On April 25, 2008, after having its original complaint dismissed, Star filed an amended complaint against AMA for infringement of US7113852. In the amended complaint, Star added its CEO Mr. Kapadia as a co-plaintiff, and unilaterally named Mr. Vieira an "involuntary plaintiff." Messrs. Kapadia and Vieira are the co-owners of the '852 Patent. AMA moved to dismiss this amended complaint because Mr. Vieira did not qualify as an "involuntary plaintiff."

The U.S. District Court has given Star until September 5, 2008 to amend its complaint to name Mr. Vieira as a defendant. If Star elects to amend its complaint, Mr. Vieira will have the opportunity to fully participate in the suit. But, Star and Mr. Vieira are currently embroiled in a dispute in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice involving, among other things, the ownership of US7113852.

AMA is the technology leader in aircraft health performance monitoring systems, and holds patents recognizing its innovation in this industry. AMA takes intellectual property matters very seriously.

Patent # -  US7113852

Title - System and method for transportation vehicle monitoring, feedback and control

Filed - July 20, 2001

Abstract - A system provides monitoring/feedback to a transportation vehicle regarding the state of that vehicle based on, at least, information provided by sensors located on or in the transportation vehicle. Monitoring the transportation vehicle provides information about the status of the transportation vehicle and equipment on or in the vehicle. Feedback information is provided to the transportation vehicle based on the information received during monitoring. Additionally, feedback information may be formulated based on additional criteria received from equipment other than the sensors located on or in the vehicle, for example, meteorological systems, geographic location systems, e.g., a radar system, a global positioning system, etc. The information provided by the sensors and the formulated feedback information may be stored in memory on the transportation vehicle as well as at a stable location for archiving and subsequent analysis.

• Alpine Electronics
• Denso Corporation
• Pioneer Corporation
• Kenwood Corporation

The four companies all have U.S. subsidiaries that are also named in Honeywell's request for an investigation.

The commission has been a popular venue for patent infringement suits because, unlike other courts, it can bar products made with infringed technology from importation.

According to Honeywell Aerospace spokeswoman Cathy Gedvilas, "Honeywell continues to invest substantial resources in the design, development and manufacture of navigation systems and equipment . This action will protect against the unauthorized use of our patented technologies".

Both of the June pictures captured the speed of their subjects well, but today's shot is a different story. Taken with a 1/2000 exposure, this shot freezes this plane in mid-air. Looking at the markings on the tail, I suspect this Corsair is the same airframe as the first one from June. The perfect alignment of the props with the tail surfaces reminds me of the saying "It's better to be lucky than smart." A shot like this requires plenty of skill and gear to be sure, but it also needs plane old luck.

If you like this, I encourage you to check out this summary of all of the aviation photography I have featured here.

So it was with great pleasure that I read on one of my blogs the announcement that NASA has partnered with the Internet Archive to bring an extensive array of NASA's media to the web in one place. As they say in their press release:

The Web site launch is the first step in a five-year partnership that will add millions of images and thousands of hours of video and audio content, with enhanced search and viewing capabilities, and new user features on a continuing basis. Over time, integration of www.nasaimages.org with www.nasa.gov will become more seamless and comprehensive.

The images I have looked at so far are downloadable in high-resolution form, so this really is what I have been seeking for years. I applaud the people behind this and wish them every success. The NASA Images site, on its About page, notes that the site is so far funded by a grant from the Kahle/Austin Foundation, which was established by Brewster Kahle and his wife. Mr. Kahle is behind the Internet Archive, as well.

What follows are four images I grabbed in my first run through the site. There are countless to choose from, but these grabbed me.

Hat tip: Paleo-Future

AUGUST 8, 2008

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_may_test_futuristic_jets_by_2015/articleshow/3339596.cms]

NEW DELHI: India hopes that the first developmental flight of the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), to be co-developed with Russia, will take place by 2015-2016.

The FGFA, as envisaged by IAF to fulfil its futuristic requirements, will have a lethal mix of super-manoeuvrability and supersonic cruising ability, long-range strike and high-endurance air defence capabilities. Apart from a ‘‘minimal’’ radar tracking signature to impart stealth, the FGFA will have ‘‘a very high degree of network centricity’’, as also multi-spectral reconnaissance and surveillance systems — optical, infra-red, laser and radar sensors.

‘‘The FGFA should fly for the first time by 2015 or so. If it manages to do so earlier, then it will be a big achievement. Negotiations with Russia are making good progress, with the details being worked out,’’ IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major told TOI on Thursday.

