INSIDE AMERICA'S NEXT SPYPLANE A SECRET, HYPERSONIC REPLACEMENT FOR THE LEGENDARY SR-71 PROMISES TO TRANSFORM MILITARY AVIATION

By Clay Dillow  Posted May 19, 2015

 

Born in the spy-vs.-spy cauldron of the Cold War, the iconic SR-71 “Blackbird” remains the fastest air-breathing military aircraft the world has known. It flew so high and so fast that enemy defenses were powerless to intercept it. Eventually, satellite technology and advanced radar eroded its advantage. In 1998, the U.S. Air Force retired it. Now, with regional threats growing and portable surface-to-air missiles evolving, engineers have once again set out to build the fastest military jet on the planet.

This time, it will take the form of a 4,000-mile-per-hour reconnaissance drone with strike capability. Known as the SR-72, the aircraft will evade assault, take spy photos, and attack targets at speeds of up to Mach 6. That’s twice as fast as its predecessor.

Aeronautical engineers at Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocket­dyne have been designing the SR-72 at their Skunk Works black site in California for the past several years. It will require a hybrid propulsion system: a conventional, off-the-shelf turbo jet that can take the plane from runway to Mach 3, and a hypersonic ramjet/scramjet that will push it the rest of the way. Its body will have to withstand the extreme heat of hypersonic flight, when air friction alone could melt steel. Its bombs will have to hit targets from possibly 80,000 feet. Lockheed says the craft could be deployed by 2030. Once it is, the plane’s ability to cover one mile per second means it could reach any location on any continent in an hour—not that you’ll see it coming.

"We are now on the verge of a hypersonic revolution."

—Brad Leland, Lockheed Martin's Hypersonic Program Manager

HOW RAMJETS WORK

Ramjets forgo the big rotary compressors needed on turbojets and instead rely on their own forward motion to compress air. First, air is scooped into an inlet and compressed as it funnels into a diffuser. The diffuser also slows the air to subsonic speeds for easier combustion. From there, air and fuel are fed into a combustion chamber and ignited. Finally, an exhaust nozzle accelerates the resulting burst of hot, expanding air, producing massive thrust.

PROPULSION

Turbojet engines can take a plane from runway launch to about Mach 3; speeds faster than that require an air-breathing ramjet, which compresses high-speed air for combustion, but which typically begins operating at about Mach 4. To bridge the gap, engineers are developing a hybrid engine that can operate in three modes. The aircraft will accelerate to about Mach 3 under turbojet power, switch to ramjet power to take it to about Mach 5, and then switch again to scramjet mode, which uses supersonic air for combustion.

It could reach any location on any continent in an hour—not that you’ll see it coming.

SKIN

Aerodynamic friction at speeds exceeding Mach 5 will heat an aircraft’s exterior to 2,000 degrees. At that point, conventional steel airframes will melt. So engineers are looking at composites—the same kinds of high-performance carbon, ceramic, and metal mixes used for the noses of intercontinental ballistic missiles and space shuttles. Every joint and seam must be sealed: Any air leak at hypersonic speed, and the in-rushing heat would cause the aircraft to collapse. (That’s what doomed the space shuttle Columbia).

AIRFRAME

The stresses on a plane shift as it travels through subsonic, supersonic, and hyper­sonic speeds. For instance, when a jet is accelerating through subsonic flight, the center of lift moves toward the back of the aircraft. But once the craft hits hypersonic speeds, drag on the plane’s leading egdes cause the center of lift to move forward again. If the center of lift gets too close to the center of gravity it can cause dangerous instability. The plane’s shape must tolerate these changes, and more, to keep the craft from tearing apart.

PAYLOAD

Lockheed describes the SR-72 as an intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and strike platform, but its exact payload is secret. Most likely, it hasn’t yet been invented. Taking spy photos or dropping bombs at Mach 6 will require extraordinary engineering. It will require hundreds of miles to make a turn. It will need powerful guidance computers to line up targets, 80,000 feet below. Also, you can’t just open a bomb bay at 4,000 miles per hour. The SR-72 will need new sensors and weapons to operate at such high speeds.­­

3D PRINT YOUR OWN

Computer Model Of The SR-72

Popular Science illustrator Don Foley has turned his drawings into 3D-printable models. Check them out here.

This article was originally published in the June 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title "America's Next Spyplane.”

An Old Saree, Glass Tubes and Sun – All you need for a revolutionary Water Purifier!

