Airplanes and security

A few hundred years ago the main forms of transport were walking or riding a horse, donkey, camel and elephant, depending on where you lived.

Nowadays, in most countries long journeys involve some form of motorized transport. People today tend to travel longer distances, more often and at much higher speeds. As a result the world has shrunk over the last century and we now live in a global economy.

There are great advantages in this, but there is a down side too. More travel has also resulted in noise and air pollution, increased stress and damages to local environments and the larger ecosystem.

I am going to tell you about airplane travel. It is the fastest, to my thinking, more convenient means of travelling, because it saves our time and sometimes money. For instance, in the USA, if you travel from east coast to the west by air jet, it results cheaper for you than to travel by train.

In 1903, the Wright brothers made the first controlled machine-powered flight. It only lasted 12 seconds but changed the world forever.

A century later, air travel is no longer a miracle; it's something, we take for granted. One billion air passengers now fly every year — that's equivalent to a sixth of the world's population.

Is it safety to travel by plane? Before September, 11,2001, it used to be a relatively safe travel.

On September, 11, terrorists attacked on America. Since then* security at airports and in the skies has been under scrutiny. That day four passenger planes were hijacked, more than 4,000 people killed.

On busy summer's days, thousands planes travel through skies. To make sure everything runs smoothly, there are air traffic control centres. In addition, every airport has an air traffic control tower. Every square meter of airspace is allocated to an air traffic controller. As an aircraft travels through the air, it is monitored by the controller responsible for that sector of airspace.

To calm fears about terrorist hijacks, airports are looking into new technologies that reveal passengers' identities.

Previously in the US, less than 10% of luggage was screened. Under new legislation, every item must be checked by one of three following methods: sniffer dogs, bomb detection machines, extensive manual searches. Around the globe, security firms are working on new devices that can detect materials such as ceramics — which can be made into guns. One such scanning camera has been developed in Britain. It uses thermal imaging technology originally created to help pilots see through fog and cloud.

The History of Nuclear Bomb Creation

The first nuclear weapons were created by the United States, with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada, during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. While the first nuclear weapons were developed primarily out of fear that Nazi Germany would first develop them, they eventually used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The Soviet Union developed and tested their first nuclear weapon in 1949, based partially on information obtained from Soviet espionage in the United States. Both the USA and USSR would go on to develop weapons powered by nuclear fusion (hydrogen bombs) by the mid-1950s.

With the invention of reliable rocketry during the 1960s, it became possible for nuclear weapons to be delivered anywhere in the world on a very short notice, and the two Cold War superpowers adopted a strategy of deterrence to maintain a shaky peace.

Nuclear weapons were symbols of military and national power, and nuclear testing was often used both to test new designs as well as to send political messages. Other nations also developed nuclear weapons during this time, including the United Kingdom, France, and China. These five members of the «nuclear club» agreed to attempt to limit the spread of nuclear proliferation to other nations, though at least four other countries (India, South Africa, Pakistan, and most likely Israel) developed nuclear arms during this time.

At the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the Russian Federation inherited the weapons of the former USSR, and along with the USA pledged to reduce their stockpile for increased international safety. Nuclear proliferation has continued, though, with Pakistan testing their first weapons in 1998, and the state of North Korea claiming to have developed nuclear weapons in 2004. Nuclear weapons have been at the heart of many national and international political disputes, and have usually symbolized the ultimate ability of mankind to utilize the strength of nature for destruction.

There have been at least four major false alarms, the most recent in 1995, that almost resulted in the US or Russia launching its weapons in retaliation for a supposed attack. Additionally, during the Cold War the US and the the USSR came close to nuclear warfare a number of times, most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

As of 2005, there are estimated to be about 30,000 nuclear weapons held by eight countries, though 96% of these are in the possession of just two — the United States and the Russian Federation.