Telstar Logistics

POWER TOOL DRAG RACES! In SF! This Weekend! Weekend! Weekend!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, race fans young and old!  This weekend the world's most twisted form of motor sports will return to the back alleys of San Francisco as Ace International Speedway once again plays host to the 2008 Power Tool Drag Races!

That's right... sharpen your Skilsaw and strap a set of racing mags onto the Makita, because the racing ACTION! ACTION! ACTION will take place this weekend, May 17th and 18th 2008!

As a public service to the readers of this weblog, Telstar Logistics has included the FULL (full... full) TEXT (text.. text...) of the quasi-official 2008 PTDR announcement email that's currently snaking its way through the grease pits of the Internet.  Read it below, bring your suntan lotion and WD-40, and BE THERE! BE THERE! BE THERE!

Wanna see more of our photos from the 2006 PTDR Edsel Cup Race Series? You've got it, mister:

Power Tool Drag Racing 2006 (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)

===============================

From: racerxxx@qbox.org
Subject: The One And Only POWER TOOL DRAG RACES

The One And Only POWER TOOL DRAG RACES

ACE! International Speedway. . .eedway. . .eedway. ..eedway. . .

The Ace International Speedway
2255 Mc Kinnon St San Francisco, CA 94124-1326
May 17th and 18th 2008
Racing from: Noon - Dusk
Doors Open: 10:00
$20 one day $30 for two

THRILL as big-block belt sanders and supercharged steam-powered arc welders put the hammer down on our Custom Made Power Tool Drag Racing Track!

CHILL as machines reach speeds of up to SIXTY WHOLE MILES PER HOUR with LITTLE REGARD FOR PERSONAL SAFETY!

SPILL your beer as you revel in the very height of redneck gearhead culture!

John Degamo w/ the national anthem 12:01
Announcer: John Hell and Hall Robins

Actual real live BANDS:
(Saturday)  The Minks
(Sunday) The Shitones (it's the Mermen! plus
and minus a few people)

Cheer leading teams:
Amacker Bullwinkle
Polly Pandemonium

#Peef # providing speed and a timing system

Big Daddy pinning classic vinyl all day
Katy Bell on Flags
Jake in his top hat running the dead man...
Shannon O'Hara's Steam whistles, steam toys and wildly over designed objects
Flash and the All Star Bartenders Doing what they do….
Plus ironed hot dogs pressed by beautiful women
Beef and eggplant brought to by Scott from the Uptown.. The best cook we know!
You can also learn about a buddy Todd Blair
Plus all the other racing racing racing stuff
Staring Above all the Junk Yard and our beloved host!
Countless others running around doing things.

The Edsel Cup is back again!!!
It has a new hood, new dual exhaust system, brake lines, chrome, original literature, posters, etc.  The total thing is likely worth about 2k.  Ok, maybe 1k.

Every year the very best and brightest take to their garages, theplumbing aisle at Home Depot, the tools section of OSH, and the empty lots behind their neighbors' trailers to build THOSE MACHINES WHO REIGN SUPREME!

75 Feet of skillfully machined fiberboard Power Tool Drag Racing Track await the competitors on race day!
BE AMAZED at the high-tech timing system that tracks Each and Every Vehicle
BE AMUSED at the charming antics of our well-known Power Tool Drag Race Announcers!
BE APPALLED at the smell of RAW ADRENALINE and 20-W-50 in the air!

OH MY EFFIN' GAWD, IT'S THE EFFIN' POWER TOOL EFFIN' DRAG RACES

Sign up to race!  Take a gander at The Rules (which are valid until Jim Mason decides to re-write them or racing day, whichever comes first)

On Fire Trucks, Mass Customization, and Superior Customer Service

A 2007 Pierce Heavy Rescue Truck in Austin, Texas

"So, what do I have to do to get you to drive home in a brand-new fire truck today?"

If you're talking to a sales rep from Pierce, the largest manufacturer of fire trucks in the U.S., the answer is a truck that comes equipped just about any way you want it.  As an interesting article this week in the Financial Times explains, Pierce, a division of the Oshkosh Corporation, has a keen understanding of what it takes to sell fire trucks — a product that can cost $500,000 apiece but which is built to last for  decades. You want custom colors? No problem.  Special equipment? Can do. Lots of help to guide you through the configuration process? Gladly provided. And it turns out, firefighters will pay extra for all that customization,  design flexibility, and sales service.  Here's what the FT has to say about Pierce's success:

Many western manufacturers have tried to stay competitive in the face of low-cost overseas competition by closely tailoring products to their customers' needs. Oshkosh takes this approach to the extreme, customising its trucks according to individual buyers' needs and collaborating with customers on redesigning its vehicles.

Its experience shows how such a strategy can pay off: in the past decade, Pierce has grown at an average rate of more than 11 per cent a year. With revenues last year of $600m - up from $180m when it was bought by Oshkosh - it is now the leading maker of fire trucks in the US with a market share of about one third in North America.

Tim Solobay, chief of the Canonsburg Volunteer Fire Department in Pennsylvania, agrees that Pierce's customisation strategy helps attract buyers. "We went with Oshkosh because it's just easy working with the company - you know it won't become an engineering nightmare." Pierce trucks are popular with volunteer teams, of which there are about 34,000 in the US and which account for 80 per cent of the company's sales.

Mr Solobay is beaming at his new fire truck, parked on the factory floor - a slice of classic Americana with rows of gleaming vehicles bearing the emblems of fire departments from Jacinto City, Texas to Downers Grove, Illinois.

