NASA T38 Jets parked in their hanger

US KC-135 Stratotanker: Royal Danish Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft

A US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 100th Air Refueling Wing prepares to fuel a flight of Royal Danish Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft in the US European Command area of responsibility.

UK F35-C Lightning II Jet unable to land on UK Carriers

The Joint Combat Aircraft (previously Future Joint Combat Aircraft) was originally intended to replace Sea Harrier in the Fleet Air Arm, and Harriers in the RAF. It selected the Joint Strike Fighter F35 as preferred solution in 2001, but for a long time never never really decided between STOVL and CV variants. The JCA programme has been heavily influenced by events connected to the Joint Harrier Force and, even more, it has been shaped partially by the Future Offensive Air System (Tornado replacement programme targeted at delivering a Deep Penetration Strike aicraft) programme of the RAF.

Jet motorbike: Record breaking Attempt

RICHARD BROWN is a man with unfinished business.

In 1999, he smashed the one-way speed record for a motorbike by hitting 584 kilometres per hour on the salt flats of Bonneville in northern Utah. But his claim on the outright world record - which is based on the average of two runs in opposite directions - was thwarted by technical problems.

Now he is trying again. He hopes to be the first person to exceed 720 km/h on a motorbike while achieving an average two-way speed of at least 640 km/h. Any old bike will not do: he will be using one that is jet-propelled.

While cars used in land-speed-record attempts, like the Bloodhound jet car that will attempt the challenge in 2012, and certain types of boat have taken advantage of jet thrust since the 1950s, all record-breaking motorbikes have used a conventional engine that drives the rear wheel.

This is because it is difficult to pack a jet engine into a two-wheeled frame capable of enormous speed with any degree of safety. Fast cars can be built around old jet fighter engines, but these are far too heavy to fit into a bike that must be balanced by the driver making tiny steering adjustments to the front wheel.

So for his new bike, called Jet Reaction, Brown has redesigned a 930-kilowatt helicopter engine to produce thrust instead of turning a rotor. It was "quite difficult", he says.

"One is working with very fine tolerances in very difficult materials. If you get it wrong, destroying the engine is the most likely result."

Brown has also added his own reheat unit, or afterburner. It sprays fuel into the hot exhaust gases, causing it to ignite and generate yet more thrust. The idea sounds simple enough, though he says that getting it to work at something approaching its theoretical potential "requires much more development". The reheat burner sits above two canisters that deploy braking parachutes when needed.

Brown has a track record in ambitious jet engine projects. Following his 1999 record attempt he built a sub-orbital rocket, but the launch in South Africa had to be cancelled. He is also working on a gas-turbine-powered jet pack, similar to one developed by the US military, that he hopes will allow the wearer to remain airborne for 10 minutes.

Brown's 1999 record attempt involved his own Gillette Mach 3 Challenger bike, which featured a custom-built hybrid rocket engine. The attempt failed because soft ground forced the team to use tyres rather than the usual aluminium wheels. The tyres were only designed to withstand speeds of 380 km/h or so. Eventually the massive centrifugal forces on the rear tyre caused it to deflate.

The current motorbike land-speed record, 606 km/h, was set in 2010 by Rocky Robinson on a bike called the Ack Attack Streamliner. Such record-breakers feature elongated metal bodies - as does Jet Reaction - making them look more like giant bullets than motorcycles. They are also fitted with retractable stabilisers for balance when moving slowly or stationary.

Brown expects to carry out trials with Jet Reaction at a UK airfield in March next year, with an attempt on the world record back at the Bonneville salt flats pencilled in for 2013.

It won't be easy, says Mark Chapman, Bloodhound's chief engineer. "The biggest issue is air intake," he says. "You have to be sure the air flow through the jet is stable or the engine could surge, which could be dangerous."

African Space Research Programme work on the African Skyhawk jet

Volunteers from the African Space Research Programme work on the African Skyhawk jet in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda.

The programme aims to launch a Ugandan into space in the next decade.

Chris Nsamba says that at one time or another every successful scientist has been called a madman and in the rambling Ntinda suburb of Kampala it seems there were plenty of people who thought Nsamba was crazy when he embarked upon a project to send the first Ugandan into space - from the backyard of his mother's home.

Time will tell!

Picture: MICHELLE SIBILONI/AFP/Getty Images

NASA Selects XCOR to Participate in Suborbital Flight Contract

XCOR's suborbital reusable launch vehicle, Lynx, is capable of up to four flights per day using advanced rapid call-up and turnaround operations.

NASA has selected XCOR Aerospace to provide suborbital flight and payload integration services for research and scientific missions in a program that will offer up to $10 million dollars in contracts to match payload customers with flight vehicle services.

The awards were announced by NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, a part of NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC that is managed at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

"Through this award, NASA has recognized XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle as a useful payload platform that will benefit both NASA's R and D needs and the private research, scientific, and educational communities," said Jeff Greason, XCOR CEO.

"By encouraging and incentivizing frequent, low cost access to space, NASA is helping to ensure America's future as a leader in space."

XCOR's suborbital reusable launch vehicle, Lynx, is capable of up to four flights per day using advanced rapid call-up and turnaround operations.

The Lynx will provide three to four minutes of microgravity as well as, if desired, exposure to the harsh environment of space. This will provide opportunities to investigate the largely unexplored regions of our upper atmosphere.

XCOR has partnered with four leading payload integration providers in the US to give NASA and the research community a first-rate experience for the Program's missions.

The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) of Arizona, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas, NanoRacks LLC of Kentucky and Washington, DC, and Spaceflight Services of Washington will provide payload processing and related support services based on their multiple areas of expertise.

These independent payload service providers specialize in atmospheric science, physics, microgravity research, planetary science, Earth observation, and life sciences, and other areas.

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, Calif. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies.

Harrier Jump Jets Farewell

Different models of Royal Air Force Harrier jets take part in what was billed as their final flight, at RAF Cottesmore, before they were  prematurely axed by UK Government spending cuts.

Picture: PA

Jet Turbine Propelled remote aircraft - Video

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This radio controlled jet is powered by a Jetcat P160 SE. On the 23rd of May, this Jet has been lasered @ 586 KpH Which makes it a 366 MpH plane!

But it's not the easiest thing to fly, as the next video demonstrates.

Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine

New laser propulsion experiments are throwing light on how to build future hypersonic aircraft and beam spacecraft into Earth orbit.

Indeed, a "Lightcraft revolution" could replace today's commercial jet travel. Passengers would be whisked from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour - just enough time to get those impenetrable bags of peanuts open.

Furthermore, beamed energy propulsion can make flight to orbit easy, instead of tenuous and dangerous.

That's the belief of Leik Myrabo an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He's an expert in directed energy applications, aerospace systems, space prime power, and advanced propulsion.

For the past three decades, Myrabo's burning desire has been to create and demonstrate viable concepts for non-chemical propulsion of future flight vehicles through his research and company Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., of Bennington, Vt.

"Typically, a new propulsion technology takes 25 years to mature...to the point where you can actually field it. Well, that time is now," Myrabo told SPACE.com.

Real hardware...real physics