Adrian Wintle

I find that the tapered fuselage of the B-17 looks very 1930s, while the more regular cross section of the Lancaster makes it look more modern. The B-29 looks a generation newer than either, though. Adrian

Unfortunately I only get Lagavulin on special occasions - it is priced a bit on the high side over here. It is probably my favourite single malt, although my regular is Bowmore (at about a third of the price of Lagavulin). Adrian

I've seen photos where the coaches had GWR over the twin-shield crest with no other markings visible (except coach number). I've also seen photos where there are no apparent markings. I'd guess that some of them got the shirtbutton monogram. Adrian

I only changed the timing belt twice in the 400K km life of my 1990 Toyota Corolla, at about 120K and 280K (service interval was 100K). I've been a bit more diligent with my Subarus, although the interval is longer for them. The old Subaru 2.2L non-turbo motor (1990s Legacy) was a non-interference engine, so one of my friends just carried a spare belt in the car. When the belt snapped at 260K km, he had the car towed to a garage, had the new belt fitted, and continued on his way (Subaru belts are quite easy to access, so it wasn't that expensive). However, the Mitsubishi 2.0L turbo motor (Galant, Evo 1-3, Eclipse/Talon/Laser) could occasionally jump a tooth, which would bend all the exhaust valves. This was an uncommon, but not rare, occurrence when we were using these motors in rally cars. The amount of damage possible depends on the engine design, but most modern engines are interference designs (for performance/efficiency), so there is a good possibility of significant engine damage if the timing belt fails. Adrian

Certainly you could see the occasional examples of both fully-lined and crimson lake coaches as strengthening coaches on main line trains in the late '20s and early '30s, so it certainly would be plausible. Absorbed stock is a bit different. I would assume that any absorbed stock that wasn't immediately dragged to the Swindon dump (as a lot was) would have been repainted relatively quickly and so would likely be in lined chocolate and cream by 1930. I doubt if much absorbed stock got another repaint after that as a lot of the coaches that were kept were discarded in the '30s. Adrian

67 seconds, or an average speed of 102 km/h down that stretch. Adrian

This has been a cult film for years. It was recently (5 or so years ago) re-released on DVD. The speed quoted above is a bit off - by my timing the run down the Champs Elysee was more like 120 km/h 102 km/h (see below). A 275GTB won't do 324 km/h. I'm pretty sure that it is generally thought that the driver was Lelouch himself. It spawned a number of copycat movies, not necessarily as well thought out as this one. While it was very irresponsible of Lelouch, he did try to minimize risk by doing it early in the morning - enough light to have good visibility, but early enough that there was minimal traffic. That is the DVD release version, although I don't think my copy has the location subtitles (might be an option on the disc, though) Adrian

Presumably the same as if the old A3 was blocked in that area. It isn't like they are reducing the number of roads. Also remember that there are two bores, so a contraflow could potentially be set up in the unaffected bore.. Adrian

Another alternative bogie is the 247 Developments Dean 8'6" bogie - it is a whitemetal rigid bogie kit, but is an appropriate pattern and it adds weight down low. There is a picture of one with these bogies (unpainted) in http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28388-adrians-coach-works/page__p__297309#entry297309 (near the end of the first post)

Armed drones were tested in the '70s - BGM-34 Firebees with bombs (standard or laser guided) or other munitions (e.g. AGM-65 Maverick). Adrian

Unfortunately, no. The company I work for no longer provides support in that area, so I have been dealing with healtcare software since the beginning of 2007. Between 1988 and 2006 (with about 4 years of hiatus in telecom), I was involved in avionics software for the aforementioned fighters, a couple of military transports, and a bunch of airliners. One of my team leads did work on a system that flew operationally on the SR-71 - I was jealous. Adrian

That may have been the case, but I also recall that there was an extra development effort somewhere down the line to certify a launch mechanism for guided and self-propelled air-ground munitions (doors had to stay open longer, munitions had to be ejected, munitions had to not tumble and hit the aircraft, etc...) I was quite aware of the project since I was involved in 1995 (prep work) and in 1999-2000 (software validation). I spent the time in between working on telecom stuff, though. Adrian

