Aero Gizmo
Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Navy Aircraft
May 1, 2007 The first Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, being built for the U.S. Navy, made its first public appearance at rollout ceremonies yesterday. While the E-2D’s external appearance is similar to the E-2C, the Advanced Hawkeye’s systems and capabilities are completely redesigned. At the heart of the aircraft is the new Lockheed Martin APY-9 radar that can "see" smaller targets and more of them at greater ranges than the E-2C. The new rotodome, developed by L-3 Communications Randtron Antenna Systems, contains the critically important, continuous, 360-degree scanning capability, while adding an electronically scanned array. This system allows operators to focus the radar on selected areas of interest. The new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, in development by Northrop Grumman since 2001 and unveiled on April 30, has been the U.S. Navy's number one aviation priority. It will make its first flight this summer. Read More
Aerobie: still the longest throw after 23 years
May 1, 2007 This video is a bit of fun: Alan Adler, inventor of the Aerobie flying disc, throwing his Orbiter boomerang in Aloha Stadium, followed by Frisbee champ John Kirkland hurling an Aerobie right out of the stadium. For the record, Adler is also the inventor of the innovative coffee machine, the Aeropress. Read More
Climate catastrophes in the Solar System
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April 27, 2007 Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. In the effort to combat global warming, our neighbours can provide valuable insights into the way climate catastrophes affect planets. From what scientists know now, it is possible that Venus and Mars started out a lot like Earth. At some point in time, each planet followed a path that changed its climate. The transition was from Earth-like to either a cloudy inferno (Venus) or a frigid desert (Mars). Data from Venus Express and Mars express is now helping scientists determine if, when and why each planet passed the point of no-return.
Astronomers find first habitable Earth-like planet
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April 26, 2007 Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses. This exoplanet - as astronomers call planets around a star other than the Sun – is the smallest ever found up to now and it completes a full orbit in 13 days. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. However, given that its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581, is smaller and colder than the Sun – and thus less luminous – the planet nevertheless lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid! Read More
Gress Aerospace begins development of Personal Air Vehicle
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April 20, 2007 We’ve been following developments at Gress Aerospace for several years now, as it has developed its unique control technology for advanced vertical take-off and landing platforms. If successful, the control technology greatly simplifies flying, offers increased stability and functionality and requires a much smaller footprint than a traditional helicopter, hence it has wide application in commercial, industrial, and consumer markets, particularly for transportation and surveillance. The technology allows 6-Axis orientation, and a much smaller platform size in VTOL aerial vehicles. During the past twelve months, Gress has successfully scaled its system from a 15%-scale platfrom to a 40%-scale platform, and now intends to press ahead with a 100%-scale platform, build and testing phase, during the next 36 months. Introduced within the three stage build plan will be a new hybrid power generation package allowing the vehicle increased endurance with minimal fuel consumption. Once unmanned flight has been demonstrated, Gress will target the manned light-aircraft industry with plans have for an automobile-sized single seat VTOL.
