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Picture above shows a Nikon D800E equipped with Phottix GPS and wireless RF trigger. The back of the camera is equipped with a Hoodman loupe to be able to critically focus using live view on LCD screen. The lens used is a Mamiya 645 Manual Focus A 150mm f/2.8. It is mounted on the camera via a PSA (Panorama Shift Adapter) from the company Zoerk (Zork) custom made to accommodate Mamiya 645 lenses on Nikon F body. The adapter has a tripod mount and can accommodate a L bracket shown here. The whole assembly is mounted via a Novoflex plate (QPL2 in blue color) on an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod head. I used here a clone of the Arca Swiss Cube for maximum flexibility and accuracy of positioning. In the picture above the lens is shifted horizontally to the left of the camera of approximately 10mm. This assembly is no longer a point & click camera but the digital equivalent of the old view camera, designed to meet or exceed the largest Digital medium format output.
The purpose of using a Mamiya lens on Nikon FF body is not just the latest fad to mount third party lenses on a Nikon body. Mamiya 645 lenses are excellent medium format lenses which have a diameter much superior to the 135 format lenses. It allows to take several photos shifted within the diameter of the lens optics. This is made possible because the 75mm diagonal of a 645 medium format lens gives 32mm of additional space (shift) compared to the 43mm diagonal of a 35mm format camera sensor. This is why we can take 3 photos shifted (one with no shit, one shifted left, and one shifted right) and still be within the diameter of the medium format lens. Using this technique the stitching is quasi perfect with no need to crop due to loss of coverage in the upper or lower section of the image, usually created by a a curvy horizon when panning/rotating with a non perfect leveling.
The resulting image that can be produced with this setup is the equivalent of a 80 Mpixel camera depending on the orientation of the D800E sensor vs the direction of shift! Superior resolution, higher ISO and less noise than all the current Digital medium format cameras sold $20000 and more! Yes, it is possible to do it with an investment inferior to $4000 if you count the purchase cost of the D800E. I will concede that the Mamiya 645 lenses, although excellent, will not quite match the performance of the Leica S lenses. Note however that a Leica S lens is usually > $6000 vs a used Mamiya 645 lens (55mm, 80mm) which can be found on ebay for $300 or less!
The German made Zoerk (Zork) adapter is unique as the Mamiya lens is fixed during the shifting: it is the body which moves behind the lens! Unlike most Panorama adapters allowing the rotation through a difficult to find nodal point , the Zork adaper eliminates any parallax issue since the lens is fixed vs the subject. This is particularly useful when you have a near and remote subject aligned with the camera: any rotation outside the nodal point will ruin the alignment and makes the stitching impossible. Therefore the Zork design results in a superior accuracy of the stitching of the photos where technically 2-3 pixels overlap is enough for a perfect stitch. Rotation based Panorama requires usually min 20% overlap to account for distortion/parallax issues, and the final image needs cropping due to curvature movement of the rotation if tripod head is not perfectly leveled.
Another huge benefit of the Zork adapter: it shifts horizontally 20mm with camera sensor in landscape mode. One limitation in vertical shift: the prism/flash housing of the D800 or D800E limits the vertical shift with sensor in landscape position (approx 14mm). It is better than the max shift of a Nikkor PC-E lens (approx 11 mm). With the camera in landscape mode and a vertical shift (up and down) or with the camera in portrait mode and a horizontal shift (left/right) you achieve the biggest file enlargement. With a Nikon PC-E lens a maximum 11mm shift will give you a 92% increase of the photo. With the Zork adapter a full 20mm shift (possible on Canon DLSR and Nikon pro bodies without built-in flash) will provide a 167% enlargement (yes 2.7 the original pixel size!). It means that a 36Mpixel camera like the D800 will provide a 96Mpixel file with the Zork adapter fully shifted. On Nikon bodies with built in flash like the D700 or D800 however the full shift of 20mm is not possible as the flash housing in on the path of the shift. It seems that the shift is limited to 14mm which provides an enlargement of 117% (x2.2 Mpixel increase).
