Une application iPhone pour le Salon du Bourget (Paris Air Show 2011)

Aviation Week viens de lancer en partenariat avec Airbus une application iPhone pour vivre d'ores et déjà le 49e Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace. L'application vous permettra de ne plus vous perdre dans les différents halls et de repérer vos entreprises préférées. Vous avez également accès à la liste préliminaire des avions en exhibition, à un guide de Paris et aux actualités aérospatiales. A noter aussi le petit lien vers la météo du jour dans l'onglet 'Site Map' pour les démonstrations en vol. 

Site officiel du Salon : http://www.salon-du-bourget.fr/fr
Link pour l'application : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/avweek-paris/id438193051?mt=8  (ou cherchez tout simplement 'Aviation Week' dans l'iTunes App Store).

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Black Hawk stealth helicopters seems to be used in Bin Laden's assault

At least one of the helicopters used for reaching the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad was a modified stealth version of the Black Hawk. Military and intelligence US agencies have refused to comment about the use of stealth aircraft in this mission. But the photographs of the helicopter that navy seals blew up (after it was damaged in a hard landing ?), indicates modifications on the tail section which could improve the stealth properties of the helicopter (click on image for enlarge).

All image credits : The New York Times and Sikorsky

More @ The New York Times

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Serment du chasseur (Oath of the fighter pilot in french)

Je jure par Dieu, ma Patrie, mon Roi, que je remplirai suivant mes forces et capacités et, s'il le faut au péril de ma vie l'engagement suivant :

Aviateur, si je me vois confier un fardeau il me deviendra plus sacré que ma propre existence.

Pilote, si je vois confier un appareil de guerre je me battrai à visage découvert portant haut emblème et cocardes.

Aviateur, quelle que soit la machine fabuleuse inventée par l'homme et quels que soient les dangers, affres et tourments que présentera l'entreprise d'aller nager les galaxies je répondrai présent.

Pilote, je n'oublierai jamais que la machine n'est rien sans l'homme qui la dirige.

Si je remplis ce serment, qu'il me soit donné de nombreuses heures de vol, de nombreux moments d'exaltation dans les nuages ou de peur dans la nuit, des aubes radieuses, des tempêtes et des effrois à vaincre. Qu'il me soit donné de jouir heureusement de la vie et de ma profession, honoré parmi les hommes.

Serment du chasseur - 5ème B.A.F.R.A.

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The future of radar systems : Quantum illumination

Using entangled photons should be possible to improve considerably the data transmission. Raytheon BBN is studying new quantum concepts as quantum illumination for using in remote sensing applications. The development of such concepts would allow Radar, Laser Radar (LADAR), and other remote sensing systems to exceed the performance limits of today’s technology.

Actually traditional methods of data transmission, such as fibre optics or laser-based radar, require 100 photons to transmit a single bit of data. Using quantum illumination should be possible to sent 10 bits on a single photon. This discovery was announced theoretically by Seth Lloyd of the W.M. Keck Center for Extreme Quantum Information Processing (xQIT) 3 years ago. Here after the abstract of his paper Quantum Illumination :

Abstract: The use of entangled light to illuminate objects is shown to provide significant enhancements over unentangled light for detecting and imaging those objects in the presence of high levels of noise and loss. Each signal sent out is entangled with an ancilla, which is retained. Detection takes place via an entangling measurement on the returning signal together with the ancilla. Quantum illumination with e bits of entanglement increases the effective signal-to-noise ratio of detection and imaging by a factor of 2^e, an exponential improvement over unentangled illumination.

It's all about entanglement. In this phenomenon when you have a pair of photons the quantum state of one photon is linked to that of another, regardless of how far apart they are. Quantum illumination begins with researchers passing a laser through filters that thin the beam into photons. The filters create identical photons that are linked to each other. Then they split the entangled photons and release one at a target, while the other is keeping near the transmitter. When a photon hits the target, it bounces back towards the source in a process that alters the photon. When it returns to the detector, the altered photon is no longer strictly entangled with its pair, then scientists compare the released photon’s reflection to its unaltered twin. This process is not very different from classical radar, where electromagnetic waves rebound off targets in order to create an image. However the smaller photon delivers far more data far more quickly and efficiently.

