Nemesis for all enemies, ISIS (Integrated Sensor is Structure program) airship by DARPA, will detect and track a multitude of air/ground targets, synchronized with providing wideband communications. This airship will hover above earth at an altitude of 70,000 feet and will be capable to ’see’ out to 180 miles. ISIS will be equipped with a dual-band UHF radar for tracking ground vehicles or soldiers, and an X-band radar for spotting cruise missiles about 370 miles away.
Are you dreaming for a car that can fly? Then your dreams are to come true very soon as a Dutch company PAL-V Europe BV is planning to construct a tricycle helicopter that can be used as Personal Air and Land Vehicle.
This machine will have wings that could be folded when it is to be used as car. The logic behind the three wheel design is to provide the machine with an ability to lean when driven on a turn. It is expected to go zero to 60 in five seconds and travel 340 miles on a tank of gas. You may be able to see one of them in flesh in 2009.
In the latest scorching sci-fi movie ‘Sunshine’ set in the backdrop of the year 2057, the ‘real space age’ humans deliver a thermonuclear payload into the dying Sun in hope to bring it back to life. While writing this post, I feel a little contented that the time is still ripe for me to share these incredible ideas with flights of fancy powered by none other than the Sun.
The technology behind solar powered aircraft is still in its infancy, we’ll have to wait for quite a lot of time to see them available commercially. Till then check out these birds:
Eric gave shape to Sunseeker after years of hard work, changes and innovations on wings of Larry Mauro’s SOLAR RISER, Paul MacCready’s SOLAR CHALLENGER, and Gunther Rochelt’s MUSCULAIR II. The project kicked off in 1986 and was given the final shape in 1989-90 with help of Sanyo and other corporations.
Designer: University of Missouri-Rolla Flying Altitude: 30,000 to 40,000 feet Unique features: World’s first flapping-wing unmanned solar aircraft
This solar-powered bird is literally an eagle and apparently is world’s first flapping-wing unmanned aircraft that runs on solar energy. Designed by researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla with the help of NASA, the aircraft uses thin-film solar arrays and special shape changing material hence making it more flexible and efficient than the Mars Rovers.
It can regain its altitude, up to 30,000 to 40,000 feet, by simply flapping its wings and is a perfect flying machine to inspect outer space.
Designer: DLR Institute of Flight Systems Wingspan: 5.2-meter
SOLITAIR or Solar Powered Aircraft for High Altitude Long Endurance Flight, is another unmanned, solar powered aircraft or a satellite to be precise, is specifically designed to conduct research activities in northern European latitude.
Designer: Swiss Federal institute of Technology Zurich Unique features: Prototype designed for future space search, especially Mars Weight: 2.6 kg Wingspan: 3.2 meters
Sky-Sailor was in fact the first step towards designing a feasible solar powered aircraft to study Mars under collaboration with European Space Agency. It is equipped with 216 silicone solar cells delivering up to 90 W of energy.
Solar Challenger is an improved version of ‘Gossamer Penguin‘, designed to fly from Paris to England. The aircraft can reach an altitude of 12,000 feet equipped with 16,128 photovoltaic cells giving a tremendous output power of 2,600 watts. Its success gave way to High Altitude Solar (HALSOL) drone project.
Pathfinder Plus is an improved version of Pathfinder and holds a record for touching highest altitude of 24470.868 meters (80, 285 feet). It’s part of NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) and is actually a stratospheric satellite designed to study atmospheric chemical make-up. It combines technologies used to develop Pathfinder, Centurion and Helios solar powered aircrafts. The aircraft also acts as a telecommunications platform that surfs through the stratosphere to deliver wireless broadband, re-transmitted high definition television (HDTV) signal and relay cellular audio and video calls.
Designer: QinetiQ Weight: 14 kg Wingspan: 12 meter Speed: 70 meters per second (155 mph)
Zephyr, along with solar power, uses ‘low drag aerodynamics’ to fly for months at an altitude of 132,000 feet. It’s yet another high altitude communication platform with a 12-meter solar cells equipped wingspan churning out 1 kW of power to five motors that drag it to 70 metres per second (155 mph).
