Магистра Йоду из Звездных войн нашли в средневековом манускрипте

В старинном манускрипте разглядели магистра Йоду из Звездных войн

На иллюстрации библейской истории о Самсоне нашли магистра Йоду

В средневековом манускрипте 1340 года из Британской библиотеки нашли иллюстрацию, изображающую персонажа, очень похожего на героя популярной научно-фантастической саги "Звездные войны" магистра Йоды, пишет The Daily Mail.

Однако, как сообщил куратор Британской библиотеки Джулиан Харрисон, это изображение является лишь иллюстрацией библейской истории о Самсоне.

"Изображение Йоды происходит из манускрипта 14 века... Я хотел бы сказать, что это действительно был Йода или путешественник во времени, который вернулся в Средневековье, но на самом деле это иллюстрация к библейской истории о Самсоне - у художника действительно было очень живое воображение", - сказала  Харрисон.

Катастрофа A320 авиакомпании Germanwings: траур и уроки

В Кёльнском соборе 17 апреля пройдет экуменическая траурная служба в память о жертвах катастрофы рейса 4U9525 авиакомпании Germanwings. Какие уроки извлекли из этой трагедии?

24 марта во французских Альпах разбился самолет немецкой авиакомпании Germanwings, выполнявший рейс 4U9525 из Барселоны в Дюссельдорф. Погибли 150 человек. Большинство жертв - граждане Германии. Среди погибших - пассажиры из 21 страны. Особую утрату понес немецкий городок Хальтерн: катастрофа унесла жизни 16 школьников и двух учительниц местной гимназии.

Работы на месте трагедии продолжаются. Но расшифровка записей черных ящиков самолета рассеяла все сомнения: причиной катастрофы были не технические неполадки и не теракт, а сознательные действия второго пилота Андреаса Л. В Германии до сих пор не утихают споры о том, как предотвратить подобные трагедии. Однако на первом плане - забота о родственниках и близких жертв, траур по погибшим.

Экуменическая служба в Кельнском соборе

В Кельн для участия в траурной церемонии приехали около 500 родных и близких жертв авиакатастрофы. Среди гостей - президент Германии Йоахим Гаук (Joachim Gauck) и канцлер ФРГ Ангела Меркель (Angela Merkel), политики из Франции и Испании. Наряду с кардиналом Райнером Марией Вёльки (Rainer Maria Woelki) в траурной церемонии будет участввовать глава Евангелической церкви Вестфалии Аннетте Куршус (Annette Kurschus).

В интервью она объяснила, почему так важен этот акт памяти, ведь со дня катастрофы прошел уже почти месяц: "Траур - это чрезвычайно важный процесс, чтобы справиться с утратой. В данном случае это утрата, которую испытывает вся общественность. Такая траурная церемония дает возможность еще раз почувствовать эту скорбь в кругу тех, кто скорбит вместе с другими. Эта скорбь связана с конечностью бытия, с неотвратимостью кончины".

Компенсации родственникам и близким погибших

Компания Germanwings - дочернее предприятие концерна Lufthansa. Сразу после катастрофы A320 Lufthansa обеспечила всем родственникам погибших возможность побывать на месте катастрофы. На местах им оказывают помощь психологов.

Цветы на месте трагедии

Через три дня после катастрофы Lufthansa объявила, что незамедлительно выплатит по 50 тысяч евро компенсаций за каждого погибшего. Но из 149 семей компенсации получили пока только 80. Причина - отнюдь не в нежелании авиакомпании платить. Дело в том, что интересы многих родственников представляют адвокаты. Они надеются через суд добиться гораздо больших сумм. Кроме того, работы по сбору биологических проб уже завершены, но окончательное установление личностей погибших с помощью ДНК еще не закончено, поскольку при полетах внутри Шенгенской зоны пассажиры не обязаны даже предъявлять паспорта.

Дискуссии о втором пилоте

Картина трагедии ясна: после того как авиалайнер набрал полетную высоту, капитан корабля покинул кабину. Второй пилот Андреас Л. заблокировал дверь в кабину и перепрограммировал автопилот на плавное снижение. Через восемь минут самолет разбился. Л., совершив самоубийство, унес с собой жизни 149 человек.

Постепенно выяснялись детали этой трагедии. Оказывается, еще во время пилотской подготовки Андреас Л. проходил курс лечения от депрессии. Об этом он сообщил компании Lufthansa. Но затем его признали годным к полетам. А дочерняя компания Germanwings даже не знала об этой странице его биографии.

