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About us mission mars is an award winning multi concept operator based in the north west our mission is simple deliver world class food, drink and entertainment. In this 19-lesson, standards-aligned unit, students learn about mars, design a mission to explore the planet, build and test model spacecraft and components, and engage in scientific exploration the unit takes students through seven stages, including learning about the planet, planning the mission. Astronomers peering at mars in the 17th and 18th centuries saw signs of life everywhere seas continents canals that carried water to martian farms you spot none of these features as your spaceship deploys its parachutes for touchdown on this cold desert world—but then you never expected to. The mars missions flight is a classroom-based mars colonization simulation for fifth graders sponsored by the college of applied science and technology at weber state and the air force stem outreach program at hill air force base, it’s based on the challenger center for space science education’s acclaimed marsville, the cosmic village program, and has been modified to include air force.
The curiosity rover has taught us a lot about the history of mars and its potential to support life take a tour of its landing site, gale crater. Directed by nicholas webster with darren mcgavin, nick adams, george de vries, heather hewitt three american astronauts who land on mars discover the body of a frozen russian cosmonaut and a mysterious talking orb. Experience a virtual martian sunset, climb into a simulated orion capsule and feel the texture of rock cliffs inspired by the red planet in our brand-new interactive exhibit, mission mars, now open.
This week lockheed martin unveiled its proposal to have a manned laboratory orbiting mars within the next 12 years popular science's senior editor sophie bushwick joins cbs this morning. Online shopping from a great selection at movies & tv store. Mission mars is a multi-concept operator with a mission to deliver world-class food, drink & entertainment through innovation, people and sustainability. Brian de palma's mission to mars focuses on a manned mission to mars going awry in 2020 the dialogue is at times clunky, but visually the film is a treat (though some of the cgi from 2000 has not aged well.
If you like old sci-fi or cult movies , visit my blog forgotten universes - universos esquecidos at: ( use google. Educational toys designed to inspire with the latest learning toys, construction toys and more, your little ones can enjoy endless hours of imaginative play. My mission to mars was a pleasant adventure departing from today's incessant need to combine blood curling aliens with one's travels through space, mission to mars provides an intelligent ultimatum. Intrepid explorers looking to be the first to set foot on mars would face extremely high doses of radiation on the journey, according to esa’s exomars mission.
Mission to mars is a 2000 american science fiction adventure film directed by brian de palma from an original screenplay written by jim thomas, john thomas, and graham yostin 2020, a manned mars exploration mission goes awry american astronaut jim mcconnell (gary sinise) coordinates a rescue mission for a colleagueprincipal support actors were tim robbins, don cheadle, connie nielsen, jerry. A low-angle self-portrait of the curiosity rover on the surface of mars photograph: nasa american rocket engineers are being urged to push their next mars mission to the limits of technological. A human mission to mars has been the subject of science fiction, aerospace engineering, and scientific proposals since the 19th centurythe plans comprise proposals to land on mars, eventually settling on and terraforming the planet, while utilizing its moons, phobos and deimos the exploration of mars has been a goal of national space programs for decades.
Permanent settlement sending humans to mars is a phenomenal undertaking by all standards and presents very real risks and challenges establishing a permanent settlement is very complex, but it is far less complex and requires much less infrastructure sent to mars than return missions. About mission from mars connecting communities with a compassionate heart after reviewing the services of other organizations, mission from mars identified there was a need to provide a lunchtime meal on sundays on the northside. Nasa 'supersonic' parachute for mars mission sets world record nasa successfully tested a parachute which will assist with the agency's mission to mars in 2020. Mars one chief executive, bas lansdorp, left, announces the launch of astronaut selection for a mars space mission project, in new york mars one is a non-profit organisation that aims to.
Play mission mars - level the city to secure your landing. Mission: mars base welcome to the future of mars exploration you’ll be transported to mars at some point in the distant future taking on the role of an astronaut living and working on mars, you’ll perform science operations at key locations on the planet. The insight spacecraft is heading to mars to listen for marsquakes and study the planet’s structure. The mission to mars unit introduces students to mars, often called the red planet students learn about the development of robotics and how robots are beneficial to science, society and the exploration of space.
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Bored and restless, Astronaut Randy Bresnik snuck out of the International Space Station and returned the shuttle to earth just so that he could go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for a midnight snack.
North American Aerospace Defense Command, better known as NORAD, which was tracking flights in search of Santa Claus, spotted the shuttle immediately after it left the station and followed it to earth, where it was met by F-15 Hornet fighter jets as it entered the atmosphere. The jets escorted the shuttle until it landed.
Officials did not initially approach the craft for fear that some alien life form might have hijacked it. It was only after Bresnik emerged from the shuttle, hailed a taxi and went to his final destination, a Five Guys Restaurant nearby, that they were sure the creature was indeed the missing shuttle astronaut.
Desperate to avoid a scandal, NASA arranged for a secret shuttle launch from Annenberg Air Force Base to get him back to the International Space Station before anyone missed him. The flight from the west coast launch site was later described to the press as a top secret military mission.
Once safely back at the station Bresnik shared his ill-gotten booty with his mates. "The round trip took twenty three hours and cost over $60 million dollars, but it was worth it!." beamed Bresnik. "Those Five Guys, they make some tasty burgers!"
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Product quality is a top priority at Placid Refinery Company. The refinery's emphasis on quality control is evidenced by Placid 's continued status as a major supplier of military jet fuel to the United States government. Placid Refining Company is an independent, privately owned company located in Port Allen, La., directly across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge. The refinery produces transportation fuels, which are distributed across the Southeastern United States from Texas to Virginia. The refinery also produces military jet fuel that is used in the United States defense efforts. Its other products include: diesel fuel, commercial jet fuel, heavy fuel oil, liquid petroleum gas and refinery grade propylene.
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Faster than the speed of sound
In recent years, the United States aerospace and defense industry has become increasingly invested in vehicles traveling at hypersonic speed, or more than five times faster than the speed of sound. But what happens when an object travels that fast? College of Science and Engineering professors Tom Schwartzentruber and Graham Candler are working with multiple universities across the country to find out.
Hypersonic vehicles travel at speeds higher than Mach 5, or more than 3,800 miles per hour. For reference, a commercial airplane cruises at speeds ranging from 460 and 575 miles per hour. A hypersonic vehicle can be a plane, missile, or spacecraft—such as a satellite re-entering Earth’s atmosphere or a vessel landing on Mars.
For the complete story, visit the CSE website.
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The FAA-certified pilots at Prestige Helicopters, Inc. fly their passengers over downtown Atlanta, the King and Queen towers, and Turner Field. They helm a fleet of three Robinson R44 helicopters, as well as R22 whirlybirds, each spacious enough for up to three guests. Along the way, skybound guests peep at the area's arterial highways, majestic mountains, and winding Chattahoochee River, intermittently soaring high enough to fly over skyscrapers while avoiding most feral clouds.
Pilots also instill basics of takeoff, steering, and landing during flight-training programs that start students off on the cloud-kicking path to obtaining private, commercial, and flight-instructor licenses. When not leading tours and training programs, the skywaymen shuttle passengers between airports and hotels and take aerial photographers up for photo shoots.
Humans dreamed of achieving flight for millennia, driven by the desire to find out what clouds taste like (a lot like fog, it turns out). Take to the skies with today's Groupon. For $40 per person, you get a quarter-hour private helicopter tour from Whirl Helicopter Atlanta, a $79 value. Depart from McCollum Airport in Kennesaw and fly to Kennesaw Mountain and over Marietta Square and the Big Chicken.
The 3,600-second Discovery Flight sits you side by side with one of the school's certified flight instructors in a Robinson R22 helicopter. After a brief ground school that covers the basics, you'll strap into the cockpit of this reliable, safe little bird and cover essential preflight principles such as breathing and not making eye contact for more than three seconds. Listen to the purr of the engine that's won the R22 major-speed and distance-performance records, while your steady hands maintain hovering level. From there you'll try a short flight around the area, with the instructor offering helpful guidance along the way.
The male and female firearm experts of American Home Defense shape their shooting and self-defense classes around legal regulations with an emphasis on personal safety. In private shooting lessons, students learn to handle three of the most common handguns and home-defense classes equip participants with the know-how to protect their families from intruders or a neighbor's moat monster.
The FAA–certified instructors at Wesson Aviation instill safe-flying habits in budding aviators, whether their aim is to casually jaunt through the clouds or to pursue a license for flying a plane, helicopter, or really large, specially folded piece of paper. No matter their aerial pursuit, pilots learn on modern and well-maintained equipment. The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter has flown about 1,400 hours and spoils students with modern avionic equipment, such as a Garmin GPS, radar altimeter, and heating and air conditioning—creature comforts to revel in when playing long hide-and-seek games with a stealth bomber. Students can also work toward their FAA pilot certification for private, commercial, or instructor flight at more than 200 miles per hour aboard the outfit’s twin-engine Beechcraft Baron airplane.:
Ron Carroll's fascination with helicopters began in Vietnam, when the aircraft transported him and his fellow infantry through the jungles to the front lines. Two Purple Hearts, nearly 20 years, and a stint in the publishing industry later, Carroll happened upon a copy of Flying magazine and his interest quickly rekindled. He continued with flying lessons, deepening his desire to become a helicopter pilot.
Today, Carroll possesses a Gold Seal CFI certification from the Federal Aviation Administration and helms a team of three pilots with more than 25,000 combined hours of flight experience. With a fleet comprising Robinson R22 and R44 helicopters?as well as a TruFlite H flight simulator that lets aspiring pilots practice operating a helicopter while singing and without leaving the ground?the team has trained throngs of airmen, including Governor Sonny Perdue.
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Our passengers are treated as individuals rather than part of a group. We begin by greeting you at an easy to find meeting place and take you to the launchsite. Once at the launchsite the pilot and crew will assemble the basket and do preliminarily checks on our equipment. The pilot then gives you a pre-flight briefing to acquaint you with the equipment and information you'll need to know during your flight. You'll be given the opportunity to participate with the inflation of the balloon. This makes a great "Kodak moment".
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Thermally conditions dump experienced PPG pilot
A mid-day sojourn in moderate winds went sour for one high-time paramotorist resulting in a nearly disastrous impact. Surprisingly, the pilot walked (probably limped) away.
At 20 feet or so while landing, a quick downward gust started folding down the right half of his wing. Momentum and relative wind did the rest, quickly collapsing 70% of his paraglider. All that fabric, now presenting a vertical wall of drag, caused an immediate turn that was aggravated by lift from the open left side. The highly experienced pilot didn’t know what happened until a turn began. Then it was way too late.
It took less than one second from the pilots first feel of trouble to be in an unrecoverable situation. Lest anyone think otherwise, realize that it takes the human brain at least one second just to register a strange sensation. The only way out of this was prevention.
Another 20 feet higher and it would have been much worse. Another 100 feet higher and it would have been recoverable.
It appears he felt something because, although on landing approach, he lifted his legs just before the collapse started. Also, it looks like the wing surged forward somewhat. The most likely scenario is that he flew from the rising air of a thermal into a downward swirl on the other side. That jibes with reports from the pilot and witnesses. See sidebar on the thermal theory. One witness said the pilot reported a blast of warm air just before it happened. Wake turbulence (see sidebar) is a possibility that appears far less likely.
(Above) Frame A through C show a normal, power off approach. Frame D shows him bring his legs up but the wing hasn’t felt anything yet. Frame E reveals the leading edge just starting to be blown down slightly right of center. In Frame F the slipstream is now pushing the wing downward and causing a significant collapse. Notice the pilot is still essentially level and in the same position he has been throughout. His fate is sealed yet he is only aware that something is amiss. From frame E to F is about a half-second. He has just started to turn right in frame G and, at this point, is essentially a passenger. The only out was preventing entry.
Keep in mind, we’re analyzing what took 3 seconds to finish.
It seems the wing surged forward, making it more susceptible to collapse and this hit a bit of downward gust. Dampening that surge could have certainly helped but it may not have been enough. When off power and in turbulence, it’s a good idea to try keeping brake pressure 2 or so (about 1/4 brakes). I suspect this pilot, with his experience did damp it slightly.
Thanks to Steve for sharing the video, James for helping with information and Brent for his perspective.
An experienced paramotor pilot who saw it happen offered his thoughts:
It was around noon. And he was flying over the field trying to get down a couple times before. He said he could feel heat rising off the ground. Just before he crashed he was over the black top taxi way.
So the hot sun could have contributed to it for sure. I had just arrived at the field when it happened and I was just off to the right of the camera. Paul’s brother Steve shot the video of the crash. I shot Ivan later and made the video.
Another flyer and eyewitness offers:
It was around 11:00 or so…He was flying on the downwind side of the runway. After talking to him, he said that just before the wing gave way he had a blast of warm air hit is face.
If you look at the airport diagram below he was east of runway 12/30. Also there are trees to the west and south at 30′ to 60′ feet. With the wind coming over these trees, the heat of the runway, the building to the east of that, (Look at the top picture of the website), something could happen. He was the only one flying at the time, too.
Flying within three hours of sunrise and sunset, and only during forecast mellow conditions is the best prevention. Some pilots, especially free flyers who are used to stronger conditions, will take on the mid-day risk knowingly. Sometimes they get burned.
Winds appear to have been fairly light. If you walked outside and checked, you have considered it nice. Wunderground historical data showed it to be light that Sept 22 noontime. See the charts at right for a temperature graph. Thanks to Terry Lutke for the weather information.
Skill and choice of equipment also has an effect on susceptibility. For example, being heavy on a wing reduces the likelihood of a collapse at some increase in severity. Your choice of a wing affects it, too. A fast, high performance wing is more susceptible than a beginner wing although it can happen to anything—if the air is going down faster than the wing can handle, the leading edge will react this way. A reflex wing, flown in its most resistant configuration, may handle it better, too. Reflex wings don’t fold under as easily although they certainly can and you better know what configurations are susceptible.
Once aloft, a pilot can reduce his chances of this fate by those suggestions covered under Handling Wing Collapses. Essentially keep brake pressure 2 applied, especially with the power off. Fly actively if you’ve already developed that skill, otherwise, now is not the time to learn it. Using just the right brake inputs to keep the wing overhead (active flying) is a skill that takes many hours to master and pilots who don’t fly regularly in moderately bumpy air never acquire it. Strong turbulence is not the place to learn since inappropriate inputs are worse than just holding pressure 2 and letting your hands float with that pressure.
Video of Collapse and Crash
Some interesting points. Notice the video’s time counter. It’s basically over in two seconds. Ivan is one tough bird! The windsock and other pilot input suggests that winds at the time were relatively light (see sidebar on Weather at the Time).
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This article is more than 1 year old
Mars Express orbiter to get code update after 19 years
And over millions of miles, too. Piece of cake!?
The software on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft is to be upgraded after nearly two decades, giving the orbiter capabilities to hunt for water beneath the planet and study its larger moon, Phobos.
Mars Express was launched on June 2, 2003, and was initially made up of two components: the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander. Unfortunately, the lander failed to make contact with Earth after it was released and arrived at the surface of the Red Planet. It is presumed lost. The orbiter, however, is still working after 19 years in service, spinning around Mars.
Now, engineers at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, are revamping the spacecraft's software. The upgrade will allow the Mars Express Orbiter to continue searching for water locked beneath the Martian surface using its MARSIS radio-wave instrument and monitor the planet's closest satellite, Phobos, more efficiently. MARSIS is today operated by INAF and funded by the Italian Space Agency.
Specifically, according to ESA, the orbiter, which is millions of miles from Earth, will receive "a series of upgrades that improve signal reception and on-board data processing to increase the amount and quality of science data sent to Earth." It appears part of the update will streamline its processes and communications to reduce the information collected by the onboard sensors to just what's needed.
"Previously, to study the most important features on Mars, and to study its moon Phobos at all, we relied on a complex technique that stored a lot of high-resolution data and filled up the instrument's on-board memory very quickly," Andrea Cicchetti, the MARSIS deputy principal investigator and operation manager at INAF, leading the upgrade, explained in a statement.
"By discarding data that we don't need, the new software allows us to switch MARSIS on for five times as long and explore a much larger area with each pass."
Mars Express will thus continue to look for signs of water near the Martian South Pole at high resolutions. Colin Wilson, a scientist working on the mission, said the software was "like having a brand-new instrument on board…almost 20 years after launch."
"The MARSIS radar on-board software upgrade demonstrates that it is possible to renew an entire mission," Cicchetti told The Register in a statement.
"I am not surprised at all that such a mission is still in flight after 19 years. I [have been] working on it every day since its launch, and I am sure that Mars Express will give us the possibility to make many other discoveries in the coming years that will help us to better understand our planet."
- Surviving eclipse season and resurrecting 25-year-old software with Windows for Workgroups 3.11: One year with Mars Express
- Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence
- Humanity uploaded an AI to Mars and lets it shoot rocks with lasers
- Australia down for scheduled maintenance: No talking to Voyager 2 for 11 months
Mars Express was ESA's first planetary mission, and is the second oldest active spacecraft orbiting a planet other than Earth. The oldest is NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey. Pushing new software to such an old orbiter after so long is challenging, according to Carlo Nenna, an engineer at Enginium, an Italian IT consulting firm helping to roll out the upgrade.
"We faced a number of challenges to improve the performance of MARSIS," he said. "Not least because the MARSIS software was originally designed over 20 years ago, using a development environment based on Microsoft Windows 98!"
"The very old development environment (it was quite old already back in year 2000) required to set up a Windows 98 machine. I did this with a virtual machine in VirtualBox," he told The Register.
"Just finding a way to share files between host and guest machines was an hard task. Installing common things like a working web browser or a source code editor was difficult too. It took almost two months only to set up and fully validate the development environment."
The spacecraft carries seven instruments, including various cameras, spectrometers, and a radar altimeter to study Mars's atmosphere, climate, and geology. Mars Express was the first to spot signs of water ice and carbon dioxide ice on the planet, leading scientists to question whether it could have been habitable at some point. It also collected data that hinted at signs of methane, possibly forged in the hot furnace of volcanoes long ago.
Finally, the spacecraft orbiter has provided astronomers with some of the most detailed images of Phobos. The Martian moon is shaped like a potato, with an uneven, pockmarked surface unlike the Earth's round Moon. ®
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NACA cowling on a Curtis AT-5A at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Oct 1928.
A cowling is a removable metal covering that houses the engine and sometimes also a portion of the fuselage of an aircraft that is powered by a radial engine. It enables the aircraft to fly more efficiently because it reduces the amount of drag it creates.
The NACA low-drag engine cowling was invented by Fred Weick, an engineer from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 1928. The test aircraft for this cowling, a Curtis Hawk AT-5A biplane (see photo), featuring a Wright Whirlwind J-5 radial engine, reached an airspeed of 220 kilometers pe hour fitted with the NACA cowling compared to 190 kilometers per hour without it.