 Shreya Pareek

 

 May 7, 2015

 

 Innovation, Maharashtra, rural india

Here is all you need to know about the path-breaking technology that can provide
clean drinking water to rural India for just Rs. 1500! 

In earlier days, before the existence of the Aquaguards, the Kents and other expensive water purifiers,
we often saw our grandmothers using a simple cotton cloth to filter the tap water and then boil it to make
it ready for drinking.

Dr. Anil Rajvanshi, an Indian scientist, has brought back these traditional methods in an effective and simple way to make a low-cost solar water purifier, which could be immensely helpful for rural households. Using the knowledge that water does not need to be boiled to make it germ free, and even exposure to a lower temperature for a sufficiently long time should suffice, he has created a low cost solar water purifier using cotton cloth, glass pipes and sunlight!

The unique filter does not suffer from filter clogging and water wastage, and does not even require electricity!

A simple cotton cloth, folded over a few times, acts as an effective filter of particulate matter.

Photo: mycotopia.net

The water purifier is made available by Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), a Phaltan, Maharashtra based NGO.

“In most other solar heaters available in the market, water only gets heated up, it is not purified. And in other systems like RO, etc, water only gets filtered but complete sterilization is still lacking. So we came up with an idea where we can both filter the water and kill germs by heating it at a low cost using solar energy,” says Dr. Rajvanshi.

Dr. Rajvanshi and his team started working on this project in 1984. But due to non-availability of a tubular collector required by the purifier, the model did not work on cloudy days. In 2012, he again started working on the idea and launched a final prototype which is being used in the Institute to provide 30 liters of potable water daily.

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How does the technology work?

All you need is a discarded saree, a few glass pipes and sunlight. The solar water purifier (SWP) consists of four tubular solar water heaters attached to a manifold. The unclean water, which is filtered by the cotton cloth, is filled in the SWP and is later heated using solar energy to make it potable.

The unclean water is filtered through four-layered cotton sari cloth and then heated to 60°C for 15 minutes or 45°C for 3 hours so that all the coliforms are inactivated.

The technology does not waste a single drop of water.

The collectors have to be very efficient to raise the water temperature above 45°C for more than 3 hours even on completely cloudy days. Tubular vacuum-based solar collectors (tube dimensions: 47 mm ID and 1.8m long) were perfect and were used in the model. The four-tubes system in the prototype can store water up to 15 litres.

“This technology avoids the use of wood to heat water, which is costly and also creates a lot of smoke,” says Dr. Rajvanshi. Every morning, water is put in the SWP and the potable water is taken out the next day.

How is it different?

“There have been many other researches done on low-cost water purifiers and heaters. But in some cases they use plastic bottles which have chances of the plastic leaching into water at high temperatures,” says Dr. Rajvanshi. “Also, these purifiers do not work in cloudy and rainy conditions.”

Other technologies, like reverse osmosis (RO) and ultraviolet (UV) based water purifiers, include filters which face clogging and necessitate their periodic replacement, and face other problems like wastage of water and unavailability of electricity in rural areas.

NARI’s SWP does not require any electricity and can be assembled easily from locally available materials.

The impact

The biggest impact of the technology is the development of a low-cost model, the know-how for which is made available for free by NARI Phaltan. Since last year, two such systems at NARI are producing around 30 litres of potable water daily for all its staff members.

The cost of setting up the SWP is just Rs. 1500 and it is so simple to create and install that anyone in rural India can fabricate it.

“We have not patented this technology so that the rural population can utilise it in an efficient way,” says Dr. Rajvanshi.

The technology is very simple and can be easily fabricated.

In addition to its low cost, the technology does not require any maintenance. It is so user-friendly and efficient that people from Nepal, during the recent earthquake, contacted NARI and asked them to install it there.

In the future, NARI team wants to expand the technology and reach out to more rural households. “We want to scale this technology so that at least 30,000-40,000 litres of water can be made potable daily to meet the requirements of a village,” says Dr. Rajvanshi.

When diseases caused by unclean drinking water take the lives of approximately 760,000 young children throughout the world¹, this low cost technology can prove to be a gamechanger.

“Clean drinking water is our birth right and I feel the government of the day should help ensure that everyone has access to it. I feel that all of us, individuals, NGOs and corporates, should help in this process,” Dr. Rajvanshi concludes.

