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A replica RAF spitfire flies at the Biggin Hill air show. The spitfire was introduced in 1938 and the RAF already had 400 spitfires ready for action at the outbreak of war the following year. By the end of the war an incredible 23000 had been built, almost entirely in Britain. A further 2000 spitfires were built for use on aircraft carriers, nicknamed 'seafires'. They were designed to be easy to produce and as such could be made in even the smallest of converted factories, which meant the large numbers necessary could be produced quickly whilst leaving the larger factories available for larger aeroplanes and vehicles. The spitfire was hailed as the weaponery Britain couldn't have done without, a view backed up by their efforts whilst hugely outnumbered in defending our shores in the Battle of Britain in autumn 1940. The spitfire was the first warplane to feature a retractable landing gear, which gave it a cruicial aerodynamic advantage as well as giving the visual impression that it was a lot more modern than many of the planes of its day. During the less than three months of the Battle of Britain our fighters, about 60/40 older Hurricanes and new Spitfires, shot down 1,300 German planes. In the same period head of the luftwaffe Herman Goering claimed to have shot down 3,058 British planes, more than the entire RAF at the time. The actual figure was 650 and Hitler called off the invasion of Britain on the 17th September 1940.
Royal Air Force Tornado F3, introduced 1985. The F3 is the RAF's primary air defence fighter, while the Tornado in GR4 guise is the premier strike/attack force. The Tornado F3 is optimised for long-range interception and can patrol for over 3 hours at 350 miles from base. The distinguishing features are moveable swing-wings which combines the advantages of a swept wing at high speeds, while avoiding its problems at lower speeds.
The Pont du Gard, or bridge of the River Gard in France, an incredible Roman architectual masterpiece built two thousand years ago around 20BC. An aquaduct, this is the centrepiece of a 50km long fresh water supply to Nimes from the mountains. It stands 50m high and 275m long and the first and second arches feature a wide walkway for carts. Some of the bricks contained in the structure are estimated to weigh over 6 tons. Amazingly, the fall was just 34cm per km over the 50 miles.
Her Majesty's Ship Royal Navy F230 'Norfolk' The first of 16 type 23 Frigates, launched in 1987. The type 23 is manoeuvrable and intended for antisubmarine, minesweeper and reconnaissance duties, and carries a 'Sea King' class helicopter. Production continues today.
Nigel Mansell gives Aryton Senna a lift in this famous scene from the 1991 British Grand Prix. Senna, who went on to win the championship, was running second behind Mansell and ran out of fuel on the last lap. Mansell picked him up amid cheers for the crowd in support of their home winner. According to Mansell in his autobiography in 1992 when he did win the championship, Senna, next to him on the podium, said "Now you know what a great feeling it is, You see I never want to lose that feeling. That's why I'm such a bastard"
Her Majesty's Ship Royal Navy D89 'Exeter'. One of 14 type 42 destroyers built between 1972 and 1985, HMS Exeter was reported sunk by Argentine propaganda early in the Falklands war, causing a media frenzy. Tragically two type 42s, HMS Sheffield and HMS Coventry, were sunk later in the conflict along with two type 21 frigates with the loss of 23 lives. The British fleet comprising of ageing aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, then brand new STOVL Platform HMS Invincible, assault ships HMS Intrepid and HMS Fearless, 15 assorted Frigates, 5 type 42's and 3 older destroyers found themselves facing amoungst the Argentinian fleet the two type 42's sold to the Argentine navy in 1975. Since the war all British type 42's were updated and are still in service. Meanwhile Argentina's destroyers have been laid up because the government found it increasingly difficult to source spare parts for them. However the type 42 and in particular it's sea dart missiles are fast getting outdated and in Britain they will be replaced from 2007 by the new type 45 destroyers.
Ralf Schumacher attacks a steep incline(!) at Hockenhiem in the Williams FW25 during the German Grand Prix, August 2003. I have been predicting Ralf for the title for several years running. This year with Montoya, who I intensely dislike, leaving at the end of the year, and a 'revolutionary' car in the FW26, I once again predict Ralf for the title. Despite his obvious racing talent, however, if you ever need cheering up just remember Ralf is considerably more boring THAN YOU!
