Best Inventions 2005: Up and Away

Training Wheels Inventor: Scott Shim, Matt Grossman and Ryan Lightbody Availability: In late 2006; $100 To Learn More: designapkin.com Learning to ride a bike can be fraught with anxiety, but it doesn't have to be. Industrial designers from Purdue University have invented the Shift tricycle, whose rear wheels move closer together as the rider picks up speed, then separate for easier balance at slower speeds or at a standstill. A spring-loaded mechanism in the rear hub controls the rear wheels, and there are no spokes or exposed bike chain. The 25-lb. aluminum trike won an international bike-design competition in Taiwan this year. Now its creators want to produce it commercially. Next Product: Round Trip >>

Round Trip Inventor: Burt Rutan Availability: Sorry, it's one of a kind To Learn More: globalflyer.com The nonstop, nonrefueling solo flight around the world is the last great milestone in the history of aviation. Or it was. On March 1 the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, designed by Burt Rutan (who also designed the first civilian spacecraft, SpaceShipOne), took off from an airfield in a small town in Kansas; 67 hr. 2 min. 38 sec. and 23,000 miles later, the aviation world had reached another milestone. GlobalFlyer is so light (at takeoff, its weight is 83% fuel) and so aerodynamic (with a 114-ft. wingspan) that it has to use drag parachutes to help it get back down to the ground. Next: On the Move >>