Considering that the competition between the YF-22 and YF-23 was in 1991, the first flight of the F-22 was in 1997, and the detailed design of the T-50 seems to have kicked off in 2002 (selection of Sukhoi as the design lead), I really doubt that there wasn't a bit of "oh, that looks interesting, let's try it..." involved in the design. As well as the F-22, the T-50 does seem to have some similarities to the YF-23. That being said, with the current materials and technology, solutions to similar requirements tend to look similar. You just have to look at airliners, low wings with 2 engines under them is the preferred solution once engine reliability reached a certain level - I did the math on this as part of an aircraft design course at university in the mid-'80s. foobyone - As far as I remember, the F-22 was always intended to be an F-15 replacement in the air superiority role, with stealth and supercruise. That was certainly the focus of the competition between the YF-22 and the YF-23. The ability to add air-ground capability was designed in much later. I did have a little interaction with both the F-22 and the F-35 projects in my previous role as an avionics software designer and tester. Adrian

That's a fairly small collection... I have a lot more 'projects' than that... Adrian

I'm guessing that most of them are (or have been) available... The white metal Friulmodel tracks really add to the heft... they are an expensive option, but really add to the look of the tank as they hang prototypically. http://www.friulmodel.hu/ Adrian

Yes, an M1 Abrams is about an inch long. Adrian

I've done all sorts of modelling besides railway modelling. The primary areas: 1/72 Aircraft 1/24 Race and Rally Cars 1/35 Military 1/43 Race and Rally Cars 1/285 Military (Wargaming) Some of them can be seen in this photo (on the shelves in front of the books): Adrian

A downside is that it eats into your data plan to download maps on demand - probably more of a concern over here where data plans are, I gather, relatively expensive (I don't have a data plan, only a voice one - my mobile only got updated to a digital one when they turned off the analogue signals, and it still spends most of its life turned off). It also doesn't work where you don't get cellular coverage (again, probably more of an issue over here). Adrian

Oh, it might have been. GPS signals tend not to make it into tunnels (and can even be lost under thick wet tree cover for that matter), and the satnav can get confused when the signals reflect off buildings and the like (multi-pathing). Your map isn't going to pop up a 'lost signal' message... That being said, a lot of systems will manage to make an 'educated guess' at your location even if they lose signal for a short period - what would be called 'dead reckoning' in nautical terms. Adrian

It would appear to be the same brown as coach brown (chocolate), bearing in mind that it would likely look different on older, panelled PBVs than it would have on steel-sided ones, and that it would change colour as it weathered. Adrian

Based on photographic evidence, the PBVs seem to have been in both overall brown and choc/cream through the '20s and '30s, probably depending on the role they were allocated to. Adrian

My point was not so much that, but that if you consult a map (safely, of course) and know where you are, you get a good idea of your relationship to your destination and/or alternative routes. You don't tend to get that with a lot of the satnav devices - with them you know about the intersection/junction that you are at, but you have very little idea where you are in relation to your destination, or to the surrounding towns etc. Ideally I'd run two satnavs, one providing the normal route directions and the other providing a heading-up moving map at a larger scale. I'm not sure what the authorities would think of that, though... The other thing I find annoying is the tendency for my current satnav to adjust the scale of what it is displaying without bothering to indicate that it has done so. Adrian

My experience has been that the initial estimation of time (the first time you travel a route) tends to be quite conservative - I have beat it by over an hour on a 12-hour run (this is just driving normally, without any significant transgressions, and it included a 20 delay at the border). As you follow a route the software updates the driving time for the road segments you use, improving the estimate. That same 12-hour run is accurate within 15 minutes now. Satnav devices, particularly the cheap newer ones that are intended to be idiot-resistant, reduce your situational awareness compared to navigating by map because they don't give the overall view that a map does. They also tend not to display information that they consider irrelevant to the route (side roads, parallel roads, etc.). This means that drivers, particularly those that are navigationally-challenged at the best of times, end up driving in their little satnav bubble without an awareness of where they are in relation to anywhere else. I've had GPS devices in my cars since all you could get was a device that showed a 'breadcrumb trail' on a grey screen (no mapping or routing capabilities). I've found that, as the whole routing functionality has improved, the amount of useful information displayed on the screen has reduced. Note - I do not use the voice command functionality and frequently use GPS devices as moving maps rather than route-following devices. Adrian

...and ISTR Congress voted to control that too, although presidents don't necessarily abide by that ruling... From the point of view of a neighbor, it is relatively obvious that the US system is somewhat dysfunctional unless the president's party holds a majority in both houses. Adrian

And, if I remember correctly, it rather excessively used a dreary version of 'Ashokan Farewell' (which is a pretty dreary piece of music to begin with) as its theme music. I still don't like that piece of music, even though I have since heard better renditions of it. Otherwise it was a pretty good serialized documentary. Adrian