USAF CONSIDERS GREEN POWER ON BASE
ENERGY The US Air Force is looking to host coal-to-liquid fuel plants, solar panel farms and even a nuclear power station on airbases as it works to diversify its energy sources and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. A photovoltaic array producing 14.2MW of power is already operational at Nellis AFB in Nevada. A request for proposal has been released for three more locations: Edwards AFB in California, Luke AFB in Arizona and Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. Offering air force-owned land to commercial producers of alternative energy is part of a plan to reduce the USAF's dependence on foreign oil that includes certificating a 50% blend of synthetic coal-to-liquid jet fuel and conventional JP-8 across its fleet of aircraft by early 2011.
JAPANESE QUAD TILT WING UAV MAKES MAIDEN FLIGHT
TILT WING A fully autonomous quad tilt wing (QTW) unmanned air vehicle has made its first successful take-off, forward flight and landing.
The Chiba University-developed UAV, capable of carrying a 5kg (11lb) payload, made the flight in February. It has been in development since 2004, funded by Japanese company GH Craft. The UAV has a wingspan of 1m (3.27ft) and a length of 1m. It has a top speed of 81kt (150km/h) and an endurance of 15min. The prototype's rotors are electrically driven using batteries.
US NAVY FUNDS UAV HEAVY FUEL COMBUSTION ENGINE RESEARCH
ENGINES UK engineering company Cosworth has been selected by the US Navy for the first of three phases of the two-year ultra-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UE-UAV) heavy fuel engine technology development programme. Cosworth plans to increase the power output of its 3hp (2.2kW) AE-1 engine, which weighs 3.5kg (7.7lb), during the four month-long first phase, as well as improving its fuel efficiency and reducing its noise levels. The power increase, to the US Navy's target of up to 10hp, is expected to require an increase in the number of cylinders from one to two. The three programme phases include extensive ground- and flight-test evaluation of heavy fuel engines to prove their technological readiness.
COLLIER TROPHY AWARDED FOR ADS-B INNOVATION
NAVIGATION New York-based Sensis has been awarded a 2007 Robert J Collier Trophy as a result of its work on Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B). Sensis was one of the companies awarded this honour for "conceptualising, developing, and implementing Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, the next generation performance-based air-ground, air-air, and ground-air surveillance system." Sensis fielded the industry's first operational ADS-B transceivers for both the Mode S Extended Squitter and Universal Access Transceiver data links in Australia in 2004 and Alaska in 2005, respectively.
Source: Flight International