Психиатры выдвигают множество версий мотивов самоубийства Л. Одни считают, что это была патологическая страсть стать знаменитостью, другие - что причиной была боязнь потерять работу из-за проблем со здоровьем. А в СМИ прошли бурные дискуссии о том, кто же он, этот Андреас Л.: больной человек, достойный сострадания, или презренный террорист-самоубийца? В одном почти все комментаторы сходятся: опубликование фамилии пилота-самоубийцы было ошибкой. Этого нельзя было делать хотя бы из сострадания к его родителям.

Уроки катастрофы

С 27 марта все авиакомпании в Германии ввели правило "два человека в кокпите": если один из пилотов покидает кабину, его место должен занять кто-либо из экипажа, в частности стюардесса. Такое правило уже раньше действовало в большинстве стран, в том числе США и России. Бронированные двери в пассажирских самолетах и возможность блокировать их изнутри были введены после ряда терактов. Теперь эксперты рассматривают варианты модификации этого механизма.

Компания Deutsche Flugsicherung, контролирующая безопасность полетов, предлагает предусмотреть возможность пилотирования пассажирских авиалайнеров в экстренных случаях диспетчерами с земли. В беспилотниках эта технология применяется давно. Но где гарантия, что такой возможностью не воспользуются и кибертеррористы?

Why This Weird Future Airliner Has No Windows

 Head in the clouds? UK developers are working on removing windows in planes to save weight and fuel, replacing them with smartscreen panels broadcasting the view. Photograph: Tomasz Wyszo/mirski/ww.dabarti/CPI

It is a glimpse into the future that will inspire wonder in some people but perhaps strike terror into the heart of the nervous flyer: a windowless plane that nonetheless allows passengers to see what’s going on outside, as well as checking their email and surfing the net.

In a vision of what the next generation of commercial aircraft could look like in little more than a decade, windows would be replaced by full-length screens allowing constant views of the world outside. Passengers would be able to switch the view on and off according to their preference, identify prominent sights by tapping the screen or even just surf the internet.

The early-stage concept for the windowless plane, based on technology used in mobile phones and televisions, hails from the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), an organisation with sites across north-east England that works with companies to develop new products. It imagines how large, hi-definition, ultra thin and lightweight displays could form the inside of the fuselage, displaying images of the exterior from cameras mounted on the plane’s exterior.

But the real ambition echoes a constant quest in the aviation industry: how to reduce weight, which would cut fuel consumption, thereby bringing down fares. According to the CPI, for every 1% reduction in the weight of an aircraft, there is a saving in fuel of 0.75%.

The idea came about after discussions about how printable electronics, in which the centre specialises, could be used. “We had been speaking to people in aerospace and we understood that there was this need to take weight out of aircraft,” said Dr Jon Helliwell of the CPI. By putting windows into a plane, the fuselage needed to be strengthened, he added, and by omitting them in favour of walls of screens on panels, the fuselage would be lighter.

“Follow the logical thought through. Let’s take all the windows out – that’s what they do in cargo aircraft – what are the passengers going to do? If you think about it, it’s only really the people that are sitting next to windows that will suffer.”

These futuristic plans would involve screen panels reflecting whatever view of the outside the passenger wanted, changing in accordance with the direction of their eyes.

The screens would be made using organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) – a combination of materials that give out their own light when activated by electricity. The problems with the technology involve price and their sensitivity to moisture, which means they are generally encased in inflexible glass, mostly in mobile phones and televisions. The key development, said Helliwell, would be flexible OLEDs, which would allow the creation of screens suitable for an aeroplane. Electronics company LG recently posted a video of an 18-inch (46cm) screen which bends and contorts while the images on screen are broadcast uninterrupted.

“What would be great would be to make devices based on OLEDs that are flexible. We can make transistors that are flexible but if we can make OLEDs that are flexible, that gives us a lot of potential in the market because we can print OLEDs on to packaging, we can create flexible displays,” he said.

The CPI is one of seven bodies under the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, an umbrella group which receives government funding to drive growth in manufacturing. Part of the way the CPI operates is to identify challenges in industry – such as the windowless plane – and develop ways to overcome them, according to Helliwell.

Using £35m worth of advanced equipment in its Sedgefield facility, the CPI says it working on technologies to advance flexible OLEDs and tackle problems of cost and durability.

This could lead to the development of the OLEDs and the windowless plane, but could also be used in “smart packaging” for medicines or food which would contain information that could be displayed on a mobile phone.

One of the first steps in developing OLEDs is a mask which helps treat eye disease among people with diabetes. The device from PolyPhotonix, which was developed at the CPI, aims to stop the breakdown of blood vessels during sleep as a result of the disease. Using the device, the eye is fooled into thinking that it is daytime, when there is not the same problem with blood vessel breakdown.

The concept for the plane, said Helliwell – letting passengers see outside while allowing a lighter fuselage – followed discussions with the aerospace industry. The idea of having the displays lining the inside of the plane could become reality in 10 years, after other “building blocks” in the development of OLED are completed, he added. “We are talking about it now because it matches the kind of development timelines that they have in the aerospace industry.

“So you could have a display next to a seat if you wanted it; you could have a blank area next to a seat if you wanted it; you would have complete flexibility as to where you put [the panel screens]. You could put screens on the back of the seats in the middle and link them to the same cameras.”

What are OLEDs

OLEDs are a combination of advanced materials that give out their own light when activated by electricity and are typically used to make screens and lighting. Unlike LCD and plasma displays, they do not need a backlight, meaning that they use less energy and can be much thinner than other displays, while also displaying a higher contrast. Among ambitions for OLEDs involve printing them on sheets or wallpapering them on rooms, effectively turning the walls into lights.

Drive from Europe to the U.S.? Russia proposes world's greatest superhighway

Route as roughly interpreted by CNN. The proposed plan for a massive trans-Siberian highway would link Russia's eastern border with the U.S. state of Alaska.

It could happen if the head of Russian Railways has his way.

According to a March 23 report in The Siberian Times, Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin has proposed a plan for a massive trans-Siberian highway that would link his country's eastern border with the U.S. state of Alaska, crossing a narrow stretch of the Bering Sea that separates Asia and North America.

The scheme was unveiled at a meeting of the Moscow-based Russian Academy of Science.

Dubbed the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR), the project calls for a major roadway to be constructed alongside the existing Trans-Siberian Railway, along with a new train network and oil and gas pipelines.

"This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project," the Siberian Times quoted Yakunin. "The project should be turned into a world 'future zone,' and it must be based on leading, not catching, technologies."

"Are we there yet?"

The road would run across the entirety of Russia, linking with existing road systems in Western Europe and Asia.

The distance between Russia's western and eastern borders is roughly 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).

Yakunin said the road would connect Russia with North America via Russia's far eastern Chukotka region, across the Bering Strait and into Alaska's Seward Peninsula.

The road would likely enter Alaska some distance north of the town of Nome, where the famed Iditarod sled dog race ends.

How would drivers span the ocean gap between Siberia and Alaska? Ferry? Tunnel? Bridges?

The report didn't offer specifics on the route across the sea.

The shortest distance between mainland Russia and mainland Alaska is approximately 88 kilometers (55 miles), according to the Alaska Public Lands Information Centers.

The main route of the Trans-Siberian railway runs from Moscow to Vladivostok and covers 9,258 kilometers.

A theoretical drive (as fancifully calculated by CNN) from London to Alaska via Moscow might cover about 12,978 kilometers (8,064 miles).

Relatively isolated even by Alaska standards, no road connects Nome with the rest of the state's road system.

About 836 road-less kilometers (520 miles) across desolate terrain separates Nome from the closest major city and road network in Fairbanks, the unofficial northern terminus of the Alaska Highway.

From Fairbanks, Canada and the 48 contiguous U.S. states can be reached by road.

Assuming a road to Nome were ever built (the idea has been studied by the state of Alaska), a fantasy road trip from London to New York might cover a grueling but presumably photo-op-laden 20,777 kilometers (12,910 miles).

Facebook posts from forlorn Siberian rest stops might alone make the trip worthwhile, though the journey would also easily establish irritating new records for "Are we there yet?" gripes from the kids.

Who's gonna pay for this thing?

Yakunin has been described as a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some sources have speculated that he could be Putin's likely successor as president.

TEPR would reportedly cost "trillions of dollars."

According to Yakunin, however, massive economic returns would more than make up for the massive cash outlay -- about which the report also included no details.

Army looking to acquire mini-drones

Their light weight means that mini-drones can be launched easily by soldiers 

The Swiss army is exploring the possibility of acquiring mini-drones for the infantry by 2020. A budget of CHF8 million has been set aside.

The miniature drones will be used for close-proximity surveillance according to Armasuisse, confirming information published in the Blick newspaper on Saturday. A proposal is currently being prepared to test various models with a view to eventually acquiring them in 2019-20, revealed Armasuisse  spokesperson Kaj-Gunnar Sievert.

These mini-drones offer the capability of observing the enemy over long distances or across barriers like a hill or building. The models and specifications that will be tested were not disclosed.

