View allAll Photos Tagged FOREIGN
Missouri & North Arkansas GP40-2 no. 3025 leads the DGNO Miller Turn through Dallas, Texas. Photo January 13, 2018.
CN SD75I #5704 is the DPU of the Denver to Provo manifest train as it snakes its way around the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon and up into Plainview
For the second time in a week this same power pulled Norfolk Southern train 203 west on the Lurgan Branch.
The CP 8808, SOO 6061 (the last SD60M in SOO paint), and NS 9305 lead the intermodal train through the crossing at 18th Street in Camp Hill. The engineer was kind enough to put on a little smoke show as they came around the bend for us.
WWRFP 3/14/16
Seen in the Mediterranean, operating with HMS Intrepid. I spent much of a day aboard her, including a stint as loader in the after 4.5-in gun mount during a target shoot.
The Type 81 Tribals were designed during the 1950s as a response to the increasing cost of single-role vessels such as the Type 14s. They were first such 'multi-role' vessels for the Royal Navy and were designed specifically with colonial 'gunboat' duties in mind, particularly in the Middle East. They were thus designed to be self-contained, with weapon and sensor systems to cover many possible engagements, air-conditioning to allow extended tropical deployment and such modern habitability features as all bunk accommodation (as opposed to hammocks).
They were the first RN class designed from the start to operate a helicopter and the first small escorts to carry a long-range air search radar, the Type 965. They were armed with two 4.5-inch Mk 5 main guns salvaged from scrapped WWII destroyers. Although these mountings were refurbished with Remote Power Control (RPC) operation, they still required manual loading on an exposed mount. From the outset the class were designed to carry the new GWS-20 Sea Cat SAM.
The Tribals were the first modern RN ships designed to use a combination of power sources, a feature which had been trialled with limited success in the 1930s in the minelayer HMS Adventure. An additive mix of steam and gas turbine called "COmbined Steam and Gas" COSAG was used. This gave the rapid start-up and acceleration of a gas turbine engine coupled with the cruising efficiency and reliability of the steam turbine. They would cruise on the steam plant and use both systems driving the same shaft for a high-speed "boost". They suffered however from being single-shaft vessels which severely limited manoeuvrability, acceleration and deceleration.
The class served throughout the 1960s and '70s, into the 1980s fulfilling their designed general-purpose "colonial gunboat" role. When change in British foreign policy made this role redundant they found themselves being pressed into service in home waters in the "Cod Wars" of the 1970s. They were not particularly suited to these duties however, as they had a hull form optimised for the calm, shallow water of the Persian Gulf and with only a single shaft were unable to manoeuvre with the Icelandic gunboats at close quarters.
An improved version of a very old post.
From my first visit to Kyiv in 2016, not often I like cities, but this one is special. Long may it stay so.
More Foreign power on the CP C&M Sub as a NS heritage unit, the Lackawanna RR, and a CN unit, move a CP manifest north thru Sturdevant,Wi.
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Considered the most important religious site in Kiev, the Holy Dormition Cathedral is a part of the Pechersk Lavra Historic-Cultural Preserve and was declared world heritage site by UNESCO in 1991.
The beginning of monkhood in Kiev is closely associated with this place. One of the caves at the Pechersk Lavra Monastery was once home of the Christian priest Illarionov who in 1051 became the Metropolitan of Kiev. After he vacated the cave, it was occupied by Venerable Anthony, an ascetic who sought isolation in order to serve God without any distraction. Despite his intention, the presence of Anthony soon became obvious and started to draw people like a magnet. Some of these people came for an advice, others sought to become monks themselves. Eventually, a community of people dedicated to God was established. At some point, Anthony left the caves for an isolated dwelling on the opposite hill (known today as the Near Caves), while other monks remained in the old settlement (the Far Caves) and gradually organized themselves into a community with strict regulations, residential quarters and places of worship. The Holy Dormition Cathedral was the first praying facility built by the monks, sometime between 1062 and 1074. The wooden structure was destroyed in the following century by foreign invaders. The church was rebuilt in 1470, by Prince Semen Olegovich, only to be destroyed again in 1482. Over the centuries, the monks, inhabiting the caves, have endured many hardships - devastating invasions, property expropriation and persecution. After the 1980s, little by little, life at the monastery got back to norm with the help of the government. In 2000, the Holy Dormition Cathedral was inaugurated and the monastic life was once again strengthened. Today, the monks are preoccupied with ensuring that the prayer here doesn't stop ever again.
