Aviation

World”s Most Spectacular New Airports …

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Changi airport, Singapore (opening 2018)

Architect Moshe Safdie – who designed the iconic Habitat 67 housing complex in Montreal – began construction on a new development at Singapore’s Changi airport in December 2014. Featuring a ‘Forest Valley’, ‘Jewel Gardens’ and a 130ft-high (40m) waterfall called a ‘Rain Vortex’, it looks more like the Land of Oz than an air hub; trees, palms and ferns are enclosed within a 134,000sq m glass dome. Scheduled for completion in 2018, the Jewel complex will be linked by pedestrian bridges to existing terminals, offering space for shops and restaurants alongside the foliage. Safdie has said that the project is “the prototype of a new kind of urban place”. (Safdie Architects)

 

Mexico City international airport, Mexico (opening 2018)

In September 2014, British architecture firm Foster and Partners won a competition to design what will be one of the world’s largest airports when it is completed in 2018. Working with Mexican firm Fernando Romero Enterprise, Foster and Partners unveiled plans for a 555,000 sq m terminal enclosed within a lightweight shell. The new international airport for Mexico City has been designed to accommodate increasing passenger numbers and has echoes of Foster’s plans for the world’s first private spaceport in New Mexico. The structure is pre-fabricated, allowing for rapid construction without scaffolding. The new building will harness the sun’s energy as well as collecting rainwater and maintaining interior temperatures using natural ventilation. (Foster and Partners/Fernando Romero Enterprise)

 

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport, India (opened 2014)

Designed to reference the feathers in a peacock’s tail – and mirror traditional Indian open-air pavilions – the concrete canopy on this new terminal is part of a wider trend to reflect local architecture within airports. This addition to Mumbai airport was opened in February 2014 and is the vision of US firm SOM, whose website says that “just as the terminal celebrates a new global, high-tech identity for Mumbai, the structure is imbued with responses to the local setting, history, and culture”. (Robert Polidori/SOM)

 

Shenzhen Bao’an international airport, China (opened end of 2013)

Covered with a honeycomb pattern and a whopping 1.5km (0.9 miles) long, the new terminal at Shenzhen Bao’an was designed to evoke the shape of a manta ray, according to its architects Studio Fuksas. The architects rather poetically describe it as “a fish that breathes and changes its own shape, undergoes variations, turns into a bird to celebrate the emotion and fantasy of a flight”. The design continues into the interiors, its hexagonal skylights allowing natural light in with a dappled effect. (Archivio Fuksas)

 

Chongqing Jiangbei international airport, China (opening 2015)

Architects ADPI continue the trend towards green space in airports in their plans for a new terminal at Chongqing Jiangbei. With two wings referencing Chongqing’s two rivers, the structure is set within a park: once completed, the terminal will be able to handle 55m passengers a year, ranking the airport among the world’s 15 largest. (ADPI)

 

Pulkovo International Airport, Russia (opened 2014)

Designed by Grimshaw architects to work with the extremes of climate in St Petersburg, the new terminal at Pulkovo airport features monumental folded ceilings clad in metal panels that recall the gilded spires of churches in the city. A series of linked zones is intended to reflect St Petersburg’s landscape of islands and bridges. Opening in February 2014, the building has a large flat roof with folded structures beneath that distribute weight away from the middle to offer support during heavy snowfall. Once construction on a second and final phase of the project is completed in 2015, the airport will cater for 17m passengers a year. (Grimshaw)

 

Istanbul New Airport, Turkey (opening 2019)

Grimshaw is also in charge of a team designing a new six-runway airport in Istanbul which aims to accommodate 90m passengers a year once it opens in 2019, before increasing its capacity to 150m after completion. Featuring a vaulted canopy, the airport’s Terminal One will cover a site of nearly 100 hectares (0.4 sq miles) – the architects say it will become the “world’s largest airport terminal under one roof” once finished. “We were inspired by the local use of colours and patterns, the quality of light and how it penetrates buildings, as well as by traditional architecture such as the Süleymaniye Mosque,” claims Tomas Stokke, the director of Haptic, which is collaborating with Grimshaw and Nordic Office of Architecture on the project. (Grimshaw/Nordic Office of Architecture/Haptic) 

 

Mount Fuji Shizuoka airport, Japan

Pritzker Prize-winner Shigeru Ban is designing a terminal for the airport at the base of Mount Fuji. Inspired by the tea plantations surrounding the mountain, his plans include green barrel vaults. Inside, natural light is diffused by a roof canopy made out of twisted laminated wood – latticing being a signature style of the Japanese architect. (Shigeru Ban)

SOURCE::::

Fiona Macdonald  in www. bbc.com
Natarajan
Jan 21 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beagle 2 Spacecraft… Lost in 2003 … Found in Mars in 2015 !!!

