Giant Aircraft!

 Everyone has had a go at design and building?

From the 1920's Italy, the U.K. and America have thought about building large aircraft, but it was only Italy and Russia that got there with commercial types that actually flew beyond belief. 

But with the outbreak of World War-II (1939-45), everything change this large craft of years past were now to slow, so new ideas and concepts were put into place and being not so really big they worked?

Hughes built his giant flying boat taking a long standing world record, followed by the MARS that was only a water bomber until retired a few years ago. aircraft did get bigger with the coming of the Jet age, but people wanted more and so came the Boeing 747 Jumbo and many Lockheed military giants or deployment to Vietnam late 50;s to the early 70's!

The Soviet Union developed their own civil and military giants from the MIL-Mi 10, 12 and 26 to hold various records, the Antonov AN-22, An-125 and 225, which all still are in operation today with the Ilyushin IL-76, and civil IL-86/92.

Today the European Airbus have the A380-800 and the even newer A350-9/1000 that is pointing the future ahead?

Drones verses Missiles!

 Ukrainian war a proving Ground?

Kiev does not yet see that the NATO is using the Ukraine to test out their military systems and to prove that missiles are still better than drones!

When Zelensky offered his new drones to the U.S. President Trump was offended, because only America makes the best of everything, but this is another lie that comes from this silly man?

Russia, China and N-Korea, if not India and few others have much better systems than the U.S., as well as armor, guns, small-arms, and aircraft, while shipping is a difficult area and drones continue to have a limited capability, because of size and weight issues!

Donald Trump has been very critical of U.S. naval design, since he has a limited understanding of what stealth is and has to look back to warships with big guns?

But the future of air-defense is to be laser weapons, rather than rockets, while drones will continue to be effective in localized situations, rather than anything with a long range that Ukraine may never get.

But

Russia looks to its own Manufacturers?

 Aeroflot and the Russian government is looking to Illyushin and Yakolev!

With so many sanctions now imposed on Russia by the United States over the Ukraine Boeing is refusing to supply parts for all the grounded 737 types that have been employed in recent years?

So Russia is looking to Yakolev to have its MC21 commercial jet ready and for Illyushin to upgrade its Il-118 turboprop for domestic flying, as it has with the IL-85/95 long range types.

Meanwhile the Tupolev has been successful with its range of jet types, TU-204, 214, that are now in service, but there is much hope in the MC-21 and the Chinese airline types replacing the unwanted American aircraft?

Aeroflot has sued Sukhoi for structural failures on its Sukhoi Super-Jet 100/200 not being resolved, with still crashes and incidents!

Wind turbines are not Viable?

 Many nations believe in Them!

Recent long term studies done in both Israel and the United States has found that what was believed to be an alternative energy source is no longer viable, because when the winds pick-up the turbines have to be shut down for the fear of the blades getting sheared off!

Many have been placed at sea in areas of low lying waters and despite some advantages in the short term, they do not provide enough power as fossil fuel burning or Nuclear power?

As yet we do not know or perhaps will never know what Russia has achieved in its wave power alternatives, since the western world want to make money on their shares and investments in fossil fuels while they last?

A year or two of Changes!

 COVID-19 has changed Everything?

Sickness, lockdown, uncertainty and having to close down our website has taken its toll, but we are back and are hoping to kick on, if not also catch up slowly?

There are many changes because of this Pandemic in travel, transport and technology from medical to the factory floor and sadly many of our older friends and family have succumb to this lack of air disease!

We are moving into space tourism and from electric battery possibilities to gas, but it was Russia who lead the way or already have done it as well as being so advanced in robotics that they are now fitted and operating on the ISS!

Yet the west and Europe still maintains that S-Korea and Japan are the future for these developments, when they are not apart from gaming and even Canada is now responsible for most of that?

The U.S. a new path in Space?

Russia maybe Excluded?

NASA is being guided by the Trump administration into a new path of Space research and travel that breaks the long established cooperation! Currently the U.S still needs the Russians passage and re-supply to the International Space Station, but the new Gateway programme will see them be cut back to just one module in the whole project?

Artemis is the new project to return to the Moon to establish a south pole base that will lead eventually to getting humans on Mars by 2030? The sad thing is that many other nations such as China and Indi might pull it off with the Russians in a direct flight and return?

Movable Drilling Platforms. One.

Pioneer Spirit.

This is a new kid on the block that has come to help in the development of oil and gas drilling, while it is also capable of them constructing a rig if that area is profitable? This ability cuts out the need to waste time and money building rigs, that may have no value!

Most rigs today can be towed around the world in good weathers, but this is a self contained everything and thus the days of building on shore may be soon coming to an end?

