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Examines the Breitling Orbiter 3, the balloon that, under the direction of its pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, circumnavigated the globe in March, 1999. Specifications of the balloon; History of ballooning efforts; Dangers of circumnavigation in a vessel that uses the unpredictable jet stream for propulsion; Political issues of flying across borders; Predictions for future competitions.

Reports on the geosynchronous satellite launches that are being made by Arianespace off the coast of Kourou in French Guiana. Percentage of the market that Arianespace controls as of July 1999; Why it is cheaper to launch commercial payloads from Kourou than Cape Canaveral, Florida; Problems with Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5.

The article reports on technologies for detecting wind, ice, thunder and even turbulence that are diminishing the hazards of flying. The modern commercial airliner is a symbol of sleek modernity, an emblem of our success in conquering the elements. Yet few commonplace human endeavors place people so thoroughly at the mercy of nature quite like aviation does. Weather helps lead to flight delays and wreaks unexpected havoc with the hub-and-spoke system, which flies travelers into a central port to change planes.

This article focuses on the development of equipment to keep astronauts clean while on space missions. As a systems manager for flight crew equipment at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Stephanie Walker remains keenly aware of the limitations of life in space. We can send a human to the moon, but we cannot ensure that astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) stay fresh for their six-month missions. Future manned flights will demand extended togetherness: a round-trip to Mars should last at least 18 months. Higher-tech hygiene might be possible. NASA astronauts have tried two T-shirts woven with silver thread. The metal inhibits bacterial growth. Last year NASA began testing silverlaced bedsheets, blankets and other items in its Aquarius underwater habitat, off the Florida coast.

The article looks at ways to reduce the noise of sonic booms from fast lying aircraft. Aeronautical engineers at Edwards Airforce base say that although they haven't busted the sonic boom, at least they've taken a swing at muffling it. The boom from a straight-flying craft is actually two booms in one. A supersonic jet forms a shock wave at its nose, which claps back together after its tail. This pressure suddenly spikes a couple of pounds per square foot over ambient atmospheric pressure, then shoots below ambient by about an equal amount, spiking again before returning to ambient pressure. We cannot change the energy of the aircraft flying through the air," says Edward A. Haering, the Dryden Research Center's Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration (SSBD) principal investigator, "But we can redistribute it to decrease the pressure changes." It might be possible to quiet the boom without modifying the aircraft. Manufacturers could be ready to unveil quieter supersonic jets within the next 10 years.

Discusses the use of composites in airplane design. Mention of the crash of Flight 587 in New York City. Strength of composites, as compared with metal; Role of the United States National Transportation Safety Board in investigation of airplane crashes; Methods of nondestructive evaluation of composites, including ultrasound. INSET: MAKING DO WITH COMPOSITES.

Reports on a training program developed by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration to train astronauts. Role of Andrew Thomas in the development of the program, which consists of camping at Cold Lake in Alberta; Benefits of the program. INSET: A FEW COLD FACTS.

Reports on the development of a super-jumbo jet being built by Airbus Industrie. Description of the jet, A3XX, including the possible number of passengers and costs for the development; Discussion of the engineering challenges faced in building the passenger airliner which include fitting it within current airport infrastructure; Observations of financial gains associated with the aircraft market for 500-seat aircraft. INSET: Sonic Bust.

Reports on the introduction of FutureFlightCentral, a 360-degree virtual-reality air-traffic control tower that can be programed to run takeoffs and landings. Desire for the technology at San Francisco International Airport, which is too small to allow for parallel approaches; Ability to test the incorporation of structures, runways, or new airlines with the existing infrastructure.

Reports on an air traffic monitoring system which may replace the existing Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in the United States. Problems with the TCAS; Benefits of the replacement, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B); Possible effects on 'Free Flight' and air efficiency.

States that a breakthrough in the understanding of insect flight and funding by the United States Department of Defense have inched mechanical insects closer to reality. Mention of the large, slow-motion insect model built in 1994 by zoologist Charles Ellington et al; The program that began as a result of Ellington's research; Details about model insects.

Reports on tools being built for use by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration in order to construct the International Space Station. Use of the English system rather than the metric system in the international project; Basic parts of the astronauts' tool belts; Devices to prevent losing tools in orbit; Items lost in the December 1998 mission; Question of whether there could be an earthly market for some of the station's tools.

