China cancels all new Boeing Orders!

 Hitting back at U.S. Tariffs?

Boeing itself could soon become history, because of Chinese rejection of new sales, for more European types such as the Airbus A350-900/100 that is now taking over long-haul operations around the world, but it will be loss of sales of the Boeing 737-MAX-8-200 that will knock the U.S. and the Chinese influences on SE-Asia!

Europe can also offer China their new Airbus A321-200NX to compensate the Boeing MAX and other sales from Russia, with joint developments mean no one will need American aviation in the civil market, and for now the U.S. will just have to depend on the military market for its Jets and systems, but for how long?

Iranian Missiles!

 Not a powerful as claimed?

But despite the foiled attack on Israel, Iran has been able to launch its own satellite with a ICBM system and it will be their preferred platform for a nuclear weapon, other wise they have an arsenal of smaller missiles for home defense and gifts to their proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and the Hamas in the Gaza strip, when they can smuggle them in from Egypt!

The range of these missiles has gradually increased since the 1980's to ranges that can hit targets in Israel from Iraq and the Yemen, but they like the shorter ones based in S-Lebanon are not accurate and mostly miss their intended targets, but with time and technology this will change for the worse for Israel and the U.S. in the region?

With the changing scenery in the region, tact may change with more precise targeting of shipping, U.S. bases and Tel-Aviv, if not other in Europe, instead of what we already have seen and apart from International terrorism this will be the cause of havoc, destruction and the loss of a lot of life in the name of 'Allah!

Drones the new terror Weapon!

 Yemen, Ukraine to Lebanon and God forbid Europe?

The use of drones in modern armies has been around for some time and they have improved over the years to be deployed by police and rescue agencies to great effect, but now they are in the hands of terrorists mostly in the Middle-East and one hopes they are confined to these places!

But the reality is they could be adapted and used by anyone and trained terrorists for attacks in the U.K. and Europe, if not anywhere?

It is illegal to fly a drone within miles of an airport of any kind or military installation, power plants and other key sites in the U.K.!

But this will not stop dangerous people trying to use Ukrainian type drones on civilians areas in the and perhaps N-Ireland?

'

Elon Musk!

In trouble over a failed Launch?

Space is still a tricky business we may be able to launch rockets weekly up the International Space Station as well military spying, but from time to time there will be failures since humans are not perfect and make mistakes?

Musk has promised much in relation to taking men back to the Moon after forty years and reaching to Mars, with his new re-usable rockets? But this is still new and untested systems that need to be fine-lined, even the Space Shuttle still had teething problems that NASA failed to address at the cost of precious scientific lives for the prestige!

We are only sixty-one years into the Space race exploration, man has reached Pluto and now beyond! Gone to the Moon and built several Space stations culminating in the ISS! Soviet Russia/Russia and the United States were the first to dominate this race from 1957!

But now other nations have now joined this Space club, China, Japan, Europe, India, Israel and more are coming along such as Brazil, Nigeria and Iran!

'Father Christmas.'

'How does He do It?

Do you know that there is now an app to track the movements of Father Christmas, but I would rather still believe that He will appear and disappear as he always has done every Christmas season. Tradition has added many things to the Saint Nicholas story, of a Greek Monk making gifts for children.

Much of what has become traditional is to do with snowy northern-Europe and the introduction of reindeer pulling a heavy laden sled. In Russia He is known as father frost and many of the tunes associated with him like jingle bells originated there.

When one watches Star trek and similar sci-fi, it is easy to picture some alien ability to move through time and space with immunity. But for many of us back here on earth, we have been told it is a myth because it is an impossibility.

The whole story of Christmas has to do really with the birth of the baby Jesus and the celebrations of His arrival into our world. Father Christmas is really God showing kindness to children who have been good throughout the year and Santa moves in the supernatural, very much like Jesus in his conception and birth, death and resurrection.

Sukhoi 100 v Boeing 737 family.

Small to medium Commercial jet airliners.

Without a fact no one can say 'that Boeing has not had commercial success with its 737-100/900 family over the last forty years. Airbus has over the last 25 years, starting with the A330 done and equality good job in competition and taking the market from the Americans with its ever expanding new smaller jets.

But here we want to look at what Russia, post Soviet Union  is doing to take their own place in the groving competative stance of world aviation industry. The Sukhoi 100/200 is the equivalent to the Boeing 737, which the new Russia has employed in great number to replace its own ageing fleet's. 

This aircraft if successful will fill a needed gap, replacing the out dated and long lived Tupolev TU-134/154. There are many other Russian design bureaus such as Antonov with their designs, but Sukhoi has the appeal to western airlines who may want something to replace their favourite DC-9's and the ill fated Boeing 717-1/200's.

The biggest market for such an aircraft is that of package holiday tourism, which will now expand in Europe, as the EU expands into Eastern-Europe and the Caucasus?

Road-Rail Vehicles.

Atlas to Unimog.

The means to have any type of vehicle, wither it be a boat, aircraft, truck or other to have a double capability role is ever great advantage. Land and water ability, cuts out the need to depend on bridges, while aircraft do not need an airport or land, but can land and take off from water.

