Summer

There are a few things I like about Summer, which is very nearly upon us.

Here is one.


At least I like the ones that don't have hail in them.

Other things I like include Cricket, tomatoes, holidays and mango. No photos of these things today though.

Music: Response

I think it's bit weird that having bought music online for the first time recently I find that I'm buying very different stuff than usual. An alarming proportion of my modest purchases are classified as Dance, Electronic or Dance/Electronic. The nearest I've ever come to this genre(s) was when I bought a DIG album mistakenly located in the dance section of HMV.

Now I suppose you *could* dance to DIG, but for it to look even slightly cool you'd have to be either a giant sloth or perhaps a 5 year-old on red cordial for the more frantic tracks.

So, I'm now legally in posession of a couple of the works of The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Daft Punk. Mostly I've been inspired by the latter, and what I believe may well be the coolest video ever made. I'm speaking here of Robot Rock.

Before I jump into the illegal screen shots, let me set the scene..

Robot....Rock. Okay, two concepts of great merit there.

Robots...who Rock. Still good. A logical extension of the above.

The robots in the clip are two guys dressed as robots in a slightly unconvincing manner. That is, they are wearing chrome-plated motorbike helmets, leathers and shiny gloves.

Now the best bits. Part of the stage looks like a bracelet with spikes on it. Good good.
Oh, and one of the "robots" plays a double necked guitar!!! Oh yes!

Now I've prepared you, here are a few poor quality screen grabs:

Robot playing drums. Shiny.

Robot playing world's coolest guitar.

Section of stage shaped like spikey bracelet!!

This is where the guitar says "Robot. Rock." So cool. So, so cool...

Daft Punk are the masters. Take concept, execute, concept nailed.

So I happily paid for the right to look at this clip, a useful remedy for stress and general lethargy.

Around the World: brilliant.

I still don't get that one with the dog guy though.. A few too many Roquefort pizzas before bedtime perhaps.

Only thing left that I don't understand is exactly why people in Australia must pay 25% more than people in the US for the same product delivered in the same manner. Something, people, is not quite right.

More Big Airbus Pics

It seems I only ever get enough sleep on weekends...

More photos!

Having seen the impressive exterior it was now time for our very rapid tour of the inside. As can be seen, this is very much a test aircraft, with no real interior or even sidewalls and ceilings. The large blue bottles are ballast tanks to allow the aircrafts weight and centre of gravity to be easily changed.

On the left is the forward stairway leading to the upper deck. On the right is Phil's arm, and behind that some of the test equipment.

Moving further into the cabin you can get a pretty good idea of the amount of wiring, plumbing and ducting on a large aircraft.


Lighting is improvised by fluorescent tubes stuck to the ceiling. Insulation blankets are thankfully present on the structure, preventing careless personnel from being frozen to the walls during long flights.

Around the middle of the main deck we get to the interesting bit.

The flight test engineers' station looks pretty slick, excepting perhaps the rather quaint paper data plotters. Our guide mentioned that from this station it possible to reprogram the flight control software in flight, an impressive if scary thought.. The screen at top left displays the output from cameras observing the undercarriage, one of the top of the tail, and one on the flightdeck (to make sure the crew haven't fallen asleep).

Moving to the rear of the main deck we find...

...just what you'd expect on a flight test aircraft. Well, I guess if you were flying out from France and had an unlimited baggage allowance... But, to quote a famous Australian chef: "Where's the cheese?"

Up here maybe?

I must say for a test aircraft the stairs are pretty fancy, with stylish LED lighting. Moving to the upper deck we find...

..more ballast tanks. Apart from that it looks a lot like the inside of an A330/340. That and the walls curving inwards more steeply. Not surprisingly it's a lot like a 747 upper deck only bigger.

Up the front of the uper deck is a rather rough passenger zone, obviously intended just to carry a few people, not as a showcase for the latest in interior technology. It looks a bit like it was nicked from on old A340 and doesn't quite fit properly, but I guess it does the job.

The main stairway looks far more grand than the pokey one on the 747. The bright orange bars in the centre are to assist the crew in moving around the cabin during unusual manoeuvers or attitudes, or to help get to a door if things go horribly wrong. Obscured by my two colleagues are a few steps leading up to the flightdeck.

And that's about it for the inside really. I took a few more exterior shots the next morning when the light was better. The panoramas worked ok, a bit of distortion where the frames join but not too bad. Click on them for larger versions..

As big as it looks on the ground, it's not until it flies over that you realise just how big the thing is. That wing is simply huge. Hopefully we'll get to see another in the not too distant future, next year one should be out here for route proving flights which will entail a longer stay and the possibility of getting to actually fly on one..

Fun with Big Aircraft

On occasion I'm lucky enough to see some interesting aircraft in my job. Not long back I got a good look through the prototype 777-200LR, an early 777-300ER and before that joyflights on an Embraer 170 and Bombardier Dash8 Q400. Yesterday however, I got to see something really impressive, none other than the very first Airbus A380. This is the Boss Monster of commercial jets and I can tell you is mighty impressive to look at. Anyway, to the photos!

This is the beastie. Big, isn't it?

Note hastily applied Qantas decals.

















Here's another view, showing a big blunt nose and tall crown. The crown incidentally, is made from GLARE, a glass and aluminium reinforced epoxy.

















Now to my eye if this were all polished aluminium it would look like a futuristic airliner of the 1930s..

So what's it like inside this big white whale? Is it a luxo-barge of kazillionaires or flying geeklab? And what is the mysterious cargo it's carrying? Well, I need sleep now, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow. But here's a sneak preview, to prove that I did in fact get on board. Yours truly in the big seat.


















More later.