Voters In Trump Counties Far More Likely To Die Of Covid
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Americans in areas that voted for President Trump are almost three times more likely to die of Covid-19 than those in counties that supported Joe Biden, an analysis has found.
In the most strongly pro-Trump areas there was an almost sixfold difference in pandemic mortality with the most pro-Biden areas, according to National Public Radio (NPR).
I suppose Trummkopf will say it is fake news.
Zero-Carbon Emission Flights To Anywhere In The World Possible With Just One Stop
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the Aerospace Technology Institute.
This is the first sentence of the press release.
Passengers could one day fly anywhere in the world with no carbon emissions and just one stop on board a concept aircraft unveiled by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) today.
These three paragraphs describe the concept.
Up to 279 passengers could fly between London and San Francisco, USA direct or Auckland, New Zealand with just one stop with the same speed and comfort as today’s aircraft, revolutionising the future of air travel.
Developed by a team of aerospace and aviation experts from across the UK collaborating on the government backed FlyZero project, the concept demonstrates the huge potential of green liquid hydrogen for air travel not just regionally or in short haul flight but for global connectivity. Liquid hydrogen is a lightweight fuel, which has three times the energy of kerosene and sixty times the energy of batteries per kilogramme and emits no CO2 when burned.
Realising a larger, longer range aircraft also allows the concentration of new infrastructure to fewer international airports accelerating the rollout of a global network of zero-carbon emission flights and tackling emissions from long haul flights.
These are my thoughts.
The Airframe
This picture downloaded from the Aerospace Technology Institute web site is a visualisation of their Fly Anywhere Aircraft.
Some features stand out.
The wings are long, narrow and thin, almost like those of a sailplane. High aspect ratio wings like these offer more lift and stability at high altitude, so will the plane fly higher than the 41,000-43,000 feet of an Airbus A350?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it does, as the higher you go, the thinner the air and the less fuel you will burn to maintain speed and altitude.
The horizontal stabiliser is also small as this will reduce drag and better balance with the wing.
The tailfin also appears small for drag reduction.
The body is bloated compared to say an Airbus A 350 or a Boeing 777. Could this be to provide space for the liquid hydrogen, which can’t be stored in the thin wings?
The fuselage also appears to be a lifting body, with the wings blended into the fat body. I suspect that the hydrogen is carried in this part of the fuselage, which would be about the centre of lift of the aeroplane.
The design of the airframe appears to be all about the following.
- Low drag.
- high lift and stability.
- Large internal capacity to hold the liquid hydrogen.
It may just look fat, but it could be as radical as the first Boeing 747 was in 1969.
The Engines
I suspect the engines will be developments of current engines like the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, which will be modified to run on hydrogen.
If they are modified Trent engines, it will be astonishing to think, that these engines can be traced in an unbroken line to the RB211, which was first run in 1969.
The Flight Controls
Most airliners these days and certainly all those built by Airbus have sophisticated computer control systems and this plane will take them to another level.
The Flight Profile
If you want to fly any aircraft a long distance, you generally climb to a high level fairly quickly and then fly straight and level, before timing the descent so you land at the destination with as small amount of fuel as is safe, to allow a diversion to another airport.
I once flew from Southend to Naples in a Cessna 340.
- I made sure that the tanks were filled to the brim with fuel.
- I climbed to a high altitude as I left Southend Airport.
- For the journey across France I asked for and was given a transit at Flight Level 195 (19,500 feet), which was all legal in France under visual flight rules.
- When the French handed me over to the Italians, legally I should have descended, but the Italians thought I’d been happy across France at FL195, so they didn’t bother to ask me to descend.
- I flew down the West Coast of Italy at the same height, with an airspeed of 185 knots (213 mph)
- I was then vectored into Naples Airport by radar.
I remember the flight of 981 miles took around six hours. That is an average of 163.5 mph.
