Aero Gizmo
Eagle Eye VTOL AUV First Flight
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January 26, 2006 Bell Helicopter’s TR918 Eagle Eye Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) lifted off the ground for the first time yesterday, hovered for nine minutes, executed yaw and translation manoeuvres and then landed safely. It then undertook a second flight within 30 minutes of the maiden flight's landing. We have previously written about the TR918 here - the Eagle Eye uses the same tiltrotor system as a number of other Bell-Boeing VTOL designs, most notably the V-22 Osprey (Bell - Boeing)and the Quad TiltRotor.
Fire Scout UAV completes first autonomous ship landings
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January 22, 2006 A new chapter in naval aviation history was rewritten this week when two RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) completed nine autonomous shipboard landings on board USS Nashville (LPD 13). It is the first time a UAV has performed vertical landings on a moving ship without a pilot controlling the aircraft. The RQ-8A is a test version of the newer MQ-8B Fire Scout being developed by Northrop Grumman for the Navy and the U.S. Army. The MQ-8B Fire Scout is the aircraft element of a complete system called the Vertical takeoff and landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) system. Read More
The World’s Most Powerful Series Production Car
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December 29, 2005 At the extreme outer limits of automotive performance, several marques continually push the boundaries. For a long period of time, the MacLaren Mercedes F1 was the world’s fastest car, before Koenigsegg lifted the crown. The specifications of the outrageous Veyron waited some time before going into production, but now the mantle of the world’s fastest roadgoing car rests safely with Bugatti. The title of the World’s Most Powerful Series Production Car will change in 2006 though when the new Mercedes-Benz S 65 AMG becomes available. Its ultra-powerful AMG 6.0-litre V12 biturbo engine delivers performance that many sports car drivers can only dream about: it accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds and 0 to 200 km/h in just 13.3 seconds. The compelling top-of-the-line model of the brand new S-Class delivers 450 kW and reaches peak torque of 1000 Nm – more than any other vehicle in this segment. Read More
A160 Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft can loiter for 24 hours
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December 7, 2005 Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft made its first test flight using a six cylinder Subaru engine on November 30. The new A160 successfully flew for about 30 minutes in the vicinity of an airfield near Victorville, California, bringing the total number of A160 test flights to 32 and the total number of flight hours to 58. The Hummingbird features a unique optimum speed rotor technology that significantly improves overall performance efficiency by adjusting the RPM of the rotor system at different altitudes, gross weights and cruise speeds. It is designed to fly autonomously, for much longer periods of time (in excess of 24 hours), over greater distances (2,500+ nautical miles), at higher altitudes (up to 30,000 feet), and much more quietly than current helicopters. Read More
X-50A Dragonfly Canard Rotor/Wing prototype completes hover flight
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December 6, 2005 Boeing’s second canard rotor/wing (CRW) X-50A Dragonfly unmanned air vehicle (UAV) has successfully completed a four-minute hover flight at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground reaching an altitude of about 20 feet above ground. The aircraft combines the vertical takeoff/landing capabilities of a rotorcraft with the high-subsonic cruise speed and agility of a fixed-wing airplane. As its name implies, its versatility is achieved by having a specially designed rotor for vertical takeoffs and landings that can be stopped in flight to serve as a fixed wing for jet cruise. Under an agreement with DARPA, Boeing Phantom Works has built and flight-tested two pilotless demonstrators to assess and validate the advanced rotorcraft concept and according to Clark Mitchell, Boeing Phantom Works program manager for the CRW prototype, the flight was “a significant achievement toward validating the new stopped-rotor technology.”