‘‘It is very complex to design and develop an FGFA. The FGFA we want will be an entirely new platform, with many additional features, stealth being an important one,’’ he added. The ongoing negotiations with Russia flow from the FGFA agreement signed during the Indo-Russian inter-governmental commission on military-technical cooperation meeting, co-chaired by defence minister A K Antony and his Russian counterpart, last October.

The bone of contention is that Russia has already frozen the design parameters of its FGFA, the single-seater Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA, the first prototype of which is likely to take to the skies by 2009.

India, however, wants a twin-seater FGFA built to its requirements, which will obviously require several design changes. With the FGFA project expected to cost $8-10 billion, a cash-starved Russia is agreeable to the idea of having both single and twin-seater versions. ‘‘The various issues are being sorted out,’’ said an official.

There is only one operational FGFA in the world at present, the American F/A-22 ‘Raptor’, which comes at a whopping $142 million apiece. Another, the F-35 ‘Lightning-II’, in turn, is still under joint development by US, UK and seven other countries.

The most potent fighter in the IAF fleet currently is the Sukhoi-30MKI, which can be placed a little over fourth-generation, along with others like Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen and F/A-18 ‘Super Hornets’. While fourth-generation fighters typically revolve around multi-role capabilities, FGFA takes it forward by incorporating stealth technology, composite materials, supercruise, thrust-vectoring and integrated avionics as well.

Since it will take well over a decade for an Indo-Russian FGFA to become fully-operational, IAF is banking upon the 230 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia at an overall cost of around $8.5 billion. Then, of course, there is also the mammoth $10.4 billion project to induct 126 new multi-role combat aircraft in IAF from 2012-2013 onwards.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison are working on a method to mine Helium 3 from the moon. Their idea uses concentrated sunlight to bake lunar soil, which has millions of tonnes deposited in it from the solar wind. You can read about it here.

Why bother? I hear you ask. Well, you can burn Helium 3 in a fusion reaction. Apparently, this process will yield 300 times more energy than it uses, including the round trip to the moon.

There are a couple of pretty great outcomes of this fact. First, obviously, there is some significant opportunity for small businesses to cater their products and services in such a way to capitalize (literally!) on these contracts. Second, other companies in the region can learn a lot about how to do supplier diversity well and why it's effective: Boeing mentioned that it's tracking data that shows small businesses are providing higher quality, greater flexibility and lower prices than some of their larger suppliers!

This "business case" for supplier diversity - that it actually helps the bottom line, increases innovation and connects the company more to its community - is what is going to make the difference between a few diverse businesses having success and truly integrating all of our region's small business resources into the economy.

The permalink is here. Enjoy.

Aviation Partners hold the patent.  They are in interesting take on the use of winglets to reduce fuel consumption and diffuse trailing vortices so as to allow aircraft to follow each other more closely.

Aviation partners have a surprisingly frank discussion about the winglets and covers some of the technical challenges.

Wynne said USAF should also be more candid with the public, which he believes should have been told that "Boeing did not bid the 767 tanker." Instead, he explained, Boeing “bid an amalgamation of a 767 [air]frame, with the 777 avionics and 787 components.” USAF “should have been clearer that [Boeing’s proposal] was not a 767 anymore.”

Via: Ares (of course)

Regardless of such thoughts, the two planes in this week's picture are timeless examples of the first jet vs. jet combat ever. It is wonderful to see them in such perfect condition, and my thanks to Mark Von Raesfeld for his wonderful photography. As always, follow the link for a larger view.

If you like this, I encourage you to check out this summary of all of the aviation photography I have featured here.

The latest secret transmission from Commander Baines included the following information:

• Pilot Hicks and Officer Michaels are dead. Their bodies were eviscerated, likely by the horrifying lizard beast that escaped last week from Dr. Morgan's lab. Baines is convinced fusing the DNA sequences of a T-Rex and a chameleon and bathing it all in pure solar radiation was a severe error in judgment; Jones in Analytics doesn't disagree. With O'Hara, Wang and Sanchez missing and presumed dead, this brings the body count to 21.
• The Rotation Algorithms were taken offline, so now the artificial gravity is of course deactivated throughout the space station. This has created additional problems as the liquid waste disposal system began working in reverse and has been expelling its contents throughout all areas of the station.
• Security officers Montoya and Wood are nearly out of plasma ammunition, but are working on a rudimentary slingshot system for the remaining crew members.

Nothing else has changed. We still have 25 people alive up there. For those not here at the last report, I will give you a rundown of what we've got.