Mr Solobay says this is his third point of contact with the company: first, he and his crew met a local salesman to talk about design features, then, last December, they visited the factory to talk in more detail about customising the vehicle. On this return visit - a four-day trip - they check the results and take delivery.

Suddenly It's 1964!

While picking up some groceries last weekend, we happened across this lovely 1964 Plymouth Valiant station wagon parked in front of a 1960s-vintage Safeway supermarket.  The Valiant's Cragar mags are a nice touch, eh?  And so much room for big boxes of Pampers under all that glass in the back!

(Photo by Telstar Logistics)

A Turnkey Provider of Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness

They say that misery loves company, but why should grateful camaraderie be the exclusive preserve of the wretched and the downtrodden?  Geeky enthusiasm loves company too, which is why Telstar Logistics is pleased to call your attention to a new(ish) blog called "Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness" which was  launched recently by one of our Strategic Associates, Mr. Diego Rodriguez, the creator of the megacool Metacool blog.

DIego describes his new effort as being an exploration of "the visceral side of things," but don't be put off by the heady concept. Simply, his new blog is a celebration of the kinds of machines that likewise inspire Telstar Logistics.  Indeed, one gets the sense that Diego has embarked on a quest to create a Grand Unifying Theory of Gearhead Gnarlyness, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which transportation hardware can inspire emotional attachment, and vice-versa. 

Consider, for example, this YouTube video, which recently appeared on UGG under the heading "Why Subaru is my favorite car brand today":

What's to love about Subaru? Diego writes:

It's all about a brand that is based on a truth rooted in getting real stuff done in the world.  It's not about selling the sizzle, it's about selling a steak that sizzles.  Hot!  And a juicy one at that.What makes it all authentic is the relatively close tie between the WRX's you see pogoing around in this video and what you or I could buy down at the corner Subaru dealer.  They're a lot closer to the civilian models than anything you'd find in NASCAR, let alone Le Mans racing or even touring cars.  Effective marketing is about brands that are real, not fake.  Truth, not myth.

Hallelujah to that! (And conversely, we hope that the beancounting executives who seem hellbent on diluting the Jeep brand will take note of these wise words.)

Diego's pursuit of gearhead gnarlyness has an ecumenical bent, which is to say that in addition to cars, he also likes airplanes, and motorcycles, and drilling machines, and even... high-performace knitting.  And video.  Lots of great video.

Check it out to get your USRDA of gnarl.

LINK:
Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness (A new blog by Diego Rodriguez)

BONUS:
Rewatching the video above, we got to wondering about the scenes that show a Subaru hucking the kickers in a snowboard park.  Because in addition to loving gearhead gnarlyness, Telstar Logistics also loves gravity-powered gnarlyness.  On snow. And if all three elements can be combined, then that's a win-win-win. Some tactical searching turned up the original video.  Here 'tis:

PREVIOUSLY:

Blogging on the High Seas with gCaptain

Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

(IMAGE: Top, An unabashedly gnarly 1967 Pontiac Firebird, photographed in Livermore, California, by Telstar Logistics)

Vintage Comic Book Cutaways and Sci-Fi Models from Modern Fred

Recently, one of our operatives directed Telstar Logistics toward the Flickr presence of a gentleman who goes by the name of Modern Fred. The name itself seemed intriguing, but things got even better when we plugged Modern Fred's Internet coordinates into our World Wide Web browser. Within seconds we found ourselves staring at an eye-popping collection of vintage comic book cutaway illustrations:

We oogled the illustrations with admiration and awe, noted that they were all created by an illustrator named Leslie Ashwell Wood, then fired an urgent message off to Modern Fred via electrionic mail: Where did these come from? What was Eagle Comics? What's the backstory?

A short while later we recevied a message from Mr. Fred Barr, aka Modern Fred.  In it he explained:

I found Eagle comics by way of my interest in Dan Dare, the British SciFi character who was the major feature in Eagle -- he was sort of a combination of Steve Canyon and Flash Gordon with a typical stiff-upper-lip gentleman officer personality. (Maybe he's more of a combination of Biggles and Buck Rogers come to think of it). The Eagle was the major template for British boys' comics, and TV21, which is what my generation had, was definitely modeled upon it. The delightfully detailed cutaways in each issue were transformed into amazing cutaways of the vehicles from Gerry Anderson's television programmes in TV21.

I had seen issues of Eagle many times but never had any in the flesh. It was remarkable to see all the content. The Dan Dare comic was remarkably drawn and coloured, easily influencing the Thunderbirds comic by Frank Bellamy. But getting a good look at the cutaways it's easy to see the artists who worked upon them were tremendously talented fellows, and there's a real sense of treating the intelligence of the audience -- schoolboys of the 1950s -- with respect, as there's no "dumbing down" or shortcuts taken.

Very cool.  Yet apart from having a keen eye for comic book illustration, Modern Fred also turns out to be an extremely skilled maker of scale models depicting classic bits of science fiction technology.  For example, check out this scratchbuilt (!!!) model Fred built of the Chariot vehicle from Lost in Space:

And this massive diorama of the International Rescue headquarters from the Thunderbirds:

And this geekalicious model of the bridge from the original USS Enterprise:

What can we say, but... Wow!  Fred's Flickr site is fertile ground for some very satisfying procrastination, so we heartily encourage you to beam aboard.

LINKS:
Vintage Comics and Books (Flickr photoset by Modern Fred)

Models (Flickr photoset by Modern Fred)

PREVIOUSLY:
The Intimate Industrial Illustrations of Frank Soltesz

"Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration

Merry Shopping: Inside the 1962 Sears Christmas Catalog

(IMAGES: All images from Modern Fred, reproduced here with permission.)