Stratospheric airship reaches near-space altitude during demonstration flight
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December 4, 2005 An American team has successfully demonstrated a radical new stratospheric airship, flying the aptly-named HiSentinel to an altitude of 74,000 feet. The development team of Aerostar International, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and SwRI created the 146-foot-long airship which became only the second airship in history to achieve powered flight in the stratosphere. Designed for launch from remote sites, these airships will not require large hangars or special facilities. Unlike most stratospheric airship concepts, HiSentinel is launched flaccid with the hull only partially inflated with helium. As the airship rises, the helium expands until it completely inflates the hull to the rigid aerodynamic shape required for operation. Read More
The next-generation missile warning system
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November 26, 2005 The team developing the United States's next-generation missile warning system has completed preparations to enable the payload for the first Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite to begin engineering thermal vacuum testing. The SBIRS GEO payload consists of a scanning sensor and a staring sensor, with sensor pointing achieved by the spacecraft's Pointing Control Assembly (PCA). The scanning sensor is designed for continuous observation and surveillance of traditional intercontinental ballistic missile threats, while the staring sensor is designed to detect very low signature, short-burn-duration theatre missiles. The staring sensor recently completed its flight-acceptance test. One of the most significant program milestones, thermal vacuum testing verifies the payload functionality and performance in a vacuum environment, where the payload is stressed at temperature extremes greater than those expected during on-orbit operations. The baseline ambient functional tests as well as radiometric tests will be repeated in this "test-it-like-it-flies" environment with the infrared sensors at their cryogenic operating temperatures. Read More
Experimental HondaJet with over-the-wing engines
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November 22, 2005 Honda is already one of the world's leading producers of mobility products including making more engines than any other manufacturer (19 million a year), plus automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, power products, marine engines, personal watercraft and in the not-too-distant future, light jets. Honda’s aeronautical ambitions have taken shape in the form of the experimental HondaJet boasting a number of innovations including a patented over-the-wing engine-mount configuration, a natural-laminar flow (NLF) wing and fuselage nose, and an advanced all-composite fuselage structure. The over-the-wing engine-mount configuration helps eliminate the need for a structure to mount the engines to the rear fuselage and, thus, maximizes the space in the fuselage. Further, by determining the optimal position for the engines, the over-the-wing mount actually reduces drag at high speed to improve fuel efficiency. Read More
The first flying machine - the hot air balloon
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Human flight turns 222 years old on Monday. The hot air balloon was the first sustainable form of flight, with the first passengers, (a sheep, duck, and rooster) taking to the skies on September 19, 1783 and the first humans breaking the shackles of gravity on November 21,1783 were Pilatre de Rozier, who was also to become the first man killed in an ballooning accident, and infantry officer Marquis d'Arlandes. The flight took place in the centre of Paris lasted 25 minutes and covered a little more than five miles and the balloon was built of paper and silk by the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Ettienne. The Montgolfiers were well-educated paper merchants who had read the work of English scientist Joseph Priestly on the properties of air and had the skills to adapt the available technologies Read More
The modern hot air balloon
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Ballooning went mainstream in 1960 when the Raven prototype ‘modern’ hot-air balloon demonstrated that man had finally found a cost-efficient, lightweight material for the balloon envelope in the form of polyurethane coated nylon, with the burner powered by cylinders of propane. The first U.S. national championships followed in 1963 and further advances to material technology and LPG burners have seen the sport evolve into a substantial tourism industry with more than 5000 registered balloon pilots in the United States and a larger number in Europe. Every major city in the world offers balloon flights to tourists and if it is something you have never done, we thoroughly recommend it. There's no noise (at least most of the time when the burners aren't firing) to get between you and the environment of the birds, and a remarkable platform from which to survey almost anything, let alone something as complex as a real-life city. The following photographic essay was taken yesterday over Melbourne, Australia in a Hot Air Balloon using a Sony DCS-F707 Cybershot 5 megapixel 5x optical zoom camera and a Kodak Easyshare P850 5 megapixel 12x optical zoom camera. Read More
New 747-8 with improved fuel efficiency and reduced noise and emissions
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November 16, 2005 Looking like a gigantic prop from an Arabian Nights film, Boeing’s new 747-8 Intercontinental passenger airplane and the 747-8 Freighter airplane took a bow before the world’s media yesterday with its distinctive curved wings. Both versions of the new 747 will feature GE's 787-technology GEnx engines, meet Stage 4 and QC2 noise requirements, have reduced emissions, offer lower trip costs and have an upgraded flight deck and an improved wing. Read More