The flying motorcycle - road-registered and available now
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April 18, 2007 For more than 50 years, the media have been promising us the personal flight revolution; by 2000 we'd all be getting around in flying cars, cruising down the skyway then touching down, driving home and unloading the shopping. Sadly, most of us are still stuck down here in traffic, but one maverick aviator has successfully taken personal flight into his own hands with a road-registered, high-safety flying motorcycle. Read More
A year on Venus
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April 12, 2007 One year has passed since 11 April 2006, when Venus Express, Europe’s first mission to Venus and the only spacecraft now in orbit around the planet, reached its destination. Since then, this advanced probe, born to explore one of the most mysterious planetary bodies in the Solar System, has been revealing planetary details never caught before. Using state-of-the-art instrumentation, Venus Express is approaching the study of Venus on a global scale. The space probe is collecting information about Venus’ noxious and restless atmosphere (including its clouds and high-speed winds, as seen from this video obtained with the VMC camera on board) and its interaction with the solar wind and the interplanetary environment. Last but not least, it is looking for signs of surface activity, such as active volcanism. Read More
HyFish takes to the sky in Germany
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April 12, 2007 When you're trying to design a more efficient airplane, where do you look for inspiration? Swiss inventor Koni Schafroth looked downward. Underwater, in fact. A scale model of his fuel cell-powered HyFish project, modeled on the shape of the ocean's fastest swimmer, took flight for the first time earlier this month. Read More
Military fast jet pilot directs multiple UAVs
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April 4, 2007 The networked battlespace of the not-too-distant future is beginning to look very much like a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic box office thriller, “The Birds” with hordes of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) combining to overwhelming effect. QinetiQ and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) last week demonstrated a new system which provides a single pilot with the ability to fly their own military fast jet while simultaneously directing up to four further unmanned aircraft. The system gives unmanned aircraft an advanced level of autonomously - independent decision-making including self-organisation, communication, sensing the environment, identifying possible enemies, and targeting of weapons with the final decision to shoot retained by the human pilot. The technology developed for these trials is feeding the Taranis combat UAV and ASTRAEA projects, the latter exploring the use of UAVs for non-military applications. The ability to direct multiple UAVs could be useful for search and rescue, disaster relief operations and environmental monitoring, just for a start. Read More
Boeing working on Fuel Cell Airplane
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March 28, 2007 With all the effort we are witnessing in developing environmentally progressive technologies for automotive applications, it’s great to see that Boeing researchers and industry partners throughout Europe are planning to conduct experimental flight tests this year of a manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries. The systems integration phase of the Boeing Research and Technology Europe (BR&TE) Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane research project was completed recently and thorough systems integration testing is now under way in preparation for upcoming ground and flight testing. The Boeing demonstrator uses a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor, which is coupled to a conventional propeller. The fuel cell provides all power for the cruise phase of flight. During takeoff and climb, the flight segment that requires the most power, the system draws on lightweight lithium-ion batteries. Read More
WINDREAM ONE - transatlantic crossing using natural power
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March 21, 2007 Paris saw the official launch of the WINDREAM ONE campaign this morning, a project headed up by Peggy Bouchet and Stéphane Rousson, sponsored by the Theolia Group. This ambitious project intends to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a sail balloon driven by natural and renewable energy sources. The quest conjures up images of great aeronautical discoveries where the courage, perseverance and a slight dose of madness inhabiting the spirit of visionaries and adventurers opened up the skies for future generations. Read More
Bombardier 415 SuperScooper Amphibious Aircraft
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March 5, 2007 When Bombardier Aerospace received the Batefuegos de oro award from the Asociacion para la Promocion de Actividades Socioculturales (APAS) for the "Greatest technological advancement in firefighting" last December, the jury described the company’s range-topping SuperScooper 415 as the “most efficient tool for the aerial combat of forest fires.” The 415 is the latest in a line of Bombardier amphibious aircraft which began with the CL-215 in the 1960s, though its capabilities are awesome compared to its predecessors. Though it only has a top speed of 359 km/h (224 mph), in an average mission of 11 kilometres (six nautical miles) distance from water to fire, it can complete nine drops within an hour, delivering 55,233 litres (14,589 U.S. gallons). Also known as the Superscooper aicraft, is a high-wing, all-metal amphibious aircraft designed specifically for aerial firefighting. It features a four-compartment, four-door water tank system that can hold 6137 litres (1621 US gallons) of water/foam mixture and refills its tanks by skimming the surface of any suitable body of water. Read More
ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury gets go-ahead
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February 27, 2007 BepiColombo, the European Space Agency (ESA) mission to explore planet Mercury has received the go-ahead will now begin its industrial implementation phase, to prepare for launch in August 2013. BepiColombo is the next European planetary exploration project, and will be implemented in collaboration with Japan. A satellite 'duo' – consisting of an orbiter for planetary investigation and one for magnetospheric studies – will reach Mercury after a six-year journey towards the inner Solar System, to eventually perform the most extensive and detailed study of the planet so far. Read More
