Archive for the ‘Security’ Category
The Fear of Flying
There are a few fears in life that defy logic. Fear of spiders may be one, fear of lifts is another, and perhaps a fear of flying is another. Everyday, thousands of planes take off around the world, carrying millions of passengers safely to their destination. Flying is one of the safest, if not the safest, form of travel available. It is far safer than getting in the car, yet over one third of the population still report a fear of flying.
People cite many concerns when they talk of their fear of flying. Many report a lack of confidence in the air traffic control system and fear that a simple mistake on the ground can lead to disaster in the air. Then there are fears of faults with the plane itself. Most people saw the pictures of the concord crash a few years ago and when you’re sitting on an airplane, a few feet from the massive jet engines humming steadily, it seems very hard to believe that nothing could go wrong with such a machine. In fact the very shape and appearance of airplanes does little to inspire confidence in passengers who already are having doubts about the airworthiness of the plane.
Then there are the reports and press attention of the troubles of deep vein thrombosis.
The fact of the matter however, is that flying is extremely safe. It is one of the wonders of technology that air travel, with all the multitude of potential failures, keep delivering flight after flight, on time and without a hitch. In fact, in contrast to almost all other forms of travel, air travel is becoming safer and safer every year.
The statistics speak for themselves. Do you know what the chances are of having a single fatality on a flight? Well according to the BBC, it is 1 in 16 million. And in the vast majority of accidents where there are fatalities, more than half of the other passengers survive. What this means is that even if you defy all the odds and are on one of the few unlucky flights that does crash, you are still more likely to survive than die in the accident.
However, there is one issue with air travel that the statistics don’t commend so highly. Delays, lost luggage and missing flights are still frequent issues that plague passengers. Luckily, all of these can be covered for with some good, comprehensive travel insurance.
Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft Program
Just like human, aircraft is having its age and retirement period. Joint Strike Fighter is a program that is hold to replace the aging for new aircraft. In the replacement program, there was a competition atmosphere between Lockheed Martin X35 AND Boeing X 32 to replace some aircrafts. The result shows that Lockheed Martin X35 is having better performance than Boeing.
The Lockheed Martin X35 is having approximately 41,000 pounds weigh, but the high technology and great performance allow the aircraft to make a vertical landing. It is a great achievement in the aircraft industry. The ability of vertical landing shows that not only that this aircraft having a great performance, but also accurate handling. The test of Lockheed Martin X35 and vertical landing was hold in March 18th this year with Pilot Graham Tomlinson in the control cabin.
Joint Strike Fighter is participated by so many nations including Canada, Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Denmark, Israel, UK, US, Italy, and Norway. Joint Strike Fighter was actually a merger of two projects, The Joint Advanced Strike Technology and The Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter. Those two projects are started from 1993s and in 1995, UK government signed MOU to join the program to enhance the aircraft technology.