InnovateLI — Inside Long Island's Innovation Economy

Transportation June 23, 2017

When pigs fly (and horses and cats and dogs, too)

By GREGORY ZELLER // It took Noah some time, too. Extrapolating from clues provided by the Book of Genesis, theologians calculate that God’s favorite shipbuilder spent between 55 and 75 years constructing his namesake ark. The goings aren’t quite that slow at The Ark at JFK, though it’s taking Ark Development LLC a fair amount of time to finalize its comprehensive animal handling and shipping facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It won’t spare…

June 19, 2017

Familiar names abound in Center for Biotech awards

By GREGORY ZELLER // Several breakout research projects – and a few familiar faces from the cutting edge – scored funding this week through Stony Brook University’s annual biotechnology awards program. The Center for Biotechnology at SBU, an Empire State Development Division of Science, Technology and Innovation Center for Advanced Technology, has announced the recipients of the 2017-18 Applied Research and Development awards. The awards, along with matching funds from the recipients and other stakeholders,…

June 16, 2017

Plant 6 reopened, Luminati says it’s ready for takeoff

Long Island is taxiing back toward the forefront of aerospace manufacturing. One year after a ballyhooed test flight of its solar-powered VO Substrata solar-powered aircraft, Luminati Aerospace LLC held a grand reopening of sorts Friday, cutting the ribbon on Plant 6 at its Enterprise Park at Calverton facility – once a thriving manufacturing hub for Grumman Aerospace Corp. The ceremony included former NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean…

June 23, 2017

No. 225: Merger mumbles, cyberbucks for SBU and Rob Spence, eyeborg

TG it’s F: Wham-O cofounder Arthur “Spud” Melin was awarded a patent for the Hula-Hoop on this day in 1963, long after the craze had peaked, leaving Wham-O with millions of unsold plastic hoops and a $10,000 loss. The firm did better with the Frisbee, Super Ball and Silly String. Melin and partner Richard Knerr sold out for $12 million in 1982. Attention Al Gore: Vinton Cerf, who actually did invent the Internet, is 74 today….