Gatech’s five-speed rocket engine
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February 25, 2007 Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new protoype engine that allows satellites to take off with less fuel, opening the door for deep space missions, lower launch costs and more payload in orbit. The efficient satellite engine uses up to 40 percent less fuel by running on solar power while in space and by fine-tuning exhaust velocity. It uses a novel electric and magnetic field design that helps better control the exhaust particles. Ground control units can then exercise this control remotely to conserve fuel. Satellites using the Georgia Tech engine to blast off can carry more payload thanks to the mass freed up by the smaller amount of fuel needed for the trip into orbit. Or, if engineers wanted to use the reduced fuel load another way, the satellite could be launched more cheaply by using a smaller launch vehicle. Read More
New CH-47F Chinook helicopter begins Operational Testing with U.S. Army
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February 20, 2007 The first production CH-47F Chinook helicopter is heading for the battlefield in the near future with the news that Operational Testing (OT) for the U.S. Army has begun at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The aircraft successfully completed acceptance and developmental flight testing last December. The aircraft is the first of 452 CH-47F helicopters included in the U.S. Army Cargo Helicopter modernization program. It features a newly designed, modernized airframe and a Rockwell Collins Common Avionics Architecture System cockpit and BAE Digital Advanced Flight Control System. The advanced avionics provide improved situational awareness for flight crews with an advanced digital map display and a data transfer system that allows storing of preflight and mission data. Improved survivability features include Common Missile Warning and Improved Countermeasure Dispenser Systems. Read More
US Air Force invites RFP for tanker replacement
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February 14, 2007 With the U.S. Air Force officially releasing a request for proposal for a replacement tanker aircraft, the competition is now preparing for battle in the KC-X Tanker competition. While the USAF has a number of urgent acquisition priorities such as a new combat rescue helicopter, space-based early warning and communications satellites, the F-35 Lightning II and the next-generation, long-range strike bomber, the number one priority is seen as the replacement for the Air Force's aging "Eisenhower-era" fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers, which have been in service since 1959. The Air Force intends to replace about 500 KC-135s with a smaller number of new aircraft, with the major contender being the Airbus-built KC-30 from EADS and Northrop Grumman. Boeing announced this week that it will offer the KC-767 Advanced Tanker, an advanced derivative of the future 767-200 Long Range Freighter. Read More
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor wins Collier Trophy
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February 10, 2007 The Lockheed Martin-led F-22 Raptor aircraft team is the recipient of the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) 2006 Robert J. Collier Trophy, considered America's most prestigious award for aeronautical and space development. The NAA is the oldest national aviation organization in the United States dedicated to the advancement of the art, sport and science of aviation in the U.S. The Collier Trophy was established in 1911 and is granted each year "for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America... during the preceding year." The list of previous winners reads as a who’s who of aviation including Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, the crew of Apollo 11, and SpaceShipOne. Team members include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and BAE Systems. NAA President and CEO David Ivey called the F-22 “a revolution in aeronautics,” and pointed out the fighter’s performance in the 2006 Northern Edge military exercise, saying it “established the unquestionable superiority of the Raptor, a culmination of years of visionary design, rigorous testing, and innovative manufacturing.” Fantastic image gallery Read More
AeroVironment Aqua Puma UAV completes Royal Australian Navy Sea trials
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February 9, 2007 AeroVironment's Aqua Puma small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) has successfully completed sea trials for the Royal Australian Navy to explore adding a UAS capability to the Navy’s new Armidale class patrol boats. AV’s Aqua Puma is launched by hand, lands directly onto the sea surface and is recovered by hand from vessels. It is a next-generation FQM-151 Pointer, with the same form factor but increased endurance (1.5 hours) and enhanced sensor capability. Adding the Aqua Puma to the Armidales will require no ship modifications and will add significant day and night reconnaissance and surveillance capability. Read More
Unmanned helicopter rescue service for Mount Everest
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February 7, 2007 One of the many problems of climbing a mountain as tall as Mount Everest, is that once you’re up there, there’s not much help available if things go wrong. Most helicopters are not designed to operate above a ceiling of about 14,000ft (4,300m), yet Base Camp on Everest is at nearly 18,000ft (5364m) and the summit is another 11,500ft (3,486m) above that. Now UAV specialist TGR Helicorp, creators of the Snark, has developed an unpiloted full-size alpine rescue helicopter; the Alpine Wasp, which will be able to operate safely and autonomously at altitudes up to and beyond 30,000ft (over 9000m). The company will be donating the Alpine Wasp to the Everest Rescue Trust after it has undergone testing and systems evaluation in the harsh mountain environment of the Mt Cook region of New Zealand during 2007. It will be capable of airlifting up to two sick or injured climbers at a time from extreme altitude, using ultra-modern composite technologies, a revolutionary diesel helicopter engine and rotor blades designed especially for maximum performance in thin air. The Everest Trust is to use the Alpine Wasp as its key technology in building and operating a self-funding unmanned rescue helicopter service for the extreme altitude regions of Nepal. This humanitarian project aims to save lives on Everest and improve the safety and emergency services in Nepal, while directly benefiting the Nepalese people.
