F-35A aircraft AL-1 and an Italian Air Force KC-767 tanker come in for a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to complete the F-35 program’s first trans-Atlantic flight on Feb. 5, 2016. Learn more: bit.ly/1SEcue0

As aviation enthusiasts from the Royal International Air Tattoo's Park & View area looked on, the F-35B performed the program's first vertical landing in the UK during validation flights for the show on July 6, 2016. bit.ly/294hI2g

NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite launches on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Station in California on Sept. 27, 2021. Launch time was 2:11 p.m. EDT (11:11 a.m. PDT). The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Landsat 9 will join its sister satellite, Landsat 8, in orbit in collecting images from across the planet every eight days. This calibrated data will continue the Landsat program’s critical role in monitoring the health of Earth and helping people manage essential resources, including crops, irrigation water, and forests. NASA Goddard manages the Landsat 9 mission. Goddard teams also built and tested one of the two instruments on Landsat 9, the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2) instrument. TIRS-2 will use thermal imaging to make measurements that can be used to estimate soil moisture and detect the health of plants. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA image use policy.

 

Dan Small of Washington College and landowner Harry Sears use a controlled fire to manage part of a warm season grassland at Chino Farms in Queen Anne's County, Md., on April 13, 2016. The grassland is ideal habitat for northern bobwhite quail. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

USAGE REQUEST INFORMATION

The Chesapeake Bay Program's photographic archive is available for media and non-commercial use at no charge. To request permission, send an email briefly describing the proposed use to requests@chesapeakebay.net. Please do not attach jpegs. Instead, reference the corresponding Flickr URL of the image.

 

A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

10 Cool Facts About NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery

- By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer

 

1. World's Most-Flown Space Shuttle

Discovery flew 39 space missions during its operational life, the first in 1984 and the last one in 2011. It notched more spaceflights than any other space shuttle, or any other spacecraft for that matter.

 

2. Discovery Spent Entire Year in Orbit

Over the course of its 39 missions, Discovery logged a total of 365 days in space. It also put 148,221,675 miles on its odometer, another space shuttle record. The miles traveled by Discovery could have carried it to the moon and back more than 300 times.

 

3. Discovery Is Really Dirty

Discovery's somewhat dingy appearance surprises many people who see the venerable orbiter up close. The many marks on the shuttle are a testament to its long career and many spaceflights, NASA officials say.

"When you look at her up close, she does look worn," said NASA's Stephanie Stilson, who managed Discovery's processing flow between the orbiter's missions from 2000 to 2011. "There are discolorations and streaks from going from orbit back into our environment here."

 

4. Discovery Launched the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronauts aboard Discovery deployed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the shuttle's STS-31 mission in April 1990. Twenty-two years — and numerous repair missions — later, the instrument continues to snap stunning photos that help reshape our understanding of the cosmos.

 

5. Discovery Returned NASA From Shuttle Tragedies

Discovery was the first shuttle to launch after each of the shuttle program's tragedies, the January 1986 explosion of Challenger and the Feburary 2003 destruction of Columbia as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Each disaster took the lives of all seven astronauts aboard. In both cases, the shuttle program took several years to get back on its feet. Discovery's return-to-flight missions launched in September 1988 and July 2005, respectively.

 

6. Discovery Launched John Glenn Back Into Orbit

Discovery is the only shuttle ever to fly one of the Mercury Seven — NASA's first astronaut class, which was chosen in 1959. The orbiter carried John Glenn on its STS-95 mission in October 1998, when the astronaut was 77. Glenn thus became the oldest person ever to reach space; 36 years earlier, in 1962, he had become the first American to orbit Earth.

 

7. Discovery Took Four Years to Build

Work began on Discovery in 1979, and the shuttle wasn't completed until October 1983 in Palmdale, Calif. It was then flown aboard a 747 carrier aircraft to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where it launched on its maiden mission in August 1984.

 

8. Launched 1st Female Shuttle Pilot & Commander

Discovery was the first American spacecraft to be piloted by a woman. NASA astronaut Eileen Collins piloted the shuttle's STS-63 mission in 1995, which rendezvoused with Russia's Mir space station. (Collins became the first female shuttle commander in history on Columbia's STS-93 mission in 1999, which deployed NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.)

 

9. Launched 1st Russian to Ride a U.S. Spaceship

Discovery also carried the first Russian cosmonaut ever to launch in an American spacecraft. Sergei Krikalev flew aboard the orbiter on its STS-60 mission in 1994, the first effort in the joint U.S./Russian Shuttle-Mir program.

 

10. Discovery's Name Has Long Exploration Legacy

NASA's space-flown orbiters were all named after historic oceangoing research or exploration vessels. Discovery takes its name from two ships that loom large in the history of exploration. One was sailed by Henry Hudson in 1610-11 to search for a northwest passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the other was helmed by James Cook on an 18th-century voyage during which he discovered the Hawaiian Islands.

 

© 2017 Skip Plitt Photography, All Rights Reserved.

 

This photo may not be used in any form without permission from the photographer. None of my images are in the Creative Commons. If you wish to use one of my images please contact me at: skipplittphotography@gmail.com

 

Todos los derechos reservados. Esta foto no se puede utilizar en cualquier forma sin el permiso del fotógrafo.

As ms Zaandam manoeuvres to its birth at Canada Place in Vancouver BC on 28 June 2014 we pass the marine industrial area of Port Metro Vancouver. Looks like the Smit Spirit saw the sign on where to stick his tug on the Amethyst.

 

AMETHYST BULK CARRIER:

IMO: 9519339

Name: AMETHYST

MMSI: 636092223

Type: BULK CARRIER

Gross Tonnage: 32987

Summer DWT: 56889 t

Build: 2011

Flag: LIBERIA

Home port: MONROVIA

 

Last 5 port calls as detected by AIS

Date-------------------Port---------------------------------------Country

Sep 19, 2014--------VANCOUVER-Flag of Canada--Canada

Aug 11, 2014---------SHANGHAI-Flag of China--------China

Aug 08, 2014-------SHANGHAI-Flag of China--------China

Jul 23, 2014-------- ONAHAMA-Flag of Japan--------Japan

Jun 28, 2014--------VANCOUVER-Flag of Canada---Canada

 

SMIT SPIRIT:

SMIT Harbour Towage Vancouver Inc. provides towage and escorting assistance at Port Metro Vancouver to incoming and outgoing tankers and container ships.

SMIT’s group of companies in Canada owns and operates 21 tug boats in its harbour towage operations.

 

SMIT’s services are organised into four Divisions:

 

Harbour Towage: harbour towage services and related maritime services.

Terminals: towage services and related maritime and management services to offshore and onshore terminals.

Salvage:salvage, wreck removal, environmental protection and consultancy.

Transport & Heavy Lift: chartering, barge rental & transport, ocean, coastal and river towage, heavy lifting and marine support to a variety of civil and offshore projects and subsea services.

  

LABOUR DISPUTE:

OTTAWA, June 17, 2014 /CNW/ - Today, the Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, congratulated SMIT Harbour Towage Vancouver Inc. and the Canadian Merchant Service Guild on reaching a collective agreement for guild members working at Port Metro Vancouver.

 

The agreement was reached with assistance from the Labour Program's Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which provides dispute resolution and dispute prevention assistance to trade unions and employers under the Canada Labour Code.

via Instagram ift.tt/2fyBFSw

This visualization shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26, 2012, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements, according to scientists from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The data is from the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Special Sensor Microwave/Imager. The line on the image shows the average minimum extent from the period covering 1979-2010, as measured by satellites. Every summer the Arctic ice cap melts down to what scientists call its “minimum” before colder weather builds the ice cover back up. The size of this minimum remains in a long-term decline. The extent on Aug. 26. 2012 broke the previous record set on Sept. 18, 2007. But the 2012 melt season could still continue for several weeks.

 

To read more go to: 1.usa.gov/PkgRuq

 

Image credit: Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 

NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced on Aug. 27, 2012, that the ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean is now smaller than ever recorded since consistent satellite measurements of the ice began more than three decades ago. Each year, the ice cap goes through a shrink-and-swell cycle, melting throughout the summer months before expanding through fall and winter. In the past decade in particular the minimum summertime extent of the ice cap has shown a consistent decline in size – a trend closely linked with the Arctic's warming climate. NASA and NSIDC scientists said the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26 surpassed the previous record minimum extent set in the summer of 2007. The ice cap will continue to melt and get smaller in the coming weeks before temperatures get colder and ice begins to refreeze as fall approaches.

 

NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced on Aug. 27, 2012, that the ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean is now smaller than ever recorded since consistent satellite measurements of the ice began more than three decades ago. Each year, the ice cap goes through a shrink-and-swell cycle, melting throughout the summer months before expanding through fall and winter. In the past decade in particular the minimum summertime extent of the ice cap has shown a consistent decline in size – a trend closely linked with the Arctic's warming climate. NASA and NSIDC scientists said the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26 surpassed the previous record minimum extent set in the summer of 2007. The ice cap will continue to melt and get smaller in the coming weeks before temperatures get colder and ice begins to refreeze as fall approaches.

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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F-35A aircraft AL-1, the first international jet built outside the U.S. at the Cameri, Italy, Final Assembly & Check-Out (FACO) facility, completes the program’s first trans-Atlantic flight as it comes in for a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on Feb. 5, 2016. Learn more: bit.ly/1SEcue0

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida on Dec. 5, 2019, for the program’s first-ever Integrated Day of Launch Test the following day. The rocket’s booster and Centaur upper stage will be filled with propellants for a full run-through of the launch countdown. The rehearsal is practice for Boeing’s upcoming uncrewed Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

NASA image use policy.

Florence Shelly Preserve in Susquehanna County, Pa., on Aug. 2, 2016. The 357-acre preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy and features forest, fields, a stream, and glacial pond surrounded by a floating bog. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

USAGE REQUEST INFORMATION

The Chesapeake Bay Program's photographic archive is available for media and non-commercial use at no charge. To request permission, send an email briefly describing the proposed use to requests@chesapeakebay.net. Please do not attach jpegs. Instead, reference the corresponding Flickr URL of the image.

 

A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

“Command pilot James McDivitt and lunar module pilot Russell Schweickart are shown in this drawing in the lunar module that they tested Wednesday. They entered through the docking tunnel.”

 

Another delightful rendition by Russ Arasmith, as usual, with rich & wonderful attention to detail. With that, note the stowed Portable Life Support System (PLSS) back pack (with the NASA logo) & two Oxygen Purge System (OPS) components behind the Astronaut in the docking tunnel. Apollo 9 was the first use/test of the Apollo Program's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)/PLSS/OPS ensemble inflight & ‘outside’.

Also, as was often the case with Arasmith works, there being a series/sequence of them, it bears a plate number, “5” in this case, at the lower left corner).

 

The official NASA caption/description:

 

“Cutaway of day three activities. Crewmen leave third team member in command module and enter lunar module through docking tunnel. One astronaut shown entering through tunnel while the other is already at one of two side-by-side standing stations in LM. The latter looks out of docking window.”

 

The above, with an immaculate version, along with the rest of the series, from/at the following.

The proprietor of this site, Mr. Jerome Bascom-Pipp, is EASILY one of the best, most honorable human beings I’ve ever come across:

 

apollomissionphotos.com/index_art_ap9.html

Credit: Jerome Bascom-Pipp/"Apollo Mission Control Photo Plus" website

 

Russell Arasmith, a full & rich life:

 

www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/westminster-ca/russell...

Credit: Dignity Memorial website

A typical Batopilas Centro street upgraded with Pueblo Magico money. Improved sidewalk and street finishings and characteristic rich colour treatment of the buildings are the kind of enhancements provided by the program.

 

Pueblos Magico:

With tourism being Mexico’s third major industry, the country’s government has developed several programs to support this important, dollar-generating sector. One of them, called Pueblos Magicos (Magical Towns), aims to increase tourism to towns that are of particular historic or religious value, or that are located near large cities or other tourist sites.

 

Founded in 2001 by the Tourism Secretariat (Sectur), the Pueblos Magicos program coordinates local, state, and federal efforts, channeling funds for diversification and improvement of the towns’ tourism infrastructure.

 

The idea behind this Sectur’s project is to show that Mexico is much more than just sun and beach. Converting quaint, culturally rich towns into visitor-friendly destinations, the government wants to make sure they retain their authentic Mexican charm, which is ultimately what sets them apart from other destinations.

 

One of the program’s most important challenges is to maintain the town’s historical accuracy throughout the modernization process, and because of that all participating towns must comply with architectural and visual guidelines.

Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters fly flight formations at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Wednesday, March 10, 2016. Air Station Elizabeth City helicopter crews were at Kill Devil Hills to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Coast Guard's aviation program with formation flights and a classic painting scheme. (U.S. Coast Guard illustration by Auxiliarist David Lau)

F-35A aircraft AL-1 and an Italian Air Force KC-767 tanker come in for a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to complete the F-35 program’s first trans-Atlantic flight on Feb. 5, 2016. Learn more: bit.ly/1S Ecue0

Fungi grow in the forest at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art near Millersburg, Pa., on Oct. 28, 2016. Fungi play a major role in regenerating the forest by digesting fallen trees and plant matter, effectively recycling the nutrients back into the soil. (Photo by Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

USAGE REQUEST INFORMATION

The Chesapeake Bay Program's photographic archive is available for media and non-commercial use at no charge.

 

To request permission, send an email briefly describing the proposed use to requests@chesapeakebay.net. Please do not attach jpegs. Instead, reference the corresponding Flickr URL of the image.

 

A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

Florence Shelly Preserve in Susquehanna County, Pa., on Aug. 2, 2016. The 357-acre preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy and features forest, fields, a stream, and glacial pond surrounded by a floating bog. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

USAGE REQUEST INFORMATION

The Chesapeake Bay Program's photographic archive is available for media and non-commercial use at no charge. To request permission, send an email briefly describing the proposed use to requests@chesapeakebay.net. Please do not attach jpegs. Instead, reference the corresponding Flickr URL of the image.

 

A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

© 2017 Skip Plitt Photography, All Rights Reserved.

 

This photo may not be used in any form without permission from the photographer. None of my images are in the Creative Commons. If you wish to use one of my images please contact me at: skipplittphotography@gmail.com

 

Todos los derechos reservados. Esta foto no se puede utilizar en cualquier forma sin el permiso del fotógrafo.

 

One of the most remarkable of the Wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) produced by the Nazi Germany during World War II, the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet holds the distinction of being the first and only tailless rocket-powered interceptor to see operational service. Like the other advanced weapons fielded by Germany during the final year of World War II, the Me 163 had little actual effect on the outcome of the war. Considering the conditions under which it was developed and deployed, however, the Me 163 can be rightly considered a significant technological accomplishment.

 

The concept for the Komet originated during the late thirties, when rocket propulsion for aircraft became increasingly attractive to a number of air planners in Nazi Germany. Although rockets potentially offered astounding performance advantages for an interceptor, their high fuel consumption posed seemingly insurmountable design difficulties. In spite of this, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium or RLM (Reich Air Ministry) supported the work of rocket engine designer Hellmuth Walter, issuing a contract in 1936 for the development of an 882 lb. thrust motor designated the R I-203. The engine was to be fueled by a mixture of T-Stoff (80 percent hydrogen peroxide with oxyquinoline or phosphate as a stabilizer and 20 percent water) and Z-Stoff (an aqueous solution of calcium permanganate) and intended to power the Heinkel He 176 aircraft then under development. Because the He 176, which had been designed solely as a high-speed aircraft with no military potential, the RLM ordered the Deutsches Forschungsinsitut für Segelflug (German Research Institute for Gliding Flight or DFS) to produce a second prototype of the DFS 39, a tailless aircraft designed by Dr. Alexander Lippisch. It was also to be a rocket-powered design under a top-secret program designated Project X. DFS was to build the aircraft's wings while Heinkel, which was already working on the He 176, was to manufacture the rest of the airframe. It soon became apparent to Lippisch, however, that the DFS 39's wingtip-mounted rudders would likely cause unacceptable flutter and that a central fin and rudder would offer better control. It was replaced by a new design, designated the DFS 194, with a single large vertical stabilizer mounted on the fuselage. Like the DFS 39, it was initially intended only to be a conventionally powered flying test bed for later rocket-powered designs.

 

Difficulties arising from the division of work between DFS and Heinkel and the secrecy surrounding the project led Lippisch to request that he be allowed to leave DFS and join Messerschmitt AG. The RLM granted his request on January 2, 1939, and shortly after Lippisch, his design team, and the partially completed DFS 194 arrived at the Messerschmitt works in Augsburg, it was decided to adopt rocket power for the aircraft. The airframe was completed at the Messerschmitt works in Augsburg and shipped to Pennemünde West early in 1940 for installation of a Walter R I-203. Flight-testing revealed that despite the unreliability its motor, the aircraft had excellent performance characteristics, reaching a speed of 342 mph in level flight during one test.

 

The move to Messerschmitt brought a change in the program's designation to Me 163. The success of the DFS 194 spurred development of the first prototype Me 163, designated the Me 163 V1, which was completed during early 1941. Flight testing commenced in the spring of 1941, comprising a series of unpowered flights before the Me 163 V1 was shipped to Peenemünde West for installation of a 1,653 lb. thrust Walter RII-203 rocket motor and its first powered flights. Despite a series of accidents and explosions involving the unreliable motor, on October 2, 1941, the Me 163 V1 set a new world speed record of 1,004.5 kph (623.8 mph). Impressed by the aircraft's performance, the RLM instructed Lippisch was to design an improved version of the Me 163 around a more powerful rocket motor under development by Walter. The new design, designated Me 163 B, was to be an operational interceptor and represented an almost complete redesign of the aircraft. Its landing gear remained similar to the earlier design, employing a wheeled trolley that was jettisoned after takeoff and an extendable skid for landing. Additional prototypes based on the Me 163 V1 configuration were designated Me 163 A.

 

The first Me 163 B prototype, the Me 163 V3, was completed in April 1942, but it was not until early fall that the first Walter 109-509A motors were ready for installation. The new motor used a more volatile fuel mixture of T-Stoff (80 percent hydrogen peroxide and 20 percent water) and C-Stoff (hydrazine hydrate, methyl alcohol, and water), which provided a maximum thrust of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb.). Unlike the earlier cold principle motor which directed all of the oxygen and water vapor produced by the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide out of the engine's nozzle, the new motor employed a hot system in which the oxygen was ignited for additional thrust and better fuel efficiency. Flight testing of the first series of Me 163 B-0 preproduction aircraft proceeded through 1942 and demonstrated the dangers of the Me 163's unproven propulsion system. As fuel passed through the Walter motor's pumps, areas of vacuum sometimes formed in the liquid. This cavitation often caused a catastrophic explosion when the motor was started. Once in the air, the aircraft's climb rate proved remarkable, but compressibility problems limited its safe speed in a dive to below Mach 0.82. The Komet's landing gear also proved troublesome, with numerous pilots suffering back injuries as a result of the skid failing to extend properly or failing upon touchdown. Even when the skid operated properly, landings were always without power and at high speed, requiring the utmost care on the part of the pilot to prevent the aircraft from overturning on soft ground. Such mishaps often led to an explosion or the pilot being severely burned by leaking fuel.

 

Despite the problems encountered during testing, plans proceeded during 1943 to equip the first operational units with the operational version of the Komet, designated the Me 163 B-1a. Production began at dispersed facilities by the Klemm concern, but was later transferred to Junkers as the result of quality control problems. An operational training unit, Erprobungskommando 16 or EK 16 was formed during July 1943 at Pennemünde West, but moved to Bad Zwischenahn before the first group of pilot trainees arrived as the result of allied bombing of Pennemünde. The unit finally received its first group of 30 pilot trainees in the fall of 1943. By May 1944, organization of Jagdgeschwader 400 or JG 400, the first operational Me 163 wing, began in earnest with the formation of the unit's first group (I./JG 400) under the command of Hauptmann Wolfgang Späte. Späte planned to deploy Me 163s from a string of bases, each close enough that the short range of the Me 163 overlapped. The plan was never realized, owing in part to the special facilities needed for the aircraft. Instead, I./JG 400 was to provide protection for the synthetic oil refineries at Leuna, some 90 km (55 miles) from its base at Brandis. Two additional Me 163 groups, II. And III./JG 400 were formed before the end of the war, but saw limited combat.

 

The unit made its first interception of Allied bombers on August 16, 1944 without success. Early combat experiences demonstrated a number of problems that prevented the Me 163 from ever becoming an effective weapon. Although the aircraft's two MK 108 30mm cannons were capable of downing a four-engine bomber with only three or four hits, the Komet's high speed, coupled with the cannons' slow rate of fire and short range made effective gunnery nearly impossible against the slow moving bombers. As a result, Me 163 pilots recorded a total of only nine kills. Although capable of reaching its service ceiling of 12,100 m (39,690 ft) in just under three-and-a-half minutes, the Me 163 carried only enough fuel for eight minutes of powered flight. After one or two firing passes, the pilot had to glide back to base with no means of escaping Allied escort fighters. In response to pilots' combat reports, alternative weapons, including vertically firing 50mm cannons triggered by a photocell as the Me 163 passed through a bomber's shadow were tested but not produced in quantity. An improved variant of the aircraft with a greater endurance and a tricycle landing gear, designated the Me 163 C, was also produced in small numbers before the war's end, but was not flown operationally.

 

The operational history of the National Air and Space Museum's Me 163 B-1a, Werk-Nummer (serial number) 191301, remains obscure. One of five Me 163s brought to the United States after the war, it arrived at Freeman Field, Indiana, during the summer of 1945. There it received the foreign equipment code FE-500. On April 12, 1946, it was flown aboard a cargo aircraft to the U.S. Army Air Forces facility at Muroc dry lake in California for flight testing. Testing began there on May 3, 1946 in the presence of Dr. Alexander Lippisch and involved towing the unfueled Komet behind a B-29 to an altitude of 9,000 to 10,500 m (30,000 to 35,000 ft) before it was released for a glide back to earth under the control of test pilot Major Gus Lundquist. Powered tests were planned, but not carried out after delamination of the aircraft's wooden wings was discovered. It was then stored at Norton AFB, California until 1954, when it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The aircraft remained on display in an unrestored condition at the museum's Paul E. Garber Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, until 1996, when it was lent to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum in Savannah, Georgia. It is currently displayed at the Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

 

airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/messerschmitt-me-16...

Two Lockheed Martin F-35B "Lightning II" fighter jets have successfully landed on board HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time, laying the foundations for the next 50 years of fixed wing aviation in support of the UK’s Carrier Strike Capability.

 

Royal Navy Commander, Nathan Gray, 41, made history by being the first to land on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, carefully maneuvering his stealth jet onto the thermal coated deck. He was followed by Royal Navy Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, RAF, both of whom are test pilots, operating with the Integrated Test Force (ITF) based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

 

Shortly afterwards, once a deck inspection has been conducted and the all-clear given, Cmdr Gray became the first pilot to take off using the ship’s ski-ramp.

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather, stealth, fifth-generation, multirole combat aircraft, designed for ground-attack and air-superiority missions. It is built by Lockheed Martin and many subcontractors, including Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and BAE Systems.

 

The F-35 has three main models: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A (CTOL), the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B (STOVL), and the catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery, carrier-based F-35C (CATOBAR). The F-35 descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, the design that was awarded the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program over the competing Boeing X-32. The official Lightning II name has proven deeply unpopular and USAF pilots have nicknamed it Panther, instead.

 

The United States principally funds F-35 development, with additional funding from other NATO members and close U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and formerly Turkey. These funders generally receive subcontracts to manufacture components for the aircraft; for example, Turkey was the sole supplier of several F-35 parts until its removal from the program in July 2019. Several other countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the aircraft.

 

As the largest and most expensive military program ever, the F-35 became the subject of much scrutiny and criticism in the U.S. and in other countries. In 2013 and 2014, critics argued that the plane was "plagued with design flaws", with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time," instead of identifying and fixing "defects before firing up its production line". By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule". Critics also contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill".

 

The F-35 first flew on 15 December 2006. In July 2015, the United States Marines declared its first squadron of F-35B fighters ready for deployment. However, the DOD-based durability testing indicated the service life of early-production F-35B aircraft is well under the expected 8,000 flight hours, and may be as low as 2,100 flight hours. Lot 9 and later aircraft include design changes but service life testing has yet to occur. The U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for deployment in August 2016. The U.S. Navy declared its first F-35Cs ready in February 2019. In 2018, the F-35 made its combat debut with the Israeli Air Force.

 

The U.S. stated plan is to buy 2,663 F-35s, which will provide the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled until 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070.

 

Development

 

F-35 development started in 1992 with the origins of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and was to culminate in full production by 2018. The X-35 first flew on 24 October 2000 and the F-35A on 15 December 2006.

 

The F-35 was developed to replace most US fighter jets with the variants of a single design that would be common to all branches of the military. It was developed in co-operation with a number of foreign partners, and, unlike the F-22 Raptor, intended to be available for export. Three variants were designed: the F-35A (CTOL), the F-35B (STOVL), and the F-35C (CATOBAR). Despite being intended to share most of their parts to reduce costs and improve maintenance logistics, by 2017, the effective commonality was only 20%. The program received considerable criticism for cost overruns during development and for the total projected cost of the program over the lifetime of the jets.

 

By 2017, the program was expected to cost $406.5 billion over its lifetime (i.e. until 2070) for acquisition of the jets, and an additional $1.1 trillion for operations and maintenance. A number of design deficiencies were alleged, such as: carrying a small internal payload; performance inferior to the aircraft being replaced, particularly the F-16; lack of safety in relying on a single engine; and flaws such as the vulnerability of the fuel tank to fire and the propensity for transonic roll-off (wing drop). The possible obsolescence of stealth technology was also criticized.

  

Design

 

Overview

 

Although several experimental designs have been developed since the 1960s, such as the unsuccessful Rockwell XFV-12, the F-35B is to be the first operational supersonic STOVL stealth fighter. The single-engine F-35 resembles the larger twin-engined Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, drawing design elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, proposed for a 1972 supersonic VTOL fighter requirement for the Sea Control Ship.

 

Lockheed Martin has suggested that the F-35 could replace the USAF's F-15C/D fighters in the air-superiority role and the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle in the ground-attack role. It has also stated the F-35 is intended to have close- and long-range air-to-air capability second only to that of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and that the F-35 has an advantage over the F-22 in basing flexibility and possesses "advanced sensors and information fusion".

 

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on 25 March 2009, acquisition deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mark D. "Shack" Shackelford, stated that the F-35 is designed to be America's "premier surface-to-air missile killer, and is uniquely equipped for this mission with cutting-edge processing power, synthetic aperture radar integration techniques, and advanced target recognition".

 

Improvements

Ostensible improvements over past-generation fighter aircraft include:

 

Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology, using structural fiber mat instead of the high-maintenance coatings of legacy stealth platforms

Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and on-board sensors to increase the pilot's situational awareness and improve target identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes

High-speed data networking including IEEE 1394b and Fibre Channel (Fibre Channel is also used on Boeing's Super Hornet.

The Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment, Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), and Computerized maintenance management system to help ensure the aircraft can remain operational with minimal maintenance manpower The Pentagon has moved to open up the competitive bidding by other companies. This was after Lockheed Martin stated that instead of costing 20% less than the F-16 per flight hour, the F-35 would actually cost 12% more. Though the ALGS is intended to reduce maintenance costs, the company disagrees with including the cost of this system in the aircraft ownership calculations. The USMC has implemented a workaround for a cyber vulnerability in the system. The ALIS system currently requires a shipping-container load of servers to run, but Lockheed is working on a more portable version to support the Marines' expeditionary operations.

Electro-hydrostatic actuators run by a power-by-wire flight-control system

A modern and updated flight simulator, which may be used for a greater fraction of pilot training to reduce the costly flight hours of the actual aircraft

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries to provide power to run the control surfaces in an emergency

Structural composites in the F-35 are 35% of the airframe weight (up from 25% in the F-22). The majority of these are bismaleimide and composite epoxy materials. The F-35 will be the first mass-produced aircraft to include structural nanocomposites, namely carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy. Experience of the F-22's problems with corrosion led to the F-35 using a gap filler that causes less galvanic corrosion to the airframe's skin, designed with fewer gaps requiring filler and implementing better drainage. The relatively short 35-foot wingspan of the A and B variants is set by the F-35B's requirement to fit inside the Navy's current amphibious assault ship parking area and elevators; the F-35C's longer wing is considered to be more fuel efficient.

 

Costs

A U.S. Navy study found that the F-35 will cost 30 to 40% more to maintain than current jet fighters, not accounting for inflation over the F-35's operational lifetime. A Pentagon study concluded a $1 trillion maintenance cost for the entire fleet over its lifespan, not accounting for inflation. The F-35 program office found that as of January 2014, costs for the F-35 fleet over a 53-year lifecycle was $857 billion. Costs for the fighter have been dropping and accounted for the 22 percent life cycle drop since 2010. Lockheed stated that by 2019, pricing for the fifth-generation aircraft will be less than fourth-generation fighters. An F-35A in 2019 is expected to cost $85 million per unit complete with engines and full mission systems, inflation adjusted from $75 million in December 2013.

At Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, xenon lights illuminate the Constellation Program's 327-foot-tall Ares I-X rocket after the rotating service structure, has been retracted from around it for launch. The transfer of the pad from the Space Shuttle Program to the Constellation Program took place May 31. Modifications made to the pad include the removal of shuttle unique subsystems, such as the orbiter access arm and a section of the gaseous oxygen vent arm, and the installation of three 600-foot lightning towers, access platforms, environmental control systems and a vehicle stabilization system. The data returned from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will be used to refine the design of future launch vehicles and bring NASA one step closer to reaching its exploration goals. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 27.

 

Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

 

Original image:

mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=43913

 

More about Ares I-X: www.nasa.gov/aresIX

 

p.s. You can see all of the Ares photos in the Ares Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/ares/ We'd love to have you as a member!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The OV-10 Bronco was initially conceived in the early 1960s through an informal collaboration between W. H. Beckett and Colonel K. P. Rice, U.S. Marine Corps, who met at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, and who also happened to live near each other. The original concept was for a rugged, simple, close air support aircraft integrated with forward ground operations. At the time, the U.S. Army was still experimenting with armed helicopters, and the U.S. Air Force was not interested in close air support.

The concept aircraft was to operate from expedient forward air bases using roads as runways. Speed was to be from very slow to medium subsonic, with much longer loiter times than a pure jet. Efficient turboprop engines would give better performance than piston engines. Weapons were to be mounted on the centerline to get efficient aiming. The inventors favored strafing weapons such as self-loading recoilless rifles, which could deliver aimed explosive shells with less recoil than cannons, and a lower per-round weight than rockets. The airframe was to be designed to avoid the back blast.

 

Beckett and Rice developed a basic platform meeting these requirements, then attempted to build a fiberglass prototype in a garage. The effort produced enthusiastic supporters and an informal pamphlet describing the concept. W. H. Beckett, who had retired from the Marine Corps, went to work at North American Aviation to sell the aircraft.

The aircraft's design supported effective operations from forward bases. The OV-10 had a central nacelle containing a crew of two in tandem and space for cargo, and twin booms containing twin turboprop engines. The visually distinctive feature of the aircraft is the combination of the twin booms, with the horizontal stabilizer that connected them at the fin tips. The OV-10 could perform short takeoffs and landings, including on aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious assault ships without using catapults or arresting wires. Further, the OV-10 was designed to take off and land on unimproved sites. Repairs could be made with ordinary tools. No ground equipment was required to start the engines. And, if necessary, the engines would operate on high-octane automobile fuel with only a slight loss of power.

 

The aircraft had responsive handling and could fly for up to 5½ hours with external fuel tanks. The cockpit had extremely good visibility for both pilot and co-pilot, provided by a wrap-around "greenhouse" that was wider than the fuselage. North American Rockwell custom ejection seats were standard, with many successful ejections during service. With the second seat removed, the OV-10 could carry 3,200 pounds (1,500 kg) of cargo, five paratroopers, or two litter patients and an attendant. Empty weight was 6,969 pounds (3,161 kg). Normal operating fueled weight with two crew was 9,908 pounds (4,494 kg). Maximum takeoff weight was 14,446 pounds (6,553 kg).

The bottom of the fuselage bore sponsons or "stub wings" that improved flight performance by decreasing aerodynamic drag underneath the fuselage. Normally, four 7.62 mm (.308 in) M60C machine guns were carried on the sponsons, accessed through large forward-opening hatches. The sponsons also had four racks to carry bombs, pods, or fuel. The wings outboard of the engines contained two additional hardpoints, one per side. Racked armament in the Vietnam War was usually seven-shot 2.75 in (70 mm) rocket pods with white phosphorus marker rounds or high-explosive rockets, or 5" (127 mm) four-shot Zuni rocket pods. Bombs, ADSIDS air-delivered/para-dropped unattended seismic sensors, Mk-6 battlefield illumination flares, and other stores were also carried.

Operational experience showed some weaknesses in the OV-10's design. It was significantly underpowered, which contributed to crashes in Vietnam in sloping terrain because the pilots could not climb fast enough. While specifications stated that the aircraft could reach 26,000 feet (7,900 m), in Vietnam the aircraft could reach only 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Also, no OV-10 pilot survived ditching the aircraft.

 

The OV-10 served in the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy, as well as in the service of a number of other countries. In U.S. military service, the Bronco was operated until the early Nineties, and obsoleted USAF OV-10s were passed on to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for anti-drug operations. A number of OV-10As furthermore ended up in the hands of the California Department of Forestry (CDF) and were used for spotting fires and directing fire bombers onto hot spots.

 

This was not the end of the OV-10 in American military service, though: In 2012, the type gained new attention because of its unique qualities. A $20 million budget was allocated to activate an experimental USAF unit of two airworthy OV-10Gs, acquired from NASA and the State Department. These machines were retrofitted with military equipment and were, starting in May 2015, deployed overseas to support Operation “Inherent Resolve”, flying more than 120 combat sorties over 82 days over Iraq and Syria. Their concrete missions remained unclear, and it is speculated they provided close air support for Special Forces missions, esp. in confined urban environments where the Broncos’ loitering time and high agility at low speed and altitude made them highly effective and less vulnerable than helicopters.

Furthermore, these Broncos reputedly performed strikes with the experimental AGR-20A “Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS)”, a Hydra 70-millimeter rocket with a laser-seeking head as guidance - developed for precision strikes against small urban targets with little collateral damage. The experiment ended satisfactorily, but the machines were retired again, and the small unit was dissolved.

 

However, the machines had shown their worth in asymmetric warfare, and the U.S. Air Force decided to invest in reactivating the OV-10 on a regular basis, despite the overhead cost of operating an additional aircraft type in relatively small numbers – but development and production of a similar new type would have caused much higher costs, with an uncertain time until an operational aircraft would be ready for service. Re-activating a proven design and updating an existing airframe appeared more efficient.

The result became the MV-10H, suitably christened “Super Bronco” but also known as “Black Pony”, after the program's internal name. This aircraft was derived from the official OV-10X proposal by Boeing from 2009 for the USAF's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance requirement. Initially, Boeing proposed to re-start OV-10 manufacture, but this was deemed uneconomical, due to the expected small production number of new serial aircraft, so the “Black Pony” program became a modernization project. In consequence, all airframes for the "new" MV-10Hs were recovered OV-10s of various types from the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

 

While the revamped aircraft would maintain much of its 1960s-vintage rugged external design, modernizations included a completely new, armored central fuselage with a highly modified cockpit section, ejection seats and a computerized glass cockpit. The “Black Pony” OV-10 had full dual controls, so that either crewmen could steer the aircraft while the other operated sensors and/or weapons. This feature would also improve survivability in case of incapacitation of a crew member as the result from a hit.

The cockpit armor protected the crew and many vital systems from 23mm shells and shrapnel (e. g. from MANPADS). The crew still sat in tandem under a common, generously glazed canopy with flat, bulletproof panels for reduced sun reflections, with the pilot in the front seat and an observer/WSO behind. The Bronco’s original cargo capacity and the rear door were retained, even though the extra armor and defensive measures like chaff/flare dispensers as well as an additional fuel cell in the central fuselage limited the capacity. However, it was still possible to carry and deploy personnel, e. g. small special ops teams of up to four when the aircraft flew in clean configuration.

Additional updates for the MV-10H included structural reinforcements for a higher AUW and higher g load maneuvers, similar to OV-10D+ standards. The landing gear was also reinforced, and the aircraft kept its ability to operate from short, improvised airstrips. A fixed refueling probe was added to improve range and loiter time.

 

Intelligence sensors and smart weapon capabilities included a FLIR sensor and a laser range finder/target designator, both mounted in a small turret on the aircraft’s nose. The MV-10H was also outfitted with a data link and the ability to carry an integrated targeting pod such as the Northrop Grumman LITENING or the Lockheed Martin Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP). Also included was the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) to provide live sensor data and video recordings to personnel on the ground.

 

To improve overall performance and to better cope with the higher empty weight of the modified aircraft as well as with operations under hot-and-high conditions, the engines were beefed up. The new General Electric CT7-9D turboprop engines improved the Bronco's performance considerably: top speed increased by 100 mph (160 km/h), the climb rate was tripled (a weak point of early OV-10s despite the type’s good STOL capability) and both take-off as well as landing run were almost halved. The new engines called for longer nacelles, and their circular diameter markedly differed from the former Garrett T76-G-420/421 turboprop engines. To better exploit the additional power and reduce the aircraft’s audio signature, reversible contraprops, each with eight fiberglass blades, were fitted. These allowed a reduced number of revolutions per minute, resulting in less noise from the blades and their tips, while the engine responsiveness was greatly improved. The CT7-9Ds’ exhausts were fitted with muzzlers/air mixers to further reduce the aircraft's noise and heat signature.

Another novel and striking feature was the addition of so-called “tip sails” to the wings: each wingtip was elongated with a small, cigar-shaped fairing, each carrying three staggered, small “feather blade” winglets. Reputedly, this installation contributed ~10% to the higher climb rate and improved lift/drag ratio by ~6%, improving range and loiter time, too.

Drawing from the Iraq experience as well as from the USMC’s NOGS test program with a converted OV-10D as a night/all-weather gunship/reconnaissance platform, the MV-10H received a heavier gun armament: the original four light machine guns that were only good for strafing unarmored targets were deleted and their space in the sponsons replaced by avionics. Instead, the aircraft was outfitted with a lightweight M197 three-barrel 20mm gatling gun in a chin turret. This could be fixed in a forward position at high speed or when carrying forward-firing ordnance under the stub wings, or it could be deployed to cover a wide field of fire under the aircraft when it was flying slower, being either slaved to the FLIR or to a helmet sighting auto targeting system.

The original seven hardpoints were retained (1x ventral, 2x under each sponson, and another pair under the outer wings), but the total ordnance load was slightly increased and an additional pair of launch rails for AIM-9 Sidewinders or other light AAMs under the wing tips were added – not only as a defensive measure, but also with an anti-helicopter role in mind; four more Sidewinders could be carried on twin launchers under the outer wings against aerial targets. Other guided weapons cleared for the MV-10H were the light laser-guided AGR-20A and AGM-119 Hellfire missiles, the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System upgrade to the light Hydra 70 rockets, the new Laser Guided Zuni Rocket which had been cleared for service in 2010, TV-/IR-/laser-guided AGM-65 Maverick AGMs and AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radar missiles, plus a wide range of gun and missile pods, iron and cluster bombs, as well as ECM and flare/chaff pods, which were not only carried defensively, but also in order to disrupt enemy ground communication.

 

In this configuration, a contract for the conversion of twelve mothballed American Broncos to the new MV-10H standard was signed with Boeing in 2016, and the first MV-10H was handed over to the USAF in early 2018, with further deliveries lasting into early 2020. All machines were allocated to the newly founded 919th Special Operations Support Squadron at Duke Field (Florida). This unit was part of the 919th Special Operations Wing, an Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the United States Air Force. It was assigned to the Tenth Air Force of Air Force Reserve Command and an associate unit of the 1st Special Operations Wing, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). If mobilized the wing was gained by AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command) to support Special Tactics, the U.S. Air Force's special operations ground force. Similar in ability and employment to Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Tactics personnel were typically the first to enter combat and often found themselves deep behind enemy lines in demanding, austere conditions, usually with little or no support.

 

The MV-10Hs are expected to provide support for these ground units in the form of all-weather reconnaissance and observation, close air support and also forward air control duties for supporting ground units. Precision ground strikes and protection from enemy helicopters and low-flying aircraft were other, secondary missions for the modernized Broncos, which are expected to serve well into the 2040s. Exports or conversions of foreign OV-10s to the Black Pony standard are not planned, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 2

Length: 42 ft 2½ in (12,88 m) incl. pitot

Wingspan: 45 ft 10½ in(14 m) incl. tip sails

Height: 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m)

Wing area: 290.95 sq ft (27.03 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 64A315

Empty weight: 9,090 lb (4,127 kg)

Gross weight: 13,068 lb (5,931 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,318 lb (7,862 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× General Electric CT7-9D turboprop engines, 1,305 kW (1,750 hp) each,

driving 8-bladed Hamilton Standard 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter constant-speed,

fully feathering, reversible contra-rotating propellers with metal hub and composite blades

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 mph (340 kn, 625 km/h)

Combat range: 198 nmi (228 mi, 367 km)

Ferry range: 1,200 nmi (1,400 mi, 2,200 km) with auxiliary fuel

Maximum loiter time: 5.5 h with auxiliary fuel

Service ceiling: 32.750 ft (10,000 m)

13,500 ft (4.210 m) on one engine

Rate of climb: 17.400 ft/min (48 m/s) at sea level

Take-off run: 480 ft (150 m)

740 ft (227 m) to 50 ft (15 m)

1,870 ft (570 m) to 50 ft (15 m) at MTOW

Landing run: 490 ft (150 m)

785 ft (240 m) at MTOW

1,015 ft (310 m) from 50 ft (15 m)

 

Armament:

1x M197 3-barreled 20 mm Gatling cannon in a chin turret with 750 rounds ammo capacity

7x hardpoints for a total load of 5.000 lb (2,270 kg)

2x wingtip launch rails for AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional Bronco update/conversion was simply spawned by the idea: could it be possible to replace the original cockpit section with one from an AH-1 Cobra, for a kind of gunship version?

