Phlog

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Week 22, 2008, beginning on May 26. First part of the week.

Máximá!
Captivating embodiment of royal charm.
Guy

Princess Maxima engaged in a meeting
organized by the Amsterdam Medical Center.
Guy

Moordwijven, a thrilling movie by Dick Maas.
Guy

Killer Dames.
Guy

On her way to Fame.
Guy

Docile Racer, the SLR.
Guy

Fast monocycle.

A design that is best described as a two-wheeled unicycle, the UnoMoto takes a Yamaha R1 frame, side-by-side wheels and Segway-like gyroscopic technology and wraps it in a custom made body to create a very different kind of electric commuter vehicle. Though perhaps not as slick in the design stakes, the UnoMoto prototype is reminiscent of the radical Bombadier EMBRIO Concept but with even simpler controls. Except for an on/off switch all control is achieved through simply leaning: forward to accelerate, back to brake, and sideways to make a turn with the tilting suspension allowing the inside wheel to dip. When you switch it off, it rests back on its footpegs. We're not sure that we would come away unscathed from an encounter with the UnoMoto, even in its current low-speed (25mph) form, but young Canadian design engineer Ben Gulak deserves our applause on at least three counts: it's compact, its green and it's thoroughly unconventional. Click to see and read more in GizMag.

Glimpse of Rolls-Royce to come.

Luxury car maker Rolls-Royce has revealed the first design sketches of its next new model which is due to be launched in 2010. The two teasing sketches released thus far reveal little detail of the car to be known as the the RR4, although a streamlined design direction that builds on the current Phantom model line-up is clear. According to Rolls Royce Chief designer Ian Cameron, the RR4 will be smaller than Phantom with a "more informal presence" and a "greater emphasis on driving". It will also be powered by a completely new engine and the company plans to ramp up production at its Goodwood manufacturing facilities, reconfiguring the plant with extended paint, wood and leather shops, adding a second assembly line and moving to a two shift system to cater for the new model.
Read and see more in Gizmag Magazine.

Since aroplanes looked like dragons, and when one could actually see
the plane before one took off, and rapidly sail through the skies
like a dragon, flying evolved to air transport. Passengers exponentially
multiplied into long queues of irritated families.

On our way back to the island Anglesey, where we stayed on vacation, we passed Caernarfon Airworld Museum, situated on Caernarfon Airport to be precise - Dinas Dinlle, Llandwrog, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL54 5TP, a hangar and a strip on the Northern bank of the channel between the island and de main land of Wales. On the grass we spotted a De Haviland Dragon Rapide and a Hawker Hunter in war camouflage, but first we concentrated our attention to the fighter planes inside the hangar museum, a Seahawk, and a Vampire, jet engines, a helicopter and larger and smaller memorabilia, all the time thinking of the Dragon Rapide, that appeared to be a exploited for round trips. This Dragon, the pilot said, also was called a gentleman's flying armchair, and indeed you will experience that she flies extremely comfy. Into the Westerly wind we took off with a dark roar of the twin engines to the Irish Sea and made a 180 degrees turn to the East over the island, seeing from afar the house where we stayed, next to the sunny beach and the rough surf. Up North on the outermost point in the sea we could see sunny Holyhead, the port of the ships that sail to Ireland. On the right the high and imposing dark walls of the castle of Caernarfon across the channel, and further East Bangor. If the weather had been fine we would have flown South to Snowdonia, across the rough and steep peaks of the snowy and cold looking mountains, but that would not have been safe for a round trip, the pilot excused. And indeed, over the mountains the sky was dark and there hang a dense fog, as if it was raining. During the Second World War many a plane crashed and disappeared in the mountains, and to this day not all of them have been found yet.
Hans Arend