A Self-Guided Tour at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Ames Research Center is a research facility operated by America's space agency on the grounds of the fomer Moffett Naval Air Station (Now known as Moffett Federal Airfield) in Silicon Valley, California. Most of the NASA infrastructure is clustered around the northwest corner of the airfield, in the shadow of the gigantic Hangar One. Ames has been a research center 1939, when it was founded under the auspices of NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Some of the surviving buildings still recall that history:

Today, Ames does a lot of work on far-out disciplines such as astrobiology, robotics, airborne astronomy, and information technology. Ames is also home to the world's largest wind tunnel, so the center is also active in materials and aerodynamic research.

No rockets depart from Ames, however, and it's not used for Mission Control, so the facility normally has the air of a sedate university campus.  But in April, Ames hosts a trippy science fair, called Yuri's Night, to honor Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's 1961 spaceflight — the first time a human reached orbit. Sociologically, Yuri's Night feels a lot like Burning Man or the Maker's Faire, with more of a space-hippie vibe. Consider: Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh performed at Yuri's Night in a band called... wait for it... Telstar! (If we had lawyers, they'd have something to say about this.)

But never mind all that. For this Telstar, Telstar Logistics, the big attraction of Yuri's Night is the opportunity it affords to explore parts of Ames that are normally off-limits, such as Hangar 211, which will soon be home to the Boeing 747SP-based SOFIA airborne observatory. Here's the interior of Hangar 211:

Far less sexxxy is the area where the SOFIA team works. It looks sort of like a nightmare from The Matrix:

NASA also puts some of its more tasty bits of hardware on display, such as SOFIA's predecessor, the C-141 Starlifter-based Kuiper Airborne Observatory, which was retired in 1995.  You can see the hatch for the airborne telescope, just forward of the wing root, in the top photo:

Aircraft 846, one of NASA's still-active F-18 Hornet chase planes, was also on display. As you may recall, No. 846 made a cameo while flying wingman for the X-45A, a prototype unmanned combat air vehicle.

Want more photos? Follow the links below.

LINKS:
Moffett Field and NASA Ames (Photos by Telstar Logistics)

Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008, A World Space Party at NASA (Excellent crowd photos of Yuri's Night by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

Tour of NASA Ames Research Center (Excellent 2007 Ames photos from Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

PREVIOUSLY:
The Fight to Save Hangar One, Silicon Valley's Monument to the Age of the Airships

Former Pan Am 747SP Becomes NASA's Newest Airborne Telescope

Larry and Sergey Cleared to Land at Uncle Sam's Private Airport in Silicon Valley

Over Silicon Valley in a B-17 Flying Fortress

(IMAGES: All photos above by Telstar Logistics)

A New Monument for Laika, Russia's Heroic Space Dog

Woof woof!  Have you ever heard the story of Laika, the Soviet Space Dog? In 1957, Laika (shown above) became the first living creature to orbit the Earth, when Soviet scientists launched the 13 lb. canine into orbit aboard a hastily built Sputnik 2 space capsule.  A former stray found on the streets of Moscow, Laika perished when the thermal control systems failed and the capsule overheated, killing the dog in orbit.

Laika sailed into the final frontier wearing a spacesuit like this one on display at the Moscow Space Museum:

Fortunately, Laika's legend has lived on.  There is, of course, a semi-famous surf rock band from Finland called Laika and the Cosmonauts, whom we love dearly. Laika also makes a cameo on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, which was erected in 1964. But now Russia has decided to give Laika a permanent statue of her very own, near Moscow's Military Medicine Institute:

LINKS:
Russia fetes dog Laika, first earthling in space (Reuters, April 11, 2008)

Laika (Wikipedia page)

Laika (Flickr photoset of Laika photos and memorabilia, by dezown)

PREVIOUSLY:
Happy 50th Birthday Sputnik: We Wouldn't Be Us Without You

Happy 45th Anniversary, Telstar 1!

A Brief History of All Telstars

(IMAGE: Doggie spacesuit photo by James Duncan. Laika monument, AP Photo by Alexei Nikolsky)

Shipping Container Shortage Plagues American Exports

As every wannabe titan of global industry knows, the value of the US dollar has fallen precipitously in recent months relative to other benchmark currencies like the British Pound, the European Euro and the Japanese Yen.  That's bad news if you're an American planning a vacation in London, Paris, or Tokyo. But if you happen to be in the export business, it's a huge opportunity. The dollar's decline makes American-made products significantly cheaper — and more competitive — on international markets, but as the Wall Street Journal reports, a shortage of shipping containers has created big headaches for US exporters. In order to sell the goods, you need to be able to move the goods, but you can't move the goods if you can't find enough shipping containers.  The WSJ says:

Finding enough of the big metal boxes used to be a cinch, because the nation's massive hunger for imports meant they were constantly arriving and stacking up from Long Beach, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y. Shipping companies typically scoured the country for anyone willing to fill outgoing boxes. But with the slump in the value of the dollar making U.S. goods more attractive to foreign buyers and many overseas economies continuing to hum, the tide has shifted in recent months. Trade figures being released Thursday are expected by many economists to show further growth in exports.

Shipping containers -- and the way they're handled -- reflect how the U.S. interacts with the global economy, which is one reason the problem has emerged now. For years, the U.S. crafted a trading system that was designed to pull in masses of imported consumers goods such as sneakers and VCRs as efficiently as possible from countries like China. Far less was expected to flow the other way.

