Important Innovations

  Boom's Supersonic Aircraft Overture Unveiled                                                  Source:  Boom Something New & Incredibly Fast in the Sky Colorado-based Boom Supersonic may be the first aviation company to bring back super-fast, supersonic flying that ended twenty years ago with the demise of the Concorde.  At the very recent 2022 Farnborough International Air Show in the UK, Boom unveiled its latest design for its ultra-sleek SST, the Overture.  The vehicle will go into service in 2029 and fly at twice the speed of today's commercial aircraft.  It will reach speeds of Mach 1.7 or 1,100 mph over the water and have the capacity to cut passenger travel time in half. More than 600 routes around the world are planned by Boom.  The likely cost of a roundtrip seat will be 75% less than the Concorde's $12,000 average or $3,000.  Boom believes that within the next decade, SSTs will be the first choice in air travel.  Bottomline: you can get to your destination in

  Boom's Supersonic Aircraft Overture Unveiled                                                  Source:  Boom Something New & Incredibly Fast in the Sky Colorado-based Boom Supersonic may be the first aviation company to bring back super-fast, supersonic flying that ended twenty years ago with the demise of the Concorde.  At the very recent 2022 Farnborough International Air Show in the UK, Boom unveiled its latest design for its ultra-sleek SST, the Overture.  The vehicle will go into service in 2029 and fly at twice the speed of today's commercial aircraft.  It will reach speeds of Mach 1.7 or 1,100 mph over the water and have the capacity to cut passenger travel time in half. More than 600 routes around the world are planned by Boom.  The likely cost of a roundtrip seat will be 75% less than the Concorde's $12,000 average or $3,000.  Boom believes that within the next decade, SSTs will be the first choice in air travel.  Bottomline: you can get to your destination in

  GM & Lockheed Martin's Lunar Rover Source:  GM, Lockheed, NASA One Big Moonshot For automotive giant GM and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, their new partnership to develop a commercial lunar rover is one big Moonshot.  Their prototype looks a bit like a toy but this is not fun and games.  They intend to deliver their Lunar Mobility Vehicles (LMV) to customers by 2025.  The electric moon vehicle could prove to be an important part of NASA's Artemis Mission that will bring astronauts back to the Moon this decade, 50 years after the Apollo mission. A Big Commitment With or Without Government Funding Lockheed and GM intend to build the Moon vehicles with or without government funding.  There is no guarantee that they will win the NASA bidding process and be awarded a contract for use of the vehicle during the Artemis mission, set to launch in 2025.  The companies say they are building the LMV 100% for industrial use. They anticipate accelerating demand for lunar vehicles fr

  GM & Lockheed Martin's Lunar Rover Source:  GM, Lockheed, NASA One Big Moonshot For automotive giant GM and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, their new partnership to develop a commercial lunar rover is one big Moonshot.  Their prototype looks a bit like a toy but this is not fun and games.  They intend to deliver their Lunar Mobility Vehicles (LMV) to customers by 2025.  The electric moon vehicle could prove to be an important part of NASA's Artemis Mission that will bring astronauts back to the Moon this decade, 50 years after the Apollo mission. A Big Commitment With or Without Government Funding Lockheed and GM intend to build the Moon vehicles with or without government funding.  There is no guarantee that they will win the NASA bidding process and be awarded a contract for use of the vehicle during the Artemis mission, set to launch in 2025.  The companies say they are building the LMV 100% for industrial use. They anticipate accelerating demand for lunar vehicles fr

  Lockheed Martin is Developing a Real-World SR-72 Darkstar                          Source: Top Gun Maverick & Lockheed Martin The World's Fastest Aircraft The blockbuster movie "Top Gun: Maverick" has two top stars:  Tom Cruise as test pilot Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Darkster, the fictional hypersonic aircraft SR-72.  Darkstar was created and designed by the world-famous aviation design group, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, which created the U-2 spy plane, F-22 Raptor, Nighthawk Stealth fighter and more. Now, it turns out that Darkstar is more than a work of fiction. The Skunk Works team is currently working on a real-life version of the SR-72 that is virtually identical to the movie version.  And it may take flight in 2025. The SR-71 Darkstar is based on Lockheed Martin's SR-71, which is a high altitude, long range strategic intelligence aircraft, operated by the US Air Force and NASA.  The movie version is a hypersonic UAV (unmanned ae

