U.S. Military Plane Can Fly London-Sydney In Less Than Hour
Hypersonic Technology Vehicle HTV-2 reentry (artist's impression)
Wow – so once this thing goes commercial you’ll only spend 5 hours having your “junk” scanned and probed at the airport and less than an hour in the air. Report from the Guardian:
By the time you finish reading this sentence, the Falcon HTV-2, the fastest plane ever built, could have flown 18 miles. It would get from London to Sydney in less than an hour, while withstanding temperatures of almost 2,000C, hotter than the melting point of steel.
At 3pm BST on Thursday , the US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency will launch the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 on the back of a rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. If all goes to plan, engineers will launch the Falcon HTV-2 to the edge of space, before detaching the plane and guiding it on a hypersonic flight that will reach speeds…
China’s Footage Of Its New Fighter Jet Revealed To Be Dubbed From ‘Top Gun’
Twenty-first-century military brinkmanship looks a lot like an ’80s Tom Cruise movie. The Telegraph reports:
The footage showcasing the J-10 fighter, which showed an air-to-air missile destroying another jet, was aired last week during the main evening broadcast of the state-sponsored channel China Central Television.
Bloggers on internet message boards quickly picked up the similarities and the footage was removed from the CCTV website but not before the clip had been copied.
Laser Attacks On Planes Rising
Warning for laser beam, symbol D-W010 according to DIN 4844-2
Years ago pilots were developing the symptoms that indicated laser attack (retina damage, seizures etc, vision loss) and were dismissed as unrelated medical issues. Now there is too much evidence to ignore, and too many incidents to brush them aside. Marnie Hunter for CNN:
A spike in the incidence of people pointing lasers into the cockpits of planes has the Federal Aviation Administration worried and encouraging public vigilance.
“It sounds silly, but this is a serious problem,” wrote FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt on Wednesday in a Department of Transportation blog post highlighting the agency’s concerns.
“Why is this dangerous? Lasers can distract pilots or temporarily blind a pilot while he or she is taking off or landing an aircraft,” Babbitt said.
This year, 2,200 instances have been reported nationwide. In 2005, there were 283 reports of people pointing lasers at planes…
[continues at CNN]
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