What has happened now has thrown a wrench into the works. Cutbacks by U.S. consumers have slowed the growth of imports, while the weak dollar is making the U.S. into an export machine. Meanwhile, the places where most of these exports are originating are far from where boxes are being unpacked and soaring energy costs make it too costly to just load them on trucks and move them around.

"There are some places, particularly in the Midwest, where there's a complete lack of containers," says Philip Damas, the head of container research at Drewry Shipping Consultants in London. [...]

Analysts say shipping costs are rising, too. Mr. Damas, the London-based consultant, says the cost of shipping a 40-foot container from the West Coast to China is now $1,500, up at least 20% in the past year. In many cases, boxes that previously would be sent to inland locations never leave the coast.

The problem surfaced about six months ago and can be traced to a confluence of factors, beyond the slump in the dollar. For one, the global commodity boom has increased the cost of shipping items by bulk, which in turn has pushed more goods into containers.

It doesn't help that containers don't tend to flow to places that make most U.S. exports. More imports to the U.S. are consumer goods, which are often unloaded near retailers and warehouses in large cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. In the case of Chicago, many containers come off ships from Asia and onto trains destined for "inland" destinations. But U.S. commodity exports, such as cotton and corn, are grown far from those hubs.

LINKS:
Container Shortage Puts U.S. Export Boom in a Box (Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2008. Supscription required)

Big Metal Box (Flickr group devoted to photos of shipping containers, container terminals, container ships, and container-based architecture)

PREVIOUSLY:
Freitag Takes Container Architecture to New Heights

Emma Maersk: The Largest Cargo Ship in the World

IMAGES: Top, HO scale plastic shipping containers used on model railroad sets.  Bottom, a container ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. All photos by Telstar Logistics

Video: Mini Monkeys Ride Mini Motorcycles

No, this is not a metaphor.  This YouTube video, which may have been filmed in Thailand, shows some very well-trained monkeys demonstrating their sophisticated motorcycle riding technique:

PREVIOUSLY:

Pop-Up Market Shares a Train Track in Bangkok

Our Day on the Bay Aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter

Here at Telstar Logistics, we like safety.  And we like boating.  Not necessarily in that order, mind you, but still... when a public affairs liaison from the United States Coast Guard invited us to spend an afternoon aboard a USCG cutter to talk about boating safety and watch a live demonstration of helicopter-assisted search and rescue techniques, we jumped at the opportunity.  Safely, of course.

We arrived at the Coast Guard's base on Yerba Buena Island, smack in the middle of San Francisco Bay and quite literally in the shadow of the Bay Bridge, on a recent sunny afternoon. After passing the sentry at the main gate (Sweeeet!) we made our way to the USCG Hawksbill, WPB 87312.  The Hawksbill is one of the Coast Guard's 87-foot Marine Protector cutters, a medium sized ship designed for extended law enforcement, rescue, and coastal defense patrols. Vessels in the Marine Protector class are all of recent vintage -- the Hawksbill was built by Bolinger Shipyards in 1999 --  and they all can carry a crew of 10 on missions lasting as long as five days. Equipped with contemporary electronics, communications, and radar equipment, as well as two M2 .50 caliber machine guns, Marine Protectors can also launch and recover a rigid inflatable Zodiac boat while underway at speed.  Each ship cost Uncle Sam $3.5 million.

Once on board, we took a look around. We started in the lower deck, where we toured the crew's mess and galley. (NOTE: Interior design mavens, check out those superslick drawers and cabinets!)

Then we moved on to the engine room, and the twin MTU diesel motors:

On the main deck, we poked our heads into the ship's office, response locker, and the officer's cabin:

In the pilothouse, we oogled the electronic chart system, the radar, and all the seductive buttons and switches. Mmmmmm.  Blinky:

Out on the bay, we were soon joined by a HH-65C Aerospatiale Dolphin helicopter from the Coast Guard's San Francisco Air Station:

Which began to practice search and rescue procedures by dropping a diver into the chilly water:

Later, as the Hawksbill motored north toward the Golden Gate, we watched a demonstration of how the Zodiac is launched and recovered from the cutter's stern ramp while underway:

Lastly, it must be said, we were mightily impressed with the cutter's crew, who were not only cheerful, patient, and polite, but also exuded a quiet professionalism that made the Hawksbill feel like a much bigger boat.

We took plenty more photos aboard the Hawksbill, so follow the links below if you want to keep exploring.

Oh, and about all that safety stuff.  The Coast Guard asks that you please be careful while boating, and just as importantly, that you please avoid calling in distracting false alarms if you're not in life-threatening trouble.  The word "Mayday?"  It's not to be used casually during radio communications. Roger that? Don't make this guy come looking for you. Let's have fun on the water, fellow aquanauts.  But let's be careful out there.

LINKS:
Aboard USCG Hawksbill, Sector San Francisco (Flickr photoset and ship tour by Telstar Logistics)

VIDEO: Coast Guard Rescue Training (KTVU-TV video filmed during our time aboard Hawksbill)

WPB 87' Marine Protector Class (Ship history and data from Globalsecurity.org)

PREVIOUSLY:
Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

Turning the Launch Key Inside a Titan ICBM Missile Silo

Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

(IMAGES: Top, Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Kevin J. Neff, showing Telstar Logistics on the deck of the USCG Hawksbill. All other photos by Telstar Logistics.)

Backstage at the San Francisco Airport Museum

The design of SFO's aviation library and museum was inspired by this.

