TechBlog

XM-2 Skycar
In 1962, Dr. Paul Moller built a six to one scale model of the XM-2. Two years later in the garage of his residence in Davis, CA he began construction of the full size aircraft. As Moller Aircraft Corporation, Dr. Moller completed construction of this prototype using two 2-cycle McCulloch drone engines which produced enough power to allow the XM-2 to hover in ground effect in 1965. With the success of his first VTOL flight, Dr. Moller began to re-engine the XM-2 in 1966 with two Mercury outboard engines XM-2 in flight under UC Davis sponsorship. The re-engined XM-2 was then flown for the International Press at the UC Davis airport in 1966. In 1968 Dr. Moller received his first patent on this VTOL XM-2 configuration.

XM-3 Skycar
Construction of the XM-3 began in 1966 and was a small two-passenger VTOL aircraft of unique design. A single ring fan powered by 8 go-kart engines surrounded the passengers to create the lift required for vertical flight. In 1968, Dr. Moller flew the XM-3 in ground effect. This configuration was patented in 1969.

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Always on the verge of a seeming comeback, airships are back in the spotlight, touting new technologies. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency recently announced funding for an innovative, ballast-free airship technology created by Aeros Aeronautical Systems, based outside Los Angeles. The Aeroscraft ML866’s potentially revolutionary Control of Static Heaviness system compresses and decompresses helium in the 210-ft.-long envelope, changing this proposed sky yacht’s buoyancy during takeoff and landings, Aeros says.

It hopes to end the program with a test flight demonstrating the system. Other companies are planning their own first flights within the next few years. Each has a design that it promises will launch a new era of lighter-than-air transportation.

A new type of flying machine is watching you Onera JUST below a half-opened garage door a tiny device can be seen at the feet of someone lurking in the shadows. It looks like a blue dragonfly. Then its miniature wings begin to flap as it slips under the door and darts along the street. After rising through the air it stops to hover outside the window of a building several storeys high. There is an opening on the roof, and it slips inside. As it flits from room to room its video-camera “eye” transmits pictures to a screen on a remote-control unit strapped to the wrist of its clandestine operator. This is not a scene from a James Bond film, in which 007 tests a new device from “Q”, but an animated video produced by Onera, France’s national aerospace centre, to explain REMANTA, a project to develop the technologies needed for miniature robotic aircraft. More bug-like flying devices are being developed in other research laboratories around the world. A few are already small enough to be carried in a briefcase; others are the size of a jet fighter and need a runway for take-off.

Having evolved from military use, drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are taking to the air in increasing numbers for public-service and civilian roles. They are being operated by groups as diverse as police, surveyors and archaeologists. A UAV helped firemen track the blaze that recently ravaged southern California. The most immediate advantage of a UAV is cost: operating even a small helicopter can cost $1,000 an hour or more, but the bill for a drone is a fraction of that. However, the growing use of UAVs is causing a number of concerns.

The first is safety. Last month America’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) completed its first-ever investigation into an unmanned-aircraft accident. Pilot error was blamed for the crash in Arizona in April 2006 of a 4,500kg (10,000lb) Predator B, a type of UAV used by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was being operated by Customs and Border Protection when its engine was accidentally turned off by the team piloting it from a control room at an army base. No one was hurt, but the NTSB issued 22 recommendations to address what Mark Rosenker, its chairman, described as “a wide range of safety issues involving the civilian use of unmanned aircraft.”

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Ok, this is just too damn cool. The Surveyor crew have integrated the SRV-1 controller with a quad-rotor helicopter.

The heli, called “X-3D-BL Scientific,” is from a German company called Ascending Technologies GmbH. I knew it was easy to use the SRV-1 controller for other wheeled vehicles, but seeing it on a UAV is pretty exciting. They don’t have too much info up yet, but it sounds promising. Here’s a video of the aircraft (without SRV-1 controller) in action:

One of the most amazing coming developments in aviation is the UAV - Unmanned Air Vehicle. These airplanes have no pilot on board - they are remote controlled. This means that the pilots who can fly them can perform much more violent maneuvers and send them into more dangerous situations than you could possibly risk with a human being on board. It also means that these airplanes can be any size. Some UAVs are as small as your fist.

Future soldiers will likely be issued small UAVs along with their rifles and other personal gear. Under fire, they’ll be able to launch these UAVs to spy on the enemy, jam radar and electronic surveillance, even deliver small bombs, all by remote control.

OROGRANDE, N.M.  —  The Army unveiled parts of its high-tech Future Combat Systems on Thursday in a mock raid on a fictitious village, demonstrating equipment that aims to make soldiers’ work safer.

The late morning exercise was the first public glimpse of a series of camera mounted-robots, small unmanned planes, radios that can send text messages and other equipment that Army and defense officials say will make combat safer for U.S. personnel.

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The FB-111A, manufactured by the General Dynamics in December 1966, evolved in a bid to replace the B-58 and to have the mission flexibility the B-58 lacked.

The swing wing design of the aircraft was proposed to meet an Air Force requirement for a medium-range bomber capable of high and low altitude supersonic flight.

With a maximum takeoff gross weight of 114,000 pounds, the FB-111A was 75.5 feet long, 17 feet high, and had a wing span of 34 feet with the wings fully swept or 70 feet with the wings forward. The bomber version had a 3.5 foot extension on each wingtip for range improvement, additional avionics equipment, new engines, and a reinforced landing gear and fuselage to accommodate a heavier gross weight. The FB-111A was a two-engine jet bomber with afterburner. The engines ware integral to the fuselage. The variable geometry wings were attached high on the fuselage and can be swept back from 16 to 72.5. The crew consists of a pilot and a navigator sitting side by side in a cockpit that is designed as an emergency escape module.

The initial flight of FB-111A took the sky in July 1967 with the first production aircraft delivered in August 1968. The F-111 had cost overrun problems and bad publicity; so only 76 were built. It was later labeled as an interim bomber to provide a better, low-level penetration capability until a B-52 replacement was built.

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