Mar
18
Solo over Norwood Ma
Filed Under Technology | 7 Comments
Imran H. Khan
Today on a sunny but windy winter morning, I took off runway 35 on Norwood Memorial Airport with my instructor Kevin Baird in a Warrior III tail number 244ND on a pre-solo check ride. I had a little over eight hours of flying under my wings and was convinced that I was far from ready to do anything as reckless as a solo. But my new instructor liked my flying enough to consider my soloing today. Even though it was crisp and sunny, the winds were picking up. I had been flying two other Warriors in my previous flights, but found this plane to be handling a little bit better. My first touch and go went surprisingly smoothly even though there was considerable turbulence on the approach created by a combination of marshes and highways just prior to the touch down. I am not sure whether it was the stress of flying or that it was getting really hot, I was beginning to really heat up as I had forgotten to take the jacket off. The instructor had to take over the controls and I struggled in the tight cockpit and took it off.
Oct
13
The Last Stand – Air War 1971 (Part 2 of 2)
Filed Under PAF, Pakistan, Technology | Leave a Comment
Air Cdre Kaiser Tufail (Retd)
This is the second part of the post. It is from one of the chapters of the upcoming book “Air War-1971″
Oct
13
The Last Stand – Air War 1971 (Part 1 of 2)
Filed Under PAF, Pakistan, Technology | Leave a Comment
Air Cdre Kaiser Tufail (Retd)
Looking at the grotesque disparity between the Air Forces arrayed against each other in the Eastern wing – one PAF combat squadron versus twelve of IAF – one cannot but agree that the idea of ‘defence of East lies in the West’ reflected a realistic appraisal of the grim situation by the Pakistani military strategists. With the PAF’s air element not expected to last beyond a day or two at best, and the outnumbered Pak Army hopelessly encircled by the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini, strategic compulsions demanded that a front be opened in the West at the earliest to capture Indian territory and redeem some lost honour. Occupation of Indian territory was no less important from the point of view of bargaining the release of POWs that were bound to be captured in East Pakistan, en masse. Sadly however, this line of thinking meant that the Pakistani forces in the East were sacrificial lambs and, would have to submit to the inevitable sooner or later. The only challenge for the unfortunate soldiers, sailors and airmen was to delay the impending disaster as much as they could, in the dim hope of some miracle occurring on the geo-political front at the eleventh hour. If ever there was a pathetic and despondent situation at the outset of a modern day conflict, the one faced by Pakistani armed forces in East Pakistan was beyond compare. Read more
Views: 687ShareDec
25
Affordable Building Technology
Filed Under Security, Technology | 1 Comment
Javed Sultan
Fig. 1
The need for affordable building technologies is obvious to most of us who come from countries that are poor and are often victims of natural calamities. Housing for the poor receives only limited funding and takes a backseat to other economic priorities. What the poor often do not realize is that there are no affordable technologies that can meet their need. The only way to meet their housing needs is to be an active part of the building process. Read more
Views: 952ShareMay
5
Remote Acoustic Detection of Aircraft
Filed Under PAF, Pakistan, Technology | 22 Comments
Imran H. Khan
The recent US mission to get Osama without the knowledge of Pakistan Air Force was a success because of PAF’s lack of investment in sensors that can detect low flying aircraft in undulating and hilly terrain. This is not the first time that PAF has been caught in this embarrassing situation. Indian Air Force was able to penetrate deep into Pakistani territory in 1971, knowing that PAF did not have low level radar coverage in many areas. At that time PAF depended on mobile observer units (MOUs) for human visual and aural detection of planes. This man power intensive brute force effort only worked in limited areas and only during war. Despite investing in limited low altitude radars and airborne radars it is obvious that there are gaping holes in the air defense system as exemplified by the unscathed operation of multiple large rotor helicopters for hours in Pakistani airspace deep into its territory.
Jan
30
OPEN/MITEFP BAP:Innovation and Entrepreneurism in Pakistan
Filed Under Entrepreneurism, Technology, United States, education | 4 Comments
Imran H. Khan
President Obama’s state of the union focused on investments into education and innovation as the key engines for maintaining USA’s leadership position in the long term. The same is equally applicable for developing countries like Pakistan. OPEN has been facilitating entrepreneurs in America for over ten years. OPEN joined hands with MIT to conduct Business Acceleration Plans as a way to doing the same in Pakistan. It was felt that rather than focusing on start ups it would be socially more effective to take companies whose sales were $1M-$5M to the next level. This is the reason for naming it as an acceleration plan. BAP has impacted 120 companies over the last four years that it has been conducted. The four finalists of the BAP were in Boston today and interacted with OPEN’s New England Chapter members.
Nov
21
Probing the Passengers
Filed Under Security, Technology, United States | 4 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
When I first heard of the pervasive use of the body scanners or the alternative aggressive body pats it made me cringe as this would make air travel even less attractive than what it currently is, with the many security checks. It seems that the Homeland security has already deployed 400 hundred of x ray back scatter type scanners across over a hundred airports in the US. The choice that is now being offered to a passenger is either get yourself scanned over undergo the humiliation of an aggressive pat down, an euphemism for a stranger touching your private parts. These procedures are now in place in 450 airports and 800 million passengers will experience it over the course of the year. Read more
Oct
14
Jadoo2: A WorthWhile Entertainment and Educational Gadget
Filed Under Entertainment, Technology, education | 2 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
Jadoo2 is the latest offering from JadooTV which allows you to view multi media content streamed off the internet on your TV screen. I had written about the first Jadoo offering earlier under the title of “Connecting Diasporas with HomeLands” . I recently got the opportunity to experience Jadoo2 to see for myself what improvements have been made by the company since the last two years. I have tried to capture both the installation and the viewing experience of the product in this post, that could potentially help those trying to make a decision to buy, as well as show a few new features. It is an informational faucet for the mind and a source of pleasure for both the eyes and ears. Read more
Sep
29
Ecological Impact of Haj
Filed Under Technology, World, religion | 8 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
As Muslims across the world prepare for, typically, once in a lifetime travel to Mecca to fulfill their religious obligation, it is time to ponder upon its impact on our planet Earth. With the rapid growth in Muslim populations, the advent of aviation and relative prosperity, an increasing number of Muslims are performing Haj. Last year three million people performed it and the number of Hajis ( as they are called) are only going to increase with time as the facilities at Mecca are improved and the availability of aircraft like Airbus A380 and Boeing747.
Sep
20
The Advent of UnManned and UnAttended Aircraft Systems
Filed Under Technology, United States | Leave a Comment
by Imran H. Khan
Confluence of efficient solar cells, electric motors, energy harvesting techniques,composite materials, dense and sophisticated avionics is creating opportunities to develop Unattended Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UUAS). The first wave of UASs have enabled many applications that were unachievable with manned systems. As it turned out many of the UASs required more manpower on the ground than manned systems. There are still many more applications that become physically and economically viable if the humans are completely taken out of the loop. This requires that the system be smart enough to take into account all eventualities, and have the ability to harvest energy from natural sources.