Foreign Affair -Mike Oldfield-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeGe6alIkNM
Location: Barcelona
Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8 M42 mount silver version.
www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/carl-zeiss-jena-50mm-f2-...
Metroline West VWH2170 on Route 222 and Metroline VWH2277 on Route 120 at Hounslow Bus Station, at London United RATP Hounslow Garage where London United SP40072 is based, on Route H98.
SP40072 - YT59RXW
VWH2170 - LK16DFG
VWH2277 - LK17CZD
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his wife, Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Model: Volvo FH 460 Euro5 8X4 (FH3)
VIN: YV2AG20D6CA727985
1. Registration: 2012-09-05
Company: Knud Gade, Vejle (DK)
Fleet No.: -
Nickname: -
License plates: DW13857 (sep. 2012-?)
Previous reg.: n/a
Later reg.: n/a
Retirement age: still active sep. 2018
Photo location: Motorway 501 (Aarhus Syd Motorvejen), Viby J, Aarhus, DK
Going up the steep hill leading sw out of Aarhus past Viby and Stautrup. Underpowered and/or heavily loaded trucks often struggle here.
Tip: to locate trucks of particular interest to you, check my collections page, "truck collection" (www.flickr.com/photos/lavulv/collections/72157684190396672/ ) - here you will find all trucks organized in albums, by haulier (with zip-codes), year, brand and country.
Retirement age for trucks: many used trucks are offered for sale on international markets. If sold to a foreign buyer, this will not be listed in the danish motor registry, so a "retired" truck may or may not have been exported. In other words, the "retirement age" only shows the age, at which the truck stopped running on danish license plates.
Here is an image from todays shoot for a close friends brother>>
Camera : Phase One P30+
Strobist:
1WL 800 into beauty dish cam left boomed overhead
! WL 1600 cam right into med stripbox for rim
1WL 1600 cam left and behind for rim in a stripbox
1 White reflector cam right and from to kill shadow
1 black reflector on blue shirt pic cam right for shadow
Canadian Pacific ES44AC 8886 & CEFX 6003 (Ex-SOO SD60 6003) lead this Tulsa to Northtown freight north on the BNSF Hannibal Sub. Currently thundering towards Foley, Mo. near Mp. 59.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge Butte) is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (265 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,559 m) above sea level.
Devils Tower was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres (545 ha).
Source: www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm
Many People, Many Stories, One Place
The Tower is an astounding geologic feature that protrudes out of the prairie surrounding the Black Hills. It is considered sacred by Northern Plains Indians and indigenous people. Hundreds of parallel cracks make it one of the finest crack climbing areas in North America. Devils Tower entices us to learn more, explore more and define our place in the natural and cultural world.
Source: www.blackhillsbadlands.com/parks-monuments/devils-tower-n...
Devils Tower National Monument, a unique and striking geologic wonder steeped in Native American legend, is a modern-day national park and climbers' challenge. Devils Tower sits across the state line in northeast Wyoming. The Tower is a solitary, stump-shaped granite formation that looms 1,267 feet above the tree-lined Belle Fourche River Valley, like a skyscraper in the country. Once hidden below the earth’s surface, erosion has stripped away the softer rock layers revealing the Tower.
