Rolls-Royce Making Progress on 100-kilowatt Combat Lasers
Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks has achieved significant technology milestones for integrated power and thermal management system for high-power defensive 100-kilowatt combat lasers.
UK
Brexit Party Could Win in UK Election and Trudeau Will Likely Lose in Canada
A new Opinium/Observer poll shows both major British parties have lost vote share: Labour has lost ground to the Lib Dems and Greens, while the Conservatives are losing ground to the Brexit Party who have reached 21%. The Brexit Party has taken a strong 13-point lead in the latest poll for the European Parliament elections. …
Reaction Engines Tests Critical Pre-Cooler at Mach 3.3 Conditions
Reaction Engines is working towards air-breathing space planes and hypersonic airplanes. They have successfully tested their critical pre-cooler technology at the temperature conditions it would experience at 3.3 times the speed of sound. The pre-cooler quickly drops the temperature of the air so that the engines for a space plane or hypersonic vehicle would not …
First Light Uses a Electromagnetic Railgun to Fire Mach 58 Projectiles to Create Fusion
First Light Fusion is trying to generate energy using inertial confinement fusion. They spunout from the University of Oxford in June 2011. First Light uses a high-velocity projectile (58 times the speed of sound) to create a shockwave to collapse a cavity containing plasma inside a ‘target’. The design of these targets is First Light’s …
Reaction Engines Targets 2020 to Test Hypersonic Engine for Space Planes
In 2018, Reaction Engines has been building two test facilities which they will use to validate the performance of key parts of the SABRE™ spaceplane hypersonic engine. In the US test facility (TF2) will enable the precooler test article (HTX) to be exposed to high-temperature airflow conditions in excess of 1,000°C (~1800°F) that are expected …
Facebook Spies on Everything – Confirmation of Pure Evil
A UK Parliamentary report on internal Facebook documents and found that Facebook was not satisfied with just your information and activity on the social media site and spied on everything you do on your phone. Facebook Used All of Their Power and Influence to Spy on Everything About Users, All User Phone Activity and Their …
Bad drivers and very low accident costs will help China win with self-driving cars
China has said it will ban gas and diesel cars in the near future. Many expect China to ban new non-electric cars in 2030. Car manufacturers recognize they cannot compete with combustion engine cars in China. They are the largest market for cars in the world. About 25 million cars are sold in China versus …
The UK Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier has come to the US to test takeoff and landing of F-35B stealth fighters
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of two new aircraft carriers for the British Navy, arrived at a US port on the way to F-35B stealth fighter tests. This was the first transatlantic trip for the 65,000 ton aircraft carrier. The carrier will not be officially operational until 2021.
EasyJet and Wright Electric 180 seat electric airline will start flying around 2027
In 2017, Los Angeles startup Wright Electric partnered with budget airline EasyJet to build a 180-seat electric airliner to fly routes of up to 300 miles starting around 2027. It will feature high aspect ratio wings for energy efficient flight, distributed electric aircraft propulsion and swappable battery packs with advanced cell chemistry. The 10-person Los …
Understanding the super safety of the Moltex nuclear plant which will be built in Canada
In July, 2018, Moltex was selected by New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation and New Brunswick Power to progress development of its SSR-W (Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner) technology in New Brunswick, with the aim of deploying its first SSR-W at the Point Lepreau nuclear reactor site before 2030. The agreement provides $5 million of financial …
UK performing 50 kilowatt Dragonfire combat laser testing
Components arrived in early 2018 for the UK Dragonfire combat laser. QinetiQ will start building the weapon’s laser source in the purpose-built clean room. Over the following months, the laser source will undergo a process of evaluation and adjustment before being integrated with Leonardo’s beam director. Full-power tests inside the lab are being performed during …