We’ve been lucky enough to visit the Heritage Centre in Waterside for British Airways, which is filled to the gills with memorabilia and BA branded goods, most items are only available to visitors of the head offices of the airline.

The curator of the Heritage Centre, Paul Jarvis, has just authored a new book illustrating British Airways’ history and the vital part played by mapping for navigators and travellers alike, as aviation took off and came of age. It’s filled with fantastic archive imagery like the ones we showcase here.

It draws upon the wealth of maps and images held by the archives in the British Airways Heritage Centre to show how they were used by early navigators and pioneering travellers right up to modern day jet-setters. From the early days of flying, using charts and compasses to state-of-the-art aircraft using on-board moving maps, ‘Mapping the Airways’ from Amberley Books charts the importance of mapping over the last hundred years.

Paul Jarvis mentions on his book launch “It’s clear that maps have long held a fascination for travellers and airlines have used maps in different artistic styles over the decades to entice the public to take to the skies.”

“What’s fascinating is just how maps have developed over the years and how they have become an enduring power to spark our imagination and chart our voyages through the skies.”

The book is now available throughout a wide range of online outlets, as well as through Amberley Publishing’s website. It’s certainly worth taking a look at if you love aviation history as much as we do.

npr:

the-future-now:

Watch: Drone captures flowing lava river in Iceland

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So beautiful and still kind of terrifying. -Ariel

highway62:

philsandifer:

dazeddigital:

Bowie understood Basilisks.

He wasn’t wrong.

Since rainbows are caused by the refraction of the sunlight by tiny droplets of rainwater, what would rainbow look like on Earth if we had two suns like Tatooine?

—Raga

A planet with double suns would have double rainbows.

Or rather, quadruple rainbows. Our rainbows here on Earth are already double rainbows—there's a second, fainter bow above the main one. You can't always see this second rainbow, since the clouds need to be just right, so people get excited when they see one.

The area between the two rainbows is darker than the area outside because raindrops reflect light more strongly in certain directions. That region has a name, by the way—it's called Alexander's dark band.

The first and second rainbows are the only ones you can see easily, but there are actually many more bows beyond those two, each one fainter than the last. Rainbows are formed by light bouncing around in raindrops, and the different bows are formed by different paths the light can take. The main rainbow is formed by the most common paths through the droplet, and other paths—where some of the light bounces around in more unusual ways—make the fainter second, third, fourth, and even fifth rainbows.

Usually, only the first and second rainbows are bright enough to see; it was only in the last five years that anyone took pictures of the third, fourth, and fifth rainbows.

Rainbows appear on the other side of the sky from the Sun, so to figure out what a double rainbow would look like on a planet with two suns, we need to figure out where the suns usually appear in the sky on that kind of planet.

There are planets with two suns out there, although we didn't know that for sure until recently. Double-star planets come in two main varieties:

In the first kind of system, the two stars are close together and the planet goes around them far away. This kind of planet is called a circumbinary planet. In the second kind of system, the two stars are farther apart, and the planet orbits one of them[1]Not necessarily the bigger one. while the other stays far away. This kind of planet is called [the other kind of planet].[2]I'm sorry, I've just never learned a good word for these.

If you lived on [the other kind of planet],[3]Sorry. the two Suns would spend most of the year in different parts of the sky. Depending on how big they were, they may also be very different in brightness. If you were orbiting the larger star, the smaller one might be no brighter than the Moon,[4]Which would still be bright enough to cast a rainbow! or even look like an ordinary planet or star.

Tatooine, in Star Wars, looks like it's probably a circumbinary planet. The two stars appear pretty close together in the sky and similar in color and size, so it seems reasonable to guess they're actually near one another, with Tatooine orbiting both of them. Two suns would create two overlapping rainbows. The main bow of the rainbow is a circle about 84 degrees across, centered in the sky exactly opposite the Sun.[5]This is why you never see more than half of a rainbow above the horizon. If the center of the rainbow were above the horizon, it would mean the Sun was below it behind you, so there wouldn't be sunlight to make a rainbow in the first place. The farther apart the two suns were, the farther apart the rainbows would be. If the two suns were 84 degrees apart, the main bows of the two rainbows would barely touch.

