Today we present number nine strangest aircraft in history. This position goes to the English Electric Lightning (later called BAC Lighting, after the integration of English Electric into British Aircraft Corporation). This aircraft was the great British supersonic jetfighter during the cold war capable of reaching a speed of Mach 2, but with a very short action range (250 km in supersonic speed). Since this fighter was a pure interceptor this was not one of the parameters to be optimized.
Usually this aircraft is not on the list of the “weird” aircrafts that you could find online, but it was a really strange concept.
The truncated delta wing planform (not a swept wing), both superposed Avon 301R engines (which reduced in a 50% the front section) and so thin wings that the fuel tanks had to be placed in a bulge in the bottom of the fuselage made this aircraft a really weird one. Since the wings pylons could not bear arms (think about the disposition of the landing gear) all weapons were in the fuselage, including a 30mm Aden cannon and two air to air missiles. Completing the picture two additional fuel pods where located on the wings (!), a single shock wave cone was shared by both engines and the elevator was full control surface (stabilator).
Usually this aircraft is not on the list of the “weird” aircrafts that you could find online, but it was a really strange concept.The truncated delta wing planform (not a swept wing), both superposed Avon 301R engines (which reduced in a 50% the front section) and so thin wings that the fuel tanks had to be placed in a bulge in the bottom of the fuselage made this aircraft a really weird one. Since the wings pylons could not bear arms (think about the disposition of the landing gear) all weapons were in the fuselage, including a 30mm Aden cannon and two air to air missiles. Completing the picture two additional fuel pods where located on the wings (!), a single shock wave cone was shared by both engines and the elevator was full control surface (stabilator).
This aircraft flew for the first time in 1954 and served in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia until the 80’s although until now there are still some in flying conditions around the world.
With a vertical speed of 100 m/s, it had to be a show to see it taking off almost vertically.
What a pity that we missed it.
What a pity that we missed it.
Our number 9 in the list of the rarest aircrafts in history goes to the BAC Lighting.
Today we will talk here about ethics in business and the commitments that large corporations have (or not) with it, which is an exciting and quite sensitive matter.
In recent years large corporations have started giving importance to the dissemination among employees of ethical standards of behavior that guides the daily actions of each and every one of them. The control of these activities is directed by internal "Ethics and Compliance" organizations which are supposed to oversee and investigate the behavior of those employees of the company that do not meet the established standards. These rules of behavior try to finish and correct any irregular or abusive and, in some cases illegal, action of their employees.
This is very good and I think that any normal person would agree that it is an excellent starting point for further "honorable" actions of all of us. Although the focus is entirely laudable, they do not always get results. Just remember cases like Enrom, Lehman Brothers or Madoff and you will realize that in some cases this is worthless, as these companies had extensive documents which set the ethical standards of the company and hundreds of people in the organization responsible for supervising its compliance. And despite it we all know what happened.
Actually the work of these E&C offices is focused on the possible corruption that may occur within the company (charge commissions, improper awarding of contracts, etc...), which is quite important and it would justify his existence. Unfortunately the detection of these cases is complicated, so that they, usually choose a simply way, what I call, the whistleblower’s phone.
Anyone in the company who believes to have detected a case of lack of ethics in their environment, that usually involves his boss, can call this number. Although it is normal that the complaint is based on "I think" or “it seems to me“ this phone call triggers a series of actions and research that can last months. During this time the accused person is in a limbo with no escape. He does not know who has accused him. He has no access to the documentation submitted that supports the denunciation (if any). Definitely he will be beaten without any possibility of defense, with exception of an interview with the investigators, which will only bring him more anxiety.
Given that over 90 % of these accusations are false and unless the person that has been investigated would have recently bought a Ferrari and a yacht (docked in Marbella, of course), you can not substantiate any of the allegations of the whistleblower. Therefore, this kind of investigations usually end with a brief phone call in which the defendant is informed that the research has been closed, which does not mean in any way that he is innocent.
Such accusations often have their origin in quarrels which have different causes, from the failure to grant a promotion which the informer thought to deserve, or the desire to move the ladder leaving a vacancy in the organization. They will use any meanness you can imagine. And this is a dirty trick, no matter how you look at it.
That’s all right, the system has worked. Everyone has justified the salary they get and the image of the company has been strengthened. Ultimately aesthetics has triumphed over ethics.
In the thought that we published a few weeks ago we talked about honesty and integrity. Although both concepts are often mistaken, they have different connotations. The first one mainly refers to the honesty and we consider it a quality. In the world you can find many honest people (except politicians) but I would not dare to say how many. This is because honesty is something passive that requires no individual commitment. A person does not steal because it seems reproachable, or because he fears the punishment or simply because he does not have the opportunity. But whatever the reason may be, everything is based on a "don’t do".
On the contrary, integrity is a virtue, as it requires active engagement of the individual. Integrity means "doing the right thing for the right reasons and in the right way". And that's not so simple.
One example is our last blog entry where we talked about the bonus. When a manager makes decisions in order to cash his bonus that can lead to long term damage to his company, typically he is not doing anything out of the ethical standards of the company, but, of course, these decisions are not the ones of a person of integrity.
It is for this reason that the E&C organizations besides paying attention to honesty, start putting the focus on integrity also. Maybe then, and only then, ethics triumph over aesthetics.
Although, if it were like this, possibly a large number of companies would end up closing due to lack of staff.
Before saying goodbye, and also in relation to our last blog entry, I cannot resist showing you a video from Youtube which irrefutably shows that carrot policy applies universally. I hope you laugh so much with Charlie, the hamster, as I laughed myself.
A thought:
The law of conservation of energy is universal and can be applied to everyday life. So if your boss, at some point, says to you that he expects everything from you, you can be sure that you should not expect anything from him.
See you.
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