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[iuli]

'Son of Blackbird': Plan for a new spy plane

For a big chunk of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force turned to the SR-71 Blackbird for many of its most important spy missions. The jet-black jet could fly at more than three times the speed of sound at altitudes of 85,000 feet, faster and higher than anything adversaries had to counter it.
The last of the Blackbirds flew in 1999, and the U.S. military hasn't had anything close since.
Now, Lockheed-Martin, the maker of the SR-71, says the "Son of the Blackbird," the SR-72, is in the works, and it will be twice as fast as and way more lethal than its father. That's because the SR-72 will be designed to launch missiles, something the SR-71 didn't do.
"Even with the SR-71, at Mach 3, there was still time to notify that the plane was coming, but at Mach 6, there is no reaction time to hide a mobile target," Brad Leland, Lockheed Martin's program manager for hypersonics, told Aviation Week and Space Technology. The publication provided the first detailed look at the SR-72 plans last week.
Navy launches new stealth destroyer
"Hypersonic aircraft, coupled with hypersonic missiles, could penetrate denied airspace and strike at nearly any location across a continent in less than an hour," Leland said in a news release.
And, by the way, the SR-72 is envisioned as a drone, unlike the original Blackbird with its crew of two: a pilot and a reconnaissance officer to operate its radar jammers and spy gear.
"The SR-71 was developed using 20th-century technology. It was envisioned with slide rules and paper. It wasn't managed by millions of lines of software code. And it wasn't powered by computer chips. All that changes with the SR-72," Lockheed Martin says.
A smaller-scale model of the SR-72 could begin testing in five years and be in the air in 10, Leland told Aviation Week.
The full-scale SR-72 could be operational by 2030, according to Lockheed Martin.
If it comes to fruition, one thing the SR-72 won't be is stealthy. The design needed for the Mach 6 speed doesn't allow for such construction, according to the Aviation Week report.
"Speed is the new stealth," Aviation Week quoted Al Romig, engineering and advanced systems vice president at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division, as saying.
"Speed is the next aviation advancement to counter emerging threats in the next several decades. The technology would be a game-changer in theater, similar to how stealth is changing the battle space today," Leland said in the statement.
Of course, none of this will fly without money, and that will probably be up to taxpayers.
"We have been continuing to invest company funds, and we are kind of at a point where the next steps would require large-scale testing, which would significantly increase the level of investment we've had to make to-date," Leland told Aviation Week. "Between DARPA (Defense Advanced Products Research Agency) and the Air Force, it would be highly likely they'd have to fund the next steps."

sursa

[Ionut]

Voyager. Trebuie sa zic mai mult?



sursa: Mashable

[Gyn]

Mai jos avionul pe care-l am la avatar:
Un avion special pentru supraveghere aeriana si la sol capabil de misiuni tip centru de comanda, callsign NATO 07, BOEING E3A Sentry, NATO, reg. LX-N90451, alitudine 10.000m.
Aeronava apartine misiunii "NATO Reassurance measures" si zboara de la baza Geilenkirchen din Germania spre zona de Nord a judetului Constanta, unde timp de cateva ore supravegheaza spatiul aerian Ukrainean.
Poza este facuta la cativa km Vest de Cluj.

[iuli]

Google's Solar-Fueled Cyber Drone Crashes in New Mexico Test

A prototype of the massive solar-powered drone Google Inc. plans to build as a platform for delivering Internet service from the sky was destroyed in a crash at a New Mexico test site.
The unmanned Solara 50 fell to the ground shortly after takeoff on May 1 and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, Keith Holloway, an agency spokesman, said in an interview. The accident occurred at a private airstrip east of Albuquerque and no one was injured, he said.

The crash is a setback for Google's high-altitude vision of how to bring Internet access to areas of the world without sufficient infrastructure on the ground. Titan Aerospace, the company Google bought last year for undisclosed terms, built the drone, which its promotional material says has a wingspan of 50 meters (164 feet). It is supposed to fly above the weather, where it could then beam Internet signals to earth as if it was a satellite.

"Although our prototype plane went down during a recent test, we remain optimistic about the potential of solar-powered planes to help deliver connectivity," Courtney Hohne, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google, said in an interview. "Part of building a new technology is overcoming hurdles along the way."
The company is in a race with Facebook Inc., which also attempted to buy Titan, a company headed by former Microsoft Corp. executive Vern Raburn. Facebook instead acquired U.K.- based Ascenta, which is designing its own high-altitude drones, for $20 million.

