Helicopters SAR and Civil!

 Search and Rescue and Civilian Usage?

Many helicopters most people think are for rich people who want privacy in travel, but they are wrong since many are used to ferry workers to our oil and gas rigs in the north sea and from time to time island communities in Scotland and the Scilley off Cornwall, Rathlin off N-Ireland and many other places to!

Helicopters are now common as air ambulances, saving may lives and transporting sick people over great distance from hospital to hospital apart of traffic and work incidents? 

Small types to large ones are employed in these essential roles in our modern world, getting over mountains and water are some of the key aspects of their roles!

Others are used by the national grid in relations to getting engineers to remote places to repair power lines after storms and bad weather, if not civil disturbances and deliberate acts of vandalism

 Meanwhile many are being replaced in some areas of work by drones, that are cheaper and can go places helicopters cannot, but they will also provide services in cities to move donor/ harvesting materials, blood samples and other, which cuts out getting stuck in traffic?

Other machines provide a taxi services for racing jockeys and moving materials that may be urgent for one reason or another and they also come in varied sizes!

The most common types in the U.K. Are the Airbus H135/145, Bell 207, Leonardo A189, 109, 139 and others in the family, the Airbus H225 is mostly deployed to gas and oil rigs and fitted out for 30-+, while the Sikorsky S-76 is the most popular air taxi and the S-92 for search and rescue?

Vulnerability at Sea?

 Oil and gas tankers, hijacked and hit by Missiles!

With the current situation developing now between Iran and the U,S, revenge for the overnight attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities is putting the Hormuz strait and others in danger of being blocked and shipping lost, but revenge may come in the loss of aircraft and British interest as much in the region, if not in our own lands?

Shipping is large and hard to protect, this has been seen in the Red and Arabian seas already with the Houthis and earlier by Somali pirates, but now Iran has long range tentacles and they will use them to cause economic disaster on the world markets, if they want too with loss of life and limb!

Security guards will not be able to deal with missile attacks, they can prevent hijacking and maybe take down a few drones, arming ships with anti-aircraft weapons would make them military vessels and not civilian?

Sanctions on Russia?

 Still an open door to fossil fuels and Gas!

It would seem that despite thousands of sanctions being placed on Russia over its right to protect its people in the Ukraine from genocide by Zelensky and his secular cohorts the west has left doors open in the world stock markets to re-open trade, when Biden leaves office?

Russia is making more money than it is loosing selling gas to both India and China and many others new customers in the far-east, since it is much cheaper than any other commodity and has a much lower carbon rate than coal or oil!

But a new U.S. administration may want to still trade with Russia and it is known that Britain despite all its pro-Ukraine pomp is still carrying around the world Russian crude and it prepared to keep doing on the quiet as long as it can!

Iran has entered the Space race!

 Three satellites on one ICBM?

The United States was the first nation to condemn Iran for their achievement of possibly putting up their own spy satellite with two others and what this will mean for the years ahead in mapping and communications having not to rely on others, but there is much more to this success and that will include a manned mission a robot, if not a manned landing on the Moon and much more!

Space is now more complicated than it was fifty years ago with the Moon landings, real or not since there is some doubt how the U.S. got there when we are struggling with our modern tech to do the same?

China and India are leading the way, while Japan has gone its own way and all have proved to be doing and discovering new things that Russia and the U.S. don't want to do, but in the years to come much will be achieved as we exhaust the discoveries within our solar system, even the distant worlds still to be observed beyond Pluto/

Private ventures by Elon Musk will be amazing in going to the outer gas giants, while Boeing has developed and new Space shuttle and Space tourism is some venture for the near future as the ISS is coming to the end of its thirty-year life and the possibility of more than one Moon base becomes a reality?

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?

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!

Changes in Shipping?

Container World!

Shipping containers has always faced problems in rough weather, because of the ships listing some containers fall off and are lost! But this is about to all change with a new type of fixed ribs being built to hold a certain number of boxes in place!

These vessels may look a bit strange or ugly to the eye when empty, but this new system will save the insurance of goods a lot less and the safety of other shipping having a collision with underwater or surface floating containers?

These are on of the main changes, there are few more to do with engineering and rig support vessels and their ability and stability to work at sea, cutting out the expense of installing rigs until it is definitely confirmed that a potential profit will be made from either gas or oil!

Railways Future. Part-Two.

Hauling, remains Profitable!

It will be a long time before humanity gives up on its railways, because both passenger travel and the hauling of goods remains big business? We may faster express trains and much improved commuter stock go from the western world to the developing world, but freight may remain the same  with some increased speed and line signalling improvements?

The United States of America, Canada, Australia, Russia, China and Brazil are huge land masses, where the train has come into its own value. Locomotion demands four plus engines to pull two mile long trains through swamp, desert, forestry and ice. The exploration for minerals, fossil fuels and precious metals and stones demands specialist equipment to be supplied.

Some of this can be done without rails, but rails are much faster and direct with telecommunications and eventually gas and oil pipelines marking the almost same route. New towns and cities will also be built along side the new railways, even the remotest places?

Road Trains. Part-Four.

Siberia.

The roads of the Siberian wilderness and great forests go in a straight line it would seem for ever and ever? What cannot be moved by trains or flown in by aircraft or even shipping has to be taken by road. Canada may have its Ice road truckers, but here we have some of the most bravest drivers in the world.

The Russian Federation has been involved in the oil, gas and mineral expansion for well over 50 years now in greater-Siberia. Pipe-lines get out most of the gas and fuels, but the moving of heavy machinery and people, food supplies and those odd bits road is still a vital link.

Russia has always had one of the worlds largest automotive industries and has built quite a variety of trucks over the years. The Ural, Maz, Baz and Gaz have also produced many versions both for civil construction and the military. Older vehicles have a long life in Russia, more on simplicity to repair and reliability they just keep going.

Modern Airships. Part-One.

Scientific and Zoological Research.

Modern airships are now coming to their fore in the role of atmospheric research, they are ideal for this role because of their slow speed. They more or less can float along with the clouds or the weather systems, of course not all weather is ideal for them.

Other near future roles may be police observation duties and other line inspection in the oil, gas, electric industries. The Airship would also be great for observing how fish, whales, shark's and dolphins migrate and how herds of animals and birds migrate across the Oceans and the continents?

Enviromentally friendly.

Can we create viable environmentally friendly transport?

Are the days of the steam train over, just because they were driven by coal. Is there a future for them and the turf burners?

Or is the future to be gas. Many countries are considering hydrogen powered vehicles, but what we already have could be developed to be more cleaner and efficient?

Drill Rigs.

The oil and gas rigs at sea are perhaps some of most impressive structures that the human mind has conceived. Many rigs are towed from construction/ship building yards to the point of drill work. But now dedicated ships have been built to perform this type of work off the coast of South-America (Brazil).

The future looks more interesting, if this type of vessel could replace the standard platforms. Meaning that during severe weather it could be moved?