Yakolev Yak-40.

 The Russian jet that just keeps going?

One reason for the longevity of the Yak-40 is that there is no alternative to it in Russia, compared to western types in business jets has big profits financially behind them and a demand for comfort and entertainment, if not rest and relaxation?

But the Yak-40 has held its ground as a small airline, a business jet and in the field of being an air ambulance, which is handy when dealing with long distances to be covered across Siberia, but it also has many other functions with the military and with combined-cargo operations moving smaller things to remote places!

The Yak-40 may be coming to the end of its working career, but until a new replacement is found it will soldier on in the role of being an essential air ambulance for remote places and moving essential staff to where they are needed!

Boeing 777X

777-8/9.

These are the next generations of the twenty four year-old design of the Boeing 777-100/200 long range aircraft, that is now to have a second life! It was hoped that the 777, would replace the 747 but it still had some life left in it yet?

Today the 747 is now in decline, but orders for the 747-8 is still continuing, the 777 on the other hand has faced stiff competition from the European Airbus and their A350-900/1000 Extra wide body! But what keeps the 777 is not capacity but range over the A350-900?

These next two new aircraft that will appear in service from next year into the 2020's will have the seating capacity and range to out do the Europeans and keep the type perhaps as the successor finally to the 747?

SEGWAYS.

Is this the replacement for the bicyle?

This new form of transport seems to have taken off, how safe it is is another matter. Many of these two wheeled old fashoned lawn mower machines are now finding their way in to airport terminal apron usage.

But they are limited in what they are able to do, hard to drive and also difficult to stop and maintain balance! But are they really a serious contender to replace the bicycle, i do not think so yet. They are not fitted with a seat and cannot carry anything, the bicyle has reamined a very cheap and flexable type of transport and it will be perhaps almost impossible to replace?

Space and Under the Oceans.

The race is on?

The need now to develop a replacement of the U.S. Space shuttle is now well underway with Boeing taking the lead, all of this is based on British ideas from forty years ago of designing a re-usable space plane. The former Space shuttle was a great spacecraft, but it became a glider on return, Soviet Russia developed a totally robotic version known as the Buran, but it was also technically a glider on return to Earth.

Britain and Europe were working on a rocket aircraft that was manoeuvrable going up and coming down and could be diverted if the weather was causing problems. Meanwhile there are many new underwater developments, which are connected as much to future space travel to planets and Moons in our solar system, which may have oceans worth investigating either with robotic and eventually manned missions.

Railways.

Pricing and new stock.

Every country has set up a different way to run their railways networks or systems. Some remain National, while others are made up of different companies and their own liveries. But what they all share is the cost of keeping their respective systems functioning safely.

There is much more to a railway than tracks and trains, maintenance and personnel have to be paid for. People retire and new recruits need to be both trained and replaced, engines and buildings also need to be repaired and cared for and this all costs a lot of money.

Some nations operate on shoe string of basics, while the richer ones with their privatisation would seem to be progressing. Yet one has to stand back and take notice that many withdrawn and older types are being brought back into service with new fresh coats of paint.

The reasons for this is nothing to do with preservation, but rather thy are cheaper to run in the long term than building new ones.

So next time you face a 'hike in the fare, try to remember all the work that has to be done to get you from A to B or A to Z?