Designer: AeroVironment, NASA Flying Altitude: 100,000 feet Speed: 12.5 mph
Centurion takes solar powered aircraft technology to news heights with ultralight flying wing equipped with multiple electric motors that takes it to an altitude of 100,000 feet at 12.5 miles per hour. AeroVironment developed this project along with NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, which is sponsored by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA.
The Helios, though not with us now as it crashed in June 2003, still qualifies for this list with its top cruising speed of 27 mph and the 247-foot wingspan, which in fact is even greater than a 747 Jumbo Jet, 62,000 solar cells and 14 brushless direct-current electric motors.
PlanetSolar is the most geeky solar powered aircraft designed with a purpose. It’s designed like a swan with a long white beak projecting out of a three-hulled body, equivalent to a trimaran, and powered by 1,930 square feet of solar panels.
Sill under construction, it will challenge Swiss explorer and scientist Bertrand Piccard by first circumnavigating Earth on solar power challenging natural forces and testing the ultimate machine.
Designer: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Bertrand Piccard Flying Altitude: 10 Km Wingspan: 70-meter
Solar Impulse too aims to circumnavigate the Earth. The single-pilot solar-powered aircraft comes with 2,700 square feet of monocrystalline solar cells.
For those who don’t know, Bertrand Piccard was the first to go around the world on balloon non-stop. Solar Impulse is a glider completely dressed with solar cells and has a whopping 70-meter wingspan.
The plane will fly at 10 km altitude non-stop powered by two tail-mounted propeller engines.
UPDATE
Pls Note: As truly pointed out by a few of our readers, the PlanetSolar, mentioned at No. 2, is not a solar powered aircraft, rather it’s a boat powered by renewable energies.
The most innovative scooter that I came across was the AirScooter.
AirScooter was a low-cost, easy to fly ultra-lightweight coaxial rotorcraft helicopter. The company claimed that the machine was a helicopter was for home use.
Now the company is also making some headlines for the engine that powers this great machine.
The AeroTwin is a four stroke aircraft engine that has received the second patent.
The patent granted for the engine includes 23 claims that focus on the one-piece cylinder and related engine cooling mechanisms.
The engine produces 65hp at 4200 rpm.
AirScooter Corporation commented that,
This invention is an important advance in engine design allowing the production of a lightweight, powerful four-stroke engine that can effectively manage internal engine pressures.
I have always been a day dreamer about flying cars. Cars that can take of and land vertically and can also reach those nerve shattering speeds.
Well my dream is about to get some shape as the X-Hawk may make a debut as early as 2010.
The car has been designed by an Israeli Inventor named Rafi Yoeli and he is optimistic about the 2010 launch.
X-Hawk is mainly derived from a helicopter but has no exposed blades. The car is also easy to navigate and the bladeless exterior makes it easy for you to reach and hover near your girl friends house.
Rafi’s own aeronautics company, Urban Aeronautics is developing the X-Hawk and primarily the car will be delivered to firefighters, rescue teams and the military to aid in the recovery of people from those hard to reach places.
The car will be able to reach speeds up to 155 mph and also fly at an altitude of 12,000 feet for two hours.
The rotors are powered by four internal combustion engines that will be much smaller than those in a helicopter.
The estimated price of the car will be somewhere between $1.5 million to $3.5 million that means its not my cup of tea...!
After the sad incident of September 11, 2001, air travel security concerns are catching pace.
This has made companies to like Boeing to develop a foolproof mechanism to prevent any further incidents.
The company has already patented the project. The system goes like this: If anyone tries to force entry into the cockpit a special ‘Uninterruptible Autopilot System‘ can be activated either manually or using remote sensors that can be placed on the cockpit doors. Once the system is activated ground authorities will take full control of the plane and would eliminate any possibility of terrorists using the aircraft as a deadly missile.
Once activated the system cannot be reversed until the airliner reaches safe grounds. Ground controllers can also guide the plane to its destination via remote controls and GPS systems and even land the aircraft using the existing ‘autoland function’.