The NACA cowling directs cool air to flow onto the center of the motor, where it is routed across the motor's hottest parts, i.e. the cylinders and cylinder heads. Moreover, turbulence after the air passes the free-standing cylinders is greatly reduced. The sum of all these effects reduces drag by as much as 60%.
The test conclusions resulted in almost every radial-engined aircraft being equipped with this cowling, starting in 1932. Cowlings are sometimes also used to enclose landing gear.
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Become an Airline Pilot
Guidance for students wanting to become an airline pilot.
When can you start flying airplanes?
You can fly airplanes with an instructor as early as you wish to. You can learn to fly and carry out solo flights by the age of 16 and you can earn your private pilot license by age 17.
What are the educational qualifications required to become a pilot?
You can earn your pilot license from variety of institutions ranging from small flying clubs, flight schools to universities and the entry requirements will vary from one another. Most flying clubs and flight schools require you to have completed high school grade academics with passes in subjects like English, Math's and Physics. As Maldivian students passes in O level would be sufficient for you to get enrolled in the flight schools. Colleges and universities tend to have higher educational qualification requirements with higher pass grades requirements and may require A level to be completed specially if you are considering to get a degree along with your pilot license. Some institutions also would require you to pass an entrance exam.
Is it essential to get a degree?
It is an old long debate over whether students should attain degrees or just complete flight training and acquire the pilot license only. The advantages of attaining an aviation degree is that you would have learned a lot more in dept knowledge of the industry and it would help in your career down the line specially if you consider to become part of training or in management roles. However as a pilot with career experience you can become instructors, chiefs, and etc without having degrees as experience and on the job performance is a key element in your progress in airlines. Countries in Europe and other countries where pilot jobs are scarce; most of the students earn degrees along with their pilot license to boost their opportunities in gaining pilot jobs. There are larger airlines that require pilots to have a degree however most of the airlines would hire pilots if they have sufficient experience on the job even though they don't have degrees.
In Maldives almost all of the pilots acquire pilot license only and there are only a few who earn degrees. As a student pilots you can finish your pilot training and you can be employed as a pilot and can acquire work experience and progress closer to career advancements by the time students who study for degrees can finish their training's as to complete a degree it would require 3-4 years.
What is PPL, CPL and ATPL?
PPL : It is a Private Pilot License and it allows the pilot to be the pilot in command of an aircraft privately.
CPL : It is a Commercial Pilot License and it allows the pilot to fly and engage in commercial flight operations.
ATPL: It is an Airline Transport Pilot License and it allows the pilot to act as a commander of an aircraft. Frozen ATPL is earned when the student pilot have completed all the theoretical examinations but has not yet met the flight hour requirement to obtain ATPL. As the hour requirement is high for this license, the fight hours required are gained working as a pilot in an airline or building hours as a flight instructor.
In the Maldives if you hold a CPL license you can be employed to fly as a seaplane pilot. For the captaincy requirement in the seaplane you must obtain an ATPL. In order to be employed to fly heavier turbo prop aircraft like the Dash-8 and the ATR you would require to hold a frozen ATPL license as a minimum.
It is highly advisable today to complete frozen ATPL during your flight training as majority of all students study for this and it would aid in earning yourself a job in seaplanes or in wheel based airline. If you have CPL only it would limit your employment options only to seaplane pilot jobs and it would be of a challenge to complete all theoretical examinations required for the ATPL while working as a full time pilot.
What is a type rating?
A type rating is a regulating agency's certification of a pilot to fly a certain aircraft type that requires additional training. As student pilots after completion of your training and after employment within an airline you would complete the type rating course for the type of aircraft you would fly. Seaplane type ratings are carried out in Maldives where as Dash8, ATR and Airbus type ratings are carried out in foreign countries.
What is the difference between different flight schools?
As student pilots you would be obtaining the same pilot licenses issued by the civil aviation authority regardless of the flight school or the university that you attend. Flight schools and universities with higher tuition fees can offer you with the options to fly more advanced training aircraft with glass cockpits. They may have advanced flight simulators for instrument training's and provide you with an overall higher standard of education. Nonetheless you would be studying using the same books and sitting for the same exams and completing your aircraft training as per the regulation from the civil aviation authority regardless of your choice of flight school or university.
How long does flight training lasts?
On average for the completion of the full pilot course with frozen ATPL would take one year half to two years time. Overall completion of the course depends on various factors like individual student performances and weather and etc.
Student performance: The course progression depends a lot on the individuals students performance and the capability to complete all required theoretical exams in given time and complete all the aircraft flying requirements.
Weather: Students would only be allowed to train in fair weather conditions specially if it is for solo flights. Bad weather days with high winds, heavy rain or snow may delay your training as you would not be able to fly during these periods.
Aircraft: Some of the flight schools have limited aircraft available and maintenance and technical issues are part of day to day operations and that can delay your training flights.
How much does flight training cost?
Tuition fee would generally be around 50,000$ to 70,000$+ depending on the flight school of choice. Total expenditure would vary from the country you have chosen to study as students have to bare for travel costs, living costs, visa and etc apart from the tuition fee.
How can i fund for pilot training?
if you does not have the capability to self fund for the pilot course you can opt to obtain student pilot loans.
Ministry of higher education of Maldives offers pilot training opportunities for students as part of loans and scholarships programs for students. They provide the opportunity for 5 - 20 students each time. You can apply for the loan and if you are selected they would provide student loan for pilot course at countries where they allow students to attain training. You can also get yourself a student loan directly from Bank of Maldives if you meet the requirement criteria for the student loan eligibility.
What are the medical requirements?
Being an airline pilot is often considered among the most stressful jobs in the world so your health is a very important factor for a long prosperous career. In order to legally operate as an airline pilot in the Maldives you are required to hold a Class 1 medical license. As student pilots you will have to obtain an aviation medical license from the issuing authority of the country of the flight school you have enrolled before you can commence your flight training.
Generally in medical licenses checks they would be conducting an eye test ( sight tests, color vision tests ), Hearing tests, Electrocardiogram tests (to check the functioning of your heart muscle), blood tests, urine tests, and general physique.
If you have a condition that you think that may affect your medical license you can get advise from an aviation medical doctor active in hospitals and clinics in Maldives. Aviation medical doctors are present in Male' and in Addu.
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I just spent two hours by watching NASA TV that covered the landing of the Curiosity Rover, the cleverest part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), on Mars.
The landing maneuvers (those "7 minutes of terror": diagram) were unbelievably sophisticated (more than any other previous landing procedure); watch the video above (it looks like from a science-fiction movie, doesn't it?).
At some moment, the NASA folks in blue shirts became pretty much sure that things were fine; you could see their certainty on their faces. Of course, we didn't know whether their optimism was justified. But they're probably experts – and the probability seems to be supported by pretty impressive empirical data at this point – such that each of them really knew what was going on at each step and what the remaining risks were, too.
But nothing could replace the excitement we could see and share when the precise final reports about successful achievements of the system were communicated to the NASA headquarters; and especially the moment of the final landing. The ecstasy among the people was amazing. It had to be a strange feeling to know that nothing could be controlled in "real time". It took about 14 minutes (current distance here) for the electromagnetic radiation to get from Mars to Earth at that moment; 28 minutes for a round trip. So light (or any other influence allowed in Nature, because of special relativity) simply wasn't fast enough to influence those "7 minutes of terror".
Various folks including NASA administrator Charles Bolden and Obama's science adviser John Holdren gave some enthusiastic speeches. I was ready to instantly press "close the window" in the case that Holdren would mention "climate change" or anything of the sort but he was decent enough to avoid such extremely decadent acts so I am still watching NASA TV at this point. ;-)
The nationalist atmosphere was extremely different from the international atmosphere at the LHC. CERN loves to celebrate how much international it is; NASA never forgets to point out it is a U.S. project, funded by the U.S. taxpayers (lots of fun for $7 per American, indeed!), and America is the leader in all those curiosity-driven technological feats. The fact that almost all the rocket scientists are citizens of the same nation and they may have the same blue shirts adds another layer of motivation, I am sure. It would work in another nation, e.g. if the blue shirts were replaced by brown shirts, as well – but in the real world today, only America could realize such a Mars landing project, I think.
Although I may sometimes be infected by a nationalist or international propaganda, I always return to rational attitudes soon and I am simply neutral on whether it is more "cool" when similar achievements are done under the leadership of a single nation or in diverse international collaborations. Well, I still think it's more natural if those things are done by a single nation. Some degree of national pride and competition helps, too. The real reason why the LHC has to be such a heavily international project is that no single nation really had enough courage, expertise, resources, and curiosity lust to realize the project without the aid from others – and this explanation isn't a real reason for pride, is it?
And if it is the communication between people of different nations that should be celebrated, I certainly don't find it as impressive as the ability of humans in any nation or nations to send a one-ton vehicle to a different planet 14 light minutes away and perform all the maneuvers to decelerate from 10+ km/s to zero (well, to 75 cm/s vertically and 4 cm/s horizontally).
The Curiosity Rover is the first NASA Mars astrobiology project since the 1970s and just the fourth or fifth successful landing on the Red Planet after Pathfinder (whose Sojourner rover only worked for 2.5 months in 1997), Spirit (2004-2010), Opportunity (2004-present, the ultimate survivor), and perhaps the Phoenix lander in the Mars Scout Program (2008); Soviet Mars 2 and Mars 3 projects failed in 1971 while U.K./ESA's Beagle 2 was lost around Xmas 2003 and numerous other Mars expeditions have been doomed well before they approached Mars' surface. The prevailing Mars failures are due to the Martian Curse by the Galactic Ghoul, if you need to know the exact name of the culprit.
It would be cool if some stunning insights about life came out of the mission; however, I don't really expect this to happen. If Mars has some connections to life, it's probably in the future and we will have to help such a future to become reality.
MRO's leaked image of the parachuting Curiosity (MSL). Click for a bigger one.
NASA has continuously operated rovers on Mars for 8 years at this point; Curiosity should add at least 2 years according to the plan (it depends on no consumables or "resources"; for example, if you care about energy, it uses the MMRTG system by Boeing to get 100 Watts of energy via heat from decaying plutonium-238 whose half-life is 88 years: no solar panels) but people are secretly ready for a much longer time. These expectations have surely strengthened after NASA learned that all of Curiosity's engineering parameters are within the expected ranges: the device seems to be perfectly healthy right now.
So good luck, NASA's Curiosity as well the human curiosity, and congratulations to NASA, the U.S., and the homo sapiens species.
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The transmitter provides a signal to guide the RC-103 equipped aircraft to the centerline of a runway. The set radiates two intersecting field patterns, one of which is modulated at an audio frequency of 90 cycles per second,and the other at an audio frequency of 150 cycles per second. the shape of the radiated patterns is such that they intersect in a vertical plane called the "course", which can be oriented (by positioning the truck) to intersect the ground in a line which coincides with the centerline of a landing runway. The range of the equipment is a function of the elevation of the receiving antenna: approximately 40 miles at an elevation of 2,500 feet, 70 miles at 6,000 feet, and 100 miles at 10,000 feet. The transmitter, BC-751-A has a frequency range from 108.3 to 110.3 Mc. power output is 25 Watts.
- AN/CRN-3 is the same equipment except without the K-53 truck, thereby making it air transportable, components are housed in a tent.
The AN/MRN-1 is mounted in a K-53 truck and is made up of the following components.
- BC-915 control box
- BC-751 radio transmitter
- BC-752 Modulator and bridge
- BC-753 course detector fixed
- BC-754 course detector portable
- BC-755 field intensity meter
- BC-777 indicator (alarm)
- RC-109 antenna (5 alford loops in a horizontal plane)
- An SCR-610 is provided for ground communications
- power is provided by a PE-141 generator (115 volts)
The RC-103-A is an airborne localizer receiver used to indicate a landing course in conjunction with the AAF instrument approach system. signals received from a transmitter, located at one end of the runway to be used, are fed into the cross-pointer indicator to indicate "on course", "fly right" or "fly left". Audio indication is also provided.
- Antenna system AS-27/ARN-5 is used with the dual installation of the localizer and glide path receivers. Antenna AN-100 is used when only the localizer receiver is installed in the aircraft.
- RC-103 components include
- Indicator I-101-C
- BC-732 control box
- BC-733 Receiver W/ DM-53 Dynamotor
- AN-100 Antenna (localizer only)
- AS-27/ARN-5 Antenna system (combination)
- Signal Corps Radio
- List of U.S. Signal Corps vehicles
- Radio navigation
- Instrument landing system
- List of military electronics of the United States
- TM 11-227 Signal Communication Directory. Dated 10 April 1944.
- TM 11-487 Electrical Communication systems Equipment. Dated 2 October 1944.
- Graphic Survey of Radio and Radar Equipment Used by the Army Airforce. Section 3, Radio Navigation Equipment. Dated May 1945.
- TO 30-100F-1. Dated 1943.
- http://www.footnote.com/image/#46938757 exterior
- http://aafcollection.info/items/documents/view.php?file=000149-01-03.pdf TO 30-100F-1 1943
- http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1949/1949%20-%200728.html SCS-51
- http://aafradio.org/NASM/RHAntennas.htm antenna systems
- http://jproc.ca/rrp/rrp3/argus_bc733d.jpg BC-733
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In the aftermath of Taiwan’s January presidential and legislative elections, the world wondered what sorts of responses Beijing would have to another victory by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) after Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was elected president. Predictably, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials quickly condemned the election, and issued warnings against “Taiwan independence” and “separatist” forces. At the same time, observers drew attention to Chinese military aircraft flying across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which was an expected response since these incursions occur on a near-daily basis. Another major development was Nauru’s decision to sever ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing, which was announced just two days after the elections. While undoubtedly painful for Taiwan, the switch was not particularly shocking, as Beijing has been poaching Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies ever since Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was elected president in 2016. Though each of these developments upset the delicate cross-Strait status quo in varying ways and to different degrees, anyone following cross-Strait relations could have predicted these post-election responses to a DPP presidential victory.
The one post-election, cross-Strait development that received less of a spotlight was the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s (CAAC, 中國民用航空局) unilateral announcement of new civil aviation flight paths within the Taiwan Strait. Taipei immediately condemned the announcement after it was revealed that the CAAC moved one route to under five miles from the median line of the Taiwan Strait, while others are close to Taiwan’s own civil flight routes for its outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu. The decision to further expand and relocate these flight routes should not come as a major surprise, as the CAAC has gradually expanded these routes since 2015, when they were first established.
This development is more important—and likely more detrimental to the cross-Strait status quo—than the previously mentioned post-election incidents, as the expansion of flight routes M503, W122, and W123 will result in a significant increase in Chinese civilian aviation in the Taiwan Strait. Such a move diminishes Taiwan’s ability to assert its own sovereignty in the area, and normalizes the civil element of Beijing’s salami-slicing tactics against Taiwan.
Image: A graphic from Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration showing flight routes around Taiwan: including the W122 and W123 routes, and the path of the M503 route (pink line). The new M503 route announced by the PRC in early February shifts the de facto M503 flight path further eastwards, six nautical miles closer to the Taiwan Strait center line. (Image source: ROC Civil Aeronautics Administration)
What Exactly Did Beijing Do?
In late January, the CAAC made two key changes to the flight routes in the Taiwan Strait. Focus Taiwan explained these changes in depth in the aftermath of the announcement. First, flight route M503, which operates north-south on China’s side of the Taiwan Strait, was moved six nautical miles east, bringing it considerably closer to the median line of the Taiwan Strait. This flight path was first created in January 2015 (but not utilized until March of that year), with the six-nautical-mile offset included in order to provide an additional buffer from the median line of Taiwan Strait. The addition of the buffer was a conscious decision by Beijing to try to make the creation of the new routes less controversial. That decision provided a concrete example of the greater regard Beijing once showed for the tacit division of the Taiwan Strait. Notably, in March 2015, the route only allowed for northbound flights; there were no southbound flights. Then, in January 2018, the CAAC opened up the route to southbound flights, making it fully functional. Now, with the flight path moved closer to the median line, Beijing has signaled another dimension of its desire to erase the median line.
Second, flight routes W122 and W123, which operate east-west connecting to the north-south M503, opened up to eastbound flights. These routes have a similar history to M503 as they connect to each other. Before the January 2024 announcement, the W122 and W123 routes were limited to only westbound flights (i.e., flights heading into China). The opening of these westbound routes occurred in 2018 after the paths were established in 2015 but never utilized. Now, the route allows for flights heading from the cities of Xiamen and Fuzhou into the Taiwan Strait.
To put it simply, a mere 10 years ago, no planes flew on these flight paths. However, after nearly a decade of incremental growth, China’s civil flight paths in the Taiwan Strait have become a permanent feature of the cross-Strait status quo.
Why Does This Matter?
To the average reader, these developments may not seem like a big deal: who cares about civilian flight paths over a waterway? For Taiwan, however, there are a number of reasons to find this news troubling.
First, the addition of the eastbound flights to the W122 and W123 paths increases traffic close to previously existing Taiwanese civilian flight routes—specifically, flight routes W2, W6, and W8—that connect the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu to Taiwan. Having increased traffic making turns so close to Taiwanese flight routes—especially close to airports—significantly increases the potential for an accident or miscommunication. These airspaces are already fraught with the constant incursions by Chinese military aircraft in the same areas. Adding more civilian aircraft into the mix complicates an already tense situation.
Second, Taiwan lacks the ability to voice its concerns about China’s unilateral moves in the relevant international forum: the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The ICAO is a United Nations-affiliated organization that is the global authority for aviation matters. Since Taiwan lacks membership or even observer status in the UN, it has no guaranteed seat at the table. Under the presidency of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taipei sat in on ICAO meetings as a part of Beijing’s efforts to maintain a higher level of cross-Strait dialogue. However, Beijing put an end to this practice when Tsai was elected, and the doors to ICAO were shut to Taiwan despite having its own Flight Information Region (FIR), which is one of the busiest in the world. In 2023, Hong Kong-to-Taipei flights represented the third-busiest international flight route in the world.
Lack of access to the ICAO proved to be an issue in in the aftermath of then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2022 visit to Taiwan, when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted large-scale exercises and announced no-fly-zones for civilian aircraft in the vicinity of Taiwan. Consequently, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA, 民用航空局) had to rely on its Japanese and Filipino counterparts to divert and reroute flights since ICAO was not an option. In this instance, Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN system created—and will continue to create—issues for aviation safety as cross-Strait tensions continue to deteriorate.
Third, it continues a pattern of leaders in Beijing making unilateral decisions that are not dangerous in and of themselves, but increase the possibility for danger to occur. In this instance, China’s actions heighten the risk of accidents or miscommunications. In 2015, after CAAC announced the creation of these routes, officials from Beijing and Taipei were able to have discussions about the paths, which resulted in Beijing moving route M503 six nautical miles to the west. Those channels no longer exist, and such discussions no longer occur. As a result, there is no prior warning when such unilateral decisions are made: Taiwan finds out about these developments when the relevant Chinese agency makes an announcement.