As said by researchers at Raytheon BBN, quantum illumination could be used to create hyper-long-distance communications systems where large amounts of information could be sent more quickly (almost instantaneously) and clearly. Some enthusiastic researchers suggest that quantum illumination could lead towards teleportation devices. That's right, but only for information. Star Trek's teleportation of people and objects remains on Science Fiction for the moment...

A definition for quantum illumination which comes from paper Quantum Illumination by Seth Lloyd :

Quantum illumination is a potentially powerful technique for performing detection and imaging, in which signal is entangled with an ancilla, and entangling measurements are made at the detector. Entanglement enhances the effective signal to noise ratio because a noise photon has a d times harder time masquerading as an entangled signal photon, compared with a noise photon masquerading as an unentangled signal photon.

The enhancement of sensitivity and effective signal-to-noise ratio that quantum illumination provides is exponential in the number of bits of initial entanglement, and persists even in the presence of large amounts of noise and loss, when no entanglement survives at the receiver.

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LaserMotive : Making Laser Power UAVs

Laser weapons can down an airplane, but lasers can also keep aircraft in the air. As explained in the following paper from LaserMotive company, lasers can transmit power to UAVs in flight, giving them potentially unlimited endurance aloft. Silent, refueling-free laser-electric UAVs are practical with current technology and could be developed and deployed quickly.

Laser Power for UAVs

LaserMotive is a Seattle-based company developing laser power beaming systems to transmit electricity without wires, for applications where wires are either cost prohibitive or physically impractical (electrical power lines cost 20 000 USD or more per mile for low power residential lines, and 250 000 USD or more per mile for high-voltage transmission lines). This company won 900 000 USD in the NASA-sponsored Power Beaming Challenge in 2009 (Level 1, part of the Space Elevator Games).

LaserMotive believes in laser power beaming as a “powerful” solution for a variety of applications, from powering unmanned aerial vehicles to launching rockets via laser power to beaming limitless solar energy from space to the Earth.

State of art of this technology is at the demonstrator state (small laser-powered helicopter that climbed a 900-meter cable), but I really hope this will be the beginning of space elevator applications as dreamed by Arthur C. Clarke in The Fountains of Paradise (1978).

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Star Wars weapons are not so far... USAF Airborne Laser YAL-1A

On photo (US Air Force photo by Kellie Masters) : USAF Airborne Laser YAL-1A, a modified 747-400F, takes off from Edwards AFB. The aircraft's target illuminator laser fired for the first time.

With eight years of delay and billions of dollars over budget, finally the highly modified Boeing 747-400, designated YAL-1A, performed the feat on February 11at 8:44 PM Pacific time at the Point Mugu naval air warfare center sea range off California, shooting down a liquid-fueled, Scud-like target. The intercept sequence took place within two minutes of the target being fired.
In the same day, ABL also engaged a solid fuel missile, fired from San Nicolas Island. The target was engaged, but ABL stopped the lasing sequence before it was destroyed. None knows if there was a failure in the lasing sequence or if the interruption has been voluntary.

Technological keys :

• ABL uses a high-power chemical laser to project energy on the target. One of the key features is a deformable mirror, which modifies the laser wavefront when it exits the 747’s distinctive nose to assure the laser energy is deposited on the target most effectively.
• Target is detected using an infrared sensor.
• A lower-power laser tracking illuminator laser (TILL) and beacon illuminator laser (BILL) are used to create the firing solution for the high-power chemical oxygen iodine laser to engage.

More info @ AviationWeek.com
Posted via web from Sotreta's Box

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