Boeing also claims that the company will make the system available in the next three years after which it can be fitted to airliners throughout the world.
Scientists from Australia and U.S. have developed an experimental scramjet engine that can reach speeds as high as Mach 10.
This super-fast engine has been successfully tested in Australia’s outback, where it reached speeds up to 11,000 kmph or 6,835 mph. Researchers now hope that this engine will give them a way to develop aircrafts that can fly at super-high speeds.
Still scramjet engine is not as agile as an ordinary jet engine. Scramjet engine can only be started when the aircraft is already at a high speed and at a high altitude. For this scientists use an ordinary jet engine to take the aircraft at a high speed to a high altitude, when the conditions are met then the scramjet engine is fired thus increasing the speed of the aircraft.
The tests have been successful and flight data will be examined over the coming weeks and compared to ground tests conducted in the United States.
With this successful test, researchers are now hoping that their dream to build a hypersonic airplane will soon become a reality and that too in the near future. Scramjet engines can also show us the way to develop aircrafts that could fly at high speeds for long distances. Moreover, these engines can also be used as a cheap way to launch satellites into orbit.
The mariners’ new aircraft is a first stealthy, supersonic jet that can come to a standstill in mid air.
The short-takeoff and vertical landing aircraft will soon be replacing F/A-18 Hornet and the British-built Harrier STOVL fighter.
The best feature of the aircraft is its capability to land vertically. That makes it suitable for all conditions. Moreover the aircraft also doesn’t require a large runway for takeoff as it meets air after a run of just 300 feet.
The first prototype will fly early next year and should enter service in 2012.
The F-35B needs a runway of just 300 feet thanks to a magical engine that points straight back while taking off. At a paltry 80 knots, the engine nozzle and lift fan exhausts swing halfway down to give it vertical lift and the plane gets airborne.
The short runway required also enables the plane to take off from small ships unlike other planes which require a carrier.
Still I am waiting for a true stealth fighter that can take off and land vertically.
We don’t get tired of talking about those amazing hybrids from the automotive world do we? An amalgamation is always the best blend provided it clicks for instance the Cross Over Utilities.
A similar merger in the Aircraft world is a rarity though the Americans will tend to disagree for theirs is the only nation that is acquainted with such bedazzling combinations. The Boeing MV-22 Aircraft is one such rarity, which Uncle Sam possesses.
What is rare about the Boeing MV- 22; is that it is a ’tiltrotor’ i.e. a hybrid between a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft. This combo enables the aircraft to fly like an airplane and then switch into hover mode making it apt in those small helicopter like landings.
The Marines believe that the CH-46 is now an aged combatant contraption thus it is time to invigorate the forces with the faster, more potent and versatile machines. An aircraft like the MV-22 fulfills all the above requisites that is reason it has been chosen as a surrogate of the CH-46 in Iraq.
Describing the Boeing MV-22 better than its predecessor, General Castellaw cited:
So what we have is an aircraft that goes twice as fast. It goes three times as far, and it is the most survivable, about six or seven times of what the aircraft that it replaces is. On a mission, it can be at 200-plus knots in 15 seconds climbing the altitude. Fixed-wing use altitude as an area to get outside of the range of missiles and fire — small-arms fire. We’ll be able to do the same thing with this aircraft to get above the threat
The Americans believe that putting the MV-22 to use in Iraq will mean more number of survivors, as there will be lesser war causalities. It will force the enemy to think twice before charging for he will know the capability of the MV-22 and its demolishing nature.
After automobiles going fuel conscious, now it’s the turn of airplanes.
Solar Impulse will cater to the rising fuel crisis. The manned airplane is still in a prototype design phase but once launched it will be fun to go around the world in a plane that needs no fuel but the sun.
The plane does not maintain a consistent altitude like other conventional planes. During daytime it soars to a height of 10,000 meters to make the most out of the sun light. At night time the plane relies on the batteries and descends to a height of just 3,000 meters.
The plane has a wingspan of a bit more than 80 meters and weight just 2 tons.
The project is in the design phase and if all goes well then we will be able to see it in air by 2011.
