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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
•• 1.2 Flight testing and design changes
• 2 Design
• 8 Notable appearances in media
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
•• 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
•• 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
Comparable aircraft
Related lists
• List of military aircraft of the United States
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
• 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/
• "Flight of the Osprey", US Navy video of V-22 operations
Berrington Hall, Leominster, Herefordshire (NT) (Grade 1)
NATIONAL TRUST + ENGLISH HERITAGE ALBUM
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/albums/72157701116949872
Berrington Hall is a neoclassical country house located about 3 miles North of Leominster. Berrington had been in the possession of the Cornewall family since 1386, but was sold in 1775 to Thomas Harley, a banker and government contractor who in 1767 had been Lord Mayor of London. He commissioned the rebuilding in 1778-1781 of the present Berrington Hall as a replacement for the earlier house. The Hall is designed as a neo-classical building and was designed by Henry Holland n 1778-8. Thomas Harley made it available to his daughter Anne and her new husband George Rodney, the son of Admiral Rodney. After Harley's death the house descended in the Rodney family for 95 years. The Hall and Estate were purchased by Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, in 1901, In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Cawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.
The Hall is the home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, among others, Thomas Luny (1759–1837), and the Charles Paget Wade costume collection from Snowshill, which can be viewed by appointment The 'below stairs' areas and servants' quarters that are open to the public include a Victorian laundry and Georgian dairy.
The Estates landscape was the last landscape to be designed by Capability Brown's its pool and lake are a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Thankyou for a massive 57,560,943 views
Shot 11.03.2017 at Berrington Hall, (NT) Leominster, Herefordshire REF 125-013
A stout pair of boots and a view of the gallery above. The chapel would have been a little more colourful originally, as it had medieval stained glass in some of the windows, but this was sold off in the 19th century, by which time the chapel was in a sorry state.
A multinational Strategic Airlift Capability Boeing C-17 III Globemaster transport aircraft arriving at RIAT.
Lowther Castle is owned by Lowther Estate Trust and leased to Lowther Castle & Gardens Trust. It sits at the heart of a 75,000 acre agricultural estate in Cumbria's Lake District National Park, within a 3,000 acre medieval deer park originally laid out by the Lowther family in the 16th and 17th centuries. This was subsequently remodelled by Capability Brown, Richardson and Webb in the 18th and early 19th centuries for the first and second Earls of Lonsdale. The Lowther family is today maintaining and restoring this listed parkland, whilst still farming the estate.
This castle stands on a site occupied by the Lowther family for over 800 years. Being the third home on the site in that time, the current castle was completed in 1806 and a beautiful sculpture gallery with decorative plaster ceiling added in 1814; this is the only remaining room of the castle, subsequently restored.
The last family resident was the Yellow Earl, the fifth Earl, who left the castle on New Year’s Day 1936. The castle was then requisitioned by the army during the second world war for secret tank weapon testing in the gardens.The sixth Earl sold the castle contents in 1947. After four years of trying to find alternative ways of saving the architectural heritage of the site, the late seventh Earl decided to remove the roof and all the interior structure of the building in 1957, the best solution in the circumstances to keep the building in some form within its landscape; as well as protecting the rest of the estate from a £25 million death duty bill. The gardens were then used to house a large chicken farm and commercial forestry business, who used the military concreting over of the lawns, with timber planted close up to the castle ruins. The remaining gardens and castle ruin were left to run wild and decay for subsequent decades.
A partnership was established between the Lowther Estate and English Heritage in 1999, resulting in extensive work to prepare the site for the ensuing project, which included vital repairs to the staircase tower and clearance of most of the army concrete over the lawns.
In 2010 the Lowther Estate granted a lease to the new independent charity, the Lowther Castle & Gardens Trust, and £8.9m of funds secured from the North West Development Agency and European Regional Development Fund to develop the castle and gardens into a major visitor attraction, with additional support from the Architectural Heritage Fund and Lowther Estate Trust. Work to reverse 70 years of deterioration of the castle, gardens and stable courtyard started in April 2011, and a veritable army of craftsmen have been busy stabilising arcitectural features, restoring the Stables Courtyard, removing hundreds of tonnes of army concrete, and sympathetically installing modern services. The stable courtyard offers café, shop, heritage toilets, meeting room and a display area where visitors can find out more about the process of restoration.
The latest repair work to the castle ruins, funded by English Heritage and Lowther Estate Trust, will open up the ruins and complete nine years' work of stabilising the important central staircase tower, the key to preserving the grand silhouette of Robert Smirke's masterpiece, his first and arguably finest architectural commission. Thus preserving this landmark for the future, and allowing us to move into the next stages of the project.
