Shipping.

 Greatest developments so Far!

Shipping is now slowly moving from electro-diesel to all electric power, with more ease than expected, Norway, and South-Korea are leading the way from island ferries to container shipping. It is kind of ironic that a crude oil tanker be powered by an electric engine?

Governments are desperate to cut the elusive carbon emissions, but this is a world political choice that all are following at this time and so much is seemingly appearing to be done, while it is not known how much carbon is burned every time a rocket is launched into Space?

Icebreakers, military warships and submarines continue to be built and powered along with aircraft carriers by nuclear engines, which produce steam to drive conventional engines that remain semi-Diesel and no changes are being planned for the rest of the fleet smaller vessels?

Suez Canal?

 Shipping Limitations!

We have a new problem developing with these new super sized container ships in that of weight, once three to four vessels were required to carry this amount of containers but no more?

The Suez canal is over crowded and despite being widened it is still not enough, with plans for another to be built, to make a two way lanes this option will improve safety and increase speed! 

With ships now only getting bigger, many of the current canals may not be able to take them. unless they are enlarged?

New designs for shipping will have to be produced, as well as better training for the crews to deal with navigation?

Cruise liners hive for Germs?

The allure of the Seas, Rivers, Lakes, Canals?

Many people enjoy that luxury cruise a once in a life time experience or an addiction to the life style?

What many people do not realise is that many of these boats have a quick turnaround of passengers or clients and despite the best efforts of the underpaid cheap labour crews to clean not all is and so the possibility of cross-infections are high!

The companies will probably be in uproar with me saying this but I know the truth, since many members of my own family have worked on shipping around the world and some of them are truly unbelievably filthy, even at the best of times!

After this SARS COV-2/COVID-19 business is over, the world will have to be a different place and separation of people will be something of an issue? Since no vaccine or cure has yet been found and this may linger for another year with what ever else is going on, a mutation of this germ is highly possible and those smoking or who have underlaying issues such as addictions to narcotics, alcohol and lung infections could or will die!

Electric Power!

Already Operational?

The electric engine is now well into progression to begin the replacement of the Diesel which has been very faithful both in locomotion and shipping and this is were some of the first replacements are being built, designed and are operational!

The world of Aviation is also seeing many new aircraft concepts and a great desire to have something up and running in the near future? Many experimental aircraft are on the cards, but this remains a limited to civil aviation while the military are still burning fossil fuels in both aircraft and helicopter fleets!

The automobile has also taken off from hybrid vehicles to battery and full electric and because bus and delivery fleets are coming into service, many ordinary folk want their own! It is not known yet how much all of this is reducing carbon emissions in towns and cities, since many young people and children are still dying from chronic respiratory failures from breathing in carbon monoxide?

Happy New Year to one and All!!

Fires at Sea!

Crimea and Sea of Azov!

Accidents will happen at sea, when dangerous processes such as refuelling take place as in this case! We have heard about it because of the disputed waters and the loss of life, but generally something similar happens everyday around the globe and we hear nothing about the tragedies?

Merchant shipping is a more dangerous world that it ever has been in the age of metal ships, prior the wooded vessels were attacked in various piracy incidents. Refuelling and moving cargo such as explosives, along with chemicals and gas are the most dangerous?

We can try to make safety an issue, but we humans are in the habit of making mistakes! We can say oh the Russians were drunk, the Irish are thick and so on, while the English are some of the most arrogant in the world when it comes to safety issues!!!!!

Happy New Year 2019!

Britain takes a lead in Electric Aircraft?

It would seem that the world is in a rush now to develop the electric engine in aviation and we here in the U.K. are making some leaps and bounds of our own? Norway, Poland, Israel and the U.S. have several of their own projects that we are hearing mush about, but so far they are limited in their viability!

Battery power has been around since the 19th Century, despite advances in Solar power cells and their adaption, the battery still remains the same in power outage and range! Space will perhaps help us replace the diesel engine, which has turned out to be more polluting than was once thought?

Yet about 85% of the worlds power is based on this engine alone, trains, trucks, farm machinery, construction and shipping! The task may look daunting but once electric engines are built on an industrial scale perhaps the world will be a cleaner place? 

The Conventional?

Stuck with Now!

What we have today in technology, engineering and transport will still remain around for some time yet? Teething is always a problem with new technology, it works fine until its out trying to what is demanded of it?

Recently the U.K. has suffered from a railway cock-up failure which has not as yet fully resolved itself, yet shipping, aviation and vehicles all over the years have suffered a similar fate with breakdown, crack failures and engine problems!

Movement is big bucks today, ships provide coal, ores and grain along with chemicals, fertiliser and when things are late windows are missed and monies are lost? Many people do not understand that we cannot sow crops anytime of the year, steel has to keep rolling in the supply of sheet materials for car plants, timed foods!

Aviation is not just about moving people from A to B/Z, its also the military and specialised cargo from live produce to, flowers, horses and mail, packets that also share some of our aircraft! New Tech is promised and it will gradually come in the shape of machines may not radically change mush, but the way they are powered will!

Norways Determination?

To be all electric Soon!

One nation is now so determined to go all electric within the next few years, will be the worlds first! It has started with a Lithium powered light aircraft and believes that within less than ten years world aviation will be on the brink of this new revolution?

This is not actually any longer far fetched since most vehicles can be converted, small shipping is in the progress and soon Diesel is to be defunct, so all other fossil fuels may be cut back seriously?

One has to wonder will there be any side effects of electricity such as static and other problems, that some people say that they suffer from living near overhead power lines? Will nature be effected by the vibration and static from electricity in our machines, such as shipping and aviation?

Component Suppliers.

Cannot do Without?