For Panorama shots where the camera orientation must be the same as the direction of the shift (landscape/Horizontal shift or portrait/Vertical shift) the aspect ratio is spectacular but the Mpixel increase is less:
- On a traditional Nikon PC-E lens with 11mm shift, the Mpixel increase is 61% with aspect ratio of 2.4:1
- with the zork adapter using full 20mm shift (possible on all Canon and Nikon DSLR even with the D700/D800), the Mpixel increase is 111% with aspect ratio of 3:1! more information is available at the following link:
www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/tilt-shift-lenses1.htm
Tilt movement is not possible with this adapter and in general with Mamiya 645 lenses tilt can be achieved but you lose the ability to focus at infinity as the registration distance between the rear of the lens and the sensor would be too long with the additional tilt movement.
Although a sturdy design that reflects German engineering, the finish (look) of the adapter looks as a hand made prototype. The demand is not high enough in the market to mass produce this custom made adapter (the model I purchased use only Mamiya 645 MF lenses but the manufacturer can sell you one adapte for Pentax 6x7 or Hasselblad lenses to be mounted on Nikon or Canon bodies).
Cost $750 including the L bracket that allows the adapter to be mounted with flexibility in any position on a tripod head.
more information can be found on the manufacturer website:
I have put a lot of effort to research and understand the Tilt and Shift world which was new to me, and although there are a few books on view cameras, T&S lenses and the Scheimpflug principle, I could not find any practical information on using T&S adapters like Mirex and Zork on Digital cameras, using large diameter Medium Format lenses. Forums seem to provide some partial information with little experience with Nikon DSLR which are less friendly to shifting in the direction of the built-in flash. So I decided to gather all the information I have learned and summarize it in this single post, which you can bookmark or save as a favorite for future reference.
An example of a photo taken with this set-up with explanations how to use Photoshop for Panorama stitching and focus stacking is given in the comments area of this link:
www.flickr.com/photos/episa/8603934110/in/photostream
Final question you may ask and which I already asked myself since I own the Nikkor Micro PC-E 45/2.8: why not use a simple dedicated Tilt and shift lens from Nikon?
It turns out that using a dedicated Nikon PC-E lens is not any easier and still requires to manually focus and fix the exposure manually. A the same time it costs $2000 to get a single T&S lens. With the set-up described in this posting the investment is limited to the adapter ($750) and the Mamiya lens ($300 on ebay for each focal length like 55mm f/2.8N, 80mm f/2.8N, A 150mm f/2.8). Investing in a Nikon PC-E lens makes sense if you use the tilting function for creative effect or as a landscape photographer. But I would argue that using Focus stacking you can achieve an ever better effect than with a Tilt lens if your goal is to achieve maximum depth of field in a landscape or in a macro shot. The real advantage of the PC-E lens remains when you need to reduce the depth of field and create special effects (like miniature rendering, or tilted plane of focus). This becomes a very narrow application mostly for professional photographers who need to sell a unique look in their pictures.
I hope that you found this compilation of data instructive, even eye opening. Let me know if you appreciate the sharing.
We humans built this projection to try to control the outflow of the Fraser River. Oops. Correction from James below says:
Actually, we built it to dump treated municipal wastewater farther (2.5 miles) out into the strait. That's a big sewer pipe in that jetty. A nice hike.
The headphone is not working, the sound is altered.
They normally work when you press the button on the control, the golden button. With a quick check, the GND line is interrupted.
Now when you press this button, the microphone line works as GND and the headset sounds good.
Replace the cable with a new one and everything is fine.
Hello
Flight director Ginger Kerrick monitors data at her console in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center during STS-133 flight day three rendezvous and docking activities. Photo credit: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Credit: NASA
Image Number: jsc2011-e-022343
Date: February 26, 2011
A fire broke out at work last week. Luckily it was contained. Shows how quickly we can lose control.
Hit 'L' to view on large.
A revisit to this abandoned Coking plant on our doorstep. As my friends hadn't been without being seen and escorted out and I've been twice before, I agreed to go back and glad I did as I saw things I had never seen before. Visited with Wiffsmiff23 and Martyn.
My blog:
timster1973.wordpress.com
Also on Facebook
www.Facebook.com/TimKniftonPhotography
online store: www.artfinder.com/tim-knifton
www.snakecatchers.com.au/snake-information.php
The common death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) is a species of death adder native to Australia. It is one of the most venomous land snakes in Australia and globally. While it remains widespread (unlike related species), it is facing increased threat from the ongoing Australian cane toad invasion.[citation needed]
The common death adder has a broad flattened, triangular head and a thick body with bands of red, brown and black with a grey, cream or pink belly. It can reach a maximum body length of 70–100 centimetres (2.3–3.3 ft). Death adders possess the longest fangs of any Australian snake. Unlike the common or European adder (Vipera berus), the common death adder is a member of the Elapidae family, rather than the Viperidae family of snakes, which are not found in Australia.[2]
Distribution and habitat[edit]
The common death adder occurs over much of eastern and coastal southern Australia – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It is more scarce in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and the west parts of South Australia.[2] It is also native to Papua New Guinea.[1]
Common death adders are found in forests, woodlands, grasslands and heaths of the eastern coast of Australia. The death adder is a master of camouflage, due to its band stripes, hiding beneath loose leaf litter and debris in woodland, shrubland and grassland.[2]
Diet[edit]
Common death adders eat small mammals and birds as a primary diet. Unlike other snakes, the common death adder lies in wait for its prey (often for many days) until a meal passes. It covers itself with leaves—making itself inconspicuous—and lies coiled in ambush, twitching its grub-like tail close to its head as a lure. When an animal approaches to investigate the movement, the death adder quickly strikes, injecting its venom and then waits for the victim to die before eating it. The death adder is not aggressive and less of a threat to humans.[2]
Reproduction[edit]
Unlike most snakes, death adders produce litters of live young. In the late summer, a female death adder will produce a litter of live babies, approximately 3–20, however over 30 young have been recorded in a single litter.[2]
Control (Jesse Faden / Courtney Hope)
27MP (4:3, .png) — ReShade 4 (Level, Tonemap, LumaSharpen, Vignette, Clarity, Monochrome) — SRWE for hotsampling — Otis_Inf & Hattiwatti CT (Hotsampling, Debug camera, pause) — DirectX 12, Full-on Ray Tracing
The Mekong Expedition (1866-1868)
By the mid-1800s, the British controlled foreign trade along China's coast, and French merchants sought a commercial toehold in Asia. Napoleon III's navy, eager for colonial glory, set its sights on Vietnam, and captured Saigon in 1861. A young naval officer, Francis Garnier, enthusiastically advocated exploring the Mekong as a potential route to tap the fabled riches of China. In 1864, he presented his plan to the colony's governor, Admiral La Grandiere, and the "Mekong Expedition Commission" was soon approved. La Grandiere placed Commander Ernest Doudart de Lagree in charge with Garnier as second-in-command, and the crew of 20 set sail aboard two steamers on 5 June 1866.
De Lagree knew about "Khone Falls", but had never seen the so-called impassable rapids around the 4,000 Islands, and assumed he could easily surmount the obstacle. The expedition landed in northeastern Cambodia's Kratie on 7 July, and transferred to canoes to tackle the Sambor rapids. The rainy season current slowed progress, forcing the expedition to hug the eastern bank and push their boats with poles. Gamier thought a strong steamer could overpower the torrent, but as the ride turned rougher, his journal entry states navigating the Mekong to China seemed gravely compromised." They reached calmer waters just below Stung Treng, but as they continued upriver, Garnier became extremely ill and lost consciousness, only to recover in time to face Khone Falls, where the river rushed through rocky cataracts, with drop-offs reaching 20 meters. The expedition realized that this wide, turbulent stretch of the Mekong was nearly insurmountable by steamer. They travelled along the fall's bank past DonHang Khone to Hua Don Khong and calmer waters. The expedition reached Vientiane on 2 April 1867, Luang Prabang on 28 April, and Yunnan on 7 October. De Lagree died from severe dysentery in early 1868, after they passed Kunming on the way to Dail via land, where the now Gamier-led expedition arrived on 1 March. However, the locals refused them passage, leaving a boat ride down the Yangtze to Shanghai as their only way out.