PHILIPPINE SEA (June 16, 2022) Lt. Connor M. Keating of Fairfax, Virginia, stands watch as the Fires Officer aboard Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) during the coordinated multi-domain, multi-axis, long-range maritime strikes against EX-USS Vandegrift as part of Valiant Shield 2022 (VS 22). As the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Warfare Tactics Instructor (WTI) graduate assigned to Benfold, Lt. Keating oversaw all facets of weapons planning and employment coordination during the strike on the decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Vandegrift (FFG 48). USS Benfold started the event by firing its Standard Missile (SM) 6, a supersonic surface-to-surface guided-missile. Benfold is assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15,Navy’s largest forward-deployed DESRON and U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force and is on routine deployment as part of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Arthur Rosen)
Pristine Royal Saudi Air Force Boeing E-3(K)A '1815' aka 82-0075 in the static display at the 1993 RAF Mildenhall 'Air Fete'
Without the usual 'AWACS' type radome this E-3A is a military version of the Boeing 707 unlike it's C-135 counterpart but interestingly it has air-to-air refueling capability added - hence the 'K' as a suffix to the designation.
Scanned print
The AX is the first autofocus Contax SLR produced by Kyocera. The AX achieves autofocus capability with the standard manual focus Carl Zeiss lenses by utilizing a specially-developed automatic back focusing system. With this system, the fixed mirror box, pentaprism assembly and film plane move as a unit along a ceramic rail to achieve focus. Contax later introduced the N1/NX series of autofocus film SLRs that used a new generation of autofocus Carl Zeiss lenses. The later model N1 and NX are not compatible with manual focus Contax/Yashica mount Carl Zeiss and Yashica lenses.
Being a long-time manual focus SLR user when the AX first came out, I at first did not know how to react to this camera. Recall at the time that many photographers were still shooting manual focus SLRs, such as the Nikon F3, Contax ST,etc. The AX generated a lot of commentary in the press and especially on the Internet soon after its release. Some thought it was great that Contax took this approach to finally develop an autofocus SLR. Others though this was an admission of defeat by a camera maker that waited far too long to get onto the autofocus SLR bandwagon. Looking back from a historical standpoint, the AX was a brilliant solution by Kyocera to try to compete in the autofocus SLR market while maintaining compatibility with their existing base of Contax line Carl Zeiss lenses. In a way, the RX and AX were stepping stones by Kyocera on their way from traditional manual focus to a complete autofocus system with the N1/NX.
For those who are used to the image of sleek, thin SLRs such as the RX and the ST, the AX does not immediately appear to be beautiful. The camera has the cosmetics of an RX, but the AX body is much thicker from front to back to make room for the moving focus assembly within the camera. However, once one gets used to the camera's bulky image, at least for a 35mm SLR, one realizes that it is packed with useful technology and really does combine the best features of automatic focus capabilities and compatibility with Carl Zeiss manual focus lenses.
The AX continued the tradition of providing the tank-like over-engineered feel common to most Contax bodies. The camera has a titanium top cover and an aluminum alloy die-cast chassis, and is made with the same attention to detail and finely-machined parts for which Contax cameras are renowned. All of the controls are consistent with the design of other high-end Contax cameras, employing the switches and knobs representative of a traditional analog user interface but which are actually electronic controls connected to state-of-the-are electronic circuitry within the camera. The camera weighs in at 1,080 grams without battery, so it is no lightweight. However, its weight is still acceptable when compared with certain other contemporaneous professional-level bodies from Contax (RTSIII), Nikon (F4 and F5) and others, especially after battery weight is factored in.
Let's check out the various features of this fascinating camera. Basically, the designers have successfully combined the best and most important features of the RX, ST and RTSIII, and then gone a step further by adding autofocus. The AX has a shutter speed dial positioned at the standard Contax location on the top left of the camera. While shutter speed can only be set from 4 sec. to 1/4000 sec. in manual and shutter priority mode, the shutter has an increased range from 32 sec. to 1/6000 sec. in Av and P modes. Surrounding the shutter speed dial is an exposure mode selector lever, which permits selection of the following metering modes: Av, Tv, P, M, X and B. The same lever is also used for selecting modes to directly adjust film ISO and to modify the custom functions of the camera. Custom functions such as film leader out on rewind are actually set using the two adjustment buttons on the top right of the camera. The AX has the standard Contax exposure compensation dial on the top right of the camera, which allows very easy and quick adjustment of exposure compensation in the range of +-2 EV. The exposure compensation dial is surrounded by the automatic bracketing control ("ABC") lever, which permits a series of three photographs to be taken with +- 0.5 or 1.0 EV exposure compensation. The ABC function works either by making one exposure with each press of the shutter release button, or a continuous burst of three frames as long as the shutter release button is held down, depending on how the drive mode selector dial is set (single or continuous exposure). The top-mounted drive mode selector dial allows adjustment for single frame exposure, continuous exposure (at 3 or 5 fps), multiple exposure, and self timer (2 or 10 second delay). Surrounding the drive mode selector dial is the focus mode selector lever. This lever allows rapid selection among manual focus, single autofocus, continuous autofocus, and a macro setting. A combination button/dial just under the thumb position on the back right of the camera body works with the focus mode selector lever to adjust the operation of the focus system. The main switch surrounding the shutter release button has the usual Contax autoexposure lock functionality. However, the AX adopts the RTSIII's very convenient placement of the exposure meter selection switch to the left side of the lens mount. Other controls include the standard Contax exposure check button and electronic depth-of-field preview button on the right front of the camera. The exposure check button activates the viewfinder information without the risk of tripping the shutter when trying to press the shutter release button down only half-way. The camera also provides built-it dioptric adjustment and a shutter for the viewfinder eyepiece.
