Free Republic

We've screamed for them for years. We've joked about it. We've featured them in auto insurance commercials. IBM was using the idea in their advertisements well over a decade ago. But now the flying cars are here. Flying cars aren't just science fiction anymore.Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia Inc. said Monday that its prototype flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle — dubbed the Transition — has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car....

Europe's ability to develop next-generation combat aircraft has been dangerously eroded, and will reach "a point of no return" unless collaborative funding decisions are made soon, a new industry study warns. Commissioned by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the Future Air Systems for Europe (FAS4Europe) group study says "the situation for future air systems is severe, with some important industrial capabilities and technologies already at risk". Without additional investment and a joint strategy, the situation "will soon become critical", it says, identifying the "development of future combat aircraft (manned and unmanned) and attack helicopters" as being at risk. "Europe's military...

This is the Ugandan aircraft that Africa hopes will thrust it right into the space race. Constructed amidst the rubble of his mother's backyard, ambitious Chris NSamba believes the African Skyhawk will lead to his continent launching its first astronaut into orbit. The African Space Research Programme founder has been helped by 600 volunteers in partially achieving the first stage of his dream - the creation of the plane that will penetrate the edge of space by flying at 80,000ft.

Of all the great and amazing aerobatic tricks performed at the Chico Air Show I attended last weekend, there is probably none that I was more fascinated with then a stunt performed by a pilot who stood his plane on end in the air while holding it in place.  My only problem was I forgot to record it with my video camera.  I was so enthralled by the many performances that I also never interviewed any of the performers like I wanted to.  So I decided to return on Sunday morning and see if I could catch up with...

In the cockpit of the sleek, black aircraft slung underneath the wing of the B-52 bomber, my interphone crackles. "Ah, Robert, it’s a lovely morning," says Jack Allavie, the commander of the B-52 launch aircraft. "Yes it is, Jack," I respond while running through the preflight checklist for our July 17, 1962 mission. The North American Aircraft X-15 was designed to investigate flight at hypersonic (Mach 5-plus) speeds and extremely high altitudes, and the effects of aerodynamic heating on aircraft surfaces. It was the first aircraft to fly Mach 4, Mach 5, and Mach 6—and I had the good fortune...

For some time, NASA has focused much of its limited aeronautics research budget on the blended wing-body configuration, believing it has the best chance of meeting its aggressive environmental targets for commercial aircraft entering development after 2025. These include reductions exceeding 70% in fuel burn, 75% in emissions and 71dB in airport noise compared to today's airliners. Now the agency is broadening its search to include other alternatives to the ubiquitous tube-and-wing layout. And one of those is the truss-braced wing (TBW), or strut-braced wing (SBW), a concept that allows a substantially longer span for significantly higher lift-to-drag (L/D) ratio....

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

8/27/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Officials in NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate will begin accepting scholarship applications on Sept. 1 for the 2010 academic year. The application deadline is Jan. 11, 2010. "These scholarships are a fantastic way to support our brightest students and encourage them to finish their education, expose them to NASA's research programs and inspire them to pursue a career in aeronautics," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA officials expect to award 20 undergraduate and five graduate scholarships to students in aeronautics or related fields. Undergraduate...

Those of us who've been dreaming of cheap personal air travel in the Buck Rogers, sci-fi jet-pack mode should turn their eyes towards Vinci, Italy on May 25. That's when Gennai Yanagisawa, inventor of the tiny GEN H-4 personal helicopter, will be taking his lightweight 165-pound whirly-gig on a demonstration flight. Why Vinci? According to the 75-year-old Yanagisawa, "Since the concept of our helicopter came from Italy, I always wanted to take a flight in the birthplace of da Vinci." Indeed, Leonardo's famous notebook drawings from 1493 show an "ornithopter" with a screw-like rotor. Like da Vinci's pioneering design,...

For those who are bored with hang-gliding or find skydiving just too dull, a Swiss airline captain has devised the ultimate aerial thrill: flying like a bird. Thanks to high technology and nerve, Yves Rossy has come closer than anyone to realising the ancient dream of soaring free, flitting through the sky, guided only by the body. As well as a crash helmet he wears a small pair of wings and four tiny jet engines. As he skims the Alps at up to 187mph (300km/h), the only thing that the former fighter pilot has come up against so far is...

NASA will likely shut down its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into futuristic – and often far-out – ideas in spaceflight and aeronautics, officials say. The controversial move highlights the budgetary pressures the agency is facing as it struggles to retire the space shuttles by 2010 and develop their replacement. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was established to "give an opportunity for people outside of NASA to develop really revolutionary and creative concepts for future aeronautics and space missions", says Robert Cassanova, who has served as the institute's director since its inception in February 1998. The...

The theme for this weekend is Air Shows and comparing them in the US and Britain. I have picked Biggin Hill Air Show which is an ex RAF Station which is now in private ownership but continues to have an annual Air Show. I last visited the airshow in 2000 but a friend of mine attended this year. The following are extracts from this year's program.

TEHERAN: Iran successfully tested a "super-modern flying boat" yesterday and the land-to-sea Kowsar missile that military analysts say is designed to sink ships in the Gulf, state media reported. The tests came in the middle of the country's Gulf war games that started on Friday. State radio said the Kowsar could evade radar and that its guidance system could not be scrambled. The Defence Ministry was not immediately able to give details of a "flying boat" that was shown on television. The small propeller-driven aircraft floated on a trimaran hull until it took off and flew low over the surface...

We Support Our Troops!  For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT:  Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. Waldo Dean Waterman (1894-1976) was the first to create a functional flying car.  He was an airplane engineer with a flair for creative design. Figuring that most people couldn’t afford both an airplane and a car, and believing that the car was a necessity of modern life, Waterman...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University engineers have developed a wind tunnel that is the only one of its kind in the world capable of running quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, helping researchers to design advanced aircraft and missiles. No other wind tunnel runs quietly while conducting experiments in airstreams traveling at Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound, said Steven Schneider, an aerospace engineer and professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Researchers will use the $1 million wind tunnel to help design advanced aircraft that travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach 5, which is...

NASA?s hypersonic program may have a chance of taking off again, despite a gloomy budget picture. HAMPTON -- A high-speed aeronautics technology called hypersonics, once thought dead at NASA Langley Research Center after two record-breaking flights in recent years, may face a brighter future than expected.

Aerospace Daily: Bell/Agusta BA609 Civil Tiltrotor On Track Following V-22 Progress By Jefferson Morris/Aerospace Daily 10-Dec-2002 10:41 AM U.S. EST Encouraged by the performance of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey military tiltrotor aircraft since its return to flight, Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company is moving forward with the development and production of its BA609 civilian tiltrotor. Despite significant differences between the two aircraft, the future of the BA609 had been in doubt after the V-22 was grounded after two fatal accidents in 2000. Bell/Agusta elected to slow production of the civilian version, pending the results of the V-22's return to flight (DAILY, April...

  Daring Aeronaut Prepares For Super Jump From SpaceBy Leonard DavidSenior Space Writerposted: 09:25 am ET09 September 2002 A free-falling Frenchman is determined to jump from high in the stratosphere into the record books. Calling it the Le Grand Saut, or "The Super Jump", Michel Fournier is readying himself and the technology needed to attempt a skydiving record. The 58-year-old Fournier and his team are waiting out rainy weather conditions in Saskatchewan, Canada hoping to have a shot this month at the highest parachute jump from some 25 miles (40 kilometers) altitude.On D-day (Dive-day), a stratospheric balloon will carry Fournier...