Air Shows Cancelled 2020!

Freighter Aviation Continues?

Bums on seats one would think makes the airline industry work, but it actually the cargo in the holds of most commercial aircraft that make the income!

There are many older aircraft by tradition in the aviation industry for freight, but now many new types such as the Boeing 777 are filling that role too. 

Most of the Amazon parcels come from the United States through FedEx and business post through UPS and DHL, but their are equally as many lesser known companies moving pharmaceuticals, military hardware and prisoners from A to B/Z by Kalitta, Wamos and various other Boeing 747 Jumbo's?

We will have to see how far things are going to develop with this COVID-19 virus, to see if air freight will be curtailed? 

One thinks not since China is now recovering well and they will have a monopoly over the Pacific region, airlines such as Cathy and EVA-Evergreen will hold their ground with Japanese ANA Cargo and S-Korean Cargo.

I think all air shows across Europe have been called off and many trade fares also since the shaky response to the recent Singapore show, were sales were fine but not much human life was seen?

Italian deployments for COVID-19.

IVECO .

At this time most of us across the globe cannot escape the serious requirement to stay indoors because of this virulent virus that is spreading and worsening as it has in both China and now Italy?

It is noted with the deployment of the army to maintain a lockdown some vehicles deployed came from the Iveco range, Trakker At190T, LMV (2) Light, the MUV utility M40.is Torpedo and the WNS Ambulance version.

These type are the basis of a paramilitary support to the Police and are the versatile end of a successful range of good quality military hardware!

We tend to only know Iveco for limited number of heavy goods vehicles in which they are employed in the building industry, but Italy has its own manufacturing base for many important types and their own equivalents the Jeep?

Uranus and Neptunian Discoveries?

139 Plutonian objects and regular space telescope Observations!

The Ort cloud has revealed a group of six hundred objects beyond Neptune of which 139 may be Pluto sized planets and amongst them may be that elusive dark planet nine that astronomy is gathering pace to discover?

The distances of these objects are now estimated to be up to eight times the distance of Earth from the Sun, Pluto to the fringes of the Ort cloud and it is not clear if it was New Horizons that has gathered this data or a Space telescope observations that have tracked unidentified objects only to discover that there are many more planets in our Solar system than ever thought?

The latest Space telescope is to be used on a regular basis for more observations of both the cold gas giants Uranus and Neptune, which are now revealing perhaps more of their secrets and that they are not inactive far our worlds than we have thought for over forty-seven years?

Wither another New Horizons probe is sent to Pluto is hard to know, but eventually something will be sent maybe from the Martian colony when it is established in the next fifty years or so? 

Meanwhile NASA has revealed that the proposed Gateway Lunar station is now not required for the Artemis programme but a smaller station will provide emergency backup!

Helicopters 75 Years! Part-Two.

U.S. Catching up to the Russian Kamov KA-52 Alligator?

It is only now that the U.S. is finding a place for the Russian Alligator helicopter concept, which is the fastest in the world!

The idea of the helicopter gunship has been around from the 1960's and there early deployment in the Vietnam war, machines such as the Cobra are well established, while Europe developed the Tiger and the U.S. upgraded to the Sikorsky AH-64 Apache. 

Many other countries have just put rocket pods and machine guns on helicopters with a crew of two and use them in a similar role, but these are not dedicated machines for ground support combat and anti-tank or MBT-Killers?

Meanwhile the Soviets lead the way initially in the development of the Mil Mi-24/35 combination special forces and gunship, nothing like it has yet been attempted and sales of it continue to flourish world-wide.

But the Kamov design team cam up with the first jet powered helicopter in the late 1990's and the west did everything to knock it down boasting that the faulty British Lynx was far superior, now demised while down on the south pole the Kamov KA-32/34 transport helicopters are an essential tool to cope with the coldest weather conditions on the planet.

Various new concepts are coming to the fore in the U.S. and many drone versions too, since this is now being seen as another invaluable tool in warfare and many civil adaptions in the years to come?

Oil extraction and Drill-Ships!

SERTAO?

Port Talbot S-Wales to Falmouth, Cornwall, SW-Great Britain and now to a new buyer, after spending over a year being impounded for debts from a Brazilian exploration company!

The U.S President says that he likes oil and he is not alone, despite what we may think of Greta Thunberg and her campaign to end the use of fossil fuels it does not seem to be giving the drillers and consortiums a guilty conscience?

Africa is the new prospect for the black gold and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire is where this rich harvest of crude is to be found! It is also time for the African nations to become rich that all goes with the oil industry and some Europeans might find that worrying for one reason or another?

White dominated exploitation is the traditional idea of the African and this is true from 1500 and the first European conquests by the Portugese and human slavery that eventually lead to the division of Africa and the gold/diamond mining that made South-Africa what it is today. 

Drilling at sea for both oil and gas is continuing world wide, closer to home is perhaps happening fifty-five miles NW of Belmullet in Co. Mayo Republic of Ireland!