Support The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

This message came in from a site visitor and she allowed me to post it here:

Hello my name is Ashleigh Birch. I am currently competing in the Queensland Rodeo Association Princess Quest as part of this quest this year we are raising funds to be donated to the Royal Flying Doctors Service which is a very important service in outback Queensland as you well might imagine here is a bit of insight into the Queensland sector of the Royal Flying Doctors

The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Queensland Section (RFDS) is a highly professional and technologically advanced organization. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is the major fixed-wing aero medical service in Queensland and significant provider primary health care services in rural and remote areas of the State.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has eight Bases located throughout Queensland - Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Charleville, Longreach, Mt Isa, Rockhampton and Townsville. These Bases form a strategic network that facilitates the effective and efficient delivery of health care throughout Queensland.

Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) employs almost 200 full-time, part-time and casual staff comprising medical officers, casual women's health doctors, flight nurses, allied health professionals, pilots and administration.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) relies on the generosity of individuals, corporations, schools, and community groups across Queensland to help make up the shortfall in funding.

This support ensures the Service can continue its commitment of providing its many services, including 24 hour emergency care and treatment for those in need.

Without the generosity and support of individuals, community groups and organizations across the State, those living and working in regional, rural and remote Queensland would not have the lifeline they have come to depend upon. We thank you.

A gracious thank you is extended to those who assist us financially along with our dedicated RFDS Auxiliaries and support groups for their continuing contributions So I am writing to you as I am looking for businesses such as yours to possibly donate a prize that can be raffled at Rodeo’s I attend or at other venues or donations to support this great service to outback Australians. If you could contact me back that would be fantastic thank you again for your time.

Regards,
Ashleigh Birch

If you'd like to contribute to this cause, contact Ashleigh at ashbirchcedarvale@bigpond.com.

Fluidic Aircraft

I was going to post something about fluidic aircraft - craft with no wing flaps - but in doing some research I uncovered a ZDNet.com piece, "Flapless planes in the sky." Everything I was planning is there, so there's no point in duplicating that piece.

Basically, some UK universities are building a flappless UAV under the FLAVIIR (Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research) project:

"The concept of a flapless vehicle, using fluidic thrust vectoring (in which direction is changed with a secondary air flow) and air jets, is one important area of investigation... Another is the replacement of the pilot by sophisticated software that can autonomously fly the vehicle without
collisions in what might be dangerous or remote environments."

Look in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles section of Thirty Thousand Feet for links to some UAV resources.

VLJ News Video

FOX News has a video news story on very light jets and the travel on demand concept, featuring Eclipse jets. It's not too long, but worth a look.

Thanks to MicroJetsinc.com™ for pointing this out. You'll find their site to be a good souce for VLJ information.

Cormorant

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works is working on the Cormorant, a four ton, gull winged, unmanned stealth jet designed to launch from the Trident missile tubes in U.S. Navy Ohio-class submarines. The Cormorant (which is the name for a marine diving bird) can fly with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment and is made out of titanium to resist corrosion.

The Popular Science piece, The Navy's Swimming Spy Plane has a large artist rendering and a number of other images. CNN and Composites News also recently carried this story.