The company who built this first one is planning a second in S-Korea for 2023 and it may not be the last, with the opening up of the Artic ice sheet Russia, the U.S. and Canada with Norway will want their own ships to do similar work!

Classic and Vintage Vehicles. Part-Two.

The Easter Weekend?

This weekend will be marked by a host if not plethora of fairs, shows and galas covering every form of old machinery from ships, to locomotives, cars, to farm implements, steam engines to even early computing?

This will be the world over and their is so much to see, more so outside the U.K. and the U.S. Many countries have developed this own industries and some of their old stuff is much better than ours?

Maintaining them is a love and their is no end of collectors and people wanting to get involved in restoration and may it long continue? If you have the opportunity please visit and don't mind the cost, enjoy teach both the young and old?

Because we do  not know what our little ones one day might invent, get an idea to go with in another direction and come up with something completely different?

Space now is too becoming vintage, one knows that both in Russia and the United States there are some great collections in museums to be seen of the early space race from 1957 to 1971 worth investigating!

Chemical Weapons. Part-Two.

Who poisoned the Skripals?

Britain has begged many nations to support its anti-Russian stance, but many have refused to go the whole way? Why would they do this and what is the real truth behind this alleged Salisbury attack? 

Did Skripal want to make up with the Russians and return home and so the British had to kill him, or did his daughter fail to deliver the goods smuggled out to the west? These are the two most probable truths to why they were poisoned!

The world has made many agreements in relation to the use and non use of such weapons, but they still exist and Porton Down has as many and are able to create new ones if desired, but they claim they have Been pressured by the British government to pull into line!

We hear much today about the use of chemical weapons in Syria and the media twist the truth in relation to who has them and uses them? ISIL/S has perhaps the largest stock of weapons in the world, while many other nations may too have their own stocks of chemicals, gases and other agents one being N-Korea?

Russias Nuclear Powered Drone?

Unlimited Flight!

Russia has revealed a series of new weapon systems, including a claim it has the worlds first nuclear powered drone! This is a major breakthrough in unmanned flight and may lead eventually to commercial aircraft being powered in a similar way?

Finally we have an alternative to fossil fuels, but what of the dangers and radioactivity, if they are shot down or captured by hostile forces? These claims come with the upgrade of several former Soviet era missiles and other technologies and a warning that when they wanted peace they were ignored by the world or left behind!

But now that they were back the world was all worried again and so the New Russia is going to defend its allies India and the Republic of China, while perhaps this is an indirect warning to the U.S. and NATO that they will not stand by to allow N-Korea, Iran or Syria be walked over?

Off to the Moon! Part-One.

The Trump Mission?

For humanity to return to the Moon will cost billions if not trillions and something will have to give way, so it has been decided that the International Space station will have to go within the next few years? 

The United States of America is determined to beat China getting to the Moon in this next fifteen year period and the U.S. wants to do what JF Kennedy pressured NASA to do forty years ago, but with a base rather than just landing and coming home!

The problems with this are enormous, if their is no Space station as a stepping stone on these proposed missions! The ISS has at least another twenty good years of operational service and Russia will perhaps have to foot the bill for its replacement?

A Moon base may never really become that stepping stone to Mars as is being promised, to maintain it will be very difficult even with 6% gravity over that of none? Trump wants to undermine the Kennedy legacy as much as he is doing politically to Obamas!

A changing aviation Market?

Airbus A380 and A350-100 at a loss!

The world wants smaller aircraft, rather than larger ones and in the civil commercial airline market one does not get any bigger than the Super-Jumbo and the Extra-wide bodied? 

New aircraft such as the Bombardier C-series are more desirable, Embraer has taken the market with its E-Jet series and new comers from Russia, China and Japan are quickly following suite with their own versions!

Boeing has kept to a tight ship in its developments, staying with the 747-8bio-fuelled and struggling with the Dreamliner? But it has given up on the DC-9/717, for the expansion in the 737-800/900 and MAX, all of which is in demand around the globe.

Airbus has taken on the C-Series with reluctance, because it clashes with the A321-neo and similar designs that will be forthcoming?

U.S.A. Space Expansion.

Trump Promises.

Space exploration will perhaps make the United States of America great again, much has been promised and one thinks Mr. Trump will try! The Space-X testing and return missions are improved and now working, but they are a chance thing, which remain to dangerous to put humans into space?

Co-operation with Russia may lead to the combination of Shuttle technology to develop newer systems to have that very good re-usable platform again? Plans to build a Moon base and to have a half point station to Mars will lead within the next thirty years to getting people living on the red planet.

Space also offers much research into the use of tougher materials for building, that will be cheaper than relying on metals? There are many new needs of investigations to get underway in relation to sending robotic ships to land on Pluto, investigate Uranus and Neptune and a few more interesting places too?

