Aircraft Carriers. Part-One.

Today there are a number of countries who still use these types of vessels, the U.S.A, UK, France, Brazil, Spain, India, Australia and they seem to be an effective platform for military and humanitarian operations. 

But are they still really viable with the development of more sophisticated kinds of warfare?

It was the British who developed the first carriers, basically ships with a flight deck and a control tower built around the funnel. Today it is the U.S. that leads the world with these powerful islands at sea.

V/STOL Jets.

The history of the V/STOL (Vertical take-off and short take-off landing) Jets began in the 1950's in the UK, with the secret Pegasus project. By the 1960's British aviation company Hawker-Siddley had developed the engine and were working on an aircraft, which would later be known as the Harrier jump jet.

The British developed two versions of the Harrier, a ground attack and a navel version, known as the Sea Harrier. These top gun aircraft were exported to Italy, Spain and India, while the U.S. were permitted to build their own versions initially under license. AV-I/II Advanced Harriers.

Many new techniques were developed for the naval versions, first by the British and then the Americans. One being a ramp, which was fitted on to aircraft carriers and allowed the jets to produce a rolled take-off, cheaper on fuel. Spain and Italy built smaller pocket sized carriers dedicated to V/STOL jets and helicopters, such as the Spanish Matador class ships.

Soviet Russia had to get in on the act too and they developed the Yakolev Yak-36, which was more of a rolling take-off, rather than vertical type (R/STOL). This aircraft was believed not as stable as the Harriers, but the Russians developed it into the Yak-38 and later on to the perhaps still secret Yak-41/141 supersonic jet. Soviet aircraft were naval deployed and the Soviets had to then dedicate themselves to building their first aircraft carrier.

Soviet Russia is believed to have exported a small number to India, India is the only nation to have both western and Russian types in service.

The British Harriers saw their first combat experience in the Falklands war of 1981 with Argentina, over the (Malvina's islands). Since then the U.S. have developed super versions of their AV-series, the F-35 and F-22.

Mobile homes.

Also known as camper vans. 

There are two roads to how these vehicles came about.

1. Travelling communities across the world, Circus's, Showmen, (Fun Fairs/Fairground attractions), moved from their horse drawn waggon's and houses to the steam engines and then on to the motorised versions.

2. The 1920's saw the rise in Caravaning craze in the UK and after World-War-II (1939-45), the Camper van came in to an easy tourer. 

In the 1960's the German Volks Wagen VW camper was associated with the 'Hippie movement and Woodstock'.

It became the iconic vehicle of young people travelling around and it remains so to this day in Europe anyway.

 

Today there are quite a varied selection of vehicles on the market. In the U.S. the Winnebago is probably the largest mobile home. Many people have over the years converted trucks and buses, coaches to live in.

ISS.

(International Space Station).

Today the world has the ISS a space station with many space partners. Predominately the U.S., Europe (ESA), Russia, Japan. We can observe this object very easily from earth and millions of people look at it each night as it flies over some part of our planet.

The craft is the largest object yet put into space by humanity, but its roots came out of the cold war period space race between the former Soviet Union and the United states of America. Leaving aside that race we just want to concentrate on the history of space stations and it was the Russians who first launched a series of Soyuz ships. They were small and cramped, but the Russians started to build up manned flight hours from them. Even after they did not achieve the moon landings, they continued on with this plan.

The U.S. launched their Space Lab, but the U.S. did not seem to move on from there for some time. Eventually they had a link up between a Soyuz and the Skylab. The Russians moved on to develop a much bigger Soyuz, known as the Mir. This was technically the end for the Russians in space station building.

The ISS now replaces both previous systems, which were probably used for spying on each other. This new platform has improved on both countries technologies and has become a laboratory for various scientific experimentation and discovery.