Engineering eye - November 2014

Drones are cropping up everywhere nowadays, from military operations to delivering parcels in the Australian Outback, so Eye was gratified to learn that a British firm specialising in UAV consultancy work was getting a slice of the action from Hollywood. Hampshire-based UAViate confirmed that it was lending its services to the production of an allegedly “hard-hitting” action movie called Criminal, scheduled for release next year and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner. Details of the plot are top secret but it is thought UAViate’s services will help the producers with aerial photography. To make all this even more exciting, the company is run by an engineer, Paul Rigby, who is the UK legislation representative for the trade body Arpas. His company boasts aviation safety and security specialists within its team, Eye learns. Hopefully then the filming of Criminal will stay within the bounds of legality when it comes to the bits involving drones. Which are not known for being unsparing, in a military context at least.

Eye feels that some of the more edifying and entertaining web snippets on the most illustrious of professions come from across the Pond, where engineer and US Air Force man Christian Knutson wrote last month on www.engineering.com of the unspoken power of fear to derail even the soundest of projects. The blogger mentions a phenomenon called “anticipatory anxiety” – in which the very experience of anxiety only serves to bring about the event that is feared. So worrying about missing a deadline means you fail to complete a project on time. Eye can relate to fears of this type. It often imagines it will end up sitting permanently in an office on its own, with everyone else down the boozer [we’re there now, loser: all your fears have materialised – Ed], while it is drenched in a cold sweat before a glitzy PR do in the City upon thinking of how it will be cold-shouldered. Only for such a snub to be forthcoming in reality too. Perhaps the answer is to be less fearful. Or not to go out.

But if you do go out, why not make it to an engineering-themed pub? There are many more than might be imagined from the Eye’s investigation earlier in the year. Don Dixon draws our attention to The Royal Enfield in Redditch, a converted cinema. “It is the place where Royal Enfield motorcycles were made. To add a touch of authenticity, they have a bike mounted high on the interior wall.”