Sukhoi Super Jet 100-95.

Now in Service.

This will perhaps be the beginning of new revolution in Russian aircraft design and exports world wide? The best aviation has marked Russia as a world leader from its first take to the skies? 

Apart from the many accidents of the past Soviet era, which may have much to do with the weather conditions played upon by the western propaganda?

Sukhoi was only know to us until recent years as a military jet producer, but this break into the civil field come in the light that Antonov and others are based in the Ukraine?

Economical fuel consumption jets are the future for the ever expanding fleets and the problems with global warming and climate change issues? Speed and comfort are the next along with reliability, new design and smaller layouts seem to be more in demand than the larger aircraft?

'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. Part-Two.

From Sukhoi SU-7 to SU-29.

This company has a long history in Russian aviation from the introduction of the SU-7 with a 1.6 Mac (17,000Km/h) speed to various versions, being deployed in Syria at the present time. The SU-19 laid the basis for many present day Chinese designs, but today the SU-24 Fencer, SU-25 Frogfoot along with the SU-27/29 Flanker are the mainstay of the Russian Federation's help to Al-Assad.

These are state of the art fighters each fulfilling various roles from Bombing, Inteception and ground attack. In fact they all are much better than many current western fighters such as the F-16 and F-14/15.

The SU-25 Frogfoot is perhaps the best multi-role counter/ground-attack fighter aircraft flying, with a vast array of optional weapons carried on its eight hardpoints. This operating systems with the Mil-Mi-24 helicopter gunships and even Mil Mi-28's will prove a defining effect against ISIL/ISIS in the region.

Sukhoi. Part-One.

T-50. 

Sukhoi is part of a great Russian legacy in aircraft design and development, which today is being topped with the T-50 Stealth combat aircraft and the Sukhoi-100 Superjets. We first heard this Chinese sounding name in the 1960's with a new generation of Soviet fighters that looked similar to the MIG Jets, but they were different in their own right.

It was the debut of the Sukhoi SU-27 as a naval launched fighter that changed everything for the west. The collapse of Soviet Russia revealed that Sukhoi was one of the leading designers back in the day of the MIG-15 Midget and its aircraft were better, but remained secret.

The T-50 is a revolution in Russian military design and now with the coldness returning, will prove the be one of the main fighters of the new Russian Federation. The Superjet is taking the world market with orders all over the globe. 

When Russia gets it right, they get it right for a long haul!

Self-Propelled Guns. Part-One.

Mobile Battlefield Artillery.

In someways the early development of the tank was the idea to have armoured artillery on the battlefield, but it was not until the 1930s that the United States produced the first SPG as a over armed MBT known as the Lee-Grant.

During World War-II (1939-45) Nazi-Germany became reliant more on their developments of SPG's that they had more of them than actual tanks. The idea of mobile artillery was good as long as that was their primary role, but as the war progressed Hitler in his madness and interference used them for the wrong role.

In Soviet Russia they easily became prey to the light T-34 tanks and in France and Italy to the American Sherman's. After the war Russia and America, along with many other nations saw the value of such a plat form in infantry support and even to this day they are still being developed.

U.S.A. M109 155mm, M109 105mm, SP 122, 
Russia, 2S19 152mm, 2S3 152mm.
U.K. AS90.
Sweden Bofors 155mm.
Germany Wegmann 155mm.
Japan Type 75. 

France GIAT 155mm.
Italy Palmeria 155mm. 

Israel Soltam 155mm.

Road Trains. Part-Two.

Problems.

The problems with road traffic is the quality of the roads, from Highways to dirt tracks. This is what limits the use of heavy haulage traffic who need to keep on the smooth, rather than getting stuck on broken ground. 

Russia, China, America, Brazil and many other better developed nations can take advantage of this type of long distant haulage and there are many new concepts coming on the the commercial market. The moving of machinery is the main need for some road trains, but it can be animals and general goods that would be cheaper than flying or sailing them in?

The one disadvantage seems to be the side moving bus development is still not available to heavy haulage and would be of benefit to expand into countries with worse road conditions?

In the Big Country. Part-Two.

Canadian Pacific.

Canada has that awesome feel about it, it is only one of a few countries that can claim that feeling still today. Most of Canada is lonely and remote and its has temperature differences much like Russia, the need of long distant travel is a necessity that cannot be done without.

The railroad from Vancouver in British Colombia to the east remains the focus of this vital link covering the southern areas and the centre. Going north and north-west is a continuing problem, because of the cold and harsh winter conditions. 

That is why we have the 'Iceroad Truckers,' who take vital supplies of equipment to isolated mining sites. Modern Air travel has facilitated the opportunity to get people and general freight from A to B. But it is the railroad and the need to expand it that perhaps will remain the back bone of Canada.