Chinese aviation Markets!

 Competition to the United States?

China has developed some serious commercial jets that are cheaper than the sophistication of what the U.S. has for the world and they will take the market off Boeing in SE-Asia and Africa as the next few years go on with ridiculous tariffs!

The C909/919 could sweep away the European Airbus A320 as much as the Boeing 737-8/900 and MAX derivatives and be a comparison to the Brazillian Embraer E-Jets!

What will be the game changer is the MC-21 being built and used between China and Russia to replace their aging fleets and other new Russian types such as the Ilyushin 114 and Sukhoi super jet-200, Tupolev Tu-214/244 and a few others that need nothing from Europe or the U.S.

PAC-750!

 A New Zealand Wonder?

The development of this aircraft has opened the aviation market up to this southern nation and now the type originally for New Zealand and Papua New-Guinea is operating also in Australia and Israel.

With a crew of two and nine passengers it has multiple roles, but in the parachute version it can cram seventeen people in and for other operations, it has a STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) capability making it very versatile?

There are at least two versions developed over the past twenty years the latter being up rated and able to handle in a better way than before, but both types are equally good aircraft and have both military and civilian usage and may the type continue perhaps with a two engine capability?

Specialist Shipping!

 Leading the way with electric powered.

Up-Lifters and other vessels of the same types are now leading the way with electric power, but with the end of the COP, it would imply that there is no rush to move from fossil fuels to green, as the host of the conference claimed that he had not yet seen any scientific documentation to prove that global warming had anything to do with the warming up of the Earth?

The race is on now between shipping and aviation and at every turn there is something new in technology from carbon wings to new metals improving solar energy and other and some nations seem to be committed, many remain confused as to what is really going on?

The developing world wants to burn fossil fuels to be on a par with the first world, they want to make their way to our level and perhaps when we are all equal then the serious work of saving our planet will begin and perhaps by then we will have no choice?

Aviation Changing?

 Despite the dreaded COVID!

Aircraft with no windows and head up displays look like a new future, but will the public go with it and why do we need it anyway?

Both Boeing and Airbus seem determined to go this way in their new project aircraft that will replace many current designs operating now! But not all companies are doing this but will rather stay with the conventional concepts?

One reason maybe to do with the more delta wing concepts of the electric engine powered aircraft, if they ever become a reality? 

KLM is leading the way with a one-third mock up that can fly of this new aerodynamic design, but the U.S. is working on a new supersonic project and other nations are trying to develop semi space flight aircraft more for commercial flying than the current projects for space tourism!

Replacing the Land Rover Defender?

The Grenadier?

It was hoped that this would be a newer version of the successful Defender, but the Germans have produced their own newer version, leaving this new venture of the Grenadier possibly in the doldrums?

There are always problems with trying to keep a good thing going, corporations want to mass produce, because that has been the way over the last one hundred years since the Ford Model T?

Many have tried with aviation and other armaments only to find that the existing owners have done their own new design and have undermined these new upstarts?

Wither is will now go-ahead is not known and what success it might have is also not known, despite there being a demand perhaps more so for existing parts to keep the series going amongst the collectors and enthuseasts?

ENGINES?

Powering Aviation!

Most of the worlds aircraft flying since 1960 have been powered by only a few types, or copies of engine plants! In the west Pratt & Witney, Rolls-Royce. General-Electric and Lycoming are the most numerous for both civil and military.

Russia and China have only a few too, until recent new developments, while France and a few nations did their own thing. Today with more aircraft than ever the western engine giants are still holding their ground with the Russian and European competition?

Much more choices are available today that ever before when it comes to aircraft and capabilities, fuel efficiency with the electric engine now coming online! But these new developments, despite being available still have to go through much testing before we will see them in everyday use?

Boeing 737-MAX

Grounded across the globe since Sundays Ethiopian Losses!

One has to wonder why Boeing did not stop the flights of this aircraft, when they knew it was a having technical problems with its computers?

Perhaps one reason is just shear greed and ignorance, that if you sweep it under the carpet it will eventually go away!

Today Britain has stopped over flights of this type, joining China, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Ethiopia, Mexico, Indonesia, Fiji, S-Korea, Thailand, and one U.S. airline, while Canada is considering!

The 737-series has become the worlds workhorse in aviation and is the most common transport aircraft since the 1970's. Only Airbus is now catching up with it A318/9/20/21 types and others airlines have opted for the Embraer series!

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?

Transport in Africa. Part-One.

Changing Continent?

Not much is thought about the continent of Africa, when it comes to transport it all seems backward? But this is far from the truth, in fact it is seeing some of the latest technology being tested before we might get it?

Republic South-Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Botswana are fast growing economies with the technology and industry to back them up and they are aiming higher than Europe in some areas? Solar power, Aviation, mechanical engineering, mining and automobiles as well as Space flight are on the cards for them to pursue in the next one-hundred years!

What is not much known about the continent is that is has a long space-race history with Europeans using facilities in Kenya and Nigeria and that RSA is one of the most advanced nations with an established Locomotive, military, vehicle and aviation industry!

