Reaching new heights
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Engineers have much to cheer about in the first week of this new decade. The week starts off with the public unveiling of a civil engineering marvel, the world’s tallest building in Dubai.
The Burj Dubai, also known as the Dubai Tower, measures just over half a mile high.
The $4.1bn residential and office tower is sited in the Business Bay district of Dubai and stands 2,684ft tall, surpassing the 1,670ft height of the previous tallest building, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, and over 600ft taller than the world’s previous tallest structure, the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota.
The building has 3.6 million sq ft of floor space arranged over 160 habitable floors, that are accessed by what are described as the world’s fastest elevators, which can reach speeds of 37mph.
Engineers are also reaching great heights in the civil aviation industry. Following the completion of the first test flight for its 787 Dreamliner passenger jet last month, Boeing will announce the details of its annual order book on Thursday, revealing the number of orders for commercial airplanes it has received in the last year.
Boeing expects delivery of the Dreamliner passenger jet to customers starting in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Also in air travel news, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC this weekend that full body scanners will be introduced in Britain following the alleged attempt to detonate a bomb on a US airliner on Christmas day.
Such technology, covered by The Engineer in October 2009, differs from normal X-ray machines and uses backscatter technology and image processing software to produce a ghost-like outline of an individual’s body.
One such system developed by US-based Rapiscan Systems is currently being trialled at Manchester Airport.
Readers' comments (6)
Don Pratt | 4 Jan 2010 3:35 pm
Great news. Engineers reach to new heights.
But others seek to keep us in the sand.
We should invest in engineering, science and technology.
Have a happy and peaceful New Year.
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Stephen Mosley | 4 Jan 2010 3:39 pm
Those behind the new tower in Dubai are to be applauded as it is a very public statement of support for the belief in consciously pushing boundaries and striving to further increase the capabilities of man. However, as it stands at 2684 feet tall one cannot help but wonder just how they contrived to "unveil" it?
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Brian | 4 Jan 2010 4:32 pm
Hmm - - none of these are things we should be thinking as great achievements:
Dubai the tallest building- built on debt, by a country that's just about broke. There must be a better use for the billions!
A new airliner and more of them - great, just what we need: more CO2 pollution!
X- ray scanners. Let's panic and install devices that intrude and, just in case anyone forgets, has a medical risk as any dose is dangerous and radiation exposure is accumulative. Simple profiling would acheive better results - and would have prevented the last attempt.
Maybe the engineers have done great work but what a waste of time, money, and talent.
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Jonathan H Beavis | 4 Jan 2010 8:05 pm
OK. So these are extraordinary achievements.
But are they the sort of achievements that we want to celebrate in a period when we are at last beginning to realise that excess is not disconnected with the various crises facing us today. Celebration should be reserved for those boundaries that are pushed that both improve our quality of life and do so in a sustainable fashion. These criteria should surely be applied to all of our endeavours. As engineers this will be our prime responsibility.
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S. Martin | 5 Jan 2010 2:16 pm
This is a prime example of what we can achieve as engineers if a little commitment was made to our profession.
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John Burrill | 13 Jan 2010 10:30 pm
Burj Dubais is a conflagration in the making and the most prominent symbol of the social problems caused by globalization.
The tower was built in a country that possesses none of the natural resources that went into it. Dubais has no local sources of electricity, concrete, fresh water or labor. It was all imported and debt financed and as that country is asking for moratoriums on bond payments, Dubais' unemployment rates soar as it attempts to be the crossroads of east-west at the expense of its indigenous population and local culture.
On the other hand, it'll be a nice place for birds and rats to nest.
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