Given recent issues regarding aviation safety, such as the January 2024 incidents when a Boeing 737 Max 9 “plug” blew off during takeoff and a Japanese aircraft crashed into a coast guard plane during landing, it is deeply concerning when a country makes unilateral decisions related to international aviation safety. In this regard, China’s effort to limit Taiwan’s sovereignty by expanding civil aviation activity in the Taiwan Strait could have major ramifications. Already, the growing lack of clarity in the region has resulted in violence, as demonstrated by the deaths of two Chinese fishermen who were chased off by Taiwan’s coast guard after illegally fishing in Taiwan’s waters. At sea, the costs were somewhat limited, but in the air, the toll could be much, much higher.
After eight years of essentially spurning all forms of high-level cross-Strait communication, leaders in Beijing find themselves having to deal with another DPP president—one that they distrust even more than Tsai. And since Lai’s election in January, it appears that Beijing has no intention of changing course in its dealings with Taipei. Under Tsai, Beijing worked to squeeze Taiwan on the economic, military, and political fronts in order to limit its international space. These efforts are likely to continue to escalate during Lai’s presidency.
In the air, China’s campaign to place pressure on Taiwan has manifested in the regular aviation incursions into the defense identification zone (ADIZ) near Pratas/Dongsha Island, and the Taiwan Strait itself. The opening up of flight routes in 2018 was also another element on this front. Keeping Taipei out of ICAO meetings complemented these efforts.
For Beijing, increasing civil aviation in the Taiwan Strait likely appears to be a relatively low-risk decision. Expanding the W122 and W123 routes and moving M503 are all fairly unobtrusive, low-profile behaviors that lack the immediacy or bombast of military exercises. The average person will likely not care too much about this—because on the surface, it does not seem like a big deal. However, things like this are not a big deal until they become one. Ultimately, the way that Beijing’s expansion of these civilian flight paths could rise to greater attention is through tragedy, and no one wants that outcome. Furthermore, these new flight paths could set the stage for the CAAC to unilaterally create additional new civilian flights near and around Taiwan as well.
If Beijing ever wants to lower the temperature in cross-Strait relations, it has plenty of small issue areas that it could address with Taipei at a technical level. Senior-level politicians and government officials do not need to get involved in issues like moving or deconflicting flight paths in the Taiwan Strait. Such technocratic conversations among mid-level officials could provide a new beginning for confidence-building mechanisms in a more transparent cross-Strait environment. However, while more dialogue would certainly be welcome, it is unlikely to occur until a real tragedy happens—and that is why Beijing’s unilateral decision to move and expand these flight paths should be of major concern to international actors.
The main point: The recent decision by the Civil Aviation Administration of China to move the M503 flight path closer to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and to open up eastbound traffic on the W122 and W123 routes, represents another move by Beijing to diminish Taiwan’s sovereignty. Given Taiwan’s exclusion from the United Nations system, it is very limited in its ability to lodge official complaints at the international level. Until Beijing and Taipei can address even these low-level issues, cross-Strait tensions will continue to spiral.
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NASA just crashed a plane in the name of science...
The space agency dropped a Cessna 172 from 100 feet and filmed it, in order to test five commercially available emergency locator transmitters.
The incredible footage of the crash, from the 26th August in Hampton Virginia, follows the downfall of the aircraft as it meets its bitter end.
The plane was purposefully crashed
The Cessna dropped into the soil and flipped over, marking the third trial with different planes that have taken place at NASA's Langley Research Center.
Although damaging the aircraft, the body was surprisingly in tact after the head-on collision.
The aftermath of the experiment
Two tests took place during the experiment, the first crash simulation was a low-level nose-first collision onto concrete, where the plane skidded on the surface.
The second was a nose-first dive into dirt, which just absorbed the plane’s impact and led to a definitely harmful and quite possibly lethal crumpling of the craft.
This is not the first time that NASA have purposefully crashed a plane and in July, a similar operation took place.
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I think most wings are over-built. This doesn't mean that they can't be broken, just that they are built too strong where they don't need to be, and not strong enough where they could be. Rather than guess, a modeler needs to know how strong the wing needs to be, and where that strength is needed. The simple answer is they can be weak at the tip, and strong at the root. The more complete answer is how much stronger.
It should be obvious that a little upward force near the wingtip creates a much larger force near the root if the fuselage is held still. This force is called a bending moment. It is actually trying to pull the bottom spar cap, putting it in tension, and is compressing the upper spar cap. Both of these forces are greatest near the top and bottom, and decrease to zero near the middle of the spar.
The bending moment at any point is calculated by multiplying a force by the distance between that point and the force. Figure-1 shows these forces on a wing where the tip is on the left, and the root on the right. The 3 ounce force at the tip is shown with the upward arrow. The moment arm is 40". The bending-moment is shown with the clockwise arc on the right, and is 120 oz-in..
The same force produces a bending-moment all along the wing. Figure-2 shows the bending-moment due to the same 3 oz. force at a point closer to the tip. In this case, it produces a bending-moment of only 90 oz-in, 30" from the tip. Any force on the wing contributes to the bending-moment at all locations from the point of the force toward the root. Similarly, the bending moment at any point on the wing is due to all the forces outward of that location on the wing.
While a wing is generating lift, there is not a single force near the tip, but an upward force distributed all along the wing. The bending-moment at the root is due to the entire force on the halfspan. If the lift is (unrealistically) assumed to be evenly distributed (constant) across a rectangular wing, then the entire force of each halfspan can be approximated by a single force midway between the root and tip. For a plane with a 200" wingspan and weighing 4 pounds, each halfspan is 100" and supports 2 pounds. This results in a bending moment of 100 pound-inches (lb-in) at the root. See figure-3.
Another way to come to the same result is to split each half-span, with each quarter-span supporting one quarter the weight of the plane, 1 lb. The inner quarter supports 1 lb. at its midpoint which is 25" from the root, producing a moment of 25 lb-in. Likewise, the outer quarter supports 1 lb. at its midpoint which is 75" from the root, producing a moment of 75 lb-in. The combined moment for the halfspan is still 100 lb-in.
This example emphasizes how much more the outer portions of the wing contribute to the total bending moment at the root. It also seems to suggest how the moment may be calculated for multiple tapered wings by multiplying the force generated by each section by the distance from the root to where that force is effectively centered. But these examples assumed a uniform lift distribution.
To precisely determine the bending moment, requires an accurate lift distribution for the planform being considered. Even a rectangular planform has a more elliptical than uniform lift distribution. This means that the wing loading across the span varies with span location for all but truly elliptical planforms. Accurate bending moment calculations not only require an accurate lift distribution, but more methodical accounting by dividing the wing into many small sections. This is more easily accomplished today than when Martin Simmons discussed bending moments in a short series of articles entitled Elementary Stress, in the Nov-Dec 1996 issues of RC Soaring Digest. But you might be surprised how little variation there actually is between the too extremes, a rectangular wing with uniform lift distribution, and a triangular planform.
Figure-5 shows the bending moments from root to tip for several representative wing planforms. While we've only discussed the total bending moment at the root, it's important to know the total bending moment at each location on the wing to properly design the spar at that location.
All of the plots are for wings of the same area generating the same amount of lift, but because of their shape, the center of lift may be closer to the root. The rectangular wing has the center of its lift force furthest from the root at midspan, and therefore has the highest bending-moment. The triangular planform has the center of its lift closest to the root, and therefore the smallest bending moment.
The most important thing to see in these plots is that the bending moment decreases very quickly. For the rectangular planform, it is has decreased 25%, roughly 1/8 of the distance from the root to the tip. It is nearly half at approximately 1/3 the distance to the tip. And is approximately a 1/4 at 1/2 the distance to the root. From a different perspective, a wing needs to be twice as strong at the root as it is at 1/3 the distance from root to tip. The outer half need only be half as strong as it is at 1/3 the halfspan. And these ratios are basically the same for all planforms.
The bending moment at the root is four times greater than at midspan.
Making the wing twice as strong at the root than at midspan
is not enough.
It will still break at the root, before it breaks at midspan.
While adding weight in the wings doesn't make the problem any worse,
it does make the plane heavier,
and adding weight to the outer parts of the wings
makes it more difficult to roll the plane,
and less sensitive to thermals.
While bending moments are an important consideration
in designing wing spars,
shear strength is another.
Shear affects wings in the vertical direction,
and is simply the strength needed
to support the load on the wings.
The bending-moment causes horizontal forces
putting the lower spar in tension and
the upper spar in compression.
Shear force affects the entire spar from top to bottom,
unlike the bending-moment
which has maximum affect on the top and bottom of the spar
and zero affect in the middle.
Webbing can significantly increase the shear strength of the spar.
Like the bending-moment,
shear strength is maximum at the root,
where the entire lift generated by the wing supports the plane,
and is zero at the tip.
Shear affects wings in the vertical direction, and is simply the strength needed to support the load on the wings. The bending-moment causes horizontal forces putting the lower spar in tension and the upper spar in compression. Shear force affects the entire spar from top to bottom, unlike the bending-moment which has maximum affect on the top and bottom of the spar and zero affect in the middle. Webbing can significantly increase the shear strength of the spar. Like the bending-moment, shear strength is maximum at the root, where the entire lift generated by the wing supports the plane, and is zero at the tip.
For the example in figure-4, with a rectangular wing having a constant lift distribution, the shear strength at the root is 2 lb. At midspan, it is half, or 1 lb. At 25" from the tip, it is 1/2 lb. It is simply the total lift from the tip to that point on the span. With an accurate lift distribution, the shear strength across the span can be accurately determined using the same methods used to calculate bending-moment. Figure-6 shows the shear strengths for the wing planforms shown in figure-5.
To simplify construction, it seems common to use the same spar design (dimensions and material) for large portions of the wing. This note shows that the bending moment decreases rapidly. If the wing fails, it will most likely fail for a given spar design at the point closest to the root. If a wing does fail away from the root, most likely it will fail where the spar design changes (e.g. no webbing). Since the bending moment reduces quickly, even some moderate strengthening near the root can help tremendously. But it's also important to recognize that material and weight can be removed from the spar further from the root. While this does weaken the spar where it doesn't need to be as strong, it makes the wing lighter and more sensitive to lift.
It is very important to recognize that the numbers used in this note are for illustration only. A 200" sailplane supporting only 4 lbs has both a halfspan and bending moment of 100 which is easy to discuss in terms of percentages. However, it's not weight but maximum load that must be considered, and this typically occurs during a winch launch. The breaking strength of the winch line is often used, and values of 180 to 220 lbs are not unusual.
Knowing the bending moment and shear strength, and how they vary across the span, are important in wing spar design. Spar design is a lengthy discussion and whole books have been written on the subject (Strojnik, Alex, Low Power Laminar Aircraft Structures, 1984). Spar design has also become very sophisticated with the use of various composite materials and structures. And of course, Mark Drela's Allegro is an excellent example. Thanks Ollie for all your help.
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Item color: red and also black
Item component: ABS \ COMPUTER \ PP
Camera: 0.5 MP
Number pass: WIFI range of regarding 30M
Item measurements: along with security and also landing equipment: 40x40x13cm
Item Weight: Aircraft/Battery: 183g/242g
Packing measurements: 32.5 x34x8.5 centimeters
Deal Weight: 1080g
Electric battery ability: 7.4 V 850mAh 25c
Flight opportunity: 8-10 minutes
Push-button control range: regarding 100M
1. The aircraft has rising, falling, hovering, forward, backward, left turn, right turn, left fly, right fly, and four roll functions in the air, no head mode, one-click return, fixed height function.
2. With wifi function can connect APP, APK system to take pictures, video, through the phone can transmit real-time camera images.
3. The aircraft can be folded for easy carrying.
4. The remote control has anti-interference protection function, the aircraft has low-current protection over-current protection, the flight of the aircraft is flexible and smooth; fine-tuning of the performance of the aircraft through the remote control fine-tuning ensures that the function is normal
5. The aircraft body uses high-strength, high-strength engineering plastics that are durable and durable. Built-in six-axis gyroscope, smooth flight, smooth.
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Ascender is a small sub-orbital spaceplane designed to use existing technology and to pave the way for later vehicles on our development sequence. Ascender is specifically designed to generate spaceplane revenues at minimum development cost and risk, and thereby to be attractive to private-sector investment.
Ascender carries one pilot and one passenger or experiment. The passenger remains strapped in his/her seat during the flight. Ascender takes off from an ordinary airfield using its turbo-fan engine and climbs at subsonic speed to a height of 8 km. The pilot then starts the rocket engine and pulls up into a steep climb. Ascender has a maximum speed of around Mach 3 on a steep climb and can reach a height of 100 km.
At that time, the passenger will see superb views of Earth and will see the sky turn black even in daytime. Then Ascender enters a steep dive, where a passenger can experience two minutes of weightlessness. On reaching the atmosphere, the pilot pulls out of the dive and flies back to the airfield from which they took off 30 minutes previously.
Ascender Leading Data
Two in the 500 kg thrust class
Two in the 2500 kg class
HTP and Kerosene
Maximum Weight, kg
Empty Weight, kg
Max Altitude, km
Ascender would be the first spaceplane capable of taking off under its own power and of making several flights to space per day. (The X-15 of nearly forty years ago had a somewhat higher performance but had to be launched from a B-52 converted bomber and needed several weeks of servicing between flights.) It has two jet engines sized for taxiing, ferry flights, aborted landings, diversion to other airfields, and to provide back-up thrust in case of rocket engine failure on take-off. Rocket engines provide most of the thrust for take-off and climb.
The rocket engines use hydrogen peroxide (HTP) as the oxidiser. History has shown that rocket engines using HTP are simpler to develop than those using liquid oxygen (LOX). The Ascender rocket engine uses technology developed in the UK in the early 1970s.
Ascender is well within the aeronautical state of the art. The aerodynamics, structure, engines, and systems are all based on those of existing aeroplanes or launchers and uses proven materies. The only innovation is in the concept, which is in essence that of a light aeroplane of hypersonic shape fitted with a rocket motor.
Ascender could be flying in three years as a research aeroplane, and carrying passengers on space experience flights within seven years. Current work is being funded privately, and discussions are taking place with potential strategic partners. Ascender has EUREKA status as a suggested project.
Ascender is based on a design included in a feasibility study for the European Space Agency (ESA). An independent review of this study, commissioned by the UK Minister for Space, “did not identify any fundamental flaws” in the concept.
Bristol Spaceplanes Limited (BSP) Ascender Layout
The design of Ascender has been evolving continuously. As you can see, the artist’s concept above is somewhat different from the layout drawing. The latest version is at present proprietary but will be released soon.
Cost and Programme
The development programme calls for Ascender to fly within three years of full go-ahead. The cost to early operational use is comparable to that of just one fighter aeroplane off the production line. This remarkably low cost is made possible by the design concept and by excluding any component not essential for the basic mission.
After a few years in service, the cost per flight of Ascender would be reduced to a level comparable to that of a jet fighter, i.e., a few thousand pounds. Then routine everyday flights to space (albeit brief) would become possible at a cost affordable by middle-income people prepared to save.
Ascender is specifically designed to generate spaceplane revenues at minimum development cost and risk, to be attractive to private-sector investment.
Ascender has been designed to pave the way for later vehicles on our development sequence.
Ascender’s successor, Spacecab, would be a fully orbital spaceplane and use existing engines and proven materials. With the benefits of full reusability, its cost per flight will be well over 100 times less than that of the Shuttle.
An enlarged development of Spacecab, called Spacebus, is designed to carry 50 people to and from orbit. A second-generation Spacebus would also be capable of carrying passengers from Europe to Australia in some 75 minutes flying time.
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Sentinel to measure ocean height
The sixth Sentinel in Europe's ambitious new multi-billion-euro Earth-observation project has been contracted from industry.
Sentinel-6a will measure changes in the height of the oceans - a key indicator for understanding weather and climate.
The European Space Agency (Esa) signed the 177m-euro (£127m) deal with Airbus Defence and Space at a remote-sensing symposium in Berlin, Germany.
Sentinel-6a should be ready for launch in 2020.
It will ensure the continuity of a data-set that stretches back to 1992.
This shows global sea levels have been rising by just over 3mm per year.
Part of that is down to continuing warming of the oceans; part of it is the result of water run-off from melting land ice.
The time series began with a US-French mission called Topex/Poseidon, and was then subsequently renamed Jason in later iterations.
The newest version, Jason-3, is due to launch in July. Sentinel-6a will now grasp the baton in five years' time.
The vision is for a fleet of spacecraft that can monitor the land, the oceans and the atmosphere.
And the expectation is that the initiative is unending – in the sense that every Sentinel satellite will be replaced at the demise of its mission.
Consequently, there will be a Sentinel-6b in due course, although the funding for this follow-on is not yet fully in place.
Sentinel-6a remains a partnership with the US. Indeed, America will again be providing instrumentation and the rocket to put the satellite in orbit.
The 2020 satellite will return a topographic map of 95% of the Earth's ice-free oceans every 10 days.
Knowing ocean surface elevation has many and varied applications, both short-term and long-term.
Just as surface air pressure reveals what the atmosphere is doing up above, so ocean height will betray details about the behaviour of water down below.
The data gives clues to temperature and salinity. When combined with gravity information, it will also indicate current direction and speed.
The oceans store vast amounts of heat from the Sun, and how they move that energy around the globe and interact with the atmosphere are what drive key elements of our weather and the climate system.
The design of Sentinel-6a borrows much from Esa's current Cryosat spacecraft – another altimeter mission, but one dedicated to measuring the height of ice and water surfaces in the polar regions.
"The technology on Cryosat is extremely advanced and making use of this industrial heritage gives us a more efficient price for the 6a and the 6b units," Esa's Josef Aschbacher told BBC News.
Like Cryosat, Sentinel-6 will be assembled in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
"For the company, this contract is great news because it means now that we're contributing to all the Sentinel satellites that are related to Copernicus," said Mike Menking from Airbus.
The European-funded Sentinel series
- The Sentinels represent the world's most ambitious Earth observation project
- Sentinel-1: Radar satellite that can see the Earth's surface in all weathers
- Sentinel-2: Colour camera dedicated to study principally land changes
- Sentinel-3: Multi-wavelength detectors tuned to observe ocean behaviour
- Sentinel-4: High-orbiting sensor to measure atmospheric gases
- Sentinel-5: Low-orbiting atmospheric sensor to help monitor air quality
- Sentinel-6: Future version of the long-running Jason sea-surface height series
What is the Copernicus programme?
