petrel

Latest

  • Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc.

    Sonar drone helps find a WWII Japanese aircraft carrier

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    10.20.2019

    The late Paul Allen's underwater robotics are still achieving firsts in discovering long-lost warships. Vulcan's research vessel Petrel and its two robotic vehicles have discovered the Kaga, a Japanese aircraft carrier sunk during WWII's pivotal Battle of Midway. It's the first time anyone has found a Japanese carrier, Vulcan said, and also the most extensive search the Petrel team has conducted. The team spent several weeks combing an entire battlefield, covering an area of more than 500 square nautical miles -- it found the Kaga more than 17,700 feet underwater.

  • REUTERS/Sergei Yakovlev

    Russian rocket test explosion leads to radiation leak

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    08.10.2019

    Russia's military technology push has unfortunately produced deadly consequences. The country's Rosatom has confirmed that five people have died and three have been injured after an explosion on August 8th while testing an isotopic power source for a rocket's liquid propulsion system. The same blast also increased radiation levels by as much as twenty times in nearby Severodvinsk for about half an hour.

  • Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc.

    Sonar drone discovers long-lost WWII aircraft carrier USS Hornet

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    02.12.2019

    The late Paul Allen's research vessel, the Petrel, has found another historic warship at the bottom of the ocean. In the wake of an initial discovery in late January, the expedition crew has confirmed that it found the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that played a pivotal role in WWII through moments like the Doolittle Raid on Japan and the pivotal Battle of Midway. It was considered lost when it sank at the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1943, but modern technology spotted it nearly 17,500 feet below the surface of the South Pacific Ocean, near the Solomon Islands.