Barrage Balloon Research Articles

TERRESTRIAL AND AERIAL GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR IN USE FOR THE ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCHES: ANCIENT 16TH CENTURY WATER SUPPLY AND DRAINAGE AT THE MONASTERY OF EL ESCORIAL (MADRID, SPAIN)

Abstract. Remote sensing techniques in Archaeology are increasingly essential components of the methodologies used in archaeological and architectural researches. They allow uncovering unique forgotten data which are unobtainable using traditional excavation techniques, mainly because their precise location is lost. These data are still important since they can help to prevent flood effects inside the ancient building cellars and basements, as it happened periodically in El Escorial. Wide ancient drainage galleries run more than one hundred feet downhill outside the building, ensuring that rainwater and springs were adequately drained. Nowadays their plans are lost, and the lack of documents related both to the ancient water supply and drainage systems become an impediment to solve the stains of damp on the stone masonry walls and vaults, and even other occasional flooding effects. In this case, nondestructive techniques were needed to find the ancient underground passages in order to preserve the integrity of the building and its current activities. At a first stage oblique aerial infrared images taken from a helium barrage balloon helped to find easily, quickly and cheaply the buried masonry structures. Secondly, radar pulses were particularly interesting to image the subsurface as they were valuable means of assessing the presence and amount of both soil water and buried structures. The combination of both techniques proved to be an accurate and low-cost way to find the ancient drainage systems. Finally, results were produced by means of open source software.

Francis William Beswick

Francis William Beswick (“Frank”) investigated the Georgi Markov umbrella murder. Frank was born in Aberdare in 1926 and grew up in Newport, South Wales. He had an unusual introduction to...

Operation Outward [History

Most students of world War II are aware of the thousands of barrage balloons that Britain employed throughout the war to help protect cities, ports, and other important targets from low-flying Luftwaffe dive bombers and fighters. These large gas balloons measured about 64 ft (19.5 m) long by 34 ft (10.4 m) in diameter and were tethered to the ground by steel cables attached to winches and rose to heights of up to 5,000 ft (1,524 m).

Barrage balloons against aircraft threat: A well proven concept revisited

Since the event of September 11, 2001 in New York City, many people started to speculate that the same type of attack could in future be brought against other installations. Indeed, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided to require for future plants to assess their resistance to the impact of a large civil airliner. Nuclear plant control authorities of other countries decided in a similar direction. The solutions to the technical problem is usually pursued in the direction of a reinforcement of external plant structures and, in some case, they may not be sufficient. Other solutions of more psychological nature have also been adopted. This paper aims at the demonstration that the use of barrage balloons, already adopted with success in both World Wars and also occasionally after these events, can afford a satisfactory solution to the protection problem at a reasonable cost. This solution is also applicable to existing plants. The history of barrage balloons is summarized. Modern technology offers electronic devices capable to detect in time an approaching threat and the paper describes a new barrage system based also on such new possibilities. If the aircraft crash problem is a real one or not for the next years, nobody knows for sure; however some considerations should be kept in mind: • The fact that an accident of this kind “anywhere” is an accident “everywhere” as usual; • The extremely uncertain political outlook worldwide, the peculiarities of the oil market and the possible nuclear renaissance.

Obituary: Roy (L. R.) Taylor (1924–2007)

L. R. Taylor, past President (1984-85) and editor of the Journal of Animal Ecology (1976-89), died on 26 January 2007 at his home in Devon after a prolonged illness. He will be remembered by ecologists and agricultural scientists around the world for his many contributions to insect ecology and his commitment to agricultural entomology. But it is Taylor's Power Law the power law scaling relationship that describes the 'fat tails' of the distribution of abundance of nearly all organisms that is the contribution for which he will be remembered by scientists in many disciplines. The power law is one of several fundamental scaling relationships in ecology. The 1961 Nature publication announcing the discovery is one of the most widely cited publications in all of ecology and agriculture. It has generated considerable discussion as to its origins, its generality, which seems to be very wide, and what exactly it describes. It has defied satisfactory derivation and placement in population ecology theory, but has proven to be very useful both in basic ecology and in agriculture and statistics, providing a powerful means for making data obey the mathematical assumptions underlying statistical analysis. Born on 14 December 1924, only child of Ethel and Leslie, Roy showed a keen interest in natural history from a very early age. He collected butterflies and moths, and learned to rear them in his parents' terraced house in Manchester. He joined the RAF on his 17th

Closure to “Discussion of ‘Nonlinear Waves in Strings: The Barrage Balloon Problem’” (1998, ASME J. Appl. Mech., 65, pp. 792–793)

Closure to “Discussion of ‘Nonlinear Waves in Strings: The Barrage Balloon Problem’” (1998, ASME J. Appl. Mech., 65, pp. 792–793)

Nonlinear Waves in Strings: The Barrage Balloon Problem

This paper develops a theory for geometrically nonlinear waves in strings and presents analytical solutions for a traveling kink, generation of a geometric wave with its accompanying P wave, reflection of a kink at a fixed support and at a smooth sliding support, and interaction of a P wave and a kink. Conditions that must be satisfied for linear wave theory to hold are derived. The nonlinear theory is demonstrated by extending an historically important solution of the barrage balloon problem that was obtained during World War II.

Discharge currents associated with kite balloons

Observations of electric currents flowing in the flying cables of barrage balloons were made during an investigation of the problem of protecting balloons in thundery weather. It was found that charges of the order of coulombs are transferred between balloon cable and air by currents ranging from milliamperes to kiloamperes. The observations give some indications of the distribution of charges in clouds.

Aircraft Defence against Barrage Balloon Cables

Aircraft Defence against Barrage Balloon Cables

Gasoline Diffusion Resistance of Thiokol Type F

Abstract The solvent-resistant properties and low swelling characteristics of Thiokol synthetic rubbers are well known to the rubber technologist. It is also known that these rubbers are highly resistant to permeation by solvents. Gasoline and blends of gasoline and benzene do not diffuse into and through them to any great extent. The permeation of rubber and synthetic rubbers by fixed gases, such as hydrogen and helium, has been the subject of considerable study. Such information has a bearing on the construction of dirigibles, blimps, observation balloons, and barrage balloons. Sager shows that the ratio of permeability to hydrogen for Thiokol Type DX (now Type F), compared to rubber at 25° F, is 1 to 12. Recently the diffusion of gasoline and oil through solvent-resisting synthetic rubbers has become of general interest. The information generally sought is the amount of gasoline that diffuses through a given area in a given time.