Now, we know there is no disposable silver anywhere on the station, so if Alvaro, Philips, and Stern manage to escape from their makeshift prison in the galley, there may be significant difficulty in subduing or killing them. I still have Mr. Chang looking into who signed off on Dr. Morgan developing a lycanthropy ray in space "for the medical benefits." The full benefits remain to be seen at this time, but the ray did reduce cancer cells in the stomach of mice by 12%, so I suppose there is some progress there. I just hope it was worth the accidental transformation of our guys into space werewolves.

Remember that station psychologist Dr. Belmont may have made some headway in the mystery of why crew members began seeing ghosts of loved ones and recently dead crew. Her first theory of space dementia may still hold up, but it doesn't help that the factory that made 30% of the station's interchangable components stands on an ancient Indian burial ground in Montana. I have the gang in research calling on some local natives in the area to see if they can shed some light on this and find out what incantations, if any, can be used to dispel them. With no news about Dr. Belmont, we can assume she's still working on the problem or she's dead.

The entire eastern wing of the station was evacuated after the botany lab was overrun by gigantic sentient vines. Our lead in that section, the coincidentally named Dr. Botany, suffered from vine burns on his arms and legs, but otherwise escaped unharmed. He reported that mixing Earth soil with irradiated moon dust may have attributed to this gross mutation. We ordered the engineers to only detach that section of the station if the vines begin to extend their reach beyond that wing. In the meantime, I have Dr. Botany working with the station's translator, Joan Dawson, to devise a way to communicate with the vines.

Dr. Morgan's lizard beast has a steel-like hide and the plasma weapons proved ineffective against it. So the beast has already taken the lives of 12 crew members, and it will likely never be taken down unless Baines can lure it into an airlock. It does seem to hunt and kill the fattest and slowest crew members, so the thinner, more athletic crew members have made strides to stay away from them.

Finally, the really big problem on our hands is that Baines' second-in-command, Lieutenant Mallory Singh, has supposedly been possessed by the spirit of Bal-Luna, ancient Queen of the Moon People. She has holed up in the command room and has completely taken over the station's computer systems. She claims to be very upset we have invaded her "territory" by positioning the station "so close to the moon," which is still just in a standard Earth orbit. She insists on complete fealty from the rest of the crew and has made very specific demands. As of right now, the crew has 32 hours to sacrifice someone in her honor and allow her to take Baines as a husband, otherwise she will initiate the station's self-destruct sequence. Dr. Belmont says it's space dementia, but that doesn't explain Singh's sudden telekinesis, speaking in unknown space tongues, taking the lives of Kolchak, Goldstein, Ramirez and O'Malley with her Moon Beam Death Stare, and her control over the independent rotation of the moon on three axises. And she can probably pull off destroying the station, considering she has all of Singh's knowledge. In 32 hours the station will be directly over the United States and if it explodes, it will likely land in parts of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, if the gang in Telemetry has their numbers right.

We're still checking, but this is probably the worst disaster the space program has ever faced, and it is likely no one will make it out alive. So, let's be conservative about the information we communicate until we figure this thing out.

Thanks, everybody. I think a good thing for us to do is pray for everyone's safe return. But, really, understand everybody up there is pretty fucked.

And then, just a few minutes later, the pilot came on the public-address system again: “Uh, folks, we’re going to make a quick stop for refueling.” Huh? Passengers looked at each other in ­surprise. Flight attendants passed ­rapidly through the cabin ­checking seat backs and tray tables and strapped themselves in. Minutes later, we landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base, in Newburgh, N.Y., less than 100 ­kilometers from our ­destination. After a long ride on the ground past National Guard cargo planes, we parked and waited for the fuel trucks.

Are you serious?!?! I have never even heard about an unplanned refuelling stop on a regular airliner. And more to the point, its not like they were flying a new route for which the fuel requirements were only mere estimates, they were flying a regular route! This is the third time I see articles bashing Continental for its stingy attitude with the gas. They better adjust before they gain the reputation of filling their tanks only half full. If you thought high fuel prices were bad for a company, low passenger rates will finish it up.

Reds crossoverfl, originally uploaded by robdigphot.

What a fantastic photo. There's heaps more at Flickr - follow the links above.

It's been interesting to watch Boeing's experience with global supply chain. What they've gained in price has had some costs in quality control and oversight. If the logistics costs go up too much, do they return to fully manufacturing commercial airplanes in Everett and Renton? The new 737 will make that clear in just a couple of years...

Some details about the vehicle were found at the Aviation Week website:

"The 11,000-lb. Boeing Phantom Works vehicle is about 29 ft. long with a roughly 15-ft. wingspan; the vehicle height is 9.6 ft.