A pair of suns 84 degrees apart would be possible around [the other kind of planet], but not around Tatooine-type[6]If Star Wars had just used the other kind of planet, we could use its name for them and solve this problem. circumbinary planets. The reason is simple: A planet orbiting two stars can't get too close to them or its orbit becomes unstable. If it gets too close, the irregular tugging from the gravity of the two stars as they orbit will eventually cause the planet to crash into one of them or get flung out of the system.

For a system with two similar-sized stars, this "critical radius" is around six times the distance between the two stars.[7]This is a very rough number; it can range from four to eight depending on the exact arrangement. We've found a lot of planets close to that critical radius, which suggests that maybe they slowly migrate inward until they reach it and are ejected or destroyed. Strangely, we haven't found many big Jupiter-sized planets around binary stars in general; we should be seeing them if they're there, so the lack of them is a mystery. This means that the two suns would never get more than about 20 degrees apart in the sky:

This tells us that the two rainbows in a Tatooine-like system would always overlap.[8]Assuming the raindrops are made of water, or something with similar refractive properties. The colors would blend together where the bows crossed, and the dark bands would too.

I suppose doubling all the rainbows would also double the number of pots of gold at the end of each rainbow.[9]Come to think of it, do our rainbows have one pot of gold or two? I've never really thought about it. And it's not just pots of gold; I guess we'd need to rethink all kinds of rainbow references.

Overlapping rainbows would be beautiful, but definitely a lot more complicated.

1. Photoshop from the 1930s

Beauty retouching has been around a lot longer than we thought. The side-by-side images above from the early 1930s show what a glamour portrait looked like before and after manual ‘Photoshopping.’ Photographer George Hurrell shot the portrait of actress Joan Crawford as a publicity shot for the 1931 film Laughing Sinners. A retoucher named James Sharp, who spent six hours smoothing skin, removing spots, and erasing wrinkles. Sharp used a retoucher machine, which backlit and vibrated the original negative, allowing Sharp to physically smooth out the film using a pencil.

Found on PetaPixels

2. Elvis Presley Lipstick

More Elvis Presley Memorabilia found here.

3. Just Barry White

Found on Pinterest

4. The Last Shopkeepers

Francesco Pergolesi’s series “Heroes,” which opens at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago on May 6, is set at dusk, when the proprietors of the tiny Italian shops he depicts are working late—baking bread, making shoes or sharpening knives. Made as a sort of collaboration with storekeepers in Rome, Milan and in small towns

“When I was a child, I used to walk free, exploring my village streets. I loved to spend time in the little cobbler or the grocery where my grandmother sent me to shop. Time seemed to be extended and gave me a sense of freedom. I grew up loving neighborhoods where human relationships were the center of life. I understood these places were disappearing, pushed by a mysterious force, and a new era was coming.”

Found on PDN Photo of the Day.

5. A Miniature Village within a miniature village within a miniature village within….

More info on visiting Bourton-on-the-Water, “Venice of the Cotswolds”.

6. The Giant Telescope from the Universal World Exposition in Paris, 1900

With an objective lens of 1.25 m (49 in) in diameter, it was the largest refracting telescope ever constructed. Since it was built for exhibit purposes as the centerpiece within a large metropolis, and its design made it difficult to aim at astronomical objects, it was not suited for scientific use.

When the year-long exposition was over, its builders were unable to sell it. It was ultimately broken up for scrap; the lenses are still stored away at the Paris Observatory.

Found on Wikipedia

7. What releasing 1.5 million helium balloons looks like…

In 1986 in Cleveland, Ohio, a world record was broken with 1.5 million balloons…

Photos by Thom Sheridan.

