Isambard Kindom Brunel - Genius

For those of you who don't know this name and work in the Engineering field... you need to do your homework. He was foreseen as the most versatile and undaunted engineers of the 19th Century and made an incredible impact on life today. Being the son of a distinguished French engineer, Sir Marc Brunel he has engineering running through his veins. He designed and successfully played a part in some of the most influential civil engineering in History, such as the design of bridges, railway lines, tunnels and ships.

The work that Brunel is probably best remembered for, is his construction of tunnels and bridges for the Great Western Railway. With the Great Western Railways being one of the wonders of Victorian Britain his designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering. In 1833, he was appointed their chief engineer and work began on the line that linked London to Bristol.

His career embraced civil, marine, structural, architecture and design with his attention to detail, showman ship and his hands on approach he was truly an inspiring man to be working for during this civilisation.  Brunel set the standard for a very well built railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves but this however wasn't his only great design. Through his monumental bridges he built (Clifton suspension, Hungerford Bridge, Golden Jubilee Bridges, Royal Albert Bridge and many more) his hundreds pf miles of railway track, impressive tunnels and massive dock-works Brunel astonished Britain by taking his career into naval and built steam ships. He built the  P. s Great Western which was the quickest of its time, The S.s Great Britain which was the first propeller driven ship and the P.s.s Great Eastern which was the largest ship of its time all of which were capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

And why is he important to us? Being born in Britain Street, Portsmouth in 1806, Brunel went on to become by far the greatest engineer of his time. Without him, you wouldn't be travelling to work the way you do now. Instead of driving across bridges to get to point A to B, you'd have to drive around a river. Without his  huge impact onto the Thames Tunnel, the commute through London wouldn't be what it is today and after engineering over 1,200 miles of railway travelling across Britain would of been very limited. Flying the flag for engineers in all over Hampshire, Brunel is a genius.

Is it a bird, a plane? No it's the Transition

Terrafugia have launched a street legal road vehicle that doubles up as an aircraft called the Transition. The company Terrafugia (which means 'escape the earth' in Latin) have been trying to combine four wheeled motoring with aviation like most men since the 1920's... Even Henry Ford had a go. This light, sport, road-able aircraft was released at the beginning of 2012, with its first flight taking place last month.

When operated as a car, the engine powers the rear wheel drive and lapping miles up to 65 miles per hour. In flight, the engine drives a pusher propeller with its speediest flight being at 107 miles per hour. It boasts folding wings that can fold and unfold in just about a minute, a pusher propeller and twin tail, not to mention being approved for aeronautical and highway use buy the Federal Aviation Administration and being able to take off and land at 5,000 public airports.

Fancy one? $279,000 - that's about £176,000 is the asking price and only 3 have been created. However, due to the popularity of becoming an owner of a Transition, Terrafugia have already got 100 reserved for certain customers who have shown great interest in buying the flying car.

Cream Eggs in the office

From us all here at Bailey Finch we'd like to wish our blog readers a  Happy Easter!
We'll be back on Tuesday providing staffing solutions for Temporary, Permanent and Contract vacancies.