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Boeing has orders for 821 of these Dreamliners, which fly 52 percent farther than the all-metal 767 aircraft they're replacing, while using 20 percent less fuel thanks to their carbon fiber design. Other upgrades include better cabin air, electronically dimmable windows, a more efficient turbofan engine with fewer fan blades and Android-based entertainment systems.

Even though the ultra-light composite technology has become popular among other airlines, including Airbus, three years worth of expensive delays won't be easy on Boeing. They'll need to sell a lot of the Dreamliners in order to recoup their losses.

[Reuters]

Boeing has orders for 821 of these Dreamliners, which fly 52 percent farther than the all-metal 767 aircraft they're replacing, while using 20 percent less fuel thanks to their carbon fiber design. Other upgrades include better cabin air, electronically dimmable windows, a more efficient turbofan engine with fewer fan blades and Android-based entertainment systems.

Even though the ultra-light composite technology has become popular among other airlines, including Airbus, three years worth of expensive delays won't be easy on Boeing. They'll need to sell a lot of the Dreamliners in order to recoup their losses.

[Reuters]

The 787 has been undergoing work for years now. Boeing doesn't actually roll out all that many entirely new models: only eleven to date. The 787, in case you haven't been reading our coverage, promises to be a lighter-weight (due to its carbon fiber body), more fuel-efficient, and more comfortable aircraft, with Boeing making improvements in everything from air quality to seating arrangements.

It's had a rocky birth, with everything from smoke in the cabin to those aforementioned sparks getting in the way of this certification, but the FAA gave its blessing on Friday and Boeing says it'll begin shipping the planes on September 26th.

The test, which was announced last weekend although it took place in July, teamed two ScanEagle drones with a Procerus Unicorn from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The aircraft communicated using a mobile ad hoc network and swarm technology developed at APL, according to Boeing.

The aircraft worked together to search a test area, mapping terrain and generating waypoints while sending information to teams on the ground.

Autonomous aircraft working together isn’t new — we’ve seen several cool examples, from quadcopters working together to build towers, to boomerang ‘bots collaborating to scan disaster areas. This project is unique because it integrates two disparate types of aircraft, which is likely to be necessary if drone swarms are ever called up for duty.

In a disaster area or war zone, if drones are present at all, odds are pretty good that they won’t all be exactly the same, or they at least won’t have the same hardware. Swarms of these unrelated drones would need some common communications system in order to work together. Ideally, drone swarms could improve response times, by letting drones work out the most efficient routes and sorties amongst themselves. JHU’s swarming technology is designed to do just that — and reduce human pilot requirements.

Gabriel Santander, Boeing’s Advanced Autonomous Networks program director, said it was a “milestone in UAV flight.” More tests are planned for next month, according to Boeing.

The test, which was announced last weekend although it took place in July, teamed two ScanEagle drones with a Procerus Unicorn from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The aircraft communicated using a mobile ad hoc network and swarm technology developed at APL, according to Boeing.

The aircraft worked together to search a test area, mapping terrain and generating waypoints while sending information to teams on the ground.

Autonomous aircraft working together isn’t new — we’ve seen several cool examples, from quadcopters working together to build towers, to boomerang ‘bots collaborating to scan disaster areas. This project is unique because it integrates two disparate types of aircraft, which is likely to be necessary if drone swarms are ever called up for duty.

In a disaster area or war zone, if drones are present at all, odds are pretty good that they won’t all be exactly the same, or they at least won’t have the same hardware. Swarms of these unrelated drones would need some common communications system in order to work together. Ideally, drone swarms could improve response times, by letting drones work out the most efficient routes and sorties amongst themselves. JHU’s swarming technology is designed to do just that — and reduce human pilot requirements.

Gabriel Santander, Boeing’s Advanced Autonomous Networks program director, said it was a “milestone in UAV flight.” More tests are planned for next month, according to Boeing.

The aerospace firm is planning to send its own employees to the International Space Station on the first crewed mission of its CST-100 ship, the company said Friday. Apparently internal interviews are already ongoing, because Boeing wants its astronauts to help drive further development of the space capsule.

Riding aboard an Atlas V rocket — another decision Boeing announced yesterday — the CST-100 will launch three times in 2015, starting with two unmanned launches. One launch will take it into orbit and a second will involve an aborted orbit attempt, in a test of the capsule’s escape abilities should something go wrong during launch.

If all goes well, it will launch a third time with a two-person crew, who will dock it with the ISS. That would pave the way for frequent CST flights to the ISS by 2016, BBC reports.

The company has never announced a name for the vehicle, which has been dubbed CST-100 since its unveiling last year — for “crew space transportation” and 100 kilometers, which marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Boeing will use the Atlas V, the same rocket that sent Juno spaceward earlier today, because of its 100 percent success rate so far — and it doesn’t hurt that Boeing is part owner of the rocket maker, United Launch Alliance. Boeing said that had no bearing on its decision, according to BBC.

Boeing is developing the capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program, which is seeking private space taxis to ferry astronauts to space now that the shuttles are all retired.

Do you have the right stuff? Better send your resume to Boeing.

[BBC]

Yesterday, the two defense contractors announced that they are jointly developing a demonstration model Mk 38 with dual capabilities. The chain gun--originally designed to be manually aimed and fired--will now be remote-controlled and use an electro-optical/IR sensor ball to detect and track incoming targets, like UAVs or small watercraft (like the one that perpetrated the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen several years ago).

But according to a BAE-Boeing announcement, “the system also provides the ability to deliver different levels of laser energy, depending on the target and mission objectives.” Danger Room tells us that the fiber laser system can pack up to 10 kilowatts of punch, far below what the U.S. military has previously considered weapons grade but nonetheless effective--just a few months ago an Office of Naval Research laser fried the engine of a small watercraft with a 15 kilowatt beam (though that was designed to be scaled up to a more impressive 100 kilowatts).

Presumably, the Mk 38’s laser package could be upgraded as well, making the death ray part of the system quite a bit deadlier. Which is good, considering that sea air--rife with moisture and particulate stuff that degrades focused laser beams--compounds the many problems inherent in laser weapons systems.

[Defense Tech, Danger Room]