The action of the rocket engine’s combustion chambers and expansion nozzles on a high pressure fluid is able to accelerate the fluid to extremely high speed, and conversely this exerts a large reactive thrust on the rocket (an equal and opposite reaction according to Newton’s third law) which propels the rocket forwards.

In a closed chamber, the pressures are equal in each direction and no acceleration occurs. If an opening is provided in the bottom of the chamber then the pressure is no longer acting on the missing section. This opening permits the exhaust to escape. The remaining pressures give a resultant thrust on the side opposite the opening, and these pressures are what push the rocket along.

Using a nozzle gives more force as well since the exhaust also presses on it as it expands outwards, roughly doubling the total force. If propellant gas is continuously added to the chamber then these pressures can be maintained for as long as propellant remains.

As a side effect, these pressures on the rocket also act on the exhaust in the opposite direction and accelerate this to very high speeds (according to Newton’s Third Law). From the principle of conservation of momentum the speed of the exhaust of a rocket determines how much momentum increase is created for a given amount of propellant. This is called the rocket’s ”specific impulse”. Because a rocket, propellant and exhaust in flight, without any external perturbations, may be considered as a closed system, the total momentum is always constant. Therefore, the faster the net speed of the exhaust in one direction, the greater the speed of the rocket can achieve in the opposite direction. This is especially true since the rocket body’s mass is typically far lower than the final total exhaust mass.

As the remaining propellant decreases, rocket vehicles become lighter and their acceleration tends to increase until the propellant is exhausted. This means that much of the speed change occurs towards the end of the burn when the vehicle is much lighter.

Forces on a rocket in flight

The general study of the forces on a rocket or other spacecraft is part of ballistics and is called astrodynamics.

Flying rockets are primarily affected by the following:

*Thrust from the engine(s)

*Gravity from celestial bodies

*Drag if moving in atmosphere

*Lift; usually relatively small effect except for rocket-powered aircraft

In addition, the inertia and centrifugal pseudo-force can be significant due to the path of the rocket around the center of a celestial body; when high enough speeds in the right direction and altitude are achieved a stable orbit or escape velocity is obtained.

These forces, with a stabilizing tail (the ”empennage”) present will, unless deliberate control efforts are made, naturally cause the vehicle to follow a roughly parabolic trajectory termed a gravity turn, and this trajectory is often used at least during the initial part of a launch. (This is true even if the rocket engine is mounted at the nose.) Vehicles can thus maintain low or even zero angle of attack which minimizes transverse stress on the launch vehicle; permitting a weaker, and hence lighter, launch vehicle.

Net thrust

A typical rocket engine can handle a significant fraction of its own mass in propellant each second, with the propellant leaving the nozzle at several kilometres per second. This means that the thrust-to-weight ratio of a rocket engine, and often the entire vehicle can be very high, in extreme cases over 100. This compares with other jet propulsion engines that can exceed 5 for some of the better engines.

The propellant flow rate of a rocket is often deliberately varied over a flight, to provide a way to control the thrust and thus the airspeed of the vehicle. This, for example, allows minimization of aerodynamic losses and can limit the increase of ”g”-forces due to the reduction in propellant load.

It can be shown that the net thrust of a rocket is:

:F_n = dot{m};v_{e}

where:

: dot{m} =,propellant flow (kg/s or lb/s)

:v_{e} =,the effective exhaust velocity (m/s or ft/s)

The effective exhaust velocity v_{e} is more or less the speed the exhaust leaves the vehicle, and in the vacuum of space, the effective exhaust velocity is often equal to the actual average exhaust speed along the thrust axis. However, the effective exhaust velocity allows for various losses, and notably, is reduced when operated within an atmosphere.

Impulse

The total impulse of a rocket burning its propellant is simply:

:I = int F dt

When there is fixed thrust, this is simply:

:I = F t;

Specific impulse

As can be seen from the thrust equation the effective speed of the exhaust controls the amount of thrust produced from a particular quantity of fuel burnt per second.

An equivalent measure, the net thrust-seconds (impulse) per weight unit of propellant expelled is called specific Impulse “I_{sp}” and this is one of the most important figures that describes a rocket’s performance. It is defined such that it is related to the effective exhaust velocity by:

:v_e = I_{sp} cdot g_0

where:

:I_{sp} has units of seconds

:g_0 is the acceleration at the surface of the Earth

Thus, the greater the specific impulse, the greater the net thrust and performance of the engine.I_{sp} is determined by measurement while testing the engine. In practice the effective exhaust velocities of rockets varies but can be extremely high, ~4500 m/s, about 15 times the sea level speed of sound in air.

Delta-v (rocket equation)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Rocket, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Civil rights

The ACLU rated Baucus at 60 percent in December 2002, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record.

Voting Rights for Washington, DC

Baucus has voted against giving voting representation to the District of Columbia.

Freedom of speech

He voted for an anti-flag burning constitutional amendment, of American flags, in 2006. Supporters suggest that a Flag Desecration Amendment would be respectful and is needed. Critics have suggested that this amendment does not fully support the Freedom of Speech, because it would have a chilling impact on freedom of speech (“the market place of ideas”) in fascinating area of the US Flag, create significant regulation, interfere with the cremation of irrelevant over-aged US flags, disposal of clothing, wrappers and trash with the flag on it, clean up cost after any Independence Day celebration, election or political campaign events, and would greatly increase arbitrary police enforcement. The Boy Scouts of America teaches cremation (flag burning) as the correct disposal method for over-aged flags. The New York City areas has millions of people, and several Cogeneration power plants where trash is burned for electricity and to reduce land fill costs. Any flag in that waste stream, such as after July 4, would be flag burning. The US Military policy requires destruction of all communications gear when US forces are about to be captured, with the flag saved for last and if absolutely necessary. During “Black Hawk Down”, the US forces blew up (burned) a crashed US helicopter, to deny it to the enemy. That helicopter’s equipment was marked with US flags. To comply with and avoid this proposed amendment, the US Military has already switched the star field to the upper right corner, the back side flag, at considerable expense. The US Military hopes to keep using the back side of the US flag in combat, because stopping use of the flag altogether would violate key agreements with US NATO allies and possibly other treaties, such as Geneva Conventions. This anti-flag burning amendment could make it unconstitutional or illegal, through simple law in War Powers fight, to order troops into harms-way where they and their shoulder US flag patch might get burned or blown up.

He supported a bill to require online pornography sites to have a .XXX domain, together with Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) He supports the death penalty. The ACLU rated Baucus at 60 percent in December 2002, indicating a mixed civil liberties voting record.

LGBT rights

In December 2006 the Human Rights Campaign rated Baucus at 67 percent. He opposes gay marriage, but voted against a proposed constitutional ban on it and has supported measures to curb job discrimination and hate crimes based on sexual orientation.

Gun rights

In 1999, he was the only Democrat to vote against an amendment by Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) that sought to “regulate the sale of firearms at gun shows.” Baucus can be frequently found hunting and fishing on public lands around Montana.

Adoption abuse

In August 2008, Baucus’ panel met to mark up bills on Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act, the Elder Justice Act and Safety, and the Abuse Prevention Act.

Economic issues

Baucus has a 74 percent pro-business voting record as rated by the United States Chamber of Commerce. He twice voted to make filing bankruptcy more difficult for debtors, once in July 2001 to restrict rules on personal bankruptcy, and a second time in March 2005 to include means-testing and restrictions for bankruptcy filers.

He has frequently visited places of employment within the state and has personally participated in activities that he calls “Work Days”. He has also hosted economic development conferences.

In March 2005, Baucus voted against repealing tax subsidies that benefit companies that outsource US jobs offshore. On January 4, 2007, he wrote an editorial in the ”Wall Street Journal” calling on Democrats to renew President George W. Bush’s fast-track authority for international trade deals. In response, the Montana State Senate passed a resolution, 44-6, “that the U.S. Congress be urged to create a replacement for the outdated fast track system”.

Environmental issues

Baucus’s environmental record is mixed. He supports Democratic leadership in voting against oil and gas subsidies and Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge drilling, as well as by voting in favor of national standards to reduce oil consumption and spur the use of hydrogen-powered cars. But he has voted against the corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE) and on increasing federal funds for solar and wind power. He was a leader in the massive Montana Legacy Project conservation project.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) gave Baucus a 100 percent rating, but only for the second session of the 110th Congress., but rated him at only 42 percent in December 2003.

Foreign affairs=

Cuba

He has opposed the United States embargo against Cuba and travel restrictions.

Iraq War

Baucus had voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, but has joined the Democrats in the Senate in demanding the phased withdrawal of the [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/senate/2/votes/182/ Levin Amendment] (no firm deadline). He voted with a majority of Democrats against Senator John Kerry’s amendment stipulating a firm deadline for withdrawal of American combat personnel from Iraq.

On July 29, 2006, Baucus’s nephew Marine Cpl. Phillip E. Baucus (September 24, 1977–July 29, 2006) was killed in combat in Al Anbar province. Phillip Baucus, a 28-year-old resident of Wolf Creek, Montana, had been a member of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force. The funeral was the site of protests by members of the Westboro Baptist Church.

On January 10, 2007, the day of Bush’s presidential address on his plan to increase troop levels in Iraq, Baucus spoke against the increases and called for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Israel

Baucus is one of the Senate’s largest career recipients of pro-Israel Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions, receiving $550,589 since 1989.

No trade war with Vietnam over fish

On July 14, 2009, ”The Wall Street Journal” published an editorial on Baucus’s attitude over Vietnam’s “tra” and “basa” pangasius, saying there was no reason for America to launch a trade war with Vietnam over fish. “He’s dead right about a trade issue now percolating in Washington,” said the newspaper. The article, entitled “Max Baucus’s Fish Sense – Protectionism often hurts the protectionist”, outlined this controversial topic in Washington and underlined the possibility that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) could effectively ban imports of pangasius fish from Vietnam, which are similar to US-produced catfish.

The ostensible reason for the move would be food safety and the USDA is considering whether Vietnamese fish should be subject to a stricter safety inspection regime. But the article said that there have been no reported cases of Vietnamese fish making American consumers sick and the proposed inspections would be onerous. It quoted Baucus as telling ”Congress Daily”, “If we expect other countries to follow the rules and drop these restrictions, it is critical that we play by the rules and do not block imports for arbitrary or unscientific reasons.”

Health care reform

Senate finance committee

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus called the first Senate meeting of interested parties before the committee to discuss health care reform, including representatives from pharmaceutical groups, insurance companies, and HMOs and hospital management companies. The meeting was controversial because it did not include representatives from groups calling for single-payer health care.

Opposition to single payer health care

Advocate groups attended a Senate Finance Committee meeting in May 2009 to protest their exclusion as well as statements by Baucus that “single payer was not an option on the table.” Baucus later had eight protesters removed by police who arrested them for disrupting the hearing. Many of the single-payer advocates claimed it was a “pay to play” event. A representative of the Business Roundtable, which includes 35 memberships of HMOs, health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, admitted that other countries, with lower health costs, and higher quality of care, such as those with single-payer systems, have a competitive advantage over the United States with its private system.

At the next meeting on health care reform of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus had five more doctors and nurses removed and arrested.