The viewfinder of the AX is very good. The camera uses an oversized prism, providing a very bright view of the subject and a 95% field of view. While it is an autofocus camera, the AX, like the RX, also sports the traditional horizontal split image, microprism collar, and of course matte field optical focusing aids. All of the viewfinder readouts are located on a LCD display below the viewfinder image. This display includes an exposure frame counter, spot/average metering indicator, exposure compensation indicator (+ or -, as well as a numerical readout of the amount of compensation), flash indicator, back focus position indicator, in-focus indicator, aperture indicator, over/under exposure warning, and shutter speed indicator. Because of the packed real estate on the viewfinder LCD readout, there is unfortunately no room for a graphical indication of the exact amount of exposure compensation, or any indication of the amount of over/under exposure when setting exposure in M mode. Metering patterns are a 5 mm spot meter, which includes the area within the microprism focusing collar, and a wide area center-weighted average pattern. In addition to the standard FW-1 focusing screen, Contax also provides four other selections of focusing screens for various applications.
The flash functionality of the AX combines the best features of both the RX and the ST, but does not offer the pre-flash spot meter found on the RTSIII. Flash synch is at a fastest speed of 1/200 second. Among Contax electronic cameras, only the RTSIII offers a faster maximum synch speed (1/250 second). This speed should be fast enough for fill flash in most available light conditions. TTL flash appears to be based on a fairly narrow center-weighted pattern. The AX shares the RX's five-point flash contact on the accessory shoe, providing enhanced camera to flash communication, as well as a locking slot to keep the flash unit from falling off. With this improved communication, the Contax TLA flash readout panel will automatically reflect the film ISO and lens aperture, as well as activate the direct flash exposure compensation functionality on the flash unit itself. With this system, balanced fill flash is implemented by setting the appropriate negative flash compensation on the flash unit.
The AX can be fit with an optional multi-functional data back (D-8). This highly advanced data back allows the recording of data (such as shutter speed and aperture, date, time or exposure mode) between the film frames or on frames one and two at the beginning of the roll. Somewhat uniquely in its class, the D-8 also provides an intervalometer that can be set to trigger exposures from every two seconds to 99 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds.
The AX works on one 6V lithium 2CR5 battery. The battery is inserted on one side of the camera base, allowing the tripod mount of this relatively weighty camera to be placed at the body's center of balance. Kyocera claims that the battery has a capacity of about 50 rolls of 36-exposure film under their test conditions. The automatic back focusing system of the AX appears to be relatively energy-efficient. As I mentioned in my separate review for the RX, I prefer the use of lithium batteries in Contax cameras, which provides for longer time between battery changes, better cold weather performance, and lighter travelling weight.
The autofocus system of the AX utilizes an AF-assist beam, which is emitted from the right front of the camera. The camera’s autofocus capability is relatively fast and accurate for general use, especially for the time when the AX was released. It was not as fast as the autofocus systems on high-end sports-oriented cameras, such as the Nikon F5 or the Canon EOS 1n. Nevertheless, the AX's focusing speed and accuracy compared very favorably with other autofocus bodies offered by the competition. A very nice feature of the AX's autofocus system is its ability to turn almost any lens into a macro lens (by eliminating the need to use extension tubes). In normal (non-macro) autofocus mode, some care must be taken when focusing floating element/group lenses at relatively close distances.
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 28-85/3.3-4.0
The Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar T* 28-85mm f/3.3-4 (MMJ) is an amazing precision work of metal and glass. This lens provides one of the most popular zoom ranges with photographers, and is also my favorite zoom range in the 35mm film world. I use this lens when I only want to carry one Carl Zeiss lens on a trip or outing and the 50/1.4 by itself won't do. The 29-75 degree angular field will cover you in most everyday situations. The f/3.3-4 maximum aperture range is not the greatest, but it is acceptable for normal use. (I generally won't use a zoom lens if the maximum aperture is smaller than f/4.) Anyway, this lens is already about maximum acceptable size and weight for hand-held use, and that is the purpose for which this lens was designed. Imagine how big and heavy the lens would be if it had larger maximum aperture! The lens is engineered in two parts; the rear barrel is fixed to the camera and includes the aperture ring. The front barrel twists for focus and slides in and out for zoom. The lens is at maximum length when it is zoomed to 28mm.