There are several types of such unmanned craft, including quadricopters or mini-planes that can be fitted with infrared cameras. Most of them can be hand-launched.

Switzerland already posseses much larger surveillance drones to support the army with intelligence gathering. They are used for policing, border patrols, and assessment in case of disasters. The government’s recent attempts to renew its fleet of drones with “battle-tested” models produced by Israeli companies raised eyebrows. The budget for six such drones amounted to CHF250 million

Less Leasing Love From Lessors

Image: Courtesy JDL Multimedia

New airplanes are good for everyone; that’s the story aircraft manufacturers are pushing and even some airlines are buying in to. With greater fuel efficiency, longer range, and higher capacity, the push is on to get new aircraft into every airline’s hangars.

United Airlines predicts that it will save approximately two million annually for each Boeing 757-200 it replaces with a new Boeing 737-900ER in its domestic fleet, for example, but this prediction is based when aviation fuel prices were much higher. Meanwhile, Allegiant has made a different business decision of flying old–but reliable–aircraft until they break; then, Allegiant will replace them with another inexpensive, older plane, but it would seem that Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has a much different different approach as he recently suggested that the 787s his airline has recently acquired will be out of the fleet in less than a decade, making way for newer and larger aircraft.

Boeing expects to be producing 52 of its 737 aircraft each month by 2018 while Airbus is increasing its A320 family output to 46 per month by Q2 2016. Some widebody aircraft, such as the A330 or 747-8 families, are seeing reductions in production rates to partially offset the increase while others, including the 787 family, see increasing production rates to counter large backlogs.

And then there are those who worry about the ever increasing pace of aircraft delivery and its potential impact on the market overall. Many of them are in the aircraft leasing and financing business who are faced with a rapidly changing market structure and demand profile, one which the major manufacturers are upsetting with increased production rates.

CIT Aerospace, a lessor with roughly nine billion in aircraft under management, and plans to buy 15 A330neo aircraft, pressed for caution amongst the manufacturers in the near future. The statement was made at the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) conference recently amidst talk of an even greater push by Airbus and Boeing to capture market share.

Much of it comes down to residual value and amortization over time. The lessors historically have depended on a reasonably strong secondary market, often in secondary or tertiary countries, where used aircraft can operate reliably well after the initial service run at a major carrier. Today, however, more and more airlines are buying new from Airbus or Boeing rather than taking planes second-hand. More airlines are focusing on providing the comfortable passenger experience rather than simply transportation from A to B.

So airlines are owning new planes for shorter lifecycles and buying or leasing fewer used planes. This glut of inventory pushes down costs in the secondary market which is understandably bad for the lessors, but what does it mean to the broader industry as a whole? Passenger experiences are generally better on newer planes and the environmental impact is hard to argue, but for the airlines, is it better to run the newer aircraft with higher capital costs and lower operating costs or the older planes with that ratio reversed? Especially if the secondary market continues to see declining prices. This will impact the first owners of new planes down the line as they look to unload and cash out on the airframe.

Ultimately, this could portend an inversion in the market where the traditional legacy carriers start operating more and more second-hand planes to better control total costs while the upstarts, flush with investor cash or loan guarantees, happily take the new planes off assembly lines around the world. And, in the middle, the private-sector financing groups will struggle to make a profit from the industry where public financing seems spectacularly easy to secure.

10 самых безумных грузов, перевезенных по воздуху

Авиаперевозки принято классифицировать по направлению, категории груза и типу загрузки, однако порой встречаются примеры, не поддающиеся никакой классификации.

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10. Кит-косатка

Косатка Кейко, звезда американского фильма «Освободите Вилли», был авиапассажиром дважды — сначала его доставили из Мехико в Орегон с помощью C-130 Hercules, а затем на Boeing C-17 Globemaster III кита вернули обратно на родину в Исландию, где позже он был выпущен на волю.

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9. Офтальмологическая клиника

Некоммерческая организация Orbis International построила «летающий госпиталь» на базе самолета McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Полноценная офтальмологическая клиника с международной командой врачей предназначалась для лечения глазных заболеваний в развивающихся странах, где отсутствует необходимая медицинская инфраструктура.

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8. Коровы

Крупный рогатый скот тоже иногда нуждается в авиаперевозках. Пилоты Boeing 747, однажды перевозившие 390 коров над Ирландским морем, были напуганы сработавшей пожарной сигнализацией. Как выяснилось после экстренной посадки, чувствительные датчики подняли тревогу из-за тепла коровьих тел.

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7. Конвертоплан V-22 Osprey

Серийный конвертоплан V-22 Osprey, сочетающий возможности самолета и вертолета, нельзя назвать маленьким, однако он без особых усилий поместился в грузовой самолет Aero Spacelines Super Guppy.