Baucus admitted a few weeks later in June 2009 that it was a mistake to rule out a single payer plan because doing so alienated a large, vocal constituency and left President Barack Obama’s proposal of a public health plan to compete with private insurers as the most liberal position.

Baucus has used the term “uniquely American solution” to describe the end point of current health reform and has said that he believes America is not ready yet for any form of single payer health care. This is the same term the insurance trade association, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), is using. AHIP has launched the Campaign for an American Solution, which argues for the use of private health insurance instead of a government backed program. Critics have said that Medicare is already effectively a single-payer system.

Conflict of interest charges

Baucus has been criticized for his ties to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and has been one of the largest beneficiaries in the Senate of campaign contributions from these industries. From 2003 to 2008, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A 2006 study by Public Citizen found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator.

Only three senators have more former staffers working as lobbyists on K Street, at least two dozen in Baucus’s case. Several of Baucus’s ex-staffers, including former chief of staff David Castagnetti, are now working for the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries. Castagnetti co-founded the lobbying firm of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, which represents “America’s Health Insurance Plans Inc.,” the national trade group of health insurance companies, the Medicare Cost Contractors Alliance, as well as Amgen, AstraZeneca PLC and Merck & Co. Another former chief of staff, Jeff Forbes, went on to open his own lobbying shop and to represent the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Advanced Medical Technology Association, among other groups.

A statistical analysis of the impact of political contributions on individual senators’ support for the public insurance option conducted by Nate Silver has suggested that Baucus was an unlikely supporter of the public option in the first place. Based on Baucus’s political ideology and the per capita health care spending in Montana, Silver’s model projects that there would be only a 30.6% probability of Baucus supporting a public insurance option even if he had received no relevant campaign contributions. Silver calculates that the impact on Baucus of the significant campaign contributions that he has received from the health care industry further reduces the probability of his supporting a public insurance option from 30.6% to 0.6%.

In response to the questions raised by the large amount of funding he took from the health care industry, Baucus declared a moratorium as of July 1, 2009 on taking more special interest money from health care political action committees. Baucus, however, declined to return as part of his moratorium any of the millions of dollars he has received from health care industry interests before July 1, 2009, or to rule out a resumption of taking the same or greater health care industry contributions in the future. Baucus’s new policy on not taking health care industry money reportedly still permits him to take money from lobbyists or corporate executives, who the Washington Post found continued to make donations after July 1, 2009.

A watchdog group found that in July 2009 Baucus took more money from the health care industry in violation of the self-defined terms of his moratorium, leading Baucus to return the money.

Tax policy

Baucus voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001. He has usually voted against repealing portions of that bill and against repealing more recent tax cut bills that benefit upper income taxpayers. In 2008, he voted in favor of permanently repealing the estate tax.

Ability to seek legal redress

He was one of 26 senators to vote against the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Max Baucus, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The plan was for the Morrow Project to be coordinated by a central command post and record-keeping facility called “Prime Base.” This is an immense self-contained bunker with various annexes, hidden underground in Nevada, in the canyons near Soldier Meadow. Its details are explained in the game book entitled “Prime Base.” The facility’s advanced life support systems and huge variety of other equipment were intended to allow the Project’s leaders not to sleep through the war, so as to chronicle it and be in the best position to figure out what should be done next. The Project’s “Phoenix Team,” a highly secret tier-I special operations unit of approximately platoon strength, was also here, but kept frozen to be used only on the highest authority if there was no alternative.

Prime Base was built in isolation according to schedule, but just before it could assume its role it was sabotaged and bombed by a shadowy madman called Krell, sustaining serious damage. The sudden attack wiped out the Morrow Project leaders, but 150 years after the war, the damaged central computer at Prime Base finally began to issue one or more wakeup signals. This revived at least one of the Morrow Project assets — the team that the player characters are on. The status of other Teams is purposefully kept unclear, so that details can be worked out by the person coordinating the game, who is called the Project Director.

Is the Project hopelessly compromised, or can the scattered outposts reconnect and replace the missing headquarters? Must they try to confront huge reconstruction tasks alone, when it was expected that thousands of Project members would help them? Do they have the courage to try?

Initial Scenario

The initial scenario may be played with nothing other than the game book, dice, paper and pencil. Expansion sets are available introducing further scenarios, weapons and equipment.

One hundred and fifty years after the Third World War, the members of the Morrow Project wake to a strange world. Instead of being part of an organized plan to rebuild their civilization, they find themselves isolated in a world where the War is only a distant legend, the people are ignorant of anything but the struggle to survive and strange mutated animals haunt their footsteps.

Players of the Morrow Project must not only survive, but must carry out their original mission: to rebuild the world. To do this they have their equipment and training, their team and their own guts and imagination. Together with their teammates they must try to do alone a job that thousands were trained to do.

Included in the game book is targeting information for the missiles that fell, full details on Morrow Project teams, vehicles and equipment, weapons, complete medical details, and information about the people and creatures who live in the post-holocaust world.

MARS, Recon, Scientific and Specialty

While each team is equipped to survive on its own, it proved impossible to equip all the teams for every postwar contingency. For example, some Recon Teams are almost as heavily armed as MARS Teams, while others are not.

With teams having been put to sleep over a course of several years from the 1960s onwards, there will also be variations in the equipment they have. In some cases, teams may wake to find new equipment they are not yet trained on, and will have to teach themselves from instructional materials.

Below is a general summary of the Project groups:

* Recon: The general purpose teams of the Project and the most numerous, Recon teams are equipped with varying types of weapons and equipment ranging from V-150 armored cars to SK-5 hovercraft. Their orders are to reconnoiter the countryside, report on local conditions, and provide advice to Prime Base concerning which teams should be awakened next.

* MARS: These teams make up the military arm of the Project – they are extremely formidable and heavily armed. In addition to conventional weapons, some of these teams have man-portable laser rifles, and some have an early generation of no-nonsense, minimalist powered armor. The purpose of the MARS teams is to support and defend civilians and other teams. A large portion of MARS team members are ex-military personnel with combat experience. MARS stands for Mobile Assault, Rescue and Strike. Some MARS teams have heavy vehicles such as the Mars One. The Mars One is a large custom-built articulated vehicle with very heavy armor and powerful weapons. It is able to carry troops, employ onboard sensors, provide early warning, and serve as a command post.

* Scientific: The Scientific teams are broadly cross-trained scientific and technical units that can cope with a wide range of situations — from complex medical care and epidemiology to understanding unusual hazards and dangerous creatures. Their areas of knowledge range from biology to nuclear physics. They are equipped with a second type of versatile custom-built articulated vehicle, called the Science One, and have armament second only to that of the MARS teams.

* Specialty: This is a broad term applied to Project groups that have a non-standard function in regard to their equipment and personnel. Specialty groups generally consist of assets frozen with orders to meet at a predesignated point. Most Specialty teams are not as heavily armed as Recon or MARS teams, because the Project’s planners felt that those teams could not operate to their full extent if survivors felt threatened by them. Specialty groups assigned to the Project include:

:Engineering: Building, construction, repair and maintenance of Project and civilian equipment.

:Agricultural: Farming and livestock preserved by using frozen embryos. Equipped to build and assist farming communities.

sychological: Formed to handle extremist groups, riots, negotiation challenges, and other serious problems caused by stress.

:Aviation: Air survey reconnaissance, fire support, and air mobility support for other teams. These missions are done with fixed-wing aircraft including cargo planes, as well as light helicopters, early types of unmanned aerial vehicles, and custom-built autogyros that are modular and man-portable.

:Command: Oversight of Combined Group assets, both mobile field teams and fixed installations, generally for a city or limited geographical area such as. Combined Group Seattle.

:Frozen Watch: Casualty replacement personnel for the field teams, as well as Morrow Project field police, internal security, and counterintelligence functions.

ower Reception: Reception of electrical power which is scheduled to be transmitted via microwaves, once Morrow Project power satellites have been lofted.

:Support: Logistical support such as supply, repair, and replacement operations.

:Communications: Restore radio frequency, laser microwave, and eventually even satellite communications. They also maintain the Project’s clandestine Extremely Low Frequency systems that very slowly accumulate Prime Base’s messages, such as briefings, for teams to read when they awaken — thus counterbalancing the miniscule data rate. For security reasons, ELF systems were not for use until after the war.

:Medical: Health care for the general population and for Project assets. Generally equipped with a fixed installation.

econtamination: Render safe personnel, vehicles and structures contaminated by radiological, biological, or chemical hazards. Also assist in the salvage of equipment and materials recovered from unsafe areas.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Morrow Project, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article Economy of Bulgaria, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Laboratory research is conducted in the complexes of labs certified by the Polish Center for Accreditation (PCA) and are furnished with the unique in Poland testing and measuring equipment.

The New Technologies Center provide R&D services to Polish and foreign companies to help them raise their competitiveness.

Scope of work:

* Aerodynamics (CFD and experimental analysis).

* Avionics and systems integration.

* Design and strength analysis of metallic and composite structures (airplanes, helicopters, non-standard constructions and others).

* Rocket propulsion and space technologies.

* Landing gear & energy absorption systems

* Aircraft propulsion including piston, turboshaft & jet engines.

** Composite technologies.

** Vibration & flutter analysis.

** Environmental research.

Aerodynamic Department

The Aerodynamic Department utilizes the extensive experience of its highly qualified staff (professor and Ph.D. and M.Sc. qualified engineers) to find solutions in the area of aerodynamics and flight mechanics for civil and military airplanes and helicopters. Their experience is used at all stages of research, from design to CFD to wind tunnel trials. Almost all Polish airplanes and helicopters have been tested in wind tunnels at the Institute of Aviation.

Applied Aerodynamics Laboratory

Lab performs aerodynamic research for land and water based transport (automotive, water and railroad) and the building industry. In our aerodynamic tunnels various types of wind resistance tests on stationary objects are carried out. We have access to five wind tunnels, including a trisonic wind tunnel and the largest in Poland (5 m test chamber) and a low and speed wind tunnel, all equipped with advanced instrumentation and calibration equipment.

Low Speed Wind Tunnel (5 m)

The Low Speed Wind Tunnel is an atmospheric, closed circuit tunnel with an open test chamber of 5 m diameter and 6.5 m length. Maximum velocity is 57 m/s and dynamic pressure – 2000 N/m2. The Reynolds number per meter is up to 3.8 x 106. The flow in the test chamber is relatively uniform with the longitudinal turbulence level of approx. 0.5 %. The stream is generated by a 7 m diameter 8-bladed fan powered by the 1.5 MW DC motor.

Capabilities:

* Wind tunnel testing of aircraft models to determine aerodynamic characteristics.

* Aerodynamic load and pressure distribution measurements on aircraft element models (wings, propellers, horizontal and vertical tails, control surfaces, helicopter rotors, external stores etc.).

* Wind load measurements for buildings and their elements. Wind velocity and pressure distribution measurements in built-up areas.

* Flutter tests of aircraft models investigation of flutter characteristics, vibration frequency, critical speed and vibration damping at subcritical speeds.

* Store trajectory tests including forced deployment for external stores payload.

* Flow visualization (tufts, smoke and fluorescent minitufts).