If you are using a Contax AX, you even get autofocus with all of your CZ lenses. Normally, you just set the lens focus to infinity and the AX autofocus function takes it from there. However, this lens if one of a few CZ lenses where you need to move the lens off of infinity to autofocus at the minimum end of the range, which is not a big deal. The focus/zoom movement is silky smooth.
The CZ 28-85/3.3-4 does have some disadvantages. It does not work well on a tripod, with the single ring design and lack of a tripod socket. It can be used on a sturdy-tripod with a heavier Contax body to support and balance the lens, but however irrationally, I would avoid doing it too much to avoid stressing the bayonet and mount on the lens and camera. (As mentioned in the introduction to the Carl Zeiss lens section, the metal mounting ring on the lens is relatively thin compared with the weight of CZ lenses and can be damaged if stressed too much. Indeed, I once damaged the mount of this lens by twisting it on while it wasn't exactly perpendicular to the camera body. Another disadvantage of the single ring design is that it is difficult to adjust the focus without nudging the zoom and vice versa. When carried over your shoulder while attached to the a camera body, the lens will always zoom out to maximum wide angle due to the weight of the front barrel. I have a habit of zooming the lens all the way out before slinging the camera over my shoulder. (Don't sling it around your neck, especially when attached to an RTSIII or you may cut off all blood flow to your brain! Still, its size and weight is about the same as a modern large-aperture autofocus zoom lens.)
I once had the infinity focus of this lens go out of adjustment. I couldn't turn the focusing ring far enough to focus at infinity. A trip to the authorized repair shop solved the focusing problem and above bent bayonet ring problem about 15 years ago, and the lens still appears fine to this day. One other quirk I noticed is that this zoom lens does not communicate the current value of the variable aperture to the camera. Thus if you zoom the lens all the way to telephoto while the lens is set to maximum aperture, for example, the aperture setting displayed in the viewfinder does not change to reflect the actual aperture value. Actually, it does not matter because the light meter still exposes the film properly; only the displayed value is slightly misleading.
How to carry this lens and body combination? As mentioned above, I usually use this lens when it is the only lens that I carry. For this purpose, I have a camera bag that is designed for a modern digital SLR body with a large zoom lens. I can attach this lens to any full-size Contax body and the combination fits in the bag like a glove.
The 28-85/3.3-4 lens takes large screw-in 82mm filters. Contax provided a very nice W-1 metal lens hood, which is matched to the zoom range of the lens and screws right on top of your filter. Also, Contax made a matching metal 99mm K-94 lens cap that snugly fit right on top of the W-1 lens hood. There is never any need to remove the filter and hood from the lens for storage or to use the smaller original lens cap.
Copyright © 1997-2015 Timothy A. Rogers. All rights reserved.
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14th July 2018
03 (08-0003) NATO Strategic Airlift Capability Boeing C-17A Globemaster III on static display seen on the Saturday evening of the 2018 Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford
The New #RangeRover #Evoque combines capability and design to be as at home in the city as it is in the wild. Search ‘Range Rover Evoque’ in your browser for more info. by landrover ift.tt/1juivus ift.tt/1OEdtZ9 ift.tt/1pZRVvM
In September, 1998 a cheque for £751.50 was presented to Capability Scotland at RM Condor. (Photograph - Stan Mackie)
I went for a walk around Petworth Park to see the deer during the rutting season, strange groaning and belching sounds echoed around the park. The clash of antlers could be heard for miles as the males showed off their virility to potential mates. This stag bellows shortly after winning a dual with a rival, then struts off to take over the harem.
The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian fallow deer as a subspecies (D. d. mesopotamica), while others treat it as an entirely different species (D. mesopotamica).
Petworth House and Park in Petworth, West Sussex, England, has been a family home for over 800 years. The estate was a royal gift from the widow of Henry I to her brother Jocelin de Louvain, who soon after married into the renowned Percy family. As the Percy stronghold was in the north, Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use.
Petworth, formerly known as Leconfield, is a major country estate on the outskirts of Petworth, itself a town created to serve the house. Described by English Heritage as "the most important residence in the County of Sussex", there was a manorial house here from 1309, but the present buildings were built for the Dukes of Somerset from the late 17th century, the park being landscaped by "Capability" Brown. The house contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures.
The house itself is grade I listed (List Entry Number 1225989) and the park as a historic park (1000162). Several individual features in the park are also listed.
