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First Hover Flight Test of X-50A Dragonfly

Posted by michael on from the feeling-lucky dept.

kbielefe writes "On Wednesday, flight testing began on the X-50A dragonfly canard rotor wing unmanned aircraft. For those of you not familiar with the dragonfly, its rotors work like a helicopter for takeoff, hovering, and slow-speed manouvering, and then lock into place like a fixed-wing aircraft for cruising. The X-50A's reaction drive makes it "much lighter, simpler and more affordable to operate and support than traditional rotorcraft." And the technology is scalable to larger, manned vehicles. Truly a revolutionary aircraft, with a multitude of potential military and commercial applications." There are some more photos and artwork.

10 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Skynet by corebreech · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It's time to clone lots of Linda Hamilton's.

    --
    Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
  2. Today's Japanese lesson [Supplementary Article] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Kitou = Glans (of the penis)

    The word "Kitou" is composed of two Kanji, or pictograph, characters. Each character represents one noun. The first kanji means "turtle" and the second means "head". Put them together and you get "turtle head", a rather visual description of the tip of a penis peeking out of the foreskin.

  3. no faith whatsoever by segment · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I thought once a person or entity had a record or issue with court they were barred from receiving government contracts... That's funny.

    By BARRIE McKENNA
    Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - Page B10

    WASHINGTON -- Tarnished by scandal and dwindling aircraft market share, Boeing Co. has accepted the resignation of long-time chairman and chief executive officer Phil Condit as part of a dramatic front-office management shakeup.

    The abrupt departure yesterday of Mr. Condit, 62, comes amid allegations that the world's largest aircraft maker may have illegally exploited U.S. government connections to gain sealed bidding information from rival Airbus Industrie during a competition for a key Air Force order.

    source

    Guess someone had a nice check this year.

    </arrogance>

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    MoFscker
  4. Need a new distro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Since Red Hat is going all commercial what would be a good distro to try out?

    1. Re:Need a new distro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Try Nero ANUX

    2. Re:Need a new distro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      How unoriginal.

      Really, though, it's just pathetic how someone does something almost novel (I almost consider "classic" goatse.cx tasteful these days. Even seasonally themed in the spirit that Google has pioneered), and then the sheep come flocking in to hang on their coattails, hoping to be clever on the work of others.

      Well it's seriously pathetic. Seriously. Shoot yourselves in the head because obviously you have nothing original or creative to add to the world, and instead must resort to lame hackneyed repetition and ripoffs.

  5. Re:Realistic commercial uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    This message was brought to you by an AC that deserves to be banned. Thank you and please do not bite yourself.

  6. -1, TROLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Stop calling links to anything Linux related "Goatse Links", dumbfuck

  7. HAHAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    pwnd

  8. I should be shot for this, but... by Berrik · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I for one welcome our new silicon overlords.

    Berrik

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    Current karma: Terrible (due to mods without a sense of humor)