China, Russia and the U.S. along with Europe and the U.K. have had a long history of supplying equipment, but it has been the Africans who have adapted everything to meet their own needs!

What is happening to our Railways?

Commonality of Stock?

The British government claims that by 2020 all old stock and the Diesel fleet will be gone forever, but is this the whole truth or just a claim? One does fear that our railway stock will become so similar as our aviation has in recent years, that all will be so boring and there will be a loss of interest to filming the same trains?

Much is promised as each year their continues to be a hike in the fares, Wi-Fi on all trains, new track and signalling, new card reading machines and improvements of various types? One has to wonder will some of these rail companies end up like Carillion and bankrupt the nation of many promised projects?

Electric battery powered trains will be one future, if they work and so we will have to wait and see? The other interesting thing is that some companies are introducing locomotive hauled trains again, they claim for training purposes but perhaps not all the new stock is really working as well as hoped!

Canadian Bombardier CS100/300. Part-One.

Boeing Lawsuit!

This is the problem that one faces today in the aviation industry and business, that new aircraft types are being penalised by the new U.S. administration if they want to enter the U.S. market? The U.S., China and Russia dominate the world, because of land mass size and difficult environments from cold to hot and mountains to deserts!

The U.S. remains the most busiest air lanes in the world, after Europe and the Far-East, Boeing is perhaps the worlds largest supplier of both civil aircraft to military and its sees Bombardier over the border as serious competition in relation to several of its current models.

The Canadian CS100/300 is a breakthrough for Canada as its first viable Jet airliner, Bombardier is also successful in its business class Jets!. In recent years Swiss Air has seen a potential new market for the Bombardier biz jet in short haul and low seating capacity and the CS100 meets their needs.

Delta Airlines in the U.S. has also seen a gap in the market in relation to seating with the new Canadian jet and this will outdo Boeing in relation to their popular Boeing 737 family, types 600/700/800 and the newer version of the 900/MAX.

Mikoyan-Gurevich. MIG-15. Part-Two.

Extensive Training Aircraft.

Many of the worlds air forces can boast today that it was the Midget (NATO-Codename) that got them where they are. This aircraft saw some twenty years as a front line fighter, before being moved on the roles of counter attack and advanced trainer.

Over eighty-seven countries received the type and it became the basis for Jet aviation production in the Peoples Republic of China, North-Korea, and a few other countries around the globe. The Soviet Union quickly revealed to the west the next generation the MIG-17/19, for a time it was not known if they were the same aircraft?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

N-Korea, Cuba and one or two other countries still may be flying the Midget in both counter attack and advanced training, since there are so many sanctions placed on them?              

Alternative Energy.

Diesel and bio-Fuel.

Most of the machines that are working today around the world are operated by Diesel engines, until recently this was thought to be the best performance fuel over that of petrol?

Many nations want to use alternative energy over that of the fossil fuels of coal, gas and oil, but two factors come to the fore?

One cost and two much of what we have in alternative energy will not power the plethora of machines in existence around the world?

When Diesel invented his first engine it was powered by peanut oil and this has lead to much research into various forms of bio-fuel mixtures, lead by the aviation industry! Cost is the main factor in the production of hybrids other than motor cars and it may be some time before we will get over our new pollution problems?

Electric engines are and can be made across the board in relation to the railways, the main problems is again cost as in the GWR Padding to Swansea plan being cancelled in the U.K. The other is that third rail is susceptible to the weather from slipping leaf fall to frost, ice and snow fall?

New Aircraft Types.

Over Southern-Wales, U.K.

Aviation, shipping and train spotting remain great hobbies for the choice of designs or types to be seen. Many countries have varied types of stock still in active operation for years past their date of service?

But with aircraft there are many new types coming into service or some are already in mainstream service, but are replacing some older types in this region of operations.

When I heard that Irish airlines Aer Lingus was going to purchase two Sukhoi Super Jets, I was not sure if this was a practical joke, but now that they are in service on the Dublin-Cardiff and other routes one awaits the opportunity to film the type.

Meanwhile the Embraer 170/190-5, Airbus A350 and Bombardier 6000 (being used by Swiss Air) is over flying the region. Some older types such as the McDonnel-Douglas MD-11F, Boeing 757 and 767 remain in service.

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.

Design that changed Aviation. Part-One.

The forerunner to the De'Havilland Comet.

The design of anything is very important, that is how a classic is created. Aviation has made bounds and leaps in the last one-hundred and six years, from a bicycle powered glider to the Space Shuttle, from the World War-one bi- and tri-planes to the Lockheed SR-71 and the MIG-25.

Most early aircraft relied on two wings, one located above the other and they all nearly appeared box or cylinder shaped. But in 1934-36 big changes were to occur in the design of civil aviation with the MacRobertson trophy. it asked for a compatible aircraft to the DC-2, which could carry 1000ib of mail,  2500 miles  at high speed. A.E Hagg and Major Frank Halford rose to the occasion and developed the De'Havilland DH 91 Albatross.

This designed body was a pre-World War-II body shell that would be used on the first commercial jet liner some eighteen years later.