Archive for May, 2008
The Long E-Z aircraft, powered by the pulsed detonation engine, makes its history-making flight Jan. 31 at Mohave, Calif. Soon it will be on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
I was familiar with the concept of the pulsed detonation engine but had no idea that a project was underway. This was a proof of concept aircraft. The engine was built with off-the-shelf automotive parts.
What makes the PDE so unique is instead of burning fuel, called deflagration, to get propulsion, air and fuel are mixed, ignited and detonated in controlled explosions inside open-ended tubes that look like exhaust pipes. When detonation moves through the tubes, it creates a supersonic shockwave that continually pulses and generates thrust.
The increased thrust could be capable of powering future aircraft up to speeds of Mach 4, or four times the speed of sound, and beyond. The PDE can be combined with other engine cycles, such as turbines, rockets, or hypersonic scramjets, to optimize flight envelopes, said Fred Schauer, assigned to the AFRL Propulsion Directorate.
I have no idea whatsoever what the next step (if there is a next step) will be.
New Hanover County Sheriff’s Deputies Upgrading Their Uniforms
The current patch features the battleship North Carolina (BB 55). The new one will also add the USS North Carolina submarine (SSN 777).
The Swedish Model: How to build a jet fighter
The Gripen N/G.
XP SP3 cripples some PCs with endless reboots
Fun.
What Happened in Piedmont?
What’s Going On? I can’t reach anyone from my hometown of Piedmont, UT.
Gruesome Body Bakery
Head bread, severed limb bread, organ bread, and more. Yum.
6 downloadable boot discs that could save your PC
Could get you out of a jam.
This is an issue that I’ve mentioned previously:
Ten years ago, gun rights were under siege. Now the two Democratic presidential candidates are bending over backward to try to paint themselves as pro-gun. It’s a lie, of course. But it’s a lie that shows where the political balance of power, er, lies on this issue. The Democrats are electing new members of Congress, too — but, again, they’re running as pro-gun. People here, I think, feel like they’ve got the momentum regardless of what happens in November.
That’s bad news for the Republicans, in a way. Scared gun-rights people vote Republican, and work hard to get Republican candidates elected. Confident gun-rights people figure that they can force Democrats to protect their rights, too.
For all of their pandering, Hillary and Obama are both strongly anti-gun in almost every conceivable way. And whoever is elected, there is likely going to be a strong Democratic majority in Congress. Yes, a lot of the Dems elected in 2006 were relatively “pro-gun” (or at least not “anti-gun”), but the Democratic leadership is still calling the shots.
Another reason for the perceived cheer and confidence that Glenn saw probably had to do with the fact that this is a large gathering of like-minded folks, many of whom are bloggers with strong opinions. So it’s not really a sample of Republican or Conservative voters, even, let alone any kind of cross section of America.
I mean, when the idiots in SanFransiscostan get together with their BusHitler T-shirts and march in protest of the war and the village destroyers, my guess is that there’s a mood of cheer and confidence there, too.
I would expect this event to be filled with a certain amount of cheer and confidence. And, truth be told, times are indeed pretty good for gun owners. But, as Reynolds notes, this could actually work against McCain and the Republicans.
Housing starts post surprising rebound
Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April, a rare bit of good news in what has been the worst downturn in housing in more than two decades.
Now, apartment construction is the prime mover behind these numbers, so it’s not like the housing market has turned the corner.
For what it’s worth, I guess I would have thought that apartments might be down a tick as lower house prices and continued low unemployment opened the door for more first-time home buyers.
Glenn Reynolds was at the 2nd Amendment Blogger Bash ice breaker. Got to spend a bit of time chatting with him.
I don’t think a “nyah nyah nyah, nyahnyahnyahhhh” is out of order.
More here.
It’s an adventure:
A plebe, or midshipman 4th class, listens for instructions before starting an obstacle course during Sea Trails at the U.S. Naval Academy. Sea Trials are divided into six phases to provides physical and mental challenges to test the plebes teamwork and mental stamina through shared adversities. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Todd P. Cichonowicz
The House Armed Services Committee agreed Wednesday to cut the Army’s Future Combat System to provide money for National Guard and reserve equipment.
The 33-23 vote to cut $233 million from the FCS program was along party lines.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, chairman of the committee’s air and land forces panel and a supporter of the MRAP funding, said the committee’s version of the 2009 defense policy bill includes money for most of the Bush administration requests for the Army, including $2.2 billion for upgrading Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker vehicles; $3.4 billion for tactical vehicles including $947 million for heavily armored Humvees; $3.1 billion for helicopters; and more than $1 billion for munitions.
However, the bill also makes a 5.5 percent reduction in funding for the Army’s FCS program. Abercrombie said the cut is needed so that money can be shifted to higher priorities, like readiness, and also reflects a –history of delays and cost overruns” in the program.
–It is $110 billion over budget and five years behind schedule,” he said. –I hardly think they have been cut short. And, it has not produced a single deployable system in six years of development.”
There’s a lot of good stuff coming out of the FCS program (the NLOS-C, for example) by overall it’s a moneypit with little to show and less hope for the future of combat.
I think scaling back the budget for FCS to upgrade current systems that work and are in use today only makes sense.
First flag pins. Now the cross.
What’s next for Obama? A .50 caliber sniper rifle?
Not that I really think this really matters. What’s telling is that if it was so important when he didn’t, it’s now equally important that he does. Right? Right?
That sound you hear is the crickets chirping from the direction of the Obama converts.
