Flight of the Day

1. UFOs turn our heads spinning every time they appear in the sky, especially at night. But a considerable number of them turned out to be super secret aircraft which were identified later. Here are some of them, from Popular Mechanics, reported by Phil Patton.
2. For military aircraft aficcionados, here's one at Listverse that will just make your day.
3. At last, the B787 Dreamliner completed its flight testing with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. Noel McKeegan writes at gizmag.
4. Get a glimpse of Russia's newest, fifth-generation jet fighter, the Sukhoi PAK FA T-50, reported in pravda. Claims to be superior to US F-22 Raptor will have to be proven, though.

Flight of the Day

1. The long-awaited B787 Dreamliner for All Nippon Airways was shown to the public at last. This would be the first Dreamliner to carry passengers, probably this coming October. Read the news at HeraldNet.
2. Here's one for die-hard bike lovers: What about a flying bike? Darren Quick writes about the Hoverbike at gizmag.
3. Read the latest news on hypersonic technology. The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV)-2 will be launched atop a rocket and is expected to fly at Mach 20! Sadly, this vehicle is planned as an advanced weapons system designed to replace the intercontinental ballistic missile. Read the article by Dan Hope at Yahoo! News.

Flight of the Day

1. Have you heard of the world's first 'printed' aircraft? It's the aero designer's dream machine, that is, in terms of design and ease of manufacturing. You can design any shape you want and have it manufactured hours later through a process called laser sintering, developed by the University of Southampton. For more info, visit ScienceDaily.

2. Burt Rutan's done it again. Rutan's team at Scaled Composites designed and flew in just four months, the 'BiPod', a hybrid gasoline-electric flying car. Darren Quick writes at gizmag.

3. Lockheed Martin's HALE-D (High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator) revives the airship as a reliable aircraft for useful purposes, such as a platform for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Darren Quick reports at gizmag.
4. David Shiga at NewScientist reports on 'fluid cloak'. This phenomenon has the potential to hide the wake generated by submarines, thereby leaving them silent and hence undetected. Just wondering if this same process could be used in reducing drag.

Flight of the Day

1. Geert de Clerq on the new design for flight attendant call button on the new B737 interior at Yahoo! News. At last, here's one design passenegrs will love.

2. Give it to the birds, again. The future of UAVs might depend on how engineers copy the design of birds' wings, at ScienceDaily.

3. A new look at bolt design, at ScienceDaily. A new study suggests how to determine the optimum force to be applied considering the variations of temperature. Consider this: The A380 wing has 750,000 bolted joints.

Flight of the Day

1. Darren Quick on Eurocopter's X3 hybrid helicopter demonstrator at gizmag. One look at the design of this aircraft would tell you it's unique. Aside from the reported 232-knot top speed achieved during its third flight, it has two propellers on both sides, installed on two short-span wings.

2. Noel McKeegan on the first international flight of Solar Impulse at gizmag. Talk about an airplane without having to carry its own fuel on board. The beginnings of a new era in aviation has begun.

3. Ben Coxworth on Jetman flying over the Grand Canyon at gizmag. Suddenly, everybody wants to have a device like the one strapped on his back!

Flight of the Day

1. Jeff Hecht on Top 10 Weapons of the Future at NewScientist. It's sad advances in technology are utilized for weapons production. And two of the top 10 involve advances in aviation and aeronautics.

2. Duncam Graham-Rowe on the 50 Years of DARPA at NewScientist. Find out the two spectacular achievements of DARPA in aeronautics in its 50-year history. And others which may just surprise you...

3. Bob Christie of the Associated Press on the fate of the more than 6,000 B737 Classics all over the world after that Southwest Airlines roof-ripping accident at Yahoo! News.

Flight of the Day

1. Rebecca Boyle on quadrocopters at PopSci. Check this out to know what quadrocopters are... and the funny things they are designed to do.

2. David Noland on the 10 airplane crashes that changed aviation at Popular Mechanics. Everytime you fly in a plane, think of the innovation and changes in technology that make your flight safer.
3. Anne Trafton of the MIT News Office on inspecting advanced composite materials. The story was reprinted (with adaptations) at ScienceDaily. Think you know much about aircraft materials inspection? Here's one that adds to your knowledge.

Flight of the Day

I have listed some interesting news and ideas for you to start your flight of the day.

1. Will Heaven on the B-2 Stealth Bomber at The Telegraph. The role of the B2 in the current Libyan uprising - that 25-hour flight's just unbelievable.

2. Darren Quick on SmartBird flying robotic seagull at gizmag. An  autonomous ultralight flying robot that flies like...what else, a bird!
3. David Parker Brown on the possiblity of electronic gadgets interfering with aircraft avionics, at Aol Travel. Better turn off that cell phone of yours before flight.

Another Boeing Aircraft

way to go, Boeing
fWikipedia

At last Boeing has an aircraft that can ably compete with the Airbus A380, albeit late in coming. And yet the new Boeing B747-8 Intercontinental passenger plane has already accumulated 33 orders and more is expected. It can seat 467 passengers as compared to 555 for the A380, depending on the configuration. Its immediate predecessor is the B747-400 but it utilized new technologies that are incorporated in Boeing B787, another new Boeing aircraft soon to have its first delivery. The B747-8 freighter version has already 76 orders.

Way to go! for Boeing. Check out test flight of the passenger version on HeraldNet.

Passenger Airplanes of the Future

Boeing dream plane
cNASA/The Boeing Co.

Check out The Huffington Post on Yahoo! News on the designs of next-generation commercial airplanes. They are as fanciful as they are futuristic but the good news about them is that three giant aircraft manufacturers are actually serious building these concepts, each with a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA. Lockheed Martin, The Boeing Company and Northrop Grumman are doing research and will test their own design this year, with the following mission profile from NASA:

- quiet, energy-efficient aircraft

- to fly up to Mach 0.85

- with a range of 7,000 miles, and

- can carry payload of about 50,000 to 100,000 lbs 

But don't get too excited yet. NASA expects these futuristic concepts to be ready around 2025.