Father Christmas not effected by COVID-19!

 What will Christmas Bring in our Socks?

For many children it may mean little or nothing, since poverty in western society is on the rise and one can measure this by the price of rents in the private sector and so called unsocial housing?

But there is a plethora of toys out there and many of us will get something despite the continuing Pandemic?

New announcements in technology will also come to the fore at this time of the year with more emphasis on both electric and gas powered machines, but also the rise of the drone and more effective uses for them from Internet shopping providers to even the postal services?

Drones may initially work well in isolated places, saving delivery and driver times and some may even be deployed from vehicles rather than distribution centers? 

One main problem with drone flights is that they could collide with light aircraft or obstacles such as power lines, transmitters and other communication towers!

Emergency Vehicles Electric!

Conversions to alternatives Underway!

The emergency services are to introduce a new breed of electric vehicles soon, this will be the first service to do so, followed by the Fire and Police? It is hoped that these new vehicles will cut down on emissions and one supposes this change has to start somewhere?

This will be a test run in relation probably to speed and their viability for range between charges! Batteries means more can be done on board maybe before getting to the Accident & Emergency rooms!

Eventually technology will improve and most service vehicles along with the emergency services, buses and trains will start to pay off with the cutting down of carbon monoxide in the air? We still have a long way to go, but at least we are getting there!

Christmas Appraoches!

Where is Rudolph?

It Santa upgrading as the adds for toys claim this year to something more mechanical?

I don't think so, Rudolf  would not be happy with that since all of them operate in the Spiritual realm and have no need of our self-achieving technology!

But on the serious side the sleigh remains and essential piece of kit for travel on the ice, in many polar regions, with both helicopters and aircraft being fitted with them! 

We have progressed from wood to steel and many newer metals to improve stability and speed, the skiing sports industry has helped along with military requirements! Much more has actually been developed in Antarctica than on our more populated North-Pole.

One last word for you boring people out there who don't believe in Santa or Christmas, nothing for you this year????

Hawker Beech King Air B300.

Small is beautiful?

Why at this point in time has the British armed forces opted for the Beech King Air 300 Avenger T.1, when there are so many more capable aircraft on the military market? 

One reason is cost and yet recently it was reported that smaller aircraft fitted with new digital technology will no longer need larger aircraft frames except for fuel and long range!

Many of the existing platforms will probably disappear in the next ten to twenty years if not sooner, perhaps the long awaited Nimrod replacement may meet the same fate?

African Technology. Two.

Licence building and improvisation?

These already exist and they will continue, but their are many lesser known homegrown models of adapted vehicles? While Nigeria, RSA and Kenya have developed their own drones for field reconnaissance work and helicopters play a key role in anti-terrorism, pouching and other criminal activities!

Money remains an issue and many continue to try to do their best with what they have, keeping it flying for as long as possible or buying second hand! China is todays largest supplier of trucks, trains and other equipment and it has so many mining interest that this looks like it will continue for some time yet?

Technology is now all over the continent of Africa, through computing, solar panels and mobile telephones! So it will not be hard to improve avionics on all types of aircraft and helicopters with night-vision and other? Many nations have also developed their own missiles and rockets, but from all this has come some good ideas to improve living standards, transport, road and rail!

Demise of the Boeing 747?

Boeing 747/100/200/SP/300/400 and -8.

The Boing jumbo jet is a sixties baby and was really operational from 1971, it has had a great success world-wide as the first clipper of the skies but is now in demise or is it? It is not clear how many new orders have been placed for either the series 400 or the -8, but the Boeing 777X may be the true replacement since its proceeds a tried and tested 777 class after twenty-four years of service!

Boeing has had stiff competition from Airbus and its A380-800 Super Jumbo, but it to has declined, due to the more popularity of its new Airbus A350-900/1000 XWB extra wide body aircraft. 

Competition is ever on the increase in the aviation world with newer designs and improved technology, many aircraft that are smaller can do the job now of the Jumbos and they are cheaper on fuel consumption? 9/11 terrorism has also played a key factor, but so has Airbus and its popular A330, which is one of the best sized aircraft in the world today?

African Technology. One.

Arms, civilian and Space!

Republic of South-Africa is the leading military industry complex on the continent of Africa and has a well established arms industry in aviation and vehicles as well as small arms! Atlas was responsible for the conversion and adaption of many aircraft and helicopters to meet local conditions and requirements in the long wars in Namibia, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Botswana.

French Mirage jets to an Israeli co-opt development programme, Aloutte-II/III conversions for bush operations. Many trucks and jeeps along with former British armour went under prolonged development to meet the local requirement from ANC resistance to full out war.

Today BAE Systems has an extensive military component in the RSA with a huge range of vehicles on offer.

