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London’s Heathrow Airport installs anti-drone system to prevent threats

16 Jan

Heathrow Airport, based in London, is the United Kingdom’s busiest airfield. After a recent spate of incidents involving drones, including an unsuccessful attempt by climate activists to ground flights, officials have decided to take action. A bespoke anti-drone system, developed by Aveillant Limited, a subsidiary of France’s Thales SA, has been deployed at Heathrow to detect and prevent unauthorized drone use.

‘The safety and security of our passengers and colleagues is our number one priority. That is why we’re investing in this new cutting-edge technology which will enhance our capabilities in the detection and deterrence of drones in and around our airfield. We’re delighted to have this unique system keeping our skies safe and helping passengers and cargo to get to their destinations on time,’ says Jonathan Coen, Director of Security for Heathrow Airport.

A similar system is also in place at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Rogue drones can be detected at a distance of up to 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) away. The one installed at Heathrow can also pinpoint the exact location of offending remote pilots. From there, appropriate countermeasures can be deployed, though it’s not yet clear what those will be. Anyone caught flying in a Flight Restriction Zone, which extends out to 5 kilometers of any airport boundary, can face up to 5 years in prison if they have not secured permission ahead of time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Rogue drones cause chaos at London’s Gatwick international airport

21 Dec

Aircraft stands at the North Terminal — Martin Roell from Berlin, Germany CC BY-SA 2.0

London’s Gatwick airport has been in a state of perpetual disruption since Wednesday, December 19, after ‘rogue drones’ forced officials to close down the runways. According to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, the drones would reappear each time officials attempted to reopen the runaway, leaving the airport in a state of ‘chaos.’

Grayling explained to the press that officials were dealing with a ‘very serious ongoing incident in which substantial drones have been used to bring about the temporary closure of a major international airport.’

Gatwick was forced to ground flights around 4PM ET / 2100 GMT after two drones were seen flying in the airport’s airfield. More than 20 police units are searching for the individual(s) responsible for the drones, according to Reuters, and The Guardian now reports that Army officials have responded to aid with the situation.

Eurocontrol, the European aviation agency, at this time states that Gatwick will not reopen until 10PM local time at the earliest. Though police sharpshooters are on site, they were not authorized to shoot down the drones due to the risk of a stray bullet causing injury. Tens of thousands of passengers traveling over the holiday season have been impacted by the closure and more than 800 flights have been cancelled.

Gatwick airport chief executive Stewart Wingate has released a statement on the matter, saying in part:

Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed – the aviation industry, Government and all the other relevant authorities. It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.

Nations around the world have scrambled to develop regulations covering consumer drones and the potential risks they pose, including possible damage to commercial aircraft. Many countries have restricted the use of drones in the airspace near and above airports to avoid collisions during takeoff and landing.

Earlier this year, the University of Dayton Research Institute published a controversial video showing the damage a small drone caused to an airplane wing in a simulated environment. Though there haven’t been any substantial incidents resulting from drone-plane collisions, there was a helicopter crash earlier this year that may have resulted from a wayward drone.

A number of methods for deterring and capturing unauthorized drones have been developed, but few are in use. Existing methods include net-based drone take-down launchers and systems that disrupt a drone’s ability to communicate with its operator. No single, universal, rapidly deployable system has been developed, however.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Ghost Loos: Visible Remains of London’s Underground Bathrooms

23 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

underground toilet

Tentatively titled “Toilets at Dawn,” this photo series documents the strange phenomena of underground public bathrooms of urban London, now deserted but many dating back to Victorian times.

abandoned loo gentlemen staircase

Photographer Agnese Sanvito has taken to capturing these abandoned urban relics in the best light possible, often by shooting them in early-morning hours.

abandoned historic bathroom ironwork

Living, at the time, in a cesspool of industry and publicly-discarded human waste, Victorian Londoners gladly paid a penny or two to get out of the streets and into subterranean restrooms. Though most of these were neglected in the years following World War II, their surface remnants still stand in many places.

abandoned bathroom entry space

“They’re part of the fabric of the city, but because they’re not in use no-one pays attention to them, they are forgotten spaces,” says Agnese. “At the moment, I have just photographed those in the area that are near to me. It’s a work-in-progress, I don’t know where it’s going. Now my friends call sometimes and say, ‘I’ve found another one.’”

abandoned bathroom station historical

Once prominent and highly functional, most of these remainders go largely unnoticed in the bustle of the city, until you start spotting them, then searching out more.

abandoned alley bathroom entrance

Some are obscured trees, weeds or rubbish, but underneath you can still find gorgeous detailing and meticulous ironwork. Others have even been converted into everything from restaurants to private homes.

abandoned bathroom london victorian

Today, more conventional, above-ground, and generally less-exciting restrooms (some for free, others for a fee) have largely replaced these vintage curiosities.

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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400 Years of London’s Skyline: Watch it Evolve in Seconds

10 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

london skyline 2

A city with a history dating back over 2,000 years, London has transformed dramatically over the last four centuries in particular, rising from the ashes of a 17th century fire that practically razed it to the ground. See just how its skyline has evolved in an interactive set of hand-drawn images by Robin Reynolds, building upon the classic engraving by artist Claes Jansz Visscher that was created fifty years before the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 5.03.53 PM

Back then, London was a jumble of low-lying houses punctuated by a few church spires. The Great Plague had just swept through the unsanitary and overcrowded city, killing about one-fifth of the population. Thousands were dying every single day when a bakery on Pudding Lane went up in flames, quickly spreading through the city, destroying about 60% of its architecture (but effectively putting an end to the plague.)

Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 5.05.25 PM

The rebuilt city generally followed the street plan of the original one, with a shift from wooden buildings to more fire-resistant stone and brick construction. Growth shot through the roof in the 18th century and the city’s boundaries expanded outward at a rapid pace.

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Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 5.03.39 PM

In Visscher’s original engraving, you can spot the severed heads on pikes in the foreground of the original London Bridge, which was once lined with shops and houses. The London Bridge remained the only structure crossing the Thames until 1750, when it was joined by Westminster Bridge, and it has since been replaced twice. After 600 years of service, the medieval bridge was torn down, a 19th-century stone-arched bridge in its place. The current crossing is a box girder bridge of concrete and steel, opened to traffic in 1974.

Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 5.03.02 PM

Watch the old 6-foot-long engraving morph into Reynold’s modern-day version at The Guardian, where it’s clipped into four sections to view each part in detail.

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Small Footprints: London’s First Pedestrian & Bicycle Bridges

06 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

london minimalist bridge crossing

Bucking the trend of extravagant elevated parks, this new walking-and-cycling-only bridge uses tight spirals on either side to minimize land usage with a slender tension-supported pathway (suspended from twin spires) stretched elegantly in between.

london spiral foot bicycle

Designed by Bystrup, a Danish firm, the crossing will span the River Thames in West London and beat out more lofty and complex proposals by other contributing architects.

london bridge at night

While certain other vehicular bridges accommodate non-motorized traffic in London, this one (if constructed before its close cousin, discussed below) is slated to be the first exclusively dedicated to walkers and bikers.

london operable bridge

This somewhat heftier structure is designed to be raised on demand, requiring a bit more bulk as a result (as well as waiting areas when the central portion is lifted to let boats pass).

london brige raised

Meanwhile, across town, another new bridge by ReForm is also in the works between Canary Wharf and Rotherhithe.

From the architects: “Our design will do this, creating an internationally recognisable landmark. Its unique and elegant form and operation will become an attraction for visitors. It will enhance the views along and across the Thames, providing scale and interest in the way that the ships on the river itself do.”

london night view

This latter bridge is integrated to pathways and green spaces both extant and planned on either side of the Thames.

london canary wharf bridge

Both bridges will help cut commuting times across London and help make the city friendlier toward those on foot or traveling by bike. Each also aims to become a defining feature of the city, without overwhelming existing bridges or architecture.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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A Tale of Two Londons: Classic Paintings x Modern Photos

27 Feb

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Classic Paintings Modern London 1

London may have changed just a tiny bit since the 17th century, but you’d hardly know it looking at some of these mash-ups of classic paintings superimposed against modern scenery snapped by Google. London-based Redditor ‘Shystone‘ created a series of images matching up famous paintings of locations around the city with Google Street View images, with various elements of the two occasionally blending together.

Classic Paintings Modern London 2

Classic Paintings Modern London 3

The paintings often appear to be actual three-dimensional objects in the photos – oversized canvases blocking the roads or propped against light poles. Vans seem to come precariously close to smashing through the canvas in some shots. Modern tourists look out onto the Thames River as it was in 1746.

Classic Paintings Modern London 4

In one case, a long-demolished building is temporarily resurrected; a three-story townhouse stood on the South end of Trafalgar Square from 1605 through 1874.

Classic Paintings Modern London 5

As a Londoner, Shystone offers up some interesting tidbits about the city’s history, including how the locations shown tie into classic literature like Vanity Fair or Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit. Check out the full series.

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Swim the Thames: Pair of Pools for London’s Polluted River

28 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

london urban swimming design

Inspired by planned Super Sewer that will reduce pollution in London’s central waterway by 96%, this audacious design aims to take advantage of a future in which it is finally safe again to swim in the River Thames. Unlike a similar proposal for New York City’s Hudson River (more on that below), this bold plan proposes to use unfiltered river water to fill its swimming holes.

london swimming overview image

london pool site plan

Studio Octopi and their partners at Civic Engineers and Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects ask doubters to imagine the experience of clean swimming right in the heart of the city, with incredible urban views framed by rich regional plant life.

london pool structural diagram

One fixed-in-place pool would be replenished each time the surrounding tides rise over its high water mark (like coastal rock pools). The other would itself lift and lower, floating up and down with the river’s natural highs and lows, thus providing swimmers with a sense of the currents but within a protected space.

london thames in context

london pool landscape watercolor

More on the project’s context: “In 1865, Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s London sewage system was opened. 150 years later the sewers are at the limits of their capacity. In 2012, 57 combined sewer overflows discharged 39 million tonnes of sewage into the River Thames. Thames Water is planning the Thames Tideway Tunnel, or ‘Super Sewer’, for completion in 2023.”

new york pool rendering

new york urban swimming

Meanwhile, across the pond in New York, the Plus Pool reached its crowdfunding goal some time ago but is a long way from completion. Though both propose to use water from the rivers they are set in, this one, unlike its British brethren, assumes filters will be essential.

new york pool diagram

new york plus pool

The design is also somewhat more contemporary – the plus shape is clean, modern and separates the pool into four primary zones for different use cases.

new york pool section

new york hudson pool

Whether either proposal will be realized remains to be seen, but one thing they may have in common: selling the public has already proven easier than pushing their respective cities into accepting the plans and taking action on them.

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘London’s’

London’s Heathrow Airport installs anti-drone system to prevent threats

Rogue drones cause chaos at London’s Gatwick international airport

Ghost Loos: Visible Remains of London’s Underground Bathrooms

400 Years of London’s Skyline: Watch it Evolve in Seconds

Small Footprints: London’s First Pedestrian & Bicycle Bridges

A Tale of Two Londons: Classic Paintings x Modern Photos

Swim the Thames: Pair of Pools for London’s Polluted River

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Posts Tagged ‘London’s’

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