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The same year that Martin Luther King, Jr. marched on Washington and Beatlemania was born, the United States launched half a billion whisker-thin copper wires into orbit in an attempt to install a ring around the Earth. It was called Project West Ford, and it’s a perfect, if odd, example of the Cold War paranoia and military mentality at work in America’s early space program.

Previously, the catapults used were powered by steam. However, General Atomics has developed the EMALS system to use linear induction motors to more finely control aircraft acceleration off the deck. Prysmian Group has received the contract from General Atomics to develop and supply the cables needed to power the system and has supplied more than 85% of the cables used in conjunction with this system.

Daimler and BMW – and, to a lesser extent, Volkswagen, Nissan, Renault and Ford – are already ahead of the game in recognising that it will now be sustainable for increasing numbers of single occupancy cars to pour into already congested cities on a daily basis as they do now. BMW's alternative powertrain sub-brand, i – due to be launched later this year – addresses this with a full suite of mobility options, and while Daimler has not formed a separate division in which to wrap the work it is doing, it is starting to move well beyond the traditional role of car manufacturer andretailer.