NASA's New Propultion Discovery.

The Electric Engine.

A new type of propulsion will see air travel on this planet revolutionised over the next one-hundred years and will also lay the bases perhaps for Martian flight and also on other Moons and Planets in our Solar-system.

You will have the go yourself to the NASA site to check it out, because it is to complicated to explain it here. There are many new ideas about getting into space at the moment and many nations have their own takes, but the questions is who will be the first apart from the United States?

Meanwhile the recent successful Solar powered around the world flight will lead to solar powered machines for mars and the Moons of Saturn and Jupiter!

A new take on the Bicycle.

Many new Ideas..

But are all these new inventions really viable or safe over the clever design of the bicycle? At the moment nothing has really come about to seriously replace the original concept, this is perhaps because again and again inventors are not really trying.

The United States and Australia would seem to be the only countries who are trying out new ideas, but what is stopping them is that they can always rely on fossil fuel power.

The bicycle has the great advantage that it could become its own energy producer, peddle power combined with solar could help the cyclists to get up hills without having to do much of the work.

Meanwhile going down the hill would produce enough power re-charge the re-chargeable battery, so it would be ready for the next hill.  

Weight of components is perhaps one of the draw backs and most of the new designs lack the seat, which takes the strain off ones back.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hovercraft.

'Riding on the magic carpet.'

What a great invention, that today has multiple uses around the world from swamps to tundra, to deserts and sandy river estuary's. The hovercraft has come a long way, via the military and ferry travel to perhaps more practical applications.

Nearly every country in the world uses the air-cushon system from search and rescue to pleasure activities. This is only a touch introduction, but later we will take closer look at those early day developments and visit Russia, Italy and the U.S.A., while coming back around the Great Britain.

Blade Runners. Part-One.

An Introduction to the Hydrofoil.

This is perhaps the most prolific ship design that has ever been conceived, to lift up a weight on a blade. today we associate blade running with athletics and that is an amazing feat of engineering in its own right.

The era of the Hydrofoils were the 1950's and it seems there was great competition across the globe to build and have one. Italy, Russia and the United State of America, took full opportunity to build them in all sizes and sleekness of design. 

Bolivian Arrow, 14-ton, 40 seater, Russian Burevestnik, 41-67-tom 130-150 seat river ferry, Italian RHS 70, 32-ton, 71 seat passenger ferry and the U.S Flagstaff 1 (PHG-1) US Coastguard 67.5-ton, with a 40knot speed.

Today they are not as popular, as they once were but they remain in operation in several countries as a novelty design concept.

Harvestors. Part-One,

The Combined Harvesters.

The original machine was developed in the United States for wheat and barley production, this machine combined cutting and threshing the stalks for the grain. Today many of these machines can now also produce bales of straw.

But there are many other kinds of harvester type machines for sugar cane, peas, fruit and vegetables. All of these crops have stalks, so some mechanical changes had to be made to adapt them. 

But there are still more and more new types coming on the market for root crops, rice and other aqua work. Originally it was limited to a few machine producers, such as New Holland, John Deere, Claas, Massey-Ferguson and Shelbourne Reynolds. 

But today we have many developed and developing nations building their own version to suite their need and conditions.

The Concorde Story. Part-Two.

Supersonic Bombers.

Both the Concorde and the Soviet Tupolev TU-144 Charger were civlian off shoots of their military counterparts. It was inreality only the super powers of Soviet Russia and the United states that employed these types of aircraft. 

Toay many of the survivors of the 'Cold War era' have other uses, than what they were initially intended for. America has its B1 and B2, while Russia its Tupolev Blackjack and Backfire.

These types of aircraft have been superceeded by more advanced fighters such as the F-14/15, MiG-31/33 and Sukhoi Su-50. On the otherhand we also have the ICBM and new missile platforms today along with longrange drones. 

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.

The Tractor.

The tractor was probably the first replacement for the horse, oxen drawn plow (plough) on the farm. Before that man had to open the earth literally by hand, but now there was a machine that could do it without him having to push. 

The threshing of cerials was already established through the use of the steam engine, but those heavy engines were not able to go over heavy soils.

Massey Ferguson reveloutionised farming with his tractor machines and nothing much has change since in the design shape. 

In Russia and the United states, the tractor machines are a different in shape and tracked versions have been produced.They of course are also much larger. 

Modern machines meanwhile have all the latest comforts from heating to swivel chairs and double driving cabs, lighting inside and out. Meaning that the machines can work day and night.

But it was the Chinese who came up with the mechanicle plough. In a basic 3-wheel design based on the movement of artillery pieces in Vietnam in the 1970's and since then this simple machine has been mass produced.