I think that's kind of the point from the perspective of Hong Kong businessmen TTL. They consider that those employed are more valuable and contributing members to society and thus deserve the second vote.
The Anglo-Saxon Social Model
- Thread starter Rattigan
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It's basically the port and its hinterlands. Originally there to be a Royal Navy base, it's now expanded into a genuinely multi-cultural bohemian community. Although Arabia (a Hashemite kingdom, as you say) is significantly less extreme than OTL, it's still a pretty socially and religiously conservative culture so Aden has become very profitable as a gambling (and other vices) hub. Think of something like a mix of OTL West Berlin and Las Vegas. I've put a map of the region below, which shows the borders. You'll also note that I've fiddled around with the borders of a few countries, particularly Kurdistan, but I'll show that in the full continental map later on (it's due to a retcon rather than border changes TTL).
In fairness I think that might just have been something of an oversight at the time but, as you say, the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce is hardly agitating to change it.
Nice chapter. Also thank you for the comprehensive answers to my questions. I guess Coronation Street happens in this timeline...
Is Hong Kong The same size as OTL?
I forgot to ask: what happened to shipping and the Great Liners? Did Titanic sink? Did White Star and Cunard merge? Did the Normandie, Queen Mary, Oceanic compete for the Blue Ribbon in the 30’s? Do any of the ships or Lines survive the jet age?
Is Hong Kong The same size as OTL?
I forgot to ask: what happened to shipping and the Great Liners? Did Titanic sink? Did White Star and Cunard merge? Did the Normandie, Queen Mary, Oceanic compete for the Blue Ribbon in the 30’s? Do any of the ships or Lines survive the jet age?
Yup, definitely.
Yes, it includes all of the New Territories, which were purchased in 1997 as part of the Sino-Commonwealth agreement.
Some of the various sea disasters happen as in OTL but the sinking of the Britannia in 1916 is avoided because Britain hadn't joined the Great War and so her shipping wasn't a target. White Star and Cunard remain in business today as separate companies. White Star concentrated mostly on cargo services after the 1950s and Cunard has focused more on cruises, as in OTL. Certain passenger ferries/liners still operate in the Pacific Islands and the West Indies as public transport but that's about it I'm afraid.
Will the commonwealth develop a Concorde equivalent in TL as I recall the upgrade for Concorde to Concorde B was meant to enable to go to places such as India and China with greater fuel efficiency since the cold war is militarily less hot I expect a lot of to be project based aka space development so would a supersonic race occur.
Yes, absolutely. The fuel-efficient upgrade for Concord (no 'e' TTL because the French weren't involved) was introduced around 2000 and was an important part of the Commonwealth's meeting its emissions reduction targets under the Shanghai Protocol. They still haven't quite worked out the pricing issue but they're on their way to doing that.
I doubt about supersonic jets ever becoming as fuel-efficient as the subsonic ones of the same generation. Of course, in a world that had no 1973 and 79 oil shocks, it may be not enough of an issue to cripple the SST as a whole, but it still looks like a dead end alley to me. Besides, TTL has telecommunication technologies developing well ahead of OTL, so there's just as little need to keep it as some kind of transportation for the executives.
Perhaps Concord still has a French 'e' on the end because it was a joint project with Canada to bring the Commonwealth together across the ocean?
Yes, I think that's fair enough. To a certain extent the 'fuel efficiency' argument is kind of a cover (although the savings are real enough) for having a Commonwealth company producing 'the best and fastest' plane in the world.
Very good point - I should probably reinstate the 'e'.
BEA and BOAC don't exist, as such. BEA in particular doesn't exist because the companies that merged to form it OTL - notably De Havilland and Hawker Siddeley - are still thriving companies in their own way. In particular, the disasters that so damaged the Comet OTL happen instead to the Boeing, meaning that De Havilland has become one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. Hawker Siddeley is smaller than that but still a thriving Commonwealth-wide manufacturer.