It was in the late 1500s that Petworth became a permanent home to the Percys after Elizabeth I grew suspicious of their allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and confined the family to the south.
The 2nd Earl of Egremont commissioned Capability Brown to design and landscape the deer park. The park, one of Brownâs first commissions as an independent designer, consists of 700 acres of grassland and trees. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 12-hectare (30-acre) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.
Brown removed the formal garden and fishponds of the 1690âs and relocated 64,000 tons of soil, creating a serpentine lake. He bordered the lake with poplars, birches and willows to make the ânaturalâ view pleasing. A 1987 hurricane devastated the park, and 35,000 trees were planted to replace the losses. Gracing the 30 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds around the home are seasonal shrubs and bulbs that include lilies, primroses, and azaleas. A Doric temple and Ionic rotunda add interest in the grounds.
Petworth House is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.
Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Ben Harms, classical and neoclassical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to be the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.
For the past 250 years the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family â currently Lord Egremont. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.
The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street, Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.
Seen from Croome Park, Worcestershire.
The church was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown and was completed in 1763 on the site of an earlier church. It has spectacular views to the Malvern Hills.
Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion, and park, were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown with some of the internal rooms designed by Robert Adam.
he house and parkland was Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's first landscape design, and his first major architectural project. and is an important and seminal work. 'Capability' Brown started work at Croome in 1751 for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry. The mansion house was designed by Brown and is a "rare example of his architectural work" and was his "first flight into the realms of architecture". Robert Adam designed parts of Croome Court's interior and along with James Wyatt, designed temples and follies for the park.
Croome Court was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown with the assistance of Sanderson Miller. It was built between 1751 and 1752, and along with Hagley Hall (built between 1754 and 1760), they are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).
The house has been visited by George III, Queen Victoria and George V. During World War II it housed the Dutch royal family, who were escaping the Nazi occupation of Holland. For part of the war it also housed RAF Defford. In 1948 the Coventry family had to sell the Court. After the war it was used as a school (1950s-1979) and later (1979-84) by Hare Krishnas. It lay empty for 12 years until rescue arrived (though at expense of part of the walled garden being built on for garages) and it was patched up and it became a private home once more with its 17 bedrooms.
One room was removed and is displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: The Tapestry Room "George William, sixth earl of Coventry, commissioned this set of tapestries in Paris in 1763 for the tapestry room at his country seat, Croome Court (Worcestershire), which was then being remodeled by Robert Adam".
The Colas show returns to town for another Sunday of digging, shoving, welding and erm, other civils type stuff.
This time, it's to install the trailing crossover from up to down, for use when a down train has used the bi-direction up line to travel west from Flint, it'll be used in conjunction wth the new LED signal featured the other day with the RHTT.
60002 has charge of the Volker crane and track panel carriers, behind me is 60085 with some MXA ballast wagons and 56302, which brought the crane and panel carriers down from Basford Hall, is taking it easy parked at Rhyl station. By this time, 56096 had already returned to Crewe with a train of spoil and the old track.
Rhyl, 12 November 2017.
Built between 1754 and 1760, Croome Park is a National Trust property set perfectly in Capability Brown's very first landscape and is the site of a secret Second World War air base.
Negative Capability part I is an exhibition of visual and written responses to the University of Winchester’s Magdalen Hill Archaeological Research Project (MHARP), one of the most extensive excavations to date of a medieval leper hospital, almshouse and cemetery complex. The artists observed the excavation team at work, witnessing their process then displaying the results in the gallery and inviting writers to respond.
Three landscapes from Croome Park, Worcestershire.
According to Wikipedia:-
'Croome Park has a man-made lake and river, statues, temples and other buildings with the Court as the central focus. The other buildings around the park include Gatehouses, a Grotto, a Church and buildings termed "eye-catchers". These are Pirton Castle, Panorama Tower, Dunstall Castle and Park Seat. They are set away from the core of the Park and are intended to draw the eye into the wider landscape.
The park was Capability Brown's first complete landscape, and was set out from 1751 onwards. Croome and Hagley Hall have more follies and other similar features than any estate in Worcestershire. A lot of the park was designed to be viewed from the Croome Court house. Robert Adam, along with James Wyatt, designed temples and follies for the park.[citation needed]
A family trust, Croome Estate Trustees, was set up by the George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry, to manage the house and estate. In the mid-1970s the trust transferred ownership of the central core of the park to George William Coventry, 11th Earl of Coventry; in 1981 he sold it to Sun Alliance. The National Trust bought 670 acres (270 ha) of parkland in 1996, using heritage lottery funding along with a donation from Sun Alliance; the rest of Sun Alliance's property at the estate was sold to the Society of Merchant Venturers.
