LEEVENSPARK

At last after 27 years the day has come for the first 4 th  generation fighter aircraft to get the Initial Operation Clearance(IOC) i.e., now the aircraft can be inducted into the IAF. Wow, my country has done it Im proud. But I cant take much pride from it,because though the aerial design,aerodynamics,integration,manufacturing has been done in INDIA, the sad truth is that some of the core and integral parts of an aircraft like the engine, radars, weaponries all are made in other countries.This includes the engine from the General Electrics,Radars from israel, Integration of all weaponries and control systems  from the British and Italy helping in the composite skins for the wings. Having said all those things,still it is an remarkable achievement, considering the fact that our INDIA got independence only in the late 1940′s ,when most of the western nations developed and used fighter aircrafts for war.The layout for the project was started way back in 1983,but due to lack in i

Nearly 120 of the Indian Air Force jets are being modernized The Indian Air Force (IAF) has lit the afterburners to make its Jaguars fighting fit for modern warfare and increase their service life. The Jaguars, the only aircraft with the IAF capable of carrying nuclear weapons other than the Mirage-2000s, are being fitted with autopilots, next generation avionics and lethal armaments under an ambitious modernisation programme that will see the fighters flying well after 2030. Nearly 120 Jaguars are being modernised. So far, the IAF has procured autopilots for 55 Jaguars and talks for 95 more, which includes spare autopilots, are underway, according to information shared by the government in Parliament. The upgradation of the Ambala-based fighter jets, in service for more than four decades, is being carried out by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at a cost of more than Rs 3,000 crore. Autopilots would lessen pilot workload, freeing them from physically flying the jet

The Convair Model 6, I have to jump back a bit and talk about both the XC-99 and the YB-60 as they're both derivatives of the B-36 Peacemaker. Convair's work on the B-36 began in the midst of the Second World War as there was a concern that Great Britain would fall to the Reich and we would need strategic bombers that could reach Europe from the United States. But in parallel to the development of the B-36 there were design efforts that looked at passenger versions of the B-36. As early as May 1942 Convair had been looking at a transport version of the B-36 called the Model 37 that combined the wing, six pusher piston engines and empennage of the B-36 to a new fuselage unit. In December 1942 the USAAF signed a contract with Convair to build a single example of what was designated the XC-99 on the stipulation that the XC-99 would not divert resources from the B-36 project. Convair saw the XC-99 as a way to validate some of the design concepts of the B-36 quickly as it would no

As the Second World War began to wind down, renowed British aircraft designer Barnes Wallis started investigating the challenges of supersonic flight and concluded early on that a variable geometry swing wing was the best way to accommodate the center of gravity changes in moving between the subsonic and supersonic regimes. In 1946 he wrote an engineering paper entitled "The Application of the Aerodynamic Properties to the Stabilisation and Control of Aerodynes" (quite a mouthful) in which he combined his ideas on swing wings with laminar flow studies. Starting out with small hand launched models, Barnes Wallis gradually moved up to larger versions that were launched for a catapult at 100mph. His models had slender, ovoid fuselages with swing wings mounted far to the aft and a single highly swept fin. With the end of the war, the British government was eager to regain research ground lost to the Americans and Vickers was awarded a contract of a half-million pounds to study

As 1944 began, Soviet aeronautical experts were already filtering through information of successful flight tests of British and American jet aircraft and the impending service introduction of rocket- and jet-powered aircraft in the Luftwaffe. The Soviet GKO (State Defense Committee- a wartime organization that ran the Soviet Union during the Second World War), headed by Stalin, quickly concluded that the different efforts by engineers doing research on jet propulsion at the time needed to be consolidated under one organization, the NKAP (People's Commissariat for Aviation Industry). By March of 1944 officials of the NKAP were ready to present Stalin proposals to accelerate Soviet aeronautical technology to match that of the Luftwaffe, but most importantly to keep up with the British and the Americans. Semyon Lavochkin, Artyom Mikoyan, and Pavel Sukhoi of their respective design bureaus (called OKBs) were instructed to develop jet fighters as a matter of national security. At the

Near Kitty Hawk,  North Carolina , Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up in Dayton,  Ohio , and developed an interest in aviation after learning of the glider flights of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal in the 1890s. Unlike their older brothers, Orville and Wilbur did not attend college, but they possessed extraordinary technical ability and a sophisticated approach to solving problems in mechanical design. They built printing presses and in 1892 opened a bicycle sales and repair shop. Soon, they were building their own bicycles, and this experience, combined with profits from their various businesses, allowed them to pursue actively their dream of building the world's first airplane.   After exhaustively researching other

TITLE: Dedication Ceremony for the U.S. Army Jupiter-C Missile AUTHOR: Unknown SUBJECT: National Air and Space Museum (NASM) Arts and Industries Building South Yard United States. Army PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Color: Black and White; Size: 8w x 10h; Type of Image: Exterior; Event; Medium: Photographic print TYPE: Photographic print Exterior DATE: 1959 TOPIC: Jupiter-C Missile Rocket  Row Museum visitors Space vehicles Astronautics Museum buildings Rocket s ( Aeronaut ics ) Event Gifts Missiles STANDARD NUMBER: 2002-10645 RESTRICTIONS: For permission to reproduce or publish, contact osiaref@si.edu or call 202-633-5870. To order reproductions, call 202-633-1933 or contact photos@si.edu CATEGORY: Historic Images of the Smithsonian NOTES: The original negative number is 45581-A, but that negative has been lost SUMMARY: Visitors have gathered outside the Arts and Industries Building to attend a dedication ceremony on the installation of the U.S. Army Jupiter-C Missile as part of 

Cataloged  Data: TITLE: Installing Rocket in the NASM AUTHOR: Farrar, Richard SUBJECT: National Air and Space Museum (NASM) PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Exhibit; Medium: Photographic print TYPE: Photographic print Exhibit TOPIC: United Rigging and Hauling Moving of artifacts V2 Rocket Exhibitions Rockets (Aeronaut) STANDARD NUMBER: 76-7009-2 RESTRICTIONS: For permission to reproduce or publish, contact osiaref@si.edu or call 202-633-5870. To order reproductions, call 202-633-1933 or contact photos@si.edu CATEGORY: Historic Images of the Smithsonian NOTES: Featured in TORCH, July 1976. See also negative numbers 76-7010-4A, 76-7010-16A SUMMARY: United Rigging installing V2 Rocket in the new National Air and Space Museum building, May 28, 1976 DATA SOURCE: Smithsonian Archives - History Div RECORD IDENTIFIER: siris_sic_10367

My personal journey into home energy reduction began with taking stock of past energy use as reported on my utility bills. I quickly migrated toward reading the meters directly  to gauge the impact of particular activities. What I learned from our gas meter shocked me, and ultimately led to our single-biggest energy-saving behavioral shift. I’ve already ruined any hope of suspense in the title of the post, but just how bad does something have to be before I’ll resort to a word like “evil?” And how bad are your own demons? Ah—now you can’t wait to find out! Gas Gauges and Units We must first confront the asinine measurement and units scheme of the natural gas delivery system. At least it’s asinine in the U.S. For one thing, the billing units are  Therms . One Therm is 100,000 Btu, or 1.055×10 8  J, equating to 29.3 kWh. My main beef with the Therm is that the way my utility bill is formatted, my gas usage in Therms is printed within a few millimeters of my electricity usage in kWh. Sin