Jetman flying in formation!

Electric plane wins NASA prize

A Pennsylvania company has won a $1.35 million prize from NASA for developing a highly efficient airplane power by electricity.

Pipistrel-USA.com of State College earned the top prize in the CAFE Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, NASA announced Monday.

The plane developed by Pipistrel doubled the fuel efficiency requirement for the competition – flying 200 miles in less than two hours while using less than a gallon of fuel per occupant or the equivalent in electricity. The winning plane used a little more than a half-gallon of fuel per passenger for the 200-mile flight.

Team Pipistrel-USA.com was one of 14 entrants in the competition, which began two years ago. In total, the 14 teams invested $4 million in the competition, according to NASA.

"Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction," Jack W. Langelaan, team leader of Team Pipistrel-USA.com, said in statement. "Now, we are all looking forward to the future of electric aviation."

Second place, and a $120,000 prize, went to Team eGenius of Ramona, California, whose leader, Eric Raymond, congratulated Team Pipistrel.

The winning aircraft, the Pipistrel Taurus G4, is a four-seat, twin-fuselage aircraft powered by a 145-kilowatt brushless electric motor driving a two-blade propeller mounted on a spar between the fuselages. The plane's wingspan is about 75 feet.

"I'm proud that Pipistrel won. They've been a leader in getting these things into production, and the team really deserves it, and worked hard to win this prize," Raymond said in a NASA statement.

Aww - that's a shame: Terrorist al-Awlaki kiled in airstrike.

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- whose fluency in English and technology made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world -- was killed in Friday airstrike in Yemen, officials said.

Al-Awlaki's death, confirmed by U.S. and Yemeni officials, dealt yet another dramatic blow to an al Qaeda network still reeling from the killing and capture of several top leaders this year, most notably Osama bin Laden.

A "successful joint intelligence-sharing operation" between Yemen and the United States led to the attack that killed al-Awlaki, a Yemeni government official said Friday. The official asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.

The United States regarded al-Awlaki, the public face of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as a terrorist who posed a major threat to American homeland security. Western intelligence officials believe al-Awlaki was a senior leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the most active al Qaeda affiliates in the world. It has been linked to the attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit in December 2009 and a cargo plane plot last year.

"Anwar al-Awlaki didn't need subtitles to indoctrinate," Sajjan Gohel of the Asia Pacific Foundation, who called al-Awlaki's death significant. "He spoke English, he understood how to impact the Muslim diaspora in the West."

Al-Awlaki was killed about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Yemeni town of Khashef, east of the capital, Sanaa, said Mohammed Basha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. He said the operation was launched at 9:55 a.m.

A senior U.S. administration official confirmed al-Awlaki's death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to CNN because he is not authorized to release the information. The official did not provide any other information.

Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, al-Awlaki lived in the United States until the age of seven, when his family returned to Yemen. Al-Awlaki returned to the United States in 1991 for college and remained until 2002.

It was during that time that as an imam in California and Virginia, al-Awlaki preached to and interacted with three of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. He publicly condemned the attack afterward.

Al-Awlaki spent 18 months in a Yemeni prison from 2006 to 2007 on kidnapping charges, but was released without going to trial. Al-Awlaki claimed that he was imprisoned and held at the request of the United States.

U.S. officials say al-Awlaki -helped recruit Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Nigerian man known as the underwear bomber, who was charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic flight as it landed in Detroit on December 25, 2009.

The militant cleric is also said to have exchanged e-mails with accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hassan, who is accused of killing a dozen fellow soldiers and a civilian in a rampage at the Texas Army post.

"If you put it into perspective, (Osama) bin Laden's death had global ramifications for the transnational terror movement. Anwar Al-Awlaqi's death will have equal implications for lone-wolf terrorism," Gohel said.

That's because al-Awlaki was articulate and he understood the Western mindset, Gohel said. He knew his way around the internet and was skilled in indoctrinating impressionable youth.
Early this year, a Yemeni court sentenced al-Awlaki in absentia to 10 years in prison for charges of inciting to kill foreigners.

Prosecutors charged al-Awlaki and two others with "forming an armed gang" to target foreign officers and law enforcement in November.

At a U.S. congressional hearing this year, Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said, "I actually consider al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, with al-Awlaki as a leader within that organization, as probably the most significant threat to the U.S."

