-Those Fantastic Flying Machines-


NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.— Socrates



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Monday, November 26, 2007

Air News

Experimental plane N18DW makes an appearance at the Osprey R/C Flying Club in Miami. 11/10/2007. Photo: Pete Alvarez

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Concorde aborted crosswind landing

Air News

KLM Boeing 747

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Planes collide over Wash. bay, all aboard survive


Two small planes collided Tuesday over water off Tacoma, Wash., and all four people on board survived — even after one plane made a crash landing into Commencement Bay.
The pilot of the plane that went into the bay was flying with his 73-year-old mother to Gig Harbor for lunch when his plane and another clipped each other, Tacoma Police Det. Thomas Williams said.

The plane went into a spiral but the pilot, who was not identified, pulled out in time to make a soft landing on the water, Williams said. The other plane managed to make it to a nearby airport and land safely.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Airbus A340 smashed against wall in Toulouse

Ten people were injured last night when a brand new plane was written off after it smashed into a wall. The four-engine Airbus 340-600 - scheduled for delivery to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways - was undergoing engine tests on the ground at the French airport outside Toulouse. Full Story from The UK Sun

F-86 Sabre

R/C F-86 Sabre. Courtesy of Jetflyer 24

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Boeing Bird of Prey

The Bird of Prey technology demonstrator pioneered breakthrough low-observable technologies and revolutionized aircraft design, development and production. Developed by the Boeing Phantom Works advanced research-and-development organization, the Bird of Prey was among the first to initiate the use of large, single-piece composite structures low-cost, disposable tooling and 3-D virtual reality design and assembly processes to ensure the aircraft was affordable as well as high-performing.

Time Magazine Recognizes the X-48B

The cover story of Time magazine's Nov. 12 edition highlights the best inventions of the year for 2007. It covers the latest innovative products from the entertainment, transportation, environmental and several other high-tech areas. From the aircraft category, the magazine recognized Boeing's X-48B blended wing body (BWB) for its innovative design and its potential to enable cleaner, quieter and higher performance air transportation. [READ MORE]

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bugatti Veyron vs Fighter Jet


Extreme videos

Air photography setup

SoarStar
Description: Casio EX-S880 digital camera. High quality photos at only 6oz total weight. The video is very good for a digital camera, it uses MPEG4 format. Courtesy of Groundescape

Electric Avistar Conversion


Avistar converted to electric with an E-flite 32, CC 60amp ESC, 4s 5000 lipo and a 12x6E prop. Courtesy of Groundescape

Army Spends Billions on Helicopters With Crucial Flaw: They Overheat


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They aren't safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.

While the Army scrambles to fix the problem — adding millions to the taxpayer cost — at least one high-ranking lawmaker is calling for the whole deal to be scrapped.

During flight tests in Southern California in mild, 80-degree weather, cockpit temperatures in the UH-72A Lakota soared above 104, the point at which the Army says the communication, navigation and flight control systems can overheat and shut down.

No cockpit equipment failed during the nearly 23 hours of testing, according to the Pentagon report, prepared in July. But the report concluded that the aircraft "is not effective for use in hot environments."

The Army told the AP that to fix the cockpit overheating problem, it will take the highly unusual step of adding air conditioners to many of the 322 helicopters ordered.

The retrofitting will cost at least $10 million and will come out of the Army's budget, according to the Army. [READ MORE]

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

F-15's grounded after one desintegrates in mid-flight.


Well, it sucks the big fat one, but it's what it is. After so many years of highly stressful flying, the airframes seem to be giving up. (They are wanting to point it at faulty maintenance or corrosion, but seems to me you wouldn't fly one of these things without proper maintenance, which should have included corrosion checks.) Read full story [here]

Monday, November 05, 2007

At least 8 killed in small plane crash in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- An executive jet crashed into a heavily populated neighborhood of Sao Paulo on Sunday, killing at least eight people and leaving a pile of smoky rubble just months after the city suffered the nation's deadliest air disaster.


A firefighter walks by the turbine of a small jet that crashed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday.

The plane, a Learjet 35 belonging to a Brazilian air taxi company, slammed into two houses shortly after taking off, said Lucia Ferreira, a spokeswoman for airport authority Infraero.

The dead included four men, two women, a child and another person, Sao Paulo's state security department said in a statement. [READ MORE]


Optical Illusions at SFO



Sunday, November 04, 2007

Passengers revolt after being told to fly on jet with its wing tip missing

An airline crew faced a rebellion when they told passengers they were going to fly on a jet that had lost its wing tip in a runway crash.

The SriLankan Airlines customers had been on the Airbus A340 a day earlier when it sliced through a wing of a stationary British Airways 747 at Heathrow, delaying departure by 24 hours.

So they were amazed to be boarding the same plane next day for the ten-hour flight to Colombo.

[READ MORE]

Question by Pete: Would you have flown?

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Future Mars Craft Inspires High-Tech Spy Plane

U.S. engineers have long wanted to fold up an airplane inside a rocket and send it on a mission to cruise through the atmosphere of Mars. They now have a new potential customer for the concept: the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
[READ MORE at Space.com]