On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:35:11 -0700, Bob Fry
wrote in :

A tip-of-the-hat to the Europeans, who, along with the Asians, and the
Indians, and even some South American countries, are pulling ahead of
the Americans in any number of technology areas. But we've got
faith-based democracy! And a stay-the-course presidency. Yay.



Bowing partnered with a group in Spain:

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers...ust/i_atw.html
Imagine an aviation technology that one day will be so
energy-efficient and environmentally preferred that it will
revolutionize the commercial airplane industry's use of fuel. If
the Boeing Research and Technology Center in Madrid, Spain, has
its way, this future won't be so far off.

The center's first major project is one designed to both develop
and flight-test a fuel cell-powered electric demonstrator
airplane. Recently, the Center—which opened in July 2002—announced
both the project and its industry partners. The Fuel Cell
Demonstrator airplane is scheduled to make its first flight in
late 2004 or early 2005.

Boeing Phantom Works, the advanced research and development unit
of the company, operates the R&T Center.



Here's the futu


http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/...ionengine.html
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/...r_030414s.html
EDD will lead a team in the development of advanced Carbon-Based
Ion Optics, or CBIO. These are the critical components of
high-power gridded xenon ion thrusters that have a traditionally
limited lifetime. A two-phase effort, the first phase entails a
16-month effort to design, fabricate and test ion optics made from
carbon-carbon composites and pyrolytic graphite. The CBIO project
also includes the development and validation of an Ion Optics
Lifetime Computer Model to predict the performance and lifetime of
candidate grid designs.

The second phase is a 12 1/2-month extension period to develop and
test carbon based ion optics designs for possible use on the next
generation ion engine. EDD is teamed with the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) and NASA Glenn Research Center on the CBIO
Project.