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Tuesday 26 July 2016

Army Transportation. Part-One.

Unipower Commander.

This has been the replacement to the Thornycroft Antars of the heavey lift transports such as the Challenger Mk-I and II Main Battle Tanks. 

The Unipower started life as a Scammel in concept from 1976, but has changed over to the present with main production starting in 1983, with an order for 125 vehicles.

Two types of Diesel engines are available the Cummins KTA 600 and the Perkins Rolls-Royce CV12.

As time has moved on and Britian being part of N.A.T.O. there is a wider choice of heavey transportation available with civil haulage types such as the Germany Mercedez and Swedish Scania trucks. I think that both of these types where unloading and uploading before and after the Wales National Air Show WNAS16 in Swansea.

Apart from the acceptance and procurement of the German MAN trucks the U.S may be providing some of its Oshkosh MTVR units for the movement of heavy weight requirments of tracked armour and refulling tankers.

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Engineering, Maintenance and Building. Part-one.

Railways need cared For!

Every railroad or way around the world has a dedicated fleet of rolling stock to cater for all engineering types work, from general maintenance to rebuilding sections that are outdated. 

Millions is spent each year on the upgrading of rail track, signals and preventing flooding? Every country has many different situations in realtion to climate from ice and snow to desert!

Much humour is made about wet leaves on the lines in the fall, but to some systems this is serious in relation to wheel slippage. Older trains are more prone to this problem, but it is hoped that the newer types of rail alignment and layout of the track sleepers willin the future not happen again.

Engineering trains were once the speciality of each company or country meeting the local needs or costs, but now that a standard fleet is available such as Bombardiers and Plieser's track machines and they can be exported around the world.

Wednesday 13 July 2016

WNAS16. Part-Two.

Ground vehicles and other Equiptment.

Unfortnutaly this year they were mostly up beyond the War Memorial and I missed quite a few Army vehicles arriving and leaving. 

One can go by what was on show last year, but I saw nothing tracked this time around. Most of the MAN trucks looked like they had to do with the RAF, Royal Engineers and Radio Communications, various Landrovers and a lone fuel tanker.

Many of the vehicles that were seen rushing by, are shown on various films that have been put up in connection to the Queens Royal Hussars Regiment.

The show is a great event for military recruiting and if the Governemnt listens to Prince Harry, we may soon see the re-introduction of compulsary military service or Conscription. Something that will help to cut youth crime across the United Kingdom?

'As many of my older relatives would say, 'It never hurt them and gave them much more than sitting around doing nothing!

Tuesday 5 July 2016

WNAS16. Part-One.

Wales National Air Show 2016.

Thousands came out for this two day event on the Swansea Bay seafront to enjoy a mixture of aircraft types.

New to the show were the North American-Rockwell OV-10 Bronco, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG-15UTI, HM Coast Guard Augusta-Westland AW-139 SAR Helicopter G-CILP and G-CILN, Jet Provost Mk5 and the World War-II (1939-45) American USAAF Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, restored and based at Duxford.

Apart from that everything was about the same, The Red Arrows BAE Hawks T.1, Boeing Vertol Chinook CH-47H, RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, Battle of Britain Hawker Hurricane and Super marine Spitfire, Team Raven (formerly Ospreys), with there Vans RV-4/8's,  two Augusta-Westland AW-159 Wildcats of the Black cats Royal Navy display team. The Auto-Gyro, Gerald Cooper completion flyer in his Xtreme Air Sbach 300  G-IIRI, racing aeroplane, Team Yakovlev with two Yakovlev YAK-18 aircraft and the DHFS AS-350BB ZJ-260 Squirrel from RAF Shawbury.

The HM Coast Guard Augusta-Westland AW-139 SAR helicopters and interacted with the local Mumbles RNLI Lifeboat 16-27 Roy Harvey.

Was it worth it? Yes it was free and good entertainment for two sunny days, after a winter of Bristol Channel murk.

Ground displays were limited, I did not get the chance to film more than a few Army/RAF MAN trucks. There was a funfair and loads of other, with stalls and food.

The Rockwell OV-10 Bronco proved to put on an impressive display, showing off its STOL (Short Take-Off Landing) capabilities and manoeuvrability for its service in the Vietnam war in 1968. This was the first YOV-10A that first flew on 16th July 1965 version, on display of the US Marine Corps and US Navy, but was painted in the colours of the German Air Force.