July 29, 2004
Looking Back at Futuristic Transportation
Berkeley has a virtual gallery of futuristic tranportation schemes that were proposed in the past. This is a really wild exhibit, as there are so many ideas that seemed so full of promise at the time. It really is worth the time to take a look.
When we see a drawing of a transportation futuristic, we instinctively know that’s what it is. But what do jetpacks, rolling boats and these other endeavors have in common? With few exceptions, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s visions of helicopters and airplanes, the futuristics are the product of the Industrial and post-Industrial Age, a time when the pace of technological change rapidly accelerated and people began dreaming about the future in new ways.
The futuristics also all involve fairly radical ideas, from new propulsion systems to novel use of materials to extreme hybrids of existing forms. The designs seen in this exhibit have not been commercial successes. Some fail on the technical side (some spectacularly so), while others never achieve economic viability.
This exhibit examines some of the efforts to address transportation needs in ways that didn’t quite get off the ground literally or figuratively. Are the designers simply ahead of their time? Are the failures attributable to an infrastructure that never anticipated such a development? Was there ultimately no way to make the new idea work financially?
July 20, 2004
Boeing Unveils new UCAV
Boeing has rolled out its newest version of the UCAV, that is an unmanned combat air vehicle. There are a few things that are immediately obvious from the picture: (1) It is built for stealth or low observable (LO) technology, witness the similar lines on all the angles, as well as the lack of vertical surfaces (which is going to make the yaw control interesting). (2) The buried inlet shows that they have made this thing to have a low Infra-Red (IR) signature as well (this trick is the same as on both the F117 and the B2), and (3) It is made for subsonic flight, with no obvious means of mid-air refueling. This means that it will strictly be used "in-theatre."
Still, an impressive looking aircraft, and better than anything else anywhere on the planet.
A glimpse into the future was unveiled today when the Boeing [NYSE: BA] Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45C full-scale model made its debut at the Farnborough International Air Show.
The model represents what the X-45C will look like when completed at the company’s St. Louis manufacturing facility in 2006. Assembly of this revolutionary aircraft began in June and it is scheduled to make its first flight in 2007. Boeing previously built two X-45A vehicles, now being flight-tested at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The X-45C is 39 feet long with a 49-foot wingspan and cruises at 0.80 Mach. It will carry eight Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs), Boeing’s newest near-precision, 250-pound weapon, or the full range of Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munitions(JDAMs).
The J-UCAS X-45 program is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Air Force/U.S. Navy/Boeing effort to demonstrate the technical feasibility, military utility and operational value of an unmanned air combat system for both the Air Force and the Navy. Operational missions for the services may include suppression of enemy air defenses; strike; electronic attack; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.