Low Speed Wind Tunnel (1.5 m)

The Wind Tunnel is a closed circuit, continuous flow low speed tunnel with a 1.5 meter diameter open test chamber. Typical tests include measurements of forces and moments, surface pressure distribution, and flow visualization of models of various aircraft, buildings, ships, cars, trains and two-dimensional airfoils.

Capabilities:

* Weight and pressure distribution tests on models of airplanes, helicopters, automotive and railway vehicles and their elements.

* Optimization of flap and slat position.

* Hinge moment optimization for ailerons and tail units.

* Tufts and minitufts with UV-light flow visualizations.

* Smoke flow visualization.

* Tensometric balance force measurements.

* Design of Experiment (DoE).

Low Turbulence Wind Tunnel

The Low Turbulence Wind Tunnel is an atmospheric, open circuit tunnel with two linked rectangular test chambers.

Capabilities:

* Laminar airfoils wind tunnel tests at turbulence level below 0.02% for velocities up to 40 m/s.

* Calibration of wind measurement devices for meteorological purposes.

* Smoke flow visualization.

Trisonic Wind Tunnel

The Trisonic Wind Tunnel has been in operation since 1965. The tunnel is a blow-down type with partial recirculation of the flow, and can be operated in all three regimes, viz. subsonic, transonic and supersonic (the Mach number range: M = 0.2^-2.3). The cross-sectional dimensions of the test chamber

are 0.6 x 0 6 m.

Capabilities:

* Tunnel tests of aircraft models to determine aerodynamic characteristics and pressure distributions for the Mach number in the range from 0.1 – 2.3.

* Aerodynamic load measurements on airframe parts models (wings, horizontal and vertical tails, control surfaces, external pods and stores etc.) including the ability to individually measure load on each separate element.

* Hinge-moment measurements for tail units.

* Tests of airfoils including buffeting boundary determination at transonic velocities.

* Visualization of flow using oil and Schlieren methods.

* Tunnel tests of airfoils aerodynamic characteristics.

* Aerodynamic design of aircraft, wings, airfoils high lift devices and high lift airframe configurations etc.

* Weight and pressure transducers calibration.

* Unsteady pressure measurements using high precision vibration generator.

Supersonic Wind Tunnel

The N2 Supersonic Wind Tunnel is a blow-down type with a closed test chamber of 0.15 x 0.15 m. The velocity range is M=1.22 – 3.5. The tunnel is used for research on aerodynamic phenomena related to supersonic flow.

Computational Fluid Dynamic and Flight Mechanics Group

The Computational Fluid Dynamic and Flight Mechanics Group is a leader among research centers in Poland in the area of aerodynamic design and CFD analysis. Its staff comprises highly qualified engineers specializing in CFD, as well as airframe design and optimization. For research and development work, both commercial and in house developed software is employed according to the scope of work and it’s specification.

Design and optimization

Basic tools for design and optimization are in house developed and implemented methods of:

* Parameterization of geometries for design and optimization purposes.

* Multicriterial and multidisciplinary design and optimization based on genetic algorithms.

* Design of Experiment (DoE) methodology.

Capabilities:

* Design of parametrical models of objects for research and optimization (airfoil, wing, inlet ducts for jet and turboprop engines, engine nozzles etc.).

* Airfoil design.

* Multicriterial and multidisciplinary design of aircraft and its elements.

* Aerodynamic design of ducts.

* Aerodynamic design of helicopter rotors,

* Design of propellers, rotors, wind turbines etc.

* Design of parametric models for non-aviation applications and CAD design.

Analysis

For computational analysis of flowfield, both commercial and in house developed software is employed. In collaboration with other research facilities, employees takes a part in developing the new software for academic purposes.

Capabilities:

* Simulation of flow around an aircraft and parts of airframe.

* Simulation of flow around a helicopter and parts of airframe, and interference with surrounding objects.

* Unsteady flows in shape shifting domain and around such geometries.

* Fully three-dimensional simulation of flow around the main rotor of a helicopter (in forward flight and in hover) based on URANS (Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) solution.

* Fluid structure interaction for modeling nonrigid blades of helicopter rotor including blade flapping.

* Flow simulation in ducts (e.g. air intake ducts in aircraft engines).

* Spaceship re-entry atmosphere flow simulation.

Flow issues related to non-aviation areas:

* Flow in land and water based transport.

* Flow in civil engineering (buildings, stadiums, bridges etc.).

* Simulation of air movement in urban areas; safety issues in high altitude rescue actions.

* Flow and load analysis for constructions, subject to aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces (e.g. strong gusts of wind).

* Flow in turbines, fans etc.

* Multiphase flows.

* Supersonic and hypersonic flows including heat and radiation modeling.

* Phase changing and chemical reactions simulation.

* Performance and stability analysis.

Avionics & Systems Integrations Department

The activity carried out in the Department is focused on research, design and short run production within the area covering:

* avionic equipment,

* systems aimed at automatic measurement & diagnostic tasks,

* avionic electrical equipment including power supplies, wiring, installations,… etc.),

* all designed and developed for airplanes, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Capabilities

* Computer aided design.

* Electronic systems design and testing, including modules based on microprocessors / microcontrollers.

* Synthesis & design of specialised control systems for electro mechanical objects.

* Synthesis & design of guidance, control and navigation systems for unmanned vehicles.

* Diagnostic and testing equipment design.

* Preparing and carrying out projects of retrofitting and modification of aircraft avionic equipment and systems.

* Integration of avionic systems.

* Synthesis & design of on board systems and installations.

* Adaptation of cockpit and instruments lighting to make it compatible with Night Vision Imaging Systems (e.g. Night Vision Goggles).

The Department is capable to conduct and supervise technical investigations and tests of systems and aircraft equipment and is entitled to issue statements of compliance with RTCA, ARINC, MIL, TSO standards and aircraft requirements. The Department has the potential to manufacture prototypes and carry out short run production of smart systems aimed at precise measurement and diagno-stic & indicating tasks. Our laboratories are equipped with necessary test beds and measuring systems to carry out complex analysis of products.

Systems designed and manufactured in Avionics & Systems Integration Department, which are installed in Polish aircraft, as well as used in laboratories, includes:

* Fuel gauging systems (capacitive type) for I 22 ‘Iryda’, PZL M 28 ‘Bryza’ and ‘Skytruck’ airplanes and W-3 ‘Sokol’ helicopter.

* Radioaltimeter RWL 750M, used as the avionic equipment in I 22 ‘Iryda’, PZL M 28 ‘Bryza’ airplanes and ‘Anakonda’ helicopter.

* Torquemetering system used in W-3 ‘Sokol’ helicopter.

* Lighting regulator and warning systems for I 22 ‘Iryda’, PZL M 28 ‘Skytruck’ airplanes.

* Telemetric data transmission system for an unmanned aircraft.

* Autonomous control system for an unmanned aircraft the RAC analog/digital data recorder designed for data acquisition, storage and playback.

* GPPA 3, GPPA 4, generators and GWE 2 electrostatic discharge generator.

* AROS – the autonomous fatigue loads data recorder.

* Testing instruments:

** TRS 6113 2 for on board radio transceivers.

** TPPM 1 for fuel gauging systems.

** T4S for radioaltimeters.

** UD-100M for torquemeters.

** MRT-3 for radionavigation systems.

Other works:

* Integration of avionic equipment for PZL I 22 ‘Iryda’, and PZL 130 ‘Orlik’ training airplanes.

* Integration of avionic equipment for I 23 ‘Manager’ general aviation aircraft.

* Design, manufacturing and in flight testing of experimental version of avionic equipment for I 23 ‘Manager’ aircraft, aimed at fully automatically controlled flight in emergency conditions.

* Electronic & Electrical equipment for PRP 560 ‘Ranger’ hovercraft.

* Unmanned airplane ‘Sowa’ (prototype built for research and development tasks)

Environmental Laboratory

The Laboratory acquired Testing Laboratory Certificate No. AB 132, issued by Polish Centre for Accreditation on February 2005, in compliance with PN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard requirements. The scope of this Certificate covers tests of resistance to mechanical hazards, climate stresses and functional inspection of products.

Capabilities:

* Strength and resistance to sinusoidal vibrations for objects of a mass up to 50 kg, within frequency range of 5-2000 Hz, and acceleration up to 200 m/s2.

* Strength and resistance to repeated mechanical shocks for objects of a mass up to 450 kg, acceleration up to 3200 m/s2 frequency up to 3 Hz, and impulse duration range of 6 – 30 ms.

* Resistance to high and low temperatures, max. size of tested objects: 680 x 540 x 820 mm in the temperature range from 60oC -180oC 1250 x 1900 x 2250 mm in the temperature range from -70oC to 130oC.

* Resistance to cyclic temperature changes within the range from -60oC to +180oC for objects of the max. size: 680 x 540 x 600 mm.

* Resistance to high level of humidity within the range from 10% to 98%. Maximum size of tested objects: 680 x 540 x 820 mm, maximum weight: 10 kg.

* Resistance to low pressure (1 hPa), max. size of tested objects: 1250 x 1900 x 2250 mm.

* Frost and moisture resistance for objects of maximal dimensions: 680 x 540 x 820 mm.

* Resistance to linear accelerations for objects of the mass up to 10 kg and dimensions up to 300 x 300 x 300 mm.

Laboratory Equipment:

Climatic chamber: limats Excal 7728-HE

* emperature range: -900C to +2000C.

* emperature variation rate: 170C/min (within the range:-550C to +1800C).

* umidity range: 10% to 98%.

* imensions of the test section: 900 x 950 x 900 mm (770 dm3).

Climatic chamber: eiss SB2/300/80

* emperature range: -700C to +1800C.

* umidity range: 10% to 98%.

* imensions of the test section: 680 x 540 x 820 mm.

Temperature/pressure/humidity test chamber: WEISS 55/ABD/IMU/DMU:

* temperature range: -600C to +1200C.

* humidity range: 10% to 98%.

* pressure range: 1120 – 120 hPa.

* cylindrical test section with dimensions: 900 x 800 mm.

Temperature/pressure/humidity test chamber: BRABENDER TBSE 3000/70E:

* temperature range: -700C to +1300C.

* pressure range: 1120 – 1 hPa.

* dimensions of the test section: 250 x 1900 x 2250 mm.

Shock vibrator TIRA – Shock 4110:

* max. acceleration: 3200 m/s2.

* shock impulse duration range: 6 – 30 ms.

* surge frequency: up to 3Hz.

* max. mass of tested object: 450kg.

Random vibration generator ERRITRON VP 180/600

Sinusoidal vibrator TIRA vib 5142:

* max. acceleration: 200 m/s2.

* frequency range: 5 – 2000 Hz.

* max. mass of tested object: 50kg.

* possibility to apply random oscillations.

Centrifuge:

* max. acceleration: 200 m/s2.

* max. mass of tested object: 10 kg.

Landing Gear Department

The Institute of Aviation is a leading center for design and testing of landing gears in Poland. The landing gears of most airplanes and helicopters produced by Polish manufacturers have been designed and tested by the Landing Gear Department. The Landing Gear Department complies with the ISO – PN – EN ISO/IEC 17025:2001 quality standards, and is certified by the Polish Center for Accreditation (Certificate No. AB 131).