To know more about NARI’s work and their remarkable SWP, contact Dr. Rajvanshi at – anilrajvanshi@gmail.com

1 Data source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/

- See more at: http://www.thebetterindia.com/23049/an-old-saree-glass-tubes-and-sun-all-you-need-for-a-revolutionary-water-purifier/#sthash.3utwqL67.dpuf

Lanstove

Lamp Which Is Also A Stove Is Solving Two Of Rural India’s Biggest Problems In One Go

 Shreya Pareek

 

 November 24, 2014

 

 Innovation, Maharashtra

This amazing technology called “Lanstove” serves the purpose of a lamp and a stove at the same time. An environment-friendly device, this technology is putting kerosene to a better use. Know more about this unique invention and how it is helping the rural population of India.

“It is a matter of shame that even 61 years after independence, about 60% of rural population in India has no electricity and they use ancient kerosene lanterns for lighting,” says Dr. Anil Rajvanshi.

His love for innovations and desire to change the lives of people in rural India made him return to India after a successful stint as a professor at the University of Florida for two years. To give shape to his bright plans, he started working with a rural NGO – Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in Phaltan, Maharashtra in 1981.

Through this organization NARI, Dr. Rajvanshi is extensively working in agriculture, renewable energy and sustainable development areas, especially those affecting the rural population. For the past 33 years, he has been engaged in various innovations that can solve rural India’s problems related to energy, water, pollution and income generation, broadly based on renewable energy concepts in environmentally sound ways.

Dr. Anil Rajvanshi

He has seven patents under his name, and his book “Romance of Innovation” talks about the various research and breakthroughs that he has been a part of. TBI brings together a series of articles that talk about some of the amazing innovations by Dr. Rajvanshi and his team at NARI.

The first innovation in the series includes an amazing solution that is using kerosene in a more environment-friendly and healthy way.

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The problem

“Lighting, which is a basic necessity and a fundamental need of humans, is missing from the life of a majority of the rural population,” Rajvanshi says.

A large number of people in India’s villages use kerosene for lighting purposes. The quality of light obtained from lanterns, etc. is very poor. The yellow flame which produces soot, CO and CO2 in the compact and small houses can be injurious to health.

Around 1.5 million people in the world die every year due to indoor air pollution created by inefficient kerosene lanterns and biomass cook stoves.

“The major issue is with good combustion. Most of the current devices lack that. If the combustion is efficient, kerosene can be a good source for cooking and lighting the houses,” says Rajvanshi.

Solution: A lamp which is also a stove

To address the issue, Dr. Rajvanshi has come up with a very interesting solution to rural India’s paucity of good light and fuel. He has invented a device called “Lanstove” which runs on kerosene, and not only cooks food but also produces a high quality light without polluting the environment.

• The interesting innovation needs a 15 litres kerosene cylinder and can easily cook a meal for a family of five members. It reduces the cooking time and also the possibility of food getting burnt.

“We researched about this technology for around 2-3 years, tested in various huts and finally launched it in the villages. We introduced many design changes like increasing the power of the lantern and using a modified Janata cooker to cook a complete meal for a family of four or five. This made the mantle lantern devices very efficient because heat, which was getting wasted before, was now being used for cooking.” Dr. Rajvanshi explains.

Lanstove- a lamp and also a stove.

• The USP of this product is its dual purpose. While cooking food, this stove also works as a lamp which produces a bright light, equivalent to that from a  200-300 W electric bulb. The pressure of the stove is managed manually by a small bicycle pump. It can easily boil five litres of water in 50 minutes, which takes much longer in traditional cook stoves.

• Also, the product is made of stainless and mild steel. A mesh that covers the device prevents the Lanstove from overheating, hence making it safe for use by anyone. Also, the kerosene is kept in a separate cylinder which is placed at some distance from the stove, which again helps in preventing any mishap.

• An on/off valve controls the light output and heat. The stove has a life span of 10-15 years if used correctly and costs Rs. 6,000-Rs.7,000 when mass produced. The stove is also very silent as compared to existing pressurized kerosene stoves and Petromax lamps.

The challenges

The biggest challenge currently is the availability of kerosene. “GOI policy allows only 5 liters/household of subsidized kerosene per month for below poverty line (BPL) families. This is completely inadequate for the Lanstove applications,” explains Dr. Rajvanshi. To address this issue, he took special permission from block officers to make enough kerosene available to the villagers for one year. Apart from that, he has been writing to various policy makers to make kerosene available to villagers through their UID cards.

Another challenge was to make the older generation understand the use of this technology initially. But they have also gradually adopted it after seeing the positive response from people.

Also, Bhakri or thick chapatti commonly consumed in rural Maharashtra takes a longer time to cook. “We cannot get adequate kerosene from the Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. If it is made available then we can use it for many more applications,” said a villager.