Kenya and Nigeria meantime have extensive experience in rocketry and the launching of western satellites, which has encouraged them to develop their own ideas about going into space. 

Meanwhile both have also over the years developed their own drones for battlefield operation, perhaps more so Nigeria than any other.

Egypt, Algeria and Ethiopia also have their own successful similar industries and with the advent of more and more computer technology a bright future to move away from small fire arms and artillery?

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!

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!

Commercial Space Flight?

How near is It!

Many like Branson have built and are testing their designs, but as to when will it really be safe to commercially fly into Space is a guess? There are several factors that are holding back inner Earth flight and it has nothing to do with current technology, but rather secret military spy plane missions and low orbiting intelligence satellites!

A collision by one or the other at this time is a very probable reality and the loss of life, would be a long term commercial disaster for Space tourism? So we have a long way to go in relation to getting up there, first the early tests on Space Bots are successful, but not all nations as yet will have access to these new types of Satellites?

Cost is another factor in limiting those who will be able to make this type of flight and it is not clear what emergency measures are in place if something went wrong? These new Space ships as yet do not seem to have a facility for an escape pod or life line in the event of a fire! 

Submarines. Part-Two.

UN Debate on Drone Weaponry?

A great debate is underway in relation to drone military weapons and how they are to be deployed and used in the near future? Concerns are in relation to target identification, can it tell the difference between hostile and non hostile and how will it know when a conflict is over if it was to meet its equivalent on the battle field?

As more and more aircraft become pilotless, so does the submariner drones based in the Midget subs these have similar capability? But it is not known if they are mini-Subs in their own right or just do reconnaissance work?

Despite money still being spent on the development of new classes of submarines, sometimes it is safer for machines to have that human override and the ability to identify friend from foe/ The next fifty years will ultimately see the introduction of more unmanned craft at sea, while armies will have vehicles without humans.

The advantages will be more weapons capability and choice to deploy in war, meaning that space of the design can be utilised to the best of ability? Much of this has arisen because of the Nano technology that one has in ones phone today, and the 'Posnotronic' brain of Science-Fiction will soon be a reality.  

Built into each unit will be advanced sensor's, sonar and so much more, that the mini-sub drone may never return to base in its life time, since it will be able to self repair and be upgraded via military GPS?

Arms Sales!

Big Business?

There has always been money in weapons from the ancient world right up to the present and the future? Many world conflicts were won through by a third party supplying the appropriate weapons system, from daggers to siege engines to ships and cavalry of one type or another?

One must not think that humans in the past were limited to the types of weapons that could be constructed, because wood was the main source of building material many strange devices were invented to get over walls and to fire pitch or rocks at fortified cities! While many ships were well capable of landing an army with horses, but some where also fitted with catapults, copies of their various land equivalents.

Today we have technology based in the invention of electricity, which powers machines to create machines of the various types land, air, sea and now Space. They say that investing in the arms industry always gives a good return, because there is always a demand for more guns, tanks, fighter aircraft and ships, if not missiles of the various types?

There are also many conflicts around the world some that the media is fixated on, while many more we ever hardly ever or never hear about?

Moon base and Mars Mission?

U.S. President DJ Trump Promises?

Within his term the U.S. will reach for the stars again, just like John F. Kennedy did in the 1960's? Then we now know was a hit and miss affair, hopefully this time science will be applied with quality engineering and safety in mind?

Why do humans want to go the stars?

Finding life is one reason the other is the adventure and self-achievement of what we can do? But there is a third reason and that is of mining rare minerals and other new found properties, which will be of great value back here on Earth.

Have we got the technology to send people to a base on the Moon?

Conditions would be similar to the Antarctica snow bases, but oxygen supplies would be an issue on the other hand a Mars mission already tested in Russia on a ground station lead to several of the crew suffering some serious psychological issues.

The answer to Mars is that we will need to get familiar with living on the Moon first, as with the years of the various Space stations up to the International ISS?

HST. 125.

Class 43 British Locomotives.

Please do not get upset, when I refer to these engines by that class. Because with the reclassification we tend to associate 43 as the old Warship engines.

The HST (High speed train) came out of the experimental class of advanced tilt technology and the 125 intercity was Britain's first high speed diesel a successful leap into the future.These were the first steps into the concept of the Channel tunnel trains or Eurostar.

These HST were built by BREL/PAXMAN at Crew works between 1975 to 1982, they are powered by MTU engine of 1565kW, 2250hp at 1500 rpm. Weight was 70.25 ton, with a top speed of 125mph. Continuous traction speed is just over 64 mph.

Since then they have been rebuilt to give them at least another forty years running life and in that process were re-numbered. Officially they are now Class 43/2.

They are much liked and remain a quality high speed train. They also carry many famous name plates and several have been fitted with cameras for work as departmental measuring train.