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Long-Lost Spacecraft Spotted on Mars

Long-Lost Spacecraft Spotted on Mars

IT turns out the Beagle has landed after all — but it never called home.

The gone-but-not-forgotten spacecraft Beagle-2 went AWOL on Christmas Day, 2003, when it was supposed to land on Mars and start transmitting data back to Earth.

Instead, the British-built craft went dark. After several months, it was declared lost — presumed to have been destroyed during its approach or while trying to land on the red planet.

On Friday, more than 11 years later, European Space Agency officials reported that the Beagle-2 had been finally found — thanks to extensive detective work based on new photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

DISCOVERY: Have scientists solved the Beagle 2 mystery?

The photos show the craft landed safely on Mars and partially deployed — but was unable to fully deploy and start communicating.

Still, it was a vindication of sorts for space scientists who had wondered for more than a decade about the fate of their pet project, which was designed to search for signs of life on Mars.

Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding “excellent news.”

He said not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had “remained a nagging worry.”

Soon after Beagle-2’s disappearance, NASA landed both Spirit and Opportunity near the Martian equator.

Both sent back troves of images and discoveries, providing the sort of information astronomers had been seeking when the first Mars probes began.

There it is ... This NASA annotated image shows a bright feature interpreted as the Beagl

There it is … This NASA annotated image shows a bright feature interpreted as the Beagle 2 Lander with solar arrays at least partially deployed on the surface of Mars. Pic: AFP PHOTO/NASA Source: AFP

Mars is notoriously hard to reach. In a half-century of launch attempts, more than half of the missions by various countries have failed to get off the ground on Earth or overshot Mars.

Landing on the red planet is particularly treacherous because of the thin atmosphere.

Incoming spacecraft travelling at 19,300kph have only minutes to slow to a stop.

The Martian terrain is also full of obstacles — boulders, cracks and cliffs — and a wrong move can doom a spacecraft.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has circled the planet since 2006, has periodically searched for spacecraft missing in action.

Still missing is NASA’s Mars Polar Lander, which lost contact during its arrival at the south pole in 1999.

Officials said careful analysis of the high-resolution photos showed the Beagle-2 had landed within its expected landing area in a basin close to the Martian equator. Signs of key entry and descent components were also spotted.

Identifying the craft was made more difficult by its small size — it is just over 1.8 metres wide with its solar panels unfurled.

An undated computer generated image made available in London, Sunday June 1 2003 by the the European Space Agency, of the Ma...

Lost in space … A computer generated image of the Mars Express in orbit around Mars. Pic: AP Photo/European Space Agency Source: AP

The 143-pound Beagle-2 was named for the ship that carried naturalist Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery in the 1830s.

It is shaped like an oversized pocket watch and was designed to descend through the Martian atmosphere, deploy parachutes, and “bounce” to a safe landing on inflatable bags.

Experts who helped identify the lander at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab said the photographs are “consistent” with only a partial deployment of the Beagle-2 upon landing.

They said a failure to fully deploy would explain why no data or signals from the craft were ever received, since a complete deployment of all of its solar panels would have been needed for successful transmissions.

Alfred McEwen, chief investigator of the project, said the special camera had been used to search for all of the landers that have tried to descend to the surface of Mars.

“This the first time we found one that didn’t send a signal after it landed,” he said.

The Beagle has landed ... A computer-generated image showing the Beagle 2 Probe on surfac

The Beagle has landed … A computer-generated image showing the Beagle 2 Probe on surface of Mars. Pic: AP Photo/European Space Agency Source: AP

“If the landing sequence works correctly, the probe sends a radio signal, and you can use that to pinpoint where it is coming from, even if it broadcasts only very briefly. But in the case of Beagle-2, we didn’t get anything. All we had to go by was the target landing area.”

Experts who worked on the project said the Beagle-2 mission can now be classified a partial success — even if it never provided information about possible life on Mars.

UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker said the discovery of the craft showed its complex landing procedures had worked.

“This finding makes the case that Beagle-2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe’s continuing exploration of Mars,” he said.

The Beagle-2 was launched on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. It was released from its mother ship on December 19, 2003, and was supposed to land six days later, but no communications with the lander were ever established.

Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, who worked on the project, said the new information shows the team came extremely close to its goal of getting data from Mars, with the deployment failing only in its final stage.

“To be frank, I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle-2,” he said, admitting he was troubled every Christmas Day by the unknown fate of the craft.

SOURCE:::: http://www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Jan 17 2015

Image of the Day…. Interior View of International Space Station…!!!