  Lockheed Martin is Developing a Real-World SR-72 Darkstar                          Source: Top Gun Maverick & Lockheed Martin The World's Fastest Aircraft The blockbuster movie "Top Gun: Maverick" has two top stars:  Tom Cruise as test pilot Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Darkster, the fictional hypersonic aircraft SR-72.  Darkstar was created and designed by the world-famous aviation design group, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, which created the U-2 spy plane, F-22 Raptor, Nighthawk Stealth fighter and more. Now, it turns out that Darkstar is more than a work of fiction. The Skunk Works team is currently working on a real-life version of the SR-72 that is virtually identical to the movie version.  And it may take flight in 2025. The SR-71 Darkstar is based on Lockheed Martin's SR-71, which is a high altitude, long range strategic intelligence aircraft, operated by the US Air Force and NASA.  The movie version is a hypersonic UAV (unmanned ae

  NASA Is Gaining Altitude on its X-59 SST with Lockheed Martin                                   Source:  NASA & Lockheed Martin How Could It Impact Passenger Travel? NASA and partner Lockheed Martin are on the threshold of creating a next-generation supersonic jet.  The SST under development is nicknamed the "Son of Concorde".  It's also dubbed the X-59 QueSST. It is on a development trajectory to cut air travel times in half.  For instance, a flight from New York City to London would take just 3 hours.  The impact of the X-59 could be huge, initially,  for anyone doing long distance flying from coast to coast in the US and also from the US to Europe.  And that is just the beginning. If this very promising aviation technology comes to full fruition, the impact on cutting flight times would be global. New Concorde The X-59 is designed to minimize sonic booms that forced the original Concorde to slow down over land, increase flight times and become increasingly unecon

  Supersonic Plane Faster Than the Speed of Sound                                                  Source:  NASA Could be Dawn of Global Supersonic Passenger Travel NASA and Lockheed Martin have designed what could be the supersonic jet of the future - the X-59 QueSST, meaning quiet supersonic technology.  The needle-nosed, ultra thin aircraft breaks the sound barrier without releasing sonic booms.   It has been designed to minimize shock waves down to the sound of a car door slamming down the street.  The minimal sound is critical for SST flights to resume  over land in the US.  Because of sonic booms, the FAA banned commercial SST flights over the US in 1973. A New Design of Aerodynamic Elegance According to NASA and Lockheed, they went back to the basics of aerodynamics to design an aircraft that flies faster than the speed of sound as quietly as possible.  They say the X-59 is a combination of highly advanced technology and elegant simplicity.  It is still under development. The cu

  Supersonic Plane Faster Than the Speed of Sound                                                  Source:  NASA Could be Dawn of Global Supersonic Passenger Travel NASA and Lockheed Martin have designed what could be the supersonic jet of the future - the X-59 QueSST, meaning quiet supersonic technology.  The needle-nosed, ultra thin aircraft breaks the sound barrier without releasing sonic booms.   It has been designed to minimize shock waves down to the sound of a car door slamming down the street.  The minimal sound is critical for SST flights to resume  over land in the US.  Because of sonic booms, the FAA banned commercial SST flights over the US in 1973. A New Design of Aerodynamic Elegance According to NASA and Lockheed, they went back to the basics of aerodynamics to design an aircraft that flies faster than the speed of sound as quietly as possible.  They say the X-59 is a combination of highly advanced technology and elegant simplicity.  It is still under development. The cu

Lockheed Martin Goes Supersonic Source:  Lockheed Martine Supersonic Design Concept Travelling Faster than the Speed of Sound Lockheed Martin just unveiled its conceptual design for a sleek, supersonic passenger jet that will travel at the speed of Mach 1.8   It will be able to carry up to 40 passengers and is yet another sign that commercial passenger jet travel is about to become super fast. The Quiet Supersonic Technology Airline The aircraft is called the Quiet Supersonic Technology Airline.  The design moves forward into the commercial passenger realm Lockheed Martin's work with NASA on the X-59 Supersonic X-Plane, which is now being tested. The aircraft doesn't create the intense sonic boom that the Concorde did when it crossed the sound barrier several decades ago.  The boom banned the Concorde from land routes and undermined its economic feasibility.  The new SST both for NASA and commercial travel is designed to reach supersonic speeds with no big sonic bo

Military's Incoming Laser Arsenal Source:  USAF Image Top Laser Gun Top US Air Force officials want to start arming USAF F-15 fighter jets with high powered laser weapons in the early 2020's.  They plan to use SUPER LASERS with 150 kilowatts of power.  That would be capable of destroying an incoming missile on its the side, where it's most vulnerable.  By focusing the beam on the target, it rapidly heats the inside of the missile causing it to explode in mid-air.  It takes just a few seconds. US Army's Mobile Laser for Tanks For the Army, Lockheed Martin's developed a 100 kilowatt, mobile laser that can take out a drone 500 meters away.  It locks its invisible beam on the target and destroys it in seconds.  It's being prepped for Army tanks and will be field-tested in 2022. Increasing Laser Power Changing the Face of War Experts forecast widespread use of lasers by the military in the 2020's.  The high energy laser systems can be mobile, are r