Design processes are aided by the CAD 3D SOLID EDGE system, fully compatible with the Unigraphics and Catia systems. Strength analysis and stiffness evaluation are performed using the MSC NASTRAN/PATRAN and FEMAP/NASTRAN systems.

Design Capabilities:

* Airplane and helicopter wheel and skid landing gears.

* “Shimmy” and anti resonance dampers.

* Landing gear shock absorbers (single and double acting).

* Test stands.

* ABS for aircraft brake systems.

* Actuators and locks.

* Wheels and high energy brakes.

* UAV landing gears.

The Landing Gear Department offers design, analysis and test services of landing gear with the use of modern devices and measure-ment instrumentation.

Space Technologies Group

The Institute of Aviation is one of the very few research centers in Poland engaged in aeronautics, which can show off considerable contributions to the growth of space technology. In the 70′s, thanks to development of the METEOR rockets used for surveying the upper layers of the atmosphere (wind direction measurement), Poland became one of the countries capable of designing, and even more importantly, implementing their own rocket systems.

The most significant success was developing the METEOR-2K rocket, equipped with 2 auxiliary booster engines. Though never used in this role, the METEOR-2K rocket was considered a launcher vehicle, due to it reaching an altitude of over 100 km. The Space Technologies Group focuses on developing space technologies, such as new rocket/space propulsion systems, green fuels, rocket structures and rocket trajectories analysis (including ballistic rockets).

Other Capabilities:

* Propellant injection analysis (axisymmetric injectors).

* Propellant combustion analysis.

* Cooling systems analysis: radiative, regenerative, transpiration, and ablation

* Pressure and turbopump power systems analysis.

* Engine performance analysis on the ground and in a vacuum.

Projects related to rocket engines also look into ways of replacing traditional fuels with green fuels in the space sector.The Space Technologies Group has successfully completed work on developing its own cost effective launcher vehicle, equipped with pressure power systems for rocket engines that run on ecological fuel. The rocket has been designed with a view to lifting lightweight payloads (approx. 100 kg) to the solar synchronized orbit, at an altitude of approx. 600 km.

Alongside projects of key importance to the growth of space technologies in Poland, the Space Technologies Group is involved in developing its own software for supporting the design process and preliminary systems analysis.

We develop software for:

* Rocket engine nozzle design using the Method of Characteristics (aerospike and bell nozzles).

* Strength analysis of composite tanks at reduced temperatures (cryogenic conditions).

* Cooling systems analysis (heat exchange under critical and supercritical conditions).

* Realtime simulation of rocket flight to a given orbit in three dimensional space with regard to aerodynamics and changing atmospheric conditions.

The Space Technologies Group participates in the European project FP7: GRASP – GReen Advanced Space Propulsion. The project aims to find new solutions in the area of environmentally friendly propellants for the power systems of new and existing rocket engines, in order to eliminate the use of propellants, such as hydrazine and its derivatives, whose high toxicity poses a threat to health. The Austrian Research Center co-ordinates the project, and a special consortium has been established for the realization of the project’s objectives.

The Space Technologies Group is also engaged in the national project “Determination of Boundary Conditions of Helicopter Utilization in Operations from High-Rise Buildings”.

Aircraft Design Team

The Aircraft Design Team holds certificate no. AP 270, which is issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The Aircraft Design Team specializes in designing composite and metallic aircraft structures and technological equipment, and performing strength analyses. The Aircraft Design Team does not restrict its activity to the area related to aircraft structures.

Design Capabilities

* Composite structures:

** Glass & carbon composite aircraft structures.

* Technological equipment:

** Composite structures molds, Varied assembly devices.

FEM Analysis

* Static analysis.

* Vibrations.

* Nonlinear analysis (material and geometrical nonlinearity).

* Thermo mechanical analysis.

Adaptronic Department

Adaptronic Department was founded in 2008 in order to carry out research into smart materials and structures and their appli-cations in aviation.

Areas of Research:

* Adaptive control systems (adaptive impact energy absorbers).

* MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS).

* Biomedical engineering (computer aided head surgery).

* Image analysis for obtaining biomedical data.

* Structural Health Monitoring (SHM).

Currently it is collaborating with the Warsaw Medical University and the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in the area of computer aided head surgery.

Helicopter Research Department

Its goal is to develop helicopter technologies through proposing innovative structural and techno-logical solutions, verified by research methods, cooperation in the area of scientific research and encouraging new solutions in economy. This goal is accomplished by highly qualified researchers by means of specialized test stands and research methods.

Facilities and Equipment

* Laboratory and equipment for static, dynamic and functional tests.

* Outdoor test stand ROTUNDA for testing rotors and complete helicopters.

* Technology Demonstrator for functional testing.

* Controlled Measurement Systems Specialized Equipment for mounting and actuating objects.

Area of Activity

* Tests.

* Scientific research.

* Design.

Including:

* Testing structures and elements.

* Developing and implementing new research methodologies.

* Preparing objects for tests – technology demonstrators.

* Building test stands.

* Supervising building prototypes.

* Participating in international research projects.

* Cooperating with industry in the area of helicopter technologies.

* Analyzing state of art knowledge and understanding of helicopter technologies.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Institute of Aviation, Warsaw, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Animated series

According to the Autobot, Omega Supreme, millions of years ago, the Constructicons were the creators of the beautiful Crystal City on the Transformers’ homeworld of Cybertron, which he was assigned the task of guarding. As a friend of the Constructicons, he was hurt the most when they were attacked by Megatron, who, seeking to bolster the forces of his then-small army, subjected the Constructicons to the Robo-Smasher, a device which reprogrammed their minds and turned them into Decepticons. In their first act as Megatron’s troops, the Constructicons lured Omega away from Crystal City and demolished it, enraging Omega, who pursued the Constructions across the planet. Eventually, he succeeded in capturing them and apparently restored their programming to its original state, but as the group returned to rebuild Crystal City, Omega learned that Megatron’s reprogramming could never be undone – the Constructicons were still Decepticons, and more than that, Megatron had given them a new power: the ability to combine their bodies and minds into the giant known as Devastator. In the ensuing struggle with Devastator, the Robo-Smasher attacked Omega’s mind. He was able to stop it before the reprogramming was complete, only to wind up losing his emotions. Filled with only hatred for the Constructicons, Omega relentlessly pursued them, until they finally fled Cybertron in a spacecraft, which Omega chased across the galaxy.

In 1984, the Constructicons joined with Megatron’s forces on Earth, and their first mission was an impressive one – Scrapper designed a machine to transfer the other Decepticons’ powers to Megatron, and while he battled Optimus Prime, holding the attention of the Autobots, the Constructicons invaded the Ark to destroy Teletraan I.

Unfortunately for them, the Ark was protected by the Dinobots, but by merging into Devastator, they became more than a match for their prehistoric foes. The return of the other Autobots and the discovery of Megatron’s deception spelled the end of the battle, however, as Hound distracted Devastator with a gigantic hologram, and Optimus Prime blasted the giant at just the right spot to force the Constructicons to disengage. They and the other Decepticons were then forced into a river of lava.

The Constructicons all managed to survive their magma bath mostly unscathed, except for Mixmaster, whose mind was apparently damaged by the experience, as he developed his manic personality and a fondness for repeating his words, which he had not displayed before. Regardless, the team was soon back at work again, performing such varied tasks as assisting in Megatron’s reconstruction of New York City – which also involved turning Optimus Prime’s scrapped remains into a robotic alligator – and building a device to paralyse Transformers in their vehicular modes, as well as another that could crush them. When the Autobots would interfere in their plans, Devastator would invariably be formed – something that the Autobots chose to use to their ”advantage” when they discovered that the Constructicons were drilling to the Earth’s core. Sneaking “dominator disks” onto the separate Constructicons, when they merged into Devastator, the Autobots took control of his mind and used him for their own ends until he escaped, and, surprisingly, helped stop the drill to prevent the destruction of the Earth.

Upon learning of the Autobot Grapple’s solar power tower design, Scrapper and the Constructicons pretended to have defected from the Decepticons in order to help him and Hoist construct it, exposing their treachery upon its completion. Later, when the other Decepticons began to suffer from Cybertonium degeneration, the Constructions – apparently working fine, presumably as a result of their newly-built Cybertonium-free Earth bodies – took delivery of a shipment of the mineral via the Space Bridge, and as Devastator, failed to stop Spike Witwicky and Carly from getting by them and travelling to Cybertron.

In 1985, when Omega Supreme learned that the Constructicons were active on Earth, he arrived on the planet and joined Optimus Prime’s forces, biding his time until he could face his former friends again. That chance arose when the Constructions were discovered mining an asteroid, and Omega was dispatched to investigate. Ignoring Optimus Prime’s orders, Omega Supreme engaged the Constructicons, and in the battle, split the asteroid in two, revealing that it was an egg of sorts, incubating a monstrous alien creature, which promptly attacked San Francisco while Omega, ignoring the plight of the city, continued to battle the Constructicons. Optimus Prime then entered the fray, convincing Omega that saving the city was more important than revenge, and forcing the Constructicons to retreat.

The building skills of the Constructicons remained in demand – other creations around this time included an army of drone Transformers created from common Earth cars; various constructs for Blitzwing, including a throne constructed from deactivated Autobots and a massive maze; and a giant ruby-powered laser cannon – but their combining powers soon became a lot less distinctive with the creation of several new similarly-powered Autobot and Decepticon sub-groups. (The Constructicons themselves were responsible for converting the second batch of stolen Earth cars into the Stunticons.) Devastator was even defeated in battle by the Combaticons, who Starscream specially designed with the ability to combine into Bruticus for that eventuality.

In the Earth year 2005, Devastator was the Decepticons’ primary weapon in the Battle of Autobot City, tearing through the defenses and walls of the city and battling the Dinobots once more. On the return trip to Cybertron, it was Bonecrusher who advocated the “survival of the fittest” policy that saw many wounded Decepticons ejected from the shuttle, among them Megatron, prompting Scrapper to vote for the Constructions as the new leaders of the Decepticons. Hook took great offense to the notion that the unpopular Soundwave would make a better leader than them, leading to a mass brawl to decide who would be Decepticon leader. Later, on Cybertron, the Constructicons were blowing trumpets during Starscream’s coronation but were cut off due to Starscream’s impatience.

In the remainder of this year and throughout 2006, the Constructions maintained a smaller, but still present, role in the Decepticon army, lending their talents to the Decepticon/Quintesson alliance by constructing Trypticon out of a populated human city in only one night. Later, they built a planetary engine on an asteroid and battled on the planet Eurythma, aided in the overthrow of Paradron and took part in an attack on Japan. Although brief, the Constructicons even played a part in the battle for the Plasma Energy Chamber in 2007.

Marvel Comics

Bonecrusher appeared among the Constructicons in the Marvel Transformers comic series.

Books

Bonecrusher appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book ”The Lost Treasure of Cybertron” by Marvel Books.

Dreamwave Productions

In Dreamwave Productions’s 21st century re-imagining of the Generation One universe, it was revealed gradually that the Constructicons were responsible for pioneering the Combining process through a series of experiments on themselves, thus creating Devastator. The plans to Devastator’s combining process were eventually stolen by the Autobots and refined, resulting in Superion as a counter. This in turn led to more Special Teams being built by both sides.