8. An Ejectable Seat Test, 1963

Dummy pilot and seat soar, as engineers test a catapult escape system in Arizona. Found on Nat Geo.

9. Atomic Mickey

Found on Pinterest.

10. Albania’s 700,000 Bunkers

In Albania today, one bunker stands for every four people who live there. Built during Stalinist Enver Hoxha’s 40-year rule, the more than 700,000 above-ground bunkers dotting the landscape were never used to defend against attack, as intended. Now, they serve as a stark reminder of the Hoxha’s dictatorial reign.

They’ve been documented by photographer David Galjaard, article found on the Atlantic. 

11. Sending Cars by Train in the 70s

Within the same volume of an 89-foot car, the Vert-A-Pac could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18. Full article found on Amusing Planet.

12. Paintballing in 1909

In 1909 NYC, you could fake-murder your friends in a wax bullet duel. Found on Gizmodo.

13. The Most Beautiful Pistol in the World

Chernobyl, 30 years later photographed by André Joosse

Nikon photographer André Joosse visited the Chernobyl forbidden zone to document 30 years of exclusion (Chernobyl website,  Website, Instagram, Facebook):

Pripyat skyline with the power plant on the horizon

I am a photographer from the Netherlands. I travel and shoot abandoned buildings and structures. You can see my work at urbex.nl . After exploring most European countries I made the photographers’ ultimate trip to the Exclusion Zone of the Chernobyl power plant.
The Chernobyl disaster took place on April 1986, which will be exactly 30 years ago this month. Failures during a system test of the nuclear power plant lead to explosions in its core. Large quantities of radioactive particles were released into the atmosphere which then spread over much of the western U.S.S.R. and Europe. The Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of costs and casualties.

After evacuation they set up a 30 kilometer zone around the power plant which is fenced off and guarded. You can only visit the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with the permission of the government and with a guide. In the past two years I had the opportunity to go there for seven days in total.

I used my Nikon D800 in 2014 and my Nikon D750 in 2015. The first day I packed my bag with several lenses and my D700 as backup body. Due to radiation safety it was not allowed to put your bag on the ground. Also, there was too much dust to change lenses. From then on I started to travel light with just one body and one lens. In 2014 I used my Nikkor 20-35mm 2.8. and last year I used the Tamron 15-30 2.8.

A street in Pripyat, nature takes over

The Ferris wheel in Pripyat park

Most days I spent in the city of Pripyat. A city built in the 1970s to house power plant workers and family. It used to be a beautiful city with luxury and class. Today it's completely sealed off and left to nature. Here are some photos taken in the city center of Pripyat.

The gym of the technical high school

The supermarket

The hairdresser

A kindergarten

The gym in the Palace of Culture

Further south I visited the abandoned army base Chernobyl-2, known for its Duga over-the-horizon radar system. The radar was built during the Cold War to protect the Soviets from the West. Besides the radar there was a small military town. I visited the social center with a gym, cinema and theater. There was also a small hospital, a school and kindergarten.

Lenin welcomes you to Chernobyl-2

The radar

The theater

A wall in the kindergarten

Hidden in the forrest between Chernobyl and Pripyat lies a holiday camp. The Emerald holiday camp is where the children of Pripyat would spent their summer holidays. The camp has many wooden huts with bright colored murals showing cartoon characters.

The colorful huts

The swing

Mural art on the cinema

If you would like to see more photos from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone please visit www.30-years-later.com.

1996 tech vs. 2007 tech, or Nikon F3H (14fps) vs. Nikon D3 (12fps) shutter burst comparison video:

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… but this is still too good to not post!

Today you’ll be taken on a trip through the far north of Great Britain, better known as Scotland, by Dennis Klemmer (Web | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook):

My name is Dennis Klemmer and I work in professional advertising and photography in Germany. Every now and then I need to get some distance from my daily business and just do something different, purely non-commercial just for fun, just for me. This time I thought I’d share some pictures of my recent trip to Scotland with my fellow NR readers. Enjoy!

