In the battle of the "flying dustbins" (the affectionate title my UK brethren have given to this class of mirco air vehicles), there appears to be a new kid in town, ready to do battle with Honeywell's T-Hawk MAV, shown in an earlier blog entry
Check out this video I found on YouTube.
Quite the performer, this Flying Can. Anyone have more info on this MAV or its developer?
It's official.
Bigelow Aerospace, the Las Vegas-based company that makes inflatable low-Earth orbiting modules, is now the go-to company for close encounters of the airborne kind.
The FAA, in a 10 December update to its air traffic control organization, tells its air traffic controllers to tell anyone wanting to report "UFO/unexplained phenomena activity" to contact a UFO/ unexplained phenomena reporting data collection centre.
Top on the list is Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), a "new organization that is devoted to exploration of extremely advanced aerospace technology, including the so-called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) or unidentified flying object (UFO) topics", says the FAA in the update.
Contact info is listed as "voice: 1-877-979-7444 or e-mail: Reporting@baass.org, according to the report.
Between 2001 and 2004, controllers were told suggest the reports be sent to another Bigelow venture, the National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS). The FAA says NIDS was the "go-to" organization for the "reporting by pilots and air traffic control of UFOs in the United States".
"NIDS is now defunct and has been replaced by the larger, more capable BAASS," says the FAA. "Therefore, pilot and air traffic control reporting of UFOs in the United States should now go to BAASS, vice NIDS."
The Wikipedia page for NIDS notes the group went under in 2004, and that NIDS was the FAA's go-to location for black triangle reports.
There is no associated Wikipedia entry for BAASS that I could find, but Bigelow, per their website, says it is looking for a few good (space)men to populate the new company...
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) yesterday issued a broad agency announcement looking for groundbreaking new ways to control one of nature's most powerful and mysterious forces -- lightning.
"Control" might be a bit hyperbolic for what they want to do, at least for now.
"Lightning causes more than $1 billion a year in direct damages to property in addition to the loss of lives, disruption of activities (for example, postponement of satellite launches) and their corresponding costs," DARPA says in the BAA. "A better understanding of the physics underlying lightning discharge, associated emissions, and related processes (for example, tribocharging in the clouds) may lead to revolutionary advances in the state of the art of lightning protection."
What that could mean to DARPA's customer - the US military -- is "protection of personnel, assets, and ordnance from possible injury, damage, or disruption from lightning activity".
Included in the goals of the Nimbus program are determining "optimal strategies to reduce the probability of lightning strikes in a given area in the presence of a thunderstorm".
"Given an area (size: 1 square kilometer) in the presence of a thunderstorm, is it possible to reduce the probability of a cloud to ground lightning strike in that area? How might lightning initiation be inhibited, or lightning propagation be diverted or blocked to achieve this goal? Is it possible to induce lightning in one region within the storm system, in order to suppress lightning in the region in need of protection? What are the optimal strategies, and the necessary resources, to achieve this goal?
I was a bit suprised by how much a mystery an event many of us witness dozens of times every summer season continues to be. Says DARPA: "The mechanism of lightning initiation inside thunderstorms is one of the major unsolved mysteries in the atmospheric sciences."
A good video of lightning is slow-mo is available from Nat Geo:
Here's a link to NOAA's lightning safety web page. The photograph at top is also courtesy of NOAA.
The agency approved the four-seat low-wing plane for flight into known icing (FIKI) in January, after which.approximately 75 FIKI-equipped aircraft have been delivered. EASA approved the feature for European-registered SR22s earlier this month.
Cirrus says it discovered the issue during a recent quality assurance inspection at its Duluth manufacturing plant, finding that some compression fittings on the anti-ice fluid distribution lines may have been improperly installed.
The airframer offers FIKI as a $24,500 upgrade to the basic SR22.
If the lines separate in flight, the system could leak all its glycol-based TKS fluid, leaving the aircraft with no anti-icing protection on wing, windshield, propeller and horizontal and vertical stabilizer leading edges. With no ice protection, the FAA says the aircraft could become ice would build on the airplane "and degrade the handling qualities and performance".
The FIKI option includes a second 15-litre TKS reservoir in the right wing, longer titanium leading edge cuffs chord-wise with more holes, a cuff for the vertical stab, backup pump and additional stall protection monitoring.
Cirrus on 9 November issued a mandatory service bulletin to owners detailing the problem as well as instructions for inspecting and correcting improperly crimped connections. The company asked owners to perform the inspection, which takes about 10h, at the next schedule maintenance event or annual inspection event for the aircraft, or within 100 flight hours of the 9 November notification, whichever occurs first.
