A French nuclear submarine has joined the search for the “black box” of Air France Flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic last week with all of its 228 passengers. The “black box” is actually an orange cylinder — about 13 pounds of metal wrapped around a stack of memory chips and designed to withstand the force of being slammed high-speed into a brick wall. Actually a pair of devices — the flight data recorder and a voice and audio recorder — the equipment records virtually everything about how an airplane is working [CNN].
Aviation experts hope that the black box, if it can be located on the seafloor, will provide an explanation for what went wrong on the flight, which vanished so mysteriously. On board the French sub, the Emeraude, crewmen called “golden ears” were straining to pick up in their headsets the acoustic pings aircraft black boxes are supposed to transmit for 30 days under water. Nothing is better equipped for such faint sounds than an attack submarine with sophisticated sonar gear for detecting vessels deep in the ocean, naval officers said [Times Online].
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Cyber spies have hacked into computers containing information about the U.S. Defense Department’s most expensive weapons program ever: the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter, a fighter jet also known as F35 Lightning II. The intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft. The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together [The Wall Street Journal].
U.S. officials reportedly traced the hackers back to China, but experts note that it’s extremely difficult to determine the real origin of an online attack, as paths can be disguised and identities masked. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China “opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes.” It called the Pentagon’s report “a product of the Cold War mentality” and said the allegations of cyber espionage are “intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations” [The Wall Street Journal].
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Researchers have learned the universal secret behind the graceful, aerial turns executed by everything from insects to cockatoos. And it’s a surprisingly simple process: To turn left, all a bird has to do is flap its right wing a little bit harder than the left wing. To end the turn, the bird simply returns to flapping its wings in unison [Discovery News]. Researchers hope to duplicate the simple set of motions to create more nimble and acrobatic flying robots.
Though the dynamics probably can’t work at large scales — building-sized robotic birds won’t ever be as agile as a swallow — they could be harnessed in small drones used by explorers or the military. Compared to the average hummingbird or fruit fly, such craft are now clumsy and unstable. “The results will inform all future research into maneuvering flight in animals and biomimetic flying robots” [Wired], wrote biomechanicist Bret Tobalske in a commentary.
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Looking like a cross between a Volkswagon Beetle and a small Cessna airplane, the closest thing yet to a flying car took to the skies earlier this month. The startup company Terrafugia just announced that its “roadable aircraft” performed a successful maiden flight. The vehicle is officially considered a light sport aircraft, but on the ground its wings fold up in 30 seconds allowing for a seamless transition from sky to land. Hence the vehicle’s name: Transition.
The maiden flight was short — just 37 seconds — and right over the runway, but as Anna Mracek Dietrich, a Terrafugia co-founder and its chief operating officer, pointed out, flying wasn’t the key goal. “The first flight is great, but first landing is what matters,” she [said]. That apparently went well too, according to Phil Mateer, a retired Air Force test pilot who took the wheel for Transition’s debut flight…. “The flight was remarkably unremarkable,” Mateer said [Discovery News].
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“Flying while Muslim” is the new “driving while black”, according to air travellers who believe they are being targeted for extra security measures on the basis of racial and religious profiling [New Scientist]. The Transportation Security Administration is mum on whether they use racial profiling in deciding who to pull out of line at airport security, and also won’t give details as to whether it scrutinizes air travelers’ behavior (like when and how they bought their tickets, or whether they have checked luggage). But a new mathematical study suggests that any such profiling is not the most effective way to find a terrorist lurking in a crowd of ordinary people.
At first glance, the profiling approach seems logical, despite many people’s moral objections. If all previous acts of politically motivated terrorism have been committed by a particular nationality, then doesn’t it make sense to focus searches on those groups? Not necessarily, says William Press of the University of Texas at Austin. Do the maths and you discover that a simple-minded application of these actuarial methods is worthless: all you end up doing is repeatedly picking out the same innocent people [Nature News].
