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Liquid Hydrogen UAV
From the same company that brought you the Wasp MAV, Aerovironment announced yesterday that they have successfully completed the world's first liquid hydrogen powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight tests. From the press release: " AeroVironment's Global Observer High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) platform will be able to operate at 65,000 feet for over a week with a flexible payload-carrying capacity of up to 1,000 pounds." Applications include government and military surveillance operations, communication relays, and the potential for persistent real-time imagery of wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. More pictures here.
Something like this might have helped the US avoid falsely accusing Iraq of housing WAMD... Either that or maps.google.com
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
But kind of bomb can it carry? :P
Applications include government and military surveillance operations, communication relays, and the potential for persistent real-time imagery of wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.
You forgot Gate Recon!!!
Hover over a nude beach and take hi-res pictures. It's every /.er's dream!
Visualize Whirled P.'s
how does it compare to the solar ones they wanted to fly which are supposed to stay up indefinitely? Also, are there applications for missions on Mars? Pretty neat accomplishment though.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
But can it run Linux?
I understand the need for good intelligence in making national security policy, but flying spyplanes over the airspace of your friends and enemies alike isn't going to win you any brownie points, and as the US has already experienced with the U2 (the crashed plane, not the band that's selling out), one crashed spyplane can lead to a hell of a lot of trouble.
Spying is a nasty business, and I guess it's a necessary evil, but the person in charge of announcing new toys at Aerovironment must be completely braindead. Someone at the State department ought to go have a talk with those good folks.
The wings look really big. Why dont they think about including solar panels on the wings?
hilarious
So, is this vehicle running a fuel cell type setup? Or is there some other way of using liquid hydrogen?
Either way, is this something that can be put into cars? It seems if they can keep an airplane up for over a week, a car would really benefit from this technology.
Of course, cars tend to get into accidents a bit more often than unmanned planes. Would hydrogen be as volatile in a liquid state?
Is this technology suitable for use in commercial aircraft? The Airlines are taking a beating right now, a large part to their own incompetence, but the $60 a barrel prive for oil is driving jet fuel costs through the room. It seems like if Boeing or Airbus could get some of this type of engine technology working in large commercial aircraft, they could make a killing.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
pictures: http://mirrordot.org/stories/aaf0c842dfe20788ff7a5 5f10aff4b6d/index.html 2 b7286f69bcb/index.html
b server/go_pictures.htm
The main page:
http://mirrordot.org/stories/d1d8af49f65278e92645
other mirror:
http://xbmodder.us/www.aerovironment.com/
my picture mirror (don't hit this) only do this if you can't get the torrent:
http://xbmodder.us/www.aerovironment.com/global-o
torrent:
http://xbmodder.us/global-observer.torrent
Oh the humanity!
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
There's more on this and other long-range UAVs over at Defense Tech -- including a solar-powered drone that just set endurance records.
Damn.. that will be some nice fireworks!
Big deal! I took my kid to the circus the other day and got him a gas helium Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for free. They just handed it to him on a string, we untied the bottom, and whoosh! . . . it took off and flew all by itself.
Obviously we've already forgotten that one of the conditions to allowing UN inspections of Iraq was that no reconnissance overflights would be permitted. Period. We had them slated, but in order to give Iraq the maximum benefit of the doubt, we aquiesed on that issue. Somehow, I don't think these UAVs would have made the cut either, y'know?
And let's not try so hard to not inject political bias so obviously into cool tech stories, kk?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
You've got to be kidding me. How exactly would this have changed the situation? We already had satellites, spy, fighter, and electronic warfare planes, Predator UAVs in Iraq. Please explain how this UAV changed the situation in any way.
You mods are getting ridiculous here. I love how you guys would mod any anti-US comment "insightful" if it fit your agenda.
Judging by the array of little props on the leading edge of the wing, this UAV is probably Hydrogen Fuel-Cell powered.
However, if I recall, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, which produce water as a by-product would actually contribute to ozone depletion because water acts like a greenhouse-gas at altitudes over ~27,000ft.
Luckily, these little things probably don't produce all that much water. - Unless they build one each to spy on everyone in the world!
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Thank God for this UAV, I hope they patch bf2 with this new uav that stays longer in the air.
