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?

Hydrogen Power has Arrived.

 India for a Scooter and Spain for a new type of Ship.

In recent years we have been crazy on everything electric, now in light of the rise in fuel prices at £2+ pounds per litre if no higher, but now the long awaited hydro powered 'real McCoy' has arrived and this will be the future for all transport!

The development of the electric battery will continue to improve in light of the European heatwave and many vehicle fires if not deaths?

With these new alternative fuel options the reliance of fossil fuels will diminish with time and thus we will have many new machines to use, but one cannot be complacent since heavy industries will still need the old fuels to making the newer things!

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?

Battery and Electric Engines?

Ending fossil fuels Pollution!

It not if, but when and the faster these new technologies are implemented the better for all with breathing problems in our large cities! Poland is leading in the field at the moment with their lithium battery vehicles that are being introduced right across the board in public transport, postal delivery and many other service areas!

These new fleets are cutting down fossil fuels carbon emissions and improving the air quality, but more has to be done and one idea is the introduction of classic or vintage vehicle conversions to electric?

The infrastructure and the demand has to be there to meet the need, but as we see that Diesel is now not safe and is being withdrawn hopefully battery and electric will replace more and more and perhaps an enticement would be to keep the prices lower so that ordinary folk could be encouraged to make the changes?

Antonov Family An-24-32. Part-One.

Western equivalents of the De Haviland DHC-5-8 and Fokker F25/50.

In fact there are many western equivalents of this most successful Soviet to present Russian federation series of medium transport aircraft. Both the military and civil airlines always have a demand for a capable 30-60 seat aircraft and Antonov made its tremendous hit from 1960 with the introduction of the first An-24 N.A.T.O. code named Coke transport to meet this role.

All four types are basically improvements of the previous and over 1000 have been built, with licence to China as the Y7-100. Over the years with the diamonds of the war in Afghanistan newer versions, such as the An-30/32 could now cope with landing and take off at higher levels. 

The expansion into Siberia to search for more fossil fuels demanded shot take-off and landing (STOL) and the An-32 was well able to meet that requirement with a 2,200 to 4000 km range, while also comping with the colder conditions.

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?

Bi-Planes.

Is the day of the Bi-Plane over?

The Soviet Russian built Antonov An-2/3 still remains in active operation across the world, in it various guises. 

This 12/13 seat utility-transport is now some 75 years old and is still being found difficult to replace. Russian design teams have come up with improved engine performance, various types and payloads etc. But so far none fit the same category of the An-2 exactly. One or the other of the new designs lacks something that encompasses the original. 

Meanwhile in the rest of the world, this type of aircraft has been restricted to either sports or agricultural uses. There are also now many restored historical types flying again.

It would seem that the An-2/3 perhaps will soldier on in remote places for another 75 years?