Scotland…

isn’t just rocks, sheep and haggis. It is one of the few places on earth where you feel alive and surrounded only by beautiful nature, wherever you look. However Scotland is also a place where weather is everything else but predictable due to terrain and its geographical position. There can be bright sunshine and the next minute you feel like apocalypse now. It was clear from the start that this journey wouldn’t be like the average weekend trip. What I had with me was a Nikon D800, my 14-24 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 and 50 1.8 in a wind a weather sealed backpack together with a light carbon tripod and a few accessories of course. After the first day of hiking I decided to leave my MacBook in my apartment as all this stuff I was carrying definitely put some weight on my shoulders. Let’s get started with the only picture of this series not taken with the D800:

A beautiful camera in a beautiful landscape. Promising huh?

Well, the first day after arriving at Glasgow I decided to just drive around and stop whenever I see a place I’d like to explore. Since it was hard to decide – because everything looked amazing – I stopped at a forest near Arrochar next to the A83 and put my boots on. I wasn’t disappointed at all and soon started taking pictures.

Small waterfall frozen with 1/8000s at f2.8 and ISO1600

Only the frontmost trees had green moss on them, the others were to far in the darker woods to grow moss at all. Very interesting colors there.

This ferny grew out of a huge area of moss, all alone but in a soft bedding it seems.

I immediately noticed that Scotland is an amazing place for photography since the light is absolutely beautiful and sudden changes in weather and lighting are transforming nature right next to you. Within 30 minutes, the landscape, light and mood can change entirely.

The last picture of this set was taken on my way back to Glasgow at the shore of Loch Lomond.

During the next few days I spent some time in and around Glencoe. I can only encourage you to take a hike there, it’s really worth it and the Glencoe visitor centre tells you a lot about what happened there in the past when the situation between some highland clans and the royal crown was a bit... tense. Here are some pictures of Glencoe:

I love the reflections of the 14-24 when exposed to direct sunlight.

I enjoyed my time in Glencoe and took several hikes during my days there before it was finally time to move on to the next place. I decided to travel a few hours further to the north west to explore the Isle of Skye. Since weather was quite dramatic the day before I hoped for the same to happen again. On my way to the Isle of Skye I came along Loch Garry and couldn’t resist the scene so I took some pictures here:

Since I was a bit in a hurry, I didn’t have much time to stroll along so I jumped back in my car and headed on towards the Isle of Skye. If you plan on exploring Scotland, be advised that travelling by car takes a lot longer than you might think. This is due to the fact that there’s no such things like motorways or the german Autobahn. Instead you travel on country roads. All the time. And since Scotland is loved by all kinds of caravaners, you sooner or later end up behind one and can’t see the road ahead for more than a few hundred feet so overtaking a caravan can really take some time until it is safe to do so. 150 miles don’t sound like much but on country roads with blocking traffic the hours add up. After a lot of driving I finally made it to the Isle of Skye:

The weather didn’t let me down and put on its most dramatic face while I was visiting Uig. I spent two hours here and enjoyed the scenery before I made my way back on the other side of the isle where I stopped near Struan to take another picture of a lovely bay:

As time marched on, I then decided to head back and left the Isle of Skye again but not without making another stop at the Eilean Donan Castle – the famous Highlander Castle. Also I captured the last few rays of sun behind some dramatic weather when I passed Loch Garry again:

Before I went to Scotland I was told I had to visit the Machrihanish Dunes. So I did. After what felt like endless driving again, I arrived and the weather did its tricks again:

Dunes on one side…. Rocks on the other:

While driving back on the east side on a single track country road towards Kennacraig I stumbled upon another castle, climbed it and enjoyed the view:

After a lot of driving there also was a beautiful rainbow situation again. I pulled over to capture the moment:

You can’t say that Scotland isn’t worth a visit because there not much going on. There is. Nature really does everything to impress foreigners like me!