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In a preview of possible high-tech battles to come, Boeing has announced the successful test of a laser weapon designed to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Robotic spy and combat planes are a hot field of military research because their use doesn’t endanger pilots, and because they can be smaller and harder to detect than conventional planes. But Boeing vice-president Gary Fitzmire argues that the military should be investing not just in UAVs, but also in devices that can destroy them. “Small UAVs armed with explosives or equipped with surveillance sensors are a growing threat on the battlefield,” he insists. “Laser Avenger, unlike a conventional weapon, can fire its laser beam without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would reveal its position. As a result, Laser Avenger can neutralize these UAV threats while keeping our troops safe” [The Register].
The weapon was tested at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where the Laser Avenger tracked three UAVs flying “against a complex background of mountains and desert”, shooting down one of the UAVs [Gizmodo]. The device got its sci-fi tinged name because it’s a modified version of the Army’s existing Avenger air defense system, which had two missile launchers mounted on a Humvee. To build the Laser Avenger, Boeing swapped its ray gun and a target tracker for one of those missile launchers.
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In another step forward for biofuels, a commercial jet took to the skies yesterday over New Zealand to test a new jet fuel blend that uses oil from the oily jatropha plant. Air New Zealand announced that a Boeing 747 plane flew for about two hours yesterday, running on a 50/50 blend of conventional jet fuel and biofuel. Jatropha—a weedy bush from Africa that produces seeds rich in oil—was selected because it is not a food crop and can be grown on land unsuitable for food production. The roughly three tons of liquid jatropha biofuel came from plants grown in India, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, the airline says [Scientific American].
Air New Zealand is the second airline to test-fly a jet plane powered by biofuel. The first was Virgin Atlantic Airways, which in February flew a Boeing 747-400 from London to Amsterdam with one of its four tanks filled with jet fuel containing a 20 percent blend of biofuel made of coconut and babbasu oil [Greentech Media]. Meanwhile, other airlines are developing jet fuels derived from algae or oilseed plants: Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines both have test flights scheduled for January.
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A thin nanotech paper that’s being developed in a Florida lab could revolutionize everything from aviation to laptop computers, researchers say. The super-strong “buckypaper” could be layered like papier-mâché to build lighter airplanes and cars, or it could be exposed to an electric charge and used to illuminate computer and television screens–and those are just the most obvious applications, researchers say.
Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass. “All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails,” said [nanotech expert] Wade Adams [AP].
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Engineers have designed a robotic spy plane that is modeled on the pterodactyls that swooped through the sky between 228 million to 65 million years ago, while dinosaurs tromped over the land below. Perhaps unsurprisingly, researchers say that their prototype is the first aircraft inspired by a pterosaur (the broader scientific name for all winged lizards).
Paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee partnered with engineer Rick Lind to design their “Pterodrone;” the two men say the work was driven in part by their admiration for the vesatility of pterosaurs. With lightweight bones and an intricate system of collagen fibers that strengthened their wings, [pterosaurs] ranged from the size of a sparrow to the size of a Cessna plane. “These animals take the best parts of bats and birds. They had the maneuverability of a bat but could glide like an albatross. Nothing alive today compares to the performance and agility of these animals” Chatterjee said [AP].
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Look, up in the sky: It’s a biofuel-powered jet! It’s a hydrogen-powered plane! In fact, you can expect to see both of these alternative energy aircraft in the sky in coming years. The aviation industry is rushing to innovate as fuel prices continue to take their toll and as the public questions the impact air travel has on climate change.
In North Dakota, an engineering team working with DARPA has created a soybean and canola oil biofuel for jets that they say is indistinguishable from conventional jet fuel, with a similar density and freezing point. The research team is currently in the process of producing 25 gallons (95 liters) of the bio–jet fuel for ground testing in a jet engine as early as next month. “The thing that needs to happen is a purchase order to come through from the Air Force so we can get [the] investment to build that first plant,” [engineer Chad] Wocken says. “We could get a plant operational in two to five years if there were a commitment to buy the fuel” [Scientific American].