The two-square-mile park surrounding the tower was proclaimed the nation’s first national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The park is covered with pine forests, woodlands, and grasslands. While visiting the park you are bound to see deer, prairie dogs, and other wildlife. The mountain’s markings are the basis for Native American legend. One legend has it that a giant bear clawed the grooves into the mountainside while chasing several young Indian maidens. Known by several northern plains tribes as Bears Lodge, it is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians. Devils Tower is also remembered as the movie location for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
The stone pillar is about 1,000 feet in diameter at the bottom and 275 feet at the top and that makes it the premier rock climbing challenge in the Black Hills. Hikers enjoy the Monument’s trails. The 1.25-mile Tower Trail encircles the base. This self-guided hike offers close-up views of the forest and wildlife, not to mention spectacular views of the Tower itself. The Red Beds Trail covers a much wider three-mile loop around the tower.
Source: travelwyoming.com/places-to-go/destinations/national-park...
While America’s first national monument garnered significant attention as the backdrop to the 1977 Stephen Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the tower is sacred to Northern Plains Indian tribes and the Black Hills region Kiowa Tribe. With oral storytelling and a history that dates back thousands of years, today, American Indian tribes continue to hold sacred ceremonies at the tower, including sweat lodges and sun dances. There is more to this monument than its rich history. You can stop at the visitor’s center to learn about one of the ranger-led programs, night sky viewing, hiking and even climbing to the top of Devils Tower. If one day isn’t enough to explore this unforgettable area, bring your camping gear to stay within the monument, or stay just outside or in accommodations at one of the nearby towns.
Additional Foreign Language Tags:
(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"
(Wyoming) "وايومنغ" "怀俄明州" "व्योमिंग" "ワイオミング州" "와이오밍" "Вайоминг"
(Devils Tower National Monument) "النصب التذكاري الوطني لبرج الشياطين" "魔鬼塔国家纪念碑" "डेविल्स टॉवर राष्ट्रीय स्मारक" "デビルズタワー国定公園" "데빌스 타워 국립천연기념물" "Национальный монумент «Башня дьявола»" "Monumento Nacional Torre del Diablo"
"I KNOW THIS GREAT...", TIME OUT LONDON & LONDONIST if you use my photo can you please put the credit link to my Facebook Page rather than my Flickr Account. Thank you.
All pictures in my photostream are Copyrighted © Umbreen Hafeez All Rights Reserved
Please do not download and use without my permission.
Ridgefield Park, NJ
CSX K020 sweeps south past NYSW's Ridgefield Park yard and CP5. None of the five locomotives in this frame are on their owner's tracks, and the trail unit is visiting from Mexico.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 227. Mistake alert. This is NOT American actress Joan Leslie as indicated on the card but British actress Hazel Court!
Flame-haired English actress Hazel Court (1926 – 2008) was a Horror Queen of the Hammer films of the 1950s and Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations of the early 1960s. Alfred Hitchcock called her 'the best screamer in the business'.
Hazel Court was born in Sutton Coldfield, Great Britain in 1926. She attended Boldmere School and Highclare College. Her father was G.W. Court, a professional cricketer. At the age of fourteen, Hazel studied drama at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre, also in Birmingham. Two years later, she met director Anthony Asquith in London, which won her a bit part in the musical film Champagne Charlie (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1944), made by Ealing Studios. Her only line of dialogue was "I never drank champagne before". The film was based on a play that depicted the real-life rivalry between 19th-century English music hall performer George Leybourne (Tommy Trinder), who first performed the song 'Champagne Charlie', and his colleague Alfred Vance (Stanley Holloway). She got a contract with the Rank Organisation and trained at the studio’s ‘charm school’. Court won a British Critics Award for her supporting role as a crippled girl in Carnival (Stanley Haynes, 1946) about a ballet dancer of the Edwardian era, starring Sally Gray. Years later, Tom Vallance wrote in his obituary of Court in The Independent: “Pert and pretty, Hazel Court was a versatile actress who for several years was the epitome of the deceptively demure, often spunky, but very English heroine in British films of the Forties.” She appeared in supporting parts in the comedy Holiday Camp (Ken Annakin, 1947) with Flora Robson, My Sister and I (Harold Huth, 1948) with Sally Ann Howes, and the drama Bond Street (Gordon Parry, 1948), starring Jean Kent. About the latter Hal Erickson writes at AllMovie: “This multistoried drama purports to detail the events occurring in a single 24-hour period on Bond Street, a "typical" British thoroughfare. The Grand Hotel-like construction of the film allows for several colourful character vignettes.”