But just when are we gettingliquid hydrogen powered cars? Seriously, I'm freaking fed up with paying 20$ a gallon on gas. Maybe an infinitely available resource would be cheaper.
Like this.
Illegal? Samir, This is America.
It wouldn't have helped the US avoid falsely accusing Iraq of making WMDs, partly because it's not good enough to tell a "baby milk factory" or "pharmaceuticals factory" from a "chemical weapons factory". But the big problem was that the US government *wanted* the conclusion to be "Iraq has SCARY WMDs" to convince the US public to let them invade again, and anything that simply flies over and says "no, didn't see anything suspicious on the outside of those factory buildings" isn't going to either change the propaganda policy or tell the military planners not to target a factory-shaped building.
On the other hand, better UAVs would help improve targeting for the things they did want to blow up, or at least let them see whether groups of people were wearing uniform-colored cloths or not.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I would like to know how they solved the problem of cryo storage of liquid hydrogen. Sure the air temperature and thermal conductivity at high altitudes is decreased but this can help only so much. I just dont see how they can keep it at minus 259C for one week. Dewar made of plastic? Pressurizing it would not help because at -240C hydrogen stops being liquid regardless of the pressure.
My guess is that one big tank fills up most of the pregnant-looking belly. The craft may need some teflon coating on the surface to prevent ice buildup. Also, it is apparent from the video that landing it in even modest crosswind will be tricky business (as with any large-wingspan ultralight).
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
is one more really good album cover.
... as female as possible.
I believe the RIAA is suffering from the lack of hydrogen-fueled airships. All they have now are rock stars looking old, male hip-hop artists looking mean, and female hip-hop artists looking
Give me a snapshot of burning hell falling from the sky once in a while, and maybe I'll pay $19.95 for your amelodious drivel.
And I'm not even a Led Zep fan.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
Yeah, when was that? 1988? So the invasion of Iraq is justified because he gassed the Kurds in 1988? Boy, what a dipshit. Don't you think bin Laden was the bigger threat, especially to the US? Any why is it that Afganistan and bin Laden became a sideshow to Iraq again? Oh, that's right, it is because Hussein gassed the Kurds in 1988.
How about a purely scientific use? Week long telescope surveys of space. Would be high enough to lose atmospheric blurring and short enough to collect lots of data, return to earth, then be reconfigured for another mission.
Ignorance is not a crime; neither should it be a way of life
Congress control $ = inmates run the asylum
I'm guessing not one of these Aholes in the military saw Terminator. Jeeez AH-nold give 'em a jinglejangle and tell 'em how it ends!
The distorted views that maps.google.com gives are a great reason to get Google World. Buckingham Palace looks messed up.
I live a 15-minute bike ride from Wreck Beach which is actually here.
Do I got there? No. This is Canada, not Rio or the south of France. You get people looking at you. The wrong type of people. Wrecks everything. (so to speak)
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
...my favorite was the D-21 drone, code named Senior Bowl/Tagboard...originally launched off the back of an SR71 Blackbird, but later launched from the wing of a B-52 bomber. not much endurance, but holy shit could that thing fly...
PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: Mach 3.3
Range: 3,400+ miles
Service Ceiling: ABOVE 90,000 ft.
It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
Remember, there are no stupid questions. But there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.
Gas is about $2.50 per gallon in the USA at the moment, I think. In the UK it's somewhere around 85 pence a litre, which works out as $5.79 a gallon.
Have you heard of Mazda's Hydrogen powered RX8 concept car?
. php&carnum=1792
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=car
Wouldn't that essentially be a huge flying molotov coktail :P
I'm as left of center as they come, but this doesn't even make any sense. This is idiotic moderation here giving him 5-insightful.
It's better to say that UAV stands for "Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle." That way you can't just get a woman pilot and pocket the DARPA dollars.
There happens to be a UAV conference in Baltimore all week long, with near 1000 vendors...I'm on my way there now actually :)
get some of these and update google maps and google earth real time.
will Angelina Jolie be aboard? Will she be wearing an eyepatch? Because the eyepatch is pretty hot in a weird, pirate sort of way.