- EU project that is being procured with European Space Agency help
- Pulls together all Earth-monitoring data, from space and the ground
- Will use a range of spacecraft - some already up there, others yet to fly
- Expected to be invaluable to scientists studying climate change
- Important for disaster response - earthquakes, floods, fires etc
- Data will also help design and enforce EU policies: fishing quotas etc
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TRACKING AIRCRAFT IN SECOND LIFE
Aircraft hang in the air all around you in an innovative new visualisation from Virtual Worlds agency Daden Limited and aircraft tracking specialists fboweb.com. We believe that this the first time that real-time aviation data has been displayed in a virtual world such as Second Life (SL).
The visualisation takes fboweb.com's near-live data of aircraft locations around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and displays the aircraft as small models in Second Life over a map of southern California. Each aircraft shows its flight number and its location, altitude and direction mirrors that of its real world counterpart. The display updates every minute and the aircraft are moved to their new locations. An avatar can walk across the map, examining each aircraft and can touch an aircraft in order to reveal its flight path data.
The visualisation builds on previous work done by Birmingham UK based Daden Limited in taking data from Google Earth and displaying it in Second Life. Such combinations of systems (called mash-ups) provide a very rapid way of creating new systems, or combining or looking at data in new ways. For instance Daden were part of the consortium that developed the GeoGlobe - a 3D globe in SL that can display news feeds, earthquake data and other Google Earth information inside a huge Earth globe.
The flight data feed is provided to Florida-based fboweb.com by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under its Aviation Situation Data to Industry (ASDI) program. fboweb.com uses this data to create a variety of value-added flight tracking services, including real-time tracking of General Aviation flights, flight alerts, historical flight reporting, pilot flight-time logging, and a number of other aviation-related informational services. The data feed is delayed by 5 minutes by the FAA for security reasons.
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Enabling the 2nd Generation in Space: Building Blocks for Large Scale Space Endeavours
D. Barnhardt et al. (2014), JBIS, 67, pp.136-140Refcode
: Starship, on orbit servicing, space manufacturing, robotic assembly, space re-use, space outpost, biologically inspiredAbstract:
Today the world operates within a "first generation" space industrial enterprise, i.e. all industry is on Earth, all value from space is from bits (data essentially), and the focus is Earth-centric, with very limited parts of our population and industry participating in space. We are limited in access, manoeuvring, on-orbit servicing, in-space power, in-space manufacturing and assembly. The transition to a "Starship culture" requires the Earth to progress to a "second generation" space industrial base, which implies the need to expand the economic sphere of activity of mankind outside of an Earth-centric zone and into CIS-lunar space and beyond, with an equal ability to tap the indigenous resources in space (energy, location, materials) that will contribute to an expanding space economy. Right now, there is no comfortable place for space applications that are not discovery science, exploration, military, or established earth bound services. For the most part, space applications leave out -- or at least leave nebulous, unconsolidated, and without a critical mass -- programs and development efforts for infrastructure, industrialization, space resources (survey and process maturation), non-traditional and persistent security situational awareness, and global utilities -- all of which, to a far greater extent than a discovery and exploration program, may help determine the elements of a 2nd generation space capability. We propose a focus to seed the pre-competitive research that will enable global industry to develop the necessary competencies that we currently lack to build large scale space structures on-orbit, that in turn would lay the foundation for long duration spacecraft travel (i.e. key technologies in access, manoeuvrability, etc.). This paper will posit a vision-to-reality for a step wise approach to the types of activities the US and global space providers could embark upon to lay the foundation for the 2nd generation of Earth in space.
PDF file, 5 pages: £5.00
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By Stephen Young
January 12, 2018
The Trump NPR calls for a new, low-yield warhead for the Trident submarine-launched missile. The NPR premises the need for that warhead on the idea that the following systems will not be able to penetrate enemy air defenses to attack enemy targets:
- US dual-capable aircraft—including the new F35A stealthy fighter aircraft—armed with gravity bombs, including the new, high precision, low-yield B61-12;
- The dual-capable aircraft of allied countries in Europe that currently host US nuclear weapons;
- US B-2 stealth bombers armed gravity bombs, including the new B61-12;
- US B-52 bombers armed with air-launch cruise missiles and the future long-range standoff (LRSO) cruise missile, and
- the future B-21 “Raider” stealth bomber armed with gravity bombs and cruise missiles.
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|An earlier DPRK Ballistic Missile Launch|
A fresh North Korean missile test failed when it exploded after launch Sunday, the US military said, a day after Pyongyang defiantly showcased its ballistic arsenal at a giant military parade.
The failure, which is likely to be seen as something of a public embarrassment for the regime, came amid soaring tensions in the region over the North's nuclear weapons ambitions.
"The missile blew up almost immediately," the US Defense Department said of the early morning launch which was also detected by the South Korean military.
Neither was able to determine immediately what kind of missile was used in the test, the timing of which appeared very deliberately chosen.
It came after North Korea displayed nearly 60 missiles -- including what is suspected to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile -- at a parade on Saturday to mark the 105th birthday of its founder Kim Il-Sung.
Read the full story at SpaceDaily
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The MIG-17 is a single-engine fighter with a maximum range of 1,100 nautical miles, a maximum speed of 625 KT, and a service ceiling of 57,000 feet. The MIG-17 carries three guns as armament and the A, B, and C models carry one 37-mm and two 23-mm guns, while the D and E have three 23-mm weapons. All models carry air-to-air rockets but the D and E versions are the only AAM carriers.
The basic advantage of the MiG-17 aircraft was a very short turn radius. Experienced US pilots, who had engaged the MIG-17 in air-to-air combat, were also aware of its low-wing loading and excellent cockpit visibility which enabled it to defend itself quite capably in a turning battle.
Col. Robin Olds of the Eighth Tactical Fighter Wing said: "That little airplane can give you a tussel the likes of which you've never had before in your life. It's fast enough. It turns on a dime. It has a reasonable zoom capability. It has very light wing loading. I've seen them split "S" from 2,000 feet. It's absolutely impossible to follow them. I've seen the MIG turn from where I had him at a disadvantage, perhaps 30 degrees angle off about a mile and a half out, maybe two, trying to get a missile shot at him, and make a firing pass at me when I was doing .9 Mach and closing. Their turn radius has to be seen to be believed. It's incredible."
The design of the MiG-17 was undertaken to correct the deficiencies that the earlier MiG-15 had at higher speeds. It was the first Soviet fighter to have an afterburning engine, the Klimov VK-1. Although similar in appearance to the MiG-15, the MiG-17 had more sharply swept wings, a longer fuselage, an afterburner, and better speed and handling characteristics.
In 1949, the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureau began work on a new fighter to replace the MiG-15. Two features of the aircraft were a thinner wing of greater sweep and a redesigned tail that improved stability and handling at speeds approaching Mach 1 (speed of sound). Although similar in appearance to the MiG-15, the MiG-17 has more sharply swept wings, an afterburner, better speed and handling characteristics and is about three feet longer. The wings of the aircraft are mid-mounted, swept-back, and tapered with blunt tips. They have wide wing roots. The engine is one turbojet inside the body and has a round air intake in the nose. It has a single, small exhaust. The fuselage is short, thick, cigar-shaped and tapered to the rear. It has a blunt nose and bubble canopy. The tail fin is swept-back and tapered with rounded tip. Flats are high-mounted on the tail fin, swept-back, and tapered. Flats and fin overhang the exhaust.
The prototype MiG-17 (NATO code name Fresco) first flew in January 1950 and was reported to have exceeded Mach 1 in level flight. Production began in late 1951, but the aircraft were not available in sufficient quantities to take part in the Korean War. Deliveries to the Soviet Air Force began in 1952.
Five versions of the aircraft eventually were produced.
- MiG-17 Fresco-A - the original front-line fighter. Developed from the MIG-15, the Fresco-A and B MIG-17 models had improved performance characteristics which resulted in a more stable flight, a better rate of climb, and higher altitude and speed capabilities. The effect of the MIG-17 cannon was still limited because of insufficient improvement in the optical fire control system taken from the MIG-15. Early production MiG-17s were fitted with the VK-1 engine, a Soviet copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene.
- MiG-17 Fresco-B -
- MiG-17F Fresco C - uprated version with VK-1F engine. Appearing in 1954, a small afterburner and range-only SCAN FIX radar were added to the C model. The VK-1F, an improved version with a simple afterburner and variable nozzle, was developed for the main production version, the MiG-17F (Fresco C).
- MiG-17PF Fresco D - The 1955 D model possessed AI radar capability. In 1955 the radar equipped MiG-17PF (Fresco D) entered service as a limited all-weather interceptor. The MiG-17PF was an interceptor with two radar housings for RP-1 'Izumrud' radar system in the nose, and the large N-37 cannon replaced by the third NR-23 cannon, mounted in a smaller fairing on the starboard side of front fuselage.
- MIG-17E - The non-afterburner version, the MIG-17E, appeared in 1955.
- MiG-17P (SP-7) - Serial lightweight all-weather interceptor with radar RP-1 radar "Emerald-1."
- MiG-17PF Fresco D (SP-7F) - version of MiG-17P with a souped-up engine. It was built in Poland as the LIM-5P and Czechoslovakia as the S104.
- MiG-17PFU - version of the MiG-17PF, only instead of cannon armament used four UR radar-guided. The MiG-17PFU was armed with four AA-1 "Alkali" radar-guided missiles, making it the Soviet Union's first missile armed interceptor.
- MiG-17P (SR-2, Wed-2c) - Photo-Recon based on MiG-17F.
The Soviet concentration on the MIG type design for large scale fighter production during the 5 years 1948-1953 created an intelligence problem in the West of determining the MiG-15 succession pattern. The tentative conclusion was that (1) that the MiG-17 and the MiG-15Bis were basically the same aircraft, the versions of which probably differed mainly in electronic equipment and / or engine installation; (2) that the MiG-17 went into production in 1950 and by 1953 was the major fighter component of the Soviet air armies and fleet air forces; and (3) that a more advanced MiG (Type 38) went into production in 1952 and presumably was filling out important units in the heart of the USSR.
Seven new fighter regiments were created in the Sino-Soviet border area during the three years 1967-1969. The new regiments in the border area were equipped with older MIG-17 aircraft drawn from storage.
During the mid-Seventies, Soviet's primary requirement was replacement of its obsolescent MIG-17 fighters and IL-28 light bombers, which comprised over half the ground attack and tactical strike components of the force.
The MiG-17 served with nearly 30 air forces worldwide, including the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact countries, China, Afghanistan, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Morocco, Cuba, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Though smaller than the USAF F-86 Sabre of Korean War fame, its weight and performance favorably compared to that aircraft.
Soviet production of the MiG-17 ended in 1958 with over 6,000 produced. It continued to be built under license in Poland as the Lim-5P and in China as the J-5/F-4. China's first reproduced jet fighter plane, the J-5, successfully flew in Shenyang for the first time on 19 July 1956, and General Nie Rongzhen went in person to Shenyang to offer congratulations.
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At first glance at this photo, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it as a pepperoni pizza.
NASA shared the photo on Instagram this week, writing: “The floor is lava! Oh wait, nevermind, that’s just an infrared look at Jupiter’s North Pole.”
While the photo is definitely of Jupiter, many fans pointed out the resemblance to several food items.
One user commented: “Forbidden cinnamon rolls,” while another joked: “I thought this was a pepperoni pizza.”
NASA’s Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, following a five year journey from Earth.
The spacecraft’s primary goal is to reveal the story of Jupiter's formation and evolution.
NASA explained: “Using long-proven technologies on a spinning spacecraft placed in an elliptical polar orbit, Juno will observe Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields, atmospheric dynamics and composition, and evolution.”
However, NASA is now also using its James Webb Space Telescope to examine the atmosphere in Jupiter’s polar region.
It explained: “NASAWebb's data will provide much more detail than has been possible in past observations, measuring winds, cloud particles, gas composition, and temperature.”
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Thank you Charlestown WV PD for using one of our SD3 aircraft in your PD Lip Sync Challenge! Air Cargo Carriers.
Air Cargo Carriers, LLC. has been synonymous with dependability and quality in the air freight industry since 1986. As the company has grown, so has the number of industries it serves.
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Video has been released showing the unmanned Atlas 5 rocket emitting a strange blue light after blasting off from its launchpad in Florida.
After successfully launching on 2 September, the 20-story tall spacecraft creates a unique blue light as it soared through space.
The rocket, manufactured and launched by United Launch Alliance, forms part of a mission to put a next-generation communications satellite into orbit for the U.S. military.
Perched on top of the rocket was the fourth satellite in the U.S. Navy's $7.3bn (£4.8bn) Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) network, which is intended to provide 3G-cellular technology to vehicles, ships, submarines, aircraft and troops on the move.
The satellites are designed to provide secure voice conversations, networked conference calls and data relay services, including video, worldwide. They work like cell phone towers, with four ground stations handling switching and routing.
The MUOS network will supplement and eventually replace the Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellite system to provide 16 times more capacity than the current network, the Navy said.
Video courtesy of United Launch Alliance
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It's exactly 75 years since Pan American World Airways completed the first round-the-world trip by commercial plane. It wasn't easy. The Boeing 314 flying boat, named "Pacific Clipper", which made the journey, had already flown from San Francisco to Auckland when, on the morning of December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbour came under attack. The airline's Pacific facilities - and even some of its planes - came under assault, so captain Robert Ford was told to return to the US by flying west. Specifically, via Darwin, Indonesia, Sri Lanka (where Christmas Day was spent making repairs), Karachi, Bahrain, Khartoum, Kinshasa, Brazil, Trinidad and New York. Total flight time was 209 hours (read the full story here).
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World's first drone cafe opens in Dutch uni
WOULD you like a drone with your cocktail? The world's first cafe using the tiny domestic unmanned aircraft as waiters has opened in a Dutch university.
The pop-up drone cafe was in business last weekend as part of celebrations for the "Dream and Dare" festival, marking the 60th anniversary of the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The 20 students behind the project, who spent nine months developing and building the autonomous drone, aim to show how such devices could become an essential part of life.
"We see it as the next mobile phone. You choose and you programme it like you want," said student and project leader Tessie Hartjes.
The drone, nicknamed Blue Jay, which resembles a small white flying saucer with a luminescent strip for eyes, flies to a table and hovers as it takes a client's order, who points to the list to signal what they would like.
"The blue eyes of the first drone load" up by scanning the list to register the order, said Ms Hartjes.
"Once it's fully loaded, then the order is ready. And another one comes with the order in a cup in the grip."
The drinks are picked up and carried by a set of pinchers underneath the drone, in a bid to show that these aerial machines could be used to carry out delicate work such as delivering medicines or even help to track down burglars.
Each drone costs about 2,000 euros (S$3,053) to build, which is funded by the university.
Sensors enable the drones to fly inside buildings and navigate crowded spaces, unlike other drones which rely on a Global Positioning System.
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Elon Musk is once again into trouble. The SpaceX launchpad on the US-Mexico border falls right on the border plans Trump has. If the wall is built according to the plan, the launchpad would be as good as a sliced one. But Democrats and SpaceX are actively trying to work ways around this. New plans are being proposed and will be voted on by the Senate.
The aerospace company is currently assembling its test Starship in Boca Chica, Texas, which lies on the US-Mexico border. Currently, they are working toward a “hopper test” of the spacecraft that it hopes will eventually ferry passengers to the moon and Mars.
Unfortunately, this area seems to be the exact spot Trump wants to build his wall near. If there is no change of plans, the fence will go right through the Musk property. This will, in turn, end up splitting the launch pad into two and subsequently, stripping away its purpose.
However, the politicians do recognize the importance of the launchpad and are actively working to devise solutions. Democrats have drafted an offer to Republicans that would exempt the launch facility and several other areas from the fence construction.
Related Article: Chop Chop: Tesla Employees See Job Cuts
Meanwhile, if all goes right, Musk has planned for the Boca Chica facility to launch about a dozen commercial satellites each year.
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China launched its Chang'e-4 rover and lander today, which if all goes well, will land on the far side of the moon in the coming weeks. It will be the first surface mission to land on that side of the moon, which can't be seen from Earth. While China hasn't shared a lot of information about the mission, a study published earlier this year has given us a look at what's likely in store, and if successful, the mission will help us understand this little-studied side of the moon and provide insight into some of the differences known to exist between the two sides.
According to the study, the lander will target the large Von Kármán crater, and once it has landed, it and the rover on board will analyze the moon's soil, study its subsurface structure and probe the solar wind. China's state-run news agency Xinhua News also reported in April that Chang'e-4 will carry seeds and possibly silkworm eggs to see how both fare on the moon. "It's going to a place that is really special for lunar science," University of Manchester researcher Katherine Joy told The Guardian. "The impact crater carved a huge hole in the lunar crust and possibly into the lunar mantle. It potentially unlocks rocks that we wouldn't normally find on the surface of the moon."
Researchers are also planning to conduct a radio-astronomical study. Since the far side of the moon is blocked off from Earth, radio noise coming off of Earth is blocked as well. And that means telescopes stationed on the far side of the moon could be poised to pick up signals that are hard to detect here on Earth. "Astronomers have long dreamed of a radio telescope array built on the far side of the moon," Tamela Maciel, the space communications manager at the UK's National Space Centre, told The Guardian. She said stationing a telescope there "would be like escaping from city light pollution and seeing the night sky from the top of a mountain. With a radio telescope on the far side of the moon, we would be able to explore the furthest and oldest objects in the universe like never before."
Chang'e-4 launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket around 1:22PM Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. While an official feed of the launch wasn't provided, unofficial channels offered streams that showed a successful liftoff. Xinhua News has since confirmed the launch and others have reported it to be a success.
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 7, 2018
Chang'e-4 follows three other successful missions of the Chang'e program. The first two involved probes that were put into orbit around the moon, while the Chang'e-3 mission put a lander and rover on the near side of the moon. Upcoming missions making up the program's third phase will aim to collect lunar samples and return them to Earth.
China hasn't said when we can expect Chang'e-4 to land, but many predict it will happen during the first week of January. The equipment will communicate with Earth via a satellite launched earlier this year specifically for this mission that's currently in a high orbit around the moon.
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When NASA's Juno spacecraft was launched to Jupiter in 2011 there wasn't a rocket available powerful enough to send the heavy spacecraft directly to the Jovian giant. Mission managers had to build in a flyby of Earth into the spacecraft's trajectory to provide the boost in speed that Juno needed to complete its 1.74 billion-mile journey. Therefore, on Wednesday, the Juno spacecraft will fly to within 350 miles of Earth's surface. This close encounter with Earth, called a "gravity assist," will boost the spacecraft's speed by about 16,330 miles per hour.
The slingshot effect of a gravity assist makes it possible for a spacecraft to reach the distant outer planets without using vast amounts of propellant. Astronomers had long known that the orbit of a comet was altered by an encounter with a planet. Consequently they theorized that the principle could be applied to spacecraft trajectories as well.
When a spacecraft flies by a planet, the planet pulls the spacecraft with its gravity. But the spacecraft has gravity, too, and it pulls on the planet a tiny amount. This causes the planet to lose a little energy from its solar orbit while the spacecraft gains the same amount. A small change in energy for a massive planet like Earth causes a minute reduction in the planet's speed, but the same energy applied to a tiny satellite causes a great change in speed.