Claiming Strategic Don Khone
During the 1 87Ds, the French were concerned that the British were eyeing the Mekong in northeastern Laos from their Burmese colony while increasing their influence in China and Siam with its disputed border with Laos.
Meanwhile, France's only solid Asian claim was southern Vietnam, (Cochinchina) and a "protectorate" over Cambodia. They wanted to continue the Mekong Expedition's legacy by linking to inner China via the Mekong through Laos, which they needed to control.
In the 1880s, France moved to dominate Vietnam's central (Annam) and northern (Tonkin) regions. They also firmed up their Cambodian position by seizing power from King Norodom with a show of gunboat force, which piqued further interest in the Mekong and overcoming Khone falls.
French Navy Lieutenant Campion first powered a small steamer up Cambodia's Sambor rapids in 1884, and Captain Paul Reveillère guided a steamboat to Don Khone's western shores, anchoring in what he named "Marguerite's Bay" in 1887. Onboard was a representative of Messageries Fluvial de Cochinchine, which held the Mekong navigation concession in Cambodia and Vietnam.
That same year, French businessman, Camille Gauthier, set off from Luang Prabang by raft, and managed to survive Khone Falls to reach Phnom Penh in January 1888. The efforts of both Gauthier and Reveillère led to the same conclusion; forget beating the rapids by boat.
Meanwhile, the French continued negotiating with Siam over the disputed Mekong borders, the failure of which prompted a French blockade of the Chao Praya River below Bangkok in July 1893. The Siamese relented and signed a treaty on 3rd October renouncing any claims on the Mekong's east bank. To hold the river, the French urgently needed gunboats above Khone Falls.
Steaming Ahead
From 1890-1892, Dr Mougeot tried to find a hidden passage around Khone Falls with the French steamboat, Argus, but he failed. The 1893 treaty in which Siam relinquished the Mekong's east bank urgently required gunboats above Don Khone, and the Gouverneur General de l'Indochine sought a new approach. Naval It Georges Simon was tasked with the "mission hydrographique du haut Mekong" to take two gunboats up the Mekong to Don Khone, dissemble them, cross the island, then re-assemble and launch the boats in calmer upriver waters.
In March 1893, the gunboats were ordered from France. Each weighed 22 tons, measured 26 meters, and could be dismantled into five pieces. La Grandiere and Massie arrived in Saigon on 30 July, where they were assembled, armed, and then cast off on 22 August. Meanwhile, Lt Simon contracted Messagieres Fluviales de Cochinchine in Saigon to quickly supply rail tracks and a carriage capable of hauling 35 tons, in the hope of moving the boats in one piece. He completed the 3-km line frog Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone in August. La Grandiere and Massie suffered significant damage in the lower Mekong, but reached Marguerite Bay, and on 12 September, Lt Simon tried and failed to hoist the Massie ashore. He then selected Hang Khone as the landing site and began rerouting the tracks. He also replaced the out-of-order La Grandiere with the heavier Ham Luong, a boat in local service that needed to be disassembled into two pieces for rail shipment. Using manpower to move the train, the boats reached Ban Khone in late October, and were re-floated on 1 November in Hou Behanzin Channel separating Don Khone and Don Det. A repaired La Grandiere completed the rail trip on 5 September 1894, and continued to Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and the Tang Ho rapids near China, the final point for Mekong steamboat navigation. On 15 July 1920, La Grandiere and its valuable cargo sank near Ban Thadeua, some 80 km south of Luang Prabang. Expeditions as recently as 2002 have tried salvage its remains.
The Railway's Rise and Fall
By early 1894, Lt Simon and hundreds of Vietnamese workers completed and improved Don Khone's rail line from Hang Khone to Ban Khone, and upgraded the boat ramps, and their foundations and walls. After the successful three-hour transfer of La Grandiere to Ban Khone Tai in early September, Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine was contracted on 25 September "for the postal service of the connecting rivers of the upper Mekong," which included rail transport on Don Khone. They then ordered three 60-ton steamboats: the Garcerie, Colombert, and Trentinian.