Next time you find yourself waiting for a delayed flight at San Francisco International Airport, relax and take a look around.  There's a lot to see, because the airport is also a museum. Not in the metaphorical or historical sense; SFO is quite literally a museum, with a fulltime staff of curators and full accreditation from the American Association of Museums, the leading organization for museum administrators in the United States.  Depending on how you count eyeballs, it may even be the busiest museum in the country. Consider: The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC attracted almost 6 million visitors in 2006, but more than 33 million passengers passed through SFO.

The exhibits at the airport fall into two basic categories: displays of commercial airline history and collections of pop culture artifacts. Telstar Logistics recently went on a backstage tour of the museum's commercial aviation collection, and we can confidently say that it's pure nirvana for airline memorabilia geeks.  But we'll get to that in a moment.

The museum staff at the airport knows their audience — first and foremost, visitors to SFO are airline passengers, not museum-goers, so the exhibits are curated to capture the attention of people who trying to go someplace else. Stroll down SFO's United Airlines concourse this summer, for example, and you'll find an extensive collection of kitsch pottery manufactured during the 1930s on Catalina Island, off the California coast. In the lobby of Terminal 1, there's a wonderful exhibit of vintage flight attendant uniform caps on display right now that shows how styles evolved from the early, nursing-derived caps of the 1930s to the mod headwear from the 1960s and 1970s:

These are the kinds of exhibits that would look right at home in a museum like the Cooper-Hewitt in New York, and the curation and display is top notch.  But it all happens to happen inside America's tenth-busiest airport.

John Hill, the curator-in-charge of the aviation collection, told us that while SFO's pop culture exhibits usually use materials loaned from outside collections, the commercial aviation displays are often built around items kept as part of airport's permanent collection.  And to prove the point, he took Telstar Logistics on a tour of the museum's aviation collection storage warehouse, tucked away in a remote corner of the airport.

For curatorial reasons, our photo access inside the SFO museum warehouse was limited.  But suffice to say, what we saw was impressive.  We peeked inside giant drawers stuffed with neatly-organized collections of airline pilot hat pins:

We drooled at drawers filled with miniature scale model airliners:

We pondered the home-decor possibilities of a vintage air travel insurance vending machine that looked ready for service:

We coveted a leather flight bag that was used by crews aboard Pan American Airways China Clipper Flying Boats during the 1930s:

And we fantasized about pouring ourselves a stiff drink with the museum's collection of airline-issue cocktail swizzle sticks:

What we can't show you, however, are the row after row of boxes containing vintage airline crew uniforms.  Or the massive wall of storage cubes, measuring at least 30 feet wide and 15 feet tall. Inside each cube was a vintage airline travel bag, like the kind that were given to passengers in the days before deregulation.  There were dozens of the bags, colorful row after colorful row, and together they looked like some sort of jet set design study for fashion coolhunters. It was amazing, but no photos, alas.

That's what we saw like behind the scenes. Publicly, there are dozens of exhibits scattered throughout SFO at any given time, but if you really want to unwind, meander over to the International Terminal, where you'll find a dedicated aviation library and museum that's set in a room designed to replicate the look of San Francisco's original terminal building, circa 1937. Set up camp in one of the hushed carrels, grab something to read, and try not to forget that you eventually need to catch a flight.

LINKS:
Backstage at the SFO Airport Museum (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)

San Francisco Airport Museums (Official website)

Hats Off! Women’s Airline Uniform Caps (Official SFO museum exhibition photos. Recommended!)

PREVIOUSLY:
The Soft Underbelly of the Bay Area Airline Collectibles Subculture

How to Play Tug of War with a Boeing 737

Audio: A Tough Day Inside the Kennedy Airport Control Tower

(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics)

An Appreciation of Snowcats, Snowcat Design, and Snowcat Operation

Sorry for the long pause during the last few days, but Telstar Logistics was away at an executive offsite in Vail, Colorado. So Jet Set. So glam. So not our usual kind of scene. But while we were hitting the slopes, we spied a flock of Pisten Bully snowcats, shown above as they were resting near a Vail mountaintop.

There's something innately fascinating about highly-specialized vehicles the kind of machines that were put on this Earth to do one rather unusual thing, and by gosh, do it damn well. Like the goofy 747s Boeing built to carry giant aircraft parts. Or veteran fireboats that save cities from flaming disaster. Or, as was the case at Vail, snowcats that function like high-alpine farm tractors but look like space buggies from Lost in Space.

Most of the snowcats we encounter are built either by Pisten Bully or Bombardier. Both exude tasteful modernism, but if we had to generalize, we'd say that all the recessed flashing lights on the German-built Pisten Bullies make them look like a teutonic vision of Mad Max on Ice. (Indeed, the official Pisten Billy website awkwardly touts a Future Made by Men. Perhaps it sounds better in German?) Meanwhile, the Canadian-built Bombardiers are angular and husky, in a 1970s Cylon kind of way. They're also extinct, as Bombardier was acquired by a private equity firm in 2003, and the company's snowcat manufacturing division was shuttered.

These are some of the cockpit controls inside a Bombardier snowcat built in 2001:

What's it like to operate one of these beasts? Frankly, we have no idea. But if it's anything like this video of a Pisten Bully hard at work after a snowstorm at Squaw Valley USA, we'd like to sign up for driving lessons:

LINKS:
Snowcat! (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics of a 2006 snowcat odyssey in Lake Tahoe)

Snowcat (Wikipedia page, with detail on snowcat history and development)

Resort Boneyard (Website for used snowcats and equipment)

PREVIOUSLY:
Snowcatting Through a Winter Wilderness

(IMAGES: All photos above by Telstar Logistics)

Airbus Wins Air Force Tanker Contract; Boeing 767 Doomed?

