AircraftNews.Com

An international debate is needed on the use of autonomous military robots, a leading academic has said.

Between January 2006 and April 2009, he estimated, 60 drone attacks were carried out in Pakistan.

While 14 al-Qaeda were killed, some 687 civilian deaths also occurred.

This is an extrordinary amount of “collateral damage” and one wonders who has decided that this is acceptable and would it be acceptable if the casualties were for instance American or British?

Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield said that a push toward more robotic technology used in warfare would put civilian life at grave risk. Technology capable of distinguishing friend from foe reliably was at least 50 years away, he added. However, he said that for the first time, US forces mentioned resolving such ethical concerns in their plans. Read more…

Starting next year, Tempe-based US Airways will transform dozens of planes into flying internet hotspots.

According to US Airways’ website, travelers with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a laptop, smartphone or PDA will have internet access through Aircell GoGo Inflight Internet Wi-Fi.

Cost for the service has not been set yet but current service prices range from $5.95 to $12.95, depending on the length of the flight and type of Wi-Fi enabled device used to access the service.

Passengers will be able to sign up for service even before they board their flight by going to gogo’s website to create an account and sign up for the service.

According to the website, the service will work through a series of cellular towers throughout the U.S. that allow transmission of broadband internet connectivity to Gogo-equipped aircraft.

Three small antennas on the outside of the aircraft receive the signal and send it to the Gogo system aboard the aircraft. The Gogo system then transmits a Wi-Fi signal inside the cabin for passengers’ mobile devices.

US Airways says 50 Airbus A321 aircraft will be equipped with Wi-Fi by early 2010.

From http://www.abc15.com/content/news/southeastvalley/tempe/story/Tempe-based-airline-to-turn-aircraft-into-flying/kZE55Dads0edJSj_Us4WCQ.cspx

The mumbling about replacing pilots is getting louder and any moment soon one suspects there will be cries to replace the fallible humans with the infallible (?!!?) computers which we have come to trust with so much of our lives. This has not been an unalloyed success as the Global finanacial Crisis and episodic web meltdowns have shown but there seems little likelyhood of going back
In the next months the University of Queensland will be conducting trials with unmanned aircraft to explore the blending of unmanned with manned traffic in normal airspace and researchers at Boeing, Airbus and numerous academic groups are progressively defining traffic management algorithms for UAVs.
There will be the predictable knee jerk from pilots with much muttering about how Apollo was saved by humans and dark mouthings off about Airbus computers but obviously the time is coming when the issues should be debated and options examined. Read more…

On 7th July a highly modified Antares Motor glider took to the air under the power of an electric motor driven by a hydrogen and oxygen powered fuel cell.
The electric motor has a maximum power of 25 Kw and an over all propulsion efficiency of 52% in the cruise and 44% in the climb. It has a range of about 750 km and a maximum level cruise of 170 kph.
The aircraft is a significantly modified Antares Glider constructed by the Lange company and is manufactured from state of the art composites with input from the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt) BASF Fuel Cells and Serenergy Denmark.
The Antares DLF H2 is configured in the more or less standard motor glider manner with a pusher propeller mounted above the fuselage behind the single pilot seat cockpit with the Hydrogen fuel in one pod slung under the Port wing and the Fuelcell reactor slung under the other.
It emits no CO2 and is almost silent. If the hydrogen is obtained from renewable sources no CO2 is produced at any point in the energy chain of the flight.
For full details go to the DLF portal web site http://www.dlr.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1/86_read-18278/

There is a telling moment in a recent interview Richard Quest of CNN did with an Airbus spokesperson while sitting in the cockpit of the company’s 330-200 model, the same one that crashed in the Atlantic on May 31.

Quest is going over with the spokesperson all the incredible features in the giant aircraft, noting that it is controlled by a central computer, which controls the plane automatically, receiving instructions from the pilot on what to do when necessary.

As the spokesperson explained, when there are problems the computer is programmed to automatically degrade functions to the basics. Quest next asked what happens in the event of a complete electrical failure. Does the pilot then have the ability to take over control of the plane completely so he or she can fly it himself without the computer. The spokesperson continues with his story of the back-up systems, in effect avoiding answering the question directly.
Read more…

A radical aircraft called the Solar Impulse was unveiled Friday in Switzerland. Its aim is to take off with one pilot aboard and fly day and night propelled only by solar energy, flying around the world without expending any fuel or expelling any pollution.
Read more…

Some years ago (maybe 30) I read in Flight that the time was coming when a latest generation Combat aircraft was going to take the entire GDP of a small nation. At the time I took it seriously and though it a bit of an exaggeration but as time has worn on it seems they were joking at the time using delightful British irony but that they had unwittingly hit the nail on the head. That day is here with the F22 that the US wont sell to any one because it cost them so dear and mega Airliners taking many Billions to create and 100s of millions to buy.
As the financial crisis looms and doomsayers prattle away I wonder whether now is the time for a paradigm shift. Skip the A380 and A350 and B787 etc and go for a highly standardized no frills blended body well and truly subsonic alternatively powered (fuel cells and props?) solutions that will halve the cost per kg per kilometer (Note I use metric as I am talking of the future)
Anyone with the courage to do it should (?!) clean up.

Queensland researchers have developed a system allowing them to use mobile phone technology to fly pilotless planes.

In April, researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) completed a successful flight of a small pilotless plane over Kingaroy in Queensland’s South Burnett region.
Read more…

Organizers of next week’s centennial Paris Air Show said Monday the world’s biggest aviation industry gathering won’t be diminished by the global economic crisis, which has hit the aviation industry hard.

Organizers expect around 300,000 visitors this year, half of them professionals, about the same as the last show in 2007 — despite notable no-shows such as business jet makers Gulfstream and Cessna.

“This year again, despite the crisis we consider that it is a considerable success because we’re full,” said Louis Le Portz, the air show’s chief executive. Roughly the same number of exhibitors will be present as in 2007, around 2,000, Le Portz said. Read more…

In a development made all the more important by the recent AF 447 tragedy a scheduled flight from Paris to Miami could revolutionize the aviation industry through its use of a network of satellite signals. The technology known as ADSB on which this is based is being used in Australia but is here being trialed in a more complete form.

Russ Moreno, Federal Aviation Administration support manager at Miami International Airport, said the flight will involve the NextGen aviation initiative that focuses on satellite guidance rather than a system of radio beacons on the ground, The Miami Herald reported Monday. Read more…