I don’t care about the iPhone. I don’t want a smart phone. I just want to make phone calls.
That being said, this take down of the iPhone is a thing of beauty, if you are into such stuff, which I am.
Category: technology
Japan Scraps iPod Tax
Japan has scrapped legislation that would tax MP3 players, and give the proceeds to the music industry.
Note that they do have taxes on things like DVD burners, but ann MP3 player is different, because it does not copy music, it just plays music.
It’s a bad law, and it’s a good thing that it’s off the table for the moment.
I Want that Muthaf$#@ing Snake in the Muthaf$#@ing Ocean!!!!!!
In any case, that’s what I think that Samuel L. Jackson would say about this new energy technology.
Basically, a team in the UK has developed a floating rubber tube that is squeezed by the waves as they travel along. It resembles a seawater filled sausage.
When the squeeze reaches one end of the tube, a turbine converts the energy into electricity.
They are testing scale models now, but a full size version would be 7 meters in diameter, and 200m long and produce 1 MW, somewhat better, and much less expensive, than rigid wave catching systems and buoys.
A film of it in action is below.
H/t Gismodo.
India Goes for Embraer Airframe W/ Swedish Radar for Smaller AEW&c
It will use the EMB-145 airframe with a SAAB Erieye phased array radar (see below), and will supplement the larger AEW Il-76s with the Israel with Elta Phalcon phased-array radar (bottom).
This should amount to signifiant improvement in their airborne command and control capabilities.
GE Patents Pulse Detonation Core for Turbofan
While this is a good idea, it seems to me that this is also a pretty obvious idea, using a PDE, or more than one to smooth out the pulses, as a substitute for the HP compressor, HP turbine, and combustors.
After the PDE works as its own compressor and combuster, though a PDE, a constant volume combustion, is theoretically more efficient than a combustor, which is constant pressure combustion.
Hmmm…After a quick examination of the patent, it appears that some of the PDEs actually rotate, which is not obvious, at least not to me.
Supersonic Business Jet Maker Looks at Sonic Boom Mitigation
Arion is looking at using differences between air pressure and density to fly at speeds of up to Mach 1.2 without a boom. (Paid Subscription Required)
Basically, the speed of sound goes down as altitude goes up, and if the shock wave enters air where the speed is no longer supersonic, it cuts off.
Needless to say, the implementation would be problematic. You would need accurate real time temperature and barometric data to ensure that your shock would not hit the ground:
“We see no difficulties in its application,” says Richard Tracy, Aerion’s chief technology officer. “It requires atmospheric information, which is available over populated areas where it is needed. It’s a matter of accessing that data from the aircraft.” To ensure the sonic boom never reaches the ground, the company has picked a Mach cutoff altitude—the height at which the shockwave goes subsonic—of 5,000 ft., to provide a wide margin for uncertainty caused by aging or gaps in the data.
Based on temperatures and winds at or near the surface, the aircraft would be flown at a GPS speed relative to the airmass that ensures its shockwave never intersects with the surface. “With no wind, in a standard atmosphere, we could fly at Mach 1.15-1.16,” says Tracy. But the exact speed would vary with winds, season, time of day and direction of flight. “The Mach number in the cockpit could be Mach 1.03 to 1.3 or so.”
If supersonic flight was to be permitted over the U.S., Aerion calculates Mach cutoff would slice 1 hr. and 18 min. off a New York to Los Angeles flight compared with a conventional Mach 0.85 business jet, and trim 40 min. if compared with the Aerion SSBJ’s Mach 0.99 subsonic overland cruise speed.
Spiroid Wingtip Anyone Heard of Them?
It appears that Aviation Partners is claiming that they are the neatest thing since sliced bread, claiming something on the order of a 10% reduction of drag at cruise.
Truth be told, it looks kind of heavy and it will increase wetted area, and hence skin drag, but you can’t trust your eyes on such things.
How the F-35 Will Go Together
Stephen Trimble, of Flight International, got an approved for public release Powerpoint snap shot of the manufacturing process for the F-35.
It was too large to post, but I managed to work around Microflaccid’s image export utility without editing the registry (the trick is that you change the page size to ginormus), and so you can look at the full chart as a gif (994K) by clicking on the image.
As the good Mr. Trimble notes, this process is how thousands of JSFs are supposed to be manufactured over the next few years.
Ducted Fan Helo- X-49A -Video
It’s a Blackhawk with a vector ducted fan and wings.
I think that it’s promising technology, perhaps more promising than the tilt rotor tech.
Where Can I Get Some for My Car?