Wow.  Talk about saving the controversial news until Friday...

Today the US Air Force announced that it has selected Airbus to build it's new fleet of airborne refueling aircraft.  The Airbus plane, a variant of the civilian A330 airliner, beat out a competing proposal from Boeing which was based on the 767.  All told, the contract may be worth more than $30 billion.  Aviation Week carries the summary:

Northrop Grumman and EADS have won the U.S. Air Force's KC-X tanker award, beating a Boeing-led team for the long-awaited, controversial and delayed decision.

The award, for a total buy of 179 tankers to be dubbed KC-45A, is expected to result in a deal worth tens of billions of dollars and leading to a dozen or more new aircraft each year for several years at a cost of about $3 billion per year.

KC-X is the first iteration of a three-phased approach to replace the Air Force's fleet of 530 KC-135E/Rs and 59 KC-10s. The next tranche to replace the Air Force's larger KC-10 tankers, dubbed KC-Y, is not expected until at least 2020, effectively freezing Boeing out of the tanker market for the foreseeable future.

The decision also seals the fate for Boeing's 767 production line. The far newer A330 design continues to outpace the 767 in commercial orders. Boeing has about four years of work left for its Everett, Wash., production line without more orders. The company was looking to the U.S. Air Force to be the only and final 767 customer in the coming years.

What's the new plane got?  This Military-Industrial History Channel-style marketing video explains the highlights:

Rest assured, this isn't the last you'll be hearing about this, and it's safe to say many members of Congress will be making a lot of noise in the days and weeks ahead to protest the Pentagon's decision to purchase "a tanker plane made in Eurrrrp."  Fasten your seatbelts, folks ... the ride is gonna get bumpy.

LINKS:
Northrop Grumman KC-30 Tanker (Manufacturer's webpage)

Congress in Turmoil over Air Force Tanker Decision (Reuters, 29 February, 2008)

PREVIOUSLY:
Airbus Delivers the First A380 — and a Management Lesson

The "Gimli Glider" 767 Retires Peacefully, at Last

Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 Invades America

(IMAGE: Artist rendition of a KC-45 refueling a B-2 bomber, by Northrop Grumman)

RIP: Boyd Coddington, Hot Rod Impresario

While the right-wing side of the blogosphere mourns the passing of William F. Buckley, those of us on the gearhead end of the social spectrum must now say goodbye to hot rod genius Boyd Coddington who passed on yesterday. Here's a snippet from his obit off the AP wire:

Car-building legend Boyd Coddington, whose testosterone-injected cable TV reality show "American Hot Rod" introduced the nation to the West Coast hot rod guru, has died. He was 63.

Coddington died at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday. His La Habra office spokeswoman Amanda Curry wouldn't disclose the cause of death.

Coddington, who started building cars when he was 13 and once operated a gas station in Utah, set a standard for his workmanship and creativity, with his popular "Cadzilla" creation considered a design masterpiece. The customized car based on a 1950s Cadillac was built for rocker Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

"That was a groundbreaking car. Very cool," said Dick Messer, executive director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

"This was your modern era George Barris," Messer said. "He did things to hot rods and customs that weren't being done by anyone else. But the main thing is he designed cars that were drivable."

There will be plenty of rememberances posted on the Internets today, but Jalopnik already has theirs up, along with lots more images of Boyd's handiwork. Bon voyage...

(IMAGES: Cadzilla, by the Corky Coker blog, Boyd Coddington from the Discovery Channel)

Ooops! Cathay Pacific Fires Boeing 777 Flyby Pilot

Did you hear the one about the Cathay Pacific pilot who did a gear-up control tower flyby in a brand new Boeing 777? It happened on January 30, shortly after the airline took delivery of the plane at Boeing's manufacturing facility in Everett, Washington.  The incident generated some buzz, but the pilot made one crucial mistake: he pulled his Top Gun stunt while the boss was on board. Now he's been canned. 

The Seattle Times reports:

A Cathay Pacific Airways captain who picked up a new 777-300ER airliner at Everett's Paine Field last month has been fired for buzzing the airfield before heading home to Hong Kong.

The celebratory flyby, reportedly just a few dozen feet above the runway, surprised the senior airline officials who were on board, among them company Chairman Christopher Pratt, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Hong Kong newspaper reported that Capt. Ian Wilkinson lost his job for violating company guidelines requiring prior clearance for such maneuvers.

Industry publication Flight International reported Monday that Wilkinson was the airline's senior 777 pilot. Cathay Pacific was taking delivery of its sixth 777-300ER, and the plane carried 50 to 60 people when it swooped past the airfield with its landing gear retracted.

The plane may have been as low as 28 to 30 feet off the ground, an unidentified Cathay Pacific source told the publication.

Whoops.  Here's a crude YouTube of the low pass, for the curious, but follow the link below for an even better video:

(Hat tip: Rick O.)

LINK:
VIDEO: Cathay Pacific 777 low-level flypast: Watch the withdrawn video (Flight Global blog post)

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What Does a Sonic Boom Look Like?

