Merlin helicopter

Merlin helicopter

This is the digital age with another view of data links and robust engineering design.

USN VESSELS

USN VESSELS

It's amazing how much these ships have changed since the Vietnam era. Watch the video and see a new world.

Alamo

Alamo

This this is a view of day to day life in a military camp. So much is like WWII but so much plastic and electronics. They didn't have either in 1942. No automatic washers either.

A-10 Target Practice, Ft. Polk, LA

A-10 Target Practice, Ft. Polk, LA

Notice the sound of the gun is not what we grew up with. .. No more rat-a-tat-tat. Now, just a bip and its over.

A plane you can print - tech - 21 July 2006 - New Scientist Tech

 

The Skunk Works thinks a technique called 3D rapid prototyping, or "3D printing", is the best way to lower costs.

Finely focused lasers

In rapid prototyping, a three-dimensional design for a part - a wing strut, say - is fed from a computer-aided design (CAD) system to a microwave-oven-sized chamber dubbed a 3D printer. Inside the chamber, a computer steers two finely focused, powerful laser beams at a polymer or metal powder, sintering it and fusing it layer by layer to form complex, solid 3D shapes.

The technique is widely used in industry to make prototype parts - to see if, for instance, they are the right shape and thickness for the job in hand. Now the strength of parts printed this way has improved so much that they can be used as working components.

About 90% of Polecat is made of composite materials with much of that material made by rapid prototyping.

"The entire Polecat airframe was constructed using low-cost rapid prototyping materials and methods," says Frank Mauro, director of UAV systems at the Skunk Works. "The big advantage over conventional, large-scale aircraft production programmes is the cost saving in tooling as well as the order-of-magnitude reductions in fabrication and assembly time."

By mixing composite polymers with radar-absorbing metals, it is thought that the aircraft can be built with a certain amount of stealth characteristics already built in.

A plane you can print - tech - 21 July 2006 - New Scientist Tech

Technorati Tags: UAV,polecate,rapid prototyping,3D printing

Polecat UAV

Lockheed Martin has pulled the lid off of a secret, stealthy, high-flying drone. Built and flown by its famous "Skunk Works" division, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could serve as a model for a new generation of robotic aircraft that hits targets halfway around the world.
With a 90-foot wingspan and a tailless design, the "Polecat" UAV looks like a smaller version of the B-2 stealth bomber. And like the B-2, the drone has been built to be stealthy and sneaky. But the twin-engine Polecat is "90 percent composite materials, rather than metal," the L.A. Daily News notes. "The vehicle is also made from less than 200 parts," adds Aviation Week. "Adhesives are used rather than rivets, decreasing the amount of labor needed to construct it -- that approach also contributed to a lower radar cross section inherent in the design."

from user225937.vodpod.co

Predator Drones

The future of warfare lies within what looks like an overgrown toy airplane. Watch as we dissect the Predator system, from the Ground Control Station in Las Vegas to a Ku Band satellite in orbit, then back down to the Predator in-flight over the battlefield.

Find more at www.geospatial21.org

from user225937.vodpod.co