October 1, 2013
The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft invented by Paul Moller who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for fifty years (with limited success).
The craft said to be currently under development, the M400, is purported to transport four people. It is described as a car since it is aimed at being a popular means of transport for anyone who can drive, incorporating automated flight controls, with the driver only inputting direction and speed required with a cruising speed of 305 mph.
read more »
Posted in Money, Technology |
1 Comment »
July 20, 2011
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing, fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft.
Measured by its longevity and popularity, the Cessna 172 is the most successful mass produced light aircraft in history. The first production models were delivered in 1956 and they are still in production. As of 2008, more than 43,000 had been built.
Posted in Money, Technology |
Leave a Comment »
February 22, 2011
A flying submarine or submersible aircraft is a craft able both to fly or travel under water. The Soviet Union made an unsuccessful attempt at developing a flying submarine during World War II. In 1961 American engineer, Donald Reid designed and built a single-seat craft (32.83 ft length) capable of flight and underwater movement, the Reid Flying Submarine 1 (RSF-1). The first full-cycle flight [underwater at 6.5 feet (2 m) depth, airborne at 33 ft (10 m) altitude] was demonstrated on 9 June 1964.
The US Navy is looking at the Lockheed Martin Cormorant, a drone aircraft launched from a submarine. On launching it floats to the surface and after flight it is retrieved from the water surface; it cannot travel directly underwater. In 2008, DARPA announced that it was preparing to issue contracts for a submersible aircraft.
Posted in Technology, War |
Leave a Comment »
February 21, 2011
The Nano Hummingbird or Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) is a tiny, remote controlled aircraft built to resemble and fly like a hummingbird, developed in the United States by AeroVironment, Inc. to specifications provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Hummingbird is equipped with a small video camera for surveillance and reconnaissance purposes and operates in the air for up to 11 minutes. It can fly outdoors, or enter a doorway to investigate indoor environments.
Posted in Technology, War |
Leave a Comment »
January 21, 2011
A ekranoplan, or ground effect vehicle (GEV), is a craft that attains level flight near the surface of the Earth, made possible by a cushion of high-pressure air created by the aerodynamic interaction between the wings and the surface known as ground effect. Also known as a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) vehicle, flarecraft, sea skimmer, SkimMachine, or wing-in-surface-effect ship, a GEV can be seen as a transition between a hovercraft and an aircraft. However, the International Maritime Organization has classified the GEV as a ship.
Posted in Technology |
Leave a Comment »
August 16, 2010
A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a type of jet engine in which the combustion process takes place in supersonic airflow. Both ramjets and scramjets rely on high vehicle speed to forcefully compress (ram) the incoming air, but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion, airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout the entire engine.
This allows the scramjet to efficiently operate at extremely high speeds: theoretical projections place the top speed of a scramjet between Mach 12 and Mach 24, which is near orbital velocity. For comparison, the fastest manned airbreathing aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird, has a maximum speed of Mach 3.2.
Posted in Technology |
Leave a Comment »
The Daily Omnivore 