 

The basis is the Academy OV-10D kit, mated with the cockpit section from a Fujimi AH-1S TOW Cobra (Revell re-boxing, though), chosen because of its “boxy” cockpit section with flat glass panels – I think that it conveys the idea of an armored cockpit section best. Combining these parts was not easy, though, even though the plan sound simple. Initially, the Bronco’s twin booms, wings and stabilizer were built separately, because this made PSR on these sections easier than trying the same on a completed airframe. One of the initial challenges: the different engines. I wanted something uprated, and a different look, and I had a pair of (excellent!) 1:144 resin engines from the Russian company Kompakt Zip for a Tu-95 bomber at hand, which come together with movable(!) eight-blade contraprops that were an almost perfect size match for the original three-blade props. Biggest problem: the Tu-95 nacelles have a perfectly circular diameter, while the OV-10’s booms are square and rectangular. Combining these parts and shapes was already a messy PST affair, but it worked out quite well – even though the result rather reminds of some Chinese upgrade measure (anyone know the Tu-4 copies with turboprops? This here looks similar!). But while not pretty, I think that the beafier look works well and adds to the idea of a “revived” aircraft. And you can hardly beat the menacing look of contraprops on anything...

The exotic, so-called “tip sails” on the wings, mounted on short booms, are a detail borrowed from the Shijiazhuang Y-5B-100, an updated Chinese variant/copy of the Antonov An-2 biplane transporter. The booms are simple pieces of sprue from the Bronco kit, the winglets were cut from 0.5mm styrene sheet.

 

For the cockpit donor, the AH-1’s front section was roughly built, including the engine section (which is a separate module, so that the basic kit can be sold with different engine sections), and then the helicopter hull was cut and trimmed down to match the original Bronco pod and to fit under the wing. This became more complicated than expected, because a) the AH-1 cockpit and the nose are considerably shorter than the OV-10s, b) the AH-1 fuselage is markedly taller than the Bronco’s and c) the engine section, which would end up in the area of the wing, features major recesses, making the surface very uneven – calling for massive PSR to even this out. PSR was also necessary to hide the openings for the Fujimi AH-1’s stub wings. Other issues: the front landing gear (and its well) had to be added, as well as the OV-10 wing stubs. Furthermore, the new cockpit pod’s rear section needed an aerodynamical end/fairing, but I found a leftover Academy OV-10 section from a build/kitbashing many moons ago. Perfect match!

All these challenges could be tackled, even though the AH-1 cockpit looks surprisingly stout and massive on the Bronco’s airframe - the result looks stockier than expected, but it works well for the "Gunship" theme. Lots of PSR went into the new central fuselage section, though, even before it was mated with the OV-10 wing and the rest of the model.

Once cockpit and wing were finally mated, the seams had to disappear under even more PSR and a spinal extension of the canopy had to be sculpted across the upper wing surface, which would meld with the pod’s tail in a (more or less) harmonious shape. Not an easy task, and the fairing was eventually sculpted with 2C putty, plus even more PSR… Looks quite homogenous, though.

 

After this massive body work, other hardware challenges appeared like small distractions. The landing gear was another major issue because the deeper AH-1 section lowered the ground clearance, also because of the chin turret. To counter this, I raised the OV-10’s main landing gear by ~2mm – not much, but it was enough to create a credible stance, together with the front landing gear transplant under the cockpit, which received an internal console to match the main landing gear’s length. Due to the chin turret and the shorter nose, the front wheel retracts backwards now. But this looks quite plausible, thanks to the additional space under the cockpit tub, which also made a belt feed for the gun’s ammunition supply believable.

To enhance the menacing look I gave the model a fixed refueling boom, made from 1mm steel wire and a receptor adapter sculpted with white glue. The latter stuff was also used add some antenna fairings around the hull. Some antennae, chaff dispensers and an IR decoy were taken from the Academy kit.

 

The ordnance came from various sources. The Sidewinders under the wing tips were taken from an Italeri F-16C/D kit, they look better than the missiles from the Academy Bronco kit. Their launch rails came from an Italeri Bae Hawk 200. The quadruple Hellfire launchers on the underwing hardpoints were left over from an Italeri AH-1W, and they are a perfect load for this aircraft and its role. The LAU-10 and -19 missile pods on the stub wings were taken from the OV-10 kit.

  

Painting and markings:

Finding a suitable and somewhat interesting – but still plausible – paint scheme was not easy. Taking the A-10 as benchmark, an overall light grey livery (with focus on low contrast against the sky as protection against ground fire) would have been a likely choice – and in fact the last operational American OV-10s were painted in this fashion. But in order to provide a different look I used the contemporary USAF V-22Bs and Special Operations MC-130s as benchmark, which typically carry a darker paint scheme consisting of FS 36118 (suitably “Gunship Gray” :D) from above, FS 36375 underneath, with a low, wavy waterline, plus low-viz markings. Not spectacular, but plausible – and very similar to the late r/w Colombian OV-10s.

The cockpit tub became Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231, Humbrol 140) and the landing gear white (Revell 301).

 

The model received an overall black ink washing and some post-panel-shading, to liven up the dull all-grey livery. The decals were gathered from various sources, and I settled for black USAF low-viz markings. The “stars and bars” come from a late USAF F-4, the “IP” tail code was tailored from F-16 markings and the shark mouth was taken from an Academy AH-64. Most stencils came from another Academy OV-10 sheet and some other sources.

Decals were also used to create the trim on the propeller blades and markings on the ordnance.

 

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some exhaust soot stains were added with graphite along the tail boom flanks.

  

A successful transplantation – but is this still a modified Bronco or already a kitbashing? The result looks quite plausible and menacing, even though the TOW Cobra front section appears relatively massive. But thanks to the bigger engines and extended wing tips the proportions still work. The large low-pressure tires look a bit goofy under the aircraft, but they are original. The grey livery works IMHO well, too – a more colorful or garish scheme would certainly have distracted from the modified technical basis.

The Mohonk Mountain House, also known as Lake Mohonk Mountain House, is an American resort hotel located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York. Its location in the town of New Paltz, New York is just beyond the southern border of the Catskill Mountains, west of the Hudson River.

 

The National Historic Landmark Program's "Statement of Significance", as of the site's historic landmark designation in 1986, stated:

 

Begun in the 1870s as a small resort for family and friends by the Smiley brothers, it became so popular that it was enlarged many times. Because of the Smileys' love of the outdoor life, the area around the hotel was treated as an integral part of the attractions of the resort. Much of this area was planned as an experiment in conservation of the natural environment, and as an educational tool for the study of botany, geology, and outdoor living.

 

The resort is located on the shore of Lake Mohonk, which is half a mile (800 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) deep. The main structure was built by Quaker twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley between 1869 and 1910.

 

From 1883 to 1916, annual conferences took place at Mohonk Mountain House, sponsored by Albert Smiley, to improve the living standards of Native American Indian populations. These meetings brought together government representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the House and Senate committees on Indian Affairs, as well as educators, philanthropists, and Indian leaders to discuss the formulation of policy. The Haverford College library holds 22,000 records from the 34 conference reports for researchers and students of American history.

 

The hotel hosted the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration between 1895 and 1916, which was instrumental in creating the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. Those conference papers were donated by the Smiley Family to Swarthmore College for research.

 

The house was given a United Nations Environment Programme Award in 1994 in honor of "125 years of stewardship". According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Through its buildings and roads, its land, and its spirit, Mohonk exemplifies America's history and culture. Mohonk has since managed to maintain its 19th century character into the 21st century."

 

The resort was sued in 2014 by 200 guests who had become ill in a norovirus outbreak after staying there, who claimed the owners of the Mohonk Mountain House had been aware of the gastrointestinal illness at the resort prior to the arrival of the guests. The guests accused Mohonk of “intentional, willful, wanton, illegal ... and deliberate disregard for the health, safety and rights of plaintiffs.” The resort settled the claims for $875,000 two years later.

Description

 

Mohonk Mountain House has 259 guest rooms, including 28 tower rooms, an indoor pool and spa, and an outdoor ice-skating rink for winter use. The property consists of 1,325 acres (536 ha), and much of it is landscaped with meadows and gardens. It adjoins the Mohonk Preserve, which is crisscrossed by 85 miles (140 km) of hiking trails and carriage roads. The Smileys conveyed the majority of their property to the preserve.

 

The Mohonk Mountain House has hosted many famous visitors including industrialist John D. Rockefeller, naturalist John Burroughs, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Bill Clinton. Guests have also included former First Lady Julia Grant, author Thomas Mann, and religious leaders such as Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, Reverend Ralph W. Sockman, Reverend Francis Edward Clark. `Abdu'l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá'í Faith founder Bahá'u'lláh, stayed there in 1912 during the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration as part of his journeys to the West.

 

from Wikipedia

The Eumenides is the third play in Aeschylus’ great masterpiece, the tragic trilogy The Oresteia, written more than 2,500 years ago. In response to the pleadings of his sister Electra and at the command of the god Apollo, Orestes has murdered his mother, Clytemnestra, who was wife and murderer of his father Agamemnon. As a consequence, Orestes finds himself tormented by the terrible Furies, hideous ancient goddesses of the underworld divinely charged with punishing blood murders. Guests follow the actors through the Museum’s third floor galleries. Directed by Marcia Ferguson and featuring original music by composer Patrick Lamborn, this production is performed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania Theatre Arts Program’s Artistic Resident for 2016, Sebastienne Mundheim/White Box Theatre, who will create the production design, with additional support from the Provost’s Interdisciplinary Arts fund.

 

Theatre Arts spring mainstage production, The Eumenides, will be presented at the Penn Museum on April 7–10 at 8:00pm.

 

theatre.sas.upenn.edu/events/theatre-arts-spring-2016-mai...

Two F-35s completed the program's first East-bound trans-Atlantic crossing on May 23, 2016. The jets, the first two for the Netherlands, known as AN-1 and AN-2, departed NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and were greeted by an eager crowd at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands. Photo credit: Frank Crebas. Learn more: bit.ly/27QRvdp

© all rights reserved

 

Ph.: Orarossa - Ascoli Piceno, Italy

 

Make: NIKON

Model: D810

Data Time: 10/01/2016 - 14:09

Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec

Exposure Program: S

F-Stop: f/16

ISO Speed Ratings: 80

Focal Length: 85 mm

Flash: OFF

The first internationally-produced F-35 Lightning II took to the skies on Sept. 7, 2015, marking the F-35 program’s first international flight. Learn more: bit.ly/1VM9rPn

Dan Small of Washington College and landowner Harry Sears use a controlled fire to manage part of a warm season grassland at Chino Farms in Queen Anne's County, Md., on April 13, 2016. The grassland is ideal habitat for northern bobwhite quail. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

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BF-4 Flt 508 Mr. Peter Wilson and BF-5 Flt 370 Sqn Ldr Andy Adgell fly from HMS Queen Elizabeth on 27 Sep 2018

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather, stealth, fifth-generation, multirole combat aircraft, designed for ground-attack and air-superiority missions. It is built by Lockheed Martin and many subcontractors, including Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and BAE Systems.

 

The F-35 has three main models: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A (CTOL), the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B (STOVL), and the catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery, carrier-based F-35C (CATOBAR). The F-35 descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, the design that was awarded the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program over the competing Boeing X-32. The official Lightning II name has proven deeply unpopular and USAF pilots have nicknamed it Panther, instead.

 

The United States principally funds F-35 development, with additional funding from other NATO members and close U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and formerly Turkey. These funders generally receive subcontracts to manufacture components for the aircraft; for example, Turkey was the sole supplier of several F-35 parts until its removal from the program in July 2019. Several other countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the aircraft.

 

As the largest and most expensive military program ever, the F-35 became the subject of much scrutiny and criticism in the U.S. and in other countries. In 2013 and 2014, critics argued that the plane was "plagued with design flaws", with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time," instead of identifying and fixing "defects before firing up its production line". By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule". Critics also contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill".

 

The F-35 first flew on 15 December 2006. In July 2015, the United States Marines declared its first squadron of F-35B fighters ready for deployment. However, the DOD-based durability testing indicated the service life of early-production F-35B aircraft is well under the expected 8,000 flight hours, and may be as low as 2,100 flight hours. Lot 9 and later aircraft include design changes but service life testing has yet to occur. The U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for deployment in August 2016. The U.S. Navy declared its first F-35Cs ready in February 2019. In 2018, the F-35 made its combat debut with the Israeli Air Force.

 

The U.S. stated plan is to buy 2,663 F-35s, which will provide the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled until 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070.

 

Development

 

F-35 development started in 1992 with the origins of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and was to culminate in full production by 2018. The X-35 first flew on 24 October 2000 and the F-35A on 15 December 2006.

 

The F-35 was developed to replace most US fighter jets with the variants of a single design that would be common to all branches of the military. It was developed in co-operation with a number of foreign partners, and, unlike the F-22 Raptor, intended to be available for export. Three variants were designed: the F-35A (CTOL), the F-35B (STOVL), and the F-35C (CATOBAR). Despite being intended to share most of their parts to reduce costs and improve maintenance logistics, by 2017, the effective commonality was only 20%. The program received considerable criticism for cost overruns during development and for the total projected cost of the program over the lifetime of the jets.

 

By 2017, the program was expected to cost $406.5 billion over its lifetime (i.e. until 2070) for acquisition of the jets, and an additional $1.1 trillion for operations and maintenance. A number of design deficiencies were alleged, such as: carrying a small internal payload; performance inferior to the aircraft being replaced, particularly the F-16; lack of safety in relying on a single engine; and flaws such as the vulnerability of the fuel tank to fire and the propensity for transonic roll-off (wing drop). The possible obsolescence of stealth technology was also criticized.

  

Design

 

Overview

 

Although several experimental designs have been developed since the 1960s, such as the unsuccessful Rockwell XFV-12, the F-35B is to be the first operational supersonic STOVL stealth fighter. The single-engine F-35 resembles the larger twin-engined Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, drawing design elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, proposed for a 1972 supersonic VTOL fighter requirement for the Sea Control Ship.

 

Lockheed Martin has suggested that the F-35 could replace the USAF's F-15C/D fighters in the air-superiority role and the F-15E Strike Eagle in the ground-attack role. It has also stated the F-35 is intended to have close- and long-range air-to-air capability second only to that of the F-22 Raptor, and that the F-35 has an advantage over the F-22 in basing flexibility and possesses "advanced sensors and information fusion".

 

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on 25 March 2009, acquisition deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mark D. "Shack" Shackelford, stated that the F-35 is designed to be America's "premier surface-to-air missile killer, and is uniquely equipped for this mission with cutting-edge processing power, synthetic aperture radar integration techniques, and advanced target recognition".

 

Improvements

Ostensible improvements over past-generation fighter aircraft include:

 

Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology, using structural fiber mat instead of the high-maintenance coatings of legacy stealth platforms

Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and on-board sensors to increase the pilot's situational awareness and improve target identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes

High-speed data networking including IEEE 1394b and Fibre Channel (Fibre Channel is also used on Boeing's Super Hornet.

The Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment, Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), and Computerized maintenance management system to help ensure the aircraft can remain operational with minimal maintenance manpower The Pentagon has moved to open up the competitive bidding by other companies. This was after Lockheed Martin stated that instead of costing 20% less than the F-16 per flight hour, the F-35 would actually cost 12% more. Though the ALGS is intended to reduce maintenance costs, the company disagrees with including the cost of this system in the aircraft ownership calculations. The USMC has implemented a workaround for a cyber vulnerability in the system. The ALIS system currently requires a shipping-container load of servers to run, but Lockheed is working on a more portable version to support the Marines' expeditionary operations.

Electro-hydrostatic actuators run by a power-by-wire flight-control system

A modern and updated flight simulator, which may be used for a greater fraction of pilot training to reduce the costly flight hours of the actual aircraft

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries to provide power to run the control surfaces in an emergency

Structural composites in the F-35 are 35% of the airframe weight (up from 25% in the F-22). The majority of these are bismaleimide and composite epoxy materials. The F-35 will be the first mass-produced aircraft to include structural nanocomposites, namely carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy. Experience of the F-22's problems with corrosion led to the F-35 using a gap filler that causes less galvanic corrosion to the airframe's skin, designed with fewer gaps requiring filler and implementing better drainage. The relatively short 35-foot wingspan of the A and B variants is set by the F-35B's requirement to fit inside the Navy's current amphibious assault ship parking area and elevators; the F-35C's longer wing is considered to be more fuel efficient.

 

Costs

A U.S. Navy study found that the F-35 will cost 30 to 40% more to maintain than current jet fighters, not accounting for inflation over the F-35's operational lifetime. A Pentagon study concluded a $1 trillion maintenance cost for the entire fleet over its lifespan, not accounting for inflation. The F-35 program office found that as of January 2014, costs for the F-35 fleet over a 53-year lifecycle was $857 billion. Costs for the fighter have been dropping and accounted for the 22 percent life cycle drop since 2010. Lockheed stated that by 2019, pricing for the fifth-generation aircraft will be less than fourth-generation fighters. An F-35A in 2019 is expected to cost $85 million per unit complete with engines and full mission systems, inflation adjusted from $75 million in December 2013.

As aviation enthusiasts from the Royal International Air Tattoo's Park & View area looked on, the F-35B performed the program's first vertical landing in the UK during validation flights for the show on July 6, 2016. bit.ly/294hI2g

The Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) mock-up in a space chamber test at General Electric's Space Division. The ERTS program represented a concentrated effort to observe and monitor the limited resources of the Earth, in order to best conserve and utilize the resources in support of a burgeoning world population. The first ERTS was launched in 1972 and was later named Land Remote-Sensing Satellite (Landsat), to better represent the civil satellite program's prime emphasis on remote sensing of land resources. Multiple sensors survey and relay back masses of data in various ways from the Landsat. NASA has built 7 Land Remote Sensing Satellites, which have helped agricultural experts pick up underutilized land areas and new prospects for land use through irrigation. It has also assisted in pinpointing the spread of crop disease and in charting new uses of the sea for oceanographers.

 

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Credit: NASA

Image Number: 71-HC-973

Date: June 28, 1971

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat Program's 40-year data record of monitoring Earth's landscapes from space. LDCM will expand and improve on that record with observations that advance a wide range of Earth sciences and contribute to the management of agriculture, water and forest resources.

 

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The first Landsat satellite launched in 1972 and the next satellite in the series, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission – LDCM, is scheduled to launch on February 11, 2013.

 

LDCM will launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base using an Atlas V-401 rocket from ULA.

 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

 

---

 

Managers have given the "go" to proceed toward a Feb.11 launch of NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

 

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is the future of Landsat satellites. It will continue to obtain valuable data and imagery to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government.

 

The mission will extend more than 40 years of global land observations that are critical in many areas, such as energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture.

 

To learn more about LDCM and Landsat go to: 1.usa.gov/XSYBZ2

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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PACIFIC OCEAN (Dec. 5, 2014) NASA’s Orion Crew Module descends to the Pacific Ocean under its three main parachutes as part of the Orion Program’s first exploration flight test. USS Anchorage (LPD 23) is supporting the first exploration test flight for the NASA Orion Program. EFT-1 is the fifth at sea testing of the Orion Crew Module using a Navy well deck recovery method. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Charles White/Released)

A ticket for Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, a musical quiz show featuring bandleader Kay Kyser that ran on radio from 1938 to 1949. Although the ticket displays the correct spelling of "College," the program's name typically appeared as "Kollege" with an initial "K."

 

Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge

 

Fox Theatre, San Bernardino.

 

Hold this ticket! If your number is called—notify a theatre attendant, and he will escort you to the stage.

 

001015.

 

Globe Ticket Company, Los Angeles.

The intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway — where the Sesame Workshop offices are located — has been renamed as part of the program's 50th anniversary celebration.

 

-- CNN

 

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Almost completely immune to the 3.7 cm KwK 36 and howitzer-like, short barreled 7.5 cm KwK 37 guns mounted respectively on the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, until better guns were developed often the only way to defeat a KV was a point-blank shot to the rear. Prior to the invasion, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks in Soviet service at the time were of the KV-1 type. When the KV-1 appeared, it outclassed the French Char B1, the only heavy tank used in the world at that time. Yet in the end it turned out that there was little sense in producing the expensive KV tanks, as the T-34 medium tank performed better (or at least equally) in all practical respects. Later in the war, the KV series became a base of development of the Iosif Stalin tanks.

Development

After disappointing results with the multi-turreted T-35 heavy tank, Soviet tank designers started drawing up replacements. The T-35 conformed to the 1920s notion of a 'breakthrough tank' with very heavy firepower and armour protection, but suffered from poor mobility. The Spanish Civil War demonstrated the need for much heavier armor on tanks, and was the main influence on Soviet tank design just prior to World War II.

 

Several competing designs were offered, and even more were drawn up prior to reaching prototype stage. All had heavy armour, torsion-bar suspension, wide tracks, and were of welded and cast construction. One of the main competing designs was the SMK, which in its final form had two turrets, mounting the same combination of 76.2 mm and 45 mm weapons. The designers of the SMK independently drew up a single-turreted variant and this received approval at the highest level. Two of these, named after the People's Defence Commissioner were ordered alongside a single SMK. The smaller hull and single turret enabled the designer to install heavy frontal and turret armour while keeping the weight within manageable limits.

