State of Mind ...

 

Bingham's Eagle's Nest. 3 pictures

4,000 pictures and not 1 picture of the farmers who lived on Machu Picchu #Peru when "Indiana Jones", Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) "discovered" this place in 1911. No snapshots? I checked out quite a lot of websites and documents but I did not find one picture :(

For Bingham, this eagle's nest was charming and no other place (on Earth?) could compare with it. On its slopes and terraces Bingham found two "pleasant" Indian farmers, Richarte and Alvarez, who did not speak Spanish. They lived there for more than four years. Plenty of terraces. Free from undesirable visitors. Rich soil. Fine climate. "Here the Indians had finally cleared off some ruins, burned over a few terraces, and planted crops of maize, sweet and white potatoes, sugar cane, beans, peppers, tree tomatoes and gooseberries." Source: Chapter 'XVII Machu Picchu' in Bingham/ Inca Land (1922).

How I would have loved to see Richarte's and Alvarez's pictures. Their families. Their gardens. In the middle of Machu Picchu. Or is this a glimpse of one of the gardens?

I love the idea - it's one of many hypothesis - that Machu Picchu was the summer residence of King Pachacuti (1438-1471/2). A safe haven where he could enjoy the company of his friends, make poems and enjoy his flowers. He loved flowers! On his deathbed he allegedly said "I was born as a lily in the garden, and like the lily I grew, as my age advanced. I became old and had to die, and so I withered and died."

Machu Picchu in 3 pictures: (1) 1911 before removal of vegetation (2) 1912 (3) recent picture

P.S. On July 24th, 1911 when he discovered the ruins he immediately set about taking a series of 28-30 photographs. Listing and naming each shot carefully.

Dutch Street Art. Pics

Do you enjoy life as much as I do - life in all it's tiny little details? Messy. Coincidence. Freeriders. Dreaming. Sweet & Sour. Sun. 

Dutch street art. My 4 favorites:

  

 

History of castles. Development in 4 pictures

Castles! What about castles in western Europe? According to Van Dale dictionary a 'castle' (dutch 'kasteel') is: 1 reinforced building 2 large and beautiful house. In a nutshell it tells it all. One thing missing: it's historical development.

Phase 1. Safe home in times of endemic wars

Starting in the 9th century feudal lords built private fortress-residences for defence. Wars were endemic in those times. The fortress was built on a defensible height. Surrounded by a dry ditch and surrounded by a wooden palisade.

Phase 2. Siegproof

Castles and outer walls were made out of stone. Walls get thicker. Sophisticated circuits of curving outer walls and towers to defend all sections of the wall. Never ending arms race of siegers and defenders.

Phase 3. Military importance lost AND residence of landowner

With the use of gunpowder  and artillery the castle lost its military importance around the 15th century.  The thick stone walls no longer withstand bombardments with cannonballs. New and bigger windows. Gardens. House of a rich landowner of noble origin.

Phase 4. Make it profitable

Taxes on inheritance and costs of materials and personnel make most castles too expensive to live in since the 20th century.  Castles no longer belong to the same family who lived there for centuries (generation after generation). 3 D's that causes selling castles: death, debts and divorce. Castles have to be profitable. Selling home made country products. Museum. Zoo. Country garden. Bed and breakfast. Restaurant. Hotel. 

Details. (1) model (2) Krak des Chevaliers (3) Château de Chenonceau (4) Huis Bloemendal

History gliders (or sailplanes) in 3 pictures. Most distinctive evolution: launching method.

 

  

Picture 1. Around 1930. Launching glider with bungees. Two groups of 3 or 4 people pull the glider with 2 bungees from the top of a gently sloping hill.

Picture 2. Year 2005. Launching glider with a winch. The winch pulls the glider with a 1.000 to 1.600 meter cable to height of about 400 to 700 meter.

Picture 3. Year 2009. Launching glider with self-launching engine.

The history of gliders (or sailplanes) and gliding is old. In 1902 the Wright brothers build for the first time a working, true three-axis control. With this glider combined with an engine and propellers they were able to make the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft. Let's concentrate on gliding as a sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft.

What is the most distinctive evolution in the history of gliding as a sport? 