AeroTwin engine lands second patent
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February 6, 2007 We first wrote about AirScooter two years ago, characterising the company’s low-cost, easy-to-fly, ultra-lightweight coaxial rotorcraft helicopter as “a helicopter for the home". Now the company is making headlines not just for its innovative helicopter but also for the helicopter’s powerplant – the AeroTwin four-stroke aircraft engine. The second U.S. patent granted for the engine includes 23 claims focusing on the innovative lightweight one-piece head/cylinder design and related circulation and cooling methods. The AeroTwin produces 65 hp at 4200 rpm, and has a smooth/flat torque curve ideal for a wide range of sport vehicles and military applications, filling the niche between high-end hobby craft and expensive military UAVs. The company’s hobby models have now been dropped to focus resources on the engine, UAV and AirScooter segments. The knowledge obtained from hobby development contributed to the design and performance of the Company’s six-foot coaxial G70 UAV. Read More
Eclipse delivers first Very Light Jet
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January 19, 2007 Eclipse Aviation delivered the world’s first very light jet (VLJ) customer aircraft earlier this month, intent on clearing the waiting list of more than 2,500 aircraft. Given the company’s current facilities are designed to support the production of approximately 1,000 aircraft a year, it’s unlikely that joining the waiting list for the US$1.5 million Eclipse 500 will get you one this side of late 2009, but the market for very light jets seems to be getting a lot of attention and we suspect this is just the beginning of a whole new era of personal flight. Read More
Boeing Dreamlifter Delivers First Assemblies for 787 Dreamliner
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January 17, 2007 Given that we’ve been reporting on Boeing’s swing-tail Large Cargo Freighter known as the Dreamlifter since the project began (here, here, and here), we’re pleased to announce that Boeing yesterday delivered the first major assemblies for the all-new 787 Dreamliner to its partner Global Aeronautica, completing the first-ever delivery cycle using the Dreamlifter, a specially modified 747-400. Read More
Rockwell Collins’ Enhanced Vision System
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January 11, 2007 Rockwell Collins’ Enhanced Vision System (EVS) is to be offered to Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) operators in early 2008 and its capabilities are quite remarkable – the EVS presents an image of the external environment on the Head-up Guidance System (HGS) and head-down displays to enhance pilot situational awareness of terrain and the airport environment in low-visibility situations. When displayed on the HGS, EVS allows the pilot to descend below minimums, if the visual references to the intended runway are visible using the EVS. Read More
NASA STEREO sees first light
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December 21, 2006 NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (with appropriate acronym of STEREO) sent back their first images of the sun this week and with them a view into the sun's mounting activity. STEREO utilizes two nearly identical spacecraft on different trajectories to study the most energetic events on the surface and in the lower atmosphere of the Sun, and their travel through interplanetary space. Data from the spacecraft will allow scientists to construct the first ever three-dimensional views of the Sun, providing a new perspective on Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). CMEs are violent explosions on the surface of the Sun that can propel up to 10 billion tons of the Sun's atmosphere, at a million miles an hour, out through the corona and into space. Read More
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Stealth Fighter First Flight
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December 17, 2006 The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II lifted into the skies for the first time on Friday, completing a successful inaugural flight and initiating the most comprehensive flight test program in military aviation history. The stealthy, multi-service F-35 is the most powerful single-engine fighter in history, and is designed to replace the F-16, F/A-18 Hornet, the Harrier and the A-10. The Lightning’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine is the most powerful engine ever used in a jet fighter, producing 40,000 pounds of thrust. Read More
The sub US$200,000 family aircraft – the Sky Yacht
