Aviation News

August 20, 2016

Methane Leaks: New Way to Find and Fix

Stronger Composites With Carbon Nanotube Stitches

Controlling Multiple Drones With Thoughts

LISA Pathfinder Sets Free-Fall Record

Latest Headlines

updated 11:16am EDT

Scientists Have Created a Ceramic, Resistant to Extreme Temperatures

Aug. 19, 2016 — Scientists managed to create a new multi-layered ceramic material with heat resistance of the upper layer of more than 3,000 degrees ... read more

Safer Air Travel: Existing Navigation Data Can Help Pilots Avoid Turbulence

Aug. 11, 2016 — Detecting turbulence remains the Achilles' heel of modern-day aviation. The reports submitted by pilots, subjective and often very inaccurate, are the least expensive and the most frequently used ... read more

Watch a Tiny Space Rocket Work

Aug. 8, 2016 — Moving a nanosatellite around in space takes only a tiny amount of thrust. Engineers teamed up, put a nanoscale rocket under a microscope, and watched ... read more

Dot-Drawing With Drones

Aug. 4, 2016 — You may have heard of plans to use drones for delivering packages, monitoring wildlife, or tracking storms. But painting murals? Researchers have enlisted tiny drones to ... read more

Aerospace Engineering Graduate First to Flight Test UAV With Mass-Actuated Controls

Aug. 3, 2016 — A recently graduated university student is the first person to successfully flight test an unmanned aerial vehicle that uses ... read more

No More Dry Mucous Membranes When Flying

Aug. 2, 2016 — Hovering at around 20 percent, the relative humidity in aircraft is kept very low to keep condensation from building up in the cabin. The downside for passengers and the crew ... read more

Computers Will Be Able to Assess Humans' State of Mind

Aug. 2, 2016 — Machines are taking over more and more tasks. Ideally, they should also be capable to support the human in case of poor performance. To intervene appropriately, the machine ... read more

Restoring Prairie and Fighting Wildfire With (Drone Launched) Fire(balls)

Aug. 1, 2016 — One ecologist wants to change the way we think about prescribed burns. The professor says he can harness extreme fire to restore grasslands on the Great Plains -- and he has ... read more

Lattice Structure Absorbs Vibrations

July 29, 2016 — Researchers have developed a lattice structure capable of absorbing a wide range of vibrations while also being useful as a load-bearing component -- for example, in propellers, rotors and rockets. ... read more

Minimally Traumatic and Inexpensive Ceramic Laser Scalpel

July 20, 2016 — The newly created technology shows an effectiveness more than twice as high as any of the previously developed solid state lasers.Another important feature of this laser is that the generated light ... read more

Tethered Drone Could Fly 'forever'

‘Flying Bum’ Edges out of Hangar Before Debut Flight

Amazon Is Finally Going To Test That Drone Delivery You Heard About

SpaceX Rocket Propels Cargo to Space Station

Students Build the World's Lightest Electric Paraglider Trike

July 29, 2016 — A group of students has tackled an engineering challenge by custom building lightweight aircraft inspired by paragliders and ... read more

Could More Fuel-Efficient Engines Lead to More Global Warming?

July 13, 2016 — Auto industry experts predict that more than 50 percent of cars on the road by 2020 will use a relatively new type of fuel-efficient engine. This transition, however, has raised questions about its ... read more

Robot Would Assemble Modular Telescope -- In Space

July 13, 2016 — A new concept in space telescope design uses a modular structure and an assembly robot to build an extremely large telescope in space, performing tasks in which astronaut fatigue would be a ... read more

Teaching Drones About the Birds and the Bees

July 4, 2016 — Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of the future will be able to visually coordinate their flight and navigation just like birds and flying insects do, without needing human input, radar or even GPS ... read more

Vision Through the Clouds

June 29, 2016 — Poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A new helmet-mounted display may in the future be able to help pilots detect ... read more

New Artificial Intelligence Beats Tactical Experts in Combat Simulation

June 27, 2016 — Artificial intelligence recently won out during simulated aerial combat against US expert tacticians. Importantly, it did so using no more than the processing power available in a tiny, affordable ... read more

Airplanes Make Clouds Brighter

June 21, 2016 — Contrails from airplanes make clouds brighter, shows new research. The researchers used a combination of flight tracking data and satellites equipped with sensitive lasers for detecting small changes ... read more

Why Planes Freeze

June 21, 2016 — Researchers have learned more about the role of droplet size impact in aircraft icing to improved safety. The work points to a different icing mechanism at work than previously ... read more

Behavioral Economics Study Shows Boost in Fuel and Carbon Efficiency of Airline Captains

June 20, 2016 — Interventions rooted in behavioral economics can significantly boost the use of fuel- and carbon-efficient flight practices in the airline industry, according to a new ... read more

Making Airport Surface Traffic More Efficient

June 7, 2016 — Many major European airports are unable to expand. This means that aircraft departures, arrivals and surface traffic movements will have to be sped up. A new system designed to make surface movements ... read more

New Alloy Promises to Boost Rare Earth Production While Improving Energy Efficiency of Engines

June 4, 2016 — Researchers have developed aluminum alloys that are both easier to work with and more heat tolerant than existing products. What may be more important, however, is that the alloys -- which contain ... read more

Downed World War II Aircraft Missing for 72 Years Located in Pacific Islands

May 25, 2016 — An American aircraft missing since July 1944 was recently located off Palau by effort to combine advanced oceanographic technology with archival research to locate MIAs and military ... read more

Using Drones Without Disturbing Wildlife

May 23, 2016 — Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more popularly known as drones, are increasingly employed to monitor and protect wildlife. But researchers say that steps should be taken to ensure that UAV ... read more

NASA Super Pressure Balloon Begins Globetrotting Journey

May 18, 2016 — NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test ... read more

Satellite Data Could Help Reduce Flights Sidelined by Volcanic Eruptions

May 13, 2016 — A volcano erupting and spewing ash into the sky can cover nearby areas under a thick coating of ash and can also have consequences for aviation safety. Airline traffic changes due to a recent ... read more

Sonic Net Could Save Birds and Aircraft, Study Suggests

May 6, 2016 — Introducing a noise net around airfields that emits sound levels equivalent to those of a conversation in a busy restaurant could prevent collisions between birds and aircraft, saving passenger lives ... read more

Bats' Flight Technique Could Lead to Better Drones

May 4, 2016 — Long-eared bats are assisted in flight by their ears and body, according to a new study. The recent findings improve researchers' understanding of the bats' flying technique and could be ... read more

Turbulence Physics Explains Why Jet Noise Is So Loud

Apr. 26, 2016 — If you've ever experienced the exceptionally powerful and reverberating sounds of a jet during takeoff, you likely won't be surprised that the noise produced by jet engines is ranked among ... read more

Research Team Realizes 3-Color Photodetector

Apr. 22, 2016 — There's a new approach to design results in a device that can detect different infrared wavebands, which could lead to applications in imaging and entertainment, report ... read more

New Tool Calculates Economic Costs of Methane Leak Detection

Apr. 20, 2016 — The 'virtual gas field simulator' calculates the economic costs of different technologies for plugging and repairing leaky natural gas wells. In recent years, there has been a growing ... read more

Friday, July 29, 2016