Shaping a New Future for Aerospace Materials

Developments in fields such a bio-mimetics and nanotechnology are opening doors for new low-weight aircraft design. Conventional aerospace vehicles all suffer from the same fundamental limitation - they are essentially designed around a single mission, be that reconnaissance, interdiction, aerial combat or spaceflight. Inevitably this dictates a particular craft geometry that is ideally optimised for that given primary role, but leaves the vehicle's structural form in a distinctly sub-optimal configuration for other potential mission segments. This represents an obvious operational constraint. With the rise of morphing metal technology, however, all that may be about to change.

Aviation History part 2 - Modern flight

Although many people think of human flight as beginning with the aircraft in the early 1900s, in fact people had been flying repeatedly for more than 100 years.
The first generally recognized human flight took place in Paris in 1783. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes went 8 km (5 miles) in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The balloon was powered by a wood fire, and was not steerable: that is, it flew wherever the wind took it.

AH-64A/D Apache Attack Helicopter

The Apache is a twin-engined army attack helicopter developed by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). It entered service with the US Army in 1984 and has been exported to Egypt, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UK.
The US Army has more than 800 Apaches in service, and more than 1,000 have been exported. The Apache was first used in combat in 1989 in the US military action in Panama. It was used in Operation Desert Storm and has supported low intensity and peacekeeping operations worldwide including Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Aviation History Part 1 - Early Attemps

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Aviation history refers to the history of development of mechanical flight—from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air, supersonic and spaceflights.
The first form of man-made flying objects were kites.The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 B.C. in China, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region. Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese prince, survived by tying himself to the kite.Leonardo da Vinci's (15th c.) dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to demonstrate flight by literally constructing them.

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into orbit around Earth on 25 April 1990. HST is an observatory first originally conceived in the 1940s and finally operational in the 1990s. The observatory was designed to have a long life span of 15 years. The HST is a co-operative programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The aim of the observatory is to operate a long-lived space-based observatory for the benefit of the international astronomical community.

Mirage 2000 Multirole Combat Fighter

Mirage 2000 is a multirole combat fighter from Dassault Aviation of France. It has been operational with the French Air Force since 1984, and has been selected by Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Greece, India, Peru, Qatar, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates. By 2009, approximately 600 Mirage 2000 were in service worldwide.
Mirage 2000 fighters in operation with the French Air Force are: Mirage 2000C/B single seater and two seater for air defence; Mirage 2000N, two seater, designed for all weather nuclear

Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle Demonstrator Makes 1st Flight

Boeing F-15SE Silent Eagle

ST. LOUIS, -- The Boeing [NYSE: BA] Silent Eagle flight demonstrator aircraft F-15E1 completed a successful first flight on July 8 from Lambert St. Louis International Airport. During the 80-minute flight, F-15E1 opened and closed its left-side Conformal Weapons Bay, which contained an AIM-120 Instrumented Test Vehicle (ITV) missile. The ITV was not launched.