Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Damian James' Blog: 13 July 2007
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Damian James' Blog: 13 July 2007

Date: 13 July 2007

Damian James

BusinessCar blogger Damian James spots the new Mini Clubman and checks out what car fleets can learn from aircraft fleets.

Getting a fleet airborne

I'm going to see a different type of fleet this weekend at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.

You often hear vehicle manufacturers talking about how they use technology on F1 cars and it then filters down to the production line in some form or another. Well you will be pleased to know I'm not anticipating flying cars just yet but it would be interesting to know if any technology developed for aircraft ever made it into cars.

I'll let you know how it went next week and if I stayed dry!

There was an announcement last week of a vote from the European Parliament on the stalling Galileo project. The Parliament has now backed the proposal that the next stage of the Galileo satellite system should be funded in full from the EU budget.

As seems usual with these types of massive project there is some considerable overspend. An estimate of Euro3.4 billion has been given to get Galileo flying by 2011 which appears to be Euro2.2 billion over budget. A further satellite is due for launch at the back end of this year to add to the test one that is already up there transmitting its signal.

The positive news from this announcement is that it looks as if Galileo is going to get back on track as it comes back into the public sector but its disappointing that its been delayed and the costs have increased so much.

Mini Clubman spied

In other news, I have been driving around the A34/M4 area and have seen a number of 'Mini vans' which I guess are based on style of the old mini van (the one with the wood down the outside) that my parents used to own.

The new version had the same type of van doors at the back so I assume it must be completely new version. I doubt very much that this is an exclusive for BusinessCar but if I hadn't been driving I might have been able to get a picture of one of them.

Hands free camera anyone?



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