Tag: aircraft

Autonomous helicopter completes Marine resupply simulation

Drones have become a part of the modern battlefield, but what about autonomous full-size aircraft? Aurora Flight Sciences just successfully demonstrated its self-flying setup, the Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS), enabling an older helicopter to fly itself at soldiers’ requests. In the future, troops in the field could use this tech to order autonomous supply deliveries with nothing more complicated than a tablet. Officials at ONR and their industry partners @AuroraFlightSci announced today a successful, final flight demonstration of an AACUS-enabled helicopter. #AACUS can be installed on any helicopter to increase its capability to full autonomy. https://t.co/qtEkrVpVSd pic.twitter.com/gHPUFMiTsW — ONR (@USNavyResearch) December 13, 2017 For the company’s live test before Navy officials, Aurora installed AACUS an existing UH-1H helicopter, which had been outfitted with LiDAR and cameras to avoid obstacles. Earlier demonstrations had proven its autonomous flight capability, according to a press release, but this test had the aircraft simulating cargo and utility missions. Soldiers loaded supplies on the aircraft and it successfully took off autonomously, taking one more step toward a self-flying delivery system that doesn’t require complex training for troops to use. While this test featured the AACUS-Enabled UH-1H, a setup that the FAA specially certified in October, the technology could theoretically be integrated into other rotary-wing aircraft. This demonstration was the final phase in its five-year testing program; Now the Marine Corps will experiment with the system and figure out whether to buy it. If so, it would be another feather in Boeing’s cap: The aerospace giant bought Aurora back in October. We think it’s pretty cool! https://t.co/6nDmudblum — AuroraFlightSciences (@AuroraFlightSci) December 13, 2017 Source: Office of Naval Reserch

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Autonomous helicopter completes Marine resupply simulation

First Class Travel, 1930s-Style: What Were the Interiors/Floorplan Like Inside the Hindenburg?

In the 1920s, if you wanted to cross the Atlantic you got on a ship. Then Germany set up the world’s first transatlantic air service for passengers, launching the Graf Zeppelin , the world’s largest airship at the time. In 1930 it could fly you all the way from Germany to Brazil. You’d leave Friedrichshafen on Saturday night and arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning. By 1936 Germany had produced an even bigger blimp, the Hindenburg , which began shuttling passengers, cargo and mail from Frankfurt to New Jersey and back. The ship could carry 50 (later 72) passengers and had a crew of 40 to 60 people. The trip took about four days in each direction, and make no mistake, it was for rich passengers only; a one-way ticket was $400, which translates to about $7, 050 in 2017 dollars. It’s bizarre seeing the swastika flying over New York City. 1937, folks. So what did you get for your money? First off, the travel time was almost a day faster than going by ship, plus there was no chance you’d get seasick. The lift-off procedure was so gentle that passengers who weren’t paying attention reportedly didn’t realize that they’d left the ground. Once in flight, the voyage was said to be so smooth that you could balance a pencil on a table. Speaking of tables, you ate the kind of luxury chow that “one might find at a traditional, high-end European hotel, ” according to Atlas Obscura , pointing out that the chef on the final Hindenburg voyage was from the Ritz in Paris. NPR lists “Beef Broth with Marrow Dumplings and Rhine Salmon a la Graf Zeppelin” as an example of a typical Hindenburg meal. The tables could alternatively be arranged in banquet style The tables could alternatively be arranged in banquet style If you had a European palate, the food probably tasted delicious. Airplane food sucks because the high altitudes deaden our taste buds. But the Hindenburg flew just 330 to 650 feet off of the ground! The passenger areas were not pressurized (except for a single room, we’ll get to that in a moment) and you could even open the windows. Those windows were on the promenades locating on the port and starboard sides, inbound of which were a lounge and the dining room. The lounge even contained a grand piano, made from aluminum to save weight. The lounge The lounge Downside of being in the lounge: Portrait of Hitler on the wall Although weight was spared wherever possible–you’ll note further down that they’re using ladders perforated with holes–it wasn’t to keep the blimp in the air, it was presumably so that they could haul more cargo. The lifting capacity of the blimp was such that they could even transport cars. The kitchen was downstairs, and all heat sources were electric. Food was shuttled upstairs by a dumbwaiter that led to a pantry off of the dining room. The passenger cabins were pretty tight and utilitarian, featuring two bunks, like in the sleeper compartment of a train. Each room did, however, have its own sink with both hot and cold running water. The toilets and a shower were downstairs, as was the bar. Yes, you could booze on this baby. The bar The bar Beyond the bar was a two-door airlock that led to the single pressurized room. This was, incredibly, a smoking room where you could puff on cigarettes, cigars or pipes–while riding in something that was kept aloft by 5, 000, 000 cubic feet of highly flammable hydrogen. The room was pressurized so that hydrogen could not enter it. Even still, the lighters provided were electric, as they didn’t want to risk open flame. The smoking room The smoking room The smoking room The Hindenburg’s operators were experimenting with a very cool feature: They rigged up a trapeze-like aircraft hook-on point. The idea was that as they approached their destination, customs officials would fly out to them, board, and process the passengers in the air, so that the passengers wouldn’t have to wait to do it on the ground. Two experiments with the aircraft hook-up, in March and April of 1937, ran into problems with turbulence. Then, before they had a chance to iron those kinks out, this happened in May: The ship was carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew members; what’s amazing is that 23 passengers and 39 crew members actually survived that. To this day, no one knows precisely what caused the initial explosion. The Hindenburg Disaster, as it came to be known, put an end to the era of blimp passenger flights. But for a short while you could cruise a couple of hundred feet above the Atlantic Ocean at 80 miles per hour, chowing down on marrow dumplings and salmon. See Also: What You Didn’t Know About Dirigibles

