Scramjets promise space travel for all

Advanced technology is also breathing fresh life into winged spacecraft. The buzz centres on a hypersonic engine known asa supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet. Despite the name, scramjets are very different to the turbojet engines that power commercial aircraft, not least because scramjet-powered vehicles must first be accelerated to Mach 4 or so using jet engines or rockets before their scramjets can work. This is because, unlike turbojets, scramjets do not use spinning blades to compress the air entering the engine. Instead, the high speed of the vehicle compresses the incoming air, which is then fed into a combustion chamber where the burning fuel creates an exhaust jetthat exits the engine faster than the air that entered.

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Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky

THE Pentagon's enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft.

The device is an extension of its controversialActive Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee.

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Electricity From Salty Water

A device that gleans usable energy from the mixing of salty and fresh waters has been developed by University of Milan-Bicocca physicist Doriano Brogioli. If scaled up, the technology could potentially power coastal homes, though some scientists caution that such an idea might not be realistic.

Extracting clean, fresh water from salty water requires energy. The reverse processmixing fresh water and salty waterreleases energy. Physicists began exploring the idea of extracting energy from mixing fresh and salty waters, a process known as salination, in the 1970s. They found that the energy released by the worlds freshwater rivers as they flowed into salty oceans was comparable to "each river in the world ending at its mouth in a waterfall 225 meters [739 feet] high," according to a 1974 research paper in the journal Science. But those who have chased the salination dream have collided with technological barriers.

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First Flapping, Two-Winged Aircraft Takes Flight

The world's first successful flight of a self-powered, rudderless, flapping aircraft has been achieved by engineers from AeroVironment.

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Raytheon to Give Tomahawk a New Edge

Raytheon scored a Navy contract worth more than $12.8 million to create a new warhead for the Tomahawk missile. Program officials with the company say the workhorse cruise missile will be fit with a warhead that can crack hardened targets and that could turn the Tomahawk into an intelligent ship-killer

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Air Force Drones: Are Fighter Pilots Obsolete?

If you think drone aircraft are all the rage at the U.S. Air Force, just wait a few years. The men in the Pentagon who look into the future believe UAVs --Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or pilotless planes -- are the future.

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High-Energy Laser Could Protect US Navy Ships From Small Attack Boats

The ultra-precision of high-energy lasers soon may be the pinpoint, measured response that will keep threats a safe distance from U.S. Navy ships.

Under a new Navy initiative called the Maritime Laser Demonstration, Northrop Grumman will apply its solid-state laser systems expertise and successes to demonstrate a laser weapon system to defeat a wide range of current threats.

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Proper Fit Of Massive Penetrator Weapon On B-2 Bomber Verified

Northrop Grumman has moved the U.S. Air Force a critical step closer to being able to drop a from the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. 30,000 pound penetrator weapon On April 28, an Air Force team, a Northrop Grumman-led aircraft contractor team and a Boeing-led weapon contractor team verified that the equipment required to integrate the new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) on the B-2 -- the hardware that holds the MOP inside the weapons bay, the weapon itself, and the hardware used by the aircrew to command and release the weapon -- will fit together properly inside the aircraft.

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