Telstar Logistics

San Francisco Orders New “Super Pumper” Fireboat

San Francisco is preparing to order a handsome new "super-pumper" fireboat, and if The Big One ever strikes, the new boat is likely to play a starring role in saving the city from unspeakable destruction.

The salty dogs at gCaptain carry the details:

Seattle-based Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc.announced today they have been chosen to design a custom “super pumper” fireboat for the City of San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) that will enhance the departments marine fire fighting and response capabilities on water.

This high-volume water and foam pumping NFPA Type II fireboat will feature six fire monitors and 26 manifold valves, allowing for more than 16,000 gallons of water and/or fire-fighting foam per minute to be thrown from a distance of 300 feet to extinguish flames quickly and safely.  Typically NFPA Type II fireboats are equipped with four fire monitors and eight manifold valves, and can pump 10,000 gallons per minute.

The availability of so many monitors and valves means that the fireboat will be equipped to provide water directly from the bay or ocean should shoreside fire mains be damaged by an earthquake.

Meeting NFPA standards, Jensen will design the boat primarily for high-volume water pumping, firefighting, rescue, emergency medical service and patrol in the waters of San Francisco and San Pablo Bay’s and the Pacific Ocean within five miles of shore and the adjoining inland waterways.

If all goes as planned, the new fireboat will arrive in San Francisco in 2013. In the meantime, the city's existing fireboat fleet stands ready.

PHOTO: Jensen Maritime Consultants

 

 

Mexican Drug Cartels Building DIY Armored Vehicles

The militarization of Mexico's criminal cartels continues, as authorities have seized an increasing number of home-built -- and sophisticated -- armored vehicles.

From today's New York Times:

MEXICO CITY — Rhino trucks, narco tanks, Mad Mex-inismos? No one can agree on what to call the armored monster vehicles that Mexican criminal groups have been welding together in recent months, but this much is clear — they are building more of them.

Over the weekend, Mexican authorities found two more of these makeshift road warriors in Tamaulipas, the same northern border state where the first armored vehicle appeared in April after a battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas gang. In the latest case, the Mexican Defense Department said, the armored trucks were found in a metalworking shop in Camargo, which also held at least two other partly modified monsters and 23 additional trucks.

The completed versions were bigger than what has been found before. Built on three-axle truck beds, they had room for 20 armed men, one official said. They were covered with inch-thick steel, which could withstand 50-caliber fire, and each had been equipped with insulation.

Here's a modified Ford F-350 that was captured in May:

And another:

Aaaaand yet another:

Two Unusual Items for Fans of Pan American Airways

The super-sexy little van shown above was recently offered on eBay. It's a 1960 Lloyd LT600, but if you want it, it's too late; the auction listing ended last weekend.

Oh well. Luckily, you can still wait in eager anticipation for the upcoming Fall 2011 ABC-TV show that will be called (wait for it...) Pan Am. 

Here's the summary from the Daily Beast:

Just as NBC is jumping into the period-drama game of Mad Men with Playboy, so too is ABC traveling back to 1963 with Pan Am, the Jack Orman-created drama (directed by The West Wing’s Tommy Schlamme) about the flight crew of the then-premier American airline company. Starring Kelli Garner, Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Michael Mosley, Jonah Lotan and Karine Vanasse, the series depicts the professional and personal intrigues of the well-traveled flight attendants and pilots. But there’s also an unexpected espionage subplot that’s set just as the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia was beginning to heat up, which gives the show an intriguing narrative spine that’s about more than just hairstyle malfunctions and extracurricular activities. 

UPDATE: Here's the trailer:

 

 

 

Hat Tip: Ben Smith

First Flight Photos of the New Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental

Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental, the latest, stretched version of the venerable 747 passenger airliner, had a successful first flight last weekend. Now Boeing has released some air-to-air photos of the big bird flying above Washington state. Quite a view!

IMAGES: via Flightglobal

Always Summer: Amusing Scenes of Amusement Structures from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

One of the quirks of life along the California coast is that it can be summer almost any time of year. Summer is dry and winter is wet, but both are generally temperate, so if the meteorology lines up right, you can have a warm and sunny day that would pass for a solstice -- regardless of the actual time of year.

About 90 minutes south of San Francisco, Santa Cruz, California is home to an electrified beach boardwalk and amusement pier that would easily make any refugee from Coney Island or the Jersey Shore feel right at home. In operation since 1907, the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk has a vintage roller-coaster, a log flume, and a swing carousel. But unlike the Jersey Shore, the one in Santa Cruz doesn't have many guidos, and it's open all year-round.

Telstar Logistics visited the Santa Cruz boardwalk during a balmy earlier this month, and we snapped these shots of the recreational infrastructure along the way. The crowds are thinner this time of year, but this is what winter feels like in a place where summer never really goes away.

Photos: Telstar Logistics

Proposal: Send the MOMA a Retired Space Shuttle

Now that space shuttle Discovery has completed its last flight -- with the rest of the fleet set for retirement this year -- the New York Times reports that museums across the country are angling to add a retired shuttle to their collections:

This old vehicle — the space shuttle Discovery — is an object of fervent desire for museums around the country, which would love to add it or one of its mates, the Endeavour and the Atlantis, to their collections. (Financing terms can be arranged with NASA.)