Battlestar Galactica originals go to auction: Starbuck Viper and Cylon Raider
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November 15, 2005 As unabashed fans of applied technology, Gizmag’s 80,000 daily readers number among them many sience fiction fans and many who would have first fueled their sci-fi imagination with Battlestar Galactica (ABC-TV, 1978-79). Accordingly, we feel it is our duty to inform you that two of the ORIGINAL filming miniatures from the classic science-fiction series of the late 1970s are due to fall under the auctioneers hammer on eBay on December 16 and the pair are expected to fetch more than US$50,000. The craft in question are the Starbuck Viper and Cylon Raider, each representing the apex of technology as realized by the Colonials and their arch-enemies, the Cylons. Both of these filming miniatures were created by John Dykstra and the crew of Apogee Effects. Read More
Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner to break long distance record
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November 9, 2005 Boeing is set to make aviation history today when a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner takes off from Hong Kong flying eastbound to London, attempting to set a world distance record. The 777-200LR (Longer Range) will take off with a full load of fuel and 35 passengers and crew, flying nonstop on a route that is likely to exceed a distance of more than halfway around the world. Apart from meaning the 777-200LR is now capable of connecting any two cities non-stop, it will fly farther than any previous commercial jetliner and will surpass two notable current distance records. For an airplane its size and class, it will break the record set by a 747-400 in 1989 that flew 9,200 nautical miles (17,039 km) non-stop from London to Sydney. Also, it is expected to exceed the distance travelled by a 777-200ER (Extended Range) that flew 10,823 nautical miles (20,044 km) from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur in 1997, setting a speed and distance record. Read More
Preparations for round-the-world solar-powered flight
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November 8, 2005 Humans have now spent more than a 100 years under the spell of powered flight, regularly achieving milestones previously thought impossible and developing faster, bigger, deadlier, and more efficient aircraft in which to take to the skies. The challenges show no sign of abating as the second century of aviation begins, not just in terms of sheer human endeavour, but in respect to critical questions of environmental sustainability and renewable energy. The team that accomplished the first ever non-stop round-the-world flight in a balloon back in 1999 is embarking on a new project that will take see it repeat the journey - but this time it's in a solar-powered aircraft. Bertrand Piccard along with Andre Borschberg (an engineer and pilot and the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL) and Brian Jones (who co-piloted on the Breitling Orbiter 3 on its record round-the-world flight) are aiming to complete a full night in the air during the first 36 hour solar-powered round-the-world flight during 2009. Read More
Japanese Entrepreneur the Next Private Space Explorer
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November 6, 2005 Hong Kong resident and Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto (Dice-K) will be the next private space explorer candidate, following in the footsteps of the world's first private explorers, Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen. All four will have used the services of Space Adventures to organize their spaceflights to the International Space Station with Dice-K’s expedition planned for October 2006. Dice-K has already begun cosmonaut training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.
Boeing Starts F/A-18F Aft Seat Testing of Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System
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November 4, 2005 Boeing is conducting flight tests with a view to integrating its Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) into the aft cockpits of the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18F Super Hornet. The testing marks the first time both the pilot and weapon systems officer have used the helmet in an F/A-18F and brings the Navy closer to providing aircrews with a significant increase in situation awareness and combat effectiveness. First used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, JHMCS gives flight crewmembers the ability to rapidly acquire and designate a target simply by looking at it. By putting an aiming cross, which is projected on the helmet visor, over the desired target and pressing a button, the pilot can quickly and easily aim weapons and sensors to designate and attack airborne or ground targets. JHMCS also displays aircraft altitude, airspeed, gravitational pull and angle of attack on the visor, as well as tactical information, to increase the crew member's awareness of the state of the aircraft and the combat situation. Read More
Star Wars-style Pod Racing comes to life - the Rocket Racing League blasts off
