Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Greg Chappel walking out of the ground with the ComBat Rated as an "outstanding fast bowler of his generation", Dennis Keith Lillee was a world class bowler with a fiery temperament and a never-give-up attitude. One of the greats in his own right, Dennis Lillee was the epitome of a great Australian fast bowler who unsettled batsmen with his steaming run-up and raw, searing pace. But in a bizarre incident in December 1979 at Perth, in a test match between Australia and England, Dennis Lillee decided to walk out with an aluminium bat! Much to the surprise of his own teammates, let alone the opposition, he decided to keep playing with the aluminium version as there were no rules against using such a bat during that time.  Apart from the irritating, clunking sound that the bat was making, the real trouble began when Lillee hit a ball down the ground that went for three runs. In the Australian dressing room, captain Greg Chappell thought that the ball should have gon

"The Fallen Astronaut"  There lies a tribute, made physically out of aluminium, dedicated to the gallant space explorers who have furthered our imagination and knowledge about the cosmos. We have been visiting the moon quite often these days, powered by superior spacesuits and rovers . But our 'out of the world' journey too had a humble beginning.  Our search into the vast unknown began with a lens pointed at the sky in the 16th century. An Italian polymath named Galileo famously denounced “assumptions” about the cosmos, and triggered a scientific revolution – one which has since mesmerised men and women post Renaissance. Over centuries, the obsession to find answers finally propelled us into the Space Age. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut became the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth. Eight years hence, on July 21, 1969, we heard a cackle on the

The Aluboo Bicycle Aluminium is one of the most eco-friendly metals in the world used in a multitude of applications – transportation vehicles being one of them. They are already being heavily applied in bikes, cars, trains and aeroplanes among other means of commuting. But have you heard about bicycles being made with bamboo? A company named ‘Boo Bicycles’ combines the best of both aluminium and bamboo – two of the most sustainable materials used for building and construction – to create bicycles for high-end biking enthusiasts, racers and urban commuters. Why and how are they doing that? Let’s find out! Boo Bicycles was a venture founded in the summer of 2012 by James Wolf, Nick Frey, and Drew Haugen on Kickstarter. With a goal of raising $50,000 as base capital through crowd-funding, they eventually collected more than double their target which got things rolling for this innovative start-up!  Why use bamboo out of all things? To begin with, it is not just any o

Airbus's latest poster boy is the brand new aluminium-based model A350-1000. Qatar Airways took delivery of the world’s first Airbus A350-1000 just a week ago. Major Asian airlines like China Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airlines, Philippine Airlines, are among the big names included in the list of 14 airlines that have queued up to operate the advanced aircraft soon. The Airbus A 350-1000 So what’s the big deal about a new plane? We all know the fierce rivalry between Boeing and Airbus. Quality, innovation and efficiency – the aircraft manufacturing behemoths have always had a cutthroat competition in these areas. This time, Airbus is shifting tides in its favour by launching the latest A350 model in the skies. According to Airbus Marketing Director Francois Obe, “Forecasts show about 40% of the world’s air traffic will come from Asia in the next 20 years. In that sense, our latest A350 model is the product with the best capacity which is adapted to the evolvin

The humble Aluminium can. What's so special about the ubiquitous can? We start our story with a simple question asked in the 18th century for a very complex problem at that time. The year is 1795. Napoleon declares 12,000 Francs to anyone who can devise a way of preserving food for his army & navy. For millennia, it had baffled even champion strategists and generals on how to feed the troops during a war. How does one supply (fresh) food to thousands of men across several inaccessible locations of battle without requiring to replenish the stock again and again? Stripping small towns and villages of its resources was not always a reliable option. So what could be a viable solution then? For 15 years, the money went unrewarded… until confectioner Nicolas François Appert claimed the prize in 1809. He experimented on the preservation of fruit in sugar jellies by sealing them in glass jars and heating them for varying lengths of time. But he could only claim the prize

Hyperkin's Ultra Game Boy The Game Boy is one of the most iconic video game consoles ever to have been invented. Introduced by Nintendo almost 28 years ago, the handheld marvel garnered a massive fan following with the youth and adults alike. Hyperkin, a retro console manufacturing company, has brought back the nostalgia and the fervour in a brand new avatar of the Gameboy. Codenamed Ultra GB, Hyperkin unveiled the console in a sturdy aluminium casing with all-new features and perfections in CES 2018, Las Vegas. It's about the same size, although this one comes with a LED display screen.   Aluminium Body Although the aluminium casing makes it slightly heavier than the original plastic version, it makes the console much more durable and classy. The model featured a blue screen at CES, however in future, one would be able to adjust the backlight colour to a number of diverse hues (including that classic yellowish-greenish palette of the very first Gam

This is unlike any Lamborghini automobile ever! An SUV from the company who produces supercars made from the blood of raging bulls? Of course, they are calling it the world’s first Super Sports Utility Vehicle – a fact we can’t deny given the super specs on the automobile and Lamborghini’s signature design. Will this animal from Lamborghini’s bullpen deliver on the brand’s promise? Let’s find out! From the outside, the vehicle sports the signature of Lamborghini’s extreme design yet finds a way to make it less aggressive for the owners who just want to buy milk on a cold Monday morning from the nearest market. However, on the inside, it’s still a beast. The front hood houses the 4 litre V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 HP and 850 Nm of torque. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h is achieved in just 3.6 seconds and the top speed is a staggering 305 km/h! Braking is no less impressive: the Urus decelerates from 100 km/h to 0 in 33.7 meters. The vehicle is 4-wheel steering with carbon-c

Welcome back! Here's the third post on the history of the wonder metal - Aluminium.  Let's move on in our journey and check out the important milestones that shaped our history. Read our first & second post in this series. 1939: The world’s first turbojet-powered aircraft, the German Heinkel He 178, took to air on the 27th of August, 1939. Powered by a centrifugal-flow engine prototyped by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, Ernst Heinkel designed the aircraft to achieve flight speeds up to 380 miles per hour. Despite the successful flight demonstration, the Reich Air Ministry (RLM) rejected the aeroplane stating that its combat endurance was only 10 minutes which limited its usability as a military aircraft in a war situation. German Heinkel He 178 1948: The production of Series I, the first model of Land Rover cars, started off in 1948. Designed with an aluminium body and a steel-box chassis, it was originally intended for farming and light industrial us