When you talk of planes such as the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, which stay in the sky for a whole day without needing to refuel, have a range of over 3400 miles and can hit altitudes of up to 20,000 meters, you would think they would be used to spy on enemy nations, drop a couple of missiles and help build structures such as International Space Station. But the nice folk at the military have been kind enough to lend a couple of these aerial emperors for environmental research and those concerned about the planet’s health are really happy at this sudden ‘lift’.

Officially handed over to NASA for environment research and collecting data from the global skies, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) now opens up new avenues for scientists across the globe. These UAVs are a lot better for high-altitude data collection compared to the U2s that were earlier at NASA’s disposal as they do not require a pilot, which keeps men safely on ground and even reduces fuel consumption that tad bit more.

With the first scientific flight of the Global Hawks scheduled to take place in January, NASA is all excited about its latest venture into climate study… Let’s just hope this does not end up like the moon landing tapes!

Discovery

Britain is building some of the world’s largest warships the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince Of Wales. Both weigh about 65,000 ton and are definitely the biggest warships that Britain has ever had or produced. The ships can carry many numbers of jet planes and war planes and thus can help the military to take off from the middle of the sea. The ships are expected to assist the Royal navy and military in curbing terrorism and piracy.

The ships can carry 36 Joint Strike Fighter jets and 4 helicopters each. Apparently it’s not just the British but Russians, Indians and the Chinese are on their way to build some of the largest ships on earth. These war ships may indeed help to curb terrorism and improve international security but it might also encourage countries to set off to wars.

Weapons are never noble and a weapon carrier only assists wars. The ships are each about 4 acres and cost 4 billion pounds. The ships are expected to protect British military and civil interests all across the globe. The ships will be ready by 2016 or 2018.

Via: DailyMail/Gizmodo

Between talks of space tourism, we were pleasantly surprised to hear the airplane company Finnair envisioning the future. Celebrating its 85th birthday, the company is busy sifting through ingenious ideas. In fact, impressively the researchers have even conceptualized five future air crafts that will be seen whizzing by in the ear 2093.

Let’s take a run down.

1. Finnair A600-850 M: This one will be a wide-bodied, zero-emission supersonic aircraft promising a seating capacity of 600 to 850. Regular windows give way to AV windows which will provide zoombale views of the sky and the earth. Seats in the cabin will adjust as per the passengers’s weight, height and age.

2. Finnair A600-850: The seating capacity will be the same as above. This zero-emission aircraft will be used for short haul routes. Electricity will be generated by solar panels on the body of the airplane.

3. Finnair A1700-2400 Cruiser: Now this one’s straight out of a sci-fi movie. The charter airplane has turning engines located in front that enable it to both glide and take-off vertically. So, it can even land on water. Passengers will enjoy hologram theaters, restaurants among other luxury amenities.

4. An air craft for everyone: A combo of a helicopter and a small aircraft, we will see the first version in 2020 itself. Almost 80 per cent of the vessel will be covered with solar cells.

5. Space hotel’s service ship: One made for space tourism. It will carry passengers directly to the space hotel.

Boy oh boy!

Via departure2093