• You: Glider? JeanD99: Don't look at the airplane. Since 1902 the distance that a glider can fly for each meter it descends is increased up 70:1 - this is the lift-to-drag ratio (L/D) - but gravity is a relentless force because sink is sink for every bird in the sky.
• You: Skids, wheels, wheelbrakes or withdrawn wheels? JeanD99: I don't think so. The evolution of wheels made the landing easier during history but a landing is still a landing.
• You: Pilots? Glider-instructors? Training? JeanD99:  Until the 1930's the pilot sat alone in the glider. Once in the sky he/ she was alone with all his/ her happiness, dreams, tears and fears. Making good or bad decisions without someone who could intervene. Later on dual-gliders were developed and training produced better skilled pilots but this didn't change the two critical moments in every flight: its beginning and its end.
• You: Instrumentation and other technical aids? JeanD99: The first gliders didn't have any instrument at all! They only had three-axis control. Altimeter, airspeed indicator, compass, variometer (measures climb or sink rate of the plane), turn and bank indicator, MacCready ring (indicator for optimal flying for given conditions),  computer with GPS technology (provide the glider's position in 3 dimensions by a moving map display), FLARM (anti-collision device), transponder (help air traffic controllers and other airplanes to identify the aircraft and to maintain separation) etcetera they are a great help for flying long distances. But it's still flying.
• You: Discovery of the sources of rising air? JeanD99: Gliders can stay for hours airborne if and only if they find sufficient rising air. Most commonly used sources: ridge lift (first used by Klemperer in 1921), thermals (Kronfeld in 1928) and wave lift (Hirth in 1933). This is not the distinctive I'm pointing at.

The most distinctive evolution in the history of gliding as a sport is: 'launching'. The method of launching implies the business on the ground. It implies how many man are involved on the ground. In the first phase, gliders were launched with 2 bungees from the top of a gently sloping hill. A minimum of 7 people (6 pulling and 1 instructor) were involved.

In the second phase, starting somewhere after World War II, gliders are launched with a winch. The winch pulls the glider with a 1.000 to 1.600 meter cable to height of about 400 to 700 meter. This method needs a long airfield and a minimum groundcrew of 5. This phase is still the mainstraim method in presentday sportgliding worldwide. It's a relative cheap method of launching. 

Since a few years we entered, with the self-launching gliders, the third phase. It's an evolution which will have huge impact on the groundcrew and the gliderclubs. In presentday gliding with it's mainstream winch-launching most members on a gliderclub devote whole days around the airfield: flying a few times and most of the day helping out other members of the club. If you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. The self-launching gliders makes it possible to start alone and come back anytime the pilot(s) wants. The need to land the glider not on the homebase ('land out') is largely decreased. This method needs a minimum groundcrew of 1.

And the future? I guess more training on the ground in glider-simulators and more technological improvements: auto-starting, auto-flying and auto-landing.

Picture 4. Launching glider via aerotowing by engined aircraft.

Footnote. You: What about launching a glider via aerotowing by another engined aircraft? JeanD99: This method is being used commonly since the 1940's. This method is relative expensive and not mainstream in the world of gliding.

3 pics of fighter pilots that show how things changed in 100 years

Picture 1. Flying World War I. Droping a bomb above enemy lines.

Picture 2. Flying World War II. After the command "Scramble!" allied pilots climb as fast as possible into their airplanes to fight their enemies.

Picture 3. Flying 2010. F16-pilot in his G-suite and on his ejection seat ready for take off.

Only eleven years after human beings learned flying by a human made airplane, World War I (1914-1918) broke out. Aircrafts were at first only used for reconnaissance. Rapidly airplanes were used for primitive bombing as well. The airplane was of no strategic importance. Dogfights were very visible for the troops on the ground but it did not change the outcome of the war in any way.

In World War II (1939-1945) airplanes became of strategic importance. If Germany would have won the Battle of Britain in 1940, by gaining air superiority, the outcome of the war would have been different. The key to the allied success was radar linked to telephone lines on the home bases of the pilots and aircrafts. This made it possible that the allied pilots were in the air just in time - fresh and with enough engine fuel - and at the right place while the germans only had 30 minutes left to do what they had to do above english territory. After half a hour the germans had to fly back to their home bases.

In recent days (2010) airpower has become even more strategic. In the first few hours of a war the outcome of the war is being established. The main target in the first hours is to make the enemy blind: cut command lines and disturb communication between troups. In World War I and II the reliability and the range of the aircraft were the most important constraints. In recent days reliability and range are no longer constraints. In our days the pilot is the constraint. Even with the best training and a G-suite the aircraft is able to make sharper turns than a human being can sustain.

And the future? I guess a mixture between manned and unmanned spacecraft. "Space?" Yep, a craft that can fly in universe' space as well as in the air around planet Earth. A craft that can start, fly and land completely automatically. And (wo)man? We will need them anyway. Human beings will always be able to outsmart human made crafts, weapons and tools in general.