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First Class Travel, 1930s-Style: What Were the Interiors/Floorplan Like Inside the Hindenburg?

America’s newest aircraft carrier uses “digital” catapult on fighter for first time

Enlarge / An F/A-18 flies above the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) as its pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Jaime Struck, prepares for the first arrested landing aboard the new carrier on July 28. (credit: US Navy ) Last week, an F/A-18F Super Hornet from the US Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 successfully landed and then took off from the recently commissioned USS Gerald R. Ford —the first full use of the ship’s next-generation flight arresting system and electromagnetic catapult. The landing and launch off the Virginia coast are a pair of major milestones for the systems, which have seen their share of controversy (and cost overruns). But the test doesn’t close the book on the catapult’s problems. The catapult, called the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), has suffered from control problems that have prevented the Navy from certifying it for use with fully loaded strike aircraft. Earlier launches at a test site at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, in April of 2014 caused a high level of vibration in the wings of F/A-18s loaded with 480-gallon wing-mounted fuel tanks—the configuration commonly used to launch aircraft on long-range strike missions. The vibrations were so strong that Navy officials were concerned about the safety of launching aircraft fully loaded. US Navy Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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America’s newest aircraft carrier uses “digital” catapult on fighter for first time

All-Electric ‘Flying Car’ Takes Its First Test Flight In Germany

Today, Munich-based Lilium Aviation conducted the first test flight of its all-electric, two-seater, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype. “In a video provided by the Munich-based startup, the aircraft can be seen taking off vertically like a helicopter, and then accelerating into forward flight using wing-borne lift, ” reports The Verge. From the report: The craft is powered by 36 separate jet engines mounted on its 10-meter long wings via 12 movable flaps. At take-off, the flaps are pointed downwards to provide vertical lift. And once airborne, the flaps gradually tilt into a horizontal position, providing forward thrust. During the tests, the jet was piloted remotely, but its operators say their first manned flight is close-at-hand. And Lilium claims that its electric battery “consumes around 90 percent less energy than drone-style aircraft, ” enabling the aircraft to achieve a range of 300 kilometers (183 miles) with a maximum cruising speed of 300 kph (183 mph). “It’s the same battery that you can find in any Tesla, ” Nathen told The Verge. “The concept is that we are lifting with our wings as soon as we progress into the air with velocity, which makes our airplane very efficient. Compared to other flights, we have extremely low power consumption.” The plan is to eventually build a 5-passenger version of the jet. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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All-Electric ‘Flying Car’ Takes Its First Test Flight In Germany

Why Intel Insists Rumors Of The Demise Of Moore’s Law Are Greatly Exaggerated

From an article on FastCompany: Intel hasn’t lost its zeal for big leaps in computing, even as it changes the way it introduces new chips, and branches beyond the PC processor into other areas like computer vision and the internet of things. “Number one, too many people have been writing about the end of Moore’s law, and we have to correct that misimpression, ” Mark Bohr, Intel’s technology and manufacturing group senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration, says in an interview. “And number two, Intel has developed some pretty compelling technologies … that not only prove that Moore’s law is still alive, but that it’s going to continue to provide the best benefits of density, cost performance, and power.” But while Moore’s law soldiers on, it’s no longer associated with the types of performance gains Intel was making 10 to 20 years ago. The practical benefits of Moore’s law are not what they used to be. For each new generation of microprocessor, Intel used to adhere to a two-step cycle, called the “tick-tock.” The “tick” is where Moore’s law takes effect, using a new manufacturing process to shrink the size of each transistor and pack more of them onto a chip. The subsequent “tock” introduces a new microarchitecture, which yields further performance improvements by optimizing how the chip carries out instructions. Intel would typically go through this cycle once every two years. But in recent years, shrinking the size of transistors has become more challenging, and in 2016, Intel made a major change. The latest 14 nm process added a third “optimization” step after the architectural change, with modest performance improvements and new features such as 4K HDR video support. And in January, Intel said it would add a fourth optimization step, stretching the cycle out even further. The move to a 10 nm process won’t happen until the second half of 2017, three years after the last “tick, ” and Intel expects the new four-step process to repeat itself. This “hyper scaling” allows computing power to continue to increase while needing fewer changes in the manufacturing process. If you divide the number of transistors in Intel’s current tick by the surface area of two common logic cells, the rate of improvement still equals out to more than double every two years, keeping Moore’s law on track. “Yes, they’ve taken longer, but we’ve taken bigger steps, ” Bohr said during his three-hour presentation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Why Intel Insists Rumors Of The Demise Of Moore’s Law Are Greatly Exaggerated

