Navy's New Electromagnetic Catapult in Action

The Navy is phasing out its steam based catapult aircraft launching system and will be replacing it with an electromagnetic catapult launching system. Plans are to install the new system on the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier now in production.

Here we have a short film of a land based test platform launching a F-35C test aircraft.

Flying Airport Would Never Land

Pretty bizarre idea huh? But leave it to Dvice to find the weird stuff. This isn't some 50s pie in the sky speculation either, but a contemporary idea. Huge nuclear powered lifting bodies would be in effect massive people movers that would allow planes from local airports to ferry passengers up from the ground, then return to their base to await another load or to ferry passengers back down from the high flying platform. Since none of the planes or the flying airport are using copious amounts of jet grade kerosene, there would be huge fuel savings.

Of course the article points out that we need to solve some major technological barriers before something like this could be possible but what a sight to see one of these bad boyz fly over huh?

Complete Dvice article here

Floating airliners & Hotels?

Barry sends in an interesting article from the New York Times that is a bit of what is old is new again and an interesting answer to both the rising cost of fuel and pressure to reduce carbon footprints.

For me, it's an excellent way to see where the cost of fuel and globalwarming may be taking us.

Since the Hindenburg zeppelin exploded more than 70 years ago, there hasn't been any realistic commercial forays into lighter than air craft past maybe the hot air balloon. Now, with the advent of of new materials and sophisticated means of propulsion, many government and private concerns are exploring blimps and dirigibles. Some visionaries foresee structures large enough to loft a hotel high into the air and slowly travel between destinations. Less lofty ideas are like the company that is talking with the French post office with the idea of transporting parcels by dirigibles. And of course there is the German company Zeppelin-Reederei which carried 12,000 passengers on sightseeing tours over southern Germany last year. But with top speeds of around 100 miles an hour and a maximum capacity of several dozen passengers, dirigibles are expected by most aviation experts to remain niche vessels for ferrying tourists, advertising and occasional scientific payloads. The US research has mostly been by the military who's interest was mainly in cargo and surveillance. The major hurdle at present is funding. Many initial project have failed over the past few years simply due to lack of cash not design problems.

photo ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik