Weekend Testing Result from Unreasonable Rocket
RLV News posts on another update from Unreasonable Rocket on their
testing from this weekend. The Unreasonable post includes a video and
some data.
The other parts of the multi-part RLV News post are also interesting;
I've already linked to the Masten video, but I'll add the Pat Bahn
talk to my list of non-prize Heinlein Centennial links. I was also at
the Pat Bahn talk (which was a panel discussion that also included
representatives of Space Adventures and Masten Space, and which
followed another panel with XCOR and RpK), but I wasn't taking notes.
Posted by Ray at 7:33 PM
Labels: Lunar Lander Challenge, Unreasonable Rocket
Personal Air Vehicle Centennial Challenge News
The CAFE Foundation has a number of news articles on the Personal Air
Vehicle Challenge, to be held August 4-12 . Here's another place to
find news on the Challenge: their PAV Challenge Updates. Check both
sites because the general news has some articles on the PAV Challenge
that I don't see on the PAV Challenge Updates site.
I don't see a way to link to particular articles. I suspect the PAV
Challenge articles I'm referring to will work their way off the page,
or too far down for most readers, so I'll include copies here for
later readers:
LSA Owners: Last Chance To Win NASA's $250,000 Cash Prize
July 5 , 2007
The CAFE Foundation has just learned that 3 of the teams officially
entered for the 2007 $250,000 NASA PAV Challenge have withdrawn from
the flight competition for LSAs. This opens 3 slots for other teams to
enter the August 2007 event. Teams wishing to enter must contact the
CAFE Foundation immediately in order to complete their application for
the event. Please see the full contest rules for more information.
Boeing Phantom Works to support CAFE Foundation's PAV Flight Testing
June 30, 2007
Boeing Phantom Works, Boeing's advanced research and development
organization, is providing financial support for the non-profit CAFE
Foundation flight research program for small,
environmentally-progressive Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs). CAFE
(Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency, est. 1981) was chosen by NASA
as the official flight test agency to conduct the annual NASA Personal
Air Vehicle (PAV) Centennial Challenge, a $2M flight competition that
rewards innovations in fuel efficiency, noise reduction, ease of use,
speed and short runway capabilities.
Boeing support will help enable CAFE to create and use an advanced
suite of new flight test hardware and software to measure the
performance of competing PAVs. NASA's vision is for PAVs to complement
the NextGen air transportation system by offering consumer-attractive,
on-demand air travel for short range trips. Future PAVs may include
conventional takeoff vehicles driveable on highways, vertical takeoff
vehicles and solar/electric powered emission-free aircraft.
Related news:
The CAFE Foundation held the "Electric Aircraft Symposium" in San
Francisco on May 23. One of the presentations was called "Electric
PAVs: Contenders in NASA's PAV Challenge?".
AVWeb has a post related to the 3 open PAV Challenge slots.
Cnet has an article about a potential PAV Challenge team.
Posted by Ray at 9:37 AM
Labels: Personal Air Vehicle
Armadillo Tests New Configuration
RLV News has a link to, and picture of, the latest series of tests
from Armadillo. The Armadillo July 14 notes cover a lot of activity
from the last month and a half, including work, progress, and troubles
fine-tuning the current Quad configuration, and also tethered testing
of a different configuration. There's a lot of news about what they
plan to do in the fugure, too. It's essential reading for anyone
following the X PRIZE Cup competitions, as it covers so many weeks of
No comments:
Post a Comment