In the initial ”War Within” series the Constructicons were responsible for activating Cybertron’s planetary engines, under the command of Megatron eight million years ago. When Megatron disappeared into the depths of the planet fighting Optimus Prime, Starscream temporarily took command and had Scrapper prepare a process for the resurfacing of Cybertron, which would transform it into a mobile war-world. Scrapper cautioned against such an action, but Starscream ignored him, and prevented him from stopping it when the process was underway. 1.5 million years later, when Megatron and Optimus Prime were thought to have died in an early test of the Space Bridge transport system, and the Autobots and Decepticons splintered into several smaller factions, the Constructicons broke the treaty that had downgraded the combining teams to non-combat status by siding with Ratbat’s Ultracons and battling Defensor. The various ”War Within” series showed that the Constructicons’ alternate modes were the Cybertronian variants of their Earth designs.

It is apparent that the Constructicons were not aboard the Ark when it crashed on Earth four million years ago, but they did eventually find their way to Earth and joined Megatron’s forces there after they awoke in 1984. All the Transformers were rendered inactive in the explosion of the Ark II in 1999, but when they reactivated in 2001, Devastator was the main weapon in Megatron’s attack on San Francisco. Rampaging through the city, he battled and defeated Superion, but was defeated by Optimus Prime through a point-blank blast to the face, which toppled the giant. His remains were recovered by the Earth Defence Command, and dissected and studied in their underground base. The ultimate fate of Devastator was not revealed, however, as a result of Dreamwave’s closure.

Fun Publications

The comics published in the Official Transformers Collectors Club magazine is set in the Marvel Comics continuity, but in a timeline where the events of ”Generation 2” did not occur. Bonecrusher appears among Megatrons troops.

In the ”Transformers: Timelines” story “Games of Deception” by Fun Publications Bonecrusher appears among Megatrons troops.

Toys

*”Generation” 1 Bonecrusher

:Bonecrusher is based on a Diaclone toy.

*”Generation” 2 Bonecrusher (orange)

:Bonecrusher was re-released as a recolor in orange for Generation 2.

*”Generation” 2 Bonecrusher (yellow)

:Bonecrusher was re-released as a recolor in yellow for Generation 2.

*”Classic” Scout Bonecrusher

:A redeco of the ”Energon” Bonecrusher and Wedge toy. A Walmart store exclusive.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Bonecrusher (Transformers), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Australia currently has two electric vehicle charging stations in Sydney from Coulomb Technologies. They opened in 2010. Construction is underway of two charge points from ECOtalityin the car park at 140 William Street in Melbourne CBD with Exigency providing project management and metering.

Construction of infrastructure has been proposed by Better Place for the major cities Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Australia will become the third country in the world to have an electric car network in a bid to run the country’s 15 million cars on batteries powered by green energy under a plan announced in October 2008.

The proposal includes charging spots connected to the energy grid, located in places where cars park& — home garages, shopping centres and carparks; “battery switching stations” where drivers swap batteries to get a longer range for long trips.

The project will involve Better Place partnered with AGL Energy, Australia’s largest portfolio of privately-owned renewable generation and Macquarie, prominent infrastructure investment group. AGL will provide the required energy from wind and other sources to power the electric vehicles and will work with Better Place to optimise the network. Macquarie will provide financial advice to help raise AUD $1 billion for the initial construction of the network.

European Union =

Denmark / Norway

Infrastructure is planned by Better Place and has been installed by Coulomb Technologies for Copenhagen. Denmark has enacted policies that create a tax differential between zero-emission vehicles and traditional cars to accelerate the transition to electric cars.

Norway has a tradition in building electric vehicles based on the Think Car. It is popular in Southern Norway (Oslo), Southern Sweden (Gothenburg) and Eastern Denmark (Copenhagen). The concept of the “[http://www.moveabout.net/ Move About]” project will provide 60 new Think cars in a test including charging stations in 50 towns in the area until 2013. The MoveAbout concept is actually derived from a car sharing system where cars are not offered for purchase but for leasing.

France / Italy

In France, Électricité de France (EDF) and Toyota are installing recharging points for PHEVs on roads, streets and parking lots.

The Renault-Nissan alliance and the largest French electric utility, Electricite de France (EDF) have signed an agreement to promote emission-free mobility in France. The move aims at offering all-electric volume vehicles from 2011 — including a countrywide network of battery charging stations.

The Environment Ministry of France, led by Jean-Louis Borloo has announced to promote the installation of 400,000 charging points in France up to 2015. Jean-Louis Borloo has assigned 1.5 billion Euros in 2009 to support research and preparations of a first part of the electric vehicle network with 75,000 charging stations.

Meanwhile the pilot project in Paris has started with the introduction of 100 Z.E. cars. The map of charging stations can be downloaded from the city website ([http://www.paris.fr/portail/pratique/Portal.lut?page_id=5775 "Bornes de recharge pour véhicules électriques"]) There are 101 locations with 178 charging points across the town and its suburbs (May 2010).

The Renault-Nissan group – including EDF – has enlarged its scope with partnering to the Italian utility Enel and Spanish utility Endesa in March 2010. The Italian Enel company had an early agreement with Daimler to run a test with their Smart line of cars. Renault-Nissan offers a broader range by providing 60 all-electric vehicles – the Kangoo Express Z.E. and the Renault Fluence Z.E – to the new pilot project “E-Moving” in Italy. The project will start to install 270 charge points in the in Lombardy region (including the cities of Milan and Brescia) up to June 2010. This “E-Moving” network will contain 150 public charging stations to be put up until the end of 2010. Enel will start the “emobility Italy” program in September 2010 in cooperation with Daimler – this program will put up 400 public and private charging stations The emobility test will run in Rome, Milan and Pisa.

The Monacco government has sketched a plan to run a fleet test in 2011 including 300 charging stations and 3 fast-charge stations.

Germany

Germany has four major transmission system operators being each largely owned by one of the five largest utility companies (Vattenfall↔50HERTZ, EON↔transpower, RWE↔ampirion, EnBW↔EnBWtransport). They try to set themselves into the position to sell electricity power to electric vehicle owners by becoming also the operators of the upcoming electric vehicle networks. To that avail, they offered partnerships to the German car makers, where they provided charging stations for field tests.

Carmaker Daimler AG and utility RWE AG are running a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital, Berlin, called “E-Mobility Berlin.” . The have set up 60 charging stations in Berlin (September 2009) and are in the process of extending the system to include 500 charging stations. Daimler has provided for 100 e-Smart to the project. The second phase started in November 2010. The RWE subsidiary “[http://rwe-mobility.com RWE Mobility]” has created cooperations with the automobilist club ADAC, car rental service Sixt and car park provider APCOA to equip all locations with charging stations. since mid of 2009. Renault joined the RWE Mobility program in September 2009 whereby the project goals of erecting charging stations were enlarged to mid of 2011 Renault’s partner Nissan has joined the RWE-mobility program on 21. June 2010 announcing that RWE will create a network of 1000 charging stations until the end of the year 2010 focusing on the Berlin and Rhein-Ruhr region. The current list of RWE-mobility charging stations contains 200 locations in Germany plus two stations in Warsaw.

Carmaker BMW and utility Vattenfall run a joint electric car and charging test project called “MINI E” in the German capital, Berlin. The are in the process of erecting 50 charging stations and the project lends 50 BMW Mini cars to citizens. The project started in June 2009 and a second phase has been started in December 2009.

Carmaker VW and utility E.ON run a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital, Berlin and in Wolfsburg. The “Electric Mobility Fleet Test” (“[http://www.eon-energie.com/pages/eea_de/Innovation/Innovation/E-Mobilitaet/VW-Flottenversuch/index.htm Flottenversuch Elektromobilität]“) was started as a research project with mostly partners in German universities using the VW hybrid cars (to be tested in 2010). E.ON has later joined also in the MINI E project providing the infrastructure in Munich which was started in Juli 2009. erecting 11 charging stations so far (as of May 2010).

Carmaker Daimler, the utility EnBW and the government of Baden-Württemberg have announced on 18. June 2010 to enlarge the “Landesinitiative Elektromobilität” program with the „e-mobility Baden-Württemberg“ project that includes erecting 700 charging stations in the state until the end of 2011. Additionally there will be 200 electric vehicles added to the test including some electric trucks. The government of Baden-Württemberg has assigned 28.5 million Euros to support EV research up to 2014.

The German government has announced to support a fleet of 1 million electric cars in Germany by 2020. There are 500 million Euros assigned to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology to support research and pilot projects in Germany. The ministry has created a dedicated coordination office in the “Gemeinsame Geschäftsstelle Elektromobilität der Bundesregierung (GGEMO)” (”Joint Agency for Electric Mobility (of the Federal Government)”) which was opened in February 2010.. The GGEMO has coordinated a partnership program with the German car industry named “Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität (NPE)” inaugurated on May 3, 2010 in the German Chancellery. The German government has announced that it will not install a rebate system for the introduction of electric cars but that it will reshape the legal provisions to quickly create a charging station network in Germany.

The NPE partnership is supposed to report with a detailed plan for network evolution at the end of November 2010. The technical standardization part is mostly concentrated in the Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik (DKE) of the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) – the [http://www.vde.com/de/Technik/e-mobility/Standards/Seiten/StandardisierungundNormung.aspx Standardization Overview on E-Mobility] shows a wide range of efforts from electric grid management to the charging station infrastructure to the car charger electronics. The VDE E-mobility congress on the subject will be held in Leipzig on 8./9. November 2010.

Switzerland

The charging station network in Switzerland is derived from research in solar cars. In 1992 the government decided to support a charging station network. The network has since extended to neighbouring countries – in 2010 the Park & Charge network in Switzerland, Germany and Austria did encompass 500 charging locations, additionally there a few charging locations in the Netherlands and Italy.

Ireland

In partnership with local electric utility Electricity Supply Board (ESB) and the Irish Government, Renault-Nissan have signed a Definitive Agreement that calls for the deployment of 3,500 charge points and 30 fast charge points across Ireland by December 2011, the supply of 2,000 electric cars (Nissan Leaf, Renault Kangoo Z.E. and Renault Fluence Z.E.), as a first step, by the Renault-Nissan Alliance from 2011 and the introduction of government policies and incentives to support EV use. The government is offering a €5,000 grant (US$6,796) on the purchase of new electric vehicles and an exemption from Vehicle Registration Tax. The first station of the charger network (2000 chargers are given to the 2000 first car owners, the remaining 1500 will be public stations) was put up in August 2010.

Netherlands

Amsterdam announced it will set up 200 charging stations by 2012. In the first step the city will put up 45 stations from Coulomb Technologies in cooperation with Dutch utility Nuon. There project “[http://www.amsterdamelektrisch.nl/ Amsterdam Elektrisch]” project includes 100 street-side charging stations plus 100 charging stations at car parks The first one was put up on 6. November 2009 reaching the projected 45 charging stations in June 2010.

The Amsterdam network (system provided by 365 energy group) extends to Bochum, Germany where the municipality utility Stadtwerke Bochum has started to erect charging stations – the first 3 stations were put up in Bochum town center on 29. April 2010 The Bochum project blends into a larger effort by municipality utilities in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region named [http://www.ruhrmobil-e.de/ Ruhrmobil-E] which has been originally a popular initiative of 50 local citizens.

