Twin Otter Series 400 parked in Victoria, British-Columbia, in 2016
Knowing I would spend some time in Victoria in 2016, I planned a visit of the Viking Air Ltd installations, the Canadian company who now builds the famous Twin Otter Series 400. This company is unknown from a majority of Canadians since its production is essentially exported. Out of one hundred aircrafts produced so far, only two were bought by a Canadian company. Viking also offers maintenance service for the Twin Otter Series 100 to 300 in activity around the world.
In the foreground, a Twin Otter Series 400 built by Viking in Victoria, British-Columbia. In the background, a CL-215 water bomber recently acquired by Viking. It will possibly be modified into the more powerful CL-415 version .
In the beginning of 2016, Bombardier and Viking sealed a commercial deal that now makes Viking the new owner of the patents and designs for the CL-215 and CL-415 water bombers. Viking not only services the existing Twin Otters but is evaluating the possibility of restarting the production of the CL-415 water bombers. All is resting on the demand. But with more extreme meteorological conditions fueling a growing number of major forest fires, one can expect that within the next few years Viking will reactivate the production.
In Victoria, a Twin Otter Series 400 on floats built by Viking has been bought by Reignwood Air. It is ready for delivery to China (2016).
With the on-going regulatory changes actually taking place in China, Viking is confident to see an increase in its orders for the Twin Otter Series 400 on floats. The company will receive, at their Victoria installations in 2016, the first flight simulator essentially dedicated to training pilots on the Twin Otter on floats.
A Viking’s Twin Otter Series 400 in Victoria ready for delivery to Russia
For now, Russia is Viking’s most important customer despite the ups and downs linked to the political crisis between that country and Ukraine combined with a ruble devaluation that have forced a slowdown in the production of aircrafts destined to Russian companies. With the recent stabilization in the political situation, Viking has been able to hire back numerous workers which now brings the count to at least 350 employees, if my memory does not fail me.
Turbo Otter DHC-3T C-GVTO in Victoria, Canada, in 2016
Nowadays, most Canadians ignore that a Canadian company has restarted the production of the Twin Otters and is evaluating the possibility of also relaunching the production of the CL-415 water bombers. In the meantime, some CL-215s recently acquired by Viking will possibly be transformed into the more powerful CL-415 version. The only thing now missing for Viking is an important order from a Canadian company: that would make its name as well-known as Bombardier or De Havilland.
For other articles on aviation and photography, click on the following link: Aviation photography
Photo of Chinese junks taken near Tai Po with a Pentax SF1 during summer 1990. Originally on a slide and then digitalized.
This photo was taken during a one month trip around Hong-Kong in 1990. The average quality of the picture is due to multiple processings necessary to show it on the web. Few other chosen photos about that trip have been posted in the “Photo galleries” section, under “Asia”.
The period when those junks were taken was exactly one year after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The South China Morning Post wrote that 100,000 people walked near Victoria Park to commemorate the tragedy. It was possible to see the crowd from the window of our Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-200 while flying over Hong-Kong for the final approach towards the Kaï Tak airport.
For bilingual readers, here is an excellent book filled with practical information that is not catering only to computer science specialists. It is filled with advice that should help you avoid trouble when using your electronic devices. But, before going any further, here are some facts that may be of some interest to you:
1. The Pentagon has to deal with 250,000 direct threats every hour against its computer systems. Since the attacks may sometimes use as much as one million computers simultaneously, the Pentagon uses seven million computers to protect its different systems.
2. A password using 10 characters (no punctuation signs, no special characters) can be deciphered within ten minutes (and not only by a pro). You must add punctuation and special characters in your password in order to make it more difficult to decode. This password must be at least 10 characters long.
3. In 2012, there were 250 million zombie computers across the planet. A zombie computer can be your own computer taken over to launch many types of attacks without you knowing. It uses the resources on your computer without your authorization. This book offers a simple method to verify the integrity of your operating system, which can be done in a few seconds. You do not need to hire expert help.
4. 80% of businesses ignore that they are victims of cyber spying. We had a good example with Sony’s movie, “ The Interview” in 2014.
5. The global cost of cyber crimes in Europe, in 2012, was estimated at 750 billion euros. One internet user out of four was a victim of some kind of cyber crime in 2012.
6. At least 100,000 people are working in total secrecy for the United States in order to prepare attacks against external servers. In China, it is estimated that 300,000 employees are working on the same goal. Naturally, many other countries make significant efforts in this endeavor, like Russia, Iran and Israel, to name a few.
The book includes numerous and simple explanations aimed at helping everyone to be aware of the methods used by cyber spies. Politicians and businessmen can certainly benefit from the suggested improvements with regards to the use of personal electronic devices.
Cyber criminality is also discussed, and excellent advice is given to help everyone fight malware programs. You are also provided with a simple method to show you how to react if you ever are victim of ransomware. Some practical information is also provided to help protect your personal data, particularly your confidential banking data.
The author explains the difference between a virus and an IT worm. Few extremely sophisticated IT worms are presented, like STUXNET. This worm was used against Iranian nuclear installations in order to slow down their research program. You can learn about other worms like FLAME, GAUSS and SHAMOON.
The indirect risks resulting out of the use of viruses and IT worms are not negligible. When an IT worm is discovered within a computer system, its architecture becomes accessible to everyone. Criminal networks can then replicate or try to modify the IT worm, through reverse engineering, to new ends.
The reader learns how a classical DDOS attack is performed. There is also information about radio electric attacks that target telecommunications.
The book offers a number of interesting website resources, including:
1. If you think that there is an intrusion in your network: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipscan 2. To locate an IP address: cut and paste all the source code information included within the e-mail and analyse it through the following site: http://www.iptrackeronline.com/email-header-analysis.php 3. To encrypt your important data: http://www.truecrypt.org/ 4. For anonymous use of internet, the book suggests that you use a VPN: http://cyberghostvpn.com/. There is also a possibility to download the TAILS suite at: http://tails.boum.org/about/index.fr.html jointly with Gparted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/. Tails uses TOR to connect to Internet.
The appropriate way to do back-ups is described in the book. If you are a social network user, you will have access to an entire chapter about Facebook and Twitter and others. The weaknesses in these networks as well as ways to protect yourself and the confidentiality of your personal information are described at length.
IT security within businesses is another important chapter. The author shows how the human factor is often neglected in the design of security strategy. The reader learns about the ways cyber spies manage to steal important data from companies. A few simple modifications of daily habits are sometimes just what is needed to prevent the loss of sensitive information.
In conclusion, this is a very interesting book that will help any reader to protect personal information stored in mobile devices and home or office computers.
Title: Menaces cybernétiques – Le manuel du combattant Author : Yves-Marie Peyry Éditions du Rocher, 2013 ISBN : 978-2-268-07513-6 Collection « Lignes de feu » directed by Daniel Hervouët
