THE FIFTH INITIATIVE IS ...

[Michael Grove]

 THE ULTIMATE [RE]FLEXION of MY PURPOSE of LIFE 

  Over the last fifty years or so, of my journey of LIFE - the evolution of

  my vision as a child - has been completely dependent on the 'connessione' 

  that has taken place between, rapidly changing computer storage technology

  and telecommunications infrastructure developments...

  "bin there, dun that & got the T-shirt" as others are invariably tempted to say.

  From the days of my first experiences of... the 64K IBM Mainframe, around

  which I first cut my teeth in the art of computer systems analysis, during

  my early training as an Air Traffic Controller; the Trident Flight Simulator

  in Hayes, Middlesex; the radar approach and first ever landing of a PAN-AM

  747 Jumbojet at Heathrow Airport, as well as the attempted hi-jacking of

  an EL-AL jet approaching Clacton, by Leila Khaled and her associate; I have 

  continued in my quest, as a left-handed dyslexic artist, to make use of

  the medium of communication provided by the very best manifestation of

  the available technological developments that I could combine together at the

  time - ranging from the 64K BBC Microcomputer, using Teletext, to the

  very latest Apple 16GB iMac with over a terabyte of storage capacity - to

  further my vision of creating systems which could simulate some aspect of

  the reality of the world, in a manner that y[our] personal involvement in

  the simulation of that reality would be no different than the reality itself;

  such that one and ALL of the passengers of Spaceship Earth could

  establish a system of mutual respect for each other in concert with a ...

  NEW MODEL of Conscious Capitalism [in4D]™

  Having first become aware of the development by Philips Eindhoven, of the

  active-play, frame-accessible Laser-Vison Videodisc System with a 1.5GB data

  storage capability, during my secondment to the EuroControl Maastricht

  Upper Airspace Centre [UAC]; and its potential use in combination with the

  Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network [AFTN], to address a major

  problem of data-communication between the computer mainframes of

  adjacent Air Traffic Control agencies, I prepared for the Civil Aviation

  Authority [CAA] on my return to the UK, a report to utilise the idea for the

  purposes of the enhancement of the Flow Control of aircraft movements

  throughout Europe. It was this germ of an IDEA that then led to my own

  development of an Interactive Multimedia Videodisc System, in association

  with Acorn, based on the BBC Microcomputer, to support the BBC's

  Computer Literacy Initiative; the Volcano Videodisc Project for Oxford

  University Press [OUP] and the transfer of their OED to CD-ROM; various

  projects for the likes of SYNTEX Pharmaceuticals and Glaxo; the

  Computer Integrated Manufacturing [CIM] demonstrator, which I utilised

  to introduce the workforce of Jaguar Motors, to the use of robots in the

  vehicle manufacturing process; and eventually, with the support of Apple,

  Canon, Sony et al ... the presentation of THE ART of THE POSSIBLE.

  The SONY CD-Recorder, which was used in the event, was one of a kind

  & had to be taken out of Abbey Road Studios by SONY for the week of the

  simulation of an Interactive Multimedia Architectural/Design Bureau,

  where it was been used in the process of the re-mastering of the Beatles

  Record Collection. It was thence inevitable that this successful simulation 

  of THE ART of THE POSSIBLE, would be subsequently transmogrified into

  a working model of THE REALITY throughout Europe. 

  INITIATIVE #1 ≡  ACTING on INITIATIVE

 

  INITIATIVE #2 ≡  TAKING the INITIATIVE

  INITIATIVE #3 ≡  FOLLOWING through on an INITIATIVE

  INITIATIVE #4 ≡  IMPLEMENTATION of the INITIATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

  INITIATIVE #5 ≡  T.E.A.M. ≡ Together Everyone Achieves More

  ALL of which equates to an IDEA ≡ Freespace 4D™

.

[Michael Grove]

At a time when the likes of the 200 seat Boeing 707 and McDonnell Douglas DC 8 were the largest commercial aircraft flying, Pam American Airways first approached Boeing in 1963 with a daring proposition to "design the biggest passenger aircraft the world had ever seen". Aviation law however, required that in the event of an emergency, all the passengers could be evacuated in less than 90 seconds, such that the concept of a full "double-decker" was completely out of the question. It was a setback which changed aviation history for better or for worse. Boeing went back to the drawing board and came up with a "giant twin-aisle cabin, 20 feet wide fitted with 400 seats and speedy access to eleven emergency exits, satisfying aviation law. Boeing pulled out all the stops and presented THE IDEA to PanAm in a specially constructed board-room, to the exact dimensions of the proposed cabin. PamAm were so impressed that they signed off on the twin-aisle design there and then. With a nod to the original brief, Boeing even incorporated a short Upper Deck that seated first-class passengers and just like that an aviation ikon was born.

http://www.natgeotv.com/int/inside-incredible-machines

[Michael Grove]

    [IT] was while watching the BBC film of the microlight flying with

    the geese - that I was reminded  by the shot of the jumbo jet on

    approach to  Heathrow Airport - of seeing for the first time a PanAm

    Boeing 747 land at Heathrow after I had guided it onto approach

    from London Radar, which was situated then on the north side of

    the airport.