An Iraqi child holds an AK-47 assualt rifle outside the Information Ministry of Iraq during the 2003 Gulf war. The AK-47 is the single most common weapon in the world by far, and still also one of the best. It was designed by Russian Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947 (hence the name) and immediately adopted for service with the Russian Army. The AK-47 has two methods of fire - it is capable of shooting a single bullet with reasonable accuracy up to 500 yards, or use as a machiene gun firing around 420 rounds per minite. At that rate the accuracy of the gun was poor, but the AK-47's real genius lays in the simplicity of the design. With few moving parts it is easily servicable and there is not much to go wrong. The rifle is also very light. As with so many Soviet weapons the AK-47 soon found its way into the hands of the world and these machiene guns replaced single-shot rifles in nations and terrorist organisations alike. 100 million AK-47's have been produced, almost entirely to Kalashnikov's original specification, which means that in theory 1 person in 60 in the entire world has one. 60 years on from their introduction the AK-47 is still the weapon of choice for all any bad guys you care to mention, although the Soviet Army now uses an updated version, the AK-74, since 1974. As an aside in 1994 the UK recorded it's highest gun murder rate yet of 68 people. In the same year in the USA, where it is a constitutional right for a citizen to carry a gun, there were 11'127 gun murders.
French air force Dassault Mirage-2000D. Originally introduced in 1983 as a NATO customer plane, the Mirage-2000 is operated by numerous countries as their primary attack fighter. The 2000 is a compact single seater design, and one of it's strengths is it's ability to land on even the smallest of airstips or lightly prepared narrow roads. The 2000 is also able to carry out medium range light bombing missions. The D is a updated design launched in 1991. Mirage 2000s are operated by Egypt, Greece, India, Peru, Qatar, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and France. Production continues today.
MG Rover 25 ZR, 2003 competing in the Lapland Rally. The ZR designation is part of Rover's integration programme with MG with the aim of a quick return to profit for the troubled UK manufacturer. Rover's primary output consists of the 25 (Small Hatchback), 45 (Medium saloon/Estate) and 75 (Large saloon/executive car). MG's output is now modified versions of the three in the form of the ZR, ZS and ZT respectively, with the intention of improving the image of the Rover brand.
Rubens Barrichello in action at the Circuit de Catalunya in a Ferrari F-2003
Justine Henin-Hardenne in action at Wimbledon, 2003 . As this picture shows, Mrs Henin can beat her opponents with her eyes closed and will almost certainly arrive at Wimbledon 2004 as world number one.
The famous picture of workers eating their lunch hundreds of feet up during the construction of the Rockefellar Centre in New York, 1932. The Rockefeller centre is 70 stories tall and was seen as a symbol of hope following the 1929 Wall Street crash because of the number of workers emplyed. While five workers perished during construction in 1930 of the nearby 102 storey Empire State Building, not a single worker on the Rockefeller Centre lost their lives despite the complete lack of heath and safety provisions.
United States Navy F-16 'Falcon'. In 1967 the introduction of the mach 2.8-capable MiG-25 'Foxbat' by the soviet forces prompted a frezy of activity for a fighter to match it by the United States forces. The US Navy began development of the F-14 'Tomcat', to be built by Grumman, while the Air Force began work on the F-15 'Eagle', to be built by Mcdonnel-Douglas. In 1969 the Pentagon reccommended both projects be replaced by the General Dynamics designed F-16, which had the same powerful engine as the F-15 but could be launched from an aircraft carrier like the F-14. Both forces resisted the move (despite the first F-14 crashing on it's test flight) and with further pressure to build new planes and fast from the soviets all three were put into production, with the result that once again the US regained it's air superiority. All three are still very much in service, but the F-16 is seen as the most sucessful. Over 4000 have been built and production continues today. The F-16 is also notorious for the design having been sold to Israel during the height of Middle Eastern hostilities.
The nine RAF display team Hawk 'Red Arrows' fly in formation led by concorde heading for London to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee on 4th June 2002. 2003 spelt the end for Concorde, which never made a profit despite not being succeeded from being the only supersonic passenger aircraft, with a top speed of mach 2.3. Concorde services never recovered from the crash at Paris of an Air France concorde which cost the lives of 100 passengers and 9 crew in July 2000. Concorde's most noticeable feature is the nose which dips down not for any aerodynamic purpose but so the pilot can see the runway on landing as it is so long.