"Until the Service Bulletin is complied with, the operator is advised that Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI) conditions is prohibited," says Cirrus in the SB, a recommendation the FAA repeated in the immediate airworthiness directive (AD) issued today. "If the airplane encounters icing conditions, immediately exit conditions by changing altitude, turning back, or if clear air is known to be immediately ahead, continue on course," says Cirrus.
Below is a copy of the FAA's AD.
In true Richard Branson style, the SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise unveiling Monday night ended with a bang, or better said, a really BIG wind.
Here's a press release just sent out by Virgin Galactic, and a YouTube Vid they posted.
Hurricane Provides Dramatic End to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Event.
At the start of a dramatic week of weather right across the US, hurricane force winds hit Mojave Air and Spaceport CA on the evening of Monday 7th December, tearing apart a specially created site which had been used throughout the day to house guests attending the first roll out of Virgin Galactic's new spaceship.
Along with Sir Richard Branson and spaceship designer Burt Rutan, over 800 press, future astronauts and VIP guests including Governors Bill Richardson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and Victoria Principal had gathered in the desert to witness the roll out of the world's first commercial manned spaceship. Standing at the end of the runway, guests braved gale force winds and stormy weather, to see SpaceShipTwo for the first time. The spaceship was carried down the runway as snow fell, by her mothership, VMS Eve, to a spectacular display of lights and music.
A few hours later as guests celebrated, an evacuation was called by local officials who had become aware of the approaching storm. Sir Richard Branson said: "It was absolutely incredible, the roll out of the spaceship had been fantastic and everybody was filled with terrific energy. We were all in the tents when the evacuation was called. 20 minutes after the last of the 800 guests had been coached away, the main 200ft tent literally took off". Gusts were reported of up to 116MPH, and local residents commented that the Mojave area had not experienced such a combination of high winds, rain and freezing temperatures for over two decades. Both spaceship and mothership were unscathed thanks to the rapid action of the crew as were all guests thanks to an efficient evacuation to waiting buses.
Sir Richard Branson added: "We were fully expecting to be blown away by our beautiful new spaceship but got a little more than we bargained for!"
Virgin Galactic has put out a video highlighting its star-studded grand unveiling of the prototype SpaceShipTwo, the VSS Enterprise, at the Mojave Air and Space Port on 7 December.
What got cut from the final version, and what I captured with my cheap little Casio Exilim portable, was a the roasting that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (aka, the Terminator) and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson shelled out to one another, as well as some comments that Virgin might not have found too palatable. Scaled Composites, builder of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft and SpaceShipTwo is located in Mojave, while New Mexico is building the commercial spaceport from which Virgin Galactic will operate.
Check it out. I've also posted Burt Rutan's comments, as well as Virgin chief Sir Richard Branson's thoughts and the truly first roll-out (from the hangar), which I only witnessed because fellow reporter Guy Norris (pictured in the Flickr slideshow next to one of two blow-up party tents) and I were really late for the event. At the end is a FLICKR slideshow of the pix I took on a very, very frigid night in the desert.
Here's Branson's talk.. Here's Rutan's comments... And finally, the guest of honour for the entire party, before just about anyone else had seen her - coming out of the hangar as a paired vehicle at the same time that Gov. Schwarzenegger arrives at the party in his NetJets Cessna Citation Sovereign....
Anybody who's anyone in the simulation world is in Orlando, Florida this week for the annual Interservice/Industry training, simulation and eduction conference (I/ITSEC) .
Billed as the world's largest modelling and simulation gathering, I/ITSEC is also a focal point for latest and greatest in aircraft simulation technologies, some of which I described in a recent feature in Flight International.
One in particular is CAE's simulator for the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 trainer jet. The company is under contract to provide one full-mission simulator and one part-task trainer to the Italian Air Force. The M-346 is a contender in the US Air Force's upcoming T-X advanced trainer competition.
CAE's full mission simulator for the Italians will include a dome with 25 projectors, or video channels, each projector driven by two PC computers, rendering images generated by the company's Medallion-6000 technology.
I caught up with CAE on Wednesday to learn more about the M346 and shot this video of an early prototype of the simulator.
More to come after Thursday's visits to variety of other companies...
Here are videos and pictures of my 2 November flight out of the Tampa Executive Airport in the Cessna Skycatcher light sport aircraft. Teaching me about the two-seater was Cessna chief pilot for piston operations, Kirby Ortega.
Along with the YouTube videos (one for the ground portion, one in flight) is a Flickr slideshow and a presentation that Cessna provided, courtesy of Apture.
Note the interesting harmonious resonance the Skycatcher plays when you extend the flaps to 40deg, the configuration for landing (second video).
A longer story I wrote for Flight International magazine's 8 December issue is here.
Enjoy!
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