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This image of the interior view from the International Space Station’s Cupola module was taken on Jan. 4, 2015. The large bay windows allows the Expedition 42 crew to see outside. The Cupola houses one of the space station’s two robotic work stations used by astronauts to manipulate the large robotic arm seen through the right window. The robotic arm, or Canadarm2, was used throughout the construction of the station and is still used to grapple visiting cargo vehicles and assist astronauts during spacewalks. The Cupola is attached to the nadir side of the space station and also gives a full panoramic view of the Earth.

Image Credit: NASA 

 

SOURCE::: http://www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Jan 17 2015

Planes Go ” Hybrid ” Electric…. !!!

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An aircraft with a parallel hybrid engine – the first ever to be able to recharge its batteries in flight – has been successfully tested in the UK, an important early step towards cleaner, low-carbon air travel.

The world’s first hybrid-electric aircraft that can recharge while flying. 
Electric aircraft

A new hybrid-electric aircraft, the first ever to be able to recharge its batteries in flight, has just been tested in the UK, the University of Cambridge announced in a statement today.

The plane uses a “parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system,” where an electric motor works with a regular petrol motor to drive a propeller. It’s just been trialled at a test site in Northamptonshire.

According to Cambridge engineers, the plane uses 30% less fuel than a similar model that only uses a petrol engine. More importantly, the new design can also recharge its batteries during flight — something that’s never been achieved before.

“Although hybrid cars have been available for more than a decade, what’s been holding back the development of hybrid or fully-electric aircraft until now is battery technology,” project leader and Cambridge professor Paul Robertson said in a statement. “Until recently, they have been too heavy and didn’t have enough energy capacity. But with the advent of improved lithium-polymer batteries, similar to what you’d find in a laptop computer, hybrid aircraft — albeit at a small scale — are now starting to become viable.”

The plane uses its 4-stroke piston engine and electric motor during take off and climbing. But once in cruising mode, the electric motor switches to an electric generator in a similar way to a hybrid car. Once full height is reached, the generator mode can then recharge the batteries or be used in motor assist mode to minimise fuel consumption, the university said.

Here it is climbing after take off:

Flight



And here it is soaring over England’s patchwork fields:

Flight2



The project is vital to combating the impact air travel has on the environment. The team notes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates “aviation is responsible for around 2% of global man-made carbon dioxide emissions.”

The plane is a step “towards cleaner, low-carbon air travel,” but it’s not there yet. More research is still needed to prolong the flying time. “If all the engines and all the fuel in a modern jetliner were to be replaced by batteries, it would have a total flying time of roughly ten minutes,” the researchers point out.

Still, the Cambridge demonstrator model is a move toward creating the first fully-electric plane, which could one day be used commercially.

SOURCE:::: http://www.business insider .com.au and You Tube

Natarajan

Jan 15 2015

Automatic Aircraft Tracking System of Qatar Airways ….

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Qatar Airways is the first airline in the world to test automatic aircraft tracking.

Qatar Airways is the first airline in the world to test automatic aircraft tracking. Source: News Limited

QATAR airways is carrying out tests to become the first airline in the world to install an automatic tracking system that would replace the current radar system.

Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker told a press conference in Doha that the technology was being tested ahead of a fleet wide roll out.

“Once this has been proven and all the bugs have been cleared then Qatar Airways will, I hope, be the first airliner to introduce this in all our planes,” he told reporters.

Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, hopes the new system will be rolled out fleet wide. Source: AFP

In response to worldwide pressure for tighter airline monitoring after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the new system will stream flight data from a planes black box directly to an airline’s operation centre on the ground in real time.

Reported in Bloomberg, it is part of an aviation safety overhaul as the industry comes under scruity for being unable to explain the mysterious fate of MH370.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) set up an expert task force in June 2014 to review current tracking methods and highlighted three areas of concern. These were installing tamper proofing airline tracking, tracking to one nautical mile or better and giving airlines one year to implement the recommended new system.

Qatar Airways has always stayed ahead of the game and was recently delivered the new Airb

Qatar Airways has always stayed ahead of the game and was recently delivered the new Airbus A350 at an inaugural ceremony in Doha. Source: AFP

The IATA however has come under fire from some airlines who say adopting these new criteria within a year is unreasonable. The International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations aviation regulator, has instead proposed that commercial planes be required to report their position every 15 minutes.

Qatar’s decision to install this new type of tracking means that its planes will be automatically tracked from takeoff to landing without control from pilots, removing any issues of tampering and providing real-time aircraft monitoring.

SOURCE::: http://www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Jan 14 2015

Only One Passenger On a Flight !!!… Strange But True !!!

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You won't have to worry about getting a drink on this flight.

You won’t have to worry about getting a drink on this flight. Source: Getty Images

A US man from Brooklyn flew home in style on Monday, as practically the only passenger on-board a Cleveland-to-New York flight.

Chris O’Leary tweeted in disbelief after taking his seat as the solo flyer aboard a Delta regional plane and got incredibly personalised safety instructions from flight attendants.

