Free Republic

MOSES LAKE, Wash. — The first flight of a hydrogen-powered airplane was a success this week, showing zero-emissions air travel could be on the horizon. The 40-passenger regional airliner using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion took off at 8:41 a.m. Thursday from Grant County International Airport and flew 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 3,500 MLS. The aircraft, nicknamed Lightning McClean, was developed by California-based company Universal Hydrogen.

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Representatives from three Washington cities with ties to The Boeing Co. will meet next week with the majority owner of Airbus SAS in hopes of landing a possible aircraft assembly plant. Spokane, Everett and Moses Lake will make pitches to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. as possible locations for a $600 million plant where aerial tankers might one day be built for the U.S. Air Force. It's considered a longshot because the Department of Defense has not yet decided to replace its fleet of aging Boeing-built KC-135 tankers. And Congress must agree to open up...