  

When the Soviets entered the Winter War, the SMK, KV and a third design, the T-100, were sent to be tested in combat conditions. The KV outperformed the SMK and T-100 designs. The KV's heavy armour proved highly resistant to Finnish anti-tank weapons, making it more difficult to stop. In 1939 production of 50 KV was ordered. During the War, the Soviets found it difficult to deal with the concrete bunkers used by the Finns and a request was made for a tank with a large howitzer. One of the rush projects to meet the request put the howitzer in a new turret on one of the KV tanks.

 

Initially known as Little Turret and Big turret, the 76-mm-armed tank was designated as the KV-1 Heavy Tank and the 152 mm howitzer one as KV-2 Heavy Artillery Tank.

 

The KV's strengths included armor that was impenetrable by any tank-mounted weapon then in service except at point-blank range, that it had good firepower, and that it had good traction on soft ground. It also had serious flaws: it was difficult to steer, the transmission (which was a twenty year old Caterpillar design) was unreliable (and was known to have to be shifted with a hammer),[6] and the ergonomics were poor, with limited visibility and no turret basket. Furthermore, at 45 tons, it was simply too heavy. This severely impacted the maneuverability, not so much in terms of maximum speed, as through inability to cross many bridges medium tanks could cross. The KV outweighed most other tanks of the era, being about twice as heavy as the heaviest contemporary German tank. KVs were never equipped with a snorkeling system to ford shallow rivers, so they had to be left to travel to an adequate bridge. As applique armor and other improvements were added without increasing engine power, later models were less capable of keeping up to speed with medium tanks and had more trouble with difficult terrain. In addition, its firepower was no better than the T-34. It took field reports from senior commanders "and certified heroes", who could be honest without risk of punishment, to reveal "what a dog the KV-1.

By 1942, when the Germans were fielding large numbers of long-barrelled 50 mm and 75 mm guns, the KV's armor was no longer invincible. The KV-1's side, top, and turret armor could also be penetrated by the high-velocity MK 101 carried by German ground attack aircraft such as the Henschel Hs 129, requiring the installation of additional field-expedient appliqué armour. The KV-1's 76.2 mm gun also came in for criticism. While adequate against all German tanks, it was the same gun as carried by smaller, faster, and cheaper T-34 medium tanks. In 1943, it was determined that this gun could not penetrate the frontal armour of the new Tiger,the first German heavy tank, fortunately captured near Leningrad. The KV-1 was also much more difficult to manufacture and thus more expensive than the T-34. In short, its advantages no longer outweighed its drawbacks.

 

Nonetheless, because of its initial superior performance, the KV-1 was chosen as one of the few tanks to continue being built following the Soviet reorganization of tank production. Due to the new standardization, it shared the similar engine (the KV used a 600 hp V-2K modification of the T-34's V-2 diesel engine) and gun (the KV had a ZiS-5 main gun, while the T-34 had a similar F-34 main gun) as the T-34, was built in large quantities, and received frequent upgrades.

When production shifted to the Ural Mountains 'Tankograd' complex, the KV-2 was dropped. While impressive on paper, it had been designed as a slow-moving bunker-buster. It was less useful in highly mobile, fluid warfare that developed in World War II. The turret was so heavy it was difficult to traverse on non-level terrain, and it was expensive to produce. Only about 300 KV-2s were made, all in 1940-41, making it one of the rarer Soviet tanks. Many KV-2s were later converted into KV-1s.

As the war continued, the KV-1 continued to get more armour to compensate for the increasing effectiveness of German weapons. This culminated in the KV-1 model 1942 (German designation KV-1C), which had very heavy armour, but lacked a corresponding improvement to the engine. Tankers complained that although they were well-protected, their mobility was poor and they had no firepower advantage over the T-34 medium tank.[citation needed]

 

In response to criticisms, the lighter KV-1S (Russian language: КВ-1С) was released, with thinner armour and a smaller, lower turret in order to reclaim some speed. Importantly, the KV-1S also had a commander's cupola with all-around vision blocks, a first for a Soviet heavy tank. However, the thinning-out of the armor called into question why the tank was being produced at all, when the T-34 could seemingly do everything the KV could do and much more cheaply. The Soviet heavy tank program was close to cancellation in mid-1943.

 

The appearance of the German Panther tank in the summer of 1943 convinced the Red Army to make a serious upgrade of its tank force for the first time since 1941. Soviet tanks needed bigger guns to take on the growing numbers of Panthers and the few Tigers.

 

A stopgap upgrade to the KV series was the short-lived KV-85 or Objekt 239. This was a KV-1S with a new turret designed for the IS-85, mounting the same 85 mm D-5T gun as the SU-85 and early versions of the T-34-85; demand for the gun slowed production of the KV-85 tremendously and only 148 were built before the KV design was replaced. The KV-85 was produced in the fall and winter of 1943-44; they were sent to the front as of September 1943 and production of the KV-85 was stopped by the spring of 1944 once the IS-2 entered full scale production.

Successor

 

A new heavy tank design entered production late in 1943 based on the work done on the KV-13. Because Kliment Voroshilov had fallen out of political favour, the new heavy tank series was named the Iosif Stalin tank, after Iosif (Joseph) Stalin. The KV-13 program's IS-85 prototype was accepted for production as the IS-1 (or IS-85, Object 237) heavy tank. After testing with both 100 mm and 122 mm guns, the D-25T 122 mm gun was selected as the main armament of the new tank, primarily because of its ready availability and the effect of its large high-explosive shell when attacking German fortifications. The 122mm D-25T used a separate shell and powder charge, resulting in a lower rate of fire and reduced ammunition capacity. While the 122mm armour piercing shell had a lower muzzle velocity than similar late German 7.5 cm and 8.8 cm guns, proving-ground tests showed that the 122mm AP shell could defeat the frontal armour of the German Panther tank, and the HE shell would easily blow off the drive sprocket and tread of the heaviest German tank or self-propelled gun. The IS-122 replaced the IS-85, and began mass production as the IS-2. The 85 mm gun saw service in the lighter SU-85 and T-34-85.

  

A destroyed Soviet KV-1 in Olonets, September 1941, during the Continuation War

Some KVs remained in service right up to the end of the war, although in greatly diminishing numbers as they wore out or were knocked out. The 260th Guards Heavy Breakthrough Tank Regiment, based on the Leningrad front, operated a number of 1941-vintage KV-1s at least as late as the summer of 1944 before re-equipping with IS-2s. A regiment of KVs saw service in Manchuria in August 1945, and a few KV-85s were used in the Crimea in the summer of 1944. The Finnish forces had two KVs, nicknamed Klimi, a Model 1940 and Model 1941, both of which received minor upgrades in their service, and both of which survived the war. A single captured KV-2 was used by German forces in 1945 against US forces in the Ruhr.

  

Specifications (KV-1 Model 1941)

Weight - 45 tonnes

Length - 6.75 m (22 ft 2 in)

Width - 3.32 m (10 ft 11 in)

Height -2.71 m (8 ft 11 in)

Crew - 5

Armour - 90 mm maximum

Main armament -76.2 mm model F-34 gun

Secondary armament - 3× or 4× DT machine guns

Engine - 12-cylinder diesel model V-2 600 hp (450 kW)

Power/weight - 13 hp/tonne

Suspension - Torsion bar

Operational range - 335 km

Speed - 35 km/h (22 mph)

   

Penn Theatre Arts Fall 2015 Mainstage Production

 

Directed by Dr. James F. Schlatter.

 

The Theatre Arts Program’s fall production, BURY THE DEAD, written by Irwin Shaw in 1936, is set “in the second year of the war that is to begin tomorrow night.” The scene is an unnamed battlefield somewhere in the world that also serves as the gravesite for six dead American soldiers. About to be interred, the six young soldiers stand up in their shared grave and plead not to be buried. This crisis is the focus of Shaw’s harrowing and deeply moving and provocative play, directed by Theatre Arts faculty member, Dr. James F. Schlatter, Can a war ever end if the dead won’t be buried? The play will be performed by an ensemble company.

 

Performances:

November 18–21, 7:00pm

@ Annenberg Center Live, Bruce Montgomery Theatre

 

theatre.sas.upenn.edu/events/fall-mainstage-production-bu...

 

provost.upenn.edu/initiatives/arts/stories/2015/11/16/the...

 

 

Third Thursday Wine Walk in Downtown Baker City Oregon

 

Enjoying beautiful evening for Third Thursday in historic downtown Baker City, Oregon.

 

The monthly Third Thursday Wine Walk is one of numerous events hosted by the Baker City Main Street Program, Baker City Downtown giving customers an opportunity to visit and explore downtown after hours.

 

Visitors to downtown will find numerous art galleries throughout Baker City’s historic downtown including the Crossroads Carnegie Art center in the restored Carnegie Library building as well as multiple restaurants and a variety of gourmet and artisan food and spirits.

 

For more information about Third Thursday Wine Walk or other downtown Baker City events visit the Baker City Main Street Program's website at www.bakercitydowntown.com

 

For more information about other community events in Baker County visit the Baker County Tourism website at www.travelbakercounty.com

  

Lockheed Martin F-35 "Lightning II" demonstration team members sprint to their positions during the ground show at the Defenders of Liberty Air & Space Show at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., May 17, 2019. The team’s ground show consists of pre-flight inspections with sharp, quick-paced movements that showcase the pride and professionalism of the U.S. Air Force.

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather, stealth, fifth-generation, multirole combat aircraft, designed for ground-attack and air-superiority missions. It is built by Lockheed Martin and many subcontractors, including Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and BAE Systems.

 

The F-35 has three main models: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A (CTOL), the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B (STOVL), and the catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery, carrier-based F-35C (CATOBAR). The F-35 descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, the design that was awarded the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program over the competing Boeing X-32. The official Lightning II name has proven deeply unpopular and USAF pilots have nicknamed it Panther, instead.

 

The United States principally funds F-35 development, with additional funding from other NATO members and close U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and formerly Turkey. These funders generally receive subcontracts to manufacture components for the aircraft; for example, Turkey was the sole supplier of several F-35 parts until its removal from the program in July 2019. Several other countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the aircraft.

 

As the largest and most expensive military program ever, the F-35 became the subject of much scrutiny and criticism in the U.S. and in other countries. In 2013 and 2014, critics argued that the plane was "plagued with design flaws", with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time," instead of identifying and fixing "defects before firing up its production line". By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule". Critics also contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill".

 

The F-35 first flew on 15 December 2006. In July 2015, the United States Marines declared its first squadron of F-35B fighters ready for deployment. However, the DOD-based durability testing indicated the service life of early-production F-35B aircraft is well under the expected 8,000 flight hours, and may be as low as 2,100 flight hours. Lot 9 and later aircraft include design changes but service life testing has yet to occur. The U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for deployment in August 2016. The U.S. Navy declared its first F-35Cs ready in February 2019. In 2018, the F-35 made its combat debut with the Israeli Air Force.

 

The U.S. stated plan is to buy 2,663 F-35s, which will provide the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled until 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070.

 

Development

 

F-35 development started in 1992 with the origins of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and was to culminate in full production by 2018. The X-35 first flew on 24 October 2000 and the F-35A on 15 December 2006.

 

The F-35 was developed to replace most US fighter jets with the variants of a single design that would be common to all branches of the military. It was developed in co-operation with a number of foreign partners, and, unlike the F-22 Raptor, intended to be available for export. Three variants were designed: the F-35A (CTOL), the F-35B (STOVL), and the F-35C (CATOBAR). Despite being intended to share most of their parts to reduce costs and improve maintenance logistics, by 2017, the effective commonality was only 20%. The program received considerable criticism for cost overruns during development and for the total projected cost of the program over the lifetime of the jets.

 

By 2017, the program was expected to cost $406.5 billion over its lifetime (i.e. until 2070) for acquisition of the jets, and an additional $1.1 trillion for operations and maintenance. A number of design deficiencies were alleged, such as: carrying a small internal payload; performance inferior to the aircraft being replaced, particularly the F-16; lack of safety in relying on a single engine; and flaws such as the vulnerability of the fuel tank to fire and the propensity for transonic roll-off (wing drop). The possible obsolescence of stealth technology was also criticized.

  

Design

 

Overview

 

Although several experimental designs have been developed since the 1960s, such as the unsuccessful Rockwell XFV-12, the F-35B is to be the first operational supersonic STOVL stealth fighter. The single-engine F-35 resembles the larger twin-engined Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, drawing design elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, proposed for a 1972 supersonic VTOL fighter requirement for the Sea Control Ship.

 

Lockheed Martin has suggested that the F-35 could replace the USAF's F-15C/D fighters in the air-superiority role and the F-15E Strike Eagle in the ground-attack role. It has also stated the F-35 is intended to have close- and long-range air-to-air capability second only to that of the F-22 Raptor, and that the F-35 has an advantage over the F-22 in basing flexibility and possesses "advanced sensors and information fusion".

 

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on 25 March 2009, acquisition deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mark D. "Shack" Shackelford, stated that the F-35 is designed to be America's "premier surface-to-air missile killer, and is uniquely equipped for this mission with cutting-edge processing power, synthetic aperture radar integration techniques, and advanced target recognition".

 

Improvements

Ostensible improvements over past-generation fighter aircraft include:

 

Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology, using structural fiber mat instead of the high-maintenance coatings of legacy stealth platforms

Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and on-board sensors to increase the pilot's situational awareness and improve target identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes

High-speed data networking including IEEE 1394b and Fibre Channel (Fibre Channel is also used on Boeing's Super Hornet.

The Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment, Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), and Computerized maintenance management system to help ensure the aircraft can remain operational with minimal maintenance manpower The Pentagon has moved to open up the competitive bidding by other companies. This was after Lockheed Martin stated that instead of costing 20% less than the F-16 per flight hour, the F-35 would actually cost 12% more. Though the ALGS is intended to reduce maintenance costs, the company disagrees with including the cost of this system in the aircraft ownership calculations. The USMC has implemented a workaround for a cyber vulnerability in the system. The ALIS system currently requires a shipping-container load of servers to run, but Lockheed is working on a more portable version to support the Marines' expeditionary operations.

Electro-hydrostatic actuators run by a power-by-wire flight-control system

A modern and updated flight simulator, which may be used for a greater fraction of pilot training to reduce the costly flight hours of the actual aircraft

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries to provide power to run the control surfaces in an emergency

Structural composites in the F-35 are 35% of the airframe weight (up from 25% in the F-22). The majority of these are bismaleimide and composite epoxy materials. The F-35 will be the first mass-produced aircraft to include structural nanocomposites, namely carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy. Experience of the F-22's problems with corrosion led to the F-35 using a gap filler that causes less galvanic corrosion to the airframe's skin, designed with fewer gaps requiring filler and implementing better drainage. The relatively short 35-foot wingspan of the A and B variants is set by the F-35B's requirement to fit inside the Navy's current amphibious assault ship parking area and elevators; the F-35C's longer wing is considered to be more fuel efficient.

 

Costs

A U.S. Navy study found that the F-35 will cost 30 to 40% more to maintain than current jet fighters, not accounting for inflation over the F-35's operational lifetime. A Pentagon study concluded a $1 trillion maintenance cost for the entire fleet over its lifespan, not accounting for inflation. The F-35 program office found that as of January 2014, costs for the F-35 fleet over a 53-year lifecycle was $857 billion. Costs for the fighter have been dropping and accounted for the 22 percent life cycle drop since 2010. Lockheed stated that by 2019, pricing for the fifth-generation aircraft will be less than fourth-generation fighters. An F-35A in 2019 is expected to cost $85 million per unit complete with engines and full mission systems, inflation adjusted from $75 million in December 2013.

NASA Social attendees pose for a group photograph with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana in front of the ULA Atlas-V rocket during the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) NASA Social on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat Program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch Feb. 11. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

On Sept. 20, 1979, the Marshall Space Flight Center’s third and final High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO-C) was launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas-Centaur vehicle. Known as HEAO-3 after its insertion into orbit, HEAO-C continued the program’s mission of probing the electromagnetic spectrum beyond the X-ray level, discovering a multitude of gamma and cosmic rays. Utilizing a gamma-ray spectrometer, a cosmic-ray isotope experiment, and a heavy cosmic-ray nuclei experiment to bring images of supernova remnants, pulsars, and distant galaxies into focus, the three HEAO missions propelled forward the then emerging field of high energy astrophysics. The HEAO-3 project was managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with TRW, Inc. serving as the primary contractor.

 

Image credit: NASA/MSFC

 

Original image: www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/gallery/launch-of-h...

 

More Marshall history images:

www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/gallery/marshall_hi...

  

_____________________________________________

These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...

The Mohonk Mountain House, also known as Lake Mohonk Mountain House, is an American resort hotel located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York. Its location in the town of New Paltz, New York is just beyond the southern border of the Catskill Mountains, west of the Hudson River.

 

The National Historic Landmark Program's "Statement of Significance", as of the site's historic landmark designation in 1986, stated:

 

Begun in the 1870s as a small resort for family and friends by the Smiley brothers, it became so popular that it was enlarged many times. Because of the Smileys' love of the outdoor life, the area around the hotel was treated as an integral part of the attractions of the resort. Much of this area was planned as an experiment in conservation of the natural environment, and as an educational tool for the study of botany, geology, and outdoor living.

 

The resort is located on the shore of Lake Mohonk, which is half a mile (800 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) deep. The main structure was built by Quaker twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley between 1869 and 1910.

 

From 1883 to 1916, annual conferences took place at Mohonk Mountain House, sponsored by Albert Smiley, to improve the living standards of Native American Indian populations. These meetings brought together government representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the House and Senate committees on Indian Affairs, as well as educators, philanthropists, and Indian leaders to discuss the formulation of policy. The Haverford College library holds 22,000 records from the 34 conference reports for researchers and students of American history.

 

The hotel hosted the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration between 1895 and 1916, which was instrumental in creating the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. Those conference papers were donated by the Smiley Family to Swarthmore College for research.

 

The house was given a United Nations Environment Programme Award in 1994 in honor of "125 years of stewardship". According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Through its buildings and roads, its land, and its spirit, Mohonk exemplifies America's history and culture. Mohonk has since managed to maintain its 19th century character into the 21st century."

 

The resort was sued in 2014 by 200 guests who had become ill in a norovirus outbreak after staying there, who claimed the owners of the Mohonk Mountain House had been aware of the gastrointestinal illness at the resort prior to the arrival of the guests. The guests accused Mohonk of “intentional, willful, wanton, illegal ... and deliberate disregard for the health, safety and rights of plaintiffs.” The resort settled the claims for $875,000 two years later.

Description

 

Mohonk Mountain House has 259 guest rooms, including 28 tower rooms, an indoor pool and spa, and an outdoor ice-skating rink for winter use. The property consists of 1,325 acres (536 ha), and much of it is landscaped with meadows and gardens. It adjoins the Mohonk Preserve, which is crisscrossed by 85 miles (140 km) of hiking trails and carriage roads. The Smileys conveyed the majority of their property to the preserve.

 

The Mohonk Mountain House has hosted many famous visitors including industrialist John D. Rockefeller, naturalist John Burroughs, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Bill Clinton. Guests have also included former First Lady Julia Grant, author Thomas Mann, and religious leaders such as Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, Reverend Ralph W. Sockman, Reverend Francis Edward Clark. `Abdu'l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá'í Faith founder Bahá'u'lláh, stayed there in 1912 during the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration as part of his journeys to the West.

 

from Wikipedia

Here's a close-up of the tall sign signaling the location of the Drive Up service within the parking lot, complete with the program's logo. As I mentioned in the previous description, Olive Branch joins all of the other Mississippi stores south of DeSoto County to have received this feature: D'Iberville, Jackson, Flowood, and Hattiesburg. Additionally, it appears as if most of the Memphis-area stores have now implemented this program as well, according to information on Target's store locator. As a matter of fact, the only three stores I was able to find within the metro area that have *not* received Drive Up are Horn Lake, Cordova, and Jackson (TN)... which are all unremodeled stores still featuring P97, P01*, and P04 décor, respectively. (Cordova is a SuperTarget, though – not sure if that makes a difference as far as Drive Up is concerned.) I hope that doesn't mean anything bad is coming to any of these stores' futures...

 

* – Cordova was updated to P04 department signs, but still retains the P01 wall décor/neon.

 

(c) 2018 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

Pasted from Wikipedia: Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey

 

• • • • •

 

The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey is a multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.

 

The V-22 originated from the U.S. Department of Defense Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program started in 1981. It was developed jointly by the Bell Helicopter, and Boeing Helicopters team, known as Bell Boeing, which produce the aircraft.[4] The V-22 first flew in 1989, and began years of flight testing and design alterations.