O’Leary’s 9:39am flight home was delayed for hours, so he stayed in his hotel until the afternoon when it was finally going to depart, according to ABC News.

By the time O’Leary reached the airport, he learned that virtually all his fellow passengers had been rebooked on other flights and he somehow missed messages offering the earlier departures.

View image on Twitter

 

“They rebooked everyone but me on another flight to LGA,” he tweeted, “so I am literally the only person on this plane.”

He added: “Just got a personal safety briefing from my two flight attendants.”

 

A flight attendant snapped a picture of O’Leary alone in passenger seats.

He tweeted out the image with: “No, I’m not joking. I’m the only one on this plane.”

 

O’Leary was all set to get his personalised ride home, before the Delta plane rolled back to the gate and picked up one more passenger.

O’Leary didn’t mind sharing his flight.

“Part of this is my own stupidity but it ended up working out in my favor,” O’Leary told ABC, grateful that he missed all of the airline’s messages.

 

It’ll be a Cleveland-to-New York flight O’Leary will never forget.

“Well, this has been a interesting day,” he tweeted. “Who knew the simple act of getting on the plane you’re supposed to could amuse so many people?”

Even O’Leary’s mum saw his picture on Twitter.

“Reaction to this story from my mum: `I’m glad you got a haircut,’ “ O’Leary tweeted.

SOURCE:::: http://www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Image of the Day…. Jan. 12, 1986 Early Morning Space Shuttle Launch !!!

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On Jan. 12, 1986, the space shuttle Columbia launched at 6:55 a.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center on the STS-61C mission. It was the first spaceflight for now-NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, who was a Pilot on the STS-61C crew along with Mission Commander Robert L. Gibson, Mission Specialists Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Steven A. Hawley and George D. Nelson and Payload Specialists Robert J. Cenker of RCA and U.S. Rep. (now Senator) Bill Nelson. During the six-day flight, crew members deployed the SATCOM KU satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. The mission was accomplished in 96 orbits of Earth, ending with a successful night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Jan. 18, 1986. Image Credit: NASA

SOURCE:::: http://www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Jan 14 2015

10 Minutes Flight Time …World”s Shortest Flight !!!

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FlyNiki claims to have plans for the world’s shortest flight. Picture: somkuti.

FlyNiki claims to have plans for the world’s shortest flight. Picture: somkuti. Source: Flickr

LOW-cost Austrian airline, FlyNiki, is launching a 10 minute flight between the capitals of Austria and Slovakia that is claiming to be the world’s shortest.

The distance between the two cities is only 48 kilometres, just under an hour by car and even less by train, leaving many questioning if the trip is worth it once you account for airport queues and check-ins.

No it’s not an April fools joke but it may be quicker to drive. Picture: GerardvdSchaaf.

No it’s not an April fools joke but it may be quicker to drive. Picture: GerardvdSchaaf. Source: Flickr

But it’s a 15 minute drive to the airport from downtown Bratislava, and 20 minutes from Vienna. Combine that with early arrival for check-in and it seems it may be quicker to take the intercity bus trip of about an hour — and definitely a lot cheaper.

Set to launch on April 1, the airline says the Vienna-Bratislava flight will make sense for those taking connecting flights from Vienna.

SOURCE::::: http://www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Jan 12 2015

World’s Biggest Plane – Russian Antonov 225 with 32 Wheels….!!!

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Take off of the Biggest Airplane in the World …

The World’s Largest Plane at Niagara Falls

THIS AIRPLANE WAS AT THE NIAGARA FALLS AIRPORT RECENTLY (TWICE) TO LOAD LARGE TRANSFORMERS TO FLY DIRECTLY TO SAUDI ARABIA …
32 wheels! — Costs more than my house to rotate the tires!
The World’s Biggest Airplane, the Russian Antonov 225.
Attached pics are of the Russian behemoth when it landed.

While they were loading the compressors, the Russian pilots (two crews),went into town to buy cigarettes by the case and Levis jeans.
It is amazing something this huge can stay in the air.

The Wright brothers would never have dreamed it.
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Image of the day… Awesome Video of A Plane Crossing SUN …!!!

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Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Noel Keating tried all last year to capture video of a plane crossing the sun. On January 3, 2015, he did it!

EarthSky Facebook friend Noel Keating captured this cool video of a plane crossing the face of the sun on January 3, 2015. He wrote:

I saw the plane way off in the distance, and I did what I normally do. I used the vapor trail of the plane to guide a line across the sky towards the sun to see it if would line up. This one did :)! As the plane got closer to the sun, I couldn’t see it any more so I just viewed it through the Camera LCD display … boy, was I happy when it passed by the solar disc with all the sunspots in clear view.

SOURCE::::: http://www.earthsky.org and You Tube

Natarajan

Jan 12 2015