The largest collection of antique shipwrecks ever found in Norway has been discovered under mud at the building site for a new highway tunnel in Oslo, Norway. Jostein Gundersen, project’s lead archeologist said at least nine wooden boats, the largest being 17 metes long, were found well preserved nearly 400 years after they sank at Bjoervika, an Oslo inlet near the new national opera house.

The wrecks were remarkably well preserved because they had been covered in mud and fresh water, where river waters run into the sea. It was believed that the wrecks have sunk sometime after a massive fire swept the wooden buildings of old Oslo in 1624. After that disaster, Danish-Norwegian King Kristian IV ordered the city center moved before reconstruction started.

The discovered boats were moored at the old port which became a remote area after the city was moved. It was assumed that the boats may have been 30 or 40 years old when they sank. The wreckage will be moved as quickly as possible, so construction of the undersea tunnel can continue.

The military cargo plane C-130 Hercules of the Philippine Air Force crashed after takeoff in the Southern Philippines, specifically on its way to Iloilo City to pick up members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) last August 27. The plane crashed and sank 4 km. off the shore of Barangay Bucana in Davao City within the vicinity of Samal and Talikod Islands. Nine people aboard sank 600 ft. underwater, too deep for divers to reach, reported by the Philippine Navy.

Navy Capt Rosauro Gonzales said the wreckage of the aircraft was located 2.5 nautical miles southwest of Samal island, a short distance from Davao International Airport, from where the plane took off Monday evening. It was reported that fishermen found body parts, a torn uniform, combat boots and other debris. However, radio station DZBB reported that underwater camera found no trace of the nine crew, which included 2 pilots. Philippine military officials are still on their mission to search for the remains of the 9 crews.

Philippine Air Force speculated that lightning could have caused the crash of the C-130 despite the fact that it was equipped with a lightning arrester. Eyewitnesses said that a lightning struck and saw the plane into flames before it crashed.

PAF Chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog went to Davao to personally attend to the grieving family of the pilot Maj. Manuel Zambrano, co-pilot Capt. Adrian de Dios and other seven crewmembers.

The C-130 is one of only two operated by the Philippine Air Force. PAF cheif Cadungog said the PAF’s remaining C-130 Hercules plane is now grounded and being prepared for inspection at the Mactan Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City.

QinetiQ Group PLC, a British defense technology company, claimed on Sunday, August 24, that its ultra lightweight plane has broken the world record for the longest lasting unmanned flight.

According to QinetiQ, the aircraft, which is called the Zephyr, flew for 83 hours and 37 minutes straight. That is more than twice the official world record set by Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk back in 2001. It is also longer than the Zephyr’s accomplishment last year, which was 54 hours of continuous flight.

QinetiQ, however, will not be celebrating anytime soon. The reported flight time of the Zephyr may not get into record books, because it did not meet the criteria laid down by the world’s air sports federation, which is the body responsible for measuring and verifying air and space records.

“We were concentrating more on the flight than the record,” said QinetiQ spokesman Douglas Millard.

The Zephyr, which has potential in the fields of reconnaissance and communications, is built from carbon fiber and features paper thin solar panels. It weighs 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and was launched by hand on July 28 in the Arizona desert in the United States. The aircraft was flown by autopilot and via satellite to an altitude of over 18,000 meters (60,000 feet), QinetiQ said.

During the day, the ultra lightweight was powered by the sun. At night, it relied on its rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries.

QinetiQ stated that the Zephyr’s more than three-day flight was witnessed by US and British defense officials. Still, it does not change the fact that the record is likely to remain unofficial.

The wonders of the combination of reduced acoustic, infrared, visual and radar signatures that stealth bombers do, making them difficult for defenses to detect, track and engage might soon be a thing of the past. These days, invisibility is no longer regarded as mere imagination and occult or supernatural.  With the latest technology developed by the Army scientists and researchers, fantasy is slowly becoming a reality.

Dr. Richard Hammond, a theoretical physicist working in Optical Physics and Imaging Science at the U.S. Army’s Research Office, discussed with bloggers the developments in the field of negative index materials research and meta materials.  Developing research in these areas is making light reflect with extraordinary effect.  Hammond said:

“Meta materials are artificial materials with versatile properties that can be tailored to fit almost any practical need.”  These versatile properties enable it to go beyond the capabilities of natural materials, including control of the light at an unprecedected level.

“Similar to general relativity, where time and space are curved, transformation optics shows that the space for light can also be bent in an almost arbitrary way.”

Army researchers have paired with Purdue University, the University of Colorado, the University of Berkeley and Princeton University in a multi-university research initiative.  Providing new capabilities to Soldiers in the battlefield is the motivation behind the research, and benefits from meta materials have an impact in both the short and long term.

“If you’re out on the battlefield and you see a cloud coming, or you suspect that there might be an aerosol chemical or biological warfare being used against you, it’s very difficult to detect what the material is, said Hammond.”

With the new meta materials being developed, however, the ability exists to see see things smaller than the wavelength of light – something that has never been done before, according to Hammond.  Utilizing meta materials in the creation of a new lens may allow Soldiers to be able to see pathogens and viruses that are currently impossible to detect with any visual device.

“So this would be enormous – an enormous improvement and not just on the battlefield, but it would allow us to make all kinds of materials, what we call nanomanufacturing,” said Hammond, “Which could go into distance sensors to other kinds of sensors.”  In the longer terms, the possibility for cloaking materials exists, which would provide “invisibility” by redirecting light around a cylindrical shape.

“One of the most exciting applications is an electromagnetic cloak that can bend light around itself, similar to the flow of water around a stone,” said Hammond.  “Making invisible both the cloak and an object hidden inside.”

The research surrounding meta materials and creating tiny particles with unprecedecented properties has met the “proof of principle” according to Hammond. What researchers and scientists will eventually accomplish, has yet to be seen, however, as that principle is developed and finds new applications, he said.

“This experiment was performed in 2006 and it was almost like a chain reaction,” Said Hammond.  “The field of transformation optics and meta materials and negative index materials exploded with this.  But, as I say, the proof of principle has a long way to go before we can see that on the battlefield.”