I was getting all excited when I interpretted UAV as Urban Assualt Vehicle. That I could use.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Keeping the UAV in cooler temps is not a problem at 65,000'. Average temp drop 2C per 1000' or 4F per 1000'. Median Sea Temp is 59F, at 10,000 the temp is 19F. And at 65'000 your in the Tropopause, or Stratospere. However, this can pending on the season and climate your in. Because the Troposphere can very from 20-30,000' in the winter to 50-60,000' in the summer. Either way, it's much cooler up there than the surface. So, at 65k' based on the Median Sea Temp (4F per 1k') the change in air temp would be approx 260F. Now minus 260 from 59 ='s -201F. How can it say up there for so long?? Well if you were to look at the winds aloft at 60,000ft, you'll find it's (on average) between 75-200knts. A plane with only a 1000lbs useful load doesn't need much more than 60knts for lift. (Yes, i know the air is thinner at 65k, so a bit more speed is required to maintan lift. Perhaps 90-100knts). And based on the lifting capacity of the wings (lbs per sq ft) the ASI (Incidated AirSpeed) could be less, pending the cord angle of the wing...however i'm not the engineer this UAV. The aircraft wouldn't require much more than 35-45% power at 65k' based on it's required lifting speeds and winds aloft. And as the aircraft burns more fuel, the lighter it becomes, requiring less power to stay in flight.
Mostly because if liquid hydrogen explode it does it with great force, as the late Ben Rich found out when he did research for a proposed LH2-fuelled reconnaissance plane. Note that in his book Skunk Works Rich noted that when he visited a university where students did research on LH2 there were a number of holes in the wall caused by LH2 explosions--and that's with a very small amount of LH2 being used in lab experiments!
That's why when Challenger exploded in 1986 it did it with the force of a tactical nuclear warhead, the explosion fuelled by the ignition of LH2 and LOX.
go see http://www.unitednuclear.com/h2.htm
You can get a conversion system for your SUV for 10K
I thought UAV meant Urban Assault Vehicle - I was expecting to see some tricked out mini-van!?!
From parent's link:
:-P
CONCLUSIONS:
Careful investigation of the Hindenburg disaster verified the opinion of the engineers on the Hindenburg and proved that it was the flammable aluminum powder filled paint varnish that coated the infamous airship, not the hydrogen that started the fateful fire.
In searching for a hindemburg picture regarding the use of hydrogen, he provided us with information explicitly telling us that it was NOT the hydrogen but something else that made it so dangerous.
DOH!
One thing I am a little confused about is why hydrogen? My understanding was that the stuff you throw into your car offers much more bang for the volume. While it is nice that this UAV is, uh, eco friendly, why did they go with hydrogen instead of a petrochemical? I figure there must be some advantage (better power to weight ratio?), but I don't see it. Hydrogen packs less of a punch then petrochemicals and requires a sturdy and much heavier tank to hold. So why hydrogen?
In addition to Hydrogen's advantage of a very high energy to weight ratio, its very low temperature could be used to cool an airplane's superconducting electric motor to the required operating temperature. Such motors can be 1/3rd the weight of conventional motors for the same power, as well as being significantly more efficient.
Perfect for small UAVs patrolling battle sites.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
H20 is staple, so it won't react with O3. CO, CO2 and free H all work to create Ozone in smog, so this may apply at high altitude as well.
Ozone depletion is mainly the work of Nitrogen oxides, which when expelled from your car or Whippet catridges, survives the year or so it takes to difuse to the upper atmoshpere.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Hussein first used gas in the Iran/Iraq war against Iran. The USA did nothing at that time. This was when he was being sponsored by the USA. The US was more then willing to work with a violent dictator against Muslim religious fundamentalists. This is why there is a picture of Chaney meeting Hussein. It was only later that he used gas on rebel Kurds in the north of Iraq.
Some would argue that the real reason the the Neo-cons wanted to bring down Hussein was because he attacked Kuwait after we supported him against Iran. They took it very personally that someone who was supposed to be their attack dog tuned and bit the hand that was feeding it. Give the complete irrationality of the changing set of excuses that have been given by the administration for invading Iraq, this makes more sense then any of their stupid nonsense.
Before people get too excited about the freedom from oil this development suggests, keep in mind that it takes more energy to make hydrogen than you get from it.