This required further upgrades to the tracks and piers, which were undertaken from August-October 1896, and the three boats were launched in Ban Khone on 25 October.
Looking to meet growing commercial demand, Messageries Fluviales renewed its Mekong contract in July 1897, and adapted the tracks for steam locomotives, the first of which, the Paul Doumer, was purchased that year. Within a decade, couriers, cargo, and tourists began arriving in Hang Khone, trained to Ban Khone Tai, and transferred to steamers bound for Savannakhet and onward to Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The increased traffic at the beginning the century prompted Messageries Fluviales to extend the railway 2 km to Ban Don Det on northern Don Det Island in 1910. This required the construction of a 13-arch, 158-meter-long, reinforced concrete bridge across Hou Behanzin and improvements to the Hang Khone and Ban Don Det piers. To meet anticipated future demand for passengers and freight, Messageries Fluviales purchased more locomotives. The Ban Khone pavilion's locomotive was Ordered and delivered in 1,929 during the rail line's peak. However, demand never materialized, with dry season (December-May) traffic mostly servicing couriers and passengers, while rainy season brought floods. The construction of a 22-km road bypassing Khone Falls, and the 1937 integration of the road into Colonial Route 13 from Saigon to Luang Prabang dealt the death blow. During World War II, the Japanese controlled Don •Khone, and seem to have used the train for military purposes: When the Japanese left, the jungle moved in, engulfing the locomotives in plant growth and relegating the train tracks to recyclable junk.
The Birth of a Railway
The Don Khone-Don Det railway was born of French colonial necessity, opening the door to Mekong River transport by bypassing the impenetrable "Khone Falls". Until 1893, the Khone Falls' rocky rapids blocked French steamboat navigation up the Mekong from Saigon to inner China, thus hindering its Indochinese ambitions. Tensions were also mounting between France and Siam over disputed land on the Mekong's eastern bank. An 1893 naval blockade of Bangkok led to a border treaty favouring France, and an urgent need to move gunboats abo e Khone Falls to control the Mekong.
Earlier that year, France's "Mission Hydrographique du haut Mekong" ordered a pair of 26-meter-long steam gunboats, La Grandière and Massie, from France, which could be disassembled into five pieces for overland transport past the rapids via Don Khone Island.
Leading the mission was Naval Lt Georges Simon, who wanted to transfer the vessels in one piece along a 3-km railway from the island's western Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone. He ordered 1-meter-wide railway tracks and a 14-wheel carriage with a cradle formed to fit the two boats from Saigon-based Messageries Fluviales rather than prefabricated Decauville narrow tracks from France, due to cost, delivery time, and heavy load requirements. Lt Simon and some 500 Vietnamese workers, many of whom died due to the harsh conditions, spent from June to August 1893 clearing the jungle, building embankments, laying the tracks, and constructing boat ramps at Marguerite Bay and Ban Khone.
The gunboats arrived in Marguerite Bay in early September, but attempts to hoist the 22-ton Massie ashore failed. Lt Simon dismantled the tracks and extended the line south to Hang Khone, where the Massie and the heavier Ham Luong, a two-piece replacement for La Grandiere, could be pulled to land. As the Vietnamese manhandled the boat-laden carriage towards Ban Khone, their workmates dismantled the southern tracks and scurried to complete the northern end. The vessels finally reached Hou Behanzin Channel at Ban Khone and were launched on 1 November 1893.
Hang Khone's Heyday
Hang Khone was not France's first choice for landing two gunboats on Don Khone Island in its attempt to bypass "Khone Falls" and transport them to calmer upriver waters. In 1893, French Naval It Georges Simon laid railway tracks from Don Khone's Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone for transferring the 22-ton La Grandiere and Massie.
Hoisting the Massie ashore proved fruitless, and It Simon rerouted the tracks south to Hang Khone, where his Vietnamese workforce pulled the Massie and two-piece Ham Luong—a heavier replacement for the damaged La Grandiere — to the waiting rail carriage and over the island to be launched near Ban Khone.
