by Phil
9. March 2010 07:32
I recently had an opportunity to inspect a MQ-1 Predator up close at United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. It was very different from the other aircraft in the collection. Starting in the early flight gallery, you notice that the aircraft grow increasingly complex as time passes. Until you get to the Predator which is amazingly simple. In fact, it seems like an overgrown remote control model- except that the Predator is lethal.
In the past, the risk of pilot losses has limited our deployment of airpower. The Predator allows us to deploy air assets without that risk.
The question has been posed by others but bears repeating. Will airpower without consequences lead us to a dangerous place?
And what happens when someone uses these weapons against us?
by Phil
8. March 2010 08:16
Here are photos from my visit last week.
by Phil
2. March 2010 09:26
...Want the ultimate space collectible? Consider a space shuttle. The orbiters have flown 29 years and have a few miles on them (tens of millions), but soon all three will be up for grabs.
Some time this year—right now it looks like September 30—NASA plans to shut down the program. For all the shuttle’s successes in missions like deploying satellites, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station, flying it was always risky. Two orbiters were lost, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, killing 14 astronauts. Now NASA says it will donate the ones remaining— Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour—to whoever it feels can provide the best homes. In 2008, the agency issued a Request for Information, and21 institutions entered the competition. NASA won’t say when it will ask for formal proposals or identify the candidates, but some have declared themselves, apparently feeling that if you want a national treasure, you shouldn’t be shy about saying so.
Full Article
I'm hoping that National Museum of the USAF (formerly the USAF Museum) in Dayton snags one of the shuttle when they are retired. The NMUSAF is one the nation's premier aviation museums and a space shuttle would be a great addition to their collection which already includes many one of a kind artifacts.
by Phil
1. March 2010 08:59
The open source flight simulator project has just released Flightgear 2.0.
...FlightGear is a free flight simulator project. It is being developed through the gracious contributions of source code and spare time by many talented people from around the globe. Among the many goals of this project are the quest to minimize short cuts and "do things right", the quest to learn and advance knowledge, and the quest to have better toys to play with.
The idea for Flight Gear was born out of a dissatisfaction with current commercial PC flight simulators. A big problem with these simulators is their proprietariness and lack of extensibility. There are so many people across the world with great ideas for enhancing the currently available simulators who have the ability to write code, and who have a desire to learn and contribute. Many people involved in education and research could use a spiffy flight simulator frame work on which to build their own projects; however, commercial simulators do not lend themselves to modification and enhancement. The Flight Gear project is striving to fill these gaps.
It looks great and the price is right so check it out!
FlightGear Web Siite
by Phil
28. February 2010 08:14
...Jim Tuttle, the Department of Homeland Security official responsible for safeguarding America against nonnuclear weapons, downplays the idea that drones could be used against us. "What terrorist is going to have a Predator?" he scoffed at a conference last winter.
P.W Singer writes in Newsweek that the DoD is currently unprepared for the possibility that drones could be used against us. And he's completely correct. While it may be true that we're unlikely to see a sophisticated drone like a predator or global hawk attacking the United States in the near future, small drones that are scaled up versions of current remote control (RC) aircraft could be built and deployed in a terror attack.
While many people consider RC aircraft toys, some versions are incredibly sophisticated. Consider the hexacopter.
This RC aircraft is capable of carrying multiple payloads and uses GPS navigation to fly to pre-determined locations.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how an aircraft like this could be used. But the genie is out of the bottle technology-wise. This capability exists and just like there's no practical way to ban automobiles that could be loaded with fertilizer rigged to explode, banning RC technology would be prove futile.
Prevention efforts need to focus on identifying the groups who would benefit from weaponizing this technology. And not assuming that just because the drone isn't as large and sophisticated as a predator that we are safe.
by Phil
27. February 2010 09:54
Kalinin K-7 (Russian: Калинин К-7) was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. K-7 was of unusual configuration with twin booms and large underwing pods housing fixed landing gear and machine gun turrets. In the passenger version, seats were arranged inside the 2.3 meter (7 ft 7 in) thick wings. The airframe was welded from KhMA chrome-molybdenum steel. The original design called for six engines in the wing leading edge but when the projected loaded weight 2 more engines were added. The only prototype crashed during a test flight.
by Phil
26. February 2010 09:49
by Phil
25. February 2010 09:15
by Phil
24. February 2010 08:59
by Phil
23. February 2010 08:54
NASA has produced a cool, free, lunar rover game for the iPhone.
Get it Here