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October 28, 2005 Think of a cross between Star Wars Pod Racing and Formula 1 and you have the Rocket Racing League (RRL) – a new formula racing competition with nuclear levels of spectator appeal. The first demonstration flight of the new RRL series was held earlier this month at the X PRIZE CUP in New Mexico (USA). Former astronaut Colonel Rick Searfoss piloted the RRL's EZ-Rocket in a series of crowd-thrilling manoeuvres. The EZ-Rocket is the precursor vehicle to the Mark-1 X-Racer, which is currently under development with planned test flights in the Spring and Summer of 2006. The Mark-1 will utilise a modified airframe from Velocity Aircraft and a single 1,500 - 1,800 pound liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene rocket engine. This engine will have twice the thrust of the development vehicle and will be extremely bright and visible in contrast to the development prototype EZ-Rocket which uses LOX and alcohol. As an aerospace entertainment organization, the RRL will combine the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry with a series of competitions across the United States, with the finals taking place each year at the X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico. RRL races will operate much like auto races, with the exception that the "track" will be in the sky. Courses are expected to be around two miles long, one mile wide, and about 5,000 feet high, running perpendicular to spectators. The X-Racers, will take off from a runway both in a staggered fashion and side-by side and fly a course based on the design of a Grand Prix competition, with long straight-aways, vertical ascents, and deep banks. Each pilot will follow his or her own virtual "tunnel" or "track" of space through which to fly, safely separated from their competitors by a few hundred feet. Read More
Mobile helicopter landing and maintenance facility
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October 15, 2005 Australia’s vast distances, harsh climate and isolated communities present major challenges for companies delivering vital services like electricity. To help in this environment, Brisbane-based Aeropower has developed a Volvo 380hp FM9 truck into a mobile helicopter landing and maintenance facility. Aeropower’s Volvo-based mobile facilities for its fleet of Hughes MD500 helicopters plays an essential role in the aerial survey and maintenance of high voltage power transmission lines by providing not only a safer, elevated landing platform for its helicopter crew, but also fuel, water and maintenance provisions to maximise operating efficiency in the field. Read More
EADS and DRS to collaborate on laser-based obstacle warning system for helicopters
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October 8, 2005 EADS and DRS Technologies have agreed to collaborate on U.S. marketing and production of the EADS HELLAS laser-based obstacle warning system that offers unprecedented protection for helicopters against difficult-to-detect obstacles, such as power lines. This agreement covers the EADS Defence Electronics’ HELLAS-W (Warning) obstacle warning system, which already is in operation on Federal German Police helicopters, and the new HELLAS-A (Awareness) obstacle warning system, which is in development for German Forces NH90 helicopters and has been identified for potential use with U.S. military forces. Read More
Airscooter develops petrol and electric coaxial rotor UAVs
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October 5, 2005 Innovative air vehicle developer AirScooter has featured in Gizmag previously with its AirScooter II, a vehicle we dubbed, “The Helicopter for the Home.” Things have been moving quickly for the company in recent times, with several patented and patent-pending aeronautical products being developed to employ coaxial rotor technology. These products include a high-performance AirScout 70” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an electric powered UAV, both targeted at the commercial and military markets. Read More
ATG’S Javelin Prototype takes flight
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October 1, 2005 Aviation Technology Group’s much-awaited Javelin took to the skies for the first time yesterday in Colorado. Born from the intense desire to offer military performance to the general aviation market, the US$2.795 million two-seat executive jet will be available in 2008 and the military trainer versions will be available prior to that – the successful 35 minute maiden flight indicates all is well with the planned roll-out and with the order books now heading for 100 sales for the new two-seat jet aircraft capable of .925 Mach (1130 kmh), you’d best get your money down quickly if you’re planning on being the first on your block to have one of these babies. Read More
Advanced Tandem Rotor Helicopter (ATRH) contract for JHL program
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September 24, 2005 The U.S. Army has awarded a second contract to perform conceptual design and analysis of a vertical-takeoff-and-landing concept for the Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) program. One contract, worth US$3.4 million, goes to Boeing Phantom Works for its Advanced Tandem Rotor Helicopter (ATRH). Boeing proposed the ATRH in the Army's low-speed category, which is for vehicles that fly between 160 and 200 knots. As previously reported, the other contract, worth US$3.45 million, was awarded to the Bell Helicopter - Boeing Phantom Works team for the QuadTiltrotor (QTR) aircraft, which was entered in the high-speed category of 250 knots or more. The Boeing Advanced Tandem Rotor Helicopter exploits the system maturity, the extraordinary VTOL cargo-handling versatility and the unsurpassed maritime suitability of the tandem rotor platform, which uses two equally-sized rotors that spin in opposite directions for lift. Read More
Quad TiltRotor (QTR) aircraft development contract awarded
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September 24, 2005 The team of Bell Helicopter and Boeing has been awarded a $3.45 million contract by the U.S. Army to perform conceptual design and analysis of its Quad TiltRotor (QTR) aircraft for the Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) Program. "The Bell Boeing team is exceptionally pleased to have been one of the teams chosen by the Joint Service Team to take the first step in providing a truly transformational vertical lift cargo aircraft," said Mike Redenbaugh, chief executive officer of Bell Helicopter. "The critical need for long range, high speed, heavy lift without access to runways is being highlighted around the world every day." Read More
Your own helicopter for under US$20,000