The supertanker T.T. Jahre Viking is the largest ship ever built and at 458 metres (1504 feet), more than the length of four football pitches, it is longer that the world's tallest building is tall. It dwarfs such vessels as the QE2 (963ft), the Titanic (883ft), and the world's largest military ship, aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz (1092ft). Built in 1979 to carry 4.1million barrels of crude oil, when fully laden the ship weighs 260,851 tonnes and lays so low at 25m below the surface that it is unable to pass through the English Channel. The ship has had an interesting history - originally named 'Sea Wise Giant' it was caught up in the Gulf war trying to export oil from Iran and was sunk in 1988 by exocet missiles from Iraqi jets. After sitting out the rest of the war at the bottom of the sea, it was bought by a Norweigan firm for an incredible $35million and refloated and repaired at the famous Keppel Shipyard in Singapore. After this truly incredible engineering achievement the ship was renamed T.T. Jahre Viking and continues to operate to this day between the USA and the Middle East with an Indian captain and crew. Originally crewed by 10 officers and 20 crew, the Jahre Viking is recognised today as a worldwide risk of the higest order and now carries 20 officers and 20 crew to constantly moniter any rocky straits and shallow waters. In this picture Jahre Viking is fully laden and appears to be almost sinking, however this is not the case as the sheer size of the ship means that the sides look very low - they're not! Each cargo of oil the ship carries is worth around £70million.
The Forth Rail Bridge, over the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. This cantilever bridge, a revolutionary design, was built by Sir William Arrol and opened in 1890. In 1879 progress on the original design, which was to be a suspension bridge designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, was halted abruptly following the collapse of the Bouch-designed Tay Bridge, with the loss of many lives. The final bridge is both distinctive and very sturdy. The bridge is 8,000ft long, the towers reach a height of 361ft and trains cross the river at a height of 158ft. The total cost came to £3.2m, counting £250,000 for the abortive construction work on the earlier bridge. Construction involved the use of over 54,000 tons of steel and 6.5 million rivets. Incredibly, that's 7 times more steel and 3 times as many rivets than the Eiffel Tower, of which it can seem oddly reminiscent. The two were completed in the same year, 1889. The sheer size of the bridge is not to be underestimated either, at 1000ft the Eiffel Tower is less than 3 times taller. During the seven years of construction, 4,000 men were employed, of which 57 were killed in accidents. A further 8 were saved by boats on duty below to rescue people who fell. Today the line continues to carry the East Coast Mainline Railway north of Edinburgh, and each year twice as many trains pass over the bridge annually than the number it was designed for 120 years previously.
2004 Jordan-Ford EJ14, pictured at it's first running at Silverstone, Northamptonshire in January 2004. The 04.04.04 logos on the car's livery refer to the date of the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. Unfortunately I'll miss the race as we'll be in Cornwall starting our ride!
The Petronas Towers, in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, held the most prestigous of the world's four tallest building categories at 1483 feet to the top of each between 1996 and 2003. In October 2003 they were exceeded by the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan. The new Taiwanese building also claims two of the other categories. The four categories are:
1. Height to the structural or architectural top (including spires, but excluding antennas).
2. Height to the highest occupied floor.
3. Height to the top of the roof.
4. Height to the top of antenna.
The new Taipei 101 tower is the tallest in categories 1 and 3 and will also take category 2 when it's new owners move in in Autumn 2004. Category 1, commonly used to refer to the world's tallest building, was previously held by the Petronas towers since their completion in 1996. The second and third categories have been held by the Sears Tower (1427ft) since its completion in 1973. Just as the Sears Tower finally looked like losing all its distinctions on 11th September 2001 it gained category 4 in tragic circumstances when the World Trade Centre collapsed. The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada (1815ft) does not qualify in these categories because with no office or residential use it is classified as a structure and not a building.
The Petronas Towers are not to be forgotten, however. They remain the tallest twin towers, the tallest building of the 20th century and the building with the most office space (when counted as one of course). They were funded and built entirely by the Malaysian government and have been a massive commercial success, directly and indirectly by putting Malaysia on the map. It is thought the Malaysians have already regained their investment through a huge increase in tourism and Gross Domestic Product of the capital. In a land of development, cheap labour and readily available building materials the towers cost a mere £750million to build, which may seem a lot but consider that 1 Canada Square, or the Canary Wharf Tower in England, which is just half the height and a third of the office space, cost £4billion to build, and that was back in 1988. Petronas is the name of the government-owned Malaysian oil corperation, who are occupying many of the floors. One of the Towers' most distinctive features is the sky walkway between the towers, as seen in the picture, which crosses at floors 42 and 43. The bottom walkway has a glass viewing platform and sections of glass floor.