Lt Simon ordered more materials and the Vietnamese completed a track and embankment upgrade by early 1894. On 5 September, they transported La Grandiere along the Hang Khone-Ban Khone railway in just three hours. That same year, France contracted Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine to oversee transport on the Mekong's Lao stretch including Don Khone's railway and ports. The company added three 60-ton steamboats, and to accommodate the larger vessels, which were dismantled at Hang Khone for the move, Lt Simon enlarged the pier's ramps from August-October 1896. Upon renewing its contract in 1897, Messageries Fluviales bought its first steam locomotive; installed reinforced concrete piers, storage depots, and cranes; and improved the river bank to facilitate docking boats in low water. This transformed Hang Khone into the sole gateway for cargo and passengers heading up the Mekong into Laos.
According to villagers' accounts, the pavilion's train engine was originally a French model refurbished by the Japanese during WWII. The structure above the pier housed an engine that drew underground cables through still-visible pulleys up the low-water ramp. Cranes on rails lifted cargo during high waters, and though the track is gone, its position can still be seen, as can the reservoir on the hill.
Conquering Khone Falls
The first of very few steamers to ever conquer Khone Falls was a feat performed by Norwegian Peter Hauff. Born in 1873, Hauff landed a job in 1894 with a large commercial trading firm in Saigon, where he immersed himself in the culture and language, which gained the respect of locals. In 1898, Hauff took a passenger steamer to Hang Khone, hopped on the new locomotive to Ban Khone, and boarded a steamboat to Bassac (Champasak). With trade on the rise with the upper Mekong, Hauff ordered a 16-meter freighter from the experienced Niger River Company in 1902.
Hauff and his 11-man crew received the dismantled vessel, Si-thanh, in Saigon, assembled it and set off to Phnom Penh with an Annamese pilot. During the slow 10-day trip, Hauff fell ill, they lost their way, and the firewood got wet. Hauff hired a Cambodian pilot for the Don Khone voyage, where the French railway would transport Si-thanh. However, Messageries Fluviales, which controlled the island's railway, wanted an "impossible price", and refused to sell him oil or firewood. Hauff declined the exorbitant offer, though he knew about the failed attempts to navigate the falls. Undaunted, he headed to nearby Don Sadam, where an elder suggested he try Hou Sadam Channel, which separated Don Sadam and Don Phapheng islands. With the river level starting to recede, Hauff had little time. He ordered his men to buy coconut oil for lubricant and collect dry wood. They departed the next morning, and fought a strong current, relying on tying ropes to trees to progress one mile. Tree chopping and an anchor chain and winch shortened the second day to some 150 meters. An easy Day 3 preceded a stretch of shallow water that required building a dam of trees behind the boat to move ahead.
Hauff, his crew, and Si-thanh arrived in North Don Khone on their fifth day, and received a hero's welcome at the French government shop. Hauff had accomplished the impossible.
The Railway Reaches Its Peak
After the successful transfer of La Grandière in early September 1894, Messageries Fluviales received the concession for Mekong transport in Laos, including the Don Khone railway. The company decided to upgrade its fleet, adding massive 60-ton steamboats — Garcerie, Colombert and Trentinian. This required rectifying the 1-meter tracks, improving the embankments, and enlarging the piers' ramps from August-October 1896, with the boats launched in Ban Khone on 25 October.
This kicked off a commercial era on Don Khone, as the railway terminals became mandatory transit points for goods and passengers traveling up the Mekong into Lao, while the island's strategic significance remained high.
