Creative New

PICTURES: Northrop’s UAV demonstrator#1

Via flightglobal

Northrop was awarded the six-year, $636 million UCAS-D contract in August 2007 after its X-47B was selected over Boeing’s X-45N. The first of two demonstrators is scheduled to fly in November 2009, and the first carrier landing is planned for 2011.

The demonstrator has bays for sensors and weapons, each of the latter sized to carry a 900kg (2,000lb) Joint Direct Attack Munition or six 150kg Small Diameter Bombs. That would give an operational N-UCAS, with its 12-14h unrefuelled endurance, the capability to attack 12 different targets on a single mission, says Beard.

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The FanWing experimental aircraft opens up a new area of aerodynamics

Via fanwing

Designs to establish a means of integral lift and thrust using a horizontal-axis wing rotor are recorded back as far as the late 19th century. Some of the experiments started to take off but did not sustain flight. The FanWing new blown-wing solution offers both basic proof of concept and a steady trajectory of improved and controlled flight performance.

The aircraft has a cross-flow fan along the span of each wing. The fan pulls the air in at the front and then expels  it over the wing’s trailing edge. In transferring the work of the engine to the rotor, which spans the whole wing, the FanWing accelerates a large volume of air and achieves unusually high lift-efficiency.

The FanWing showed proof of concept in the form of actual flights before theoretical validation, academic research or explanation. The FanWing is an invention by trial and error and though certainly employing a methodology with good precedent in the history of innovation it is in no way within the normal paradigm of academic and conventional aircraft development. There is nevertheless a steady accumulation of tests and supporting documentation.

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AutoSkyBot

Via createthefuturecontest

I have created the ultimate flying machine ever build by human hands. I call it the AutoSkyBot it’s a VTOHLJATT- Vertical Takeoff Hover Landing Jet Arial Terrestrial Transport. Consumer uses are Air Taxi Cab, Air Ambulance, Multi-role Fire Department fire suppression vehicle, SKY crane, Skyscraper construction Platform, Skyscraper rescue vehicle, Skyscraper external fire suppression system, Selective Logging, Shipping Container Automated Delivery Vehicle. Power line maintenance. Handicapped, elderly, special needs vehicle.

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Via defense-update

A project for the construction of two new aircraft carriers was launched with the signature of contracts worth around £3 billion, between the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), the newly-formed UK maritime Joint Venture, BVT Surface Fleet, and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, assigned for the unprecedented job. The contract was signed onboard the Royal Fleet Flagship HMS Ark Royal, one of the Royal Navy’s existing aircraft carriers.

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David Huynh:Research Scientist

Via davidhuynh

In this age of data abundance, good information and insights are rare. Which sources of information and whose insights would you trust? Leaving the interpretation of data to derive information and insights to the media and we’ll risk a skewed perspective; leaving it to other people and we’ll simply miss out on valuable insights that they withhold.

It is thus important that everyone be able to deal with data themselves: gather data, sift through data, integrate data, interpret data, make informed conclusions, and present their findings to their peers and to the world.

video : vimeo

A team of UC Irvine scientists has been awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to study the neuroscientific and signal-processing foundations of synthetic telepathy.

Via physorg.com

The research could lead to a communication system that would benefit soldiers on the battlefield and paralysis and stroke patients, according to lead researcher Michael D’Zmura, chair of the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences.

“Thanks to this generous grant we can work with experts in automatic speech recognition and in brain imaging at other universities to research a brain-computer interface with applications in military, medical and commercial settings,” D’Zmura says.

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Physicists sent two photons down optical fibers toward different destinations, and found that the photons could instantly sense each other’s behavior.

Via physorg.com

After performing multiple tests on two entangled photons, physicists have yet again found that the photons seem to be communicating faster than the speed of light - at least 100,000 times faster. The researchers hope that their results might encourage theorists to come up with new explanations for the strange quantum mechanical effect.
The physicists, led by Nicolas Gisin from the University of Geneva, arranged their experiment by sending two photons down fiber optic cables to detectors in two Swiss villages located 18 km apart. Both photons started in Geneva, with one heading toward Satigny and the other toward Jussy. The study, which is published in Nature, builds on previous tests published a few months ago in Physical Review Letters.

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The 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit

Via gamespot

Just over two weeks ago, the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit closed its doors. But while reaction to the 4,000-person event has been decidedly mixed, attendees could agree that many fine games were on display–either behind closed doors or on the scaled-down show floor.

Today, the cream of the games press honored the top of the crop by doling out the 10th annual Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008 honors. This year, the Best of Show prize went to Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks’ upcoming update of the classic postapocalyptic role-playing game series. Due out this fall, Fallout 3 also won Best RPG at the event, beating such opponents Lionhead’s Fable 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

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Via popularmechanics

It could be a rule of modern urban warfare: Send the robot in first. After all, it’s better to risk an unmanned air or ground vehicle than an infantry squad. While the United States has already deployed thousands of robots in Iraq and Afghanistan, its allies are lagging behind. Following the lead of DARPA’s high-profile Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge, both Singapore and the United Kingdom are staging robotics competitions this August to develop their own autonomous war machines.

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