 

The United States Marine Corps began crew training for the Osprey in 2000, and fielded it in 2007. The Osprey's other operator, the U.S. Air Force fielded their version of the tiltrotor in 2009. Since entering service with the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, the Osprey has been deployed for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Contents

 

• 1 Development

•• 1.1 Early development

•• 1.2 Flight testing and design changes

•• 1.3 Controversy

•• 1.4 Recent development

• 2 Design

• 3 Operational history

•• 3.1 US Marine Corps

•• 3.2 US Air Force

•• 3.3 Potential operators

• 4 Variants

• 5 Operators

• 6 Notable accidents

• 7 Specifications (MV-22B)

• 8 Notable appearances in media

• 9 See also

• 10 References

• 11 External links

 

Development

 

Early development

 

The failure of the Iran hostage rescue mission in 1980 demonstrated to the United States military a need[5] for "a new type of aircraft, that could not only take off and land vertically but also could carry combat troops, and do so at speed."[6] The U.S. Department of Defense began the Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program in 1981, under U.S. Army leadership. Later the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps took the lead.[7][8] The JVX combined requirements from the Marine Corps, Air Force, Army and Navy.[9][10] A request for proposals (RFP) was issued in December 1982 for JVX preliminary design work. Interest in the program was expressed by Aérospatiale, Bell Helicopter, Boeing Vertol, Grumman, Lockheed, and Westland. The DoD pushed for contractors to form teams. Bell partnered with Boeing Vertol. The Bell Boeing team submitted a proposal for a enlarged version of the Bell XV-15 prototype on 17 February 1983. This was the only proposal received and a preliminary design contract was awarded on 26 April 1983.[11][12]

 

The JVX aircraft was designated V-22 Osprey on 15 January 1985; by March that same year the first six prototypes were being produced, and Boeing Vertol was expanded to deal with the project workload.[13][14] Work has been split evenly between Bell and Boeing. Bell Helicopter manufactures and integrates the wing, nacelles, rotors, drive system, tail surfaces, and aft ramp, as well as integrates the Rolls-Royce engines and performs final assembly. Boeing Helicopters manufactures and integrates the fuselage, cockpit, avionics, and flight controls.[4][15] The USMC variant of the Osprey received the MV-22 designation and the Air Force variant received CV-22; reversed from normal procedure to prevent Marine Ospreys from having a conflicting designation with aircraft carriers (CV).[16] Full-scale development of the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft began in 1986.[2] On 3 May 1986 the Bell-Boeing partnership was awarded a $1.714 billion contract for V-22 aircraft by the Navy, thus at this point the project had acquisition plans with all four arms of the U.S. military.[17]

 

The first V-22 was rolled out with significant media attention in May 1988.[18][19] However the project suffered several political blows. Firstly in the same year, the Army left the program, citing a need to focus its budget on more immediate aviation programs.[20] The project also faced considerable dialogue in the Senate, surviving two votes that both could have resulted in cancellation.[21][22] Despite the Senate's decision, the Department of Defense instructed the Navy not to spend more money on the Osprey.[23] At the same time, the Bush administration sought the cancellation of the project.[23]

 

Flight testing and design changes

 

The first of six MV-22 prototypes first flew on 19 March 1989 in the helicopter mode,[24] and on 14 September 1989 as a fixed-wing plane.[25] The third and fourth prototypes successfully completed the Osprey's first Sea Trials on the USS Wasp in December 1990.[26] However, the fourth and fifth prototypes crashed in 1991-92.[27] Flight tests were resumed in August 1993 after changes were incorporated in the prototypes.[2] From October 1992 until April 1993, Bell and Boeing redesigned the V-22 to reduce empty weight, simplify manufacture and reduce production costs. This redesigned version became the B-model.[28]

 

Flight testing of four full-scale development V-22s began in early 1997 when the first pre-production V-22 was delivered to the Naval Air Warfare Test Center, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The first EMD flight took place on 5 February 1997. The first of four low rate initial production aircraft, ordered on 28 April 1997, was delivered on 27 May 1999. Osprey number 10 completed the program's second Sea Trials, this time from the USS Saipan in January 1999.[2] During external load testing in April 1999, Boeing used a V-22 to lift and transport the M777 howitzer.[29] In 2000, Boeing announced that the V-22 would be fitted with a nose-mounted GAU-19 Gatling gun,[30] but the GAU-19 gun was later canceled.[31]

 

In 2000, there were two further fatal crashes, killing a total of 19 Marines, and the production was again halted while the cause of these crashes was investigated and various parts were redesigned.[32] The V-22 completed its final operational evaluation in June 2005. The evaluation was deemed successful; events included long range deployments, high altitude, desert and shipboard operations. The problems identified in various accidents had been addressed.[33]

 

Controversy

 

The V-22's development process has been long and controversial, partly due to its large cost increases.[34] When the development budget, first planned for $2.5 billion in 1986, increased to a projected $30 billion in 1988, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney tried to zero out its funding. He was eventually overruled by Congress.[32] As of 2008, $27 billion have been spent on the Osprey program and another $27.2 billion will be required to complete planned production numbers by the end of the program.[2]

 

The V-22 squadron's former commander at Marine Corps Air Station New River, Lt. Colonel Odin Lieberman, was relieved of duty in 2001 after allegations that he instructed his unit that they needed to falsify maintenance records to make the plane appear more reliable.[2][35] Three officers were later implicated in the falsification scandal.[34]

 

The aircraft is incapable of autorotation, and is therefore unable to land safely in helicopter mode if both engines fail. A director of the Pentagon's testing office in 2005 said that if the Osprey loses power while flying like a helicopter below 1,600 feet (490 m), emergency landings "are not likely to be survivable". But Captain Justin (Moon) McKinney, a V-22 pilot, says that this will not be a problem, "We can turn it into a plane and glide it down, just like a C-130".[31] A complete loss of power would require the failure of both engines, as a drive shaft connects the nacelles through the wing; one engine can power both proprotors.[36] While vortex ring state (VRS) contributed to a deadly V-22 accident, the aircraft is less susceptible to the condition than conventional helicopters and recovers more quickly.[5] The Marines now train new pilots in the recognition of and recovery from VRS and have instituted operational envelope limits and instrumentation to help pilots avoid VRS conditions.[32][37]

 

It was planned in 2000 to equip all V-22s with a nose-mounted Gatling gun, to provide "the V-22 with a strong defensive firepower capability to greatly increase the aircraft's survivability in hostile actions."[30] The nose gun project was canceled however, leading to criticism by retired Marine Corps Commandant General James L. Jones, who is not satisfied with the current V-22 armament.[31] A belly-mounted turret was later installed on some of the first V-22s sent to the War in Afghanistan in 2009.[38]

 

With the first combat deployment of the MV-22 in October 2007, Time Magazine ran an article condemning the aircraft as unsafe, overpriced, and completely inadequate.[31] The Marine Corps, however, responded with the assertion that much of the article's data were dated, obsolete, inaccurate, and reflected expectations that ran too high for any new field of aircraft.[39]

 

Recent development

 

On 28 September 2005, the Pentagon formally approved full-rate production for the V-22.[40] The plan is to boost production from 11 a year to between 24 and 48 a year by 2012. Of the 458 total planned, 360 are for the Marine Corps, 48 for the Navy, and 50 for the Air Force at an average cost of $110 million per aircraft, including development costs.[2] The V-22 had an incremental flyaway cost of $70 million per aircraft in 2007,[3] but the Navy hopes to shave about $10 million off that cost after a five-year production contract starts in 2008.[41]

 

The Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office in Amarillo, Texas will design a new integrated avionics processor to resolve electronics obsolescence issues and add new network capabilities.[42]

 

Design

 

The Osprey is the world's first production tiltrotor aircraft, with one three-bladed proprotor, turboprop engine, and transmission nacelle mounted on each wingtip. It is classified as a powered lift aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration.[43] For takeoff and landing, it typically operates as a helicopter with the nacelles vertical (rotors horizontal). Once airborne, the nacelles rotate forward 90° in as little as 12 seconds for horizontal flight, converting the V-22 to a more fuel-efficient, higher-speed turboprop airplane. STOL rolling-takeoff and landing capability is achieved by having the nacelles tilted forward up to 45°. For compact storage and transport, the V-22's wing rotates to align, front-to-back, with the fuselage. The proprotors can also fold in a sequence taking 90 seconds.[44]

 

Most Osprey missions will use fixed wing flight 75 percent or more of the time, reducing wear and tear on the aircraft and reducing operational costs.[45] This fixed wing flight is higher than typical helicopter missions allowing longer range line-of-sight communications and so improved command and control.[2] Boeing has stated the V-22 design loses 10% of its vertical lift over a Tiltwing design when operating in helicopter mode because of airflow resistance due to the wings, but that the Tiltrotor design has better short takeoff and landing performance.[46]

 

The V-22 is equipped with a glass cockpit, which incorporates four Multi-function displays (MFDs) and one shared Central Display Unit (CDU), allowing the pilots to display a variety of images including: digimaps centered or decentered on current position, FLIR imagery, primary flight instruments, navigation (TACAN, VOR, ILS, GPS, INS), and system status. The flight director panel of the Cockpit Management System (CMS) allows for fully-coupled (aka: autopilot) functions which will take the aircraft from forward flight into a 50-foot hover with no pilot interaction other than programming the system.[47] The glass cockpit of the canceled CH-46X was derived from the V-22.[48]

 

The V-22 is a fly-by-wire aircraft with triple-redundant flight control systems.[49] With the nacelles pointing straight up in conversion mode at 90° the flight computers command the aircraft to fly like a helicopter, with cyclic forces being applied to a conventional swashplate at the rotor hub. With the nacelles in airplane mode (0°) the flaperons, rudder, and elevator fly the aircraft like an airplane. This is a gradual transition and occurs over the rotation range of the nacelles. The lower the nacelles, the greater effect of the airplane-mode control surfaces.[50] The nacelles can rotate past vertical to 97.5° for rearward flight.[51][52]

 

The Osprey can be armed with one M240 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 in caliber) or M2 .50 in caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun on the loading ramp, that can be fired rearward when the ramp is lowered. A GAU-19 three-barrel .50 in gatling gun mounted below the V-22's nose has also been studied for future upgrade.[31][53] BAE Systems developed a remotely operated turreted weapons system for the V-22,[54] which was installed on half of the first V-22s deployed to Afghanistan in 2009.[38] The 7.62 mm belly gun turret is remotely operated by a gunner inside the aircraft, who acquires targets with a separate pod using color television and forward looking infrared imagery.

 

U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is working on upgrades to increase the maximum speed from 250 knots (460 km/h; 290 mph) to 270 knots (500 km/h; 310 mph), increase helicopter mode altitude limit from 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to 12,000 feet (3,700 m) or 14,000 feet (4,300 m), and increase lift performance.[55]

 

Operational history

 

US Marine Corps

 

Marine Corps crew training on the Osprey has been conducted by VMMT-204 since March 2000. On 3 June 2005, the Marine Corps helicopter squadron Marine Medium Helicopter 263 (HMM-263), stood down to begin the process of transitioning to the MV-22 Osprey.[56] On 8 December 2005, Lieutenant General Amos, commander of the II MEF, accepted the delivery of the first fleet of MV-22s, delivered to HMM-263. The unit reactivated on 3 March 2006 as the first MV-22 squadron and was redesignated VMM-263. On 31 August 2006, VMM-162 (the former HMM-162) followed suit. On 23 March 2007, HMM-266 became Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266 (VMM-266) at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina.[57]

 

The Osprey has been replacing existing CH-46 Sea Knight squadrons.[58] The MV-22 reached initial operational capability (IOC) with the U.S. Marine Corps on 13 June 2007.[1] On 10 July 2007 an MV-22 Osprey landed aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the first time a V-22 had landed on any non-U.S. vessel.[59]

 

On 13 April 2007, the U.S. Marine Corps announced that it would be sending ten V-22 aircraft to Iraq, the Osprey's first combat deployment. Marine Corps Commandant, General James Conway, indicated that over 150 Marines would accompany the Osprey set for September deployment to Al-Asad Airfield.[60][61] On 17 September 2007, ten MV-22Bs of VMM-263 left for Iraq aboard the USS Wasp. The decision to use a ship rather than use the Osprey's self-deployment capability was made because of concerns over icing during the North Atlantic portion of the trip, lack of available KC-130s for mid-air refueling, and the availability of the USS Wasp.[62]

 

The Osprey has provided support in Iraq, racking up some 2,000 flight hours over three months with a mission capable availability rate of 68.1% as of late-January 2008.[63] They are primarily used in Iraq's western Anbar province for routine cargo and troop movements, and also for riskier "aero-scout" missions. General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, used one to fly around Iraq on Christmas Day 2007 to visit troops.[64] Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama also flew in Ospreys during his high profile 2008 tour of Iraq.[65]

 

The only major problem has been obtaining the necessary spare parts to maintain the aircraft.[66] The V-22 had flown 3,000 sorties totaling 5,200 hours in Iraq as of July 2008.[67] USMC leadership expect to deploy MV-22s to Afghanistan in 2009.[66][68] General George J. Trautman, III praised the increased range of the V-22 over the legacy helicopters in Iraq and said that "it turned his battle space from the size of Texas into the size of Rhode Island."[69]

 

Naval Air Systems Command has devised a temporary fix for sailors to place portable heat shields under Osprey engines to prevent damage to the decks of some of the Navy's smaller amphibious ships, but they determined that a long term solution to the problem would require these decks be redesigned with heat resistant deck coatings, passive thermal barriers and changes in ship structure in order to operate V-22s and F-35Bs.[70]

 

A Government Accountability Office study reported that by January 2009 the Marines had 12 MV-22s operating in Iraq and they managed to successfully complete all assigned missions. The same report found that the V-22 deployments had mission capable rates averaging 57% to 68% and an overall full mission capable rate of only 6%. It also stated that the aircraft had shown weakness in situational awareness, maintenance, shipboard operations and the ability to transport troops and external cargo.[71] That study also concluded that the "deployments confirmed that the V-22’s enhanced speed and range enable personnel and internal cargo to be transported faster and farther than is possible with the legacy helicopters it is replacing".[71]

 

The MV-22 saw its first offensive combat mission, Operation Cobra's Anger on 4 December 2009. Ospreys assisted in inserting 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops into the Now Zad Valley of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan to disrupt communication and supply lines of the Taliban.[38] In January 2010 the MV-22 Osprey is being sent to Haiti as part of Operation Unified Response relief efforts after the earthquake there. This will be the first use the Marine V-22 in a humanitarian mission.[72]

 

US Air Force

 

The Air Force's first operational CV-22 Osprey was delivered to the 58th Special Operations Wing (58th SOW) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico on 20 March 2006. This and subsequent aircraft will become part of the 58th SOW's fleet of aircraft used for training pilots and crew members for special operations use.[73] On 16 November 2006, the Air Force officially accepted the CV-22 in a ceremony conducted at Hurlburt Field, Florida.[74]

 

The US Air Force's first operational deployment of the Osprey sent four CV-22s to Mali in November 2008 in support of Exercise Flintlock. The CV-22s flew nonstop from Hurlburt Field, Florida with in-flight refueling.[5] AFSOC declared that the 8th Special Operations Squadron reached Initial Operational Capability on 16 March 2009, with six of its planned nine CV-22s operational.[75]

 

In June 2009, CV-22s of the 8th Special Operations Squadron delivered 43,000 pounds (20,000 kg) of humanitarian supplies to remote villages in Honduras that were not accessible by conventional vehicles.[76] In November 2009, the 8th SO Squadron and its six CV-22s returned from a three-month deployment in Iraq.[77]

 

The first possible combat loss of an Osprey occurred on 9 April, 2010, as a CV-22 went down near Qalat, Zabul Province, Afghanistan, killing four.[78][79]

 

Potential operators

 

In 1999 the V-22 was studied for use in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy,[80] it has been raised several times as a candidate for the role of Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control (MASC).[81]

 

Israel had shown interest in the purchase of MV-22s, but no order was placed.[82][83] Flightglobal reported in late 2009 that Israel has decided to wait for the CH-53K instead.[84]

 

The V-22 Osprey is a candidate for the Norwegian All Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) that is planned to replace the Westland Sea King Mk.43B of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 2015.[85] The other candidates for the NAWSARH contract of 10-12 helicopters are AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin, Eurocopter EC225, NHIndustries NH90 and Sikorsky S-92.[86]

 

Bell Boeing has made an unsolicited offer of the V-22 for US Army medical evacuation needs.[87] However the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency issued a report that said that a common helicopter design would be needed for both combat recovery and medical evacuation and that the V-22 would not be suitable for recovery missions because of the difficulty of hoist operations and lack of self-defense capabilities.[88]

 

The US Navy remains a potential user of the V-22, but its role and mission with the Navy remains unclear. The latest proposal is to replace the C-2 Greyhound with the V-22 in the fleet logistics role. The V-22 would have the advantage of being able to land on and support non-carriers with rapid delivery of supplies and people between the ships of a taskforce or to ships on patrol beyond helicopter range.[89] Loren B. Thompson of the Lexington Institute has suggested V-22s for use in combat search and rescue and Marine One VIP transport, which also need replacement aircraft.[90]

 

Variants

  

• V-22A 

•• Pre-production full-scale development aircraft used for flight testing. These are unofficially considered A-variants after 1993 redesign.[91]

  

• HV-22 

•• The U.S. Navy considered an HV-22 to provide combat search and rescue, delivery and retrieval of special warfare teams along with fleet logistic support transport. However, it chose the MH-60S for this role in 1992.[92]

  

• SV-22 

•• The proposed anti-submarine warfare Navy variant. The Navy studied the SV-22 in the 1980s to replace S-3 and SH-2 aircraft.[93]

  

• MV-22B 

•• Basic U.S. Marine Corps transport; original requirement for 552 (now 360). The Marine Corps is the lead service in the development of the V-22 Osprey. The Marine Corps variant, the MV-22B, is an assault transport for troops, equipment and supplies, capable of operating from ships or from expeditionary airfields ashore. It is replacing the Marine Corps' CH-46E[57] and CH-53D.[94]

  

• CV-22B 

•• Air Force variant for the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). It will conduct long-range, special operations missions, and is equipped with extra fuel tanks and terrain-following radar.[95][96]

 

Operators

 

•  United States

 

• United States Air Force

 

•• 8th Special Operations Squadron (8 SOS) at Hurlburt Field, Florida

•• 71st Special Operations Squadron (71 SOS) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

•• 20th Special Operations Squadron (20 SOS) at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico

 

• United States Marine Corps

 

•• VMM-161

•• VMM-162

•• VMM-261

•• VMM-263

•• VMM-264

•• VMM-266

•• VMM-365

•• VMMT-204 - Training squadron

•• VMX-22 - Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron

 

Notable accidents

 

Main article: Accidents and incidents involving the V-22 Osprey

 

From 1991 to 2000 there were four significant crashes, and a total of 30 fatalities, during testing.[32] Since becoming operational in 2007, the V-22 has had one possible combat loss due to an unknown cause, no losses due to accidents, and seven other notable, but minor, incidents.

 

• On 11 June 1991, a mis-wired flight control system led to two minor injuries when the left nacelle struck the ground while the aircraft was hovering 15 feet (4.6 m) in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire.[97]

 

• On 20 July 1992, a leaking gearbox led to a fire in the right nacelle, causing the aircraft to drop into the Potomac River in front of an audience of Congressmen and other government officials at Quantico, killing all seven on board and grounding the aircraft for 11 months.[98]

 

• On 8 April 2000, a V-22 loaded with Marines to simulate a rescue, attempted to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Arizona, stalled when its right rotor entered vortex ring state, rolled over, crashed, and exploded, killing all 19 on board.[37]

 

• On 11 December 2000, after a catastrophic hydraulic leak and subsequent software instrument failure, a V-22 fell 1,600 feet (490 m) into a forest in Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four aboard. This caused the Marine Corps to ground their fleet of eight V-22s, the second grounding that year.[99][100]

 

Specifications (MV-22B)

 

Data from Boeing Integrated Defense Systems,[101] Naval Air Systems Command,[102] US Air Force CV-22 fact sheet,[95] Norton,[103] and Bell[104]

 

General characteristics

 

• Crew: Four (pilot, copilot and two flight engineers)

• Capacity: 24 troops (seated), 32 troops (floor loaded) or up to 15,000 lb (6,800 kg) of cargo (dual hook)

• Length: 57 ft 4 in (17.5 m)

• Rotor diameter: 38 ft 0 in (11.6 m)

• Wingspan: 45 ft 10 in (14 m)

• Width with rotors: 84 ft 7 in (25.8 m)

• Height: 22 ft 1 in/6.73 m; overall with nacelles vertical (17 ft 11 in/5.5 m; at top of tailfins)

• Disc area: 2,268 ft² (212 m²)

• Wing area: 301.4 ft² (28 m²)

• Empty weight: 33,140 lb (15,032 kg)

• Loaded weight: 47,500 lb (21,500 kg)

• Max takeoff weight: 60,500 lb (27,400 kg)

• Powerplant: 2× Rolls-Royce Allison T406/AE 1107C-Liberty turboshafts, 6,150 hp (4,590 kW) each

 

Performance

 

• Maximum speed: 250 knots (460 km/h, 290 mph) at sea level / 305 kn (565 km/h; 351 mph) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)[105]

• Cruise speed: 241 knots (277 mph, 446 km/h) at sea level

• Range: 879 nmi (1,011 mi, 1,627 km)

• Combat radius: 370 nmi (426 mi, 685 km)

• Ferry range: 1,940 nmi (with auxiliary internal fuel tanks)

• Service ceiling: 26,000 ft (7,925 m)

• Rate of climb: 2,320 ft/min (11.8 m/s)

• Disc loading: 20.9 lb/ft² at 47,500 lb GW (102.23 kg/m²)

• Power/mass: 0.259 hp/lb (427 W/kg)

 

Armament

 

• 1× M240 machine gun on ramp, optional

 

Notable appearances in media

 

Main article: Aircraft in fiction#V-22 Osprey

 

See also

 

• Elizabeth A. Okoreeh-Baah, USMC - first female to pilot a V-22 Osprey

 

Related development

 

• Bell XV-15[106]

• Bell/Agusta BA609

• Bell Boeing Quad TiltRotor

 

Comparable aircraft

 

• Canadair CL-84

• LTV XC-142

 

Related lists

 

• List of military aircraft of the United States

• List of VTOL aircraft

 

References

 

Bibliography

 

• Markman, Steve and Bill Holder. "Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey Tilt-Engine VTOL Transport (U.S.A.)". Straight Up: A History of Vertical Flight. Schiffer Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-7643-1204-9.