As for the airlines, there is a pretty competitive Commonwealth-wide market and improvements in jet technology mean that most of the important ones now offer global coverage (to differing degrees) even if they started out as regional ones. I had imagined that Qantas, Pacific Western, Ceylon Air and Air Africa (TTL's version of Kenya Airways) would be pretty significant. Imperial Airways is still around and is basically the flag carrier of Hong Kong and the East Indies.
British Airways exists and is considered to be the UK's flag carrier, even if it was never nationalised. Instead, the SWF bought shares in 1948 and remains a significant shareholder to this day.
i don't really foresee Freddie Laker still being in business unless the various changes in TTL make him a completely different person. That being said, there are no-frills airlines (EasyJet, in particular, comes to mind) and most mainstream (for want of a better word) airlines offer a low-cost service. In practice, there's less of a demand for these than you might think, even in large countries like Canada and Australia, due to a couple of factors: firstly, improvements in high-speed (and relatively green) railways mean there's less need for them; secondly, improved telecommunication means there's less need for businessmen and executives to fly around on whistle-stop tours, meaning that most people might only fly to get to and from their holidays.
I'm curious as a few more science sides of this world, the world is more advanced in nuclear energy I was curious as to how that works with fusion reactors I know right now there building a fusion reactor in France (ITER) which is designed to produce more energy than it uses to produce fusion, I was wondering if something like this being pursued in TL, also Im curious as to alternate space launch systems being looked into or built in TL, like is a launch loop, mass driver, skyhooks being considered especially in africa where the resources, sun and calm weather makes this location brilliant for this stuff.
Given the earlier and more thorough take-up of nuclear energy in the Commonwealth, I think something like ITER may well be online and producing energy already by 2000. I'm far from an expert on the nuclear industry though.
As for space, my consideration of what the Commonwealth Space Agency is doing is basically conditioned by the rule of cool because I really don't know much about any of this stuff beyond what I read on a quick google). Currently the CSA operates an orbital space station, a manned base on the Moon and a recently-constructed manned base on Mars. It also operates a fleet of reusable vehicles called space shuttles but I've not decided whether that's basically a transposition of the OTL space shuttle program or something different with the same name. So when I was thinking about how one of these space shuttles could get back from the Moon or Mars base something like the mass driver did come to mind. Skyhook too always struck me as a cool way of getting supplies to and from a space station in an energy efficient manner. Would it be possible to use it to send something into space, get caught on the book and then flung onwards to a Moon base? (Possibly revealing the full extent of my ignorance here...)
Skyhooks are basically designed to catch in atmosphere and basically flip it into orbit so its mainly combined with stuff like mass drivers, launch loops etc so they can launch thing cargo etc into atmosphere catch then spin into orbit where it can then launch using its fuel.
In regards to the spaceshuttles look up HOTOL or skylon. Launch loops are basically like a magnetic hoop going from the ground up a few kilometres into the air which the ship then rides on till it reaches velocity and escapes into orbit, its also supposedly pretty cheap to build so I've heard. Unfortunately the skyhook I think doesn't have enough power to move stuff to the moon.
I've just looked them up and I'm blown away by some of those designs (aesthetically).
That's a shame. But I'm open to the skyhook and anything else being used - this is rapidly heading towards some kind of tech utopia after all.
You may want to look up the BAC Mustard or the English Electric P.42 for other British space shuttle concepts.
IMO, construction of a Mass Driver or an Orbital Elevator would be impressive in of itself. Maybe a Orion/NERVA style nuclear powered spacecraft might be an idea?
The elevator is limited by physics we are far from figuring out. We can't get the materials we'd need.
Skyhooks sound good though.
Yeah unfortunately space elevators aren't possible although alternatives like a mass drives or some sort of gas gun is possible with todays tech unfortunately its just expensive and we run into that cost circle issue of limited space market because it costs too much but no alternative transport to lower costs because there's no market.
I would also suggest orbital depots so spaceships can refuel in orbit