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December 12, 2006 Skyacht Aircraft has created a whisper quiet, steerable, Personal Blimp capable of sustained and affordable flight. Under development for four years, the first Personal Blimp, named Airship Alberto, made its first flight on October 27, 2006, becoming the first and only aircraft to meet this seemingly straightforward goal. The Personal Blimp uses hot air (rather than Helium) for lift and silent electric motors for propulsion and is hence a hot air balloon that can be flown, steered and landed in perfect quiet offering passengers a serene flight experience. It can hover and steer around objects making it ideal for, amongst other things, eco-tourism, aerial photography and film-making. It’s due at market in about two years for a price under US$200,000 compared to the smallest helium airship which costs US$2,000,000+ while a top-notch helium ship costs more than US$12 million. When not in use, the Personal Blimp can be deflated and folded for storage (much like a hot air balloon.) The combination of ready buoyancy control and rapid deflation eliminates not only costly hangars but also the large ground crews typically required for helium airships.
RCV awarded engine contract for Micro Air Vehicle
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December 8, 2006 There’s a delicious irony about the success of UK-based RCV Engines. The company achieved international recognition for its range of model aircraft engines then moved into a new market earlier this year with the development of its proprietary Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) engine for sub-250cc applications such as motorcycles, scooters and power tools where it offers 100PS/litre performance and manufacturing costs akin to those of a two-stroke, with the emission levels and fuel consumption of a four-stroke. The engine is so promising that it has been selected by Honeywell to produce a demonstrator engine based on RCV technology for use in Honeywell’s backpack-sized Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) – the irony is of course that the company is effectively back in the same domain it started from, though model aircraft enthusiasts who own one of RCV’s traditional SP or CD Series engines can rejoice in knowing that company is also powering some of the most innovative flying machines ever built. Another plus for the Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) engine is its exceptional power to weight ratio and it’s ability to run on a variety of fuels. The MAV autonomous surveillance aircraft has been developed as part of the US Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) MAV Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration programme and is small enough for a foot soldier to carry. It is designed to provide soldiers with improved situational awareness without exposing them to enemy fire through forward- and downward-looking video cameras that relay information to a remote ground station video terminal. Read More
NASA unveils plan to return humans to the moon
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December 6, 2006 NASA on Monday unveiled the initial elements of the Global Exploration Strategy and a proposed U.S. lunar architecture, two critical tools for achieving the nation's vision of returning humans to the moon. The Global Exploration Strategy focuses on two overarching issues: Why we are returning to the moon and what we plan to do when we get there. The strategy includes a comprehensive set of the reasons for embarking upon human and robotic exploration of the moon. NASA's proposed lunar architecture focuses on a third issue: How humans might accomplish the mission of exploring the moon. Read More
Special Forces get the first CV-22 Ospreys
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November 18, 2006 The United States Special Forces have been the best equipped in the world for a long time, though the gap widened considerably on Thursday with the first delivery of the CV-22 Osprey to the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The CV-22 is the Air Force version of the V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft that combines the speed and range of fixed wing aircraft with the vertical flight performance of a helicopter. With its engine nacelles and rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter, but once airborne its engine nacelles can be rotated to convert the aircraft to a turboprop airplane capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight. The CV-22 offers unprecedented speed in the ingress and extraction of special forces into any terrain. Just in case the advantages of the CV-22 and its almost identical brethren the V-22 aren’t entirely obvious, the following recently published briefing by Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute highlights why the Osprey is one system the military needs more of right now. Read More
DoubleDocker automated gate system saves everyone time and money
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November 12, 2006 The DoubleDocker is a very clever idea – it’s the world’s first fully automated dual-end jet bridge – as all passenger jets have two doors, it automatically docks to both doors and halves the boarding or deplaning time, offering passengers a significant reason to fly with airlines that offer the service. For the airline, it means an extra few minutes of productivity for their US$250+ million asset. The DoubleDocker is the invention of Dewbridge Airport Systems and the first one went into service in August at Denver International Airport with United Airlines. By the end of the year five gates will be operating and it’ll be interesting to see how the system fares. Read More