Eyeing Don Khone's economic potential, Messageries Fluviales renewed its contract in July 1897, and adapted narrower 0.6 meter-wide tracks needed for Decauville locomotives into the line, rather than relying on manpower, and purchased its first steam engine, the Paul Downer. The train now transported cardamom, hides, ivory, precious wood, and benzoin gold from Laos to downriver steamers, while hauling Cambodian and European fabric as well as Western household utensils, tools, and glassware to Don Khone's upriver port. The rising traffic congested the Ban Khone terminal, prompting Messageries Fluviales in 1910 to construct a 13-arch, 158-meter-long, reinforced concrete bridge across the Hou Behanzin Channel to Don Det Island and extend the railway 2 km to Ban Don Det. They also built reinforced concrete piers, low-water docking facilities, storage depots, and gantry cranes, while firming up older tracks for the increase in traffic. Hang Khone's bright future soon dimmed as annual traffic never reached expectations and started declining in 1930. Further, the Mekong's shallow waters (December-May) limited traffic, and rainy season flooding interrupted service. Then in 1937, Colonial Route 13 bypassing Don Khone sealed the train's fate. Local people used some of the old rails for building bridges and other structures. However, remnants of Hang Khone and Ban Don Det's port infrastructure still stand.
Sitting in Ban Khone Tai's railroad yard, where repairs took place, is a locomotive produced for the wider 1-meter track, and dates to 1929 during the railway's glory years. The Japanese modified Hang Khone's engine for military purposes during World War II, after taking control of Don Khone. When the Japanese left, the jungle moved in, engulfing the locomotives in plant growth and relegating the train tracks to recyclable junk.
Primary Source: "Laos, le Chemin de fer des canonnieres" by Jean-Michel Strobino, la Vie du Rail, issue 2329, 23-29 January 1992.
Text from information around the remains of the trains
c/n 212002.
Built 1969.
XW175 spent her entire career as a test aircraft and was fundamental in the development of Vectored thrust Aircraft Advanced Control, or ‘VAAC’ for short.
Retired in 2010, she is believed to eventually be destined for the RAF Museum, although she currently remains safely stored with the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering (DSAE).
Seen on static display at the 2018 Cosford Airshow.
RAF Cosford, Shropshire, UK.
10th June 2018
The following extensive history for XW175 is from the fascinating Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group website:-
“Harrier XW175 was unique as a military aircraft as it spent all of its working life at RAE Bedford and Boscombe Down in support of innovative STOVL research programmes.
A two-seat second development batch T2 aircraft, XW175 first flew in 1969. It was delivered to RAE Bedford from BAe in February 1975. The aircraft extended the VTOL legacy at RAE Bedford following the Bedstead and the Short's SC1, and operated in research and development tasks for future STOVL concepts.
In the early 1970’s RAE was tasked by MoD to enable Sea Harriers to recover to a vertical landing on a ship at night in poor visibility. XW175 was allocated as the trials aircraft and thus began its illustrious 38 year research career at RAE Bedford and then post 1996 at Boscombe Down.
During 1977/78 two sea trials were completed with HMS Hermes. The research programmes included recovery to the ship using MADGE guidance, Head Up Display symbology, ski-jump launch, auto-stabiliser and autopilot development, pilot work-load measurements using heart rate measurements and later Forward Looking Infra Red vision demonstrations.
In the early 1980’s, studies into future advanced STOVL aircraft concepts, as a planned replacement for the Harrier, indicated that flight control at low speed and hover would be more complex than the Harrier. This situation started a research programme into novel pilot control methods to address ASTOVL control and was led by XW175. The basic idea was that the pilot's control of the aircraft was to be as similar as possible to conventional aircraft thus significantly reducing type conversion time for pilots and the training costs.
To test the design principles the aircraft had to be converted to a fly-by-wire aircraft such that digital techniques could be implemented. The aircraft modifications were made at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, The installations provided a full authority fly-by-wire system with links to the aerodynamic surface actuators and the engine thrust and thrust vector control actuation. It retained the basic mechanical control system to provide flight safety and meet airworthiness requirements. This approach allowed software to be introduced without having to address the rigour required to meet the full flight safety standards of fly-by-wire aircraft. The aircraft was also fitted with the MODAS recording system and a telemetry system for trials monitoring. The aircraft became known as the Vectored thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC).