In 1949 Hazel Court married Irish actor Dermot Walsh. They co-starred together in the fantasy film Ghost Ship (1952, Vernon Sewell) as a young couple that acquires a yacht. The ship is haunted by the ghosts of a crew that had disappeared off the ship years before. A cult classic became the science fiction film Devil Girl from Mars (David MacDonald, 1954). Patricia Laffan starred as Nyah, an uptight, leather-clad female alien, armed with a ray gun and accompanied by a menacing robot. She arrives at a Scottish inn to collect men as breeding stock, while Court played a disillusioned fashion model who hides for a man who is following her. In 1957 Court played the naive cousin-fiancee of Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) in The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957). It was the first colour horror production by Hammer Film and the first of the studio’s Frankenstein series. Its worldwide success led to several sequels, and Hammer's new versions of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959). Court's red hair and green eyes were seen in colour for the first time and her role plus her buxom gained her the status of a ‘scream queen’. However, she wanted to act in comedy films, and in the 1957-1958 television season, she appeared in Dick and the Duchess, a CBS sitcom filmed in England. She played the role of Jane Starrett, a patrician Englishwoman married to an American insurance claims investigator living in London (Patrick O'Neal). Court travelled back and forth between Hollywood and England, appearing in four episodes of the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958-1961). One of them showed her being transformed by her jealous husband (Laurence Harvey) into chicken feed. In England, she played in Hammer horror films like The Man Who Could Cheat Death (Terence Fisher, 1959) with Anton Diffring and Christopher Lee, and Doctor Blood's Coffin (Sidney J. Furie, 1961) with Kieron Moore. In the first, Diffring played a sculptor who had found a way of stopping the ageing process so that he was around 70 years older than he looked. While posing for him, Court bared her breasts, a scene cut from the British and American releases and only used for the foreign film market.
By the early 1960s, Hazel Court had permanently moved to the United States. In Hollywood, she continued to appear in horror films, now for American International Pictures. She knew how to project a smouldering sensuality in her roles, and it propelled her to a cult siren. Court was featured in three of AIP’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. At the climax of the first one, The Premature Burial (Roger Corman, 1962), Ray Milland shovels dirt on her as she lies in a grave. In the black comedy The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), she co-starred with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers. The third and best was the exotic The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964), with Vincent Price. The blog Cult Sirens notes: “The Masque of the Red Death in 1964 is probably her most well-known role and surely her best performance. As Juliana, the bride of Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), her sex appeal is at its peak and her tragic death (a bit on the bloody side) is one of the film's highlights.” Court's roles often relied on her cleavage and her ability to shriek in fear and die horrible deaths. It brought her fan mail, even in her later years. Court had divorced Dermot Walsh in 1963. They had a daughter, Sally Walsh, who at the age of four had appeared with her mother in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). While shooting an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Court met American actor-director Don Taylor. They married in 1964, and Court retired from the film business to concentrate on being a wife and mother. They had a son, Jonathan, and a daughter, Courtney. Through the years, she guest starred in episodes of many classic TV series such as The Third Man (1959), The Invisible Man (1959), Bonanza (1960), Danger Man (1960-1961), Rawhide (1964), The Twilight Zone (1964), and Twelve O’Clock High (1964-1965). She continued to do so and could be seen in Dr Kildare (1965), Gidget (1966), The Wild Wild West (1966), Mission: Impossible (1967), Mannix (1968) and McMillan & Wife (1972). Finally, she appeared briefly in the third Omen film, The Final Conflict (Graham Baker, 1981), starring Sam Neill and Rossano Brazzi. Like in her first film, she was uncredited in this Horror thriller and played a champagne-drinking guest at a party. In addition to acting, she was also a painter and sculptress and studied sculpting in Italy. Following her husband Don Taylor's death in 1998, she appeared on the cult movie conventions circuit. In 2008 Hazel Court died of a heart attack at her home near Lake Tahoe, California, aged 82. A week later, her autobiography 'Hazel Court - Horror Queen' was published by Tomahawk Press. One of Court's biggest fans is writer Stephen King who mentions her in various of his novels.
Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Tom Weaver (IMDb), Horror Stars, Cult Sirens, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
I thought a beer had finally been named after me, but closer inpsection proved otherwise. (See the one on the right)
A "cold snap" has descended on Brisbane, but the Sunday morning here is cloudless so sunny, and as soon as the ice melts it will be a lovely day.
Imagine these copper coils as my neck perhaps.
Grolsch Brewery is a Dutch brewery founded in 1615.
Starts With G Challenge
Containers Theme - Contains Beer
A trio of eastern motors leads U-TNDNSD0-48 eastbound after loading up on North Dakota oil.
The leader is an SD70M, the trailer is an SD90/43MAC rebuilt into an SD70ACu. Some CSX finishes off this prize.
After sitting for about 5 hours in Big Lake hanging with Todd and shooting trains, we decided to chance it and go west, maybe chasing this train once we found out what it was.
We started west and soon the sun broke through. We wouldn't have made to Clear Lake (66) were this train was waiting, so this was the furthest we could go.
We watched the clouds stressfully until the train came around the bend and we pointed and fired.
This was totally worth the drive.
Thanks for a great day, Todd!
Place: Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Chinese name: 长安CS15 (cháng'ān CS15)
Year of launch: 2015
Changan is the best-selling local carmaker in China, being strong in both passenger cars and commercial vans/cheap MPVs. Changan has a wide SUV-range, consisting of the CS15, CS35, CS55, CS75 and CS95, as well as the value-oriented CX70.
Together with SAIC, FAW, BAIC and Dongfeng, Changan is considered one of the 'big five' of China, referring to the largest car producers in production volume (including production for foreign joint venture partners like VW, Peugeot-Citroën, Honda, Toyota, Nissan or in case of Changan: Ford, Peugeot-Citroën (DS Automobile only), Mazda and Suzuki.
Changan was allegedly founded in 1862 as a gun store and assembled a jeep from the late 1950s. Changan has one of the largest model ranges of indigenous models as well. Changan currently has a passenger car and commercial car label, both named Changan, but distinguished by a different logo.
The CS15 compact SUV was launched in 2015. It is positioned below the CS35. There are petrol as well as full-electric versions.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jingping and his wife, Mrs. Peng Liyuan, Thursday, April 6, 2017, at the entrance of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, FL (Official White Photo by D. Myles Cullen)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 "Huey". By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million operational hours in Vietnam.
The U.S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, too, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, and also wanted a more potent turret-mounted weapon. At first, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra, in the belief that commonality with Army AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine fit. However, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure the U.S. Army passed on thirty-eight AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969. The AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret with a three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon.
During the 1990s, the US forces gradually phased out its Cobra fleet. The withdrawn AH-1s were typically offered to other potential operators, usually NATO allies. Some were also given to the USDA's Forest Service for fire surveillance, and a handful AH-1s went into private hands, including the NASA. Among these airframes were some USMC AH-1Js, which had in part been mothballed in the Mojave Desert since their replacement through more powerful and modern AH-1 variants and the AH-64.
