These planes get about 1200 miles per gallon of gas. So it takes two gallons to fly from Canada to Scotland.
Our own GM volunteered the services of his dog as pilot (pre-implant), but the people running this test said >No Thanks, too dangerous. The planes will make it own their own<.
---------------
(See www3.techstocks.com
Talk : Computers : PC Sector Round Table
To: Yogi (712 )
From: Yogi
Tuesday, Aug 11 1998 7:06PM ET
Reply # of 718
Thread,
Be afraid, be very afraid
nytimes.com.
"Consider the work of researchers at British Telecommunications P.L.C. in the area of
implanted chips. One project, somewhat ominously dubbed "Soul Catcher," seeks to
develop a computer that can be implanted in the brain to complement human memory and
computational skills. In addition, it would enable the gathering of extrasensory information
-- in this case, data transmitted by wireless networking."
PC/human unit X2010 formerly known as Yogi
www3.techstocks.com
Talk : Computers : PC Sector Round Table
To: Yogi (715 )
From: Gottfried Mauersberger
Wednesday, Aug 12 1998 12:32AM ET
Reply # of 718
Yogi, would it be possible to do the implant on a dog,
so he could do your investing for you?
GM
----------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
abcnews.com
Three Aircraft, No Pilots, to Take Off Sunday
Robot Planes to Wing It
Across Atlantic Ocean
"The
Aerosonde
could result
in dramatically
improved
short and
long-term
forecasts for
the western
U.S."
- Clifford
Mass, University
of Washington
The
Aerosonde
weighs about
29 pounds
and gets
about 1,200
miles per
gallon.
By Jennifer Haupt
Special to ABCNEWS.com
Aug. 13 - In 1927, Charles Lindbergh piloted a
bulky single-engine plane from Roosevelt Field on
Long Island to Paris, the first man to fly across the
Atlantic Ocean. Seventy-one years later, a plane
with a suitcase-sized fuselage will attempt a similar
feat-minus the man.
This Sunday, or the first clear day thereafter, a trio of tiny
aircraft called Aerosondes will take off from Newfoundland in
an attempt to become the first pilotless planes to cross the
Atlantic.
A Closer Eye on Weather
With the advent of global positioning satellites and advanced
computers, a new breed of lightweight robotic plane can
navigate over thousands of miles. One of the primary uses
forecast for the Aerosondes is weather reconnaissance.
"We won't change the way that weather forecasting is
done," says Tad McGeer, president of Insitu, an aerospace
research and development firm in Bingen, Wash. involved with
the project. "We will simply allow the existing method to work
better through use of more information. Hopefully, this will
happen whether we succeed with the demonstration (across
the Atlantic) or not, but if we do succeed it will happen
sooner."
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology, together with Insitu
and an Australian company, began developing the Aerosonde
design in 1994. The plane's sponsors include the weather
services of Australia, Canada, Taiwan and the United States.
Weighing just 29
pounds with a wingspan of
10 feet, the three robotic
aircraft will navigate a
path from Bell Island
Airport in St. John's,
Newfoundland, to the
Bebecula Military Range
on one of Scotland's outer
Hebrides Islands, covering
2,000 miles in 24 hours.
The planes are equipped
to measure wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, air
pressure and other meteorological data.
Successful Trials
Just last January, as tropical cyclone Tiffany was spinning its
way down the Western Australian coast, an Aerosonde flew
into the eye of the storm, gathering data to help meteorologists
get a better understanding of the tropical storms.
"Until now, getting important weather information from
within a cyclone was an occupation solely for the foolhardy,"
Ian Macdonald, Australia's parliamentary secretary to the
minister for the environment, said in a recent speech endorsing
Aerosondes for weather monitoring. "It involved daring
aviators flying expensive aircraft as far into the storms as they
could physically go."
Aerosondes can endure severe weather
conditions-thunderstorms, ice, strong winds-that would bring
down larger planes. They cost less than $20,000, squeeze 1,200
miles from a gallon of fuel and should each last at least 20
flights.
Field trials for the Aerosonde have been carried out off the
coasts of western Australia and Vancouver Island, and in the
South China Sea. If successful, the impending transatlantic
flights will be the longest ever achieved by lightweight robotic
planes over water.
Filling in the Weather Gaps
Weather in the middle latitudes generally moves from west to
east. Consequently, forecasters on the East Coast can collect
reams of data from weather stations across the continent.
Forecasters on West Coast, however, have to base their
predictions on spotty information from ships, satellites and
commercial air traffic over the Pacific.
Another stumbling block to accurate weather predictions on
both coasts is that there isn't much equipment recording
weather conditions between the surface and commercial
airplanes traveling at 30,000 feet.
"Major mistakes in our forecasts, including unreported
snowstorms and thundershowers, are usually due to missing
data that prevent our models from accurately representing
atmospheric conditions," says Clifford Mass, professor of
atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, which is
also involved in the Aerosonde project.
"The bottom line of the transatlantic demonstration," Mass
says, "is that if successful, the Aerosonde could result in
dramatically improved short- and long-term forecasts for the
western U.S., and improve long-term forecasts for the eastern
states."
Mass predicts the damages prevented by an improved
forecast for a single storm could more than pay for the costs of
deploying Aerosondes up and down the West Coast.
Other Applications
Unmanned robotic aircraft have typically been designed at high
cost for specialized military and government functions.
However,several research institutions and
corporations-including the University of Washington, Stanford
University and Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, Va., are
developing automated crafts that can be mass produced at
relatively low cost.
Autonomous aircraft can carry out many data-gathering
tasks, including land surveys, highway speed patrols, forest-fire
lookouts and environmental monitoring, that now require larger
piloted planes.
Before long, expendable robotic planes may be used to
monitor hazardous waste sites and other potentially dangerous
environmental areas, as well as take over tedious jobs such as
counting livestock on large ranches and scanning electrical
wires for possible damage. We may even see unmanned crafts
replace blimps at sporting events, monitoring crowds and aiding
in broadcasting events.
From Canada to Scotland on Two Gallons
Commercial jet liners cruise on autopilot
from New York to London daily, but
never before has an unmanned plane of
any size crossed the Atlantic.
"It's no great technological
achievement for a large plane-piloted or
not-with millions of dollars worth of
sophisticated autopilot equipment to
complete a transatlantic flight," says
Juris Vagners, a professor at University
of Washington's aeronautics and
astronautics department. "But we're
doing it with a craft the size of a model
plane on two gallons of gas."
The U.S. Department of Defense's
unmanned reconnaissance aircraft,
the Global Hawk, flew for the first
time at Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif., last February, and there are
plans for it to make a transatlantic
flight next year.
"We're attempting to fly the same
mission as a $10 million unmanned
craft with a 116-foot wingspan,"
Vagners says. "If successful, not
only will we beat the Department of
Defense at being the first unmanned
aircraft to cross the Atlantic, but we'll
have done it at a fraction of the cost."
Copyright (c)1998 ABCNEWS and Starwave Corporation.
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