The Earth flyby on Wednesday will help Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft designed to operate at a great distance from the sun, reach Jupiter in July 2016. Juno's primary goal is to give planetary scientists a better understanding of the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The spacecraft is also expected to shed new light on how the giant planets formed and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.science
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A stratospheric balloon will lift NASA telescope over Antarctica
As part of its Scientific Balloon Program, NASA launches 10-15 balloon missions into the Earth's atmosphere every year. For an upcoming mission, NASA is using a balloon that is the size of a football field, and its telescope has giant mirrors plated with nickel and gold, the space agency said in a press release.
NASA's space telescopes might be grabbing all the headlines, but the space agency also relies on humble balloons to demonstrate new technology as well as carry out research about the Earth's atmosphere, study the Sun, or even the universe at large. A balloon based mission may not look swanky but typically costs less and moves faster from planning to deployment.
If this has given you the impression that these missions are any less complex to put together, then you need to read further to know about Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths or ASTHROS that is scheduled to be deployed in December 2023.
What will the ASTHROS mission do?
When launched, ASTHROS will rise to an altitude of 130,000 feet (40,000 m) above Antarctica to observe wavelengths in the far-infrared region blocked by the Earth's atmosphere.
By looking at these wavelengths, scientists will attempt to understand how clouds of gas and dust which are dispersed in galaxies can also stop the formation of a star. The mission will look at distant galaxies containing millions of stars to understand how stardust and gas interact with other processes such as eruptions from living stars or deaths of massive stars. During the four-week mission, ASTHROS will create high-resolution 3D maps of the distribution and motion of the gas in our galaxy, the press release said.
A giant mirror critical to the mission
An 8.2 feet (2.5 m) wide mirror will help improve the ability of the mission telescope to observe fainter light sources and resolve the finer details. Since the telescope will proceed to its target destination on a balloon, the mirror needs to be as lightweight as possible. However, even at that altitude, the Earth's gravity continues to impact objects and could easily deform the mirror. Even a minuscule change to the parabolic shape, greater than 0.0001 inches (2.5 micrometers), could jeopardize the mission.
NASA contracted the difficult task of manufacturing the mirror to an Italian optics company, Media Laro, which has contributed to the building of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, which has multiple discoveries to its credit.
The primary mirror construction was recently completed by putting together nine panels. Using lightweight aluminum in a honeycomb structure has helped reduce the mass of the mirror. The surface panels are made from nickel and coated with gold since the latter increases the reflectivity at far-infrared wavelengths.
Unlike space telescope missions, where mirror alignments can be remotely controlled, the mirror of the ASTHROS needs to remain secured in mission position from the moment the balloon lifts off, and carbon fiber is being used to achieve this.
“I think this is probably the most complex telescope ever built for a high-altitude balloon mission,” said Jose Siles, the ASTHROS project manager at JPL in the press release. “We had specifications similar to a space telescope but on a tighter budget, schedule, and mass. We had to combine techniques from ground-based telescopes that observe in similar wavelengths with advanced manufacturing techniques used for professional racing sailboats."
With the primary mirror completed, Media Laro will deliver the telescope later in July, following which the ASTHROS team will put it together with other key components and the giant balloon, paving the way for flight testing.
YouTuber Carl Bugeja talks about his passion for PCBs, his love for swarm robotics, and that brain of his that keeps churning crazy, innovative concepts for his loyal fanbase.
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APX-15 UAV: Frequently Asked Questions 1) What is APX-15 UAV? The Applanix APX-15 UAV is a GNSS-Inertial based OEM solution for increasing the efficiency of mapping from UAV’s by providing highly accurate position and orientation of each image recorded from a camera or each range recorded from a LIDAR, which are then used to georeference images or ranges into map products – all without the need of extensive ground information This process is referred to as Direct Georeferencing. It is a complete HW and SW solution comprised of • Applanix APX-15 Single board GNSS-Inertial hardware module • POSPac UAV Office Software The HW is a small, single-board OEM module containing both a survey grade multi-frequency GNSS receiver and high performance MEM’s inertial sensors. The size of APX-15 UAV is 6 x 6.7cm, and it weighs only 60 grams, meaning the SWAP (size, weight and power) limitations of even the smallest UAVs are met. 2) How does APX-15 UAV work? The Applanix APX-15 UAV tracks the RF signals to the GNSS satellites to determine its location on the Earth, and then blends this information with the angular rates and accelerations from its MEMs inertial sensors to compute high rate, high accuracy measurements of position and orientation (roll, pitch and true heading). The inertial sensors are calibrated using the Applanix SmartCal Compensation technology in order to achieve the high accuracy required for sensor georeferencing. In real time the position and orientation solution is available at 5 Hz, and a GNSS base station can be used to transmit corrections to the APX-15 UAV to produce an RTK solution that is accurate at the cm level. This can be used for real-time applications, like guidance and control, precision landing, or stabilization. Unlike an RTK only product, the APX-15 UAV position is computed exactly at the location of the camera perspective center or LIDAR reference point by translating the position from the GNSS antenna phase center using the orientation measurements. As well, the APX-15 UAV records the exact time of the camera exposure and LIDAR range measurements in GNSS time. The raw inertial sensor data at 200 Hz and the raw GNSS data at 5 Hz along with the event time are logged to internal memory or to an external USB device. After the mission, the POSPac UAV office software extracts the inertial and GNSS data, and uses this to generate a 200 Hz high accuracy DGNSS position and orientation solution by processing it with GNSS base station data recorded at the site or from a VRS in a forward and reverse time algorithm. As in real-time, the position is computed exactly at the camera perspective center or LIDAR reference point using the orientation. POSPac UAV then uses the 200 Hz solution to compute the position and orientation at each camera or LIDAR event time that has been recorded. The position can be transformed to different datums and projections, and the final output can be ASCII or binary. This output can then be used to Directly Georeference the imagery or create a LIDAR point cloud. It can also be used as input into a traditional Aerial Triangulation (AT) process to help speed up point matching and eliminate issues with autocorrelation. This document is supplied “as is” without express, implied, or limited warranty of any kind by Applanix Corporation. In no event shall Applanix Corporation be liable for any loss or damage caused by information obtained from this document. Copyright Applanix Corporation, 2014. 3) Is APX-15 UAV RTK capable? Yes, the APX-15 UAV supports all common corrections such as CMR, CMR+, RTCM. 4) What are the main benefits of APX-15 UAV? The APX-15 UAV brings all the benefits of Direct Georeferencing to UAV platforms. With cameras it saves time and cost by not having to establish and survey extensive Ground Control Points (GCP’s) for AT. Instead only one or two points are needed for Quality Control. It also allows the area flown per mission to be increased by reducing the need to fly extensive side lap (currently typically 80%) in order for the AT to converge, resulting in a significant increase in productivity. Depending upon flying height and accuracy requirements, it also enables the ability to fly single or dual strip corridor projects. For LIDAR it enables high-accuracy point cloud generation with little or any adjustments required. 5) How much money can I save when using APX-15 UAV? The overall saving is specific to the project, terrain configuration and post-processing time. The cost of accessing the project area and establishing Ground Control Points for a traditional AT process is a key factor. By eliminating this, savings from just a few projects can pay off the entire cost of adding the APX-15 UAV. 6) Can I use it as back-up for my autopilot system? Yes. The real-time position and orientation computed by the APX-15 UAV can be used as backup to the autopilot system. In RTK mode, it can also be used to provide the precise position to the autopilot for precision landings. 7) What GNSS receiver is used in APX-15? The APX-15 UAV uses a survey grade 220 channel Trimble receiver based on Maxwell technology that supports GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, SBAS, QZSS. 8) What Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) are you using for the APX-15 UAV? The APX-15 UAV uses a custom-made IMU designed and built by Trimble integrated directly onto the board itself. There is no separate IMU hardware. 9) What antenna should I use with APX-15 UAV? The antenna choice is subject to platform and integration needs that dictate the size and weight. Applanix can help you to choose the antenna that best fits your platform. In general, the APX-15 can support active antenna with minimum LNA of 28.5dB. 10) Can APX-15 UAV support multiple sensor payloads simultaneously? Yes. 11) What are the most common sensors that can be integrated with APX-15 UAV? Most aerial sensors can be seamlessly integrated with APX-15 UAV (photogrammetric, thermal, hyperspectral, multispectral cameras, LIDARs). 12) What’s the difference between APX-15 UAV and AP-15 besides the size? The Applanix AP-15 is an Applanix POS product designed for use on larger platforms. It is fully upgradable to higher accuracy products (AP20/40/50/60), supports Trimble RTX, has a dual This document is supplied “as is” without express, implied, or limited warranty of any kind by Applanix Corporation. In no event shall Applanix Corporation be liable for any loss or damage caused by information obtained from this document. Copyright Applanix Corporation, 2014. antenna system with GNSS heading support, and offers control of additional sensors. It has full POS ICD that is common across all AP and POS platforms. The Applanix APX-15 UAV is tailored specifically for addressing the needs of small, light UAVs. 13) Can I use APX-15 UAV on any aircraft? The APX-15 UAV can be used on any aerial platform if it meets your requirements, but the hardware cannot be upgraded to more accurate POS and AP products. 14) What is the difference between POSPac MMS and POSpac UAV? The Applanix POSPac UAV supports only the APX-15 UAV platform, while POSPac MMS supports all Applanix POS, POSTrack and AP products including APX-15 UAV. It is also only available with a locked to a single computer SW license. 15) Is POSPac UAV upgradable to POSPac MMS? Yes, POSPac UAV can be upgraded to POSPac MMS. 16) Can I use Applanix SmartBase if I use POSPac UAV? Yes. Applanix SmartBase can be added as a separate option. 17) Does POSpac UAV support Applanix PhotoTools? PhotoTools are available as an option for specific camera types. Please contact Applanix for list of supported cameras. 18) Do you provide service and support for APX-15 UAV? Integration services are not included in price except under valid OEM agreement. We will provide customer support as per the standard POS AV support channels and mechanisms. This document is supplied “as is” without express, implied, or limited warranty of any kind by Applanix Corporation. In no event shall Applanix Corporation be liable for any loss or damage caused by information obtained from this document. Copyright Applanix Corporation, 2014.
© Copyright 2020
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Luc followed in his father’s footsteps and is a commercial pilot with over 18,000 hours of flight time. He first soloed at 16 in a Stampe SV4. He started his career in a Beech Bonanza and is currently a captain on the Boeing 757 and 767 with Continental Airlines, flying both international and domestic routes.
He acquired his T-28 in 1998 and has logged over 700 hours. He became formation qualified in 1998 and flew his first Horsemen show in 2006.
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| 0.035015
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Gaui 500X Quad Flyer Combo Kit
500X was designed based on UAV, advantages are: 1. Flight Efficiency: Standard Battery (2S2000mAh) time of flight for more than 12min, with a high-capacity battery, the flight time will be 20 min or more (available spreadsheet calculation) 2. Excellent wind resistance: the efficiency and load of propeller are perfectly optimized, so the wind resistance will be better than general electric aircraft
3. High stability: When using GU-344 (three-axis stabilizing system) for the beginner or professional in combination with other electronics for FPV flying; making the GAUI Quad Flyer a very stable vehicle. 4. Additional payload capabilities: Maximum Flying Weight is between 1100g to 2200g depending on power system used (330X GAUI Motors/ESCs or 500X GAUI Motors/ESCs), you can install cameras and video recorder, and other system.
5. Operation mode and flight characteristics are similar to helicopter, but no complex transmission 6. Collapsible body design, greatly reduce the damage rate, which can be repaired easily.
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| 0.132199
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Both chambers of Congress just passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2017. With this transformative development, the space agency got a lot more than just $19.508 billion in funding. They also got a very clear mandate: Get humanity to Mars.
To be clear, Mars has been in the works for some time; however, the 2017 Act places a strong emphasis on this goal, making it the focal point of NASA’s long-term plans. In the document, congress asserts that the space agency is to get humans “near or on the surface of Mars in the 2030s.” Opposition to the bill from the administration isn’t expected, so it’s more than likely to be passed into law by the presidency.
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| 0.066338
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Keep in mind not all industries need large volume
3D Printing will never come close to replacing mass production, but for low volume operations it "can" be more cost effective. And low volume doesn't necessarily mean "niche industry". Aircraft are only produced in lots of hundreds to thousands. If you have a single part that is expensive to manufacture for an aircraft by traditional methods then producing this by 3D Printing might be cheaper. The Space industry is another which can benefit hugely from 3D Printing.
3D print parts can be far more effective/efficient then many traditional parts, because you can build in a single part things which would take multiple parts in traditional manufacturing (think internal cooling channels, etc.). However, the technology is not really there yet except for on a very limited number of parts. The time for production of metallic 3D parts is still too high, and the cost/part analysis really only works on extremely short volume runs at the moment. 3D metallic parts also require significant amounts of post work machining (surface finishes, hole punching, thread tapping, support material removal, etc), so they will never replace the traditional workshop.
Still the metal 3D printing industry does hold some promise, just forget about it for mass production - areas like Space, Aero, Medical and custom engineering jobs can all benefit. Auto and consumer goods - not a chance!
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Fork King Aircraft Nose Wheel Jack
A nose wheel jack for a light aircraft that has a 2-sided vertical fork and No wheel fairing.
Fork King 5 (FK5) for 5,00x 5 wheels
(measures 6" between fork legs)
Fork King 6 (FK6) for 6.00x6 wheels
(measures 7" between fork legs)
Finally, A jack for servicing nose tires and bearings on light aircraft, (Without wheel fairings).
Nosewheel maintenance can be performed by one person without a hoist or weights.
Jack places wheel nearly in position for installation (No holding wheel with one hand while reaching for hardware).
Flat tires can be replaced If the tire can hold air long enough to position the jack.
Lever slides aft providing a unobstructed work area.
Verified Model list
(note: this is not exclusive, it is only the models verified to date.)
Piper Archer TX
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| 0.131333
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BBJ MAX 8 is an innovative business jet model. Its advantage is the extremely spacious salon — 95.20 sq. m. A flexible layout of the cabin has been created, which, when rearranging the elements, makes it possible to obtain a usable area from 9 to 50 seats. It has a shorter flight range than the model of the same series numbered 7. It is able to overcome transatlantic flights. Has economical jet engines LEAP-1B. Can be equipped with office equipment, high-speed Internet, etc.
143025, Московская область, Одинцово г.,
рп Новоивановское, ул. Овражная, 47а, ЖК Sky Skolkovo
ООО "Лилиенталь Джет"
2023. Все права защищены
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| 0.178194
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An autogyro is characterised by a free-spinning rotor that turns due to passage of air upwards through the rotor. The vertical component of the total aerodynamic reaction of the rotor gives lift for the vehicle, and sustains the autogyro in the air.
Whereas a helicopter works by forcing the rotor blades through the air, pushing air downwards, the autogyro rotor blade generates lift in the same way as a glider’s wing by changing the angle of the air as it moves upwards and backwards relative to the rotor blade. The free-spinning blades turn by autorotation; the rotor blades are angled so that they not only give lift, but the angle of the blades causes the lift to accelerate the blades’ rotation rate, until the rotor turns at a stable speed with the drag and thrust forces in balance.
Betcha didn’t know helicopters were invented by a Spaniard, eh?
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Jonathan Cowie, editor of the online journal Concatenation, commissioned me to write the first version of last week’s article in the Autumn of 2022, with the option of delaying it till Spring this year, which I had to take due to other commitments. He sent me an illustration from another publication, comparing launch costs for vehicles at the top of the US range, past, present and future, and asked me to expand it into a full comparison of all the launchers currently available. It proved to be a much taller order than he imagined, bordering on impossible. When he said, ‘What would have been good is: Year: Booster: US$ valued at a defined year (the same year for all boosters) per kg.’. it might have been good in theory, but it’s not attainable in practice.
A minor point is that the USA is not on the metric system, and since they dominate the market, launch prices are normally quoted in dollars per pound. The conversion to kilograms is easy enough, as long as it’s not made twice (the error which doomed Mars Polar Lander), and I did it at Jonathan’s request, but the resulting table is not compatible with most other published lists. For the Ariane entries, the situation was the opposite: payload masses (or ‘throw weights’, as they’re known in the business) were already in kilograms, but the prices were quoted in euros.
Also, in many cases up-to-date data is simply not available. Interestingly, quite a few of the websites had been updated since the end of February 2023, where previously they were 3-7 years out of date. I suspect that was because the whole field of launch provision was reacting to the presence of dynamic new kids on the block. But even then, the prices quoted came mostly from Wikipedia and many of them were dated, often quoted ‘as of 2020’ and in at least one case ‘as at 2016’. There were still no costs quoted for China’s Long March V, because so far it’s not been used for any commercial payloads, nor for Orbex and Skyrora at the other end of the payload mass scale, even in reply to my email queries. Trying to bring them all to a single year, and factoring in inflation, would be a huge undertaking. Thinking about it, I realised that for the whole of the 1970s and beyond, prices were routinely quoted in 1970 US dollars, because it was so convenient – everything could be compared directly to Saturn V, still the largest rocket ever built and one of the most successful, which had almost achieved cost-effectiveness, the point at which the cost per launch began to go down, when averaged over the whole programme. And then all the other interacting variables that I mentioned last week come into play. It was no coincidence that the example table Jonathan had sent me compared only big boosters, all vertically launched, all with some combination of the same propellants, and crucially, all from the same launch site, Kennedy Space Center.
In any case, like-for-like comparison in terms of dollars per kilogram or pound over the whole range of available boosters was unworkable. To take two extremes, the maximum payload of Richard Branson’s Launcher One was 300 kilograms. There’s no way you can take the price of that per kilogram and relate it to the corresponding figure for the much larger Delta IV Heavy. A payload as small as that could only go on Delta IV as a subsidiary payload, and what portion of the Delta IV cost it took up would depend on what else it was launching. And there’s no point in working out the Launcher One cost of a 5-ton communications satellite because it couldn’t carry it. I discovered that the cost per kilo of air-launches is actually very high, but that’s because the air-launched payloads are very small and what their owners are paying for is flexibility of launch site, choice of destination orbit, and above all how fast a launch can be provided. In the mid-1980s, Prof. Gerard O’Neill’s Earth resources company went bankrupt after he built his satellite, because he couldn’t get a shared launch before the money ran out.
In addition, the figures in the table below represent the cost per kilogram of a launch using full payload capability, which will often not be the case, depending on what the payload is and what it’s for.
To take a couple of extremes again, consider a big solar sail (Fig. 1) or a prototype solar power satellite. Because it was so thin, the solar sail illustrated packed up really small (Fig. 2), but one for a full-size interplanetary mission could be much larger – even when packed for launch, it could be so large that it needed the whole payload fairing of something like Atlas V. The booster would have unused payload capability but couldn’t carry anything else because there was nowhere to put it. Then, another payload could be a geodesic satellite like LAGEOS (Fig. 3), as small and as heavy as possible to minimise atmospheric drag, so most of the payload fairing around it would be empty.