About twenty airframes were, after having been de-militarized, bought by the Kaman Corporation in 2003, in a bold move to quickly respond to more than 20 inquiries for the company’s K-1200 ‘K-Max’ crane synchropter since the type’s end of production in 2001 from firefighting, logging and industry transport requirements. While not such a dedicated medium lift helicopter as the K-1200, which had from the outset been optimized for external cargo load operations, the twin-engine AH-1J promised to be a very effective alternative and a powerful basis for a conversion into a crane helicopter.
The result of this conversion program was the Kaman K-1300, also known as the “K-Cobra” or “Crane Cobra”. While the basic airframe of the AH-1J was retained, extensive detail modifications were made. To reduce weight and compensate for the extensive hardware changes, the SeaCobra lost its armor, the chin turret, and the stub wings. Beyond that, many invisible changes were made; the internal structure between the engine mounts was beefed up with an additional cage structure and a cargo hook was installed under the fuselage in the helicopter’s center of lift.
To further optimize the K-Cobra’s performance, the dynamic components were modified and improved, too. While the engine remained the same, its oil cooler was enlarged and the original output limit to 1.500 shp was removed and the gearbox was strengthened to fully exploit the twin-engine’s available power of 1,800 shp (1,342 kW). The rotor system was also modified and optimized for the transport of underslung loads: the original UH-1 dual-blade rotors were replaced with new four-blade rotors. The new main rotor with rugged heavy-duty blades offered more lift at less rotor speed, and the blades’ lift sections were moved away from the hub so that downwash and turbulences directly under the helicopter’s CoG and man hook were reduced to keep the cargo load more stable. Due to the main rotor’s slightly bigger diameter the tail rotor was changed into a slightly smaller four-blade rotor, too. This new arrangement made the K-1300 more stable while hovering or during slow speed maneuvers and more responsive to steering input.
The Cobra’s crew of two was retained, but the cockpit was re-arranged and split into two compartments: the pilot retained the original rear position in the tandem cockpit under the original glazing, but the gunner’s station in front of him, together with the secondary dashboard, was omitted and replaced by a new, fully glazed cabin under the former gunner position. This cabin occupied the former gun station and its ammunition supply and contained a rearward-facing workstation for a second pilot with full controls. It was accessible via a separate door or a ladder from above, through a trap door in the former gunner’s station floor, where a simple foldable bench was available for a third person. This arrangement was chosen due to almost complete lack of oversight of the slung load from the normal cockpit position, despite a CCTV (closed circuit television) system with two cameras intended for observation of slung loads. The second pilot would control the helicopter during delicate load-handling maneuvers, while the primary pilot “above” would fly the helicopter during transfer flights, both sharing the workload.
To accommodate the cabin under the fuselage and improve ground handling, the AH-1J’s skids were replaced by a stalky, fixed four-wheel landing gear that considerably increased ground clearance (almost 7 feet), making the attachment of loads on the ground to the main ventral hook easier, as the K-1300 could be “rolled over” the cargo on the ground and did not have to hover above it to connect. However, an external ladder had to be added so that the pilot could reach his/her workstation almost 10 feet above the ground.
The bulky ventral cabin, the draggy landing gear and the new lift-optimized rotor system reduced the CraneCobra’s top speed by a third to just 124 mph (200 km/h), but the helicopter’s load-carrying capacity became 35% higher and the Cobra’s performance under “hot & high” conditions was markedly improved, too.
For transfer flights, a pair of external auxiliary tanks could be mounted to the lower fuselage flanks, which could also be replaced with cargo boxes of similar size and shape.
K-1300 buyers primarily came from the United States and Canada, but there were foreign operators, too. A major operator in Europe became Heliswiss, the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland. The company was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“, with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953, what also marked the beginning of commercial helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR. During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.
Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world, e. g. in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America. The first helicopter was a Bell 47 G-1, registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t).
