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Southwest builds first 'green plane,' Ma Earth shows her gratitude

by Darren Murph posted Oct 25th 2009 at 12:11AM

Southwest Airlines may not own a plane with a headrest infotainment system, but it's still far and away the most enjoyable commercial flight you'll find in the US of A (save for Virgin America, naturally). Granted, we'd like to see in-flight WiFi offered on a few more of its flights (read: 100 percent of them), but hey, we'll take free checked bags and friendly employees any day of the week. We'll also take fuel savings and environment stewardship, both of which Southwest is aiming to give us by creating the planet's first "green plane." By utilizing recyclable InterfaceFLOR carpet, weight-saving seat covers and life vest pouches, a lighter foam fill in the seats and aluminum (as opposed to plastic) seat rub strips, the newfangled Boeing 737-700 ends up some 472 pounds lighter than a conventional one. The savings? 9,500 gallons of jet fuel per year. We're not sure when the bird is expected to take her first voyage, but here's hoping a few others are hatched in the near future.

[Via DailyFinance]

Read - Southwest press release
Read - China View's fuel calculations

Gallery: Southwest builds first "green plane," Ma Earth shows her gratitude

Boeing's air-to-ground laser test a success, and we have the video to prove it

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 4th 2009 at 6:37PM

Fans of future wars, heads up! What might at first blush look like a poorly placed roman candle is actually proof positive that Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is ready to do some damage. Sure, when we heard last month that the company's tests at the White Sands Missile Range were a success, we responded the same way that we always do: "video or it didn't happen." But now that we've seen it in action, we have one more question: When will its big brother, the 747-mounted ABL, get its day in the limelight? We'll keep you posted.

[Via The Register]

Continue reading Boeing's air-to-ground laser test a success, and we have the video to prove it

Boeing's airborne laser finally blows something up

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 3rd 2009 at 5:36PM

It's been a long haul marked by funding cuts and some important but rather unexciting tests, but it looks like Boeing's much-ballyhooed airborne laser has now finally actually blown something up, real good. According to Boeing and the US Air Force, that happened over the White Sands Missile Range on August 30th, when an C-130H aircraft equipped with the Advanced Tactical Laser (or ATL) locked on to an unspecified ground target and fired the 12,000lb high-power chemical laser to make the target disappear from the face of the Earth. That successful test seems unlikely to change the laser's place in the Defense Department's arsenal, however, which has already been scaled back significantly from the earlier, more ambitious plans for a whole fleet of aircraft equipped with the weapon.

[Via Slashdot]

Boeing's Airborne Laser shines a light on a missile mid-flight, says 'Hey, there!'

by Tim Stevens posted Aug 14th 2009 at 10:58AM

Boeing's Airborne Laser shines a light on a missile mid-flight, doesn't blow it up

As fans of Real Genius, we're as intrigued as you are by the concept of a flying laser the size (and shape) of a Boeing 747-400F, and have been tracking Boeing's test-flights of its Airborne Laser platform quite closely. The jet is designed to intercept and destroy missiles mid-flight, and a recent test showed that it can manage that first bit -- but it still hasn't achieved the second. In a test on August 10, it tracked and fired upon an in-flight target that was packing sensors; the sensors confirmed the hit and so the test was successful, but for some reason Boeing opted to not crank it up to the gigawatts and knock the thing down. That test is apparently planned for a "lethal demonstration against a boosting threat-representative ballistic missile target" later this year, so until then this thing is little more effective than a multi-billion dollar Care Bear. Boeing, we dig that targets of this sort are probably not cheap, but get on with the program already, yeah?

[Via The Huntsville Times]

Boeing to develop microwave-based airborne EMP weapon

by Nilay Patel posted May 18th 2009 at 11:37AM

Boeing's been busy with the high-tech death lately -- just a week after the company announced the Phantom Ray fighter UAV, it's back in the news with a high-powered airborne microwave weapon designed to knock out enemy electronics. The goal is to more or less destroy the enemy's tech with out having to set off one of those pesky nuclear explosions necessary for an EMP, and Boeing plans to test the tech out both in the air and on the ground several times over the next three years as part of the Air Force's Counter-electronics High power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) project. We'll be ready with the popcorn.

[Via The Register]

Boeing developing Phantom Ray fighter-sized combat UAV

by Nilay Patel posted May 10th 2009 at 8:36AM

Boeing's Airborne Laser project might be on shaky ground as the Pentagon reassess its budget, but that isn't stopping the company from pushing the flying-death market forward -- its latest project is the fighter jet-sized Phantom Ray UAV. The unmanned combat plane is being built using tech from the X-45 experimental UAV (pictured above) developed for the DARPA-funded Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System, and it should be taking the first of 10 scheduled test flights relatively soon -- the first is penciled in for December 2010, just a few months before Skynet becomes self-aware and destroys humanity as we know it.

[Via Giz Mag]

Boeing's Airborne Laser begins flight tests, future uncertain

by Donald Melanson posted Apr 25th 2009 at 11:28PM

Boeing was pretty bullish about its aircraft-mounted laser system only a few short months ago, but it looks the program's future is now considerably more uncertain, even as the sole aircraft to be equipped with the rig begins its first flight tests. Apparently, everything with the tests themselves has been going according to plan, with both the high-energy laser itself and the "beam control / fire control apparatus" along for the ride, and Boeing is even reportedly still on track for a missile-intercept demonstration later this year. The recent funding shakeup at the Pentagon, however, has thrown Boeing and its partners in the project for a bit of a loop, with the department now apparently intending to keep only one of the planes in service (instead of the proposed seven) as it transitions the rest of the program towards a purely R&D effort.

