How to Inspect Every Part of a U-2 Airplane

Every 4700 flight hours, every U-2 reconnaissance plane is disassembled and inspected part by part, including more than 40,000 rivets and 1800 individual parts, and then reassembled by Lockheed Martin technicians.

Band-Aid of the future (with video)

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, designed what may be the Band-Aid of the future: a sticky, stretchy, gel-like material that can incorporate temperature sensors, LED lights, and other electronics, as well as tiny, drug-delivering reservoirs and channels.

New alloy developed for precision and industrial bearings

Puris LLC, Bruceton Mills, W. Va., recently signed a limited (partially) exclusive, term license agreement with NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland to produce a high-performance alloy enhanced with hafnium 60NiTi(Hf) that will be marketed under the brand name SM-103TM.

Lotus-leaf inspired coating

A new class of superhydrophobic materials mimics one of the planet’s most water-repelling surfaces: the lotus leaf. The material is inexpensive, nontoxic, and can be applied to a variety of surfaces via spray- or spin-coating. The hydrocarbon-based material may be a “green” replacement for costly, hazardous fluorocarbons commonly used for superhydrophobic applications, says Andrew Barron, […]