Since 1991 Heliswiss operated a Russian Kamov 32A12 (a civil crane version of the Ka-27 “Helix”), which was joined by two K-1300s in 2004. They were frequently used for construction of transmission towers for overhead power lines and pylons for railway catenary lines, for selective logging and also as fire bombers with underslung water bags, the latter managed by the German Helog company, operating out of Ainring and Küssnacht in Germany and Switzerland until 2008, when Helog changed its business focus into a helicopter flight training academy in Liberia with the support of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
A second Kamov 32A12 joined the fleet in 2015, which replaced one of the K-1300s, and Heliswiss’ last K-1300 was retired in early 2022.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2, plus space for a passenger
Length: 54 ft 3 in (16,56 m) including rotors
44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) fuselage only
Main rotor diameter: 46 ft 2¾ in (14,11 m)
Main rotor area: 1,677.64 sq ft (156,37 m2)
Width (over landing gear): 12 ft 6 in (3.85 m)
Height: 17 ft 8¼ in (5,40 m)
Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg) without slung load
13,515 lb (6,145 kg) with slung load
Powerplant:
1× P&W Canada T400-CP-400 (PT6T-3 Twin-Pac) turboshaft engine, 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 110 kn)
Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)
Range: 270 mi (430 km, 230 nmi) with internal fuel only,
360 mi (570 km 310 nmi) with external auxiliary tanks
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Hovering ceiling out of ground effect: 3,000 m (9,840 ft)
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s) at Sea Level with flat-rated torque
External load capacity (at ISA +15 °C (59.0 °F):
6,000 lb (2,722 kg) at sea level
5,663 lb (2,569 kg) at 5,000 ft (1,524 m)
5,163 lb (2,342 kg) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
5,013 lb (2,274 kg) at 12,100 ft (3,688 m)
4,313 lb (1,956 kg) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
The kit and its assembly:
This is/was the second contribution to the late 2022 “Logistics” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, a welcome occasion and motivation to tackle a what-if project that had been on my list for a long while. This crane helicopter conversion of a HueyCobra was inspired by the Mil Mi-10K helicopter – I had built a 1:100 VEB Plasticart kit MANY years ago and still remembered the helicopter’s unique ventral cabin under the nose with a rearward-facing second pilot. I always thought that the AH-1 might be a good crane helicopter, too, esp. the USMC’s twin-engine variant. And why not combine everything in a fictional model?
With this plan the basis became a Fujimi 1:72 AH-1J and lots of donor parts to modify the basic hull into “something else”. Things started with the removal of the chin turret and part of the lower front hull to make space for the ventral glass cabin. The openings for the stub wings were faired over and a different stabilizer (taken from a Revell EC 135, including the end plates) was implanted. The attachment points for the skids were filled and a styrene tube was inserted into the rotor mast opening to later hold the new four-blade rotor. Another styrene tube with bigger diameter was inserted into the lower fuselage as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Lead beads filled the nose section to make sure the CraneCobra would stand well on its new legs, with the nose down. The cockpit was basically taken OOB, just the front seat and the respective gunner dashboard was omitted.
One of the big challenges of this build followed next: the ventral cabin. Over the course of several months, I was not able to find a suitable donor, so I was forced to scratch the cabin from acrylic and styrene sheet. Size benchmark became the gunner’s seat from the Cobra kit, with one of the OOB pilots seated. Cabin width was less dictated through the fuselage, the rest of the cabin’s design became a rather simple, boxy thing – not pretty, but I think a real-life retrofitted cabin would not look much different? Some PSR was done to hide the edges of the rather thick all-clear walls and create a 3D frame - a delicate task. Attaching the completed thing with the second pilot and a dashboard under the roof to the Cobra’s lower hull and making it look more or less natural without major accidents was also a tricky and lengthy affair, because I ignored the Cobra’s narrowing nose above the former chin turret.
With the cabin defining the ground helicopter’s clearance, it was time for the next donors: the landing gear from an Airfix 1:72 Kamow Ka-25, which had to be modified further to achieve a proper stance. The long main struts were fixed to the hull, their supporting struts had to be scratched, in this case from steel wire. The front wheels were directly attached to the ventral cabin (which might contain in real life a rigid steel cage that not only protects the second crew member but could also take the front wheels’ loads?). Looks pretty stalky!
