|
Next up, the stuff that really gives me a woody... next generation manned aircraft, as opposed to the super cool but unmanned UCAV stuff.
Call it Aurora or whatever, but i would give a left nut to be privy to some of this, although its quite possible i've seen some variation of it in person and not known it... not long ago i was watching a documentary about lighter than air aviation from a civilian uses perspective and the key ingredient for this was the use of helium.
As some of you might remember, i was in the automotive sales business for quite a while, you might also know that almost every car dealership just gets off on plastering their lots with balloons to attract the eye of passers by... well, two years ago helium was taken off the market by the government, its no longer available (much to the chagrin of car dealers).
Now think about what that element could do for an aircraft made of super lightweight stealth materials... alloys, composites, polymers etc... think of the ships hull being honeycombed with it for lighter weight yet structural rigidity...
Now imagine tanks of helium inside that can disperse within the craft for flight and then be sucked back into the tanks for landings and other maneuvers... then throw in the zero point propulsion systems that we surely have by now but havent advertised.
Such a craft would be unbelieveably fast and maneuverable... laugh if you must, thats okay, but i bet if we could see what the various skunkworks have right now, our collective jaws would smash into the ground.
Heres a short clip full of possibility...
|