• Norton, Bill. Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, Tiltrotor Tactical Transport. Midland Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-85780-165-2.

 

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: V-22 Osprey

 

• Official Boeing V-22 site

• Official Bell V-22 site

• V-22 Osprey web, and www.history.navy.mil/planes/v-22.html

• CV-22 fact sheet on USAF site

• www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/v-22.htm

• www.airforce-technology.com/projects/osprey/

• Onward and Upward

• "Flight of the Osprey", US Navy video of V-22 operations

Astronaut John Young, who walked on the Moon during Apollo 16 and commanded the first space shuttle mission, died Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, at the age of 87 from complications of pneumonia. Young began his impressive career at NASA in 1962, when he was selected from among hundreds of young pilots to join NASA's second astronaut class, known as the "New Nine."

 

“Today, NASA and the world have lost a pioneer," acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. "Astronaut John Young's storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight; we will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier.

 

“John was one of that group of early space pioneers whose bravery and commitment sparked our nation's first great achievements in space. But, not content with that, his hands-on contributions continued long after the last of his six spaceflights -- a world record at the time of his retirement from the cockpit."

 

Release: NASA Remembers Agency's Most Experienced Astronaut

 

“It would be hard to overstate the impact that John Young had on human space flight,” said Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa, a former astronaut herself. “Beyond his well-known and groundbreaking six missions through three programs, he worked tirelessly for decades to understand and mitigate the risks that NASA astronauts face. He had our backs.”

 

After hearing President Kennedy's bold proposal in 1961 to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, Young said knew what he had to do.

 

"I thought returning safely to Earth sounded like a good idea," said Young, who stood on the Moon, drove 16 miles in a lunar rover and spent three nights on the lunar surface. He is the only person to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs and was the first to fly into space six times -- or seven times, when counting his liftoff from the Moon during Apollo 16.

 

Video: NASA Remembers Moonwalker, Shuttle Commander John Young

 

Young was born in San Francisco, California. His family moved to Georgia and then Florida, where he lived for most of his childhood along with his younger brother.

 

As a boy, Young's favorite pastimes were building model airplanes -- the first hint of his passion for aeronautics -- and reading.

 

"My grandpa taught me how to read," said Young. "I read the encyclopedia when I was five."

 

His father, a civil engineer, was Young's role model. Young graduated from Orlando High School and then earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Georgia Tech, where he graduated with highest honors in 1952.

 

Following graduation, he joined the Navy and, after a year's service aboard a destroyer, was sent to flight training.

 

Image Gallery: John Young

 

He flew fighter planes for four years, then completed test pilot training and served three years at the Navy's Air Test Center, where he heeded the president's call to go to the Moon.

 

In March 1965, Young made his first flight as an astronaut, joining Gus Grissom on Gemini 3, the first manned flight of that program. As Young prepared, a sense of obligation overruled excitement or any other emotion.

 

"We were just thinking about doing the job right," Young said.

 

Young commanded the Gemini 10 mission in July 1966. He and pilot Mike Collins rendezvoused with two Agena target vehicles, and Collins did a spacewalk to retrieve a micrometeorite detector from one of them.

 

In May 1969, he served as command module pilot on Apollo 10 and flew all the way to the Moon with crewmates Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. The crew scouted landing sites from lunar orbit and rendezvoused the lunar module and command module in a full dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 landing two months later.

 

Young made a return trip to the Moon as commander of Apollo 16 in April 1972. With Ken Mattingly orbiting above in the command module, Young and lunar module pilot Charlie Duke landed in the Descartes highlands. "The moon is a very nice place," Young said. "When we landed, we were 20 minutes behind. Because time on the Moon was so precious, what I remember most is trying to catch up."

 

NASA Johnson Space Center Bio: John Young

 

Young and Duke set up scientific equipment and explored lunar highlands in the rover. The mission returned more than 200 pounds of Moon rocks gathered from three geological outings.

 

Young's career was full of firsts, none more notable than in April 1981, when he commanded Space Shuttle Columbia on its -- and the Shuttle program's -- maiden flight, STS-1. It was the first time a piloted spacecraft was tested in space without previous unpiloted orbital flights. Young and pilot Robert Crippen accomplished more than 130 flight test objectives during their almost 55-hour mission.

 

In late 1983 Young commanded STS-9, the first Spacelab mission. During the 10-day flight, the six crewmembers worked around the clock in 12-hour shifts, involved in more than 70 experiments in a range of scientific disciplines. The mission returned more scientific and technical data than all the Apollo and Skylab missions combined.

 

In addition to his six spaceflights, Young was a member of five backup crews. He's logged thousands of hours of training and flight time, including a total of 835 hours in space.

 

In early 1973, he became chief of the Space Shuttle Branch of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center. The following year, Young, who retired from the Navy as a captain in 1976 after 25 years of military service, was named chief of the Astronaut Office, a post he held until May 1987.

 

Throughout this time, Young remained an active astronaut, eligible to command space shuttle missions.

 

Young's numerous awards and special honors included the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, three NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, three Navy Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Georgia Tech Distinguished Young Alumni Award, the Exceptional Engineering Achievement Award and the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award.

 

Those are among more than 80 major honors and awards, including four honorary doctorate degrees, Young has received. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988.

 

"I've been very lucky, I think," Young said at his retirement from NASA in 2004. As to which moment was most memorable, he says simply, "I liked them all."

The skipjack Dee of St. Mary's is docked on Back Creek, next to the Drum Point Lighthouse, at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md., on May 7, 2017. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

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A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

Workers on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida make final preparations for launch of the Constellation Program's 327-foot-tall Ares I-X rocket. The rotating service structure and the arms of the vehicle stabilization system will be moved from around the rocket for liftoff. The transfer of the pad from the Space Shuttle Program to the Constellation Program took place May 31. Modifications made to the pad include the removal of shuttle unique subsystems, such as the orbiter access arm and a section of the gaseous oxygen vent arm, and the installation of three 600-foot lightning towers, access platforms, environmental control systems and a vehicle stabilization system. The data returned from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will be used to refine the design of future launch vehicles and bring NASA one step closer to reaching its exploration goals. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 27.

 

Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

 

More about Ares I-X: www.nasa.gov/aresIX

 

p.s. You can see all of the Ares photos in the Ares Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/ares/ We'd love to have you as a member!

Dan Small of Washington College and landowner Harry Sears use a controlled fire to manage part of a warm season grassland at Chino Farms in Queen Anne's County, Md., on April 13, 2016. The grassland is ideal habitat for northern bobwhite quail. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

 

USAGE REQUEST INFORMATION

The Chesapeake Bay Program's photographic archive is available for media and non-commercial use at no charge. To request permission, send an email briefly describing the proposed use to requests@chesapeakebay.net. Please do not attach jpegs. Instead, reference the corresponding Flickr URL of the image.

 

A photo credit mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Program is mandatory. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in any way that suggests approval or endorsement of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Requestors should also respect the publicity rights of individuals photographed, and seek their consent if necessary.

Operation IceBridge team members board a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft for a flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station in Antarctica on Nov. 12, 2013. The C-17s that ferry people, equipment and supplies to Antarctica are operated by the U.S. Air Force's 62nd and 446th Airlift Wings based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, Wash.

 

NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. In 2013, IceBridge is conducting its first field campaign directly from Antarctica. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge

 

Credit: NASA/Goddard/Jefferson Beck

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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Shigar Fort Residence & Shigar Valley Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan .-گلگت بلتستان

Dr Rashid Kazmi from Pakistan +923009113675

Anne Hussan From South Africa

(15 may to 07 jun 2016)

 

A 17th Century Fort Palace Re-imagined As A Heritage Hotel

Located on the legendry route to the world’s second highest mountain K-2, and known as Fong-Khar, which in the local language means the “Palace on the Rock”, Serena Shigar Fort is a unique heritage guesthouse hotel in Baltistan, Pakistan. Serena Shigar Fort offers guests the opportunity to experience the restored original architecture of the 17th Century Raja Fort Palace, while enjoying the modern amenities and services of a luxury guest house.

 

The complex at Shigar comprises of the 400-year-old Fort / Palace and two more recent buildings, the "Old House" and the "Garden House". The former Palace of the Raja of Shigar has been transformed into a 20 room heritage guesthouse hotel, with the grand audience hall serving as a museum of Balti culture and featuring select examples of fine wood-carvings, as well as other heritage objects.

 

Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan .-گلگت بلتستان

Dr Rashid Kazmi from Pakistan +923009113675

Anne Hussan From South Africa

(15 may to 07 jun 2016)

Gilgit Baltistan is, perhaps, the most spectacular region of Pakistan in terms of its geography and scenic beauty. Here world’s three mightiest mountain ranges: the Karakoram, the Handukuch and the Himalayas – meet. The whole of Gilgit Baltistan is like a paradise for mountaineers, trekkers and anglers. The region has a rich cultural heritage and variety of rare fauna and flora. Historically, the area ha remained a flash point of political and military rivalries amongst the Russian, British and Chinese empires. Immediately after the end of British rule in the sub-continent in 1947, the people of this region decided to join Pakistan through a popular local revolt against the government of Maharaja of Kashmir.

Five out of the fourteen mountain peaks with height of over 8000 meters including the K-2 (world’s second heights peak) and some of the largest glaciers outside polar regions are located in Gilgit Baltistan. Acknowledging the vast potential of tourism and its effects on downstream industries, the Government of Pakistan as well as the Gilgit Baltistan Administration are focusing on tourism for creation of employment opportunities, achieving higher economic growth and to introduce to the outside world, “the hidden treasures” of Gilgit Baltistan.

Beautiful landscape, unique cultural heritage and rich biological diversity given the Gilgit Baltistan a competitive advantage in attracting tourists from all over the world.

The number of tourists visiting Gilgit Baltistan has steadily increased over the years, not-withstanding the dip-in figures immediately following 9/11. However, the challenge ahead is not merely to increase the number of tourists visiting Gilgit Baltistan but also to consider how tourism can be better promoted without affecting the natural and cultural heritage of the area, while also improving the quality of life of people to the desired levels.

Historical Perspective of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan

The Gilgit Baltistan is one of the most spectacular regions of Pakistan. Here the world's three mightiest mountain ranges - the Karakorams, the Hindukush and the Himalayas - meets. The entire Gilgit-Baltistan is like a paradise for mountaineers, climbers, trekkers, hikers and anglers. The region has a rich cultural heritage and variety of rare flora and fauna.

Historically, the area ha remained a flash point of political and military rivalries amongst the Russian, British and Chinese empires. Immediately after the end of British rule in the sub-continent in 1947, the people of this region decided to join Pakistan through a popular local revolt against the government of Maharaja of Kashmir.

The Gilgit Baltistan have always been at the crossroads of conquerors, raiders and travelers. Therefore, its history has been deeply influenced by the various incidences of history. The Gilgit-Baltistan have a very rich history which can be understood through periodizations made by historians. It is said that small chieftains ruled Gilgit and Baltistan, until the beginning of the 19th century. They had to grapple with trivial issues amongst each other Taking advantage of their weaknesses and mutual rivalries, the Dogra regime of Kashmir annexed these territories around the middle of the 19th century even though they found the control of the area difficult. Baltistan was administered directly by the Kashmir Government as a part of District Laddakh with Headquarters at Leh. The British Indian Government got attraction in the region following the political developments in Russian and Chinese Turkistan during the late 19th century.

The history of Gilgit-Baltistan can be divided into the following periods:

Pre-History: The earliest inhabitants of the Gilgit-Baltistan can be traced back to 5th millennium BC They were known as Rock Art People as they started the tradition of rock carving which was continued by their successors. They were hunters and lived in rocks. There is a general perception that they had religion having faith in mountains.

Megalith Builders: These people came from Chitral and Swat and had the tradition of building large megaliths. They used to have a ceremonial carved stone in the middle which was worshiped. They used metals like copper, bronze, iron, gold and silver. They developed irrigated fields and also depended on livestock like goat, sheep and other cattle. They lived in mud houses as temporary settlement.

Dardic People: According to some historians, the Dardics lived in the present Gilgit Baltistan during the Achaemenian Empire (4th century B.C). Their economic activities included mining and trading gold. This led to the establishment of a trade route with Central Asia and China.

Scytho Parthians: Various rock inscriptions around Chilas suggest that the Scythians from Central Asia had established their rule in this area around the first century BC The rule of Scythians resulted in the introduction of Kharoshti script and Taxila style stupas and establishment of close trade relations with Taxila. The Scythian rule lasted only two generations between 1 B.C and 1 A.D. This was followed by the Gondophares branch of Parthians. The influence of the Parthians on local culture is evident from the rock carvings of this era which depict some new themes other than those of the earliest inhabitants.

The Kushans: The Khushans moved to Northern Areas between 1 B.C and 1 A.D who had already established their rule in Central Asia and China. They used gold for trade purposes and a route passed through Northern Area which was perhaps the Silk Route on which the current Karakoram Highway has been constructed.

The Post Kushans: After the Khushans, the Sassanis from Persia controlled the area in the beginning of 3rd century AD. During that period, Budhism continued to flourish and this area remained a famous crossing point for travel to and from India, China and Central Asia.

The Huns: These were tribes from Central Asia who were warriors. They ruled through several Shina and Brushaski kings called 'Rajas'. By that time, Budhism was still on its way of spreading.

Medieval to Modern Time

With the decline of Huns, the Rajas became independent. From 612 to 750 AD, the areas were ruled by Patoal Shahi Dynasty who were Budhists and had close ties with Chinese empire. Between 7th Century and early 19th century, parts of the Gilgit-Baltistan were ruled by succession of various dynasties including: Tarkhans of Gilgit, the Maghlots of Nagar, the Ayasho of Hunza, the Burshai of Punyal, the Maqpoons of Skardu, the Anchans of Shigar and the Yabgos of Khaplu. In the beginning of 8th century AD the Tarkhan rulers embraced Islam. In the medieval times, Gilgit-Baltistan remained outside Mughal control although Akber conquered Kashmir and parts of Baltistan while Gilgit retained its independent status until the Gilgit-Baltistan came under the control of Dogra rulers of Kashmir in the middle of 18th century.

By the end of 19th century, the British Government created the Gilgit agency and appointed a political agent, under a lease agreement with Maharaja Harising of Kashmir. In 1947, the people of Gilgit Baltistan fought against the Maharaja and got independence. Since then, it is being administered under the Federal Government of Pakistan as Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA). (Courtesy: State of Environment and Development- in Northern Areas- IUCN/GoP NAs 2003)

Adventure Tourism

Geography:

Gilgit has an area of 38,000 square kilometers (14,672 sq mi). The region is significantly mountainous, lying on the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, and has an average altitude of 1,500 meters (4,900ft). It is drained by the Indus River, which rises in the neighboring regions of Ladakh and Baltistan.

The Gilgit-Baltistan borders the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, China's Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast, the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and southeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the south, and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to the west.

Geological Importance:

The Karakoram and the Himalayas are important to Earth scientists for several reasons. They are one of the world's most geologically active areas, at the boundary between two colliding continents. Therefore, they are important in the study of plate tectonics. Mountain glaciers may serve as an indicator of climate change, advancing and receding with long-term changes in temperature and precipitation. These extensive ranges may have even caused climate change when they were formed over 40 million years ago. The large amounts of rock exposed to the atmosphere are weathered (broken down) by carbon dioxide.

This process removes the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, and could have caused the global climate to cool, triggering an ongoing series of ice ages.

Land of Famous Mountains:

Pakistan is home to 108 peaks above 7,000 meters and probably as many peaks above 6,000 m. There is no count of the peaks above 5,000 and 4,000 m. Five of the 14 highest independent peaks in the world (the eight-thousanders) are in Pakistan (four of which lie in the surroundings of Concordia; the confluence of Baltoro Glacier and Godwin Austen Glacier). Most of the highest peaks in Pakistan lie in Karakoram range (which lies almost entirely in the Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan, but some peaks above 7,000 m are included in the Himalayan and Hindukush ranges.

Geographic Distribution:

Most of the highest mountains in Pakistan are located in the Karakoram range, but some high rnour nins are in Himalaya (the highest of which is Nanga Parbat, globally ranked 9th, 8126m) and Hindu Kush (the highest of which is Tirich Mir, globally ranked 33rd, 7708 m).

Where Great Mountain Ranges Meet (Karakoram, Himalayas and Hindu Kush Mountain Ranges).

Pakistan is a land of varied and unique landscape. While high mountain ranges dominate its North, series of low mountain ranges of Suleman, Pub, Kirthar and Makran extend from North to Southwest and to South in a bone like manner. These low ranges dominate the plains and deserts to the East and warm and captivating beaches of the Arabian Sea to the South. It is, however, Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan which is endowed with most unique geographical feature in the world. It is here that the three great, lofty and spectacular mountain ranges, Karakoram, Hindukush and Himalayas meet.

In an area of about 500 kms in width and 350 kms in depth, is found the most dense collection of some of the highest and precipitous peaks in the world, boasting more than 700 peaks above 6000 meters, and more than 160 peaks above 7000 meters.

These include five out of the total fourteen above eight thousand meter high peaks on earth, namely the second highest rock pyramid - the K-2 (8611 m), the killer mountain Nanga Parbat (8126 m), the Hidden Peak, Gasherbrum I (8068 m), the Broad Peak (8047 m) and the Gasherbrum II (8035 m). This enormous mountain wealth makes Pakistan an important mountain country, offering great opportunities for mountaineering and mountain related adventure activities. The area is aptly called a paradise for mountaineers, adventure seekers and nature lovers. The compelling charm of these high, challenging, endless sea of rugged rock and ice pinnacles lure large- number of climbers, adventure seekers and nature lovers from across the five continents to the Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, each year.

K2 / Chogori:

K2 is a rocky mountain up to 6000 meters, beyond which it becomes an ocean of snow. The exact height of the peak is 8,611 meters/28,251 feet.

The mountain owes its name to a coincidence. In 1856, T. G. Montgomerie from the British Cartographic Service in India was taking down the consecutive summits by the initial of the Karakoram mountain range when doing his measurements there, adding them in the order in which he was studying them. He had no idea that K2 is in fact the second highest mountain on Earth. There was no local name attached to the mountain. Attempts were made to find a name for it in the language of the inhabitants of Baltistan, the region in which it is situated. The highlanders liked "key two", the most, however, the way it is pronounced in English.

Later on, this turned out to be "Chogori". Chogori is a Balti word meaning King of Mountains. The name K2, however, still stands.

In 1860, Captain Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen, of the Survey of India, went to the Baltistan area and surveyed the famous Shigar and Saltoro valleys. This greatly contributed to the knowledge of the area. In 1861, he started from Skardu and entered Braldu valley from Skoro-La (5,043m). He then climbed and surveyed the Chogo-lungma, Kero Lungma, Biafo and Panmah glaciers. It was from Kero Lungma that Godwin-Austen climbed the Nushik pass (4,990m/l 6,371 ft) and is stated to have entered the 53-km-long Hispar glacier. He was perhaps the first European to reach it. It is a myth that the K2 peak, which was erroneously called Godwin-Austen peak, was discovered by him. It is, however, a fact that he explored the gateway to K2 (the Baltoro glacier), along with famous glaciers including Godwin-Austen glacier. This was indeed his outstanding contribution to the geography of the area.

Nangaparbat:

The Himalayas are a great mountain range formed by the collision of Indo-Pakistan tectonic plate with the Asian Continent/The central Himalayan mountains are situated in Nepal, while the eastern mountains extend to the borders of Bhutan and Sikkim. Nanga Parbat massif is the western corner pillar of the Himalayas. It is an isolated range of peaks just springing up from nothing, and is surrounded by the rivers Indus and Astore. Nanga Parbat or "Nanga Parvata" means the naked mountain. Its original and appropriate name, however, is Diamir the king of mountains. Nanga Parbat (main peak) has a height of 8,126m/26,660 ft. It has three vast faces. The Raikot (Ra Kot) face is dominated by the north and south silver crags and silver plateau; the Diamir face is rocky in the beginning. It converts itself into ice fields around Nanga Parbat peak. The Rupal face is the highest precipice in the world. Reinhold Messner, a living legend in mountaineering from Italy, says that "every one who has ever stood at the foot of this face (4,500m/14,764ft) up above the Tap Alpe', studied it or flown over it, could not help the amazement of its sheer size; it has become known as the highest rock and ice wall in the Nanga Parbat has always been associated with tragedies and tribulations until it was climbed in 1953. A lot of mountaineers have perished on Nanga Parbat since 1895. Even today it is claiming a heavy toll of human lives, mountaineers in search of adventure and thrill and in finding new and absolutely un-climbed routes are becoming its victims.

The Nanga Parbat peak was discovered in the nineteenth century by Europeans. The Schlagintweit brothers, who hailed from Munich (Germany) came in 1854 to Himalayas and drew a panoramic view which is the first know picture of Nanga Parbat.

