The Pentagon Approves a Flying Car! The Pentagon wants a flying car, and one seriously out-there military concept has been given the go-ahead. Here is a look at the Pentagon's next armored, armed, airborne Humvee.

The Pentagon Approves a Flying Car! The Pentagon wants a flying car, and one seriously out-there military concept has been given the go-ahead. Here is a look at the Pentagon's next armored, armed, airborne Humvee.

  9:27:00 AM    Science Lover

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The race to build the world's first flying military jeep just moved a step closer to the finish line. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX—a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron Systems, are currently in negotiations with DARPA for the first stage of the Transformer project, several industry sources told Popular Mechanics at a robotics conference here in Denver. DARPA has not announced the official winners yet.

It's unclear how many companies competed for the DARPA project, but the competition brought together an unusual mix of large defense companies with smaller aviation firms vying to build the vertical takeoff and landing craft. Perhaps most surprising—and for some competitors galling— is that DARPA selected a rotor-based aircraft for one of the two winning submissions. At an industry day held earlier this year, DARPA officials had initially said they weren't interested in a traditional rotary-wing aircraft, though they might consider a vehicle if the rotor was shrouded.

AAI's winning concept does not have a shrouded rotor, but it is also far from being a traditional helicopter. The company, which produces the Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle, is basing its proposal in part on the slowed-rotor/compound concept, a technology that uses rotor blades heavily weighted in the tips, or high inertia. The rotor provides lift on takeoff, and then as it gains speed, the rotor slows down and the wings provide lift.

Lockheed Martin has declined to detail any aspect of its submission, but those familiar with the Phantom Works project speculated that it might combine aspects of the company's Joint Tactical Light Vehicle, a follow-on to the Humvee, with a ducted fan propulsion system that it would use to fly.

The two companies are still a ways away from building flying Humvees; the first stage of the DARPA project is merely working on conceptual designs. The total funding available for Transformer is about $40 million.

Officials from both companies declined to comment on the record about the negotiations, and DARPA did not respond to request to comment.

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Flying car takes off !

Flying car takes off !

  9:27:00 PM    Science Lover

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The first flying automobile – equally at home in the sky and on the road – took to the skies on Wednesday. Dubbed the Transition, the two-seat aircraft – designed by US-based company Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), Inc – is capable of taking off and landing at local airports, and even being driven on any road.

In fact, transforming from plane to car takes the pilot less than 30 seconds.

“This breakthrough changes the world of personal mobility,” said Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrafugia – a name that means “escape from land” in Latin.

“Travel will now become a hassle-free, integrated land-air experience. A pilot who encounters bad weather could simply land at a small airport and continue the trip by road. It’s what aviation enthusiasts have been striving for since 1918,” he said.

Dietrich claimed that Transition is capable of flying 720 km on a single tank of petrol, at a speed of 180kmph.

While on land, the vehicle boasts of top speeds of up to 150kmph, he added.

For its first flight, the Transition was flown by Phil Meteer, Colonel, USAFR at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York.

Categorised as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition will now undergo additional advanced flight and drive testing, and a pre-production prototype will be built and certified before first delivery.

Dietrich said he had already received 40 orders despite an expected price of $2,00,000 (Rs 1 crore approx). Still, he accepted concerns over its price.

Left: Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich refuels the petrol-based Transition flying car at a
regular petrol pump Right: The Transition at take-off

“For an airplane that’s very reasonable, but for a car that’s very much at the high end,” he admitted.

Fabricated out of modern composite materials, the plane has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight. Both the modes are powered by unleaded petrol from a regular pump.

Also, with its wings folded, it can fit in an ordinary garage or parking space.

“This is the first really integrated design where the wings fold up automatically and all the parts are in one vehicle,” Dietrich said.

As for learning to fly, the company CEO believed that almost anyone could become a pilot in as little as 20 hours of flight time in a Transition-specific course.

“Existing pilots,” he said, “could get comfortable quickly with the familiarisation training included with every Transition delivery.”

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The rocket that thinks it’s a jet!

The rocket that thinks it’s a jet!

  8:27:00 PM    Science Lover

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A reusable spaceplane that can take off from a conventional aircraft runway, carry over twelve tonnes to orbit and then return to land on the same runway could be less than a decade away.

UK-based Reaction Engines Limited (REL) – the firm behind the ‘Sabre’ air-breathing rocket engine, which will power the Skylon spaceplane – is currently working on various tests and demonstrations that will bring this spacecraft one step closer to reality.

But what is Sabre?

The Sabre is a unique hybrid engine that can “breathe” air when in the atmosphere, like a jet engine, and become a rocket engine when in space.

In air-breathing mode, air is first cooled before being compressed and fed to the rocket engine, where it is burnt with hydrogen fuel.

When in rocket mode, the hydrogen is burnt with liquid oxygen.

“Traditional throw-away rockets – costing more than $100 million per launch – are a drag on the growth of this market,” said Alan Bond, Managing Director of REL.

“The Holy Grail to transform the economics of getting into space is a truly reusable spaceplane capable of taking off from an airport and climbing directly into space, delivering its payload and returning safely to Earth,” he explained.

Testing all systems

In tests, the spacecraft builders will look at three key areas in the engine.

The first area, conducted by REL, concerns a new pre-cooler that cools the incoming air as it enters the engine.

During the programme, a prototype pre-cooler will be constructed using the actual module design for the flight engines. This will be tested on the company’s B9 jet engine-powered experimental facility in the UK.

The second area is the cooling of the combustion chamber, where the propellants are mixed and burnt, producing water vapour at around 3,000 degrees Celsius.

The Sabre engine uses the air or liquid oxygen as the cooling fluid – a key and unusual design feature, as most rocket engines use the hydrogen fuel for cooling instead.

UK-based EADS Astrium, an aerospace subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company (EADS), will conduct this work along with DLR, Germany’s national research centre for aeronautics and space, using demonstration chambers fired at a DLR facility.

The third area, led by the University of Bristol, will explore advanced exhaust nozzles that can adapt to the ambient atmospheric pressure. Also, a new water-cooled chamber will be constructed and test fired.

“Years of research by REL on the Skylon vehicle and its unique Sabre engine mean that we have an inside track on realising our goal,” Bond said.

“Once the tests are complete, Skylon could reduce the cost of getting into space by a factor of ten and improve the reliability by a thousand,” he added.

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