17-Year-Old Corrects NASA Mistake In Data From The ISS

“A British teenager has contacted scientists at NASA to point out an error in a set of their own data, ” writes the BBC. An anonymous reader quotes their report. A-level student Miles Soloman found that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were recording false data… The correction was said to be “appreciated” by NASA, which invited him to help analyse the problem… The research was part of the TimPix project from the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS), which gives students across the UK the chance to work on data from the space station, looking for anomalies and patterns that might lead to further discoveries. What Miles had noticed was that when nothing hit the detector, a negative reading was being recorded. But you cannot get negative energy… It turned out that Miles had noticed something no-one else had — including the NASA experts. NASA said it was aware of the error, but believed it was only happening once or twice a year. Miles had found it was actually happening multiple times a day. There’s a video of the student — and his teacher — describing the discovery, a story which Miles says his friends at high school listen to with “a mixture of jealousy and boredom” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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17-Year-Old Corrects NASA Mistake In Data From The ISS

American Farmers Are Turning To Ukraine To Hack Into Their Own Tractors: Report

Modern John Deere tractors are outfitted with dozens of sensors and computers, many of which cannot be serviced by owners because of a stupid licensing agreement John Deere forces upon its customers. Since farmers have neither the time nor money to waste on a technician’s visit, some are taking matters into their own… Read more…

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American Farmers Are Turning To Ukraine To Hack Into Their Own Tractors: Report

US Navy decommissions the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

It’s the end of an era for the US sea power, in more ways than one: the Navy has decommissioned the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The vessel launched in 1961 and is mainly known for playing a pivotal role in several major incidents and conflicts, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the 2003 Iraq War. However, it also served as the quintessential showcase for what nuclear ships could do. Its eight reactors let it run for years at a time, all the while making more room for the aircraft and their fuel. As you might guess, the decommissioning process (which started when the Enterprise went inactive in 2012) is considerably trickier than it would be for a conventional warship. It wasn’t until December 2016 that crews finished extracting nuclear fuel, and the ship will have to be partly dismantled to remove the reactors. They’ll be disposed of relatively safely at Hanford Site, home of the world’s first plutonium reactor. It’s hard to know what the long-term environmental impact of the ship will be — while there’s no question that the radioactive material is dangerous, this isn’t the same as shutting down a land-based nuclear power plant . Whatever you think of the tech, the ship leaves a long legacy on top of its military accomplishments. It proved the viability of nuclear aircraft carriers, leading the US to build the largest such fleet in the world. Also, this definitely isn’t the last ( real-world ) ship to bear the Enterprise name — the future CVN-80 will build on its predecessor with both more efficient reactors and systems designed for modern combat, where drones and stealth are as important as fighters and bombers. It won’t be ready until 2027, but it should reflect many of the lessons learned over the outgoing Enterprise’s 55 years of service. Source: US Navy

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US Navy decommissions the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Solar Impulse 2 completes its flight across the Pacific

After months of delays and days of flying , Solar Impulse 2 has finished crossing the Pacific . The sunlight-powered aircraft arrived in San Francisco Bay on the night of April 23rd, with an expected touchdown at Moffett Field (as of this writing) around 3AM Eastern on the 24th. This isn’t the toughest stint to date (that honor goes to the 5, 061-mile trip from Japan to Hawaii), but it was no mean feat. Pilot Bertrand Piccard had to travel 2, 717 miles between Hawaii and San Francisco, with only short naps allowed during the 3-day expedition. As daunting as this and the eight previous legs of the trip have been, the tough part isn’t over yet. While flying over the US will be a relative cakewalk (Solar Impulse 2 should reach New York by early June), the aircraft will then have to travel 3, 566 miles to Europe. That’s a straight 5 days in the air, folks. After that, the plane will complete its around-the-world mission by heading to Abu Dhabi. This hasn’t been the quickest adventure given that the aircraft took off back in March 2015. However, speed isn’t really the point. Solar Impulse 2 and its namesake technology are meant to show that green energy can accomplish as spectacular a feat as flying across the planet. If the flight encourages anyone to embrace clean power, it accomplishes its goal. Source: Solar Impulse , YouTube

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Solar Impulse 2 completes its flight across the Pacific