The Dutch government created the “Formula E Team,” a working group collaborating with local governments, private companies and research institutes to create national and regional electric vehicle initiatives. The Friesland province has the ambitious plan to put up 10,000 charging points by 2012. The working group helps active infrastructure providers (Eneco, Essent, Nuon, MisterGreen, Reewoud/Chargepoint, Stichting e-laad.nl) to put up a charging station network adding 65 million Euro investment support in the timeframe 2009 to 2011. According to the roadmap of Formula E-Team the office has been created and the first RFI has started in August 2010; the results will be published in early November for comments and proposals with a definite guide for the infrastructure to be published in March 2011. The integration tests will run in mid of 2011 and the back office system for the networked charging stations to go live in late 2011 along with the “Charge Authority Board” for further development.

The Netherlands is one of the first European markets for the Nissan Leaf;

Holland is also the first European country to adopt stations for the “level 3″ fast-charging supported by the Leaf. Epyon has unveiled the first charging station at a gasoline station in Leeuwarden, in the northern province of Friesland.

Poland

RWE and the [http://www.gs.greenpl.org/en Green Stream Cluster] have started in June 2010 to put up a network of 130 charging stations in Warsaw. The Grean Stream Cluster project will run until mid of 2011. The Green Stream Cluster will put up overall 330 charging stations in five cities: Warsaw, Danzig, Kattowitz, Krakau and Mielec. [http://www.ekoenergetyka.com.pl/ Ekoenergetyka-Zachod] works on an electric vehicle network in the western cities of Zielona Gora (Grünberg), Sulechow, Pila (Schneidemühl) und Sieradz.

Portugal

Renault-Nissan have signed a contract with MOBIE.Tech that was started back in 2008. There shall be 1300 new charging stations and 50 fastcharge stations within the 2011 timeframe.

Spain

The [http://alargador.org Alargador.org] map has 190 (August 2010) contributors of charging stations in Spain and Portugal (May 2010). They are mainly hotels, camping sites, restaurants, commercial centers, foundations, associations, EV dealers and private individuals with most systems operated manually.

In Madrid, Spain, a trial project will convert 30 former telephone boxes into charging points for electric cars. They are considered suitable, since telephone boxes are generally located at the roadside and are already connected to the electricity supply network. They would form part of a planned network of 546 charging points in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville, subsidised by the Spanish Government. The charging grid is created for the MOVELE pilot project of the Institute for Diversification and Saving of Energy (Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía, IDAE) that is also providing for 2,000 electric vehicles to the field test. The Spanish government has committed itself to have 1 million electric vehicles (fully electric and hybrid cars) in Spain by 2014..

The Chairman of Endesa, Borja Prado, together with the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, and the Chairman of Telefónica, César Alierta, have the phone booth in Madrid which can also be used for recharging electric vehicles. Reserved parking spaces will be located next to this and all other booths set up in Metropolitan areas where users will be able to park their EVs and recharge at no cost once they have obtained their free “zero emissions” pre-paid card from the Madrid city council.

United Kingdom

Électricité de France is partnering with Elektromotive, Ltd. to install 250 new charging points over six months from October 2007 in London and elsewhere in the UK.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and UK company Elektromotive, a provider of electric vehicle recharging stations, are collaborating in the Partnership for Zero-Emission-Mobility, with the aim of accelerating the installation of charging networks for plug-in vehicles in cities. The Alliance and Elektromotive have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

A fleet of electric cars and charge points will be rolled out across Coventry (England) as part of a multi-million pound pilot project .

The London mayor called for an E-revolution in March 2009 and he presented the “Electric Delivery Plan for London” in May 2009. The plan projects 25,000 charging points London by 2015 including 500 on-street, 2000 off-street in car-parks and 22,000 privately-owned locations. London itself will buy 1000 electric vehicles up to 2015. Owners of the an electric car will not need to pay the Congestion Charge for the city of London being worth up to £1,700 a year. At that point (May 2009) London already had 100 charge points in public places which will be increased to 250 by 2012. Beginning 2011 20% of new lots in car parks must have access to a charging outlet. Additionally, the parking in the Westminster boroughs will be free for electric vehicles saving the user up to £6,000 a year and a flat rate of £200 electricity cost is charged for the usage of public outlets in Westminster.

The Department for Transport (DfT) announced in April 2009 that £230 million would be allocated to incentivise the market uptake of EVs in the UK. The scheme will become operational in 2011 and each EV purchaser could receive a rebate of between £2,000 -£5,000. Electric vehicles are exempt from purchase and annual vehicle tax. From April 2010, purchasers of an average new car (Band G) will pay a one off £155 showroom tax and an annual vehicle tax of £155.EVs are tax free.

On the 25 February 2010, London, the North East region and Milton Keynes were selected to be the lead places for electric vehicle infrastructure. In total, their plans will result in over 2,500 charge points in the first year and over 11,000 in the next three years, at a variety of publicly accessible car parks, transport hubs and workplaces.

Israel

Better Place is building its first electric vehicle network in Israel in conjunction with French car-maker, Renault. Better Place will conduct its first market tests in Israel, Denmark and Hawaii as their small size also makes them suitable as test markets. The company opened its first functional charging station in Israel the first week of December 2008 at Cinema City in Pi-Glilot, and additional stations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Kfar Sava, Holon, and Jerusalem are being planned and installed.

Israel has enacted policies that create a tax differential between zero-emission vehicles and traditional cars, to accelerate the transition to electric cars.

Japan

Infrastructure is planned by Better Place and Nissan for Yokohama.

Singapore

Infrastructure is planned by [http://www.greenlots.com/ Greenlots] and Keppel Energy for Singapore

United States of America

Infrastructure has been installed by Coulomb Technologies in Arizona; California – San Francisco, San Jose, Walnut Creek, and Sonoma; Colorado; Washington, D.C.; Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York; Cary, North Carolina; Ohio; Portland, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; Texas; Seattle, Washington; Wisconsin.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root are partnering with Coulomb to advance public charging facilities. Gilbarco exhibited Coulomb Technologies’ Smartlet Charging Station at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) show in October 2008 .

At the end of 2008, Coulomb Technologies planned to roll out five curbside charging stations in downtown San Jose that drivers can access through a prepaid plan. The company was working with entities in Las Vegas Nevada, New York and Florida to do something similar there . Coulomb Technologies has announced to provide 1000 free public charging stations until December 2010. They also plan to expand its [http://www.chargepointamerica.com/ ChargePoint network] to 4600 free home and public level-2 charging stations until October 2011 in nine regions: Austin, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; Sacramento, California; the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, California; Redmond, Washington; and Washington DC. The $37 million ChargePoint America program is made possible by a $15M grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy. So far 149 stations are operational according to the ChargePoint map, 51 stations are in California. New York joins the ChargePoint network building more than 100 charging stations in public places until October 2011.

Infrastructure is planned by Better Place for Hawaii, Oregon, and California – the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, and the highway and freeway corridors between them.

Other companies that are building charging stations throughout the U.S are ECOtality and SolarCity

In the first phase 11 cities are participating in the initial phase of the “[http://www.theevproject.com/ EV Project]” of ECOtality: Phoenix (AZ), Tucson (AZ), San Diego (CA), Portland (OR), Eugene (OR), Salem (OR), Corvallis (OR), Seattle (WA), Nashville (TN), Knoxville (TN) and Chattanooga (TN). The contract for the “EV Project” was signed on October 1, 2009 with the US Department of Energy and it includes 8,300 Level 2 chargers installed in owner’s homes; 6,350 Level 2 chargers installed in commercial and public locations; and 310 Level 3 DC fast-chargers. The EV project will run for 36 months. The public charging stations will be put up beginning in summer 2010. Texas has joined the EV Project in July 2010. San Diego will take a share of 1,500 public charging stations and 1,000 home base charging points.

Portland General Electric installs 12 electric vehicle charging stations in Portland and Salem, Oregon till September 2008 and it has installed 20 charging stations by 2010 as part of a demonstration project to develop the transportation infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles and plug-in cars.

Drivers can now plug in at two park-and-ride lots in King County, which includes Seattle. The county plans to add sockets at three garages under construction. There are about 30 reliable sites in the Seattle area to plug in. Most are free, others charge the same as parking a gas-powered car — $7 an hour .

In recent months, the cities of Edmonds and Lacey invited drivers to plug in their electric vehicles at free public stations .

In Virginia, with the participation of the Town of Wytheville, and several businesses, Plugless Power inductive charging stations began field testing in March 2010.

In San Antonio, TX, a downtown church (Travis Park United Methodist Church) made Level 1 charging available in its parking lot in 2009.

The DBEDT ministry of Hawaii had a state rebate program “EV Ready Grant” that was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – the program was offering $4500 for a full-speed commercially available electric vehicle and $500 for electric vehicle chargers. The “EV Ready Grant” program is followed by the “EV Ready Rebate” program offering 20% of the purchase price with a maximum of $4500 for a full-speed commercially available electric vehicle and 30% of the purchase prices with a maximum of $500 for electric vehicle chargers. Charging equipment is expected follow the standards including SAE J1772. The designated Transportation Working Group expects 200 charging stations to be available in 2010

In California the car maker Tesla has put up 18 public charging stations. Within the SF Bay Area Activities & Coalition has identified 109 locations to put up public charging stations beginning 2009 based on funding by ARRA. The last California [http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/infrastructure/infrastructure.htm ZEV Program Review symposium] was held on 23. September 2009, the next one is scheduled for late summer 2010. In the past there had been a charging station network to support the General Motors EV1 that had installed 500 public charging station.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Electric vehicle network, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Day 1 A.H. (After Humans)

The story speculates that humanity has disappeared instantly.

* Empty cars and other vehicles swerve off the roads and crash, causing multiple accidents all across the globe. Those that don’t burn out as a result continue to release exhaust into the air until their fuel supplies run out. Airplanes fall from the sky. Some crash just some minutes after takeoff when their crews disappear, whereas others at high altitudes, with their fuel tanks full and autopilots engaged, continue flying for hours. Trains derail. (60 seconds A.H.)

* Coal plants run out of coal. Many cities around the world go out. Some buildings supplied with energy by them, such as Las Vegas casinos, fall into darkness. (10 minutes A.H.) Others switch to generators which, in turn, get their energy from other sources (windmills, dams). The demand proves to be too much for what these plants can provide and produces mass power blackouts (55 minutes A.H.). Within just 85 minutes, only nuclear power plants continue working.

* The permanent loss of power reaches the nuclear power plants, which shut off their reactors. Once that happens, it will trigger numerous catastrophic events later on in time. (96 minutes A.H.)

* Chlorine tanks, which need to remain cold, heat up until release valves are activated, sending the gas into the surrounding environment. Many animals die of suffocation. Also, liquefied natural gas tanks begin to fail, causing many fires and explosions. (6 hours A.H.)

Day 3 to day 7 A.H.

* Needing to be rewound, Big Ben rings for the last time.

* Pet dogs and cats exhaust all the food stored in their owners’ homes and break out to search for more in the streets.

* Water pumps fail, leaving sewage treatment plants useless and polluting rivers and lakes.

