August 2007

Our website expansion and software development continues apace. While our latest software isn't quite ready for release, the website content is. In case you haven't seen it, here's a summary.

Did you know that you live in the Earth's planetary boundary layer? Want to know more? Then check out our article Boundary Layers.

Particle TracksParticle Tracks Screenshot from our Internal Flow Tutorial

Our latest tutorial, Internal Flow, describes how to use our Caedium Professional add-on to simulate internal air flow. It walks through the entire simulation process from geometry creation to velocity vectors and streamlines visualization.

As always, here are our latest blog posts since our previous newsletter. Click the titles to read the entire post.

Personal Jetpacks
Since the Wright brothers' first 12-second flight in 1903 we've seen impressive development of flying machines, from the helicopter to the Space Shuttle. However, a small, personal jetpack has proved both enticing and elusive.

Of Blended Wing-Bodies and Flying Wings
The remote controlled X-48B concept airplane flew for the first time on July 20, 2007. Joining an illustrious list of previous X-planes, such as the X-15, the X-48B aims to prove the viability of the blended wing-body concept – a combination of a flying wing and a lifting body. If history is anything to go by, the X-48B will have its work cut out.

Design-Build-Fly Competition
An international gathering of 36 student teams competed in the 2007 AIAA Design-Build-Fly competition. In its 11th year, the popular contest challenges student teams to build an unmanned, remote-controlled airplane to satisfy a series of constraints and flying tasks.

On This Day: July 16
On this day (July 16) in 1945 the atomic age began, quite literally, with a bang. The Manhattan Project detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the 'Trinity' test. On the same day other notable and connected events occurred with implications for humanity and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).