President Biden Says “Buy American,” Alphabet’s Balloons Burst and GM Partners for Clean Trucking Without Batteries

This Week in Engineering explores the latest in engineering from academia, government and industry.

On today’s episode, Biden signed an executive order that the administration declares is a substantial update of “buy American” legislation.

Loon was a Google X R&D project begun in 2011 to use a network of balloons operating in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 16 miles to create a wireless network with up to 1 Mb per second download speeds. The project was promising enough to be spun off as a separate company in 2018. Now it’s all over, as Alphabet announced that the project and the company will be wound up.

General Motors has announced a collaboration with heavy truck maker Navistar International Corporation to create a zero emission long-haul freight transportation system

Interested in watching more episodes of This Week in Engineering? Check them out along with many other series only on Engineering TV.

Written by

James Anderton

Jim Anderton is the Director of Content for ENGINEERING.com. Mr. Anderton was formerly editor of Canadian Metalworking Magazine and has contributed to a wide range of print and on-line publications, including Design Engineering, Canadian Plastics, Service Station and Garage Management, Autovision, and the National Post. He also brings prior industry experience in quality and part design for a Tier One automotive supplier.