Focuses on aircrafts made of composite materials. Accidents involving composite aircrafts; Difference between aluminum and composites; Environmental factors that can change the composite's properties; Estimation of the remaining strength and life of composite materials by the use of the MRLife, a performance simulation code developed by Ken Reifsnider.

Reports on new attention to space debris by the space exploration community. The oldest known hunk of junk which is the Vanguard 1, launched by the United States in 1958; How in the forty-six years since then, the number of known orbital objects 10 centimeters wide or more has grown to nearly 11,000 with only a few hundred of them being operational satellites; Ideas from NASA on how to deal with the floating debris; Suggestion of ground-based laser to deflect it out of a spaceship's path; Design of a passive system or shielding; How the space station has hundreds of custom made shields to protect it; How the space station has to be moved in its orbit to avoid big piece of debris; Finding that not all pieces can be avoided or protected against. Some of the events which left debris in orbit. INSET: NEED TO KNOW: TRASHING SPACE.

The article discusses the role of blimps as forms of airborne surveillance. U.S. Navy engineers have equipped an airship with a system known as LASH, or Littoral Airborne Sensor Hyperspectral. LASH, developed by Science and Technology International in Honolulu, is essentially a camera that feeds the light pattern--usually in the infrared or ultraviolet range--into an onboard computer. The computer differentiates wavelengths and produces an image showing a real-time picture with enhanced color variations. In tests, it tracked whales swimming in a shipping lane 50 feet below the ocean's surface and detected grasshopper infestation in crops. LASH technology could prove beneficial in hospitals. The camera can detect cancer cells by looking for their minute light variations as compared with surrounding tissue; the system is undergoing Phase ii testing for use in detecting cervical cancer.

World War II footage has that familiar black-and-white scene: a heavily damaged war bird lands out of control on the stern of a straight-deck carrier and crashes into a steel cable net, which prevents it from ramming into aircraft waiting to take off. Volunteer firefighter Matthew Gelfand was watching one such documentary in 1993 when a lightbulb went on above his head. He had heard about an accident in which a car struck a train, then another vehicle whizzed past the crossing and hit a firefighter. The result is GRAB, for ground retractable automobile barrier. Essentially, it is a tennis net made from Kevlar strips, with two metal stanchions on either side. Remote sensors or a manual push button shoots the net up from a two-inch-wide recess in the ground in as little as three seconds. As the vehicle hits the net, the energy is absorbed by pistons in the stanchions and the net--not unlike the barriers on the WWII aircraft carriers, whose nets had cables that folded down onto the deck and were connected to energy-absorbing stanchions. Gelfand, who received $650,000 from the state of New York to develop GRAB through his new company, Universal Safety Response, envisions the system installed not only on railroad crossings but also at tunnels, bridges and security gates on government buildings.

Reports on the development of Nomad, a retinal scanning device that can beam words and images into a viewer's eye. Interest of the United States military in the device; Description of the design and features of Nomad; Tests of the product which were conducted by Microvision; Possible uses for the device.

Reports on the development of Robonaut, an android being designed by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Idea of maintenance robots; Plan of NASA to use Robonaut for missions to the International Space Station; How the Space Station would require astronauts to spend more time in space as the station progresses in development; Hope that Robonaut would cut down on the time spent by astronauts in space. INSET: ROBONAUT'S VITAL STATISTICS.

Comments on the development of radar systems to prevent accidents on airplane runways. United States Federal Aviation Administration's development of a system that detects an object and calculates its intended path for air-traffic controllers; Opinion that relying on human controllers for action is too passive a strategy for such events; Development of the Runway Incursion Prevention System (RIPS) by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Reports on the development of Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) planes that use engine thrust as a means of steering. Percentage of crashes caused by loss of flight controls; Airplanes controlled digitally as opposed to manually; Testing of the Intelligent Flight Controller; Dilemma of whether to spend money on PCA equipment or on training for pilots.

Discusses the problem that birds pose to aircraft and ways that researchers have developed to help eliminate the risk. Examples of aircraft accidents that birds have caused; Why bird strikes were rare before the 1970s; Work by Jim Genova of Defense Research Associates to shoo birds away.