The other day I went to Glencoe again, but not for the Glen! While driving around Glencoe I noticed a mountain to my right side which seemed to be high enough for taking a good look around. So I climbed a mountain, called the “Pap of Glencoe”. Height: 742 metres or 2435 feet. The view was worth the climb:

The next day I was a bit exhausted from climbing that mountain so I decided to take a relaxing hike in low terrain, so I went to Kilchurn Castle and enjoyed the weather. The place was nice and I took some pictures of the castle and Loch Awe:

On my way back, the weather changed rapidly and I found some old boats set on the ground due to the current tide:

Even after almost two week I still found it amazing how you can drive from sunshine into dark clouds within an hour of time.

In preparation for my “grand finale” I thought it would be best to spend the next few days in a relaxed fashion, which meant no climbing or extensive hiking but to visit a few more recommended places. I started with the Castle Tioram which is only accessible without wet feet when the tide is low because there’s only a small sand path connecting castle and shore:

They really had a beautiful view from the castle back in the days. I wasn’t allowed to go into the castle because of the structural weakness and although some people didn’t care much about that sign, I thought it wasn’t worth the risk and stayed out in the open which was beautiful enough to me.

The other day I decided to visit the famous “Singing Sands” near Kentra. You wouldn’t expect a beach like that in Scotland, at least I didn’t. You walk for like 5-ish miles through forest and thick vegetation when suddenly the forest and vegetation ends and you find yourself on a nice beach:

Is this Scotland? Yes it is! Believe it or not, there were even people in the water but I wasn’t eager to do the same.

So why “Singing Sands”? Well… if you walk on the sand it starts to whistle underneath your shoes, the faster you move the shoes through the sand, the higher pitched the tone becomes. It has been really interesting to visit this place. On my way back, I had to stop at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, famous from Harry Potter movies:

Who saw Harry Potter? Well, this is the viaduct shown in the movie, crossing the river Finnan. You can even travel with the old steam train from Fort William to Mallaig if you like to do so. Just be advised that you have to make a reservation first as the train was packed with people, so you can’t just drop by hoping to get a seat because most likely you won’t.

I’ve seen a lot of Scotland so far but I had one goal I really wanted to achieve. If you’re into photography, you’re always looking for the best point of view. I thought that one of Scotlands best views must be the view from the highest point and Scotlands highest point is the top of “Ben Nevis”.

Ben Nevis is 1345 metres or 4413 feet high. As I didn’t want to miss out an opportunity because of my own weight restrictions, I decided to not take anything out of my backpack or I might regret it. Take out the 70-200 and you’re gonna need it, it’s like Murphys law. I arrived at Glen Nevis a day before to hike through the Glen and get an impression of the sheer size of the mountain. While meandering through the Glen, I took some shots:

It’s a beautiful place to be with the River Nevis and the waterfalls that feed it. From there I was able to see Ben Nevis at almost all times so it was without a doubt that tomorrow I’ll be going to the highest point around here.

But before that, there was the night which I used for some outdoor photography as well. There were almost no clouds in the sky so I took out my D800, the remote trigger and put everything on a tripod. While doing that I noticed that fog was coming up and I feared that soon my lens will be moist but everything was okay in the end. This is Ben Nevis / Glen Nevis and night:

If you look closely, you can see my shadow sitting next to the road on a fence pole. And of course this is not the sun, it’s the moon Taken at f8, 240 seconds, ISO100

Here we go, the moon again, taken at f8, 1140 seconds, ISO100

One day I want to be on the top of that mountain with the moon coming up. That must be a great view too.

On the next day I would be up there with daylight at least. That was my plan. So on the next morning, packed with my almost 30kgs backpack, I started my trip to Scotlands highest point:

This in on the plateau almost half way up to Ben Nevis which is covered in clouds at the moment. Took me around 2 hours to get there. The next 3 hours I’ll be spending with hiking further up the mountain.

