Tech Tuesday 12/12/19 – Make It Rain Edition

[TT1]The RAF is retiring the venerable multi-role Tornado strike aircraft.  The RAF Typhoon, and the F-35 (when they are ready) will be replacing the old workhorse.  It was a tough old swing-wing plane, similar in many ways to the F-14 Tomcat, and first flown shortly after I was born in 1974, and produced from 1979-1998.  The Tornado is still (TTBOMK) in service in Germany and Italy.

[TT2]Boeing is teaming up with Aerion to try and bring a supersonic business jet to market.  Supersonic business jets actually make sense.  Things like the Concorde were just too bloody expensive to keep the seats filled, but business jets, that’s a market that could work.

[TT3] Aircraft wake seeds clouds.  Yes, the aerodynamic effects of a transonic wing passing through the moisture laden air above a cloud can significantly increase the precipitation.  I imagine after this, NOAA and the FAA will be coordinating air traffic over drought zones.

[TT4] China has a consent problem.  Shocking, I know.

[TT5] Gypsum sourced from power plant flue scrubbers is actually a superior agricultural product that gypsum that is mined from the earth.

[TT6] Cubesats get new thruster technology that won’t wear out.

[TT7] A novel sugar molecule could unseat Round-Up.

[TT8] Self-healing polymers are neat.  Self healing polymers I can print are even neater.  But I’m not sure how much value that adds to tires, unless we are talking about airless wheels.

[TT9] Earth maybe 4.5 billion years old, but that crunchy iron nougat center didn’t form until 500 million years ago.

[TT10] The problem of medical protein production comes home to roost.  (Sorry, best pun I could come up with today, feel free to offer up your own in the comments).

[TT11] Are we looking at the first steps towards having a device that can give the non-communicative a way to talk?  Like put this on a coma patient and see if anyone is home?

[TT12] This is a really neat way to utilize an old quarry.

[TT13] Wouldn’t it be neat if our handheld devices could just charge up from all the stray RF energy we are continuously surrounded by?  About that…

[TT14] Once again, engineers look to nature for ways to improve our technology.

[TT15] Welding plastics and metals together.  Seems simple enough, although the metal does require a laser etching surface prep at the point of contact.  But laser etching metal surfaces is straightforward and common these days.  I wonder how strong such a bond is?  Is this a structural bond, or just something that is useful for applying a protective facade?

[TT16] Graphene powder + water = electrically conductive Play-Doh.

[TT17] Not really a Tech Tuesday item, but one I want to link to, and don’t have enough time to do justice for.  Luckily, ProPublica doesn’t need my help to talk about how bad the US Navy has messed up its sailors.  This kind of command failure, of both the military and the civilian leadership (ultimately, the demand to do more with less funding falls on our elected officials) is one of those things that constantly stresses the rank and file.