The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan was opened in 1998 and is the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge cost £3.1million and is over 2.5 miles long. The towers are 928 feet each from sea level, making their overall height taller than the Eiffel Tower. At 12,800 feet the total span is so huge that the Sears Tower, until recently the world's tallest building, would fit eight times end to end. For comparison the QE2 bridge at Dartford has a span of just 1,500 feet. The Akashi-Kaikyo bridge overtakes the Humber Bridge at Hull, which was opened in 1981 and was the longest at 4,500 feet for 17 years, less than half that of the Japanese Bridge. This bridge has the added feature of being built to withstand 180mph gusts and earthquakes of Richter Scale 8.5. The area experienced an earthquake of 7.4 (less than 10 times less powerful) during construction in 1995 causing construction to be temporarily halted as 6'000 people were killed.
The Great Pyramid Of Cheops (or Khufu in English) is the largest of the three Pyramids of Giza, is commonly known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, and stands at 481 feet high. It is thought to have been completed in 2570BC, 2000 years before the other six wonders of the world, and has outlasted all six by a further 1500 years! It also towers above its tallest rivals in this respect, the Colossus of Rhodes (110ft) and the Lighthouse of Alexandria (380ft). Its height is the equivalent of 55 storys and being of over 100m tall, it is still officially classified as a skyscraper and as such is part of a surprisingly small group of buildings in this category. It stood as the tallest building in the world for over 4 milleniums until finally beaten by the Minster of Strasbourg in 1439, which was built about 6ft higher deliberately to exceed it. However, it's height is not the most impressive thing about it. The pyramid is constructed of limestone and granite blocks each weighing between 2 and 4 tons, giving it a total weight of 7 million tons. The acuracy of construction is almost beyond belief - the pyramid is a perfect square to within a quarter of an inch of its 775ft sides, which are orientated exactly along the north/south and east/west axis even though the compass had not yet been invented. Unrelated to the building of the structure the great pyramid has been around so long that its location is over 4km from its original home, because of the earth's plate movements over the last 4574 years! When it was built the whole pyramid was coated in smooth marble but as can be seen in the picture there is only some left at the top as most was later used on other projects.
Inside the pyramid there are two main chambers, both of which were looted long before archeologists discovered them. In the King's chamber there is a light shaft which points exactly to Orion's belt. This is thought to be because the Egyptians believed the Pharaoh's spirt would take the form of one of the stars, and wanted it to be an important one. One of the galleries (smaller chambers) in the pyramid has an intricate roof of blocks so precisely laid that it is said you could not get a piece of paper between any one of them. Little is known about the Pharaoh Cheops himself as there are few incriptions in the pyramid that have been discovered, and it was one of the first pyramids to be built. In 2002 a robot climbed a tiny long passage which was discovered and drilled a small hole in the door at the end, but only found another closed door behind it.
Other frankly astonishing facts about the great pyramid:
- The pyramid's four walls each measure 9131 inches, for a total of 36524 inches. Modern science tells us that the length of a solar year is 365.24 days. Coincidence? Could be.
- With a circle, circumfrence = 2 x pi x radius. Therefore pi = circumfrence /(2 x radius). As above, the pyramid has a 'circumfrence' of 36524 inches. It's height is 5812.98 inches. 36524 /(2 x 5812.98) = 3.14159, which is pi exactly to five decimal places. Coincidence? Hmmm.
- Today the average land height above sea level (with the Himalayas being the highest and Miami being the lowest) has been calculated using satelites. It just happens to be 5813 inches. Heard that number before? It's the exact height of the pyramid.
- The Pyramid is located at the exact center of the Earth's land mass. That is, its East-West axis corresponds to the longest land parallel across the Earth, passing through Africa, Asia, and America. Similarly, the longest land meridian on Earth, through Asia, Africa, Europa, and Antarctica, also passes right through the Pyramid.
So, either those Egyptians discovered America before Columbus or they were very good at guesswork. Also, the Ancient Greeks are credited with discovering pi as 22/7 (3.142) in about 600BC but it was not until 300BC that Archimedes is credited with discovering pi to 5 decimal places. Remember that by the time of the Ancient Greeks the Egyptians were already ancient history. Did the Egyptians already know such an exact value of pi? All these coincidences have lead to many theories about previous life on earth having been more inteligent than us. It's something to think about anyway.