A company called Inframat was showing a series of coatings the Eurosatory show that are supposed to greatly reduce the IR signature of objects. So it could be used to hide a tank:
More accurately, it could be used to hide a second tank:
The company also makes IR suppressive fibers that can be used in uniforms and cammo netting, and claims to have an anti radar coating in development that gets you -15 dB to – 25 dB signature reduction at 8.8 – 10.5 GHz. It’s not full stealth, but it would make ECM much more effective.
So Do We Go With Silver Bullets or a Wooden Stake?
Aviation journalist Stephen Trimble notes that the B-52 dedicated standoff jammer has been resurrected.
This idea has risen, and been killed a number of times, the last time in 2006.
I’m wondering if this is not an attempt to pull the B-52 from the bomber force so that the path for the USAF’s next generation bomber is clearer.
Boeing Completes Electrical Power On Testing
This is a good sign, though I believe that the electrical systems are actually not holding back the program, it’s structures and fasteners.
Still given that the 787 is replacing most of the pneumatic systems powered by bleed air with electrical ones, this successful test is good news for them.
June is looking good for Boeing.
I Wish That I Had Come Up with This Lede
John Paczkowski, in discussing the fact that Nokia has purchased mobile phone operating system vendor Symbian, and is releasing the OS as open source, as an alternative to Google’s Android, opens with, “Nokia Announces Symbianese Liberation Army.”
I wish I had thought of that, you bastard.
CFM Proceeds With Accellerated Development of Open Rotor Engine
They are looking to have a model in test this year, and a decision on if/how to proceed in the 2009-2010 time frame.
Seeing as how the open rotor, it’s a lot like an advanced turboprop, would give something like a 25% improvement in fuel economy, the advantages are clear. The question is whether or not the related issues, particularly mounting and noise, can be resolved in an advantageous manner.
Pratt &Whitney Looking at Applying Geared Turbofan Across Product Range
This strategy is not at all surprising.
They look to have a geared turbofan (GTF) in development in the 18-23 thousand pound thrust range for customers Bombardier and Mitsubishi, and once that proves itself, the advantages in terms of fuel economy and noise would apply equally well up the thrust range.
US Navy Looking at Unmanned F/A-18 Replacement
In the US Navy’s F/A-XX program, an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) is looking increasingly attractive.
In comparing the loiter time at 925 KM from a carrier, a manned vehicle has a 1/2 hour loiter time, and the unmanned vehicle had a 20-1/2 hour loiter time.
New Developments in DARPA Hypersonics Research
DARPA has now revealed one of its hypersonic research programs,the Vulcan engine.
The test vehicle, see below, is about the size of the Have Blue stealth prototype (smaller than a F-5)
As shown in the slide, this would use conventional fuels.
There would be a common inlet and exhaust nozzle with the flow path varying depending on speed and altitude. A turbojet would be used for takeoff and low speed, and as speeds increased, the inlet air would be diverted to a pulsed combustion ram/scram jet type system.
The Thielert Diesel Aircraft Engine Soap Opera Continues
Relations between Thielert, and Diamond, its largest customer, who has had to halt production for lack of engines continues to be poor.
Diamond continues the rapid development of its aircraft diesel engine, the Austro, and even though Thielert has resumed production, Diamond is not taking any shipments, even though Thielert has moved to the next step of insolvency.
Diamond has a statement out on the situation. It’s basic points are:
- Thielert has not involved Diamond in investment discussions (Thielert claims that Diamond has declined to be involved)
- Recent issues with the clutch/reduction gear of serious concern.
- Diamond has serious concerns with prompt delivery of spares, even when money is paid up front.
- Even when spares are available, the prices are high, due to the captive nature of the market.
- Diamond is working to develop it’s own support infrastructure for Thielert engine for existing infrastructure.
- Diamond is looking at integrating a Lycoming AvGas engine into its DA-42.
This is an unbelievable mess.
An Interesting Development in Lightweight Armor
The material is called Dyneema, which is an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene.
I’ve seen high strength polyethylene used for bullet proof garments and butcher’s gloves, where it has a real advantage over Kevlar® in that it does not degrade in a washing machine.
They were showing at a show what happened when a 500g high speed (about 1500 m/s) projectile at it.
It looks like the projectile had a low sectional density, but it’s still impressive.
Here is a test stand with penetration of multiple layers:
With the detail of the final layer stopping the projectile:
Definately neat.
New Israeli Infantry Support Missile
The Nimrod 3, which doubles the range of its predecessor to about 30km.
It’s laser guided (with a GPS option), so the artillery fires it, and the infantry targets it, and it’s odd nose shroud, see below, reduces drag, but allows either a flat or nearly vertical strike on the target.
