India plans to spend $6 bln on joint stealth fighter project with Russia

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/12/c_13491257.htm



India plans to cost nearly six billion U.S. dollar to jointly develop a stealth fighter with Russia over the next ten years, local media reported on Sunday.

India will shoulder about 30 percent of the total design in the stealth fighter project, and mainly focus on the composite components with the stealth function and some electronics equipments, such as avionics, electronic warfare systems and cockpit displays. Additionally, India will be responsible to design from the single-seat stealth fighter into a two-seat type which would be deployed by the Indian Air Force, said the HAL official.

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Global Observer, Hydrogen powered UAV, Aims To Make Satellites Obsolete

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39102502/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Unmanned platforms like the Global Observer that operate above 50,000 feet combine the capabilities of satellites with the flexibility of aircraft for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The aircraft is being developed by AeroVironment under a joint concept technology demonstration (JCTD) sponsored by several U.S. agencies under the direction of the Special Operations Command

The Global Observer has a 175-foot wingspan and weighs less than 10,000 pounds. It has a modular composite airframe, which enables it be transported by a cargo aircraft, and an internal-combustion engine modified to burn hydrogen that drives a generator to produce electricity to power the UAV’s four propellers. Hydrogen was chosen because it has three times the energy of conventional fuel. When in operation, the aircraft produces no carbon emissions.

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Gallois abrirá ya la caja de los 8.000 millones para que EADS haga compras

http://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas-ss/noticias/2434351/09/10/Gallois-abrira-ya-la-caja-de-los-8000-millones-para-que-EADS-haga-compras.html

EADS desembolsaría en esta operación aproximadamente 1.000 millones de euros (con objetivos prioritarios en USA) y comenzaría a gastar el dinero que tiene destinado a compras (unos 8.000 millones de euros), según explicó Galloise en Farnborough el pasado mes de julio.

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Trust: Greatest Obstacle To UAV Autonomy

 http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/awst/2010/09/13/AW_09_13_2010_p48-252520.xml

Autonomy is at the end of a spectrum of increasing automation, and increasing complexity that automation can deal with, says Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Air Vehicles Directorate scientist Bob Smith. “Some automation exists today in almost every capability, but we are on a trajectory to increasing complexity,” he says. “At the same time we have to make sure the automation works well with humans. That’s a critical aspect.”

Autonomy means different things to different people. To Information Directorate chief scientist Rich Linderman, it is a matter of speed—autonomous systems can sense, self-adapt, dynamically plan and make decisions at speeds that preclude having people in the loop. But while the cyber domain requires decision speeds far beyond human capability, timescales in the aviation domain still allow human interaction, says Dan Thompson, Air Vehicles Directorate scientist.

Driving increased autonomy into Air Force ground and air systems to reduce manpower requirements is the major tenet of Technology Horizons, Smith says, adding: “The hope is that increased automation will make each person more effective, and allow them to step back from the hands-on control that timescales allow, but budgets do not.”

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NASA Hosts Green Aviation Summit

http://www.aero-news.net/news/genav.cfm?ContentBlockID=5adbed68-9790-4d7f-a05e-b45b2b05c6f2&Dynamic=1

NASA has a "critical responsibility" to the flying public to develop environmentally responsible solutions to the nation's most pressing aviation problems, Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said Wednesday. Addressing the Green Aviation Summit, which ran through Thursday at NASA's Ames Research Center, Bolden said air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation and vital to the U.S. economy, but increasing air traffic is taking a toll on the environment and the nation's aviation infrastructure.

"We need to make some changes -- both in the design of aircraft and in the way they transit through our skies to not only maintain, but improve safety and efficiency," Bolden said. "That's a huge challenge, but we at NASA enthusiastically accept it."

NASA has a suite of incremental goals for demonstrating the feasibility of aircraft technology and air traffic management techniques that can minimize the environmental effects of air transportation by:

• Enabling aircraft to burn 33 percent less fuel than today's most efficient models by 2015, 50 percent less by 2020, and better than 50 percent less by 2025.
• Cutting engine emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen oxide, which contribute to ozone creation, 20 percent by 2015, 50 percent by 2020, and better than 50 percent by 2025 -- when compared with today's best engines. Reducing the amount of fuel burned reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.
• Reducing the nuisance noise footprint around airports to one-third its current size by 2015 and one-sixth by 2020, and containing it within the airport property boundary by 2025.

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