Under the hull, a massive hook and a fairing for the oil cooler were added. A PE brass ladder was mounted on the right side of the hull under the pilot’s cockpit, while a rear-view mirror was mounted for the ventral pilot on the left side.
The rotor system was created in parallel, I wanted “something different” from the UH-1 dual-blade rotors. The main rotor hub was taken from a Mistercraft 1:72 Westland Lynx (AFAIK a re-boxed ZTS Plastyk kit), which included the arms up to the blades. The hub was put onto a metal axis, with a spacer to make it sit well in the new styrene tube adapter inside of the hull, and some donor parts from the Revell EC 135. Deeper, tailored blades were glued to the Lynx hub, actually leftover parts from the aforementioned wrecked VEB Plasticart 1:100 Mi-10, even though their length had to be halved (what makes you aware how large a Mi-6/10 is compared with an AH-1!). The tail rotor was taken wholesale from the Lynx and stuck to the Cobra’s tail with a steel pin.
Painting and markings:
Another pushing factor for this build was the fact that I had a 1:72 Begemot aftermarket decal sheet for the Kamow Ka-27/32 in The Stash™, which features, among many military helicopters, (the) two civil Heliswiss machines – a perfect match!
Using the Swiss Helix’ as design benchmark I adapted their red-over-white paint scheme to the slender AH-1 and eventually ended up with a simple livery with a white belly (acrylic white from the rattle can, after extensive masking of the clear parts with Maskol/latex milk) and a red (Humbrol 19) upper section, with decorative counter-colored cheatlines along the medium waterline. A black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen. The auxiliary tanks were painted white, too, but they were processed separately and mounted just before the final coat of varnish was applied. The PE ladder as well as the rotors were handled similarly.
The cockpit and rotor opening interior were painted in a very dark grey (tar black, Revell 06), while the interior of the air intakes was painted bright white (Revell 301). The rotor blades became light grey (Revell 75) with darker leading edges (Humbrol 140), dark grey (Humbrol 164) hubs and yellow tips.
For the “HELOG/Heliswiss” tagline the lower white section had to be raised to a medium position on the fuselage, so that they could be placed on the lower flanks under the cockpit. The white civil registration code could not be placed on the tail and ended up on the engine cowling, on red, but this does not look bad or wrong at all.
The cheatlines are also decals from the Ka-32 Begemot sheet, even though they had to be trimmed considerably to fit onto the Cobra’s fuselage – and unfortunately the turned out to be poorly printed and rather brittle, so that I had to improvise and correct the flaws with generic red and white decal lines from TL Modellbau. The white cross on the tail and most stencils came from the Begemot sheet, too. Black, engine soot-hiding areas on the Cobra’s tail were created with generic decal sheet material, too.
The rotor blades and the wheels received a black ink treatment to emphasize their details, but this was not done on the hull to avoid a dirty or worn look. After some final details like position lights the model was sealed with semi-matt acrylic varnish, while the rotors became matt.
A weird-looking what-if model, but somehow a crane-copter variant of the AH-1 looks quite natural – even more so in its attractive red-and-white civil livery. The stalky landing gear is odd, though, necessitated by the ventral cabin for the second pilot. I was skeptical, but scratching the latter was more successful than expected, and the cabin blend quite well into the AH-1 hull, despite its boxy shape.
Metro North P32AC-DM 229 shoves a Grand Central bound train south past Ardsley on Hudson. Metro North's four Conn Dot owned P32AC-DMs are painted in the New Haven railroad's Mc Ginnis paint scheme. If only a P32 was painted in the NYC's lightening stripe paint scheme.
marlialooming.blogspot.com/2010/07/starborn-people.html
somewhere on Fruit Island;
Background: Nasa-image
pyramids: from me