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A green technology company has created a jet fuel from algae and announced yesterday that the new product meets vigorous aviation standards. The California-based company, Solazyme, said it’s near to creating cost-competitive fuels: “The end goal is to be at or less than the cost of fossil fuel and my best guess is we’ll be at that point within 24 to 36 months,” Jonathan Wolfson, the company’s chief executive, said [Reuters]. The company’s technology uses genetically modified algae, which convert the cellulose from materials like wood chips, switchgrass, or sawdust into oil.
Solazyme had its new fuel tested by an independent company to ensure that its product has the same density, thickness, and freezing point as conventional jet fuels. “This is not like conventional biodiesel, where you can take french fry grease from McDonald’s and turn it into oil in your garage,” said [company president] Harrison Dillon…. “Planes will fall out of the sky if you don’t have a high-quality fuel that meets strict standards. … What Solazyme has done is demonstrate the first-ever manufacture of high-quality jet fuel from algae” [San Francisco Chronicle].
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Small helicopters have learned to fly themselves through challenging aeronautic routines with an “apprenticeship” to an expert radio control pilot, researchers say. The clever robots were first steered through the maneuvers several times by the pilot while the helicopters’ computers recorded every movement; then the computers used an algorithm to determine the “ideal trajectory” that the pilot was aiming for on each loop or flip, and replicated those motions when they set off on their own into the wild blue yonder.
Researchers say the helicopters’ self-taught skills are particularly impressive due to difficulty of flying helicopters and their nature to always tend to an unstable state. “The helicopter doesn’t want to fly. It always wants to just tip over and crash,” said Garrett Oku, the pilot [TG Daily]. Because helicopters have to constantly adjust to changing wind currents, the inventors couldn’t simply program them to fly a set routine.
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An unmanned, solar-powered plane has unofficially broken the record for the longest uninterrupted flight, staying aloft for 82 hours and 37 minutes; it flew through the nights by drawing energy from batteries that it recharged during the day. Engineers for the high-tech aircraft, the Zephyr, say that the three-day flight is just the beginning of what it can do. [T]he aircraft’s designers, at the defence firm QinetiQ, in the UK, think the plane could fly indefinitely. “We think the aircraft, in future, will be capable of weeks or months duration,” said Paul Davey [Guardian].
The flight was a demonstration for the U.S. military, which is interested in using the craft for reconnaissance and battlefield communications. But the Zephyr didn’t officially break the record for the longest flight because representatives from the world air sports federation weren’t on hand to observe the feat. The flight beats the current official world record [for an uncrewed flight] of 30 hours, 24 minutes set by the US robot plane Global Hawk in 2001 [Telegraph].
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Airfare prices are soaring, and airlines have tried to cope by charging for food, drinks, and other formerly free items. But there’s one bright spot on the horizon: Passengers may soon be able to access the Net during flights—although you’ll have to pay for that, too.
Delta Airlines says it will beginning offering Internet access on some flights beginning as early as October, and plans to outfit the entire domestic fleet with Web capability by next summer. Fliers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices like laptops, smartphones and personal digital assistants will be able to access the Internet while in flight. The service will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on longer flights [The New York Times].
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The jatropha plant has traditionally been considered a weed, and it sure grows like one–it can thrive in marginal soil, requires very little water, and needs no fertilizers or pesticides. But it’s currently one of the most hyped and desired weeds on the planet, as governments and companies all clamor over its potential as a renewable energy source.
Attention focuses on the shrub’s poisonous seeds, which are about 40 percent oil. New Zealand’s biggest airline became jatropha’s latest champion yesterday when it announced its intention of processing the seed oil into diesel fuel for its jumbo jets.
Air New Zealand is hoping for a test flight in August or September, when it would fill one of the four engines of a 747 with the weed-derived fuel. Eventually, the company wants to get 10 percent of its total fuel from jatropha.
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