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September 21, 2005 Flying is not a sport generally associated with those people who are light of wallet – which makes the Mosquito Ultralight helicopter something of a rarity. The entire kit for the Mosquito can be purchased for US$20,000 and if you think the minimalist Mosquito leaves you a bit vulnerable, there’s the fully enclosed Mosquito XE and XEL which can be purchased for US$23,000 apeice. Building the kits will cost you about 200 to 300 hours to build or you can have the plane built for you for a flat US$4000. Getting airborn for under US$20,000 in your own, new helicopter is quite a feat – we’re not aware of any other helicopter in this price category and on top of that, both Mosquito variants offer very low maintenance and operating costs. Read More
AH-64D Apache Longbow gets new Arrowhead system
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September 19, 2005 Lockheed Martin has delivered the first eight Arrowhead systems for the U.S. Army's Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) program. The Arrowhead unit provides the most advanced electro-optical targeting and pilotage system available to AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter crews for maximizing safe flight in day, night and adverse-weather environments. Arrowhead continues a 23-year legacy of serving as the "eyes" of the Army's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter with the first fielding of the current TADS/PNVS in 1983. Arrowhead's newly designed FLIR sensors and avionics use leading-edge image processing techniques to give pilots the best possible resolution to avoid obstacles such as wires and tree limbs during low-level flight. Read More
Boeing enters the Combat Search and Rescue Vehicle Acquisition race
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September 16, 2005 The Boeing Company has announced its entry in the U.S. Air Force combat search and rescue aircraft program, the advanced HH-47 CSAR-X tandem rotor aircraft. The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command will be releasing a final RFP for aircraft for combat search and rescue missions (CSAR) in the near future and a small but elite field of contenders is assembling. The HH-47 will line up against the V-22 tiltrotor, the US101 helicopter and the H-92 Sikorsky for the opportunity to replace the HH-60G combat-search-and-rescue helicopter. Read More
BAE VTOL UAV impresses in autonomous tests
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September 7, 2005 BAE Systems has achieved its first autonomous, untethered flight of its third-generation ducted-fan unmanned aerial vehicle. The company's vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) air vehicle completed a course of 10 waypoints at BAE Systems' Southern California flight test facility. The seven-minute flight of the IAV2 ducted-fan air vehicle demonstrated a pre-programmed flight plan that included automatic takeoff, waypoint navigation with multiple groundspeeds and altitudes, and loitering and automatic landing. The demonstration flight was achieved just 10 days after the air vehicle's first flight and was the 14th flight of the IAV2. Flights were conducted at temperatures of up to 109 degrees, equating to density altitudes approaching 7,000 feet, in winds of nearly 15 knots. Read More
The Walrus: the US Army contemplates building an aircraft the size of a football field
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September 6, 2005 Moving an elephant atom by atom costs a lot more than moving the elephant in one pre-assembled lump. And that is what the US Army’s Project Walrus is about – putting together an entire action unit of war machinery, with all the wiring and plumbing preinstalled, and placing it in the most strategic place. Whilst this would completely rewrite the way that war is conducted, the Walrus - a massive lozenge-shaped blimp the size of a football field capable of transporting 500 tons at a time - could offer solutions to myriad peacetime problems, opening land-locked countries to trade, enabling heavy construction materials to be delivered into urban centres with minimum disruption, freeing our highways of high volume, heavy loads, offering a more robust and agile air transportation network capable of absorbing disruptions due to weather or attack. Indeed, business logistics could again be completely rethought and streamlined because many physical transportation limits would no longer apply once a fleet of commercial walruses became available. The walrus does not require an airstrip and can land on water or on open ground. Read More
Boeing Unveils 787 Dreamliner Flight Deck
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The Boeing Company revealed the flight deck for the all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner yesterday and the view is so spectacular, we thought it worth running. The flight deck features new technologies while retaining significant operational similarity with the popular Boeing 777 and other Boeing jets. The combination provides airlines with dual benefits -- operational improvements and cost-saving commonality. The new flight deck features much larger display screens than previously seen in airplanes. The five 12-by-9.1-inch screens offer 546 square inches of display space -- twice that of the Boeing 777 -- allowing pilots access to more information. Other key features of the new 787 flight deck are the dual head-up displays (HUDs) and dual electronic flight bag. Boeing has offered HUDs and electronic flight bags on other models but with the 787 they are standard features. HUDs display information on clear screens mounted at eye level so the pilots can see flight data while looking out the windows. Electronic flight bags are the digital equivalent of the pilot's flight bag and include maps, charts, manuals and other data. Read More
The flying eyeball