Revolutionary New 'Cockpit' for UAVs dramatically improves operator performance
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November 2, 2006 Raytheon has unveiled what it calls its Universal Control System (UCS) - a first of its kind unmanned aerial system (UAS) "cockpit" that revolutionizes operator awareness and efficiency, while providing the ability to control multiple unmanned aircraft, reduce potential accidents, improve training, and decrease costs. The announcement was made during the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va. Read More
Ground testing begins for X-48B Blended Wing Body Concept
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November 1, 2006 Ground testing of the X-48B Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept will start in the near future in preparation for flight testing early next year. The X-48B ground and flight testing will take place at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where two high-fidelity 21-foot wingspan prototypes have been delivered. The prototypes were produced to explore and validate the structural, aerodynamic and operational advantages of the BWB concept and were designated X-48B by the U.S. Air Force based on its interest in the design's potential as a future military aircraft. The X-48B's three turbojet engines will allow the 500-pound, composite-skinned, 21-foot wingspan prototype to fly up to 120 knots and 10,000 feet in altitude during flight testing. Read More
I-GNAT ER breaks Predator UAS Series Record - 5,000 Flight & Combat Hours in 2.5 years
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October 20, 2006 Aircraft AI-001, the first Army I-GNAT ER unmanned aircraft produced for the U.S. Army, is continuing the illustrious General Atomics Predator family tradition, recently passing 5,000 flight hours. Initially deployed in March 2004, the aircraft has been involved in continuous operations ever since, and achieved this major milestone on its 428th combat mission. Its key attributes of long endurance (over 40 hours), large payload capacity, ease of use, low maintenance and very low cost-per-flight-hour make it one of the most durable and operationally flexible UAS ever built. The I-GNAT is an improved version of the original GNAT-750 began operation in 1989 and is designed to takeoff and land conventionally from any hard surface.
Stratellite first structural float test
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October 20, 2006 Sanswire’s vision for mass deployment of its specialized Stratellite airship have moved a step closer when its Sanswire 2A technology demonstrator completed its first outdoor, low altitude, float test. The company’s concept of placing a communications platform into the stratosphere can fundamentally change how the world delivers wireless telecommunications, and the way we communicate. Advances in composite structures, photovoltaics, man-made fabrics, electric motors and energy storage technologies have propelled today’s stratellite far above the great, rigid airships of the early 20th century from which it is descendent, and have put the near-space altitude of 65,000 feet within reach. The solar-powered Stratellite is an advanced rigid composite lighter-than-air vehicle designed to operate either as an unmanned autonomous or remotely piloted system at stratospheric altitudes in geostationary locations. Due to their operating altitudes of 12-13 miles from earth, as opposed to satellites that operate from a distant 22,000 miles away, Stratellites can provide a superior and fully reclaimable method for operating advanced wireless communications and monitoring services. With payload capacities measured in tons, and the ability to return to its base station on command, the Stratellite provides a cost-effective delivery system for broadband voice, data and video services, reducing reliance on “near real time” capabilities of satellites and the slow download speeds of copper based terrestrial networks. Read More
US$3.65 million HondaJet sales begin for 2010 deliveries
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October 18, 2006 Honda Aircraft Company today began sales of HondaJet with the standard configuration selling for US$3.65 million with first deliveries in 2010. Carrying over the company’s automotive brand values, the HondaJet will be the fastest and most fuel efficient aircraft in its class with a 420 knot cruise speed, a range of 1180 nautical miles, and a 30-35 percent better fuel efficiency at cruise speed versus other jets of comparable performance. HondaJet’s cabin is the clincher as it sets a new standard for interior space and comfort being longer than even larger ‘light jet’ offerings with space for a fully-private lavatory and a 57-cubic foot aft cargo hold. Read More