* In farms and pastures all over the world, dairy cows are struggling to survive as their food and water supplies begin to end. In a cruel twist of fate, 90,000 dairy cows are saved from the slaughterhouse, but they may all die of dehydration.

* Zoo animals escape through useless electric fences and roam free.

* Migration is safer for birds now, as electric lights do not confuse them anymore.

* As days pass, dogs eat all easily-available food and begin to fight amongst each other for supremacy. The bigger dogs make packs and attack the small ones to eat them. Within a week, all toy dogs disappear from Earth. Large packs of dogs will also feed on dead penned up cattle.

* Security measures in power plants fail. The equipment in the spent fuel buildings adjoining nuclear power plants that maintain the temperature level of the spent nuclear fuel rods will shut down because the fossil fuel powered back up power generators will run out. At that time, the cooling pools that prevent the spent nuclear fuel from overheating will start to boil. Radioactive steam will vent into the atmosphere because the water eventually evaporates and the spent fuel would set fire to the building, causing it to explode (non nuclear) emitting radiation not only in the immediate area of the plant but carried by winds around the globe. This is repeated dozens of times as shutdown nuclear plant spent fuel houses explode.

Day 10 A.H.

* Hungry dogs from cities flee to the countryside.

* Six days after their water and food supplies began ending, dairy cows have completely finished them and died. Now, their rotting carcasses will do nothing more than sustain hungry dogs. Not all cows are dead. Beef cattle, on the other hand, survive and form herds that thrive in places like the North American Great Plains.

* The last domestic chickens are exterminated by predators.

* Spent nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants is generally stored in pools in on-site facilities. Since this water is not replenished, the heat of the fuel rods boils it away and the steam pressure causes the storage facilities to explode. The resulting nuclear disasters spread fallout over large areas. Radioactive clouds cross the skies and rain carries the radiation to the ground. Most plants and small animals within the affected zones die. The bigger ones (like deer) flee to unaffected regions – not because they notice the radiation, but because of the lack of food.

* Mice take over abandoned supermarkets, where their population explodes thanks to the abundance of food there. This pattern will continue for the next few months until their population is regulated again by the reduction of food and the action of predators like cats.

* Squirrels, raccoons, coyotes and skunks begin to colonize human buildings.

3 Months A.H.

* Radiation disappears from the air.

* In cities, air quality and visibility is improved.

* Packs of feral dogs roam the countryside. Desperate for food, they attack anything – even escaped elephants. But they don’t have any success in this case. Without humans, elephants have no real predators anymore.

6 Months A.H.

* Winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere. Zoo animals that cannot survive it, like elephants, must migrate to southern latitudes or die.

* Without artificial heating, cockroaches die by the billions in cold houses.

* Animals from the forests like raccoons and skunks seek refuge in human homes to spend winter. During their stay, they cause further damage to the abandoned furniture.

10 to 12 months A.H

*In the spring, trees nearer to power plants can’t produce buds, but those farther out recover.

*Spring rains wash away the radioactive particles from the surface and carry it further into the ground, cleaning plants and objects.

*Meanwhile, new plants and trees remove the excess CO2 from the atmosphere left by cars.

*Without hunting seasons, animals breed undisturbed. Some species in areas with no natural predators, like the white tail deer, see population booms and expand their distribution to new areas, including former cities.

*Moss starts to grow over roads.

3 to 15 years A.H

*Roads appear degraded and cracked by the ice of multiple winters with no maintenance. Their surfaces are covered by moss and grass grows in the cracks.

*New trees grow in home gardens.

30 years A.H

*Devastated by solar winds, artificial satellites return to Earth in the form of shooting stars. Some of their pieces make it to the ground and start some fires.

*House roofs collapse, allowing trees to grow in their interior.

*Scoured by hurricane after hurricane, the East Coast of the United States is slowly cleaned of buildings. Southern states like Florida are completely swept away.

*In the ocean, the remains of former ships serve as foundations for the formation of coral reefs.

*Cereal fields are turned into grasslands or overrun by expanding forests. The same happens to cities as grass and trees take root on streets and buildings.

*In New York City, Central Park is getting bigger, taking over Times Square.

*Panes of window glass fall from buildings to the streets.

*Birds of prey make their nests and hunt rodents in skyscrapers.

*Paint is weathered away after years of exposure to rain. Metal in cars and other human structures is exposed to oxidation and disintegration.

*Concrete begins to collapse due to moisture.

60-120 years A.H

*Skyscrapers around the world begin to collapse.

*Sea life has completely recovered from overfishing and is thriving.

*Though there are still dogs, dog breeds do not exist anymore, erased by generations of free reproduction. Many of the feral dog breeds have died out due to neutering, resulting in a genetic bottleneck in the remaining dogs. Survivors mate with wolves.

*In Europe, the largely decreased wolf population expands into the countries where it was completely exterminated, like Germany. Upon reaching the ruins of cities, wolves come into contact with feral dogs living there, competing with them for food or breeding with them, erasing the last traces left of domestication.

*Around 120 years after our disappearance, the oceans and plants begin scrubbing the earth clean of our carbon dioxide.

150 years A.H

*Winters are colder than in the last days of the human race.

*Remains of ships and bridges form dams in the Thames, flooding the ruins of London and turning the British capital back into the swamp it was before Roman times.

*Imperial Valley, once the biggest producer of fruits in the United States, returns back to a sandy desert.

*Dry winds still maintain most of Las Vegas buildings intact. They serve as a refuge for vultures and desert lizards now.

200 years A.H

*Most of the dams on the Colorado River are destroyed due to excessive water pressure. The Hoover Dam survives, but water passes over it forming a cascade. For the first time in centuries, the Colorado River once again reaches the Sea of Cortez as a flood, not a stream and gives birth to a vast estuary full of animal life.

*The coast of Louisiana is reshaped.

*Old codfish reach six feet long.

*All whale species have recovered to their pre-human populations. Without the interference of noisy naval alarms, they can hear the mating calls of other whales from 2000 miles away.

*Remains of large ships appear on beaches all over the world, after two centuries of errant journeys over (and under) the waves.

*The excess of CO2 in the atmosphere is completely eliminated by plants and trees.

230 years A.H

*The upper half of the Eiffel Tower collapses and falls into the new Seine River’s marsh. Thousands of feral pigs (descendants of both domestic pigs and wild boars) live under the Tower’s legs and are regularly hunted by wolves.

*The right arm of the Statue of Liberty falls to the ground. The head follows some time later.

*The eastern half of North America is entirely covered by thick forests with trees that grow up to 90 feet tall.

*Human structures still survive under forest humus. From time to time rains and rivers wash humus away uncovering concrete beams, plastics, cellphones and stainless steel objects.

*Tens of millions of bison, cattle and horses make up gigantic herds in the Western North American plains.

*The Great Sphinx of Giza is buried again in the sands of the Sahara.

500 years A.H

*Forests recover the state they had 10000 years ago.

1000 years A.H

*The Eiffel Tower has lost all but its four legs.

*The Statue of Liberty has fallen to pieces and only its pedestal still stands.

25000 years A.H

*Earth enters a new Ice Age and glaciers expand south covering most of the Northern Hemisphere. The last traces of New York City are completely erased.

*However, evidence left by Moon exploration missions will survive intact for not only thousands, but millions of years after mankind has vanished. They will be the last legacy of the human race.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Aftermath: Population Zero, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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*1: Hero of Alexandria describes the aeolipile, as an example of the power of heated air or water. The device consists of a rotating ball spun by steam jets; it produced little power and had no practical application, but is nevertheless the first known device moved by steam pressure. He also describes a way transferring water from one vessel to another using pressure, filling a bucket the weight of which worked tackle to open temple doors, closed again by a deadweight once the water in the bucket had been drawn out by a vacuum caused by cooling of the initial vessel.

*1125: In Reims, according to William of Malmesbury, an organ was powered by heated water.

*1543: Blasco de Garay uses a steam machine to move a ship in Barcelona.

*1551: Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf describes a steam turbine-like device for rotating a spit.

*1601: Giovanni Battista della Porta performs experiments on using steam to create pressure or a vacuum.

*1606: Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont patents a steam-powered device for pumping water out of deep mines.

*1615: Salomon de Caus, who had been an engineer and architect under Louis XIII, publishes a book showing a device similar to that of Porta.

*1629: Giovanni Branca suggests using a steam turbine device similar to that described by Taqi al-Din but intended to be used to power a series of pestles working in mortars.

*1630: David Ramsey is granted a patent for various steam applications, although no description is given and the patent also covers a number of unrelated inventions. He refers to a “fire engine”, and this term is used for many years.

Towards a workable steam engine

*1663: Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquis of Worcester, publishes a selection of his inventions. One is a new sort of steam pump, essentially two devices like de Caus’, but attached to a single boiler. A key invention is the addition of cooling around the containers to force the steam to condense. This produces a partial vacuum inside the chambers, which is used to draw a volume of water into the containers through a pipe, thus forming a pump. He builds one of very large size into the side of Raglan Castle, apparently the first “industrial scale” steam engine. He has plans to build them for mining, but dies before he can set up his company.

*1698: Thomas Savery introduces a steam pump he calls the Miner’s Friend. it is almost certainly a direct copy of Somerset’s design. One key improvement is added later, replacing the cold water flow on the outside of the cylinder with a spray directly inside it. A small number of his pumps are built, mostly experimental in nature, but like any system based on suction to lift the water, they have a maximum height of 32 feet (and typically much less). In order to be practical, his design can also use the pressure of additional steam to force the water out the top of the cylinder, allowing the pumps to be “stacked”, but many mine owners were afraid of the risk of explosion and avoided this option. (Savery engines were re-introduced in the 1780s to recirculate water to water wheels driving textile mills, especially in periods of drought).

*c.1705: Thomas Newcomen develops the atmospheric engine, which, unlike the Savery pump, employs a piston in a cylinder; the vacuum pulling the piston down to the bottom of the cylinder when water is injected into it. The engine enabled a great increase in pumping height and the draining of deeper mines than hitherto possible. Savery holds a patent covering all imagined uses of steam power so Newcomen and his partner John Calley persuade Savery to join forces with them to exploit their invention until the expiration of the patent in 1733.

*1707: Denis Papin publishes a study on steam power, including a number of ideas. One uses a Savery-like engine to lift water onto a water wheel for rotary power. The study also proposes replacing the water of a Savery engine with a piston, which is pulled on by the vacuum in a cylinder after steam inside is condensed, but he was unable to build the device.

*1718: Desaguliers introduces an improved version of the Savery engine, which includes safety valves and a two-way valve that operated both the steam and cold water (as opposed to two separate valves). It is not commercially employed.

*1720: Leupold designs an engine based on expansion, which he attributes to Papin, in which two cylinders alternately receive steam and then vent to the atmosphere. Although likely a useful design, it appears none were built.

The Newcomen Engine: Steam power in practice

*1712: Newcomen installs his first commercial engine .

*1713: Humphrey Potter, a boy charged with operating a Newcomen engine, installs a simple system to automatically open and close the operating valves. The engine can now be run at 15 strokes a minute with little work other than firing the boiler.

*1718: Henry Beighton introduces an improved and much more reliable version of Potter’s operating system.