Gasherbrum 1:

Gasherbrum in local language means "Shining Wall". There are six Gasherbrum Peaks. Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak 8,068m/26,470ft), is the highest peak among them. A French Expedition led by H. De Segogne made the first attempt in 1936, but I they could not climb beyond Camp V located at a height of 6,797 m. However, in 1958 an American Expedition led by Nich Clinch made the first ascent to Gasherbrum. I. Schoening and Kaufman were the first to reach the summit. The approach route to Base camp starts from Skardu through Shigar Valley and approach trek starts from Askole through Baltoro glacier.

"Hidden Peak or Gasherbrum I (8068 m)" is the llth highest mountain of the world. The British explorer M. Conway introduced the names 'Hidden Peak' and Gasherbrum II. In 1958 an American expedition, headed by Clinch and

Schoening, climbs the summit for the very first time. On the way crossing the south spur, they use short ski and snow shoes. Pete Schoening and Andrew Kauffman got to the summit on July 4th 1975. In 1982 a German expedition headed by G. Sturm climbed the Hidden Peak. G. Sturm, M. Dacher and S. Hupfauer got via a new route in the north face to the highest point. In the same year, the very first woman reached to the summit. Moreover, the first ski descent from the top of an 8000 meter peak was also made.

Gasherbrum 2:

The shining mountain on the Karakoram range is just the second highest peak amongst the Gasherbrum Peaks with an altitude of 8,035m/26,361ft. The first ascent made by Austrians led by Fritz Moravec along with Joseph Larch and Hans Willenpart on 8th July, 1956. They set up a base camp on the south Gasherbrum glacier. Camp 1 was set up at 6,005m/l 9,700ft. It was here that the party was forced to stay for ten days because of a severe storm. Consequently, they lost a large supply store in an avalanche. After setting up a few more camps, Fritz Moravec, Joseph Larch, and Hansenpart set up a bivouac below 7,620m/25,000ft. Inspite of frostbites suffered in the bivouac, the three reached he summit of Gasherbrum II on 8th July and came back without meeting any further accident. The climb on this peak is both on rock and ice. A high level of technical skill, physical fitness and acclimatization is required. The approach to base camp is via Skardu and takes about a week’s trekking on Baltoro Glacier.

An Expedition to Gasherbrum II provides a more complete mountaineering Experience than the commonly guided Tibetan 8000m Peaks ( Shishapangma & Cho Oyu) which can be reached by Jeep road. The Walk to Gasherbrum II base camp along the Baltoro Glacier has been described as one of the best treks in the world.

S. No Peaks Height Latitude (DD) Longitude (DD)

01 K2 (Mount Godwin Austin), Chogori 8611 m 35.890 76.510

02 Nanga Parbat (Nanga Parbat peak. Diamar) 8126 m 35.230 74.600

03 Gasherbrum – 1 (Hidden Peak. K5) 8068 m 35.730 76.700

04 Broad Peak 8047 m 35.810 76.570

05 Gasherbrum – II (K4) 8035 m 35.750 76.650

06 Gasherbrum III 7952 m 35.440 76.350

07 Gasherbrum – IV 7925 m 35.440 76.350

08 Khianyang Kish (Khianyang Kish. Khianyang Chhish) 7852 m 36.200 75.220

09 Musherbrum 7821 m 35.720 76.300

10 Batura (Batura – 1 East ) 7795 m 36.510 74.520

11 Raka Poshi (Rakaposhi Peak, Dumani) 7788 m 36.170 74.500

12 Saltoro Kangri 7742 m 35.400 76.790

13 Tirich Mir 7706 m 36.250 71.830

14 Chogolisa (Bride Peak) 7665 m 35.120 76.580

15 The Ogre (Biantha Brakk) 7285 m 35.930 75.750

16 Muztagh Tower 7273 m 35.830 76.370

17 Koyo Zom 6889 m 36.580 86.780

18 Mayer Kangri (Mayr Kangri) 6262 m 33.470 86.780

Culture and Heritage

Gilgit-Baltistan is home to a number of diversified cultures, ethnic groups, languages and various backgrounds. It is home to people belonging to all regions of Gilgit-Baltistan as well as from other cities of Pakistan and aboard. This multitude of cultures is because of the strategic location of Gilgit. Being the headquarters of the Gilgit-Baltistan as; most of the key offices are located in Gilgit.

Shina is the basic language spoken by most of the original settlers but the new comers have various backgrounds of languages and cultures. Other key languages spoken in Gilgit are:

Brushaski,

Wakhi

Khowar.

Balti

Urdu and English are the official languages spoke - while other languages include: Pushto and Punjabi. Because of various cultures the pattern of living, housing, food style and over life style has become a mixture having various colors.

People:

Because of the multicultural and multi lingual aspects: people also have a beautiful mix of lifestyles and attitudes. These range from the typical people tending to preserve the traditions and culture to the modern people somehow influenced by other cultures, media and education. That makes a pluralistic society having a range of people with various backgrounds and living together with peace and tranquility.

Religion:

Majority of the inhabitants are Muslims belonging to different communities of interpretations i.e. Sunnies, Shias, Ismailies and Noor Bakhshia. A small number of Christians also reside in Gilgit.

Festivities:

There are mainly two types of festivals i.e. religious and cultural. Religious festivals include: Eid-e-Ghadir, Edi-ul Fitr and Eid Miladunnabi (the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad-Peace be upon Him). There are some other important events specific to different communities of interpretation which are celebrated with complete peace and fraternity.

Cultural events include:

Navroz,

Jashn-e-Baharan

Cultural festivals.

Shandoor Polo Festival

Babusar Polo Festival

Harvest time festival

These are greatest opportunities for people to get together and share their talents and skills.

Music and Dances:

The famous trio band music is played in this region as in most of the other regions. On the rhythm of this loud music, men love to dance in their typical way. There are some variations in lyrics from region to region.

Dance

The people of Gilgit-Baltistan as have some unique and very beautiful dances in different parts. Following dances are common during the festivals, traditional events and ceremonies

Old Man Dance

In this dance more then one persons wear some old style dresses and dance

Sword Dance

In this unique dance the participants show taking one sword in right and shield in left. One to six participants as pair can dance.

Cow Boy Dance (Payaloo)

In this dance a person wears old style dress, long leather shoes and a stick in hand.

Traditional Music: Music (Hareep)

The instruments commonly used in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan are Dadang (drum), Damal and Surnai while some other instruments like Sitar, Gabi(Flute) Rabab and duff represent the different areas. Beside these khiling-boo.chang, porgho-too etc instruments are used in Baltistan region.

Types of Music:

Alghani: The people of Gilgit, Ghizer Yasin, Puniyal, and Gupis call this rhythm as Alghani

Ajoli: during departure of bride and groom from house this rhythm is used in different parts of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan.

Souse: A martial rhythm and it has a fast rhythm and is used specially in sword dances.

Dani: Dani is the name of a traditional music used in Hunza which links to Tibet, Baltistan and Laddakh.

Festival Events:

Harvest Festival:

After many months, the plants are now ready for reaping and harvesting. This stage involves another festival. Harvest time is celebrated. This festival is performed in the same way as the seeding festival. The villagers thank "Allah" for the bounty that they ore going to harvest. For this, it means lively music (drum beats), dancing and eating on top of sharing the happiness with one another.

The Shandur Polo Festival: A Highlight of the Region's, the Country's and the World's Polo Playing Calendar Story and Photographs by Doug Kuzmiak

The exact place where polo originated is shrouded in mists and perhaps myths of the history of Western and Central Asia, but there is no doubt that that this region in general is its birthplace and with some even going so far as to so' that it was in the Gilgit-Baltistan, and Baltistan's town of Shigar in particular, where it all started.

Whether or not that indeed is the case polo has a long tradition and enjoys a substantial following of enthusiasts in the Northern Areas. Even among people who could never dream of owning a horse, polo has its loyal devotees who regularly support their favourite team and often 'ravel long distances throughout the Gilgit-Baltistan to demonstrate that loyalty.

One such instance, and perhaps the largest and most dramatic in the whole Northern Areas, and perhaps all of Pakistan, is the annual Shandur Polo Festival held in July. Until last year Shandur was the highest polo ground in the world 'it 12,263 feet. That distinction now goes to Babusar at almost 13,599 feet, still in Pakistan.

Shandur is on a spur of the old Silk Route. It has been the site of a fierce rivalry between the polo teams from the old fortress town of Chitral in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP)

and the ancient caravanserai and now modern city of Gilgit in the Northern Areas.

In 2008 Chitral won the free-style, no chukker polo tournament by two goals and the match had to go into spirited, hard-playing extra time on a ground wider, longer and higher than usually found else-where. It was not without altercations, disagreements, some wildly flying balls and perhaps a rumored fist or two.

The Shandur plateau is usually the haunt of grazing sheep, goats and yaks. These occasionally become the prey of brown bear, wolf and even the rare and endangered snow leopard. There is a complex of extremely shallow, snowmelt-fed lakes, which are only about 10 feet deep. The complex constitutes one of South Asia's great bird-migration flyways, and they play a major role in the propagation of species found nowhere else.

The lakes themselves are breeding grounds for species of frogs, toads, snails and plant life in addition to attracting the passing birds.

Polo at Shandur goes back a long way and is somewhat colorfully clouded in embellishment. But originally, the polo match at Shandur was a clash between the region's ruling classes with the princely Methars of Chitral and the equally princely Rajas from what is now the Northern Areas.

During the days of the British Raj, when Shandur was one of the farthest and most remote point north in South Asia where the Union Jack flew, polo rivalry was shared by the Chitral Scouts and the equally competitive Gilgit Scouts military regiments.

Even though the existing polo pavilion and seating area were established, some say, as far back as the 1930s, Shandur's remoteness was its environmental saviour. And when Partition of India and Pakistan took place, there appears to have been a break in the activities.

That was until the 1980s, when the federal government started supporting polo at Shandur on a large scale, and things began growing from there. Nevertheless, things still were, and are, kucha at best. Players and mounts live in and around tents with the Chitral team on one side of the border, the Gilgit-Baltistan team on the other. Players and their mounts are still made up of the region's elite, some of whom are the best players in the country and perhaps the world.

The 1990s saw prime ministers, including the late Benazir Bhutto, flying in by helicopter for the last day's main event and during the early 2000s the road between Gilgit and Shandur was paved and from Chitral to Shandur partially paved.

People then began loving Shandur to death. The now-comparative ease of access saw an increase in the numbers of both spectators and sellers, and also an increase in indifference to the environment. Solid-waste management, water pollution and erosion problems manifested themselves in a very big way. Vehicles, horses, clothes, crockery and cutlery, and people were all being washed in the fragile lake complex. The mountain of trash and difficulties managing it grew.

Going on the environmental offensive, this year the 18-month-old Pakistan Wetlands Programme (PWP), a seven year long Ministry of Environment environmental initiative being implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Pakistan (WWF-P) and in particular its Gilgit-located Regional Operations Base set out to "Save Shandur" through an environmental campaign aimed at solid waste management and conscious raising among participants, spectators and vendors. It was acting upon a PWP-sponsored landmark study done in 2006 by Oxford University scholar David Johnson regarding the environmental challenges facing Shandur.

The PWP encouraged support from the army and police, whose duties this year included cordoning off and guarding access to the lake and other environmentally sensitive areas.

The PWP got the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency (NAEPA) along with Tourism departments from both the NWFP and NAs, and non-government organizations involved in the effort. Officials of the NAs Forest Department along with their counterparts at the NWFP Wildlife Department agreed to assign four rangers to environmental check posts on the road at the two entrances to Shandur.

At the same time, the PWP drew together community organizations from both sides of the polo match's competing regions to work together for a common cause.

Particularly special help and consideration to the environmental effort was given by the officers and men of the Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts, a comparatively new paramilitary regiment made up from the corps of the old Gilgit Scouts and who were camped next to the PWP. They provided material, logistical and tactical assistance to the program's staff and volunteers, helped with the maintenance of the PWP vehicles in the demanding conditions, operated a snack stall and dining room open 10 ail and provided evening traditional folk dancing and musical events. The Scouts had a fully equipped medical unit that was prepared to ok., and did aid, in any way it could. Its presence was considered to be a major contributor to the environmental initiative's success.

And while the polo players battled it out on the polo ground day after day, the volunteers maintained high-profile, periodic clean-ups of the polo ground area and marches on it, inducing a grand finale on the last day. Repeated announcements were made over the public address system encouraging spectators to be environmentally sensitive.

Thirty visually friendly, blue, plastic trash bins were provided by the Gilgit-Baltistan ERA and strategically positioned by the volunteers in the bazaar.

The bins were lined with locally made, heavy-duty polyurethane bags, which had the PWP and NAEPA logos printed on them. For security reasons only the liner bags were allowed to be placed in the polo ground area.

Thanks in part to the public-relations blitz, the corps of environmental volunteers achieved some notable successes. Officially, 550 bags of trash averaging 16.5 pounds each, totaling about 9,232 pounds, or 4.6159 tonnes, were systematically collected by the volunteers, weighed and contents of selected bags analyzed and disposed of in an EPA approved dumpsite on the Northern Areas side of Shandur plateau.

"This year's Save Shandur showed that with the right dedication and will, things that were in the past considered difficult or impossible can be achieved. And if it can be done at Shandur, it can be done anywhere. It is already envisioned that for next year the cleanup and conscious-raising campaigns will be expanded to include more volunteers, organizations, and cover the entire area of the event. Good fun and good environmental practices can coexist," said Dr. Humaira Khan, the Pakistan Wetlands Programme's coordinator for the Northern Areas.

BABUSAR CUP POLO Tournament

Babusar polo tournament was organized from August 5-7, 2008 by the Tourism Department Gilgit-Baltistan , Gilgit at the highest polo ground in the world at Babusar (13,812 ft) at the highest Polo group of the world.

This Polo Tournament is based on its geographical location, lucid atmosphere and newly constructed NHA road which, will provide easy access to Gilgit-Baltistan from Naran and Kaghan valleys of NWFP, the tournament was designed to signify the touristic potential of Babusar and it's surrounding.

The festival also includes Tug of war, Tent pegging, Paragliding, Photo Exhibition, Gemstone Exhibition, Handicrafts Exhibition, Trekking, Horse Riding and camp Fire.

The Babusar Pass is located in District Diamer of Gilgit-Baltistan . It is located at a distance of 35 kms from KKH near Chilas, which takes 2 hours drive on road journey to Babusar. The Babusar Pass can also be accessed through Mansehra, via Kaghan Valley covering a distance of 200kms.

Gems of Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan

Pakistan has gained a prominent position in the international market for supplying a wide variety of gemstones and mineral specimens. The Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan is enriched with the variety of mineral treasures that include peridot, emerald, aquamarine, tourmaline, topaz, ruby, sapphire, garnet, red spinal, pargasite, actinolite, diopside, epidote, vesuvianite, axinite, rodingite, sphene, fluorite, apatite, zircon, rutile, azurite, moonstone, ametrvst, rose quartz and agate.

Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan is composed of three lofty, snow-covered mountain ranges: Himalaya, Hindu Kush and Karakoram. These geomorphic features reflect the geological setting which, in many respects, is unique in the world. These ranges were formed as result of two collisions between India and Asia that occurred between 100 and 50 Ma (million years) ago. These collisions have induced crustal thickening in these mountains, which has resulted in metamorphism and multiple phases of deformation in these rocks. This was followed by the emplacement of leucogranites and associated pegmatites. Theses geological processes have produced a distinctive mineral kingdom within Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan.

Most of the gemstones are pegmatite-related, such as aquamarine, tourmaline, topaz, garnet, and apatite. Some of the gemstones are hydrothermal and /or metamorphic in genesis such as emerald, ruby, sapphire, pargasite, rutile, azurite and pink topaz. The pegmatites are generally composed of feldspar (albite and microcline), quartz, biotite, muscovite and tourmaline. The important gemstones of Pakistan are listed below:

Emerald:

Emerald is the green variety of beryl. In Pakistan, it is found in the talc-carbonate schist in Swat. The specimen range between low quality pale green to green hue marred by numerous inclusions. Fine quality of an exquisite bluish or yellowish green shade and is highly transparent. The best Swat emeralds were comparable to fine.

Aquamarine:

Aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl. Pakistani aquamarine has light green and blue coloration, and the crystals are well shaped. Dusso aquamarine crystals are very large in size ranging from 1 cm to 8 cm in width and up to 15 cm long. Large and matchless specimens of aquamarine (about 10 Kg in weight and 40 cm long) are usually associated with apatite or fluro-apatite, topaz, gem garnet, schorl, and sheaths of muscovite, is the specialty of Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan.

Ruby:

Ruby mineralization in Pakistan occurs in the dolomites marble in an extensive belt of more than 100 Km in the Hunza Valley. The well formed crystals are pink to a fine red in color. High quality and transparent rubies also occur in the upper Neelum Valley, Kashmir.

Tourmaline:

Tourmaline includes elbaite, indicolite and the most valued bright red variety, rubellite. Some varieties of tourmaline shows more than one color, with at least three being reported in one particular specimen. Large, well-shaped, gem quality crystals up to 800 grams in weight are found in the Gilgit and Skardu areas. Gem quality tourmaline occurs in the gem-bearing pegmatite at Stak, Bulechi and Shingus, Gilgit District, Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan.

Topaz:

Topaz is a popular and durable gem. In Pakistan, topaz occurs as euhedral crystals in pegmatites in Gilgit and Skardu Districts. Topaz-crystals may be found in yellowish brown, golden color, honey-yellow, and champagne. Deeper sherry-colored topaz crystals are very popular.

Pink topaz is another variety found in Katlang, Mardan District, Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan. The Katlang topaz is transparent to sub-transparent, colorless, purple or pink and good crystals are free from impurities. The orange rose or cyclamen color is unique in the world. The largest crystal recovered so far is over 7.5 cm in length with deep pink color. The well-formed crystals have the usual faces of topaz. The topaz occurs in calcite and quartz vein within limestone.

Aesthetic Crystals from the Gilgit-Baltistan

The prismatic aquamarine-single crystals offered here are of precious stone quality and distinguish themselves by their clearness and a nice bluish coloring. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for such Aquamarine single crystals to provide reliable information about the exact locality of the finding place in the Haramosh mountains. The locality "Gilgit" usually stands for the place Fiqhar on the east shore of the Hindu, or for Chumar Bakhoor, in the peak area on approx. 4,600 ms (both regions: Gilgit Lower Nagar)

Wildlife in Gilgit-Baltistan

The Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan are rich in flora and fauna because of varied climatic conditions and ecosystems. In spite of unscientific management and ruthless hunting in the past, wildlife in the Gilgit-Baltistan still supports rare and endangered species of mammals and birds like Marco Polo sheep, blue sheep, markhor, black bear, brown bear, chakor and ram chakor. Due to the destruction of habitat wildlife population of Gilgit-Baltistan is decreasing rapidly. According to rough estimate of late Raja Bhadur Ali Khan, (Conservator of Forests, Gilgit-Baltistan); in 1970, there were 500 Marco Polo sheep in the Khunjerab National Park, but in 2004 they were only 75, restricted to Kirchinai nallah of the valley. Similarly snow leopard and other valuable species are also decreasing. (Khan, 1970). Until 1947 almost all the important valleys, most of them now included in protected areas, supported a high density of wild animals and hunting was allowed to only a few British and high ranking local officials, rulers and persons with high social status. Further more, the area was hard to access. Hunting for the common poachers was not easy. Traditional muzzle loading guns were commonly used, but were not very effective.

Mammals: The mammalian fauna of Gilgit-Baltistan mainly belongs to Palaearctic region, which may have spread southwards from Central Asia. Fifty-four mammal species are estimated for Gilgit-Baltistan. These species consist of one shrew, 10 bats, 18 carnivores, 6 artiodactyls, 3 lagomorphs, and 16 rodents. There is only one endemic species of mammals, i.e. the woolly flying squirrel, while the Astore markhor (flare-horned markhor) can be considered near-endemic, as its distribution is restricted to a few valleys because of rugged terrain and natural barriers like rivers. The distribution of many small mammal species is very patchy and restricted to certain watersheds due to physical barriers like high mountains and rivers. Virk et al. (2003) quote Z.B. Mirza that the most diverse groups are carnivores and rodents. The rodents have high breeding capacity and are the food base for many carnivores. Species like shrews provide food base to foxes, weasels and stone martens.

Large mammal species richness is higher in Gilgit-Baltistan as compared to other parts of Pakistan. Two areas are considered as a "hot spot" for large mammals diversity. These are the upper Hunza and the triangle between Indus and Astore rivers. Several large mammal species found here are endangered. These includes snow leopard, Marco Polo sheep, Himalayan brown bear, black bear, musk deer, flare horned markhor, Laddakh urial, blue sheep, and Himalayan lynx. Most of these species require large areas to maintain viable populations. Species like markhor and Ladakh urial constitute much of the remaining global populations. The current status of Marco Polo sheep and musk deer is also uncertain, as both of these species have been persecuted heavily in the past. The population of musk deer is very low and fragmented. Its status in Northern Areas is endangered and it is listed in both the IUCN Red Data Book and in CITES Appendix-I. Marco Polo sheep is not a permanent resident of Pakistan but occasionally migrates into the Khunjerab National Park through the border passes of Khunjerab, Killick, and Mintaka. The area around the Khunjerab pass provides suitable summer habitat for this species, but it has not migrated this location in the recent past probably due to greater human presence. The Chinese have also erected fence along the Khunjerab pass, which has further reduced this species' crossing into Pakistan. The other possible place where this species can cross into Pakistan is through the Killick and Mintaka passes where its sighting has been less in recent years. Only a herd of 46 animals was sighted in the area during July 1997 by local herders and Game Watchers of KNP (Virk et al., 2003). The most comprehensive account of large mammals has been given by Schaller (1977) and Roberts (1997). However, the occurrence of some of the species as Red dog or Indian wild dog (Coun alpinus) and Tibetan wild ass (Equus kiang) is still a controversy. There are reports that these species occur in the Shimshal Pamir, the area next to Sinkiang, China (Rasool, 1998). Earlier accounts suggest occasional crossing of these species from China into Pakistan around the Broldu and Oprnag rivers in Shimshal Pamir, but there is no confirmation of their recent sightings.