The X-37B is designed for multiple missions, moving X-plane flight testing into space from the ground.

The touchdown will involve a steep 20-deg., 170-190-kt. diving shuttle-type approach similar to that used in helicopter drop tests with a subscale X-40 vehicle and the more complex X-37A.

The X-37B is to test advanced thermal protection materials, autonomous approach and landing schemes, and orbital and ground operations.

The X-37B will use advanced thermal protection tiles and carbon-carbon materials to protect its carbon composite and aluminum skin during reentry. The vehicle has as a nitrogen tetroxide/hydrazine propulsion system with a robust propellant load for maneuvering in space and for the deorbit burn. A more cutting-edge Aerojet kerosene/hydrogen peroxide system developed initially for the vehicle was dropped for use on the first flight, but it could fly on later missions."

This week's Flickr photographer goes by robdigphot, and he just posted a set that includes a bunch of great images. Many of them deserve to be seen, but the one that caught my eye was a picture of the Royal Air Force team the Red Arrows, taken from directly ahead as they all prepare to break from formation. Just stunning.

The Red Arrows fly the British Aerospace Hawk (the last plane with a distinctive Hawker Siddeley tail) and their team home page is here.

If you like this, I encourage you to check out this summary of all of the aviation photography I have featured here.

No. 19 never got a chance to fly.

Unlike 11 of his brothers and sisters, No. 19 didn't get a monkey to ride him into space, or a famous astronaut-turned-politician like John Glenn (his seventh sibling received that honor). No. 19 was always the backup singer, the tester, the assistant.

But on Thursday, No. 19 became a proud symbol of St. Louis aerospace history. The space capsule rode through his hometown to his new home at the St. Louis Science Center.

No. 19 was the second youngest in a family of 20 capsules from Project Mercury, the nation's first human spaceflight program, which ran from 1959 to 1963. Along with his 19 siblings, Mercury 19 was built by the former McDonnell Aircraft Corp. The others were destroyed or lost on unmanned missions.

Read the entire article

Water in the form of ice has been confirmed on Mars. NASA's Phoenix lander was able to scoop up some dirt and ice, place it in an oven and measure water content. While it has long been suspected, this is the first definite proof that water is on Mars. Now the focus of the mission will be to detect carbon based compounds to see if life existed/exists or was/is possible. Pretty exciting stuff, I reckon.

Full story with links here.

Complete story from the folks at NASA.

But the $893 million appropriation for the tanker comes with a caveat: The Pentagon will have to consider how the project will impact U.S. jobs and the defense industrial base in its evaluation criteria for contractors.

Now this might be seen as a win for Boeing- but you have to ask yourself- is the defense industrial base impacted positively by giving Northrup Grumman/ EADS/ Airbus a facility for expanding their contracting presence and creating a more competitive defense environment?

Some background on this: Airbus and Northrup Grumman have hinted that aircraft other than the tanker would be assembled in Alabama. Also, while Boeing claims that the contract would create 44,000 jobs in the U.S., Northrup Grumman/ EADS/ Airbus revised their estimates to say the contract would create 48,000 jobs in the U.S.

All of this puts Boeing in a much better position than they were before. The Boeing proposal meets the minimum load requirements, is more fuel efficient and has lower operating costs, requires a less costly upgrade in existing infrastructure (because their plane would actually fit on the existing runways), and seems to have more support in congress.

The bill will be up for a vote in September. Now we'll have to see if the pro-Boeing language will stay...

Also up in the air, apparently, is whether or not Boeing will have any workers around to build the things...

If somebody told me about this a few weeks ago I would of though they were dreaming. A new form of air racing using rocket powered planes on a "virtual" track in the air is about to become a reality. All composite aircraft, liquid fuelled rockets, sounds good. Look at this link for more details - watch the video, they give a good idea of what the final race will look like.

..."Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), investigating the in-flight explosion aboard a Qantas jet last week, have attributed the explosion to an oxygen tank, fragments of which "blasted into the passenger cabin through the floor, smashed into a door handle and embedded in the ceiling." ATSB investigators also said that the aircraft had "lost the use of crucial flight instruments after [the] oxygen cylinder exploded," noting that "the jet's three landing instrument systems and its anti-skid system were not working when" it landed in the Philippines. They added, however, "that all the aircraft's main systems including engines and hydraulics were functioning normally."
Investigators said that "the cylinder fragments shifted the aircraft door's handle halfway to the open position after exploding through the floor of the passenger cabin, but the door held fast," the AFP noted. "However, the door handle mechanism...sheared, as it is designed to do when an attempt is made to open the door in flight."