With only 1/3rd still to go, the view was very good already:

On the right side of the picture you can see the “Half-Way-Loch” I was taking the picture above from and if you take a look at the valley where the small houses are – that’s where I started.

But it was from the very top of Ben Nevis, where the view was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking:

Looking down the eastern slope with a destroyed weather post from far gone days.

You’re so close to the clouds you sometimes think you can almost touch them. A more southerly view here with Loch Linnhe in the distance.

Within 20 minutes the clouds become much darker and start to drop lower as well. Little did I know that about 10 minutes from now, there was only little left to see:

This is what it looks like when you’re within the cloud. At that point I decided to make my way back before the weather gets even worse. I’m not a very experienced hiker so better safe than sorry I thought. After 30 minutes of walking I was beneath the clouds and took my time to get a few more shots from this awesome place:

Overview towards Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil.

The view towards Fort William, a very nice place to stay btw. If you’re looking for THE outdoor city of Scotland it must be Fort William.

As I was climbing lower, the sun was going down as well, creating a very warm and moody atmosphere which sadly only lasted for a few minutes before the sun was blocked by huge black clouds.

I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did. If you ever have a chance to go there don’t think twice and do it. I can recommend every time to travel but June. No matter who you ask, June is prime season for mosquitos and other biting insects.

As for the equipment, my Nikon, the lenses and other accessories did pretty fine. Although everything caught at least one rain shower nothing failed or behaved strangely. During my hikes in and around Glencoe, I encountered temperatures below zero, hell even my energy bars froze but the camera and everything worked. At least I could have taken pictures of me starving due to frozen food

I also had a SONY DSC-RX100 with me. The initial thought was that I use the SONY whenever I fear danger to my equipment due to weather but in the end, I ended up only using it to take pictures from the moving car, on board of my flight to and from Scotland as well as for filming while it sat on the dashboard of the car. Other than that, the Nikon was used and there were no problems at all.

Since I also had the Nikon with me in tropical temperatures, I think it is safe to say, that the D800 is a pretty robust and reliable body. In my daily business the camera is used in my studio and on location but it really does hold up in the wild as well. Well done Nikon.

Thank you so much for reading and watching my pictures, hope you enjoyed.

Best wishes,
Dennis Klemmer

If you have an interesting idea for a guest post, you can contact me here.

Dear Jim,

Please paint me Thom Yorke the Tank Engine.

Thanks,

Joe Ereaut

Francophile aviation fans beware, Air France updated its very clever and highly informative website Air France La Saga microsite back in December last year, and this month saw the introduction of their latest story on the carrier’s iconic 747 aircraft that left the fleet in January.

The site is dedicated to Air France’s heritage and tells the story of the company and its major milestones throughout the years. There are some fantastic archive photos on the site, from Concorde, to uniforms and cabin interiors from the 30s and 40s.

The articles were all rewritten back in December, and are packed with accurate and interesting facts and figures on one of the longest running airlines in the world. The site has also now had two major categories added to it, called fleet and network, which showcase how the carrier’s jet set era helped expand the carrier’s reach around the world, and cutting flight times between Paris and Mexico City from 22hours down to 14 hours 20 minutes with the advent of the beautiful Boeing 707 aircraft.

The site isn’t all old news. The site also includes new articles and topics related to Air France mirroring the highlights found on the carrier’s social networks.

We’ve spent literally hours trawling through the site, it’s archive photography, uniforms, aircraft interiors and fascinating facts, and we believe you may well do the same. It’s got us screaming “bring back the JetSet era.”

www.airfrancelasaga.com

Don’t forget, if you like what we are doing here at TheDesignAir, you can help us keep the site advert free by donating even the smallest amount through PayPal. Thank you for your support.

Modzilla vs. Gothra

As requested by Daniel Simpson Day

Modzilla T-shirt available here: http://jimllpaintit.bigcartel.com/product/modzilla-t-shirt