The National Trust own and have restored the core of the original 18th-century parkland, and it is open to visitors throughout the year. To visit many of the features below, you have to enter the pay-for-entry National Trust parkland. Some areas, however, are accessible via public footpaths.
U.S. Soldiers with 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 163rd Infantry Regiment, Montana Army National Guard, conducts an air assault mission on the Orchard Combat Training Center, Boise, Idaho, June 14, 2018, in support of the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team's eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) rotation. The assault was the battalion’s first training lane of its 15-day XCTC rotation. (U.S. Army national Guard photo by Spc. Jonnie Riley)
A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.
Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building
Listing Text
CHARLECOTE
SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK
1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park
06/02/52
(Formerly Listed as:
Charlecote Park House)
GV I
Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.
Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and
extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;
north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by
John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.
MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has
diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in
C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with
octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.
PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south
wing.
EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;
3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar
plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,
sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.
2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking
pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed
entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion
mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained
glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has
Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded
cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite
detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters
supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;
original diapered brick to returns.
3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,
that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay
window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced
rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and
flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals
and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light
ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.
Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,
ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much
diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.
East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to
strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed
windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of
reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.
Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,
top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to
south mostly original, that to north with round-headed
entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.
North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;
3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;
cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on
strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to
turrets.
Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with
octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded
balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel
with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped
parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with
3-light transomed windows.
Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks
each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over
Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch
and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,
blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window
and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South
return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external
stack with clustered shafts.
South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;
recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next
4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks
forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;
stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy
Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).
Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows
are 3-light and transomed.
South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned
windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with
strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated
1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light
single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar
windows to each turret, one to each floor.
East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.
South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed
window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to
first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to
full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking
4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel
with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has
loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a
single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;
first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of
south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and
transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light
windows.
INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained
plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;
armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by
Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace
with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and
fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.
Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling
by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork
ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room
has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured
marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace
with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired
columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial
bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.
Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed
in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a
tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;
bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and
panelled ceiling probably C19.
Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white
marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster
ceiling with bands.
Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to
north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and
Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style
fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with
Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and
ceiling, and large pier glasses.
Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with
egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that
to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style
fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.
South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with
symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first
floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle
scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.
First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement
wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with
wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble
fireplace.
Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of
gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,
papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble
architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with
c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700
balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and
north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and
servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;
some bells.
South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2
segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess
with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.
Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and
cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former
south window retaining glass.
First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary
Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep
coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west
similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace
with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door
to spiral timber turret staircase.
Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;
probably 1920s wallpaper.
Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.
While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best
examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property
of National Trust.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:
Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust
Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic
Interior).
Listing NGR: SP2590656425
This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.
From the garden that is the Parterre.
The News Line Thursday October 27 2016 PAGE 3
RESTORE DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE say demonstrators
NORFOLK DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) demonstrated in Norwich on Tuesday.
Their placards said 'Scrap Work Capability Assessments and Benefit Sanctions.' The demonstrators want the restoration of the Disability Living Allowance.
Barry Broadley said: 'We need the Tories out.
'Society has got to shift. We need a more sharing, caring society. We're living under the shadow of Thatcher.
'Public services should never be privatised. Profit has taken over from looking after people.'
Mick Hardy, Secretary of Norfolk DPAC, said: 'Thousands of people have died after being found fit for work.'
Hardy alleged: 'The DWP and Mr Duncan Smith are guilty of corporate manslaughter.
They've declared war on the poor. People are dying. DPAC estimated two years ago that 13,600 people have died.
'This week, the film, "I Daniel Blake" came out. I hope it will be a wake-up call. It should highlight the sheer callousness and brutality of the system. It could affect anyone. It's about everybody.'
POLARIS POINT, Guam (Sept. 13, 2021) - Sailors and civilian mariners assigned to the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) and Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Asheville (SSN 758) offload a Mark 48 advanced capability torpedo from Asheville during a weapons handling evolution, Sept. 13. Land is one of two U.S. Navy submarine tenders that provide maintenance, hotel services and logistical support to submarines and surface ships in the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Naomi Johnson) 210913-N-VO134-1026
** Interested in following U.S. Indo-Pacific Command? Engage and connect with us at www.facebook.com/indopacom | twitter.com/INDOPACOM |
www.instagram.com/indopacom | www.flickr.com/photos/us-pacific-command; | www.youtube.com/user/USPacificCommand | www.pacom.mil/ **
History of Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds
Broadway Tower was the brainchild of the great 18th Century landscape designer, Capability Brown. His vision was carried out for George William 6th Earl of Coventry with the help of renowned architect James Wyatt and completed in 1798.
The location for the Tower was wisely chosen, a dramatic outlook on a pre-medieval trading route and beacon hill.
