Posts Tagged 747

New Air Force One Deal

From The New York Times:

The Defense Department hopes to sign an initial contract with Boeing in the coming weeks to begin the long process of assembling a new presidential aircraft capable of ferrying the commander in chief around the world with the capacity to run a war from midair if necessary. Built on the frame of a Boeing 747-8, it will be bigger, more powerful, able to fly farther and vastly more advanced technologically than the current customized Boeing 747-200B jumbo jet.

“It’s way overdue,” said Joseph W. Hagin, a White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush who initiated plans for a new plane only to see them shelved when the nation’s finances grew precarious. “You can hang new engines on it, you can cram all sorts of new technology on it, but it’s still a very old airplane.”

 

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Modified 747 flying to test laser on missile target

Some time between midnight and 4 a.m. Saturday, a modified 747 flying off of the California coast will aim its laser weapon at a missile more than a hundred miles away. The order will be given for the plane to fire a beam of high-powered coherent light. The laser will start burning a hole in the skin of the short-range, liquid-fueled missile as it rises into the sky. Fifty seconds later, the missile will fall into the Pacific Ocean.

That’s if everything goes according to plan, of course.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/laser-jet-preps-for-saturday-missile-shootdown/#ixzz0xTuRyxGG

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