Both could be launched by identical Atlas V’s, from KSC, and if they were going to the same destination orbit, the launch costs could be identical. But the costs per kilogram of payload would be totally different. Different again if one of them were to be launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base on the west coast, and still more different if one was for polar orbit and the other for Sun-synchronous, at high inclination to the equator, or into equatorial orbit, for which neither site is ideal. And if they needed different upper stages, say one with restart capability and one without, the costs would be different again, and the difference would not be linear. In other words, there is no such thing as a standard payload or a standard launch, and trying to reduce all the different ones to a single common denominator of dollars per kilogram or pound would be seriously misleading.
As I pointed out last week, the latitude of the launch site makes a big difference to costs. The last Ariane Vs have now flown, launching the James Webb Space Telescope (Fig. 4), the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Fig. 5), and finally two communications satellites into geosynchronous orbit (Fig. 6 – see below).
The cumulative record of all five Ariane versions since 1979 is extremely impressive (Fig. 7).
But one of the major factors making that possible has been the existence of the Kourou launch site, only six degrees off the equator in French Guiana. Remarkably enough, the end of the Cold War allowed an almost like-for-like comparison in one case, because launch facilities were created at Kourou for the Soyuz-2 version of the booster which had been the workhorse of the Soviet space programme since Sputnik 1 in 1957 (Fig. 8).
Among its successes, it launched satellites for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation programme, and the Sentinel Earth resources satellites (Fig. 9). The war in Ukraine has put a lasting end to cooperation on that level. Europe has its own small satellite launcher, Vega, which is filling the gap at the lower end of the launcher range, and the first Ariane VI, the Ariane V replacement, is already out there (Fig. 10) and coming up on its first prelaunch static firing. Ariane VI will have the same payload capability as Ariane V, and be simpler, updated and cheaper – but the equatorial launch site remains the crowning advantage.
Still another big factor in comparing costs is the choice of destination orbit. Sir Isaac Newton explained ‘orbit’ by imagining a mountain high enough to project out of the atmosphere, with a cannon mounted on the top (Fig. 11).
The bigger the charge of powder in the cannon, the faster the ball and the further it would go before striking the ground; ultimately, at 5 miles per second, the curve of its path would match the curvature of the Earth and it would never come down at all, but remain in free, unpowered orbit. (The word ‘orbit’ is not used correctly in a single episode of the original Star Trek, e.g. “The power is failing, Cap’n, we cannae maintain orbit”.) Such an orbit is now called Low Earth Orbit (LEO). They can be at any inclination to the equator, and reached from any almost any launch site, but the most efficient launch from anywhere is due east, taking maximum advantage of the Earth’s rotation (1000 mph at the equator).
At higher altitudes, in Fig. 12 ‘equatorial orbit’ is Geosynchronous Orbit, 22,000 miles up in the plane of the equator; in the table below, GTO is Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The payload masses quoted include the masses of the upper stages or propulsion systems which circularise the orbit at Geosynchronous distance, where the satellite remains over the same spot on the equator. Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is at an orbital inclination and altitude such that the satellite is always in daylight, as the Earth rotates below it, and it passes over a given location at the same time each day. It’s a special case of ‘elliptical orbit’ in Fig. 12, and also of Middle Earth Orbit (MEO), but putting in a range of values for all the possible missions in that category would have made the table incomprehensible.
Hitherto western launches to polar, near-polar and Sun-synchronous orbit have been almost entirely from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, to avoid overflying land after launch. They could be launched from Woomera in Australia, over sparsely inhabited land, but the relative inaccessibility of the site has so far prevented that, except for two scientific satellites in the 1970s. For the reasons explained last week, the UK’s coastal sites now under development are particularly suitable for these purposes.
After Jonathan, the Concatenation editor, had grasped all that, he realised that a single graph to hold all the possible launches and costs would have to be 3-dimensional, but even if you also used different colours for different launch classes, I think you’d need more dimensions than three! It might be produced as a chart wrapped around a globe of the Earth, like the ones of Figs. 11 and 12, but the idea reminded me of a chart of Solar System exploration to date which was produced around 2012 (Fig. 13). The original file was gigantic and while it might have printed out as a huge wall chart, on a computer screen you could only view small parts of it at a time. It’s packed with information, but in compressing it to be able to see it all at once, it becomes unreadable and it’s just a pretty picture.
Still, drawing up this table and the earlier versions of it wasn’t a wasted exercise. It was the first time I’d done it since an article in 1991 for Defence and Foreign Affairs, and as well as updating, I’ve learned a lot, because there are so many more options these days. If it’s 32 years till I’m asked to do it again, I’ll then be 110 years old, and presumably I’ll be free to decide whether to accept it as an interesting challenge, or gracefully decline because I’m too busy with other commitments.
Table of Launch Costs
|Rocket||Payload||Price/kg (approx)||Launch Site|
|8,210-18,500 kg (LEO)|
4.750-8.900 kg (GTO)
|Delta IV Heavy|
|27,800 kg (LEO)|
6,750 kg (GTO)
|16,000 kg (LEO)|
6,950 KG (GTO)
(1st launch pending)
|10,250 kg (LEO)|
4,250 kg (GTO)
7,250 kg (SSO)
|21,650 kg (LEO)|
11,500 kg (GTO)
15,500 kg (SSO)
|4.000 – 7,000 kg (GTO)||$ 7,142||Tanegashima Space Centre|
|Long March 3||10,500 kg (LEO)|
5,500 kg (GTO)
|Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre|
|Long March 5||25.000 kg (LEO)|
14.000 kg (GTO)
|not found||Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre|
(no longer available)
|6.000 kg (GTO)||$ 4,666||Movable|
(embargoed by West)
|23,700 kg (LEO)|
6,300 kg (GTO)
(embargoed by West)
|8,200 kg (LEO)|
2810-3250 kg (GTO)
|$ 9,756||Kourou (4)|
|Vega-C||1430 kg (700 km polar orbit)||$ 25.874||Kourou|
|Falcon 9||22,700 kg (LEO)|
8,200 kg (GTO)
|Falcon Heavy||63,800 kg (LEO)|
26.700 kg (GTO)
(first launch pending)
|27,200 kg (LEO)|
15,300 kg (GTO)
|$ 5,514 approx|
$ 9,804 approx
(withdrawn pending new engines
to replace the current Russian ones)
|8000 kg (LEO)||$ 10,625||Wallops Island|
|Pegasus XL||443 kg (LEO)||$ 90,292||Movable|
|300 kg (SSO)||$ 40,000||Movable – from California,|
Cornwall, Korea, Queensland
|Astraius||800 kg (LEO)|
500 kg (SSO)
|Movable – from Prestwick|
|Skyrora XL||315 kg (LEO)||not found||Saxavord Spaceport|
|Lockheed Martin RS1|
(ABL Space Systems)
|1200 kg||$ 10,000||Sutherland Spaceport|
|Orbex Prime||180 kg||not known||Sutherland Spaceport|
|Relativity Space||1250 kg (LEO)||$ 9,600||KSC/Vandenburg|
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MiG-25: a unique interceptor fighter whose fate was decided by chance
In May 1972, the MiG-25 high-altitude supersonic fighter-interceptor entered service with the Soviet army. The winged vehicle had unique characteristics and was significantly ahead of its time.
The prototype of the future “Flying Fox” (MiG-25 according to NATO classification) had the code name E-155P-1 and first took to the skies in September 1964.
Initially, the engineers of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau were faced with a difficult task - to build a fighter that could withstand the American B-58 supersonic bombers and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. Based on this, the future aircraft was supposed to have outstanding altitude and speed characteristics.
It is worth noting that Soviet designers coped with the task “excellently.” The MiG-25 significantly exceeded military expectations.
The 3rd generation fighter could reach speeds of up to 3000 km/h, which was incredible at that time. Moreover, it achieved this figure with full armament - 4 R-40 missiles.
However, this is not the only characteristic that the Soviet aircraft distinguished itself with. In total, the MiG-25 holds 38 world records.
One of them is flight altitude. In 1977, pilot Alexander Vasilyevich Fedotov managed to lift the car to a record 37 meters. Even modern fifth-generation fighters, such as the American F-650 Raptor, are not capable of this.
Not surprisingly, the Soviet combat aircraft was in great demand. A total of 1966 units were produced in various modifications from 1982 to 1190. At the same time, the “fox” was in service not only in the troops of the USSR, but also in the armies of Libya, Iraq, Iran, Bulgaria and Algeria.
By the way, during the US Army's Operation Desert Storm, the MiG-25, which is in service with the Iraqi Air Force, destroyed an American carrier-based fighter-bomber F/A-18 Hornet in an air battle. The Flying Fox also distinguished itself in the war between Egypt and Israel in 1967-1970. During the conflict, the Soviet interceptor fighter was used extremely successfully by the Egyptian Air Force.
As a matter of fact, the potential inherent in the MiG-25 could allow the modernization and production of the aircraft to continue up to the present time. However, the fate of the unique fighter was decided by chance.
In 1978, one Soviet MiG-25 was hijacked by Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko to Japan during a training exercise. Then the car was handed over to the Americans for detailed study.
The US returned the plane back to the USSR two months later. However, during this time the car had already been studied far and wide by American engineers.
- Wikipedia/Alex Beltyukov
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.
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The Infinite is an awe-inspiring and fully immersive experience that will transport you to the depths of space and back inspired by NASA Missions. You’ll get to witness what daily life is like for astronauts, and encounter mind-blowing views of the Earth in the first-ever cinematic spacewalk captured in 3D, 360 virtual reality.
This exclusive voyage coming to Tacoma is a one-of-a-kind event. Only 250 astronauts have experienced life on the International Space Station in the last 20 years, and you’ll get to realistically emulate their epic and emotional adventure. The Infinite is the world’s largest multi-sensory, in–person VR experience and is an extension of the Emmy Award-winning immersive series, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, the largest production ever filmed in space, in association with TIME studios.
The use of the never-before-seen footage filmed by actual astronauts on the station combined with several mediums (virtual reality, multimedia art, and projections) creates an exceptionally realistic experience. Throughout the 60-minute journey, your every sense will be engaged allowing you to discover life in orbit. And if that’s blowing your mind, you haven’t seen anything yet.
On the collective virtual reality side of things, you’ll get to explore a life-sized 3-D modelized recreation of the International Space Station, rendered to be as true to life as possible. The virtual reality journey will transport you to space and back to Earth, providing a breathtaking view of our blue planet.
The Infinite is truly unlike any other exhibition examining space. After an extremely successful 3-month tour in Montreal, it has taken The US by storm and we are ecstatic to see it coming to the Pacific North-West in May! In Houston, the audience found The Infinite to be a magically ethereal experience that stunned viewers—whether it be physically or emotionally.
Participants were often brought to tears by the immersive nature of the event, specifically when Earth made its glorious appearance through their goggles.
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It's part of a recurring theme of drones shutting down major airports.
A one-month old baby was vaccinated, thanks to a drone.
It's a superpower that could let it explore disaster sites with ease.
And how Indemnis found a way to do it.
It wobbles in turbulence, instead of breaking apart.
Drones can do significantly more damage than bird strikes.
There is intense debate over how closely drone and model aircraft enthusiasts should be regulated.
The Ukraine is becoming a hotbed of drone conflict. But this bizarre homemade UAV is something else.
It would know when you need a caffeine boost and fly over with your fancy coffee.
A DIY drone is within your grasp.
The company's Zephyr drone stayed airborne for 26 days.
A fire in Colorado was allowed to rage freely for an hour thanks to drone interference.
There's no need for a cowboy to ride all day in search of a stray when a drone with an infrared camera can spot it from on high.
Just don't expect to use them in the rain, at least not yet.
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| 0.138212
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Colomban (Michael) MC-15 Cri-Cri
World's smallest twin-engine manned aircraft, France
Archive Photos 1
1984 Colomban MC-15 "Cri-Cri" (cricket) (N128HJ, s/n 12-0128) at the Hawthorne Air Faire, Hawthorne, CA (John Shupek photos)
1984 Colomban MC-15 "Cri-Cri" (Cricket) (N128HJ, s/n 12-0128) at the Planes of Fame Air Museum, Chino, CA (John Shupek photos)
The Colomban Cri-Cri is the smallest Twin-engine manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban.
The name Cri-Cri comes from the nickname of Christine, one of Colomban's daughters. 'Cri-cri' 'or 'cricri' is also the French term for the sound of a cricket or a cicada, or an informal name for the insects themselves, but it is unclear if this double meaning was intended by Colomban himself.
Design and Development 2
The Cri-Cri features a cantilever low-wing, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, fixed tricycle landing gear and twin engines mounted on pylons to the nose of the aircraft in tractor configuration. The aircraft is made from aluminum sheet glued to Klegecell foam. Its 4.9 m (16.1 ft) span wing employs a Wortmann 21.7% mod airfoil, and has an area of 3.1 m2 (33 ft2). The aircraft is also capable of aerobatics within the limitations of Twin-engine aircraft.
Operational Use 2
As with any homebuilt aircraft, the existing Cri-Cri planes have often been modified by their builders, departing from the original design to a varying degree, resulting in varying performance. Most versions can climb with one engine inoperative.
In June 2010, EADS partnered with Aero Composites Saintonge and the Greencri-cri Association to present an electric-powered Cri-Cri at the Green Aviation Show in Le Bourget. The modified airframe with composite components can fly for 30 minutes at 110 km/h. The aircraft uses four brushless electric motors with counter-rotating propellers, which makes the aircraft one of the world's smallest four-engine aircraft.
On September 5, 2010 Electravia accomplished a world record speed of 262 km/h (162.33 mph) for a lithium polymer-powered aircraft using a Cri-Cri with two electric motors (each producing 25 hp) during the attempt. The company claimed engine and cooling drag reductions of 46 percent versus the conventional combustion engine arrangement.
On 9 July 2015 the electric-powered Electravia version of the design flew across the English Channel hours before the Airbus E-Fan, becoming the third electric aircraft to do so. It was pulled aloft by another aircraft and did not take off on its own. The first was the MacCready Solar Challenger in 1981 and the second used electric motors powered by hydrogen.
MC-15 Specifications 2
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| 0.033295
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'It's the largest order for India in its history'
Is this the largest order received by Boeing...
It's the world's largest order in 2005.
It's the largest order for India in its entire history of civil aviation. There have been orders in the past which were bigger than this but they were not in 2005. This was a huge number, no doubt about it.
How was the Boeing versus Airbus competition like last year?
If you look at the worldwide sales last year, Airbus will say they sold more airplanes but over 900 of their total is small airplanes. Ours was spread across -- about 600 were small airplanes like the 737, then we had 777s etc and that is why we think we have the complete family of airplanes.
The reason is very simple, our planes are more fuel efficient. If you flew a 777-200 LR side by side with A340-500 for a year, you will save two million gallons of fuel per year per airplane.
Couple that with the fact that Boeing airplanes can carry more cargo and more passengers, we also have low maintenance cost and two engines as opposed to four. That's why Quantas, Air Canada, Air India placed big orders. Jet chose two 777s, so I think we have the right product strategy.
Photograph: Jewella C Miranda
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| 0.649287
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Plesetsk, Russia: Russia successfully launched another GLONASS satellite on 3rd October 2011. The latest launch brings the total number of satellites in the GLONASS satellite navigation system to 24 and also improves its accuracy to 5 metres.
The Soyuz-2.1B carrier rocket with the Glonass-M navigation satellite was launched on early Monday from the Plesetsk Space Center in northern Russia, Space Forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.
The launch was initially scheduled for Saturday, but it was postponed since the wind force exceeded the characteristics, allowed at the altitude of 7-10 kilometres.
Glonass is Russia’s answer to the US Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few metres.
Previous versions of GLONASS had an accuracy within 50 metres.
The Russian aerospace industry has faced a series of misfortunes over the last nine months, including the loss of three GLONASS satellites, a prized Express-AM4 satellite and the fall of the Progress M-12M cargo in south Siberia’s Altai Republic.
The loss of GLONASS satellites alone cost the state 4.3 billion rubles (USD 152.2 million).
Source: Ria Novosti
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When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped down from their Apollo 11 moon lander 40 years ago tomorrow, they seemed to move in their bulky spacesuits with an unlikely ease.
Only a handful of the millions watching them on TV that night knew that many of the spacewalking skills and tools developed during the missions leading up to the historic landing had their origins in a 75-foot swimming pool at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills.
Three years earlier, at a time when U.S. astronauts were failing miserably in their first attempts to move and work effectively outside their spacecraft, it was a pair of Randallstown researchers -- Sam Mattingly and Harry Loats -- who persuaded NASA that underwater training was the best way to simulate the challenges of getting the job done in outer space.
Among the astronauts who worked and trained at McDonogh's pool between 1964 and 1966 were Aldrin (the second man to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969), Scott Carpenter, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan (the last man to walk on the moon, during Apollo 17, in December 1972).
"We felt we shared in their accomplishments," said, Mattingly, 82, who is retired and living in Ocean Pines with his wife. "It was a great period to live through, and to be closely associated with such great people."
Mattingly was always full of stories about working with the astronauts, and his own rigorous training -- diving in a pressure suit, parachute and survival training, dealing with explosive decompression or floating weightless in a looping airplane - to work out the problems of simulated weightlessness.
"Every time I tell a story of these memories to my son, Randy, he tells me that I really should write a book," he said. Instead, he penned a 58-page memoir about the days that took him to McDonogh.
Alternating pool time with the school's students, he wrote, the two men and their team of 10 or 12 solved many of the problems of working in space. They figured out the need for tethers, handholds, foot restraints and more space-glove-friendly tools. The value of long hours of underwater rehearsals and strict safety procedures first became apparent from their experiments, and laid the foundation for today's astronaut training.
"There is a continuing heritage from the work done at McDonogh" to all of NASA's modern "neutral buoyancy" laboratories, said John B. Charles, a NASA program scientist and an unofficial collector of the space agency's more obscure history.
"From humble beginnings in the borrowed pool at McDonogh School," he said, "underwater training facilities were eventually built at every major space center in the world, and now exist in the U.S., Russia, Germany, Japan and China."
It's in today's multi-million-gallon NASA pools that astronauts and engineers have created the tools and techniques that enabled astronauts to build the International Space Station and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
The underwater environment can simulate - with about 70 percent accuracy, some say - both the weightless conditions of space, and, in a much more limited way, lunar gravity, which is just one-sixth that of Earth.
But all that was unknown in the early 1960s when Mattingly and Loats began Environmental Research Associates. Mattingly was trained in business, Loats, who died two years ago, was trained in science. The Randallstown startup was chasing after any research and engineering jobs they could get from NASA, the military or their contractors.
