The return of supersonic passenger air travel is one step closer to reality with NASA‘s award of a contract for the preliminary design of a “low boom” flight demonstration aircraft. This is the first in a series of ‘X-planes’ in NASA’s New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.
Category Archives: Technology
VertiGo – a Wall-Climbing Robot from Disney Research
VertiGo is a wall-climbing robot that is capable of transitioning from the ground to the wall, created in collaboration between Disney Research Zurich and ETH. The robot has two tiltable propellers that provide thrust onto the wall, and four wheels. One pair of wheels is steerable, and each propeller has two degrees of freedom for adjusting the direction of thrust. Continue reading
NEC Surveillance System Detects, Tracks UAS
NEC has developed a surveillance system that can spot drones from up to a kilometer away. The system is intended to be used around places like sports stadiums, nuclear power stations and government buildings, and can detect drones in several ways.
NASA Offers Patents to Start-ups
NASA is unveiling a new opportunity for start-up companies to license patented NASA technology with no up-front payment. The Startup NASA initiative addresses two common problems start-ups face: raising capital and securing intellectual property rights.
Robotic Landing Gear for Helicopters
Helicopters are incredibly manoeuvrable in the air, but during landing and takeoff their traditional skid- and wheel-based landing gear requires stable, flat surfaces—surfaces that are often unavailable in helicopter-needy environs such as forward operating areas, ships at sea and natural-disaster zones. Having the ability to land on and take off from angled, irregular and moving surfaces would greatly expand the effectiveness of helicopters across many military and national security missions. Continue reading
Drone Dome Protects Against Intrusions
A European startup is now marketing a consumer anti-drone system that’s designed to detect and report unmanned aircraft flying in a specified range of airspace. The company, Dedrone, is marketing the system to prisons, corporations, event planners — or anyone else concerned about unauthorised drones spying, smuggling or otherwise causing security concerns.
UAV to Climb to 90,000 ft Without an Engine
Applying aerospace technology and atmospheric research to fly a glider higher than any other manned aircraft has ever flown. In 2015/16 Perlan Mission II intends to set new altitude records by flying a purpose-built pressurised high-altitude glider (the Perlan 2) higher than any other manned wing borne aircraft has ever flown in sustained flight using stratospheric mountain waves and the polar vortex and in so doing harvest invaluable data about earth’s atmosphere and its ozone layer.
Flow Visualization Through The Years – NASA
This video takes a look at the evolution of various ways NASA has observed flow visualisation in aircraft structures over the years. Continue reading