The latest and probably the last version of the very successful Sukhoi T-10 program, the Su-35S is ready for production. After the flight tests of the two prototypes (aircrafts #901 and #902 –photo above) the first series production aircraft made its first flight a few days ago piloted by test pilot Sergey Bogdan. The flight took place at the airfield of Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) where the Sukhoi designed aircraft is developed for production.

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This is the first official photo of the new Optionally Pilot Vehicle (OPV) from Northrop Grumman. It was developed in 12 months from Scaled Composites and it aspires to break the monopoly of General Atomics monopoly that dominates the market (especially in the USA) with Predator A and B variants. The aircraft has the quite unimaginative name Firebird and it has made already a few test flights with various payloads.

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Even those that didnΒ’t like TRON:Legacy or even science fiction cannot stay indifferent in front of the amazing optical features of the movie. Joshua T. Nimoy an artist that uses coding, mathematics and a variety of software and programming languages created some of the graphics for the film, in partnership with Digital Domain. He published on his website some inside info about the back-end of the filmΒ’s production.

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Mono is a road-legal trackday car and it is the first project of BAC, a new company that is formed by a small group of experienced engineers and designers. It is named by its centrally single passenger layout and it has some really impressive specifications that could propel it to the top of the very popular market of highly specialized trackday cars.

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Northrop Grumman made a major step towards autonomous aerial refueling between two UAVs. Two aircraft, the manned high altitude Proteus and one of NASAΒ’s RQ-4 Global Hawks simulated refueling maneuvers while flying at 45.000ft. The two aircraft came as close as 40ft distance (video below) and they evaluated the flight control system response and engine performance at such high altitude.

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Ora-Ïto is the frontname of designerΒ’s Ito Morabito studio. He started by creating fictional concept for existing brands that attract the attention of many potential clients and establish him in the field of industrial design. Ora-ÏtoΒ’s portfolio now expands to a wide span, from jewelry to architecture, clothing, furniture, packaging etc.

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Boston Dynamics is a relatively small company that develops some of the most advanced robots in the world. Its specialty is advanced dynamic control and animal like robots that can move easily over rough terrain. The videos of its projects like the quadruped Β‘Big DogΒ’ made such an impression to the general public that there are even fun video spoofs with millions of views. Recently DARPA appointed Boston Dynamics with two new projects, ATLAS and CHEETAH under the maximum mobility and manipulation program.

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Space Shuttle Discovery took off a few hours ago for its last mission. After many delays due to relatively minor problems it took off just seconds before the launch window closed and successfully reached orbit. Discovery will spend 11 days in space and two spacewalks are scheduled. This thread will be updated throught the mission.
UPDATE - Discovery just landed after a completely successful mission. It is the first space shuttle to officially retire and it is the most reused and traveled manned spacecraft ever (and it appears it will remain so for many years).

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The Eurofighter consortium, one of the six companies chasing the 126-fighter aircraft sale of IndiaΒ’s medium multi role combat aircraft (MMRCA) competition presented a proposal for an upgraded and navalised version of the Typhoon. It was revealed as a concept on the Aero India exhibition and it features a lot of interesting details.

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