The "Gimli Glider" 767 Retires Peacefully, at Last

How to Evacuate 873 People from an Airbus A380

(IMAGE: Above, 777 flyby by Matt Cawby/Seattle Times)

How to Build a San Francisco Cable Car

It's no secret that Telstar Logistics harbors much affection for San Francisco's fleet of vintage streetcars, but we also harbor no illusions about the fact that they play second-fiddle to city's cable cars, which are both more famous and more vintage. Indeed, while the streetcars (aka: trams or trolleys) are fundamentally modern in their design, using electric motors to provide propulsion, the cable cars are downright Victorian. Propelled mechanically by a system of cables threaded beneath the city streets -- picture a ski lift that runs upside down, and you get the basic idea -- the cable car lines were installed in the late 1800s, and they continue to operate in San Francisco to this day.

But where does the city go when it needs a new cable car? No factories make the things anymore, obviously, so the San Francisco Municipal Railway has a team of ace carpenters who build new ones from scratch at the Woods Division maintenance yard in the southern part of town. Plug from the What I'm Seeing blog visited the Woods yard recently, and came back with some photos of a brand new cable car under construction.

Plug reports that, "each car takes almost 18 months to build and costs around $400,000."

There's lots more detail and great photos at What I'm Seeing, so check it out.

Meanwhile, all this raises another important question... if the cable cars come from the Woods Division Yard, then where does the Rice-A-Roni come from?

LINKS:
The Building of Cable Car No. 25 (What I'm Seeing blog post)

Cable Car - The Woods Division (Flickr photoset from What I'm Seeing)

Cable Car Museum (Website of the offical San Francisco cable car museum.)

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Meet Carole Gilbert, Vintage Streetcar Artist

San Francisco's Streetcar Revival

Open-Air Public Transit in the Blackpool Boat Car

Lost Streetcars of Lake Tahoe Fated to Become Diners and Sushi Bars in Missouri

(IMAGES: All photos by What I'm Seeing)

Stealth Dodge Chargers Join the California Highway Patrol

While returning home from a routine leisure patrol in Lake Tahoe last weekend, Telstar Logistics decided to do some reconnaissance at the California Highway Patrol's Fleet Operations Facility just off I-80 in West Sacramento. The Fleet Operations Facility is a centralized location where the CHP takes delivery of brand-new vehicles and preps them for duty by installing equipment like emergency lights, sirens, radios, and Highway Patrol decals.

Most of the time, the giant parking lot is packed with black-and-white Ford Crown Victoria Interceptors lined up in tidy rows like cute little ducklings. For example, the following is a photo of the facility we took back in April 2006.  As you can see, nothing but Crown Vics:

Last weekend, however, we saw something very different: long lines of new Dodge Chargers in a wide variety of colors — with no black-and-whites. Upon surveying the scene, we whipped out our handy dandy spy-cam to snap a few photos:

We then raced home to research our strange discovery. Here's what we learned:

According to Government Fleet, a trade journal, the CHP paid $1.9 million for 88 Dodge Chargers, paying $21,673 per charger. Most of the new cars are slated for undercover operation, although nine will be retained in Sacramento for training use. The order was placed last year, but it seems the agency has now taken delivery of its new undercover cars. And soon they'll be out on the streets.

To be sure, the new Chargers are stealthy.  Unlike Crown Vics, which scream COP CAR!! even when unmarked, there's not much about the CHP's new Chargers that would attract attention from even an alert motorist. No clunky steel wheels.  No visibly beefed-up suspension. No A-pillar spotlights. Granted, they look somewhat like rental cars, but that's a far cry from anything which would suggest that Ponch and Jon are riding inside.

Just as significant, perhaps, is the fact that the CHP has started to diversify.  Crown Vics have been the backbone of the CHP's marked fleet, and today the agency operates more than 2,100 of the venerable Fords.  Meanwhile, troopers in many other states have already traded in their Crown Vics for new Chargers, and as one astute analyst recently noted, the Dodge cop cars look pretty badass.

Here's a slicktop Charger in service with the Massachusetts State Police:

Photo by christopdesoto

And here's one (with the telltale steel wheels) used by the Michigan State Police:

Photo by squeez91270

Chargers have also been embraced by the NYPD and the LAPD.

Will black-and-white CHP Chargers come to California's highways as well?  Frankly, we hope so, if only because it's vastly easier to see a marked Charger than it is to try and spot its low-profile alternative. In the meantime, California motorists... let's be careful out there.

LINKS:
Dodge Charger Police (Official Dodge fleet sales website, with multimedia)

California Highway Patrol Adds Charger as Undercover & Training Vehicles (Government Fleet, May 16, 2007)

Dodge Charger Police Cars (Flickr photo group)

PREVIOUSLY:
What Kind of Man Drives an Ex-Police Car?

Explore an Airbus A380 Cockpit in a 360 Degree Panorama

Some of the things we find out there on the Interwebs are so cool, they need no explanation. Here's one of them: Behold this link to a 360 degree panorama of the interior of an Airbus A380 cockpit.  Telstar Logistics was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in this very same A380 cockpit late last year, but rest assured, this VR from Gilles Vidal is the next best thing. In some ways, it's even better: When we visited, for example, we didn't notice the low-tech escape ropes -- ropes! -- stowed in the specially designated compartments just above the windows on both sides of the cockpit.  But if you look carefully, there they are.

Likewise, if you're wondering what it's like to bed down in one of those super-expensive, super-exclusive private rooms in the first class cabin of a Singapore Airlines A380, Gilles can help you out there as well:

But if you fly steerage, expect it to look something like this:

Have fun exploring!

(Thank you, Jason Schupp!)