The Times says the museums in the running include NASA’s Johnson Space Center,  the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Museum of the United States Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio, and (of course) the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

We say: *yawn!* All aerospace museums, and all so predictable. Yet as Telstar Logistics noted before:

NASA researchers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida have made a remarkable discovery: When you hang a well-traveled space shuttle from the ceiling of a very large building, the shuttle becomes a sophisticated piece of contemporary art. In the vein of Richard Serra perhaps? Combined with a twist of Damien Hirst?

So now we'll say it again. The museum that could perhaps make the most impressive use of a retired space shuttle is a contemporary art museum, like the MOMA in New York. Send one there!!!

PHOTOS: Shuttle Atlantis hanging inside the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center. Photos by Aviation Week.

One Small House + 300 Weather Balloons = "Up" In Real Life

It's got a mailbox, a front door, a cute little front porch, and... an N-registration number. That last detail is important, apparently, if you want to create a real-life flying house inspired by the floating house in the Pixar film "Up."

My Modern Met explains that the lighter-than-air house was created for an upcoming National Geographic Channel series called How Hard Can it Be?, and that it flew like a champ:

Yesterday morning, March 5 at dawn, National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers, and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a 16' X 16' house 18' tall with 300 8' colored weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles, and set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted. The entire experimental aircraft was more than 10 stories high, reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet, and flew for approximately one hour.

Lots more photos at My Modern Met. Wonderful.

Photos: National Geographic

For Sale: One Well Curated Collection of Vintage Matchbox Cars

Costa's "Just Things" is a storefront shop located at 575 San Mateo Avenue, on the downtown strip in San Bruno, California. The store is about 5 minutes away from San Francisco International Airport, so throughout the day big airliners soar just overhead as they take off from SFO, bound for points distant. That's fun, but the best attraction is inside, because Costa's is actually a hands-on haven for fans of classic toys.

Here patrons will find a very nicely curated collection of vintage toys, with a particular emphasis on toy vehicles -- old Tonkas, Lionel trains, and steel toy cars, trucks, boats, and aircraft of every size, shape, and color. For us, however, the centerpiece of the store is a set of three 1970s-era store displays for Matchbox cars -- with vintage Matchbox displayed for sale inside.

Telstar Logistics didn't ask about pricing; we were quite happy just to browse. And if for whatever odd reason fate brings you to San Bruno, we suggest you browse at Costa's "Just Things" too. But if you can't, then wandering around this vintage Matchbox website or this site for Matchbox obsessives is almost as much fun.

Photos: Telstar Logistics

Wanted: Your Most Sexy Photos of Iconic Infrastructure

Telstar Logistics loves infrastructure. And if you're reading this Internet weblog, there's a good chance you're an infrastructuralist too. In a very literal way, infrastructure is the stuff that moves us, feeds us, shelters us, and allows us to live these lives that are so throoughly modern. 

Now, in collaboration with our friends at Pictory Magazine, Telstar Logistics is co-curating an upcoming photo gallery of Iconic Infrastructure:

Document the structures of the built environment that symbolize contemporary life. Share the most impressive bridges, tunnels, airports, power plants, and other monuments to our ability to reshape and reconnect our world. This theme is a collaboration with Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics.

Please share you most sexy infrastructure photos over at Pictory, but HURRY!  The deadline for submissions is end-of-day Wednesday, March 2, 2011.  

Telstar Logistics will help select the most sexy photos in the collection, and the best will be included in an upcoming photo feature on Pictory. But you can't get in if you don't submit your pics. So get 'em in fast.

Photos: From top, Oakland Bay Bridge by Ian Collins, Factory in New Mexico by Tim Melideo, Above San Francisco International Airport by Telstar Logistics.

Muni Legacy: Public Transit as Tron-Style Graphic Tale

 

SFGate's Bad Reporter recently published "Muni Legacy," a graphic novella about San Francisco's public transit agency and the mutant mainframe that controls it. The strip doesn't take itself very seriously, but it's a terrific form of storytelling, with some savory subject matter. Enjoy.

Hat tip: Muni Diaries

An Interactive Gallery of NASA Astronaut Spacesuits

The New York Times has published a fantastic interactive gallery of NASA spacesuits, such as as the Freedom 7 suit worn my Alan B. Shepard, above. The accompanying article is a must-read as well:

At its most basic, a spacesuit is meant to perform two nearly incompatible functions: protect the astronaut from the harsh environment of space, and allow the wearer to maneuver and work comfortably.

“The emphasis is on trying to develop a very mobile system while pressurized,” said Mr. Kosmo, who in 1961, fresh out of college with a degree in an aeronautical engineering, was asked if he’d be interested in a job described as working on “spacesuits, whatever they are.”

A pressure suit — a rubber bladder and a sealed helmet — allows the astronaut to survive in the vacuum of space. But a bladder is constricting when unpressurized, and when it is inflated movement becomes even more difficult, because moving the joints reduces the volume, increasing the pressure inside.

