Free Republic

NASA will likely shut down its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into futuristic – and often far-out – ideas in spaceflight and aeronautics, officials say. The controversial move highlights the budgetary pressures the agency is facing as it struggles to retire the space shuttles by 2010 and develop their replacement. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was established to "give an opportunity for people outside of NASA to develop really revolutionary and creative concepts for future aeronautics and space missions", says Robert Cassanova, who has served as the institute's director since its inception in February 1998. The...

The theme for this weekend is Air Shows and comparing them in the US and Britain. I have picked Biggin Hill Air Show which is an ex RAF Station which is now in private ownership but continues to have an annual Air Show. I last visited the airshow in 2000 but a friend of mine attended this year. The following are extracts from this year's program.

TEHERAN: Iran successfully tested a "super-modern flying boat" yesterday and the land-to-sea Kowsar missile that military analysts say is designed to sink ships in the Gulf, state media reported. The tests came in the middle of the country's Gulf war games that started on Friday. State radio said the Kowsar could evade radar and that its guidance system could not be scrambled. The Defence Ministry was not immediately able to give details of a "flying boat" that was shown on television. The small propeller-driven aircraft floated on a trimaran hull until it took off and flew low over the surface...

We Support Our Troops!  For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT:  Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. Waldo Dean Waterman (1894-1976) was the first to create a functional flying car.  He was an airplane engineer with a flair for creative design. Figuring that most people couldn’t afford both an airplane and a car, and believing that the car was a necessity of modern life, Waterman...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University engineers have developed a wind tunnel that is the only one of its kind in the world capable of running quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, helping researchers to design advanced aircraft and missiles. No other wind tunnel runs quietly while conducting experiments in airstreams traveling at Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound, said Steven Schneider, an aerospace engineer and professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Researchers will use the $1 million wind tunnel to help design advanced aircraft that travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach 5, which is...

NASA?s hypersonic program may have a chance of taking off again, despite a gloomy budget picture. HAMPTON -- A high-speed aeronautics technology called hypersonics, once thought dead at NASA Langley Research Center after two record-breaking flights in recent years, may face a brighter future than expected.

Aerospace Daily: Bell/Agusta BA609 Civil Tiltrotor On Track Following V-22 Progress By Jefferson Morris/Aerospace Daily 10-Dec-2002 10:41 AM U.S. EST Encouraged by the performance of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey military tiltrotor aircraft since its return to flight, Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company is moving forward with the development and production of its BA609 civilian tiltrotor. Despite significant differences between the two aircraft, the future of the BA609 had been in doubt after the V-22 was grounded after two fatal accidents in 2000. Bell/Agusta elected to slow production of the civilian version, pending the results of the V-22's return to flight (DAILY, April...

  Daring Aeronaut Prepares For Super Jump From SpaceBy Leonard DavidSenior Space Writerposted: 09:25 am ET09 September 2002 A free-falling Frenchman is determined to jump from high in the stratosphere into the record books. Calling it the Le Grand Saut, or "The Super Jump", Michel Fournier is readying himself and the technology needed to attempt a skydiving record. The 58-year-old Fournier and his team are waiting out rainy weather conditions in Saskatchewan, Canada hoping to have a shot this month at the highest parachute jump from some 25 miles (40 kilometers) altitude.On D-day (Dive-day), a stratospheric balloon will carry Fournier...