By 1964, their work began to focus on the Gemini program -- the two-man space capsules that preceded the three-man Apollo missions. Gemini astronauts would be the first Americans to step outside their capsules, and NASA needed a tether to secure them and reel them back in. Engineers also had to develop an air lock, through which astronauts could exit and return to their capsule or space station.
"It ... became obvious that a pressure-suited man in normal gravity would not be agile enough to crawl through the air lock, so we would have to simulate weightlessness by going under water," Mattingly said in his memoir.
At first, Mattingly and his company experimented in an Air Force swimming pool near the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. But there was a host of problems, including the "constant parade of people through the pool building asking what we were doing and why, and could they help," Mattingly recalled.
So they returned to Randallstown and approached McDonogh about using its pool. Fifteen years earlier, Mattingly had sold water filtration gear to what was then an 800-student private boys' school. "They had the best indoor pool in the area," he recalled, with great filtration and the clear water vital to photography.
He told McDonogh Headmaster Robert L. Lamborn that it was "very important for the national space program that we use his pool."
Lamborn agreed. "At the time, everybody was behind the space program ... it was national pride," Mattingly said. "He was also a good guy."
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I'm Faith Lapidus.
And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. On January fourteenth, a human-made object landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. For one hour and twelve minutes it sent back exciting information and photographs.
|The surface of Titan. (Picture - ESA)|
Our program today is about the landing device named Huygens and the Cassini spacecraft that carried it through our solar system to land on that distant moon.
On October fifteenth, nineteen ninety-seven, a huge rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. The rocket carried a spacecraft named Cassini. The Cassini spacecraft carried a deployment vehicle named Huygens. The launch of these two spacecraft was the beginning of a seven-year flight to the planet Saturn. The flight was the joint effort of America's space agency, NASA; the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency.
On July first of last year, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn after traveling almost four thousand million kilometers. Scientists said they were able to guide it into a near-perfect orbit around Saturn. Cassini flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet.
Cassini immediately began sending back photographs and information about Saturn and its huge moon, Titan.
|Titan is the only known moon to have an atmosphere. (Picture - NASA)|
The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is very large -- even larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. Plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan.
The photographs and information about the huge moon sent by Cassini only added to the excitement about the Huygens landing device.
On December twenty-fifth, Cassini released the Huygens lander. Cassini quickly moved away from Huygens to lessen the chance of an accident between the two vehicles. After twenty days of circling the huge moon, Huygens started to move into Titan's thick atmosphere. Huygens entered Titan's atmosphere moving at eighteen thousand kilometers an hour. It had to immediately slow its great speed to keep from burning up.
Huygens slowed down by using three different parachutes. After its main parachute opened in the upper atmosphere, the vehicle slowed to a little more than fifty meters per second. This is about as fast as an automobile moves on a highway.
As it moved lower into the atmosphere, Huygens slowed to about five meters per second. This permitted it to safely prepare to land on the surface.
Martin Tomasko is the member of the team that guided the flight of the Huygens lander. He said the flight down to the surface of Titan was not as smooth as the team thought it would be.
Mister Tomasko said the lander moved from side to side while hanging from the parachute. He said it often moved as much as twenty degrees from side to side.
The scientific instruments on Huygens began measuring about one hundred sixty kilometers from the surface of Titan. This permitted the instruments to gather information about the atmosphere. The instruments included sound recording equipment.
Huygens began sending back information and photographs to Cassini four minutes into its flight to the surface of Titan. Cassini immediately began to transmit this information back to Earth using its more powerful radio equipment. NASA's Deep Space Communications Network received the information and photographs. Then NASA transmitted them to the European Space Operation Center in Darmstadt, Germany.
Slowly and safely, the three hundred seventeen kilogram vehicle moved down through the atmosphere of Titan. It quickly transmitted information about a rich mix of nitrogen and methane in the upper atmosphere.
Huygens' instruments showed that the amounts of the gas methane increased as the lander moved closer to the surface of Titan.
While scientific instruments were investigating the atmosphere, cameras were ready to begin taking photographs from high above the surface. The cameras were able to begin their work thirty kilometers above the surface of Titan. Thick clouds above thirty kilometers did not permit photography.
|Titans surface from a height of about sixteen kilometers. (Picture - ESA)|
The first photographs looked much like those taken here on Earth from an aircraft high in the sky. Part of one photograph shows a land area next to what might be a large area of liquid, similar to a lake. Some areas of the surface looked like islands.
There were photographs of areas of water ice. Some areas showed rivers created by liquid methane. Other photographs of the surface area seemed to show mountains and huge rocks. Still others showed deep lines in the surface that seem to have been cut by fast- moving liquid.
The scientific instruments on Huygens showed the temperature of the atmosphere of Titan is extremely cold. The instruments recorded a temperature of minus one hundred eighty degrees Celsius.
When Huygens was seven hundred meters above the surface, a special landing lamp was turned on. The lamp was used to light the surface of Titan to aid Huygens' cameras and see where the vehicle was going to land. The lamp was designed to last for about fifteen minutes.
It continued to light the immediate area for more than one hour after Huygens landed on the surface. Scientists believe the Huygens lander hit an area of Titan's surface that may be mud or wet sand. The lander's recording equipment transmitted a sound similar to a large object hitting a wet surface.
Instruments on Huygens showed the surface landing area is mostly a mix of dirty water ice, hydrocarbon ice, sand and clay. This mix of water and chemicals makes the ground a dark color. The instruments on Huygens began to quickly send back large amounts of information about the surface. This information included air temperature, air pressure and wind speed. It also sent information about chemicals on the surface of Titan and in the air. Experts say Huygens sent back enough information and photographs to keep researchers very busy for several years.
After it landed, Huygens immediately began transmitting photographs from the surface of Titan. The photographs are orange in color. Scientists say the surface of Titan is orange because of its huge distance from the sun. The large amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere also add to the orange color.
These photographs show an area of rocks of many sizes. The rocks can be seen for as far as the camera can see. Experts say many of the rocks look as if they have been shaped by fast-moving liquid.
The Huygens lander stopped transmitting information after one hour and twelve minutes. The fierce atmosphere of Titan and extremely low temperatures halted the vehicle's ability to gather information. Yet it lasted longer than scientists had planned.
Scientists will use the information gathered by the Huygens lander to learn a great deal about this unusual moon. One of the main reasons for sending Huygens to the surface is that Titan has a rich nitrogen atmosphere. It is also rich in methane gas. And its surface may have many of the same kinds of chemicals that existed on Earth millions of years ago. Titan may help scientists learn more about the very beginnings of our planet.
David Southwood is the Director of the European Space Agency's scientific program. Mister Southwood says Titan is a very interesting world. And scientists now have good information about this far away moon.
If you have a computer that can link with the Internet communications system, you too can see the orange photographs taken on the surface of Titan. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has many links to both Huygens and Cassini. J-P-L can be found at www.jpl.nasa.gov. That address again is www.jpl.nasa.gov.
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Faith Lapidus.
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
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Aeronautical science perspective paper 2 icao - the international civil aviation organization every hour of every day, 365 days a year and airplane takes off every few seconds somewhere on the face of the earth. Master of aeronautical science technology, embry-riddle aeronautical university the views expressed in this academic research paper are those of the author and do not reflect perspective in cross-cultural opposite-gender interaction several conclusions were. Aeronautical science perspective paper one reduction of aircraft emissions over the past figy years, advances in technology within the avianon sector have been rapid while shaping the way the avianon sector conducts business.
The course is management for aeronautical science integrate and reference the information from the attached your second “manager’s perspective” paper is due. Embry riddle aeronautical university, a masters of military operational art and science (acsc) and a masters in military art and science (saass) from air university. The aeronautical science competency will be satisfied by providing an explanation on how midair collision safeguard technology can assist pilots in avoiding aviation incidents the controlled flight into terrain will assist the pilot in following instructions on how to initiate a successful flight or landing into terrain. The course is management for aeronautical science integrate and reference the information from the attached your second “manager’s perspective” paper is due the paper should cover a manager’s perspective on one of the course topics or learning objectives be sure to integrate and reference the information you have learned in the materials presented in module’s [.
Yanlong wang currently works at the school of aeronautical science and engineering, beihang university (buaa) yanlong does research in aeronautical engineering and safety engineering. Safety management manager's perspective paper on aeronautical science manager's perspective paper on aeronautical science introduction travel by air takes place within a highly centralized and organized environment. Sim jia xian, 2386835 introduction to aeronautical science - p - w392 aeronautical science perspective paper: aviation safety & the swiss cheese model sim jia xian 2386835 26th september 2014 total number of words: 1,216 1 sim jia xian, 2386835 assignment coversheet date stamp please complete all fields below part a – to be completed by student student 1: sim jia xian, 2386835 assignment. Aeronautical science refers to the science of creation and operation of aircrafts it is a branch of nautical science that deals with spacecrafts engineering drawing, electricity, fuel, meteorology, economics and safety guidelines are the key concepts that comprise the aeronautical science course curriculum. Outsourcing: an air carrier's perspective on its' pros and cons 1 outsourcing: an air carrier’s perspective on its’ pros and cons by mersie amha melke an aircraft maintenance management research paper submitted to the extended campus in partial fulfillment of the requirements of master of aeronautical science asci 609 embry-riddle.
This paper is focused upon the topic of change, qualifications, and regulation within the aviation industry the concern is on the operational elements of the aviation industry from the employee perspective to the macro level the macro-level is represented by the faa, which influences the. “family aeronautical science: striving to improve the mathematics, science, and technological skills of nebraska native american students” american association of community colleges, minneapolis, mn. Aeronautical science perspective paper marcel melo asci 202 embry riddle aeronautical university rotary-wing aircraft are designed and built to fulfill a multitude of purposes and missions.
Papers / presentations subscribe to rss feed 2018: monday, august 13th sustainability perspective adem okal, university of waterloo suzanne kearns, assistant professor of aeronautical science, embry-riddle aeronautical university jim w henderson administration & welcome center (bldg #602). My perspective essay 263 words - 2 pages the perspective that i’m writing about that “fits” or is the closest to my own way of thinking is the humanistic theory i chose to write about this because i agree with carl rogers and abraham maslow in that people are generally motivated to improve or achieve the highest level of success that an individual can. Aeronautical science - professional pilot dr jeanne radigan, acting chair aviation dept a history perspective 3 avn 104 private pilot ground 3 avn 201 safety ethics 3 at least one research paper is required a grade of c or higher is a graduation requirement.
Aeronautics (from the ancient greek words ὰήρ āēr, or air, and ναυτική nautikē, or navigation, that is, navigation into the air) is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. View essay - activity 310 aeronautical science perspective paper from asci 202 at embry-riddle aeronautical university running head: weight shifting and center of gravity weight shifting and center. For writers, it is to be noted that research papers concerning any aspect of library and information science are eligible research papers can be written and completed in the pursuit of a persons masters and / or doctoral studies aeronautical science perspective paper resea pdf damage assessment of composite structure. Aeronautical science perspective paper resea military to civilian resume sample luxury pe improving aerospace vehicle efficiency nasa aerospace engineering solved mock papers gat new rfds research into bush health needs roy pdf damage assessment of composite structure.
Asci 490 aeronautical science capstone course comprehensive examination proposal ricky nelson embry-riddle aeronautical university asci 490 aeronautical science capstone course (proposal) submitted to the worldwide campus in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of science in aeronautics abstract the purpose of this. Embry-riddle aeronautical university offers the bachelor of science in aeronautics (bsa) through our newly formed partnership with erc institute the erc institute partnership provides us with the ability to host students in a full-time and part-time classroom capacity. The paper need to be written from an aeronautical science percpective based on one of the learning objectives provided [meteor_slideshow slideshow=”arp2″] a-research-papercom is committed to deliver a custom paper/essay which is 100% original and deliver it within the deadline. Advances in aerospace science and technology (aast) is an open access journal the goal of this journal is to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners all over the world to promote, share, and discuss various new issues and developments in all areas of aerospace science and technology.
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The latest drone bill popped up in Utah this month which would allow police officers to shoot drones down out of the sky. This is an interesting proposal since there is currently litigation pending in Kentucky regarding a private citizen shooting down a drone that hovered above his ‘personal airspace.’ Senator Wayne Harper introduced this bill to establish criminal penalties for misusing drones and allowing first responders to “neutralize” the drone. The types of misuse contemplated by this bill include voyeurism, flying them within 500 feet of a correctional facility, photographing near crowds of more than 500 people, and flying them within 3 miles of a wildfire. Harper says in support of his bill, “We’ve had drones that have followed somebody down the street –watch them as they close the door and then watch them through the window of their house after they have gone inside.” Commercial drones that obtain Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licenses would be exempt from this bill. The concern with type of regulation is that it could pose more of a safety threat than the threat originally posed by the drone. However, Harper’s bill includes language forbidding police officers from disabling or destroying drones if it would injure people or animals. If this Utah bill passes, Utah would be the 27th state to pass drone safety and privacy laws, including other states like California, Florida, and Arkansas.
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8 Super Tucanos to Dominican Republic
Brazil’s EMB-314/AT-27 Super Tucano continues to be the aircraft of choice for Latin American air forces who want to conduct drug interdiction and counterinsurgency missions. Their modern trainer/ counterinsurgency concept is slowly replacing the brilliant but under-appreciated OA-37 Dragonfly in the region. While the US Air Force was quick to throw the aircraft away, Latin American countries have made strenuous efforts to keep their fleets in service. Nevertheless, the Vietnam-era Dragonflys were not cost-effective to modernize, and are simply running out of parts and safe flying hours. The large, ruggedly-built Super Tucano trainers can operate from unimproved airfields.
They come with a pair of M3P .50 caliber machine guns in the wings, the ability to mount surveillance and targeting pods like RAFAEL and Northrop-Grumman’s popular LITENING, and the ability to carry both Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and precision ground attack weapons in place of standard COIN loads like conventional bombs, rocket pods, and gun pods. To date, 63 Super Tucanos have been delivered to Brazil (of 99 ordered) and all 25 to Colombia. Chile recently ordered 12, and Venezuela wanted 36 but the USA intervened to bock the sale. AIR A-37 USAF Museum A-37, USAF Museum (click to view full) Now Embraer confirms the sale of 8 Super Tucano aircraft to the Dominican Republic, which shares an island with Haiti in the Caribbean. Embraer adds that the aircraft will be used for “internal security and border patrol missions, within an operations theater focusing on fighting the drug traffic.” The Fuerza Aerea Dominicana stopped flying its A-37s in 2001, and the Super Tucanos will restock its combat squadron at San Isidro. The contract was finalized at the end of 2008. Mexican freelance journalist Inigo Guevara is a member of the SIPRI Network, and has just finished a book covering Latin America’s jet fighters. He informs DID that the figure mentioned in the Dominican Republic’s press is US$ 93 million, financed by a a loan from Brazil’s National development bank that required 18 months of Congressional debate to approve. Guevara adds that other Super Tucano exports within the region are pending: a 24 plane deal for Ecuador worth up to $280 million, and Guatemala’s intent to buy 6 aircraft.
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As a Crewing Officer
you will be responsible for the short term crew planning. You are responsible for all flight and cabin crew rosters within a timeframe of 72h before departure. When flights are disrupted or in case of crew absence within the 72h timeframe, you will change rosters of flight and cabin crew taking into account and balancing crew comfort, safety, fatigue and operational efficiency.
- Your main objective is to find the best possible and most efficient solutions in case of crew sickness and disrupted operations, making sure our operations are maintained. While doing so you will try to minimize the impact on the crew members’ published rosters and try to keep operational costs down.
- You will be responsible to make sure of a correct, and conform internal agreements, daily hand-over from the Scheduling departments in Belgium and The Netherlands to the Operational control center in order to protect Operational Excellence within your time frame .
- You are responsible to make sure that all flight programme changes, delays, Crew sickness will be covered in order to avoid any service disruption within 72 hours.
- You are responsible to keep the Crew management system up-to-date in order to provide Flight Operations management with a clear view of the current situation at any time.
- You will ensure that Hotac and Travel will be informed of any crewchanges in order to arrange adjustments in crew Hotac and travel needs.
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Authorities say nine people were killed in the crash of a small business jet into an apartment building in northeast Ohio.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Haymaker says the 10-seater Hawker H25 jet clipped a utility wire on the way down Tuesday afternoon and crashed into a small apartment building, which was destroyed by a subsequent fire.
The plane then hit an embankment beyond the building, causing a nearby house to also burn.
A spokeswoman for the Akron fire department originally confirmed two fatalities but, a report from Ohio.com cites a person it describes as an owner of the downed jet who says there were seven passengers and two crew members on board.
The plane burst into flames and disintegrated.
Haymaker says no one was at home in the apartment building that was destroyed and there are no known injuries on the ground.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions when the plane hit.
"I heard a big bang, and my couch shook twice," said Carrie Willis, who lives several blocks away.
The front of the apartment building was destroyed.
Jesse Moon told WEWS-TV that he was six blocks away when the plane went down and he ran over to the area.
"Everything was gone," he said. "It looked like a bomb exploded."
Officials investigating the fiery Ohio plane crash say a pilot that had just landed at a nearby airport reported hearing no distress calls despite being on the same communications frequency as the aircraft that went down.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board say the crashed plane had been expected to land at a small Akron airport that doesn't have a control tower, so the incoming flight was guided by a larger airport in the area.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr says investigators will remain at the site for several days.
The Tuesday crash destroyed a small apartment building, but no one on the ground was hurt.
A Florida real estate company says seven of its associates on the plane died.
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British Airways JFK-LHR flight nears supersonic speed.
British Airways Flight 114, a Boeing 777-200, hit supersonic speeds on Thursday, after it flew into a super speed jet stream. This jet stream made the usually-no-shorter than 6 hour flight last only 5 hours and and 16 minutes, a pretty amazing feat.
The flight departed JFK at 10:50pm EST and arrived London Heathrow at 9:06am London time. Usually it is said that this flight cannot be made any quicker than 6 hours.
The aircraft reached speeds of 745mph relative to ground speed, just twenty three miles short of the speed of sound at 768mph, according to NASA. A few flights have been said to make the same journey in 5 hours and 20 minutes. They were also able to make that quick flight time using the powerful jet stream, which travels at 200 miles per hour.
According to Daily Mail:
It is not unexpected for the jet stream to intensify during the winter months, with flight times in January and February between the US and the UK shortening in duration.
The temperature contrast between the equator and the North Pole is at its greatest during these months, and as well as leading to polar-vortex related climate experienced by the US currently, air pressure and wind increases.
Sadly, however, the strength of the jet stream is heavily weighted in one direction; that is to say flights heading to the US from Europe will see an increase in duration.
While this may sound great, it still doesn’t come anywhere close to making the time that the Concorde was able to make on this same route! In 1996, a Concorde was able to make the New York to London journey in just 2 hours and 53 minutes, hitting speeds of up to 1,350mph during the journey.