The acquisitions are part of a broader strategy by the two Internet companies of pushing technology in areas such as robotics and mobile phones in hopes of pioneering new markets.

Thin Wings
The upper surface of the wing on Google's Solara 50 is covered in solar cells to generate power, according to company data. It's designed with batteries that store electricity so it can continue flying at night and stay aloft for five years.

The drone Google intends to use in providing Internet service will be larger and capable of carrying heavier payloads than the model that crashed.

Titan has also flown a smaller version, the Solara 10, according to a company video. The planes are built with a thin fuselage and relatively long, curving wings that allow them to fly through thin air as high as 65,000 feet (19,812 meters). For comparison, airlines mostly cruise between 30,000 feet and 40,000 feet.

While the Google Solara crash wasn't a threat to people on the ground, U.S. regulations require the NTSB to investigate accidents of drones weighing more than 300 pounds, Holloway said. The agency hasn't set a date for when it will release a more detailed report on the accident and its cause, he said.

FAA Interest
The NTSB hasn't yet posted a preliminary report about the incident on its website listing aviation accidents under investigation.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates aviation and had registered Google's aircraft, is also monitoring the investigation, according to an agency statement.

Google's Titan subsidiary had registered three Solara 50 drones with the FAA, including the one that crashed. The FAA allows companies to register experimental and test aircraft, and also has a process to approve unmanned flights by manufacturers.

Sursa: Bloomberg

[infraAdi_ro]

Avionul lui Trump

"Ies la iveală noi imagini de senzație una dintre 'perlele' noului președinte al SUA, Donald Trump. Cunoscut pentru excentricitățile sale, noul șef de la Casa Albă șochează din nou. Una dintre apropiatele lui Trump a oferit un tur al avionului privat al acestuia, numit ,,T-Bird". Aparatul de zbor este un Boeing 757-200 cumpărat în 2011. Acesta include un dormitor cu lenjerie din mătase naturală şi un cinematograf, iar multe dintre ornamentele interioare (cataramele centurilor de siguranţă, chiuveta din baie) sunt placate cu aur de 24K. În dormitor pernele şi cuvertura sunt brodate cu sigla familiei Trump.
O oră de zbor cu T-Bird costă aproximativ 11.000 de dolari. Trump a cumpărat avionul, care i-a aparţinut co-fondatorului Microsoft Paul Allen, pentru aproximativ 100 milioane de dolari. Aeronava a primit mai multe îmbunătăţiri şi include tehnologie de ultimă generaţie. Fiecare scaun din avion are propriul ecran TV, iar în camera de oaspeţi a fost instalat un sistem home cinema care include o bibliotecă de 2.500 de filme.
Avionul a zburat prima dată în mai 1991 şi aparţinea atunci companiei daneze low-cost Sterling Airlines, care între timp a dispărut. Peste câţiva ani a intrat în posesia companiei mexicane TAESA, care este de asemenea defunctă în acest moment. În 1995 a intrat în posesia lui Allen. Când Trump a cumpărat avionul, acesta avea deja 20 de ani. Înainte de acest model, Trump a deţinut un Boeing 727 construit în 1969, conform go4it.ro.

http://www.stiripesurse.ro/imagini-de-senza-ie-cu-perla-lui-donald-trump-cu-ce-se-plimba-pre-edintele-sua-video_1163452.html

[Ionut]

Compania spaţială a miliardarului Paul Allen, Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, va fi închisă – surse



Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, compania spaţială fondată de co-fondatorul Microsoft, miliardarul Paul Allen, care între timp a decedat, se va închide, renunţând la ambiţia de a concura companiile aerospaţiale tradiţionale în noua cursă spaţială, au declarat patru persoane apropiate situaţiei, transmite Reuters. Compania, divizie a vehicului de investiţii Vulcan al lui Allen, a dezvoltat un portofoliu de vehicule de lansare, inclusiv cel mai mare avion din lume în funcţie de anvergura aripilor, pentru lansarea de sateliţi şi eventual a oamenilor în spaţiu.

Povestea pe News.ro

[Harry]

Sper ca e locul corect.

The 18-story-high weather balloon above was photographed in 1954 while taking off from the University of Minnestoa airport, having the target altitude of 22 miles. The "Super Skyhook" was made by General Mills of polyethylene film, a plastic used by housewives for wrapping carrots. One-third helium-inflated, her 3.2 million cubic feet expanded as she rose, carrying Navy instruments to study cosmic rays. After 13 hours she floated down in pieces, having safely parachuted her instruments and their data.