Military

Phantom Ray: Boeing unveils spy plane of the future... that doesn't need a pilot

Called the Phantom Ray, Boeing's cutting-edge unmanned airborne system (UAS) was unveiled at a ceremony in St Louis yesterday. The sleek craft has a 50ft wingspan, measures 36ft long and has a gross weight of 36,500lbs. It operates at an altitude of 40,000ft, which is 10,000ft higher than the average long-haul commercial airliner. It will cruise comfortably at a speed of 614mph, or 0.8mach, just shy of the speed of sound.Read More

The Navy's MQ-8B helicopter drone makes its first narcotics bust on the high seas

Drug runners and pirates beware: a Navy helicopter drone made its first official drug bust on April 3. The U.S. Navy Fire Scout stealthily tailed a "go-fast" boat suspected of carrying narcotics for three hours, and captured video of the boat's refueling rendezvous with a fishing vessel. Not a bad outcome for started as a "routine test flight," according to Navy reports.Read More

NASA's Hybrid Wing Drone Soars on First Flight Tests

A 500-pound unmanned aircraft with the appearance of a flying manta ray could herald the future of jetliners. NASA and Boeing's flying lab has wrapped up the first series of flight tests that should help pave the way for less noisy, more fuel-efficient airplanes that also emit less pollution.Read More

The $83 million F-35B supersonic stealth jumpjet has achieved its first hover flight test in Maryland

The F-35B VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) is now in flight testing at the Patuxent River naval air station in Maryland. The radical hover-jet also achieved another first yesterday, making its first short-roll takeoff assisted by its vertical-thrust equipment.Read More

The deceptions of The Ghost Army used every theatrical tool at their command to defeat the Nazis in WWII

An invisible army, operating in obscurity, were masters of the art of illusion, deception, and disinformation to defeat the Nazis in World War II. This top-secret unit, so highly classified that its very existence was denied by the Pentagon for 50 years, is finally being revealed. Among the tools of trickery were visual deceptions created by using life-size inflatable mock-ups of artillery, trucks, planes, tanks, and even buildings.Read More

Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to create an optical illusion resembling a rural subdivision from the air.

Lockheed Plant After Camouflage Netting
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New helicopter rotor blade design by Eurocopter is significantly quieter than conventional blades

Just about every helicopter operator is quite familiar with noise complaints. Whether it be the local news helicopter or even a medical helicopter, many people on the ground don’t like the sound created by rotary-wing aircraft. This week Eurocopter unveiled its most recent effort to reduce helicopter noise with the radical-looking Blue Edge rotor blade.Read More

The World's Largest Airplane Graveyard in High Resolution, Is Now On Google Maps

Dubbed The Boneyard, this sprawling US airbase called 309 AMARG is the world's largest military aircraft cemetery. Spread across 2,600 acres in the Arizona desert, it contains a collection of over 4,000 retired aircraft including nearly every plane the US armed forces have flown since World War II.Read More

Metal Storm's 16-barrel 40mm weapon provides variable rates of fire up to 45,000 rounds per minute per barrel

Metal Storm has been granted another round of patents for the company’s weapon technology using a computer-controlled electronic ignition and a system of stacked projectiles for multiple barrels.

These weapons have no moving parts aside from the projectiles themselves. The bullets are stacked on end in the barrel, separated only by a thin layer of propellant. This offers a variable rate of fire, from semi-automatic to a devastating 45,000 rounds per minute per barrel, with each bullet leaving the barrel at only 4” behind the last.Read More

Fuel cell powered exoskeleton allows loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains

A radical powered exoskeleton under development for use by the US military will be fitted with fuel-cell power supplies which will increase its endurance from hours to days - and furnish juice for the burgeoning load of electronics carried by modern soldiers.Read More