LINKS:
Airbus A380 Cockpit Panoreportage  (from Gilles Vidal)

Airbus A380 Interior Panorama (from Gilles Vidal)

PREVIOUSLY:
Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

Airbus A380 to Become a Casino in the Sky?

How to Evacuate 873 People from an Airbus A380

A Submersible Car to Make 007 Proud

A submersible car inspired by 007s Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me? 

It exists! Built as a concept prototype by Rinspeed in Switzerland, the “sQuba” claims to be the world's first fully submersible automobile, and it'll be on display at the Geneva Auto Show from March 6 to 16, 2008.

Powered by electric motors, the sQuba can hit 70+ mph on land and less than 2 mph underwater. The open cockpit design is intended as a safety feature to enable easy exit in an emergency, but there's no word on how an international superspy is supposed to keep his tux dry under those circumstances — never mind his martini.  Regardless, the Rinspeed-produced video is good clean fun, so enjoy:

(Tip of the snorkel to Comrade Pesco of BoingBoing)

LINKS:
Rinspeed sQuba (Official company website)

007's Esprit Submarine (Fan website at Lotusespritworld.com)

Submersible Systems Technology (Builders of the original 007 submersible Esprit)

Airbus A380 to Become a Casino in the Sky?

'There are reports floating around the Internets this morning that talks are underway between Airbus and unnamed casino operators to outfit one or more A380 Superjumbo airliners to operate as airborne gambling parlors.  With more than 6600 square feet of available cabin space, there's plenty of room on board the twin-deck aircraft to make such a thing possible.  Today's Financial Times reports:

High-rolling gamblers may soon be cashing in their chips with the great casino in the sky.

Airbus has been approached by potential Asian buyers who are looking to turn its A380 “superjumbo” aircraft into a flying casino, says the European aircraft-maker.

François Chazelle, who heads the Airbus executive and private aviation division, said: “Discussions are under way, and not just with casino operators.” Should the talks lead to an order soon, a fully-fitted casino A380 could be delivered between 2012 and 2017, he said.

“This [gambling] is clearly a growing business in Asia and what this interest reflects is what is happening in Macao and Singapore,” he said. “The idea of a flying casino has been mentioned before but it’s now looking a lot more concrete.”

Legally, the casino-equipped A380s would skirt local anti-gambling laws by offering gaming while the aircraft was flying in international airspace.  And as every libtertine fan of The Simpsons knows, wherever gambling in international territory goes, demand for the simple pleasures of a good monkey knife fight will inevitably follow.

LINK:
Airbus in Talks to Create A380 Casino (Financial Times, 14 Feb., 2008)

PREVIOUSLY:
Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

How to Evacuate 873 People from an Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 Invades America

Cloned Vehicles Give Commercial Fakery a Bad Name

Not that we would know anything about this sort of thing, but there's been a spate of media reports recently about the use of so-called "cloned vehicles" for criminal purposes.  Now, here at Telstar Logistics, we prefer to call this sort of thing "urban camouflage," but the basic idea is more or less the same: If you take a plain white truck and add logos to make it look like a commercial fleet vehicle, the profile of the vehicle is effectively reduced in mundane street environments.

That's the basic concept behind Telstar Logistics, of course, but now it seems drug runners and human smugglers are using similar techniques -- and the logos of some of America's best-known companies -- to hide criminal activity in plain sight on our streets and highways.

Take the truck shown above.  It's not a Mountain Dew van at all; it's a *fake* Mountain Dew van that was loaded with several hundred pounds of marijuana when police in Pearl, Mississippi searched the vehicle in October 2006. 

Or consider this fake DirecTV service van, which was unmasked in Georgia while hauling more than $1 million in cash stuffed inside hollowed out spools of coax cable:

But for pure, brazen chutzpah, there's no beating this fake US Border Patrol van, which was intercepted as it was being used to smuggle 31 illegal aliens into Arizona. Silly smuggler! The  "H" designation at the beginning of the vehicle ID number is only used on Border Patrol Jeep Wranglers. Passenger vans all begin with a "P."

ABC News reports:

Savvy criminals are using some of the country's most credible logos, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, DirecTV and the U.S. Border Patrol, to create fake trucks to smuggle drugs, money and illegal aliens across the border, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Termed "cloned" vehicles, the report also warns that terrorists could use the same fake trucks to gain access to secure areas with hidden weapons.

The report says criminals have been able to easily obtain the necessary vinyl logo markings and signs for $6,000 or less. Authorities say "cosmetically cloned commercial vehicles are not illegal."

In August 2006, the Texas Department of Public Safety, on a routine traffic stop, found 3,058 pounds of marijuana and 204 kilograms of cocaine in a "cloned" Wal-Mart semi-trailer, driven by a man wearing a Wal-Mart uniform.

In another case, a truck painted with DirecTV and other markings was pulled over in a routine traffic stop in Mississippi and discovered to be carrying 786 pounds of cocaine.

Police said they became suspicious because the truck carried the markings or DirecTV and several of its rivals. An 800 number on the truck's rear to report bad driving referred callers to an adult sex chat line.

Clearly, vigilance is required.  Please stay on the look out for fake fake Telstar Logistics vehicles. And remember: The ID numbers on our tactical entertainment units always begin with the letter "E."

LINKS:
Fake FedEx Trucks; When the Drugs Absolutely Have to Get There (ABC News, January 18, 2008)

WFFA (Dallas, Texas) News Video on Cloned Vehicles:

PREVIOUSLY:
What Is Telstar Logistics?

(IMAGES: All cloned vehicle photos above via ABC News. Authentic Telstar Logistics photo by the real Telstar Logistics.)