I would expect the proposed aircraft would fly a similar profile, but the high level cruise would be somewhere above the 41,000-43,000 feet of an Airbus A 350. We must have a lot of data about flying higher as Concorde flew at 60,000 feet and some military aircraft fly at over 80,000 feet.
The press release talks about London to San Francisco, which is a distance of 5368 miles.
This aircraft wouldn’t sell unless it was able to beat current flight time of eleven hours and five minutes on that route.
Ground Handling
When the Boeing 747 started flying in the 1970s, size was a big problem and this aircraft with its long wing may need modifications to runways, taxiways and terminals.
Passenger Capacity
The press release states that the capacity of the aircraft will be 279 passengers, as against the 315 and 369 passengers of the two versions of the A 350.
So will there be more flights carrying less passengers?
Liquid Hydrogen Refuelling
NASA were doing this successfully in the 1960s for Saturn rockets and the Space Shuttle.
Conclusion
This aircraft is feasible.
Ryse Hydrogen Is Now Ryze Hydrogen
Jo Bamford’s company Ryse Hydrogen is now called Ryze Hydrogen.
I have changed this blog to use the new spelling as I suspect Ryse clashed with the name of a computer game.
Lhyfe’s Green Hydrogen To Power Deutsche Bahn Trains
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
This is the first paragraph.
Deutsche Bahn AG has agreed to source about 30 tonnes of green hydrogen from French producer Lhyfe from 2024 onward to power its trains as the German railway operator seeks to reach climate neutrality by 2040.
The electrolyser will be built at Tuebingen.
In Can The UK Have A Capacity To Create Five GW Of Green Hydrogen?, I said the following.
Ryze Hydrogen are building the Herne Bay electrolyser.
- It will consume 23 MW of solar and wind power.
- It will produce ten tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The electrolyser will consume 552 MWh to produce ten tonnes of hydrogen, so creating one tonne of hydrogen needs 55.2 MWh of electricity.
I suspect that in my quote above from the article on Renewables Now, that the Tuebingen electrolyser will be producing thirty tonnes of hydrogen per day or just under 11,000 tonnes per year.
In that case it would be three times the size of the Herne Bay Electrolyser.
Szeged Tram-Train Service Inaugurated
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
The country’s first public tram-train service left Hódmezővásárhely for Szeged at 03.31 on November 29, with guests onboard including János Lázár, the government’s special commissioner for the project, and László Palkovics, Minister of Innovation & Technology.
They are obviously early starters in Hungary.
The Szeged-Hódmezővásárhely Tram-Train has its own Wikipedia entry.
From the Railway Gazette article and Wikipedia, I can ascertain the following.
- It is a 32 km route.
- Journey time will be 51 minutes, with an Off Peak frequency of two trains per hour (tph), with three tph in the Peak.
- The main stations in Hódmezővásárhely and Szeged are served.
- The route between the two cities is not electrified, but has been partially-upgraded to double-track and the speed has been upgraded to 100 kph.
- In both central districts the vehicles run as tram-trains.
The rolling stock will be electro-diesel versions of Stadler Citylink tram-trains.
This pictures show Sheffield Supertram’s Class 399 tram-trains, which are also members of the Stadler Citylink family.
The two tram-trains would appear to be very similar in terms of cab design, passenger compartment and an operating speed of 100 kph.
The question has to be asked, if Sheffield could expand their Supertram network with some electro-diesel tram-trains.
They could be ideal for the proposed service to Stocksbridge, that I wrote about in Reopening The Don Valley Section Of The Former Woodhead Line Between Stocksbridge and Sheffield Victoria To Passenger Services.
The route could be tested using diesel engines on sections without electrification and if the route attracted enough passengers, electrification could be erected.
Manchester Arena Attack: Families ‘Disgusted’ By Memorial Trespassing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the introductory paragraphs,
Families of people killed in the Manchester Arena attack have said they were “disgusted” after a memorial site for the 22 victims was trespassed on.
The Glade of Light memorial in the city centre remains a building site and does not officially open until the new year.