Navy shells out for development of missile-killing free-electron laser

by Darren Murph posted Apr 24th 2009 at 6:09PM

You may think that the Navy's just the baby brother to the two other US Armed Forces, but its weapon development record definitely shows otherwise. Just over two years after building an 8-Megajoule railgun, the branch has penned two $7 million checks to defense contractors Boeing and Raytheon for the design and development of a free-electron laser (FEL). For what it's worth, such a device has been yearned for since a day after the dawn of time, as unlike chemical-based lasers, the FEL would be 100 percent electric and easier to move. For those unaware,this stormy petrel of a weapon would be used to blast down missiles in mid-flight, all while putting on a pretty impressive light show. 'Course, the Navy must also figure out how to build a massive energy generating ship in order to use it, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here, okay?

[Image courtesy of AIP]

High-powered, jet-mounted laser one step closer to flying the terrifying skies

by Laura June posted Feb 26th 2009 at 8:47PM

The jet-mounted laser anti-missile system, brainchild of Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the US Air Force, has been an ongoing project for quite some time. Well, it's progressed into a final test phase, as evidenced by a new video, which shows the plane strapped with a pilot-controlled laser which is able to intercept missiles significantly earlier than other existing anti-missile tech. The project has plans to continue testing throughout this year, but will also need to be approved by the Obama administration if it is to come to fruition. Feel free to insert obligatory Dr. Evil joke in comments. Check out the video after the break, but fair warning: it autoplays.

Continue reading High-powered, jet-mounted laser one step closer to flying the terrifying skies

First shot fired in war of robots vs humans with lasers, we're winning so far

by Paul Miller posted Jan 26th 2009 at 5:32PM

Boeing just announced a (public) first: they shot a UAV out of the sky using the Laser Avenger (an aptly-titled Humvee-mounted laser), the first time a combat vehicle has used such a weapon to knock a flying robot out of the sky. Naturally, the report is short on details, but they did say that they managed to burn a hole in the enemy, quite the feat for a moving target. Of course, once the robots get lasers, we're all done for.

Boeing completes successful test of air-to-ground laser turret, enemies are teh doomed

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted Aug 14th 2008 at 9:35AM

It's about time Boeing went and shot that frickin' laser. The Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser C-130H aircraft has completed its first ground test, shooting a high-energy chemical laser through a beam-control system. The gun successfully acquired a ground target and shot the darn thing on August 7, paving the way for an in-air test later this year, hopefully from that bad-ass 747 they've been touting. Boeing promises that the ATL will "destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage." Yay for surgical strikes? Maybe some popcorn?

Boeing's Skyhook JHL-40 blimp gives us hope for yesterday's future

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted Jul 11th 2008 at 7:12AM

We love dirigibles and we're not about to apologize for it, so that's why Boeing's new Skyhook JHL-40 airship has us ooh'ing and aah'ing in wonder. The eight-engine blimp is being developed for 40-ton 200-mile hauls in adverse environments such as wildernesses and what Boeing calls places "no other kind of transport can go." It is also slated to have a minimal impact on the environment with a carbon-minimal footprint as it won't require new roadways in remote areas. Of the eight engines, four provide lift while the other four control direction. Two production prototypes are under development at its Rotorcraft Systems facility in Ridley Park, PA. Can we sign up for a test flight? Maybe? Just a little?

[Via Coolest Gadgets]

Border Patrol's virtual fence canceled for not being as good as a fence

by Nilay Patel posted Apr 24th 2008 at 12:58AM

The last we heard of DHS's "Project 28" plan to build a 28-mile stretch of virtual fencing along the US / Mexico border in Arizona, it had been postponed until at least 2011 because the towers didn't quite work. Well, it appears that on further review, the system is even more of a total failure, and it's being scrapped entirely: according to Kelly Good, deputy director of the administration's Secure Border Initiative program, Project 28 "hasn't come close" to meeting Border Patrol's goals. Tests of the virtual fence didn't lead to nearly as many arrests as designers had hoped, and the lag from sensor detection to transmission of an image to border agents was apparently a big part of the problem. Boeing, which won the $860M contract to build the system, is now being told to replace it all with upgraded towers, but there's no word on when that's happening or what it'll cost taxpayers on top of the $20M already paid out. We're expecting trillion-dollar chain-link bids to come rolling in any day now.

First manned flight using hydrogen battery doesn't cause rain, only tears

by Thomas Ricker posted Apr 4th 2008 at 8:28AM

You're looking at the world's first manned flight powered by a hydrogen battery. Boeing's prop-driven aircraft set the lone pilot aloft for about 20 minutes at a speed of 100-kilometres (62 miles) an hour at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. The 800-kilogram (1,760-pound) craft with a 16.3-meter (51-foot) wingspan is capable of flying for about 45 minutes under the power of its hydrogen fuel cells -- the airplane's batteries provided an additional boost for takeoff. The fuel cells harvest the energy produced by the chemical transformation of hydrogen and oxygen into water -- that makes the craft clean as well as near silent. Unfortunately, the technology is nowhere near the point of powering commercial aircraft. At best, the fuel-cells could act as a secondary power source... in another 20 years.

Border virtual fence project delayed again until at least 2011

by Ryan Block posted Feb 28th 2008 at 5:18AM

Remember Project 28? That Boeing / DHS system to put a 28 mile stretch of sensor-tower laden virtual fencing along the US / Mexico border in Arizona? Well, the government swiped the contract back from Boeing last week for lack of, well, working, and is apparently going at it alone with plans to delay it three or more years to get the job done right. Well, you know, right as total failures and wastes of taxpayer dollars get, ultimately.