Lanstove is affordable, safe and solves two purposes at the same time.

What people are saying?

Dr. Rajvanshi and his team have already distributed this amazing technology to 25 huts in Phaltan and have received a positive response from the villagers.

• “Children in the villages told their families that they will not come and sleep in the house if Lanstove is not used for cooking and lighting,” recalls Rajvanshi.

• “It produces a very bright light. Since no supervision is required during steam cooking, one can do other household work like sewing, cleaning the grain etc. while cooking and the device is also helpful for children to study,” said a woman in Phaltan, one of their first customers.

• “I will be willing to buy this stove and can give Rs. 20-30/day (US 45-65 cents/day) in payment installments,” said another resident of Phaltan.

Though this amazing technology is not currently made available at a large scale due to lack of enough kerosene, it can emerge as a feasible solution to inadequate lighting and harmful kitchen practices in the villages, once the kerosene issue is resolved.

“We all have to make the government understand to provide kerosene to the villages. With our efforts, around 180 million lives can be brought to high quality,” says Dr. Rajvanshi.

To know more about his technology, contact him at – anilrajvanshi@gmail.com. You can also go through his book “Romance of Innovation” to know more about his amazing work in the rural sector.

- See more at: http://www.thebetterindia.com/16136/lamp-stove-solving-rural-india-biggest-problems-lanstove-grassroot-innovation/#sthash.hizh2ELa.dpuf

Mechanism of Escalators | Electrical Engineering Books

Mechanism of Escalators | Electrical Engineering Books

Anti-lock Brake Systems (ABS) | Electrical Engineering Books

Anti-lock Brake Systems (ABS) | Electrical Engineering Books

Japan’s floating solar power plants

Indian Ships

In 1498, Vasco da Gama, from Portugal, sailed towards India, southward along the west coast of Africa. He sailed in the largest ship of his times, Sao Gabriel that was 28 meters long. He writes in his log book diary, which is now in the Lisbon Maritime Museum that, when he came to South Africa, he saw Indian ships ten times the size of his own ship.

When we look at the ship sizes mentioned in the Nava Shastra, the Indian Navigational text, we see that there were indeed ships of the size observed by Vasco da Gama. From these measurements, it is obvious that India had large ships, with industries that built such large ships.

The making of these large ships prove that the Indian Shipping Industry was highly developed and formed the backbone of Indian trade then.

Unfortunately, the British destroyed Indian ship building industry to make way for the modern ships of the English, for their shipping industry and economy to prosper.

The Iron Pillar

JEWELS OF BHARATAM ...SERIES [TM]

NON RUSTING VISHNU STAMBH ... WORLDS 

The original location of the pillar was in Madhya Pradesh, in the Udayagiri hills which have been identified with Vishnupadgiri, and was made during the reign of Chandragupta II (375-414 CE). 

As Chandragupta II was a great devotee of Vishnu, the pillar was erected in the honour of Divinity Vishnu."The identity of king Chandra of the Delhi iron pillar Sanskrit inscription has been critically addressed. The name Chandra firmly establishes that the king was Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. Numismatic evidence for the short name of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya being Chandra has been provided for the first time by comparing the archer gold coin types of all the Gupta monarchs. Arguments have been provided to show that the inscription was not posthumous in nature. The conquests of Chandra corroborate the conquests of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. Numismatic and archaeological find spots have been analyzed to provide support to Chandragupta's conquests. The personal religion of Chandragupta II also lends strong support to his identification as Chandra. The identification of Chandra with Chandragupta II Vikramaditya poses the least contradictions. The locations of Vahlika and Vishnupadagiri have been critically analyzed. It is proposed, based on archaeological and historical evidence, that Udayagiri could be favorably considered as ancient Vishnupadagiri, where the iron pillar was originally erected. Careful archaeological excavations are necessary at Udayagiri to firmly confirm the original location of the iron pillar." 

The Delhi iron pillar is testimony to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indian iron smiths in the extraction and processing of iron. The iron pillar at Delhi has attracted the attention of archaeologists and corrosion technologists as it has withstood corrosion for the last 1600 years. The several theories which have been proposed to explain its superior corrosion resistance can be broadly classified into two categories: the environmental and the material theories. Proponents of the environmental theories state that the mild climate of Delhi is responsible for the corrosion resistance of the Delhi iron pillar. It is known that the relative humidity at Delhi does not exceed 70% for significant periods of time in the year, which therefore results in very mild corrosion of the pillar.