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May 21st, 2009UncategorizedST. LOUIS, April 13, 2009 -- The ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS), a joint effort of The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and its subsidiary Insitu Inc., last week flew its 150,000th hour in service with the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Forces, U.S. Navy, U.S. Special Operations Command, Australian Army and Canadian Forces. ScanEagle has provided persistent in-theater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to the joint forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004.
"Flying thousands of hours of ISR support in theater, month after month, requires a high degree of organization and teamwork," said Maj. Dan Griffiths, VMU-1 contracting officer technical representative, U.S. Marine Expeditionary Forces. "The execution of that task falls on the shoulders of the ScanEagle field service representatives in theater. Day in and day out, they do whatever it takes to meet daily requirements."
Jim Havard, Boeing ISR Services Marine Corps program manager, added, "We've learned lessons from our extensive ScanEagle operations that have helped us refine the system into a mature ISR asset that is safe, dependable and satisfies the intelligence requirements of our soldiers and sailors. These 150,000 service hours, along with numerous operational reports from our customers, confirm that ScanEagle has established itself as a critical capability for tactical ISR around the world."
The long-endurance, fully autonomous ScanEagle UAS carries inertially stabilized electro-optical and infrared cameras that allow the operator to track both stationary and moving targets. Capable of flying above 16,000 feet and loitering over the battlefield for more than 24 hours, the platform provides persistent low-altitude ISR.
ScanEagle is launched autonomously from a pneumatic SuperWedge catapult launcher and flies either preprogrammed or operator-initiated missions.
The Insitu-patented SkyHook system is used to retrieve the UAS, capturing it by way of a rope suspended from a 50-foot-high mast. The system makes ScanEagle runway-independent and minimizes its impact on shipboard operations, similar to a vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle.
Insitu Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company located in Bingen, Wash., designs, develops and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems for commercial and military applications. Insitu created the first unmanned aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean, which completed the flight in 1998 on just 1.5 gallons of fuel. Visit www.insitu.com for more information.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide. -
May 20th, 2009Uncategorized
NASA satellite data and a new modeling approach could improve weather forecasting and save more lives when future cyclones develop.
About 15 percent of the world's tropical cyclones occur in the northern Indian Ocean, but because of high population densities along low-lying coastlines, the storms have caused nearly 80 percent of cyclone-related deaths around the world. Incomplete atmospheric data for the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea make it difficult for regional forecasters to provide enough warning for mass evacuations.
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May 19th, 2009UncategorizedBoeing [NYSE: BA] and longtime partner Air France celebrated significant milestones today with the delivery of the 777th Boeing 777 airplane. The new Boeing 777-300ER also will be the first to bear a new Air France livery and company brand identity.
The 777 family is the world's most successful twin-engine, twin-aisle airplane. Fifty-six customers around the world have ordered just over 1,100 777s. The 777's combination of unmatched payload and range, as well as the lowest fuel consumption and operating costs in its class, make it one of the most popular airplanes with passengers and airlines. Air France operates one of the largest fleets of 777s in the world and was the launch customer for both the 777-300ER and the 777 Freighter. "The 777 has been a valuable asset to the long-haul fleet of Air France and it is the right aircraft to allow us to maximize our revenues in the most economic and efficient manner," said Pierre Vellay, senior vice president, New Aircraft & Corporate Fleet Planning, Air France.
"It is a fitting tribute to the success of the program that an industry leader such as Air France is taking delivery of our 777th 777," said Aldo Basile vice president, Sales Europe, Russia and Central Asia for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "The 777 continues to offer an unbeatable combination of efficiency, economics and passenger comfort that places it at the forefront of modern commercial aviation."
The relationship between Air France and Boeing goes back to the early days of the airline, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. Air France's early fleet of DC-3s sported the distinctive silver and royal blue livery that was used to launch the airline.
Three generations of Boeing airplanes have carried three Air France liveries. The first was with the arrival of the jet age and the Boeing 707. The second opened up long-haul international travel, epitomized by the Boeing 747 and finally, today with the unveiling of the Boeing 777-300ER. The latest incarnation of the distinctive Air France livery continues the all-white theme but is intended to position the company in the 21st century as a truly international carrier that has more than half of its passengers based outside France. -
May 18th, 2009Uncategorized
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have trained computers to automatically analyze aggression and courtship in fruit flies, opening the way for researchers to perform large-scale, high-throughput screens for genes that control these innate behaviors. The program allows computers to examine half an hour of video footage of pairs of interacting flies in what is almost real time; characterizing the behavior of a new line of flies "by hand" might take a biologist more than 100 hours.
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May 17th, 2009UncategorizedFor Transform the service is invaluable. Google news alerts and similar automated news aggregators are, lets face it, a bit rubbish. They completely lack the depth, editorial input, and human touch that makes Daily Dose so incredibly useful. It is the editorial genius of Jim and the rest of the Wired Initiative team that means it outstrips any of the automated parliamentary news filter services Transform have used in the past, as well as automated news search services like Lexis Nexis - and these cost serious money, whilst Daily Dose is completely free. The great thing about the editorial content is the non-biased coverage from all news and information services across the web, reflecting the full range of media outlets and opinion in the drugs field. That's why everyone loves it and everyone uses it - from Whitehall and Government, through the treatment field, and across the non-government sector.
Daily Dose is a non profit free service supported by sponsorship - which to any commercial players in the drugs field should appear to be a complete bargain given the site's amazing profile. If there is one thing Daily Dose has fallen short on, it is marketing itself - probably because they are so obsessed with turning out first class content.
So to all you potential sponsors: compare the measly £5K you would have to spend to have your logo associated with the much loved and legendary Daily Dose (raking in 10 million hits a year, and a million or so emails direct to marketers-dream demographic in the drugs field) to the untold thousands you shell out on having one of those pointless fancy stalls at yet another awful drug conference where you speak to about three bored people who really just want a free pen. -
May 16th, 2009Uncategorized
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that she would urge Russia to stop missile sales talks with Iran, during meetings in Geneva with her Russian counterpart.
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May 15th, 2009Uncategorized
China has put its HQ-9 surface-to-air missile on the export market under the name FD-2000. Brochures advertising China's latest missile appeared at the most recent African Ground Force Equipment Exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, and also at the International Defense Exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan, last November.
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May 14th, 2009Uncategorized
Japan's defence minister Thursday told a meeting on North Korea's rocket launch that Tokyo should consider deploying an early warning satellite to monitor future missile launches around Japan.
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May 13th, 2009Uncategorized
Israel's Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile may be one of the first victims of U.S. President Barack Obama's defense spending cuts.
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May 12th, 2009Uncategorized
All economic numbers coming out of China have to be viewed with deep suspicion, but the official word is that GDP there grew 6.1% in the first quarter. Even if it's true, it's the slowest it's been in several years. Obviously, the country needs a big stimulus.It could be a lot worse. Singapore came out with its GDP. Down 20% sequentially.
