Look out, it’s a remote-controlled Segway with a machine gun – shoot it! Australian-based Marathon Robotics recently sold eight of the robot practice targets to the US Marines for a cool $US2 million. Check out this video of them in action: More »
I’m sure you’ll agree with me that a marathon is tough work as is, but while wearing a gas mask? Which reduces oxygen intake by 30 per cent? It’s obvious Marine Sgt Jeremy Soles is tough as nails. More »
The flying car, a goal of starry-eyed engineers since at least the beginning of the last century, is getting the DARPA treatment. Called Transformer TX, this flying Humvee-like prototype could be airborne by 2015. More »
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It looks like a special effect, but it’s not. What you’re watching is an F-35B supersonic stealth jet spend 30 seconds suspended 46m in the air, for the very first time. More »
The US Air Force wants a new cargo aircraft, a pressurised aeroplane capable of carrying 30,000 kilos for 1,500 nautical miles without refueling. They call it the Speed Agile Concept Demonstrator—it’s supposed to travel at a minimum Mach .8 at 30,000-feet—but they may as well have called it the UD-4L Dropship, because it looks like the Colonial Marines’ Cheyenne in Aliens. Boeing is going to get a mere US$7.5M to work on it to get the technology ready for 2010—which doesn’t mean having the aeroplane by then, just the pretty drawings for us to post about. [Defense Tech]
Rockwell Collins has been selected by the US Marines to deliver 3,000 of its ParaNav GPS units for parachutists. Soldiers plummeting towards earth will soon have the advantage of GPS navigation with a HUD that will help improve landing accuracy and allow for target zones to be easily changed on the fly.