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August 13, 2005 NASA engineers are developing an unmanned "flying eyeball" that will be used as an assistant to astronauts for the space shuttle and International Space Station. Named "Mini AERCam", which stands for Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera, the free-flying robotic inspection vehicle uses pressurized cold-gas (xenon) for propulsion and carries battery-powered cameras that will help astronauts perform inspections of the exterior of the space station or shuttle. The Mini AERCam technology demonstration unit has been integrated into the approximate form and function of a flight system, and represents a significant technology breakthrough in the field of free-flying robotic space vehicles. The nanosatellite-class spherical Mini AERCam free flyer is 7.5 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 10 pounds, yet it incorporates significant additional capabilities compared to the 35 pound, 14 inch AERCam Sprint free flyer that flew as a remotely piloted Shuttle flight experiment in 1997. That's the Aercam Sprint at right. Follow the links inside to the Mini Aercam. Read More
NASA's MESSENGER Sends Flyby Data to Earth Using CCSDS File Delivery Protocol Developed for Deep Space by International Team
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August 11, 2005 NASA's MESSENGER team is using the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP), a highly specialised protocol designed to overcome space operations communications challenges, to download data captured during a successful flyby of Earth last week. A team of international space data communications experts collaborating through the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) developed CFDP to reliably and efficiently downlink files from a spacecraft even in the strenuous environment of deep space. Since the MESSENGER spacecraft's launch a year ago, it has successfully used CFDP to enable mission communications and will use it throughout its 7.9-billion kilometre journey to Mercury. Read More
Next generation MH60-R submarine hunter and surface attack helicopter begins production
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August 5, 2005 The first new production Sikorsky MH-60R took to the skies last week indicating the next phase of naval helicopter warfare is about to begin. The MH-60R is the next generation submarine hunter and surface attack helicopter and will replace the US fleet's legacy SH-60B and SH-60F aircraft. The Navy is expected to order as many as 254 MH-60R aircraft through 2015, with production quantities increasing to 30 aircraft per year. Read More
New Technology for Moving Airplanes on the Ground
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August 4, 2005 The Boeing Company and Chorus Motors have demonstrated an exploratory technology that could lead to a more efficient way of moving airplanes when they are on the ground at airports. Successful tests in June of an onboard electric motor attached to the nose wheel of a Boeing 767 have shown that it may be a viable way of powering airplanes to move in and around gates, largely eliminating the use of airport tow tugs and jet engines now serving this purpose, as well as reducing emissions.
The U-2 Spy Plane turns 50 - and still in service
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August 3, 2005 Fifty years ago this week the famous high altitude (70,000 ft, 21,000 m plus) U-2 spy plane made its first flight – since that time it has been one of the most consistent providers of critical intelligence information to the United States in peacetime and all phases of conflict. Developed with a reportedly unlimited budget supplied by the CIA, the plane was developed in record time by Lockheed Martin and in operation for four years providing continuous day and night, high-altitude, all-weather surveillance before the famous incident where US pilot Gary Powers was shot down over a Russian nuclear missile base in 1960 and tried as a spy. The U-2 is now 40% larger than it was in 1955 due to the plethora of electronic eyes and ears it carries, but it is still immensely useful in wartime having provided 88% of battle field imagery during the Iraq invasion. The U-2 was responsible for identifying the threat of Cuban-based ballistic missiles that became the Cuban missile crisis and took the world closer to nuclear war than any other point in history. All of the imagery used in identifying the build-up of missiles came from the U-2. The U-2 has been the backbone of US airborne intelligence collection operations for FIVE DECADES and is expected to continue in the role for at least another decade. Read More
Bell Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH): Hunter AND Killer
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August 2, 2005 Bell Helicopter last week was awarded a US$2.2 billion contract by the United States Army to build 368 of its next generation Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) between 2006 and 2013. The ARH will replace the Army’s OH-58D Kiowa Warrior Helicopter and it is a significant improvement being fast agile and able to stalk its prey like nothing else in the air. Indeed, there's nothing it can’t spot in any weather, day or night thanks to its FLIR system. Not only can it track its prey, it can also be proactive thanks to an array of weapons systems such as a 2,000rpm Gatling gun, 2.75 inch rockets, Hellfire missiles or as many as 38 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) tubes at one time. With room for two pilots and three passengers, the ARH has room for the smartest weapons of all. Finally, it thrives in adverse conditions with its high ballistic tolerance, crashworthiness and the latest aircraft survivability equipment. Bell’s ARH is a militarized version of its highly successful 407 single engine light helicopter – sometimes known as the “sports car of the air.” Capable of being equipped with a wide variety of weapons, the Bell ARH will provide the Army with exceptional mission versatility and with the flexibility to accomplish armed reconnaissance, light attack, troop insertion, and special operations missions with a single aircraft. Check out this video of the Bell ARH doing its thing.