Snow leopard (Uncia uncia) is a beautiful Palaearctic cat, which blends well in rocky terrain in the mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan. In summer months it ascends to the alpine zone, returning in winter to the oak forest to forage for food, which consists mainly of grass eating animals. Its fur is very soft and luxuriant and thick in winter. It is gray-brown in summer, paling in winter with pure white under parts. Its tail has long fur. It is vulnerable to illegal hunters mainly because of its valuable pelt. Occasionally it is poisoned by nomadic shepherds to prevent goat losses. Himalayan lynx (Felis lynx isabellina) occurs in alpine slopes in the extreme of Northern Areas. It is a powerful and expert climber, generally nocturnal but occasionally hunting by day in remote areas. Its usual food is marmot, pika, hare, snow cock and other birds, but can also overpower large animals like sheep, goat and even markhor.

Wolf (Canis lupis) is found throughout the Northern Areas. It hunts domestic livestock, wild ungulates (ibex, markhor, blue sheep etc.) and other small rodents. Himalayan black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus) occurs in pockets in Iran and Balochistan and is widespread in the Himalayas from China to Russia. It lives in caves in the remote, mountains areas and descends at night to feed, mainly on small insects, but it is also eats crops, particularly ripe maize.

Brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a holarctic species found in alpine and sub alpine scrub zones in Chitral, in Deosai in the Gilgit-Baltistan, around the slopes of Nanga Parbat and in Astore, Swat and Indus Kohistan. It is also found in Pamir and the Hindu Kush. The brown bear eats insets, voles and succulent shoots. It hibernates during winter from the end of October until the following spring. Musk deer (Moschus moshiferus) is another palaearctic species found in the northern mountains, including Hazara, Kashmir and the Himalayan ranges eastwards to Nepal and Sikkim. Its usual habitat is birch scrub and bushy upland regions. At times it moves with nomadic goats. Although vulnerable to snow leopard and wolf attacks, its main enemy is human being who kills it for its valuable musk pod, which is used to make scent and other cosmetics. Siberian or Himalayan ibex (Capra ibex) is a palaearctic species found in the high mountains of Chitral, the Northern Areas, Hazara, Indus Kohistan and possibly in the Safad Koh mountains. This ibex is also distributed in Afghanistan, the Pamir the Altai and the Shah mountains. In Pakistan it stays above 6700 meters, but during the rut season in December it may descend to below 2000 meters. It mainly browses, but also grazes when lush grass is available.

Urial, Shapu (Ovis orientalis) is found in the northern mountains, the western ranges, the Salt Range, the Kalachitta Range and Balochistan. It is a close relative of the wild sheep found in North America, Europe and central and northern Asia. It is generally found in arid country where tree growth is sparse. In the Salt Range it inhabits areas of dense acacia scrub. Male herds segregate from females, mixing only to breed. In the rut season males fight to express dominance over each other. In Gilgit-Baltistan it is found in Askloi valley (Shiger), Kharpocho (skardu), Ghursey (Khaplu) and Astore valley.

Marco Polo sheep (Ovis amon polii) is found in a very small area (less than 26 hectares) of high rolling terrain in extreme northern Hunza in the Kilik and Khunjerab passes into which it migrates from China during winter. Its main population is found in the greater Pamir mountains, in Wakhan, Afghanistan, in Tajikistan and China. It shares its habitat with the snow leopard and the wolf, and is hunted by both. Alpine or Altai weasel (Mustela altaica) is found in the palaearctic zone of Pakistan, mainly in Baltistan and on the slopes of Nanga Parbat. It is also found in Kaghan valley above 3200 meters. Like the stoat, it feeds on pikas, hamsters and other rodents, birds and insects. Common otter (Lutra lutra) lives in the cold mountain rivers and streams of northern Pakistan. It is an agile swimmer, diving for fish. It has a distinctive bark, and when alarmed lets a loud cry.

Marmot (Marmota caudata and Marmota bobock) are two palaearctic species found in the northern mountains, including Hazara district, near the high glaciers at 3200 to 4850 meters. They live in burrows amongst rocks, collecting large quantities of food to last them through the snowy months. Bat (Isabelline serotine eptesicus isabellinus) is found in Gilgit. They hibernate in winter. Out of seven Pipistrelle species of bats found in Pakistan two are palaearctic. These are the common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) found in Gilgit-Baltistan. The common pipistrelle has been known to fly with open mouth emitting ultrasonic notes. Unlike other bats it is mainly active around dawn and dusk. Hemprich's long -eared bat (Otonycteris hemprichi) is found in Gilgit. It has conspicuous long eared and flies very low to the ground hunting for insects. Grey long eared bat (Plecotus austriacus) is a palaearctic bat found in the Gilgit-Baltistan and the Kaghan valley. It roosts with its ears tucked under its forelegs in the roofs of houses, tunnels and other dark areas. It is capable of flying very slowly and can hover, enabling it to pick insects from the surface of leaves.

The tube-nosed bat (Murina huttoni) is a palaearctic species and has been recorded in Nalter in the Northern Areas and in the Murree hills. It roosts mainly in tree cavities. Royals high mountain vole (Alticola roylei) is found in the Gilgit-Baltistan, the Kaghan valley, Swat and the Safed Koh. It is nocturnal and partly diurnal. It lives in burrows in stony soil from about 8,000 ft up to the permanent snow line. It collects and stores food for winter consumption. It is eaten by stoats, weasels, kestrels and even the brown bear. Chinese birch mouse (Scista concolor) is found in Gilgit-Baltistan and northern parts of the Kaghan valley up to a height of 13,200 ft and hibernates in winter. It has a semi prehensile tail. Its teeth are strong enabling it to rack seeds, but also feeds on insects. Migratory hamsters (Cricetulus migratorius) are found in Northern Areas, the western mountains and northern Balochistan above 4,400 ft. It has well developed cheek pouches, which it fills with food for chewing later on or for storing. It is aggressive, especially when cornered, and will attack jerboas and frogs. Royal pika (Ochotona royalei) is found in Hazara, Gilgit and Baltistan. The long eared pika (Ochotona macrotis) is also reported from extreme northeastern Baltistan. But it is very scarce. Russian scientists considers it to be a subspecies of Royal pika. These are active during the day, gathering vegetation to store for winter.

Avi-fauna: According to Virk et al. (2003) the Gilgit-Baltistan have one of the most diverse avi fauna of the mountain region of the world. But little information is available on the distribution, status, diversity and ecology of many of these bird species. The most comprehensive account of the avifauna of Pakistan comes from Robert (1992, 1991). Some researchers have documented bird diversity of certain parts of Gilgit-Baltistan. These include studies on avifauna of the Khunjerab National Park (Blumstein, 1995), Deosai plateau in Baltistan (Khan and Rafiq, 1998; Woods et al., 1997) and in the Nalter Wildlife Sanctuary (Sheikh, 2001). Much of the information contained in this section is derived from these publications.

The Karakoram and Himalayan ranges separate the uplands of Central Asia from South Asia, forming a barrier between two large areas of Asia which are different climatically. The geographic location of Gilgit-Baltistan make them ideal for many bird species. The area is a staging, transitory, breeding, migratory and native ground for many species. In total, about 230 species of birds have been estimated for this region. These include passage migrants, vagrants, residents, breeding and irregular visitors. Many of these species breed in Northern Areas and are found over a large range. The estimated number of birds species here is based on published records, distribution range maps and discussion in Roberts (1992, 1991). But the lack of reliable and consistently published data of the Gilgit-Baltistan indicates the need for long term ornithological studies to determine the distribution and abundance of birds.

Studies indicate that the area is rich in avifauna For example 109 birds species have been recorded from the Deosai plateau (Khan and Rafiq, 1998). Similarly, 87 species have been reported from KNP. Nalter valley in particular and lower Hunza, Gilgit and Astore valleys in general have been studied by Sheikh (2001) describing the ecology, breeding biology, distribution and species diversity of about 110 species .A large number of warblers, buntings, red start were found to be breeding here.

There are some rare species which not only occur in the area but also breed here. These include lammergeyer and the golden eagle. There is a possibility that species like peregrine falcon also breed in some high altitudes valleys, particularly in Ghizer district. A few sightings of lesser kestrel have also been reported in lower Hunza near the Hunza river by Sheikh (2001). Some of the restricted range species like snow partridge and Himalayan monal pheasant are extremely rare and may be at the verge of extinction from many of their earlier strongholds.

The most diverse group of birds in Gilgit-Baltistan is the passseriformes species. There are mostly warblers, tits, fly catchers and buntings. BirdLife International (2001) reported 27 species of Pakistan birds which are threatened internationally. Out of these, several species are found in Gilgit-Baltistan. There may be several more species, which are threatened nationally or face local extinction. For example, snow partridge and Himalayan monal pheasant are facing local extinction from many valleys. Similarly, large-billed bush warbler and tytlers warblers are rare species, but not included in the report of Bird Life International. A list of threatened species is given in the following table. These species have small and fragmented population and are threaten by loss and fragmentation of their habitat. (Virk et al., 2003). Snow partridge (Lerwa lerwa) is found in stony habitats in high areas above the tree line of the Himalayas, the Northern Areas and the Safed Koh mountains. It feeds on new grass in areas clear of snow. Himalayan snow cock (Tetraogallus himalayensis) is found in the Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral and Safad Koh region above 3600 meters. It cockles loudly in the morning and evenings all year round, and is a very fast flyer, beating its wings during the initial part of flight, then gliding with wings slightly closed in swoop. It usually lives where the ibex can be found and eats succulent plants. Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) is resident in the northern and western mountains of Pakistan at minimum altitudes of 600 meters rising to 4500 meters. It is found in coveys of up to 40 birds, and eats insects, seeds, soft leaves, bulbs and roots dusk, emits a rapidly -repeated "chukor-chukor" which accounts for its name.

Snow pigeon (Coiumba leuconata) is a palaearctic pigeon found in the Gilgit-Baltistan and the Kaghan valley up to 4000 meters. It roosts on cliffs and nests in rocks, holes and crevices. It flies down in large flocks to the lower valleys during early morning, returning to its roosts in the evening. Pintail (Anas acuta) Alert and wary, this is one of the most elegant of the ducks, with a distinctive, long, pointed tail. It often feeds at night, especially where there is much disturbance. It is a good walker, holding the long neck erect, and the wings make a distinct hissing noise in flight. It is a common sight in winter throughout the areas on jheels or coastal waters. Common teal (Anas crecca) Abundant throughout the area in winter, this is a very agile duck, twisting and turning in flight and springing off the water with characteristic dash when alarmed. The drake looks rather dark at distance, but closer up it reveals attractive colors. Like other dabblers, it feeds mainly on vegetable matter. Sometimes it is seen in huge flocks, but usually occurs in much smaller parties (Woodcock, 1980).

Freshwater Fish

The Gilgit-Baltistan have many rivers, streams and alpine lakes fed by snowmelt and glacier waters. The freshwater resources contain several fish species which are an important component of the region's biodiversity. The fish fauna here is relatively poor due to high turbidity, low water temperature, high water speed, low benthic productivity, and long stretches of narrow river gorges (Rafiq, 2002). The fish are predominately Palaearctic with elements of Central Asian highlands. The fish diversity in Gilgit-Baltistan is not yet described with greater detail despite its biological and evolutionary significance. However, some recent studies report there are about 17 species of native fish and 3 of exotic fish, belonging to five families (Table 8). Out of these 17 native species, four are endemic to Gilgit-Baltistan, while several others have ranges confined to one or two localities. For example, Triplophysa stoliczkai, Ptychobarbus conirostis and Schizopygopsis stoliczkai are only found in eastern waters up to Kachura. During the Hunza/Gojal expedition 2000 undertaken by Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, specimens of three species of fish were collected; one of these reported as endemic here (Virk et al., 2003). The number of fish species found in high altitude streams and lakes is low. For example, only three fish species have been recognized from Deosai. These include Triplophysa stoliczkai, Diptyichus maculatus, and Ptychobarbus conirostis (Woods et al., 1997). Among exotic species, brown trout was introduced in Gilgit agency during the early 1900s. This species is now well established and is found in most of the rivers and lakes of Gilgit and Ghizer districts. Particularly upstream of the Ghizer river and its tributaries contain a large number of brown trout (AKRSP/DFID, 2000). Other exotic species include North America rainbow trout and Chinese carp introduced for aquaculture. However, it is not clear whether these exotics breed naturally. But their distribution is very limited and they are found only in those water bodies where they were stocked.

Point of Interest in each District

District Astore

Astore is the recently established district headquarters at Gilgit-Baltistan with its district headquarters at Eidgah. The Astore Valley is comprised of numerous valleys and villages where the prominent ones are Rama, Gorikot, Rehmanpur, Rattu. Bunji, Dashkin and Chilim, among others. Of particular note in the District are Parbat (Rupal Face) and Rama Lake.

Diamer District

The Diamer District is the gateway to the Gilgit-Baltistan if driving from Islamabad via the Karkorum Highway (KKH) or Kaghan Valley through Babusar or Butogah passes. The area has been important since the pre-historic period and numerous traces of ancient rock carvings ore found in different shapes, especially rock inscribed pictures and writings which are spread all around the region. The important places in Diamer District are Tangir, Darel, Chiias, Bunar Das, Gonar Farm and Raikot.

Of particular note in this District are Nanga Parbat (8,125m) Raikot Face and Fairy Meadows, some of the most picturesque places in the world.

Gilgit District

Gilgit strategically the most important region in the Karakorams and the trade centre of the region for centuries, is the capital town and administrative centre of the Federally Administered Gilgit-Baltistan. The area is watered by the Ghizer/Gilgit, Hunza and Indus rivers and several of their tributaries.

Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road through which religions were spread to and from the region. At one time the region was under the influence of Buddhism and a large number of Buddhist texts have been found at various places. A good account of the region is found from the writings of Fa Hsien and Hsuan Tsang, ancient travelers along the Silk Road. There has been found Dardic influence as well. Gilgit was ruled for centuries by the local Trakhane Dynasty which came to an end in 1810 and was followed by the rule of Sikhs and the British before declaring independence in 1947 and becoming part of Pakistan in 1948.

Of particular note in this district are Naltar, 35 km from Gilgit and a picturesque grassland surrounded by high peaks with accessible glacial lakes and in the winter there is a private ski resort run under the auspices of the Pakistan Air Force and for military personnel only. Near to Gilgit there is the Kargah Buddha, a rock-wall carved Buddha dating back to the 8th century AD while a little further on is the ruins of a Buddhist monastery and stupa.

Ghizer District

This region west of Gilgit has been ruled by various local Rajas of Yasin and Punial and later divided between the Mehthar of Chitral and the Maharaja of Kashmir. After 1948 the area became a part of the NAs as a district. The major places are Punial which is a former small kingdom and Sherqilla which has a wood carved mosque and 150 year old watchtower. Fishing is another activity in the villages.

Further west, on the main road from Gilgit to Chitral, is the important town of Gahkuch and the administrative centre for the district. Yasin is a green and picturesque region. The local inhabitants are mainly Ismailis. The Ishkoman valley is another beautiful region in Ghizer.

Phander is one of the most interesting places in the district. It is well connected by metalled road to Gilgit. A leisure day at Phander with fishing in the lake is ideal for holiday makers.

ShandurPass, the bordering plateau between Gilgit and Chitral is more famous for its annual polo tournament and gala. It offers superb panorama as the vast plateau fills with alpine flowers and the lake on the pass makes it more picturesque.

Hunza /Nagar District

This is the new district formed in the Gilgit-Baltistan comprising of the valleys of Hunza and Nagar.

Hunza was a former princely state for about 900 years which came to an end in 1974. Hunza valley is the prime attraction for tourists as the spectacular scenery of the surrounding mountains is overwhelming. A view of four 7,000 m high peaks, i.e., Rakaposhi, Diran, Golden and Ultar, from various points of Hunza makes it unique. The valley is known for its delicious fruits, terraced fields, and also for its changing colours in various seasons. Hunza is a tourist friendly region. The present literacy rate of the valley is above 90%

Of particular interest in this district are: Baltit Fort, a 700 year old building, made of mud, rocks and wood, is impressive and has been recently renovated and turned into a heritage museum. A walk through the villages with terraced fields is a pleasant experience. The bazaar of Karimabad is colorful and the main items of interest include local handicrafts, souvenirs, hand woven rugs, embroidered caps, shawls, hand woven cloth known as paffu and gemstones.

In the Upper Hunza or Gojal area, the high mountain land of Khunjerab with its crest at 4,743 m is a wide snow plateau and serves as the border between Pakistan and China. The region beyond Dhee is declared as Khunjerab National Park. While driving through the park one can see grazing wild asses, yaks, marmots and ibex. The sight of Marco Polo sheep and urial is rare. Snow leopard is also found but the sighting is occasional. There is a Tourist Facilitation Centre at Zero Point, Khunjerab Pass.

Nagar has been a state of equal status and importance as that of Hunza. Although the valley is spread in a vast region, however the main village of Nagar is just opposite to Karimabad, across the Hunza River. Bar, Jaffarabad, Husanabad, Sikandarabad, Nilt and Ghulmit are the major villages in Nagar. Presently there is no proper accommodation facility available (apart from a nice private place in Minapin village). Rakaposhi Trekking options include Rakaposhi Base Camp, Rush Lake and Rush Peak routes, while the most important is Hisper Pass, connecting the region with Baltistan.

Skardu District

Skardu town is located near the confluence of Shigar and Indus rivers, and is watered by the stream flowing down the Sadpara Lake. Although Skardu is the base camp for the routes to some of the world's highest peaks, low altitude mountains surround the town. The old bazaar has a few mountaineering equipment (second hand) shops and others provide basic provisions required by trekking and climbing parties.

Of particular interest in this district are: Khorpocho Fort, Manthal Rock (Buddhist carving), Sadpara and Kachura Lakes (including the upscale resort of Shangrila while so 3 full day excursions are a visit to Deosai Plains (the second highest plateau in the world), and the Shigar valley with an impressive renovated fort and fruit orchards.

Ghanche District

Ghanche has two major divisions, Khaplu and Mc'herbrum. Hushe, under the shadow of Masherbrum Peak, is the gateway to various important peaks and glaciers.

A 102 km drive mostly along the Shyok river takes to Khaplu, the district headquarters of Ghanche. Khaplu Palace and Chaqchan Mosque are the interesting places to visit. The palace was the summer residence of the ex-ruler’s family. The mosque was built around 1500 AC and boasts to be the oldest mosque in Ba iitan. The building shows Buddhist influence and Tibetan architecture.

Ghondoghoro Pass at 5,650 m is one of the most popular and challenging trekking routes in the world. Other places to trek to with relative ease are the base camp of Masherburm Peak and Thalle La.

For more information and assestance free feel to cal,

Dr Rashid Kazmi from Pakistan +923009113675

CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE GREEK PEOPLE - WEDNESDAY 11 / SUNDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2015

 

Dear All

 

First of all many and wholeheartedly thanks for your solidarity and mobilizations so far. All together around Europe we have shown that hope for change in Europe is growing and that a transnational movement from below seems more tangible than few weeks ago. However the fight it won’t be easy and it is going to last as the increasing blackmails and threats against a determined Greek position show.

 

Last week’s rallies and protests, in Greece and in Europe, opposing the pressures by EU and government officials, as well as from rating agencies (Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece), were only the beginning of a new phase of our social and political conflict.

 

Rallies of defiance have been called for the 11th and 15th of February in more than 15 cities in Greece and 11 cities in 8 European countries (see fb call here www.facebook.com/events/905611336125794/?ref_newsfeed_sto... and attached list of calls). The first date (Wednesday 11/02) coincides with the emergency Eurogroup meeting, which will discuss the Greek case, and the second (Sunday 15/02) is the eve of the scheduled Eurogroup meeting and of Dijsselbloem’s ultimatum for Greece to comply with the current bailout program’s.

  

We hope that the calls and solidarity actions will grow even more on Greek and international level and we encourage you to do your best in turning the conflict over Greece in a change for all Europe and beyond.

 

In Solidarity for All’s facebook international page www.facebook.com/sol4all you can find updates about the activities of the grassroots solidarity movement in Greece and of the international solidarity groups. We would be happy to see your updates in the page, too.

 

Last but not least, we attach the latest report of Solidarity for All, concerning the effects of the crisis and the bailout memoranda in Greece the last six years, but mainly the development and reach of the grassroots solidarity movement, as a paradigm of self-organisation against the paradigm the political and economic elites in Europe wanted to make of Greece.

Feel free to disseminate widely and do not hesitate to contact us for more information.