Over the period 1986-2004, several different control and safety concepts were developed with UK Universities and Industry. Simulation played a major role in concept testing and the Bedford Advanced Flight Simulator with its large motion capability was critical for this task. Concept designs were assessed against a range of flight specific tasks prior to flight trials. The most important task was the ability to land vertically on a rolling, pitching and heaving ship deck which was where the Bedford Advanced Flight Simulator with its visual and motion systems provided a risk free and realistic testing environment. This method also provided the confidence to proceed to flight trials and ultimately the first ever deck landing with what became known as the 'Unified' control technique.
The implementation allowed an untrained Harrier pilot to fly the aircraft like a conventional aircraft with the addition that there were no restrictions due to the conventional wing stall speed. Thus it made possible the continued control of the aircraft down to zero airspeed with the wing lift blending from aerodynamic control seamlessly to direct lift control from the engine without any additional effort required from the pilot, unlike the conventional Harrier. Initially the technique was not well received by the majority of experienced Harrier pilots.
Many further assessments were to slowly change the mind set with much discussion in two pilot camps as to the pros and cons of the technique. Between the mid 1980's and mid 1990's RAE collaborated with NASA Ames research centre into the application of advanced digital control techniques to support ASTOVL aircraft concepts. This joint platform provided not only an excellent exchange of ideas between UK and US pilots and scientists but also promoted pilot debate on the merits of such advanced control methods. Pilot acceptability remained unresolved up to the early part of the Joint Strike Fighter programme. Then the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) contribution to the programme through the JSF Program Office (JPO) became significant through a joint targeted programme in support of the JSF STOVL variant (Lockheed Martin F-35B).
In 2002 the Bedford Unified control concept was selected for the JSF STOVL variant. XW175 was also part of the Empire Test Pilots School's training syllabus for a few years at this time.
The JPO continued to support further STOVL developments with several ship trials with XW175 and HMS Illustrious, HMS Invincible and the French carrier Charles de Gaulle. These trials introduced guidance techniques for automatic recovery along side a ship with an automatic vertical landing capability, some 30 years after the original HMS Hermes trials with XW175 in 1977 and some 35 years after the certification of Civil automatic landing systems back in the BLEU days. Technology advancements had bridged this time period and the gradual acceptance of the new control concepts.
With the established STOVL flight control standard, XW175 in its new livery continued to support JSF recovery requirements to ships with a 60 knot airspeed approach and landing method referred to as 'Ship Rolling Vertical Landing' (SRVL). This approach speed provided JSF with ship recovery flexibility as a percentage of wing lift at this airspeed would offset engine direct lift and enhance safety margins.
In conjunction with this programme ship deck lighting was developed for poor visibility and night recovery to ships. This programme produced the new 'Bedford Array' of deck lights to provide an unambiguous touch down point irrespective of the ship deck motion. The 'Bedford Array' with SRVL provided an effective and alternative solution to ship recovery at night in poor visibility and hence operational flexibility.
Having conducted its last research trial in support of JSF development at Boscombe Down on 18 November 2008, XW175’s final resting place remains to be resolved. BAHG has expressed strong interest in bringing the aircraft back to Bedford, its spiritual home. It is to be hoped that an appropriate resting place can be found for this illustrious aircraft of the Harrier fleet, but which became so unique providing the MOD with many products over its lifetime due to the combined efforts of all the pilots, scientific staff and engineers who had the great privilege to work with her.”
Hojas, contraluz
solitarias noches
a veces alucino
con la sencillez
de la naturaleza
y lo enrevesado
de la mente
humana, empeñada
como un crio
en hacer...
los brillos
las sombras
las luces
y los destellos
los instantes
los caminos
la fauna,
el gremio,
la tormenta y
la música
Mt.Mayoisawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido. Pentax MZ-M, EBC Fujinon 28mm F3.5+ Rayqual adopter , Fujiflm Minicopy HR2, exposed as ISO 40, developed with H&W control ( 20Deg.C. 14 minutes ), scanned with Plustek OpticFilm8100 + VueScan, edited with GIMP. Bigger sizes: www.flickr.com/photos/threepinner/53465139825/sizes/ up to 10076 × 6822 pixeles compatible. Learn DIY development and upgrade to film !