Two bereaved families said they were appalled to find the security fences pulled down on Sunday.
The article also said this.
Ms Curry said she found hundreds of people were walking through the area, which is supposed to be closed to the public.
She said one man stood on a memorial stone and was abusive when challenged, another woman vomited all over the area, and groups of youths were openly smoking drugs.
I can’t understand what led to this aggressive trespass.
When, I am in certain cities, there does seem to be more low life on the streets than you habitually see in London.
I do wonder, if it is partly because of London’s transport regulations and actions as laid down by the Mayor and Transport for London.
London has an extensive CCTV network and after the London bombings of July the seventh and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, I’m sure it was improved.
Did the improved CCTV and the police action in the shooting the unfortunate Brazilian, deter a lot of low life from going to the centre?
Ken Livingstone or was it Boris, introduced a policy of banning alcohol on London’s transport system.
The precise details are given in this recent article on the Sun.
I have a feeling it had a positive effect, but did it mean that less drunks found their way to the centre?
In 2011, I sat next to a guy on a Manchester bus going from Piccadilly Gardens to Bury. I noticed that about a dozen youths were harassing the driver, trying to get his fare money and remarked on this to my companion.
My companion on hearing my London accent, said you don’t get that in London because of the contactless ticketing, as there is no fare money on the bus.
I was surprised at his reply and asked him to explain. It turned out he was a Trade Union Official, who looked after bus workers in Manchester. He told me his Union wanted a London-style contactless ticketing system, as it had drastically cut the number of attacks on staff in London.
Having worked with the Metropolitan Police on the analysis of data, they have also found that contactless ticketing helps in the tracing of people through London’s transport network and has solved several serious crimes.
Conclusion
I feel that terrorism and London’s reaction to it, banning of alcohol on public transport, contactless ticketing and other measures have helped keep drunks and those up to no good out of the centre.
Rail Freight ‘Booming’ Because Of HGV Driver Shortage
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail News.
These are a few points from the article.
- Tesco currently send 65,000 containers per year by train and are increasing this figure to 90,000.
- Tesco are also planning to run special wine trains.
- Dunelm is reported to have agreed a lease for a new warehouse at the Daventry rail terminal, creating another 70 jobs.
- CB Railfreight is running 400 trains per day.
- GB Railfreight trained seventy drivers in the last year.
- The number of people employed at the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, will rise by another 4,000 in January when a new section opens.
One Freight Operations Manager is quoted as saying business is booming. He believes that the truck driver shortage and thought for the environment are driving the growth in rail freight.
EMEC And Gravitricity Pick Up Scottish Green Energy Awards
The title of this post, is the same as this article on renews.biz.
These are the first two paragraphs.
The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), energy storage innovator Gravitricity and Crown Estate Scotland were among the winners announced last night at the Scottish Green Energy Awards in Edinburgh.
EMEC won the Champion of Renewables award for its ocean energy test facility, while Gravitricity’s energy storage system, which uses excess electricity to winch weights to charge the system and then releases these when energy is required, was announced as the Best Innovation winner.
I am pleased, as I own a small part of Gravitricity, which I contributed through crowdfunding.
Headbolt Lane Station Tipped For Go-Ahead
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Place North West.
This is the first paragraph.
Knowsley Council’s December planning committee is expected to approve Network Rail’s plans for a new station in Kirkby.
The article also says that the station could open by Spring 2023.
I wonder, if Liverpudlians will create Headbolt Lane station in record time, as they did a few miles down the line at Maghull North station, which I wrote about in How To Build A Station In Nine Months.
If they do open in early 2023, it is likely to be the first new rail line in the UK, that has been designed to be run by battery-electric trains.
As Liverpudlians like to be first, I would expect that this station will open by Spring 2023. Judging by Network Rail’s performance on bringing the Dartmoor Line to Okehampton station back into service, I don’t suspect it is an impossible dream.
The Anonymous Widower 