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That plain old yellowish-green helicopter is the really the first production version of the VH71... the future Presidential Marine One. It's been a year since the prototype took flight, but apparently PP-1 (the first of five in phase one) performed "exceptionally during its 40-minute flight."
The next-generation stealth bomber from Boeing/Lockheed Martin is out. Developed by Phantom Works, the large diamond-shaped body, with long wings and razor-sharp nose, resembles a long-range B-2 Spirit bomber that has been retrofitted at Darth Vader's garage: from the front, it looks kind of evil and menacing. Unlike Northrop Grumman's proposal, which is like the stealth bomber that eats too many Snickers.
The Eclipse 400 looks is one of those aeroplanes that you can only imagine in movies or comicbooks. But this is not the Avenger's Quinjet, it is very real, as the video shows. Right now it's being perfected and will be delivered to Tony Starks wannabes in just three years. Its four-seat interior looks more like an expensive sports car than a plane, and it has me saying "want":
From lighting strikes, to Mentos explosions, the bottom line is that everything is cooler in slow motion. In this case OObject has collected 10 ejection seat tests that are enjoyable to watch at any speed—but in slo-mo its like watching a nerdy ballet of planes, fire and rockets. [OObject]
How do you get rid of a gigantic downed transport plane? Well, you could take it apart piece by piece or move it to a junkyard. Or, if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, you could blow it the hell up. Guess which option the UK Royal Air Force chose?
They may not look as mean as the Draganfly, but these research UAV 'copters are one step closer to Skynet: they learn to fly complex stunts by just "watching" another aircraft do the same. Dubbed "apprenticeship learning," by the Stanford team which developed it, the system gets its flight plan by recording an expert human operator fly a vehicle. Then its onboard gyros and GPS systems and avionics communicate with a ground-based computer which looks at the human-derived data and decides how to fly the vehicle. It's all very tricky, due to the inherent instability of helicopter. Apparently UAVs like this may one day help firefighters track wildfires, or be sent to see out landmines in battlefield situations... and do other "spying" of course. Creepy. [Physorg]
The Air Force's Office of Scientific Research has funded a study that's found a novel waterproofing technique that could prevent ice formation and corrosion from damaging parts of an aircraft, like optical sensors. The transparent coating has a nanoporous surface that is superhydrophobic, which makes water droplets form and roll or bounce-off the aircraft's skin rather than collecting, which is how ice formations happen. Better still it can be crafted to send the droplets in particular pathways across the coating, meaning it may also work as a cheap and simple water-collection system for desert environments: this was inspired by the way the Namib Desert beetle gathers moisture. We wonder though... is it as good as Golden Shellback? [AirForceLink]
A chair made of torpedo-launcher parts just wouldn't say "come hither" to techy ladies in the same way as this bed from Motoart. Dubbed Mile High, you can tell it's aimed at the sexier end of the geek furniture market, partly as it's marketed with a "a wonderful playground for you and your co-pilot" slogan, and especially when you notice the line of glowing red LEDs that pimp the frame's lower edge. The 3.4 by 2.3 metre bed is made of two DC-9 stabiliser fins and a C-130 inner flap. And if there's a particular aviator you want to attract between the sheets, you'll likely have to save up: it's price on application only, which generally means lots of dollars. [MotoArt via TFTS]
At last week's EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, aircraft startup ICON showed up with their folding-winged A5. On display, one setup showed it being towed, propped on a standard trailer and pulled by a standard vehicle. The company hopes to appeal to those who've always been interested in flying but have felt intimidated by all of its attached responsibilities including licensing (you don't need a full-out pilot's licence to operate this) and storage (it really can fit in a large garage). And yes, their cockpit resembles a car's dash in a completely scary/awesome way.
This video is a feed from the Tailcam in an A380 as the aircraft takes-off. The cam feed can be shown on the seat-back displays and gives you an almost Superman-like view of the aircraft from 24m up at the top of the tail. It's pretty amazing watching the behemoth aircraft surge slowly down the runway and into the air... and there's another vid, showing it landing in to SFO as part of the recent Emirates tour.
The Eclipse 400 looks is one of those aeroplanes that you can only imagine in movies or comicbooks. But this is not the Avenger's Quinjet, it is very real, as the video shows. Right now it's being perfected and will be delivered to Tony Starks wannabes in just three years. Its four-seat interior looks more like an expensive sports car than a plane, and it has me saying "want":
At last week's EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, aircraft startup ICON showed up with their 