aviation

A high demand for Predators and Reapers on the front lines has led the U.S. Air Force to take an unusual step: asking human pilots to mimic the drones for training purposes back in the States.

Cessna 182 aircraft have become converted "Surrogate Predators" with the installation of a "Predator ball" that typically serves as the surveillance and tracking eyes for drone operators. Such Predator balls give the manned Cessnas the ability to lock onto targets and track them.

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Every good futuristic sci-fi narrative has its version: Star Trek had the replicator that produced Picard's piping hot Earl Grey from what appeared to be thin air, and Forbidden Planet had Robbie the Robot, who generated entire luncheons from the chemical lab in his nether regions. But NASA scientists have come many real-world steps closer to creating something from nothing, via a process called electron beam freeform fabrication, and a version of the technology will soon be going to the International Space Station for testing.

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Drones have become big business for today's military, whether they come in the form of Hellfire-spitting Reapers and Predators or large airships that can hover over battlefields. Then, there's this small monocopter that flies like a maple seed pod.

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In January, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, told a stunned conference audience that they had managed to create a remote-controlled cyborg beetle by attaching a computer chip to the brain of a giant insect. Now, the paper explaining how they did it has been published in the journal Frontiers In Neuroscience, and they have released a video of the cyber-bug in action.

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Next time you're in Afghanistan, make sure to keep an eye out for the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command's giant blimp-like surveillance airship.

The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), as it's called, will be 250 feet long, autonomous, and able to float at up to 20,000 feet for an impressive three weeks at a time. As for its surveillance capabilities, a 40-foot-long stretch behind the cockpit will house a selection of spy gear, including a motion sensor and radar.

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A class project ended in an unofficial world altitude record for Stanford students and their small, self-piloted aircraft.

The students flew their electric-powered airplanes from a dry lakebed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base on the morning of September 11. One flight reached an estimated altitude of 7,142 feet, and set the new mark for autonomous aircraft in the 5-kilograms-or-less weight class.

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Though we’re likely a decade from seeing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in action, much less in the Air Force's elite Thunderbirds squad, that hasn’t stopped Lockheed Martin from releasing these images of the military’s new fighter jet in full Thunderbirds dress.

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Believe it or not, this image isn't Photoshopped in any way.

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The National Transportation and Safety Board has completed their investigation into what caused adventurer Steve Fossett's single-engine craft to crash on a leisure flight in 2007. Though his plane carried no data recorder, the NTSB has ruled that strong mountain downdrafts were the cause.

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