En-Lightning

Snap this at an industrial estate occupying the former RAF Burtonwood, which was the principal hub for moving troops or materiel from the US to Europe during WW2.

At first questioning whether we've the cash for such nostalgia, but on reflection it is, the artist responsible for any number of imaginative memorials of this kind.

Whether or not the P50 was stationed at Burtonwood I'm unsure, but who cares?

What I especially like about it is that it is two-dimensional, and from any angle but this you'd never tell.

Interesting fact: French aviator and author St Exupery fought during WW1 and yet persuaded them to let him fly in WW2 as well. He was last seen over the Med in one such aircraft, designed for reconnaissance instead of interception. The Spitfire also fulfilled such a role, it like this being faster than ever deprived of its cannons.

Monomania #17: Weight Watchers

I try to do at least a little each day, even when life is making other plans.

So here at the weigh-in our 2.10m craft tips the scales at a round 4.0 kilos (9.0 lb).

Were I to compare it to a boat that you might sit in, increasingly there is a trend toward blow-moulded unsinkable types like the: https://www.whaly.com/whaly210

Even without a motor it weighs and costs some ten times more, and as a designer I would be aiming for a monoski to travel between five and ten times faster and with the same step-change in efficiency: albeit powered electrically.

I do like boats you sit in, counting a GRP canoe as a best-ever birthday present.

Nonetheless the sad thing is ~ in the surveillance society we choose to live in ~ it is all going to be about driving things at sea from a screen or a sofa for most intents.

But let's not dwell on that and take its picture next, shall we?

The Whaly 2.10 is also twice the width ~ quote 'WHERESWHALY?' for a discount.

Long Tale

A cursory visit to any transport museum ~ this one in Berlin ~ will show how from the get-go every outboard motor was at least a short-tail: think drink-blenders but bigger.

If you want a reason why innovation on water is regulated out of existence here in Europe, Google 'bye-laws and speed restrictions on Loch Lomond' and spend some time with the family testing each other ~ and I choose this stretch because it is the most egregious example of lockdowns on water throughout the UK.

Then go check out the videos on tuned-up long-tails in Bangkok; remembering to wear safety-goggles, hard-hat and high-visibility tabard if viewing in Europe.

The unit of choice for driving down your waterway of choice at manic speed is a stock 1500cc engine previously powering Toyota's people-carrier ~ the Japanese producing the most reliable engines, each a gift to petrol-heads the world over.

Happy paddle-boarding, losers!

Monomania #16: First Principles

I've done a Rachel Reeves* and said that we'd mount both motors forward-facing, then done a U-turn and mounted them as I did earlier.

But why... I ask for you?

(a) there's more room here to get an Allen key in there to replace propellers

(b) it look's better

(c) it provides for a firmer basis upon which to set the boat upright for storage

(d) just one cross-bar impedes the propellers' efflux and not two

(e) should we test a rudder, it can replace that second motor on the rear spar

Look though at how I fitted that second cross-bar: by laying the boat inverted on a few chocks (so that the first motor clears the floor) and setting the second motor in place before driving screws in from either side.

Incidentally I fitted the rear-most motor-mount with a pair of screws at either end, so as to stop it twisting: should it do so propellers will clash and we'll end in tears.

Rachel Reeves: a chancellor unable to reduce welfare or cut taxes as promised.

Monomania #15: Coming Unstuck

I'm going to share my failures with you as well as my successes; so here when I was fitting the motor-mount to the foot of the boat (it being stood upright) one of the lengths of stripwood was prised from its sides.

Turns out this was because the length of square-section timber which included the motor was a half-centimetre too long... it having been borrowed from a prior build.

But are we going to let this bother us, and go crying on the staircase?

Yes, but there are always lessons to learn. James Dyson, our foremost industrialist, himself describes the company he founded as an exercise in failure.

And in our case here we look at which surface the glue has successfully adhered to, and that is the raw timber itself. It has not stuck to the edges of the deck, which if you will recall we sealed with undercoat a while back... so we won't do that again, will we?

Ter Might

Focus in the war of attrition on the eastern front turns to use of UGV or uncrewed ground vehicles, ironically because the successful deployment of aerial drones has rendered walking around on the battlefield a life-shortening occupation.

Thus vehicles like Tencore's Termit are being used occasionally to rescue casualties, but moreso to sustain supply lines (Ed. we used to use donkeys for that, but now they're all in government).

During a week in which a defence executive in the US has suggested the UK will run out of arms unless it makes a good deal greater use of autonomous drones, focus is on 'attritable' types of the kind Europe has no real experience of, having planned on no war at all or else the previous one these past few decades*.

The attrition rate? Vehicles like the Termit are expected to last just two missions on average, with units on the battlefield suggesting that of every three launched in one or other operation, just one could be expected to survive... the others falling victim to either landmines or drone attacks of the sort previously directed at tanks or troop carriers.

Think Legoland, but without the ice-cream.

The cost of equivalent vehicles produced by heavily-subsidised military-industrial players in Europe varies from anything between ten and a hundred times more expensive, depending on whether you saw the Middle Eastern oil money coming.

Monomania #14: Mounting Pleasure

This is how we'll mount the first motor. One argument for using two motors in place of one ~ besides eliminating the requirement for a rudder surface ~ is propellers for drones do invariably retail in pairs.

I'm endeavouring to make this drone as practical to assemble or operate in the field by a single crew, and this method is easiest given that we've only two hands and wielding a cross-bar, screw and screw-driver simultaneously is beyond most of us.

Interestingly, Lockheed assembled their F-117 Nighthawk at the Skunk Works stood on end. I flew in the same university squadron as someone who later went on to display it, and so I'll bask in his reflected glory for a moment if I may?

I just remembered his surname was Wood, and thanks to the wonder of Google his first name apparently was ~ and hopefully still is ~ Ian.