Wyatt designed his “Saxon Tower” as an eccentric amalgamation of architectural components ranging from turrets, battlements and gargoyles to balconies
“Our task force in Mali recently reached initial operational capability, meaning that they are now available to the United Nations to conduct forward aeromedical evacuations. Their theatre of operations contains uncertainties, but I am certain of their professionalism, their skill, and their dedication. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they are ready to help our partners in their most urgent time of need. They are ready to save lives. As our nation commemorates the legacy of the peacekeepers who came before us, I want to commend the sailors, soldiers, and aviators who are deployed on peace support operations around the world.”
–Lieutenant General Mike Rouleau, Commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command on August 9, 2018. National Peacekeepers’ Day.
Members of Operation PRESENCE-Mali Task Force pose for a group photo upon achievement of initial operating capability at Camp Castor in Gao, Mali during Operation PRESENCE on July 31, 2018. Photo: Corporal Ken Beliwicz TM01-2018-0021-001
_________
« Notre force opérationnelle au Mali a récemment atteint la capacité opérationnelle initiale, ce qui signifie que les Nations Unies peuvent maintenant faire appel à elle pour mener des évacuations aéromédicales avancées. Son théâtre d’opérations comprend des incertitudes, mais je fais pleinement confiance au professionnalisme, aux compétences et au dévouement de ses membres. Ils sont prêts en tout temps à venir en aide à nos partenaires dans leurs besoins les plus urgents. Ils sont prêts à sauver des vies. Alors que notre pays commémore le legs des Casques bleus qui nous ont précédés, je tiens à rendre hommage aux membres de la Marine, de l’Armée et de l’Aviation qui prennent part à des opérations de soutien de la paix partout dans le monde.»
– Lieutenant-général Mike Rouleau, commandant du Commandement des opérations interarmées du Canada, le 9 août, 2018. Journée nationale des Gardiens de la paix.
Des membres de l’opération PRESENCE - Mali posent pour une photo de groupe après la réalisation de la capacité opérationnelle initiale à Camp Castor à Gao, au Mali, dans le cadre de l'opération PRESENCE le 31 juillet 2018. Photo: Corporal Ken Beliwicz TM01-2018-0021-001
A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.
Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building
Listing Text
CHARLECOTE
SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK
1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park
06/02/52
(Formerly Listed as:
Charlecote Park House)
GV I
Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.
Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and
extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;
north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by
John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.
MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has
diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in
C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with
octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.
PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south
wing.
EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;
3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar
plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,
sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.
2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking
pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed
entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion
mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained
glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has
Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded
cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite
detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters
supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;
original diapered brick to returns.
3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,
that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay
window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced
rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and
flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals
and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light
ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.
Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,
ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much
diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.
East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to
strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed
windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of
reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.
Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,
top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to
south mostly original, that to north with round-headed
entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.
North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;
3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;
cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on
strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to
turrets.
Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with
octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded
balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel
with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped
parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with
3-light transomed windows.
Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks
each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over
Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch
and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,
blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window
and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South
return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external
stack with clustered shafts.
South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;
recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next
4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks
forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;
stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy
Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).
Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows
are 3-light and transomed.
South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned
windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with
strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated
1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light
single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar
windows to each turret, one to each floor.
East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.
South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed
window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to
first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to
full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking
4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel
with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has
loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a
single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;
first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of
south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and
transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light
windows.
INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained
plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;
armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by
Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace
with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and
fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.
Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling
by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork
ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room
has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured
marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace
with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired
columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial
bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.
Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed
in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a
tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;
bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and
panelled ceiling probably C19.
Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white
marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster
ceiling with bands.
Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to
north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and
Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style
fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with
Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and
ceiling, and large pier glasses.
Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with
egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that
to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style
fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.
South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with
symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first
floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle
scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.
First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement
wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with
wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble
fireplace.
Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of
gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,
papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble
architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with
c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700
balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and
north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and
servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;
some bells.
South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2
segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess
with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.
Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and
cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former
south window retaining glass.
First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary
Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep
coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west
similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace
with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door
to spiral timber turret staircase.
Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;
probably 1920s wallpaper.
Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.
While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best
examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property
of National Trust.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:
Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust
Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic
Interior).
Listing NGR: SP2590656425
This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.
A look around the inside of the house / hall.
Downstairs rooms.
Parlour
The Citroën 2CV (French: "deux chevaux" i.e. "deux chevaux-vapeur" (lit. "two steam horses", "two tax horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive economy car introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial de l'Automobile and manufactured by Citroën for model years 1948–1990.