According to IntelCenter, which monitors jihadist propaganda, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who is responsible for expanding AQAP's focus on U.S. attacks, remains in charge of the group and further attempts to conduct attacks are expected.

RC Aircraft Terror Bomb Plot Foiled by Feds

An Ashland man who holds a physics degree from Northeastern University was charged yesterday with an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to send a remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives into the Pentagon and the US Capitol “to kill as many people as possible,’’ according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, a US citizen whose only known previous crime was vandalism, told FBI agents working undercover as Al Qaeda members that he wanted to “change the world,’’ according to the complaint.

“I just can’t stop; there is no other choice for me,’’ he told the agents, according to an affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Gary S. Cacace.

“This is what we have to do. This is the righteous way . . . to terrorize enemies of Allah,’’ he said, calling for the deaths of any kafir, the Arabic term for nonbeliever.

Federal officials said that at no point did Ferdaus have sole control of explosive materials, such as C-4, or guns and that he was closely monitored by the FBI during his alleged plotting in the past year. But they also say that he was repeatedly questioned about his plans and that he was committed to carrying out the attacks.

“Our top priority is to protect our nation from terrorism and national security threats,’’ US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a statement.

“The conduct alleged today shows that Mr. Ferdaus had long planned to commit violent acts against our country, including attacks on the Pentagon and our nation’s Capitol.’’

She and Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said the arrest should not reflect on the larger Muslim community.

Prosecutors say that Ferdaus modified mobile phones to act as electrical switches for improvised explosive devices and that he gave eight of them to the FBI undercover agents, who he thought were Al Qaeda recruiters. According to the affidavit, when told that one of the devices had killed three US soldiers and injured at least four others in Iraq, he exclaimed, “That was exactly what I wanted.’’

Also, prosecutors said that Ferdaus had already hatched a plan to attack federal buildings before he met the undercover agents in March 2011. He later traveled to Washington, D.C., and took pictures of the Pentagon and the Capitol.

He subsequently received at least $7,000 from the agents to purchase one of the remote-controlled planes, which was the size of a human body. The agents also delivered 25 pounds of C-4 explosives, three grenades, and six AK-47 assault rifles to Ferdaus. He planned to recruit other men to shoot at people fleeing the Pentagon, prosecutors said.

Ferdaus obtained the first plane in August. He then had the undercover agents deliver the explosive materials and guns yesterday to a storage facility in Framingham that he had rented to plan his attacks. Once he took possession of the materials, he was arrested.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

Failure to launch - матерщи́на! secret Russian missile goes nowhere.

A NEW secret intercontinental Russian missile has failed in its first test and crashed back into the launch zone.

Reports published overnight on Russian news agencies about the failed test firing from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia appeared to be the first indication that the secret ground-based missile even existed.

"After launch, the missile fell back down onto the territory of the cosmodrome. There were no casualties or damage," a military source told the state RIA Novosti news agency.

The Interfax news agency quoted its source as saying that the cause of the failed launch - which took place on Tuesday but was not announced at the time - was a problem with the second stage of the missile.

A defence ministry spokesman confirmed to Interfax that there had been tests the day earlier at Plesetsk of "new types of rocket technologies" but did not give any further details. The ministry did not offer any comment when contacted.

Russia news agencies said that the new missile was a development of Topol-M and Yars strategic missiles which have a range of over 10,000 kilometres. But the new missile has special features to defeat air defence systems.

"This was the first launch of the rocket which is equipped with a multiple warhead with a range of features to overcome air defence systems," a military source told the news agency.

The secret development of a missile that is able to beat air defences comes at a time when Russia is still locked in a tense dispute with the US over its plans to install such systems in ex-Communist Eastern Europe.

The failure of the missile is also just the latest setback for Russia's rocket forces after a series of mishaps with its submarine-launched intercontinental Bulava missile.

Russia has now carried out 16 tests of the Bulava, seven of which ended in failure.

The most embarrassing Bulava setback was in late 2009 when the missile's failure caused spectacular images in the sky above the Norwegian city of Tromso that locals initially put down to a meteor, the northern lights or even a UFO.

Analysts said that the new missile was most likely a modified version of the Yars (RS-24) which the gazeta.ru online newspaper said had the name "Avangard".

The director of the Director of the Center for Public and Political Research Vladimir Evseyev told Interfax that the missile did not appear to be a complely new design but had a range of features like decoy warheads aimed at defeating air defence systems.