could boost censorship.

Rostelecom is trying to hire developers from rivals to work on the search engine project, expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2014, Vedomosti added. The project has so far indexed about half of the Russian Internet, it said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said in a note that developing high-quality search technology may require the best talent and long research and development and that the quality of search results may be well below that of leading firms.

"Even if the launch of Sputnik is well-executed, we do not expect it could significantly eat into the market shares of Yandex or Google," the Merrill Lynch analysts wrote.

(Reporting by Megan Davies and Maria Kiselyova, editing by Patrick Lannin)

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