*1733 Newcomen’s patent expires. By this time about 100 Newcomen engines have been built. Over the next 50 years engines are installed in collieries and metal mines all over England, notably in Cornwall, and are also used for municipal water supply and pumping water over water wheels, especially in ironworks.

*1769: John Smeaton experiments with Newcomen engines, and also starts building improved engines with much longer piston stroke than previous practice. Later engines, which marked probably the high point of Newcomen engine design, deliver up to 80 horsepower (around 60& kW).

*1775: By this date about 600 Newcomen engines erected in the UK.

*1779: The crank first applied by James Pickard to a Newcomen engine, producing rotary motion. Pickard patents this the following year, but the patent is unenforcable.

*1780-1800: Newcomen engines continue to be built in large numbers (about a thousand between 1775 and 1800), especially for mines but increasingly in mills and factories. Many have Watt condensers added after the patent expires (see below). Several dozen improved Savery engines are also built.

Watt’s engine

*1765: James Watt hits on the idea of the separate condenser, the key being to relocate the water jet, (which condenses the steam and creates the vacuum in the Newcomen engine) inside an additional cylindrical vessel of smaller size enclosed in a water bath; the still-warm condensate is then evacuated into a hot well by means of a suction pump allowing the preheated water to be returned to the boiler. This greatly increases thermal efficiency by ensuring that the main cylinder can be kept hot at all times, unlike in the Newcomen engines where the condensing water spray cooled the cylinder at each stroke. Watt also seals the top of the cylinder so that steam at a pressure marginally above that of the atmosphere can act on top of the piston against the vacuum created beneath it.

*1765: Matthew Boulton opens the Soho Manufactory engineering works in Handsworth.

*1769: James Watt is granted a patent on his improved design. The increase in efficiency is enough for Watt and his partner Matthew Boulton to license the design based on the savings in coal per year, as opposed to a fixed fee.

*1775: Watt and Boulton enter into a formal partnership. Watt’s patent is extended by Act of Parliament for 25 years until 1800.

*1776: First commercial Boulton and Watt engine built. At this stage and until 1795 B&W only provided designs, plans, the most complicated engine parts and support with on-site erection.

*1781: Jonathan Hornblower patents a two-cylinder “compound” engine, in which the steam pushes on one piston (as opposed to pulling via vacuum as in previous designs), and when it reaches the end of its stroke is transferred into a second cylinder that exhausts into a condenser as “normal”. Hornblower’s design is more efficient than Watt’s single-acting designs, but similar enough to his double-acting system that Boulton and Watt are able to have the patent overturned by the courts in 1799.

*1782: First Watt rotative engine, driving a flywheel by means of the sun and planet gear rather than a crank, thus avoiding James Pickard’s patent. Watt secures further patents in this year and 1784.

*1783: Watt builds his first “double acting” engine, which admits steam so as to alternately act on one side of the piston then on the other; steam exhausts at each return stroke into a condenser. This change enables use of a flywheel imparting steady rotary motion controlled by a governor, thus making it possible for the engine to drive machinery in cotton mills, breweries and other manufacturing industries.

*1784: William Murdoch demonstrates a model steam carriage working on “strong steam”. He is dissuaded from patenting his invention by his employer, James Watt.

*1787: Oliver Evans in Maryland patents the first high-pressure steam engine in North America.

*1791: William Bull makes a seemingly obvious design change by inverting the steam engine directly above the mine pumps, eliminating the large beam used since Newcomen’s designs. About 10 of his engines are built in Cornwall.

*1799: Richard Trevithick builds his first high-pressure engine at Dolcoath tin mine in Cornwall.

*1800: Watt’s patent expires. By this time about 450 Watt engines and over 1500 Newcomen engines have been built in the UK.

Improving power

*1804: Arthur Woolf re-introduces Hornblower’s double-cylinder designs now that Watt’s patents have expired. He goes on to build a number of examples with up to nine cylinders as boiler pressures increase through better manufacturing and materials.

*1801 Richard Trevithick builds and runs Camborne road engine.

*1804 Richard Trevithick builds and runs single-cylinder flywheel locomotive on the 9-mile Pen-y-Darran tramway. Due to plate breakages the engine is installed at Dowlais for stationary use.

*1804 John Steel builds locomotive to Trevithick’s model at Gateshead for Mr Smith. This is demonstrated to Christopher Blackett who refuses it for reasons of excess weight.

*1808 Christopher Blackett relays track at Wylam Colliery.

*1808 Richard Trevithick demonstrates the passenger carrying railway with Catch me who can in London.

*1811 Blackett employs Thomas Waters to build a new flywheel locomotive.

*1811 Blackett instructs Timothy Hackworth to build hand-cranked chassis to prove feasibility of smooth rail for traction.

*1811 Second Wylam locomotive built by Blackett’s development team consisting of Timothy Hackworth, William Hedley, and Jonathan Foster.

*1812 Blenkinsop develops rack railway system in collaboration with Matthew Murray of Leeds Round Foundry – single-flue boiler; vertical cylinders sunk into boiler.

*1813 Third Wylam locomotive built, with 8 wheels to spread axle load.

*1815 George Stephenson builds ”Blücher” – similar to Blenkinsop model.

*1825 Robert Stephenson & Co build ”Locomotion” for Stockton and Darlington Railway.

*1827 Timothy Hackworth builds highly efficient ”Royal George” with centrally-placed blastpipe in the chimney for Stockton and Darlington Railway.

*1829 Robert Stephenson & Co successfully competes at Rainhill Trials against Hackworth’s ”Sans Pareil” and Braithwaite and Ericsson’s ”Novelty”.

* 1830 ”Stephensonian” locomotive configuration appears with Stephenson’s ”Planet” type along with Edward Bury’s ”Liverpool” – horizontal cylinders placed beneath smokebox; drive to rear crank – bar frames.

*1849: George Henry Corliss develops and markets the Corliss-type steam engine, a four-valve counterflow engine with separate steam admission and exhaust valves. Trip valve mechanisms provide sharp cutoff of steam during admission stroke. The efficiency of Corliss engines greatly exceeds other engines of the period, and they are rapidly adopted in stationary service throughout industry.

*1854: John Ramsbottom publishes a report on his use of oversized steel piston rings which maintain a seal by outward spring tension on the cylinder wall. This allows much better sealing (compared to earlier cotton seals) which leads to significantly higher system pressures before “blow-by” is experienced.

*1865: Auguste Mouchout invents the first device to convert solar energy into mechanical steam power, using a cauldron filled with water enclosed in glass, which would be put in the sun to boil the water.

*1867: Stephen Wilcox and his partner George Herman Babcock patent the “Babcock & Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler”, which uses water inside clusters of tubing to generate steam, typically with higher pressures and more efficiently than the typical “firetube” boilers of that time. Babcock and Wilcox-type boiler designs become popular in new installations.

*1897: Charles Algernon Parsons patented a steam turbine, which was used to power a ship. The turbine works like a multi-cylinder steam engine, but with any number of “cylinders” in series, built of simple bladed wheels. The efficiency of large steam turbines is considerably better than the best compound engines, while also being much simpler, more reliable, smaller and lighter all at the same time. Steam turbines have replaced piston engines for power generation almost universally since then.

*1897: Stanley Brothers begin selling lightweight steam cars, over 200 being made.

*1899: The Locomobile Company begins manufacture of the first production steam-powered cars, after purchasing manufacturing rights from the Stanley Brothers.

*1902: The Stanley Motor Carriage Company begins manufacture of the Stanley Steamer, the most popular production steam-powered car.

*1903: Commonwealth Edison Fisk Street Station opens in Chicago, using 32 Babcock and Wilcox boilers driving several GE Curtis turbines, at 5000 and 9000 kilowatts each, the largest turbine-generators in the world at that time. Almost all electric power generation, from the time of the Fisk Station to the present, is based on steam driven turbine-generators.

*1913: Nikola Tesla patents a bladeless steam turbine that utilizes the ”boundary layer effect”. This design has never been used commercially due to its low efficiency.

*1923: Alan Arnold Griffith publishes ”An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design”, describing a way to dramatically improve the efficiency of all turbines. In addition to making newer power plants more economical, it also provides enough efficiency to build a jet engine.

*2009: On August 25, 2009, Team Inspiration of the British Steam Car Challenge broke the long-standing record for a steam vehicle set by a Stanley Steamer in 1906, setting a new speed record of 139.843& mph in the Edwards Air Force Base, in the Mojave Desert of California.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Timeline of steam power, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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With transportation design as his first love, Syd Mead seldom misses an opportunity to provide his unique blend of futurism and believability to those projects consisting of a vehicle that travels from “A” to ‘B”. Whether it be designing solar powered unicycles, show cars, luxury yachts, cruise ships, or the interiors of private 747’s, each receives the same attention to detail within a perfectly designed scenario. This combination has become a Syd Mead trademark and has been seen in everything from concept cars for Ford Motor Company to futuristic “Hypervans” which have been the subject of his latest full color illustrations.

Syd Mead continues an active schedule of one man shows, which started with an invitation to exhibit at Documenta 6, Kassel, West Germany in 1973. His work has since been exhibited in Japan, Italy, California, and Spain. In 1983 in response to an in invitation from Chrysler Corporation to be a guest speaker to their design staff, Syd Mead assembled a selection of slides to visually enhance his lecture. The resulting presentation was a resounding success and has since been expanded and enhanced with computer generated imagery specifically assembled at the requests of such clients as Disney, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue, Pratt University, the Society of Illustrators., and many others both academic and corporate around the world. In March 2010, Syd completed a four city tour in Australia to capacity audiences at each venue.

Always an advocate of new technologies, Syd Mead has expanded his horizons to include computer illustrations and graphics by mastering a variety of Softwares. Beginning with the official poster of the 1991 Concours d’Elegance “Eyes on the Classics” in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. Mead has attempted to use the latest in available techniques to their best advantage. In 1993, a digital gallery consisting of 50 examples of his art with interface screens designed by Syd Mead became one of the first CD ROM’s released in Japan in 1992 and in 2004 in response to many requests, cooperated with the Gnomon School of Visual Effects to produce a 4 volume, “How To” DVD series titled, “TECHNIQUES OF SYD MEAD” which continues to be sought after by designers around the world.

His one man show, “Cavalcade to the Crimson Castle” consisting of 114 original paintings and illustrations, enjoyed a three month showing at the Center for the Arts in San Francisco in the Fall of 1996. The highlight of the show turned out to be Syd’s presentation and lecture attracted an audience that exceeded the available capacity of the auditorium. Subsequent personal appearances at schools across the country have attracted record numbers. A touring exhibition of his work is now in the planning stage to mark the 40th anniversary of Syd Mead Inc.

In February 1998, Syd Mead relocated his studio to Pasadena, California, where he continues to be involved in a variety of design projects. He recently completed work on a documentary of his career with director Joaquin Montalvan, “VISUAL FUTURIST”, was released in May 2007 on DVD and is available through the virtual Oblagon bookstore on the Syd Mead official webpage WWW.SYDMEAD.COM . Mead attributes success in an astonishing range of creative activities to the premise that imagination…the idea, supersedes technique. “There are more people in the world who make things than there are people who think of things to make.”

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Syd Mead, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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