The next advantage is to have a truck capable of using the railway network to cross a country at speed and safer from hurting people or damaging the surface. I must admit that I have a limited knowledge to these types of vehicles, only knowing about the Atlas and the Unimog.

There are many more other Russian, American, Australian and Chinese types out there. Many vehicles (MAC, Ural, MAN) have as powerful an engines as a Locomotive, but these come to their own, when railway infustructure may not be available or defunct. 

It is not just the movement of tanks and armour, artillery that the military use such vehicles.The need to move ICBM's and other missiles can be done quickly and smoothly. Civil uses,can be large cranes and buildings.

Landing Craft.

LVTP 1-7. (Landing Vehicle Tracked).

The United States took great advantage of developing the amphibious vehicle during the second world war (1939-45), both for the European front and the Pacific campaign. It was the DUWK or 'Duck which was mostly seen in Europe, being a road truck, that slowely waved through water.

This was slow but it did the job, in the Pacific it was the LVTP-1  tracked landing craft, that since successfull use agains the Japanese over the years has been developed into the modern -7 type.

Both the LVTP-5/7 comprise a massive ammount of troop carrying capacity. The -5, a crew of 3/4 and 34 troops, while the -7 is more flexable with a crew of 2/3 and up to 25 troops. Russia and Czechoslovakia developed their own mass types, the BTR-50 (2+20) and  OT-62/64, 2+15/20+).

But i think that the U.S, has had the better over all in this field, as proved with the two Iraqi wars.

Caravaning.

(Please note update on space on the space page this week).

The Caravan.

The caravan is essentially just a wagon that is towed behind a automobile/car or truck and has no real motive power of its own. Yet it is one of the biggest business pullers across the globe both in N-America and Europe.

Caravaning took off in the United Kingdom in the 1920's and up to 1960, one could park anywhere and enjoy the view. But today we have Caravan sites and trailer parks, unless you are part of the travelling showman circut. 

The temporay home on wheels has progressed from a wooden box with basic facilities to the present state of the art mobile homes. With everything now from power shower to sat nav, microwave cooking to solar panel powered.

Even comforts that are better than we have in our houses and heating systems. But despite all these wonderful things, accidents in towing from A to Z remain a problem.

Animal Power.

Viability?

Despite so many technological advances being made in the last two hundred years and humanities reliance upon oil and gas, there are still millions of people who rely on animals to haul themselves and their goods.

We are not just talking about far flung places, but both Europe and the U.S.A. people maintain animals instead of vehicles. The question is are these forms of movement viable to be introduced back into cities in some cases, or is their time gradually coming to an end?

If we look back to the era of the stage coach, we do find a sophisticated method of working. This is not just four horses tied up to a coach or waggon. To operate such a vehicle requires some skill.

Air Ambulance.Part-One.

Helicopters verses Aircraft.

Which is better? 

Both, because one helicopters can recuse/land from/in confined spaces. Aircraft can travel long distances. The Air Ambulance is one of the best invention adaptions in aviation history. From city copters to out back bush flying doctors, a whole host of machine types are employed. Light is perhaps a key essential here in this vital role, while pilot skill is another.

Nearly every nation now employs some form of aircraft to do this role, civil and military. The Cessna generations have proved invaluable in remote areas in Australia, Africa and Equatorial jungle. While the European EC-135/145 Helicopters are the most popular in Air Ambulance roles.

The U.S Sikorsky AH/UH/S-60 and the Russian Mil Mi-17 and derivatives possibly cover all other areas.

Canal Barges. Part-Two.

Shipping and Networks.

Canals came before the railways and remain one of the most effective ways to move goods across land locked countries as in Russia, China, central Europe and the U.S. Deep rivers can be connected on the network of ship canals. 

In Europe you can get from the Netherlands to the German Rhine river and then by Canal to the Danube, eventually arriving in the Black sea. Both in Russia and China vast distances can be traversed. The ships that ply these routes fifty years ago would have been called 'Coasters or 'Puffers.'

The future for these networks are very much in demand and as long as they are maintained they will remain viable for developing economies.

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.

A380 V B747-8.

Today the U.S. Boeing 747-8i and European Airbus A380 are two largest civilian passenger carrying aircraft in the world. 


But which one is better than the other? 


These super large aircraft were developed to carry large numbers of people over the huge distances and to have less refueling stops or as in the case today none. I suppose it is the preference for the operators in choosing which aircraft that suites or can meet their needs of comfort and facilities.


It looks like that both types have further potential if needs do demand and will they both will be developed and improved with time. 


But it is the A350 and B-777 that looks more promising and competitive in the near future.

Glorified Tri-jets?

There are many new types of commercial aircraft now coming out of China and Russia, like the C919, MC-21 and Sukhoi Su-100. But are they what they seem or just clever copies of the DC-9, Boeing 717-100/100?


And the question that could be asked are they as good as western designs from Europe and Embraer in Brazil.


What markets are the Chinese and Russians after, when most countries are drawn to Brazil, Airbus and the extensive U.S. Boeing families of aircraft.