Orbit 17 +++ Space and beyond
galaxies, science, exploration, astronomy (blog)
Aircraft
US Drone attacks kill 13 in North Waziristan, Islamabad – loc8id.com/71vX2t
Dec 27th
Eight more bodies have been recovered from a house where spying US Drone carried out strikes on a suspected position of terrorists on Saturday.
Last day five bodies were recovered but eight more bodies have been found from the rubbles on Sunday. The death toll reaches at 13. The attacks were carried out in village Seedgi, near Miram Shah. Sources also informed that three people were injured.
The suspected US Drone attacks have killed at least seven people in North Waziristan, sources told SAMAA on Friday (December 18).
SAMAA learnt that three missiles were fired over a village, Paikhel, some 30 km away from Miranshah where at least seven people were killed on the spot while five others injured, sources added.
NASA crashes MD-500 helicopter to test new shield for cars
Dec 26th
NASA has intentionally crashed a 3,000-pound MD-500 helicopter loaded with dummies to test a new safety shield, which could someday be used to make the cars we drive safer.
According to a report in Discovery News, the small helicopter, donated by the US Army for NASA’s research program, survived a 35-foot plunge to the ground intact, thanks to a lightweight honeycomb structure that bore the brunt of the impact.
The honeycomb shield, made of Kevlar 129 – the same material used to make bulletproof vests – was attached to the underside of a 3,000-pound MD-500 helicopter at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
The shields can be made of any material, as it is the structure of the honeycomb that provides the strength and flexibility to cushion the impact.
“The beauty of the honeycomb is that it will allow you to customize,” said project engineer Sotiris Kellas.
“We like composites because we have more options for tailoring, but they can be made out of any material you want,” he added.
For the test, which took place earlier this month, the craft was suspended in the air with cables. Restraints were released, allowing the helicopter to fall, and just before it hit the ground, explosive devices fired to break the cable.
Detroit: British student in al-Qaeda airline bomb attempt
Dec 26th
Detroit: UK student in al-Qaeda airline bomb attempt Credit: Reuters
The 23-year-old attempted to ignite an explosive device strapped to his leg as a Northwest Airlines flight carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew came in to land in Detroit, according to US security officials.
He suffered second degree burns before being overpowered by other passengers including one who jumped on him and was also burned.
Mutallab, whom US security sources said was a student at University College London, claimed to have picked up his device in Yemen and to be an agent of al-Qaeda.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and that stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. It did not specify what those were.
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.
How to survive a plane crash – well, a plane that slid off a runway while landing in torrential rain in Jamaica
Dec 26th
An American Airlines flight carrying 154 passengers slid off a runway while landing in torrential rain in Jamaica, Tuesday. Credit: CNN
On Tuesday, an American Airlines flight carrying 154 passengers slid off a runway while landing in torrential rain in Jamaica, stopping just short of the Caribbean Sea. The impact severely damaged the aircraft — which broke into three separate pieces — and caused the Boeing 737’s engines to shear off the wings. Thankfully, there were no fatalities; 91 people were taken to hospitals where they were evaluated and most were released.
On Wednesday, a Ryanair flight skidded off the runway in Scotland, coming to a stop 30 yards from a busy road. Amazingly, there were no injuries.
These incidents bring to mind a series of high-profile commercial aviation accidents that occurred earlier this year.
In January, the world watched in awe of the U.S. Airways “Miracle on the Hudson.” In February, the nation mourned the fatal crash of a Continental Airlines flight over Buffalo and took note of a Turkish Airlines crash in Amsterdam where nine were killed and dozens more injured.
Army unmanned aircraft operators see their next-generation aircraft being built
Dec 25th
Soldiers who will soon take the controls of one of the Army’s most sophisticated unmanned aircraft recently visited with workers building the planes in California.
The Extended-Range/Multi-Purpose UAS is built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and is set to deploy with the Army operators next fall. In addition to collecting images and intelligence, the ER/MP will also pack a deadly punch: It can carry four laser-guided Hellfire missiles.
“We call it around here ‘the sexiest program in the Army,’ ” said Lt. Col. Kevin Messer, ER/MP product manager in the Army’s UAS Project Office on Redstone Arsenal.