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6. Вкусовые добавки для собачьего корма

90 тонн вкусовых добавок для собачьего корма однажды были отправлены во Францию с помощью Boeing 747. Смесь вожделенных для собак химических веществ, о вкусе которых можно лишь догадываться, заняла весь грузовой отсек самолета.

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5. Фюзеляж C-130

Транспортировка фюзеляжа C-130 Hercules с помощью военно-транспортного самолета повышенной грузоподъемности Lockheed C-5 Galaxy С-5 потребовала от военных более двух лет планирования и испытаний.

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4. Весь Париж-Дакар

В 2000 году гонка Париж-Дакар была под угрозой партизанского нападения в Нигере, так что все грандиозное мероприятие «в сборе» — от людей до транспортных средств — было доставлено в Ливию, где гонка возобновилась. Для этого потребовалось три тяжелых транспортных самолета Ан-124 «Руслан», которые совершили 18 рейсов, и 5 миллионов долларов.

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3. Гигантский лазер

Экспериментальный самолет Boeing YAL-1 на базе 747 нес в носовой части большую лазерную пушку, предназначенную для уничтожения ракет. Правда, после испытаний проект был закрыт.

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2. Ядерный реактор

Американский самолет с ядерным реактором на борту Convair NB-36H был построен и испытан в 1955 году. Чуть позже, в 1961 году, в СССР построили Ту-119, который также был оснащен ядерной силовой установкой. В середине 1960-х годов правительства обеих стран свернули свои проекты и отказались от дальнейшего развития «атомолетов».

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1. 190-тонный генератор

Ан-225 «Мрия» сам по себе является самым тяжелым транспортным самолетом в мире, а в 2013 году он перевез из швейцарского Цюриха в Бахрейн генератор весом 190 тонн, крупнейший объект, когда-либо перевезенный по воздухк.

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Here's Why Airliners Still Don't Have Real-Time Tracking Tech

It's been one year since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished into thin air. So why aren't we doing a better job of tracking planes yet?

From the moment MH370 disappeared more than one year ago, the world has been asking how a jumbo jet carrying 239 people could vanish. Now, the aviation industry is grappling with another question: Where are the promised flight tracking systems that would prevent this from ever happening again?

The technology would transmit in real time a multidimensional picture of an aircraft's position, measured by longitude, latitude, altitude, and the local time as provided by satellites. This is the same data that is captured by the flight data recorders (the black boxes), which, in the case of MH370, are presumed to be somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean. However, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it might not be possible to meet its goal of making all aircraft traceable within a year—something that had seemed a reasonable deadline in the aftermath of MH370.

Tony Tyler, the former Cathay Pacific executive who heads the 250-member airline trade group, said that while the group is taking the issue "seriously," it's not clear whether all carriers are on board with the timetable.

"There is no silver bullet solution on tracking," he said at a briefing in Geneva. "The industry is working to improve, but some issues…. will take time to address and implement," he added, noting that the sealing of cockpit doors after the Sept. 11 attacks took several years to complete.

So what's the problem? The IATA just released a study from its Aircraft Tracking Task Force, which, after the disappearance of MH370, was charged with developing tracking options for planes. The study's main focus is how to track planes in areas that have no radar coverage, such as remote areas over water. Thanks to the modernization of air traffic control systems, that tracking is already improving, but that alone won't be enough to track all planes if airlines don't make their own upgrades.

The IATA report is supposed to contain information about how many airlines are already equipped for real-time tracking, but the details have not yet been made public. We do know the authors conclude that some may not be able to meet the new standards by target date of the end of 2015.

Plus, there's the question of authority: The IATA can't make the airlines fall in line and add new tracking tech. Any governmental action to require such tracking must come via the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization, which could put pressure on individual countries to act if it sees fit. The issue next goes before them at a summit in February.

The study also raised the prospect of requiring carriers to acquire tamper-proof transponders within three years. A criminal investigation under way in Malaysia is examining the possibility that someone on the plane intentionally disabled the transponder of the 777, which effectively made it untraceable and allowed it to fly undetected for hours. But IATA stopped short of saying that the new transponders should be mandated.

There's also disagreement on how much it will cost. The upgrades could cost tens of thousands of dollars per aircraft, and many airlines have expressed concern about the high cost given how rare it is for an aircraft to disappear.

Of course, those same arguments were made after Air France 447 crashed into the South Atlantic in 2009, when the industry had an opportunity to make the changes that might have prevented MH370's disappearance.