This still is pretty amazing that the 777 was able to make such a quick journey across this pond. If only this jet stream came in both directions and was this strong all of the time! It isn’t too bad to be able to make the journey across the Atlantic in less than six hours!
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Aircraft operations are governed by the Federal Aviation Regulations, more commonly called the FARs. Aircraft speed limits are found in FAR 91.117, which spells out different speed limits for several different situations.
A common speed limit encountered by all airplanes is the restriction to fly at 250 knots (288 mph) or less when under an altitude of 10,000 feet. The vast majority of light general aviation airplanes cannot fly faster than 250 knots and most never go above 10,000 feet, but after every takeoff and before every landing jet pilots must make sure that they obey the speed limit. Above 10,000 feet, jets typically fly at faster airspeeds during cruise flight.
A second speed limit applies below 2,500 feet within four nautical miles of “of the primary airport of a Class C or Class D airspace area.” Class C or D airports are small to medium-sized airports with a control tower. If an airport has airline service, chances are good that it is a Class C or D airport. Many busy general aviation airports fall within these categories as well. The speed limit for these areas is 200 knots (230 mph).
A speed limit also applies beneath Class B airspace. Class B airspace surrounds major metropolitan airports in places like New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Class B airspace starts at the surface immediately surrounding the airport then goes higher as the distance from the airport increases. It is commonly described as an “upside down wedding cake.” When flying underneath the outer rings of Class B airspace, aircraft are restricted to 200 knots (230 mph). Aircraft flying through the Class B airspace, like airliners taking off and landing at the main airport, are not subject to the speed limit, but they do have to abide by the 250 knot speed limit below 10,000 feet.
A common misconception even among experienced pilots is that Class B airspace does not have a specific speed limit. Aircraft flying through the Class B airspace, like airliners taking off and landing at the main airport, are not subject to the speed limit, but they do have to abide by the 250 knot speed limit while they are below 10,000 feet.
Class B airspace typically extends from the surface to 10,000 but in some cases it goes higher. For example, in Atlanta the ceiling of the Class B airspace extends up to 12,500 feet. In Denver, where the airport elevation is 5,348 feet, the ceiling of the Class B airspace is 12,000 feet. If an aircraft is descending into the Class B airspace from above, there is no speed limit when it enters the Class B. It can maintain a higher cruising speed until it descends below 10,000 feet.
Outside of these specific instances, airplanes have a limiting “never exceed” speed. This is a speed that is determined by the aircraft manufacturer and is the maximum safe speed for the aircraft to fly. Above the never exceed speed, the aircraft may not be structurally sound, especially in turbulence or if maneuvered abruptly.
Other than these cases, pilots are free to fly their airplanes as fast as they will go and they usually do. At least until the air traffic controllers make them slow down for other traffic.
This article was first published on Examiner.com:
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By Oscar Michel, Masters in Journalism, DCU
Sony released the first 4k footage shot from the International Space Station (ISS) with the a7s II full -frame mirrorless camera.
Amazing footage has been shot in 4k (QFHD 3840X2160) from outer space. The International Space Station orbits approx. 400 kilometers (249 miles) above the Earth at a speed of roughly 8 km/sec. (5 miles/sec.), and completes one orbit of the earth in approx. 90 minutes (16 orbits/day) recording a variety of 4K videos and still images from outer space.
“By capturing exceptional, immersive images from outer space of something such as a large-scale disaster on the ground, you can grasp aspects of the situation that are unseen from the ground, such as damage and the scope of impact. We can also explore environmental changes by taking continuous pictures of a specific place, like a fixed-point observation. This could be looking at color change in the sea by taking pictures of a submarine volcano or watching the movement of drift ice. By recognizing these kinds of changes of the Earth, we can contribute to an understanding of global environmental issues, and we also believe that transmitting images invisible from the ground will lead to an increased interest in space development” said Jaxa engineer Toshitami Ikeda.
The ?7S II has been selected as the camera for the new exterior platform on the ISS’s Japanese Experiment Module known as “KIBO”. As a result of various tests conducted by JAXA, it was confirmed that the ?7S II possesses the durability and reliability to withstand the unique and unforgiving environment of outer space, including high vacuum, cosmic radiation, and abrupt temperature fluctuations.
The H-II Transfer Vehicle, KOUNOTORI, a Japanese cargo transfer spacecraft serving the International Space Station, was launched from Japan’s largest rocket-launch complex, the Tanegashima Space Center, on December 9, 2016, carrying one of Sony’s revolutionary ?7S II cameras on board. This gives us on the ground the opportunity to see images captured from space in 4K or full HD video resolution, as well as 12 megapixels still pictures.
A 51,200 ISO was essential to get good footage of earth at night. The a7s has enormous light-gathering pixels in its full-frame 12.2-megapixel sensor.
“Phenomena such as Aurora or meteors, or the earth seen at night from space, are a little different from when seen on the ground, so the high sensitivity capture that the A7S II offers is perfect for night shooting,” said Ikeda . “Using our previous system, we couldn’t even consider shooting at night, which comes around every 45 minutes.”
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The distance from Pafos Intl to Luxembourg is 1680.81 miles or 2704.43 Kilometres.
Flight Time Approximations: How long would it take to fly from Pafos Intl to Luxembourg? If you were in a Boeing 747 and maintained an average cruising speed of 450 mph (724.1 kmh) through the duration of the flightit would take you around 4.2 hours to get from Pafos Intl to Luxembourg. Flying estimates include a 15 min buffer for take off and landing.
Airport Name: Pafos Intl City: Paphos Country:Cyprus Location: Latitude 34.718039 Longitude 32.485731 Elevation 41ft 3 letter Code PFO
. Timezone is GMT 2
The following airlines are reported to fly out from Paphos, Cyprus:Arkefly, Blue Air, British Airways, Bulgaria Air, Business Aviation, Condor Flugdienst, Cyprus Airways, easyJet, Eurocypria Airlines, Jet2.com, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Luxair, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomsonfly, Transaero Airlines, Transavia France, Transavia Holland, Viking Hellas,
Airport Name: Luxembourg City: Luxemburg Country:Luxembourg Location: Latitude 49.626575 Longitude 6.211517 Elevation 1234ft 3 Letter Code LUX
Timezone is GMT 1
The following airlines are reported to fly out from Luxembourg, Luxemburg, Luxembourg:Air Canada, Air France, Alitalia, Astraeus, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Western Airlines, China United Airlines, Czech Airlines, Hamburg International, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair, Scandinavian Airlines System, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Portugal, Tunisair,
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| 0.035613
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SpaceX and NASA are getting closer to sending a manned spacecraft
On Thursday at the launch site 39A of the Outer Space Center. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral (the US Air Force base in Florida) conducted a test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket engines with the Crew Dragon spacecraft installed . It is this rocket that should send the crew to the International Space Station. Demonstration flight (as far as can be judged, without a team) will be held in February.
An unmanned test launch will take place on February 23, but in June of this year, if everything goes well, the astronaut team will head to the ISS. In any case, SpaceX representatives announced just such a schedule.
NASA helps in the work of both SpaceX and Boeing - both companies have contracts with the agency for delivering cargo to the ISS and astronauts. It is worth noting that in connection with the Shatdaun in the US, the agency works, in fact, for free.
Preparing for flight and astronauts. So, Robert Benken and Doug Hurley carefully work out all their actions with the spacecraft simulator Crew Dragon. The simulator was created by SpaceX, it is as close to real conditions as possible. Both astronauts previously flew into space on the "Shuttle".
And one more important point - both astronauts wear lightweight versions of spacesuits, which are created by SpaceX. They were first shown in August 2017. They will not be able to go into outer space, but such a spacesuit can protect against depressurization and other dangers. And the protection here from both low and high temperatures - for some time the spacesuit can protect its owner from open fire. Interestingly, the model of the spacesuit in question, developed on the basis of technology of the 1960s.
SpaceX has created a new spacesuit so that astronauts will not be too difficult to work inside the spacecraft. Such "clothes" are much more mobile than the usual space suit.
It is worth noting that if SpaceX succeeds, for the first time in several years, Americans will deliver their own astronauts on their own spacecraft. The last time it happened in 2011, when the space shuttle "Atlantis" went to space for the last time.
Currently, American astronauts fly to the ISS on the Russian space "transport workers." If SpaceX and Boeing do everything well, then from 2019 the United States will send people on its own ships. Falcon 9 is much less expensive to operate than any other rockets.
Boeing is also developing a spacecraft, but SpaceX is doing better. The company Ilona Mask works, as far as can be judged, more effectively.
By the way, despite the fact that the June flight (hopefully it will not be postponed) will be called "manned", the entire procedure for launching the ship, the flight and docking will occur automatically. SpaceX will perform the launch work in the same way as without people, but only with passengers in a capsule.
Earlier, SpaceX announced that the astronauts would be in a capsule when fueling the launch vehicle. Usually the team goes to their places after refueling, because it is quite a dangerous procedure. But after SpaceX has improved the process, it lobbies the technology of preparation, which was called Load-an-Go. This is necessary so that the super-cooled rocket fuel does not heat up.
For NASA, cooperation with SpaceX is beneficial because the agency saves a lot of money. Instead of developing space transport by itself, the organization has subcontracted this task.
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| 0.034451
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Indian Navy reconnaissance plane makes emergency landing in Moscow
MOSCOW - An II-38 plane of the Indian Navy made an emergency landing in an airfield just outside Moscow late on Saturday night.
Local Russian media reported that the plane had developed a technical snag and was forced to make an emergency landing at the Zhukovsky Airfield. The airport was temprarily shut down for other flight operations.
A chasis failure is being suspected as the cause of trouble. There was, however, no fire even though emergency services were kept on high alert. The plane eventually made a successful landing 'with unlowered front landing gear," according to Sputnik News, quoting a press service statement.
In a statement, the Indian Navy clarified that the aircraft was in Russia for an overhaul and that no crew was on board when the incident took place.
The II-38 is a long-distance anti-submarine plane with modern navigation and radio tools which makes it capable of spotting ships and submarines.
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| 0.236059
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IEEEA conformal transverse slotted substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) metamaterial leaky-wave antenna sensor with uniform slots is investigated and analyzed for mmWave sensing applications. Firstly, its planar version is introduced. Then, its performance is compared with the curved SIW antenna. The metamaterial characteristics of the antennas are investigated. The transverse slots on the array forms a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial structure that controls the radiation direction as the function of frequency. It behaves like a left handed metamaterial and radiates backward in the lower frequencies of the band (28-45GHz), whereas it behaves like a right handed metamaterial that scans forward direction at the higher frequencies (45-62GHz). Approximately 80° beam scanning is obtained in curved version with acceptable side lobe levels, whereas 110° beam steering is achieved with the planar version. Theoretical analysis and the simulation results are confirmed successfully by the experimental results in the 28-40 GHz band. Besides, a practical example of conformal SIW metamaterial antenna on military helmet made of a ballistic material is illustrated. The calculated spatial peak power density values of the proposed curved SIW metamaterial antenna on the outer surface of a head phantom are demonstrated.
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| 0.075791
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The search for ever greener and more efficient propulsion systems continues with game changing breakthroughs in propulsive technologies unlikely in conventional liquid rocket engine systems for the foreseeable future. MARCOM is consequently diligently focusing on the development of propulsion systems, the design of which incorporates and affords both reliability and cost-effectiveness.
The MAS-10K liquid rocket demonstrator engine is a forerunner to the CHEETAH-1`s two propulsion systems, the MAS-58K and the MAS-860K, but with refinement. It could also be used as an upper stage apogee motor or as an interplanetary orbital transfer engine.
Our repertoire of capabilities include:
|Thermal Analysis||Plume Physics|
|Component Design||Thermodynamic Cycle Analysis|
|Cooling Circuit Design||Base Pressure Analysis|
|Injector Design||Aerospike & Advanced Propulsion|
The problems associated with traversing the atmosphere and orbital flight require significant deviation from the more common place aircraft flight dynamics models.
To overcome these limitations, MARCOM has developed LaunchSIM, a six degree of freedom, flight dynamics simulator. Based on the round-Earth equations and incorporating industry standard wind, turbulence and gravity models, LaunchSIM provides a quasi-real-time environment in which guidance, navigation and control algorithms can be developed and tested to meet avionics system performance requirements.
With the addition of complex propulsion, attitude control, staging and actuator models, LaunchSIM provides an invaluable insight into the sequencing of events and dynamic behaviour of any vehicle’s mechanical systems.
The plethora of data LaunchSIM provides permits us to complete the design loop by feeding this information back to the system level, propulsion, structures and aerodynamics, to effect design changes and provide for an improved overall design.
To control and monitor vehicle performance, we have developed sophisticated graphical user interfaces which provide user-friendly command and control interfaces. Besides giving a real-time assessment of the vehicle’s performance, they also permit the development and training of launch controllers.
With the advent of the modern day computer, the study of high speed aerodynamics has become synonymous with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics.
These techniques not only permit the study of complex fluid flows at actual flight Reynold’s numbers and enthalpy levels, they have all but replaced, for certain flight conditions, the need for the astronomically expensive high speed wind tunnel facilities of the 20th Century.
MARCOM possesses significant experience in the analysis of these flows extending all the way from subsonic flight regimes to the complex chemically reacting environments encountered during hypersonic reentry of spacecraft.
Complementing these advance techniques, MARCOM has also developed simplified, in-house, analytical and computational methods which provide high level, first order design and benchmarking data.
The design of any launch vehicle fuselage structure must meet stringent weight requirements in an unforgiving thermal and inertial load environment.
These loads are derived from various sources, wind loads on the launch pad, dynamic loads on lift-off, shock loads during staging and payload separation maneuvers and aerodynamic loads encountered during passage through the atmosphere.
During the Cold War, the use of carbon fibre matrix composites, possessing excellent strength to weight properties was not an option. Today, carbon-fibre is a matured technology offering significant advantages in strength at reduced weight. Nevertheless thermal constraints due to either heat or cold at various locations, still necessitates the use of higher temperature materials such as aluminium and steel.
Designing and developing fuselage structures in commercial solid modelling packages, we use the latest Finite Element Analysis algorithms to characterize the anticipated stresses encountered during launch. In the high dynamic and vibratory environment of launch, these analyses invariably require non-linear transient dynamic techniques.
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Does something other than a ninth planet explain some of our solar system's quirks?
A distant, super-dense planet would explain some of our solar system’s weird quirks.
The softball-sized drone will begin its first mission in early 2021.
One small drink for man, one giant party for mankind.
Hello DARKNESS my old friend...
Yeah, it's THAT good.
Getting knocked up in space might be possible after all.
Even slashing the price in half won't cut it for the rest of us.
They teach us a great deal about the origins of the solar system.
Steve's unique formation meant different physics were at play.
Over 350,000 people subscribe to our newsletter.
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| 0.170337
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posted by joy
When an airplane flies with a given wind, it can travel 3000 km in 5hrs. When the same airplane flies in the opposite direction against the wind it takes 10hrs to fly the same distance. Find the speed of the plane in still air and the speed of the wind.
speed of plane in still air --- x km/h
speed of wind ---- y km/h
speed of plane with the wind --- x+y km/h
speed of plane against the wind -- x-y km/h
5(x+y ) = 3000
x+y = 600 #1 equation
10(x-y) = 3000
x-y = 300 #2 equation
add #1 + #2, it becomes so easy.
speed of a plane in still air is 450
speed of wind is 150
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| 0.999946
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There is no text information for this aircraft at the moment.
| ENGINE||1 x 3000hp|
| Take-off weight||10941 kg||24121 lb|
| Wingspan||16.46 m||54 ft 0 in|
| Length||14.83 m||49 ft 8 in|
| Height||4.42 m||15 ft 6 in|
| Max. speed||584 km/h||363 mph|
| Ceiling||9755 m||32000 ft|
| Range||1528 km||949 miles|
| ARMAMENT||4 x 37mm cannon, 4 x 12.7mm machine-guns, 2903kg of bombs|
|A three-view drawing (1236 x 1929)|
|Klaatu, e-mail, 20.08.2011 02:37|
The ultimate development of the Vultee Vengeance, remodeled as a single-seat ground attack aircraft, and powered by Pratt & Whitney's huge R-4360 radial engine. By the time this plane appeared the Army Air Force decided that the mission could be carried out just as effectively by single-seat fighters such as the P-47 Thunderbolt. This might have been the Air Force's answer to the Navy's Douglas AD Skyraider.
|Jim, e-mail, 02.02.2010 05:22|
Holy Moley!! 4 Cannon and 4 MGs?
Thing would be a superb a2g bird.
Do you have any comments?
All the World's Rotorcraft
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| 0.037716
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Every two decades
NASA has sought to make all manner of changes to improve its safety culture. For example, for the daily space shuttle Mission Management Team meetings after Columbia, the agency moved to a larger room to accommodate more people and replaced a rectangular table with a circular table. The goal was to take what had been an intimidating setting and make it less so for participants to encourage people with dissenting opinions to speak up. With a round table, for example, there was no "head of the table." Microphones were also installed on the back walls for anyone to use.
Today, NASA no longer has a monopoly on US human spaceflight. At present, the space agency's only operational means of getting humans into orbit is SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Later this spring, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will start flying. And in about two years, the Orion spacecraft will begin taking humans into deep space. That's three different spacecraft with three different teams of operators.
Heflin has a message for the managers at NASA and private companies who are ultimately overseeing these spaceflights.
"We have enough examples now of what not to do," Heflin said. "I don't care what it is. If you have someone who is worried, don't slough it off. Deal with it. The program manager is under all this pressure to complete a mission. But you just can't ignore someone who might just have something you really need to pay attention to. You can't allow all of these successes to blind you to things you should pay attention to."
The fliers on these vehicles are clearly thinking about the legacy of loss upon the 20th anniversary of the Columbia disaster.
NASA Astronaut Stephen Bowen joined the space agency in July 2000 and had completed training by the time of the Columbia accident. Later, he flew three space shuttle missions. In February, Bowen will command the Crew-6 mission aboard Crew Dragon to the space station, marking the ninth launch of this vehicle with humans on board. Challenger, he noted, was the 25th shuttle launch. Columbia was the 113th mission.
"It's not routine; it's still a test flight," he said of his Dragon mission. "And I feel confident having spent time with the SpaceX team that they still look at it that way. They're still trying to understand what they've built and where the problems are. Because we all know that to engineer is human. We've made mistakes in every one of our designs. It's just, when is that going to bite us? And can we find it before it does?"
Challenger's loss came 19 years after Apollo 1. Columbia's loss came 17 years after Challenger. It's sobering to realize this cadence of accidents on the 20th anniversary of Columbia's tragic loss.
Two decades is a generation. So does every new generation have to learn these hard lessons?
Let us hope to not have an answer for such a question any time soon.
reader comments153 with
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| 0.368622
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