The visit to General Atomics certainly wasn’t his first look at the aircraft – “I’ve got most of it memorized,” Messer said – but it was a rare experience for the group of men training to fly the ER/MP.
“Seldom does the Army soldier ever get an opportunity to go to a plant to see where their item is being built and what it’s all about and what it takes to build it,” he said. “They now see how it’s all put together. They can see the different skill sets needed to be able to build the airframe and the skill sets needed for all the electronics.”
Boeing 787 Dreamliner has new high tech features
Dec 21st
Dreamliner First Class seating Credit: Boeing Company
The successful test flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner this week marks not only the introduction of a next generation aircraft, but is also a technological milestone. For example, the aircraft makes extensive use of composite materials, making its airframe lighter, stronger, and more fuel efficient. But that’s just the start of many new innovations.
The larger, eye level windows have no sliding plastic shades for a reason. There is an electrostatic film sandwiched internally that can adjust the level of light which passes through them, individually controlled by passengers, as well as the flight crew. They act the same way as tinted windows, but with multiple levels of adjustment.
The maiden flight of Boeing’s 787 presages good things for the aircraft maker
Dec 21st
Boeing’s new 787 wide-body jetliner made its maiden flight on December 15. However, rollout of the aircraft has been dogged by a series of development delays, which will cost the company millions of dollars in compensation to customers. Getting the 787–Boeing’s main new contender in the key high-margin wide-body market segment and a platform for several new technologies–back on track is vital to securing the company’s future in its ferocious competition with Airbus.
Boeing’s 787 Takes Off – the new green machine
Dec 19th
For at least one post, Shifting Gears will become Lifting Gears. That’s because we’re going avi-a-shun for a few paragraphs, digressing from wheeled earthbound transport to talk about doings in the skies. Yesterday, Boeing’s new passenger jet, the 787, had its much-delayed maiden flight. Looks as if everything went a-ok. The 787, with its composite, carbon-fiber construction and more fuel-efficient engines, took off, cruised around for three hours, then landed.
Boeing has been developing the 787 “Dreamliner” for years, aiming to take market share from its main competitor, Airbus. The goal was to build an environmentally more sustainable aircraft, lighter, quieter, and capable of using 20 percent less fuel than current planes of its size (it can carry 200-300 passengers). In my experience, Boeing planes feel plusher and more solid during all aspects of flight, from takeoff, through ascent, to descent and landing. Airbuses always feel more jittery, yet they seem to maneuver more crisply in the air. Obviously, I’m no pilot, so what do I know, but I always think of Boeings as Cadillacs and Airbuses as BMWs or Mercedes.
December 17, 1903: Bicycle Brothers Make Aeroplane Work Wright
Dec 19th
1903: Orville Wright successfully makes a flight in a heavier-than-air machine that takes off from level ground under its own power and is controlled during flight. He flies the first airplane.
If it seems there are a few caveats to the Wright brothers’ achievement 106 years ago, it’s because there had been several people before them who had already managed to get aloft in some sort of device, including the brothers themselves. What the Wrights did was put it all together in a way that made the airplane workable.
A lighter-than-air flight was first made in a balloon in 1783. The first time a person ever flew in a heavier-than-air device is largely accepted to be 1849.
An unknown 10-year-old boy is thought to have sat as a passenger on board a glider designed and built by Sir George Cayley, who had been thinking about the challenge of flight for 50 years. The Englishman’s glider, however, had no controls and no engine, so the boy was indeed just a passenger during the single short hop that Cayley’s glider made that year.
Australia Gets New Waterbombing Aircraft To Fight Bushfires
Dec 19th
The largest aircraft to be trialled to fight fires in Australia’s history arrived in Victoria today and will be ready for deployment in a bushfire emergency from early January.
At Avalon Airport today, the Premier John Brumby, Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron and Victoria’s fire chiefs welcomed the new DC-10-30 aircraft on its arrival from the United States.
Mr Brumby said Victoria would be the first Australian state to trial the effectiveness of the large waterbombing plane in the firefighting effort.
“There has never been a greater effort to make our state as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible, with communities across Victoria putting in a massive effort to prepare,” Mr Brumby said.