Technology and engineering rely on the supply of components from about nine groups or nations around the world to keep everything working, the U.S.A., Europe, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, India, Brazil, Israel, Japan and the Republic of South-Africa.

All supply what could be termed common components, but in many cases in their own right they are individual! Trains, automobiles, tanks, shipping, Space and aircraft are now not usually built or constructed in one place?

Some are moved or have to wait for other parts, many networks, airlines and road transport are owned by several companies, shareholders and nations?

Chip technology is a world-wide product being made for many nations and manufacturers from Israel, S-Korea and Japan! While India, China, Russia and the U.S.A. have developed their own systems in computing their is still breech of licence and copyright issues in many cases?

The Super Tanker!

Vulnerability at Sea?

This week we are seeing the results of an accident off Shanghai involving a Iranian Super Tanker carrying an extremely flammable fuel and a Chinese cargo ship! This incident occurred one-hundred and sixty miles from the Chinese coastline, but as yet the cost of the ecological damage is unknown?

Bulk carriers, container ships and Super tankers are now some of the largest vessels at sea, they are followed by the Aircraft carriers of the worlds powers and the giant cruise liners. All of them create hazards in the worlds shipping lanes because of their huge size, and the length it takes them to slow down!

The world has many busy straights, where shipping moves along in various lanes such as traffic on a motorway. They may be miles apart, but bad weather and trying to avoid or time other smaller vessels crossing your lane will from time to time be missed and a collision is likely?

There is no real way of controlling individuals who choose to flout the laws of the seas, monitoring unfortunately is becoming more electronic and less visual with the closing down of various Coast-guard stations and lighthouses/ships!

Happy New Year?

New Technology!

2017 Promises the demise of the faithful and cheaper Diesel engine in automobiles, because it seems to be the cause of Global Warming and carbon monoxide poising in our urban environments? NASA claims that the new electro engine will replace the jet engine in all aspects when it is introduces (No dates given)?

There is much debate about the digital age entering every aspect of our lives from the Amazon Echo Dot to automated driving and the first robots for domestic service? But Amazon has been caught out by its Echo Dot, after it recorded a murder in the U.S. This has put off sales of the device, because of its eves dropping ability and that instead of storing information within its self, the data goes to a central computer the United States for analysis and processing!

It will be design that will again shape visually what we see in the machine world, from vehicles to trains, aircraft and shipping. It is unclear at this time why China has dropped its mass transit 300 seat mover, perhaps the need to turn a corner may be one of many factors as well as the cost and limited sales potential?

Construction and farming machinery are being revolutionised by cutting the need for less human activity. One man operation covering a whole host of tasks, instead of having several different machines for each one?

Speed remains the target market in the luxury car and motor-bike world, but it is China who have developed the fold-away electric bike as seen in the recent Guy Martin in China programme!

The new U.S. Administration is promising not only a new arms industry race, but new exploration and development in Space? Reaching for the stars to mine the Asteroid belt is also now back on the cards?

Much of what we take for granted in our homes today from gadgets to medicine, were developed in space over the last twenty years or so!

Fire Engines. Part-Three.

Aviation and at Sea.

Every airport across the world has employed specialist fire engines to deal with burning aviation fuel. We generally see this as foam being sprayed from powerful jets, it from years of gathered experience that this method has become a standard. 

Meanwhile fires at sea are extremely dangerous and can be fatal on most types of shipping, if they are not brought under control very quickly. It is the good old faithful Tugboat that has become the mainstay of the sea fire man. These vessels handle much more than towing and assisting shipping, they are fitted with extremely powerful jets and carry large tanks of sea water, than can be continually refilled.

Both in aviation and sea fire, much was learned from the Battle of Britain and the bombing by Nazi-Germany's Luftwaffe of the Port of London docks during World-War-II (1939-45). Tugboat on the river Thames were the most vital piece of sophisticated equipment at the time in fire fighting.

Solar Powered Flight.

Not the first to Try.

This solar powered aircraft that is attempting a world flight record is far from the first, in fact there have been longer distance flights made between A and B/Z in the past. These aircraft failed to attract the publicity that this one has got, for various reasons that are not worth going into.

Some commercial airlines have added solar power cells to the roofs of aircraft to charge batteries with some success, but nothing more has happened since. Now that Australia has fashioned the first commercial possibility of a car for mass production I suppose an aircraft is the next target.

Japan was for a time the leader in solar powered said technology on general shipping and perhaps this stop over has really some connection with that factor?

'Under Water. Part-Two.

World War-11 (1939-45)

It was during these six years of war that the submarine came into its real value as a weapon, with the Nazi-German navy in the early years being a menace to Allied shipping. The Wolf packs were very successful, until the German Enigma code and Sonar was broken and invented.

These submarines remained cramped to live and operate in, but they could stay underwater for longer and were faster. In fact only after world war-II was it discovered how much of a 'Coffins were the U-Boats.

It takes a certain type of person to be a submariner, the confined and underwater life would mark out men and woman to this present day. Because the submarine now is more about going deeper and not being seen at all.

Dredgers.

Sand and Mud.

Modern shipping cannot operate effectively without the deployment of ships that can remove sand and mud bars from river mouths and estuaries. Ships are getting bigger and heavier, they also are some times much larger under the water and now are more likely to scrape their hulls.

The dredging companies are usually under licences to clear and sell sand for commercial uses, where as mud is redeposited to other deep area of water.

Sand and mud flats are created by the under water currents and built up deposits from rain and flooding in rivers. I have filmed quite a number of boats that visit the Port of Swansea and work around the Bristol Channel ports. Arga Bay, Sand Heron/Harrier, Welsh Piper and Arco Dart.