Pages

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Airbus. Part-One.

From A319 to A380/350.

The story of Airbus is the story about European Union co-operation in building a new family line of commercial aircraft, to compete with the U.S. manufacturer Boeing and this has now been achieved.

The Airbus story began with the A300/310 and from one design all the other aircraft have followed in their varying sizes and options. Initially a civil programme, it has now ventured into military conversions and the design of the A400M, to replace the Lockheed Hercules C-130.

Almost all European partners use one or several of the types that are available with the A320/321 being the most common in medium haul. The A330/340 has seen widespread use world wide and there are many versions available 100-600.

The smaller versions are now being converted to neo, which is that they are driven by bio fuel rather than pure aviation oil. The development of the Super Jumbo A380 has taken the market off the long standing Boeing 747-100/SP-300/400 and 8-market world wide.

Tuesday 17 March 2015

ICBM. Part-Two.

Ticket to Atomic weapons and Space.

Many new nations are now reaching for Space and it has been their own developments of the old Soviet Scud missiles, which is turn were a development of the Nazi-German V-2 rocket. 

Iran is developing its own nuclear industry and a overshot of that is the probability of a nuclear bomb, which is worrying to the Persian Gulf nations.

You need power to get just into Space, and more power to stay up there or move on to the Moon and the other planets. 

The technology has not changed much since 1957 in the basics of rocketry, the flight control systems may be advanced in computers and in sample gathering robotics and digital photography

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Trinity House Tenders,

Mair, Galatea, Patricia.

There are a number of ships that visit the Port of Swansea here in Wales on regular bases, most are involved in the repair of light markers buoys around the coasts of the Bristol Channel and the Celtic Sea. 

But some them also specialise in sea surveying and undersea seismic recording, the newer vessels such as the Pharos and Granuila have a all round bridge and are fitted with more powerful cranes.

Lights at sea still remain an essential aids to shipping warning of lower water and sand bars, despite GPS. Trinity house covers both the waters of Britain and Ireland very much like that of the RNLI.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Retrun of the Trams.

The three U.K. Types.

The need for the tram has returned to the United Kingdom, not for love of them but rather for their vital need in inner city urban fast transport. Great Britain was the origins of the trams from Swansea in Wales to Yorkshire to Blackpool. From horse drawn to their hey day in electrification.

The first trams suffered from two problems one they were hard to turn and two if the line was blocked end of the journey. Today priority has been granted to the three types in operation across the U.K with more being planned for Scotland and Wales.

Bombardier M5000 Flexity-2 Swift working Manchester, these 70 seats have a speed of 43 mph.  These are one of three different types in service. The Sheffield Super Tram and more than six new type Stadler trams for the Croydon area network in south-London.

Not all areas have been mentioned, but hope to follow on looking at each type. The DLR, Newcastle Metro and Glasgow tube will be dealt with in separate articles, as some already have been.