Alfred Nobel — a Man of Contrasts

Alfred Nobel, the great Swedish inventor and industrialist, was a man of many contrasts. He was the son of a bankrupt, but became a millionaire; a scientist with a love of literature, an industrialist who managed to remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life, and although cheerful in company he was often sad in private. A lover of mankind, he never had a wife or family to love him; a patriotic son of his native land, he died alone on foreign soil. He invented a new explosive, dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries of mining and road building, but saw it used as a weapon of war to kill and injure his fellow men. During his useful life he often felt he was useless. World-famous for his works he was never personally well known, for throughout his life he avoided publicity. "I do not see," he once said, "that I have deserved any fame and I have no taste for it," but since his death his name has brought fame and glory to others.

He was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833 but moved to Russia with his parents in 1842, where his father, Immanuel, made a strong position for himself in the engineering industry. Immanuel Nobel invented the landmine and made a lot of money from government orders for it during the Crimean War, but went bankrupt soon after. Most of the family returned to Sweden in 1859, and Alfred rejoined them in 1863, beginning his own study of explosives in his father's laboratory. He had never been to school or university but had studied privately and by the time he was twenty was a skilful chemist and excellent linguist, speaking Swedish, Russian, German, French and English. Like his father, Alfred Nobel was imaginative and inventive, but he had better luck in business and showed more financial sense. He was quick to see industrial possibilities for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries. Indeed his greatness lay in his ability to combine the qualities of an original scientist with those of a talented industrialist.

But Nobel's main concern was never with making money or even making scientific discoveries. Seldom happy, he was always searching for a meaning to life, and from his youth had taken a serious interest in literature and philosophy. Perhaps because he could not find ordinary human love — he never married — he loved whole of mankind. He was always generous to the poor.

His greatest wish was to see an end to wars and peace between nations. He spent much time and money working for this cause until his death in Italy in 1896. His famous will, in which he left money for prizes for outstanding work in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine, Literature and Peace, is a memorial to his interests and ideals.

Airbus a-380

The 555 seat, double deck Airbus A380 is the most ambitious civil aircraft program yet. When it enters service in March 2006, the A380 will be the world's largest airliner.

Airbus first began studies on a very large 500 seat airliner in the early 1990s. The European manufacturer saw developing a competitor and successor to the Boeing 747 as a strategic play to end Boeing's dominance of the very large airliner market and complete Airbus' product line-up.

Airbus began engineering development work on such an aircraft, then designated the A3XX, in .June 1994. Airbus studied numerous design configurations for the A3XX and gave serious consideration to a single deck aircraft which would have seated 12 abreast and twin vertical tails. However, Airbus settled upon a twin deck configuration, largely because of the significantly lighter structure required.

Key design aims include the ability to use existing airport infrastructure with little modifications to the airports, and direct operating costs per seat 15-20% less than those for the 747-400. With 49% more floor space and only 35% more seating than the previous largest aircraft, Airbus is ensuring wider seats and aisles for more passenger comfort. Using the most advanced technologies, the A380 is also designed to have 10-15% more range, lower fuel burn and emissions, and less noise.

The A380 would feature an advanced version of the Airbus common two crew cockpit, with pull-out keyboards, for the pilots, extensive use of composite materials such as GLARE, and four turbofan engines now under development.

Several A380 models are planned: the basic aircraft is the 555 seat A380-800 and high gross weight A380-800, with the longer range A380-800R planned. The A380-800F freighter will be able to carry a 150 tonne payload⁵ and is due to enter service in 2008. Future models will include the shortened, 480 seat A380-700, and the stretched, 656 seat, A380-900. (The -700, -800, and -900 designations were chosen to reflect that the A380 will enter service as a "fully developed aircraft" and that the basic models will not be soon replaced by more improved variants).

With orders and options from nine world-renowned customers (Air France, Emirates (the first customer), Federal Express, International Lease Finance Corporation, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic), the Airbus A380 was officially launched on December 19, 2000, and production started on January 23, 2002. More airlines have placed orders since. The out of sequence A380 designation was chosen as the "8" represents the twin decks. The entry into commercial service, with Singapore Airlines, is scheduled for March 2006.

A380 final assembly will take place in Toulouse, France, with interior fitment in Hamburg, Germany. Major A380 assemblies will be transported to Toulouse by ship, barge and road.