“When you pressurize it, it’s like working inside of a sausage,” said Joseph P. Kerwin, an astronaut aboard the Skylab mission in 1973 and the Apollo program “suit guy” — the astronaut who worked most closely with spacesuit engineers — for several years before that. “The whole trick in designing a spacesuit was to make it easier to move the joints inside that inflated balloon.”

A 75th Anniversary Appreciation of the Timeless DC-3

A classic design icon and one of the most important aircraft ever built, the Douglas DC-3 today celebrates the 75th anniversary of the plane's maiden flight. To mark the occasion, Bruce McAllister has released a handsome new photo book, called DC-3: A Legend In Her TIme.

By way of reviewing McAllister's book, the Wall Street Journal recently penned its own appreciation:

Strictly speaking, only 607 DC-3's were ever built. But modified versions of the plane were built in huge numbers, thus becoming the U.S. Army's C-47 (many of them lend-leased to Britain in 1940 and 1941), the Soviet Union's Li-2 and even Japan's L2D navy transport. By some accounts, the world-wide total of modified DC-3's comes to roughly 16,000. They hauled passengers, paratroopers, refugees, livestock and freight; they served as spy planes, weather stations and gun ships; they flew to both poles and to almost any place on Earth where a 1,000-foot runway could be roughed out.

This Dec. 17 marks the 75th anniversary of the airliner's maiden flight, a good reason for Bruce McAllister's coffee-table tribute, "DC-3." Mr. McAllister has worked both as a photographer and as a pilot, and he draws upon both talents to assemble the 250 photos in this book. Together with his pithy text, the images will, I suspect, cause the spirits of aviation buffs to soar. But the majesty of the plane's design can please the aesthetic sense, too; and the history of the plane itself offers a winged approach to key moments in 20th-century history.

Image: Top: DC-3 at San Francisco Airport, 1940s. Bottom, former American Airlines DC-3 in Sonoma County, California.

Ferrari World: Inside Abu Dhabi's Absurdist Automotive Theme Park

Autombiles, architecture, and patent absurdity. Talk about Telstar Logistics-bait...

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi bills itself as the world's largest indoor theme park. Dedicated to the worship and reproduction of all things Ferrari, the park officially opened last month. If you're inclined to go, the Wikipedia says these attractions will be there to amuse you:

Jack Rouse Associates, a Cincinnati based visitor experience design firm, is responsible for the design of most of the park's 20 rides[1][14]. On July 20, 2010 Ferrari World announced the names of all of the opening day attractions:

Bell'Italia (English: Beautiful Italy) - an exhibit showcasing recreations of famous Italian cityscapes, structures and racing venues. Guests can choose to drive a Ferrari 250 California Spyder throughout the exhibit or walk the 570-metre (1,870 ft) network of paths.
Carousel - Ferrari’s version of the traditional carousel featuring prototype cars.
Cinema Maranello - a theatre showcasing a film which takes guests back to the 1920's.
Driving with Champions - is an interactive 3-D show which follows the life of a Ferrari engineer
Fiorano GT Challenge  - a dual launched roller coaster manufactured by Maurer Söhne
Formula Rossa - a hydraulically-launched roller coaster manufactured by the Swiss coaster design firm Intamin AG. It is currently the world's fastest roller coaster reaching a top speed of 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph)
Galleria Ferrari - the world's largest Ferrari gallery outside Maranello.
G-Force - a spaceshot tower which launches riders over 62 m (203 ft) up and out of the building.
Junior Grand Prix - a racing school for budding Scuderia drivers who can driver child-sized Ferrari F1 racers
Junior GT - a driving school for children. Guests receive a training session before jumping in their own child-sized F430 GT Spider to navigate a network of streets
Junior Training Camp - a soft play area where children can paddle their own miniature Ferrari and play with a foam model of an F1 car
Made in Maranello - a virtual tour inside the Ferrari factory in Maranello giving guests a glimpse into the design, assembly and testing of a Ferrari GT
Paddock - a realistic recreation of the Ferrari team's set up at European F1 races
The Pit Wall - an interactive theatre which allows guests to call the shots on how a virtual driver is to race
Racing Legends - a journey showcasing significant moments in Ferrari racing history
Scuderia Challenge - a set of state-of-the-art racing simulators featuring authentic Ferrari F1 steering wheels and seats
Speed of Magic - A fantasy 4-D journey following the adventures of a boy as he travels through a kaleidoscape of natural and phenominal environments, where no Ferrari has gone before
V12 - a flume ride through the heart of a Ferrari 599 engine
Viaggio in Italia - a recreation of an aerial voyage over Italy

Images: Ferrari World on Flickr

An Awesome Illustrated Guide to Rockets of the World

An illustrated guide to all the world's major rocket systems, from physics professor Peter Alway's 1995 book Rockets of the World. Uber-high-res version here.

(via Jalopnik)

How To Repaint a Boeing 777 in Under Three Minutes

This nifty time-lapse video shows the first United Airlines Boeing 777 (N222UA) being repainted in the airline's new combined United/Contintental livery.

Kindly refrain from huffing the fumes.

PHOTO: N222UA departing LAX, by Peter Spence

THANKS: @adamfritzler