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Japan-South Korea Maritime Rivalry

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Long-time readers of this site will recall a number of posts concerning China’s maritime rivalries with other Asian nations over territorial rights in the East and South China Seas.   As I noted in the post, Asia’s Mediterranean, the waters of “coastal” East Asia resemble the Mediterranean Sea of ancient and medieval times in the sheer multiplicity of contending states with overlapping claims.

There are rivalries that exist quite apart from China’s own ambitions.  Japan and South Korea – both U.S. allies – also have a dispute over the Takeshima, or Dokdo Islands.  You can brush up on the dispute, which has just been inflamed by the visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to the islands, here.

 

Marc De Santis

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U.S. Army Dirigible

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You will enjoy this short video of the U.S. Army’s new surveillance dirigible – the LEMV.

Airships have a certain romance to them.   To paraphrase Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, airships hang there in the sky just the way that bricks don’t.

Jet aircraft are very expensive to operate per hour of flight time.  Airships are less expensive.  Unfortunately, I was not able to determine just how much less expensive they are, but when I find out, that information will make its way into a future post.  As I mentioned in a previous post, an F/A-18 costs about $20,000 an hour to fly.

Marc De Santis

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Olympic-Sized Photo Gear Room

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Take a look at Canon’s gear room at the 2012 Olympics in London.  There may be a million dollars worth of equipment in these photographs.

From what I understand, many professional photographers utilize the camera manufacturer’s high-end equipment at sporting events on a temporary basis.  This saves them the cost of purchasing the expensive equipment for themselves.

Get a load of those lenses!  The bigger ones cost thousands of dollars.  These are precision machines.  I am not sure if the gear is rented out or if it is supplied gratis for a period of time.  These items are not for the photographer on a budget.

I have always liked the appearance of the black-and-white tubes on Canon’s big lenses.  They look like cameras that NASA designed – very Space Age.

Marc De Santis

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F/A-18s at War

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Read this illuminating article about American airpower over Afghanistan.  Don’t forget to watch the extraordinary three-and-a-half minute video either.   It is remarkable from start to finish.  The piece makes some good points about the recession of airpower in the theater as U.S. forces draw down.  Airpower is much like oxygen.  You don’t notice it much until its gone.

Another point to bear in mind – one hour’s operation of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter can cost as much as $20,000.00.  Very roughly, that is equivalent to dumping a Honda Civic into the ocean for every hour of flight time.

Marc De Santis

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Cradle of Aviation

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I recently visited the fabulous Cradle of Aviation Air & Space Museum in Garden City, New York.  Apart from being a top notch aircraft museum, the Cradle places a strong emphasis on showcasing Long Island’s rich aviation history.   Here are photographs of a few of my favorite exhibits:

 

Here is a glorious Grumman F11 Tiger in Blue Angels livery.

 

This is a Grumman F9F Cougar with swept wings.  The incorporation of wartime German aerospace research allowed post-war American engineers to place redesigned wings on the originally straight-winged Cougar.

 

The 70 mm Hasselblad camera was used by Apollo astronauts to take pictures on the moon.

 

A Republic F84 Thunderjet.  It was no match for the MiG-15 in combat over Korea, but it performed well as a fighter-bomber.  Note the straight wings.  Swept wings were just becoming standard on new jet fighters at this time.

Marc De Santis