Conceived by Citroën Vice-President Pierre Boulanger to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in 1930s France, the 2CV has a combination of innovative engineering and utilitarian, straightforward metal bodywork — initially corrugated for added strength without added weight. The 2CV featured low cost; simplicity of overall maintenance; an easily serviced air-cooled engine (originally offering 9 hp); low fuel consumption; and an extremely long-travel suspension offering a soft ride and light off-road capability. Often called "an umbrella on wheels", the fixed-profile convertible bodywork featured a full-width, canvas, roll-back sunroof, which accommodated oversized loads and until 1955 reached almost to the car's rear bumper.
Manufactured in France between 1948 and 1989 (and in Portugal from 1989 to 1990), over 3.8 million 2CVs were produced, along with over 1.2 million small 2CV-based delivery vans known as Fourgonnettes. Citroën ultimately offered several mechanically identical variants including the Ami (over 1.8 million); the Dyane (over 1.4 million); the Acadiane (over 250,000); and the Mehari (over 140,000). In total, Citroën manufactured almost 7 million 2CV variants.
A 1953 technical review in Autocar described "the extraordinary ingenuity of this design, which is undoubtedly the most original since the Model T Ford". In 2011, The Globe and Mail called it a "car like no other". The motoring writer L. J. K. Setright described the 2CV as "the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car", and a car of "remorseless rationality".]
HISTORY
DEVELOPMENT
In 1934, family-owned Michelin, being the largest creditor, took over the bankrupt Citroën company. The new management ordered a new market survey, conducted by Jacques Duclos. France at that time had a large rural population which could not yet afford cars; Citroën used the survey results to prepare a design brief for a low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable four people to transport 50 kg of farm goods to market at 50 km/h, if necessary across muddy, unpaved roads. In fuel economy, the car would use no more than 3 l/100 km (95 mpg-imp). One design requirement was that the customer be able to drive eggs across a freshly ploughed field without breaking them.
In 1936, Pierre-Jules Boulanger, vice-president of Citroën and chief of engineering and design, sent the brief to his design team at the engineering department. The TPV (Toute Petite Voiture — "Very Small Car") was to be developed in secrecy at Michelin facilities at Clermont-Ferrand and at Citroën in Paris, by the design team who had created the Traction Avant.
Boulanger was closely involved with all decisions relating to the TPV, and was determined to reduce the weight to targets that his engineers thought impossible. He set up a department to weigh every component and then redesign it, to make it lighter while still doing its job.
Boulanger placed engineer André Lefèbvre in charge of the TPV project. Lefèbvre had designed and raced Grand Prix cars; his speciality was chassis design and he was particularly interested in maintaining contact between tyres and the road surface.
The first prototypes were bare chassis with rudimentary controls, seating and roof; test drivers wore leather flying suits, of the type used in contemporary open biplanes. By the end of 1937 20 TPV experimental prototypes had been built and tested. The prototypes had only one headlight, all that was required by French law at the time. At the end of 1937 Pierre Michelin was killed in a car crash; Boulanger became president of Citroën.
By 1939 the TPV was deemed ready, after 47 technically different and incrementally improved experimental prototypes had been built and tested. These prototypes used aluminium and magnesium parts and had water-cooled flat twin engines with front-wheel drive. The seats were hammocks hung from the roof by wires. The suspension system, designed by Alphonse Forceau, used front leading arms and rear trailing arms, connected to eight torsion bars beneath the rear seat: a bar for the front axle, one for the rear axle, an intermediate bar for each side, and an overload bar for each side. The front axle was connected to its torsion bars by cable. The overload bar came into play when the car had three people on board, two in the front and one in the rear, to support the extra load of a fourth passenger and fifty kilograms of luggage.
In mid-1939 a pilot run of 250 cars was produced and on 28 August 1939 the car received approval for the French market. Brochures were printed and preparations made to present the car, renamed the Citroën 2CV, at the forthcoming Paris Motor Show in October 1939.
WORLD WAR II
On 3 September 1939, France declared war on Germany following that country's invasion of Poland. An atmosphere of impending disaster led to the cancellation of the 1939 motor show less than a month before it was scheduled to open. The launch of the 2CV was abandoned.
During the German occupation of France in World War II Boulanger personally refused to collaborate with German authorities to the point where the Gestapo listed him as an "enemy of the Reich", under constant threat of arrest and deportation to Germany.
Michelin (Citroën's main shareholder) and Citroën managers decided to hide the TPV project from the Nazis, fearing some military application as in the case of the future Volkswagen Beetle, manufactured during the war as the military Kübelwagen. Several TPVs were buried at secret locations; one was disguised as a pickup, the others were destroyed, and Boulanger spent the next six years thinking about further improvements. Until 1994, when three TPVs were discovered in a barn, it was believed that only two prototypes had survived. As of 2003 there were five known TPVs.
By 1941, after an increase in aluminium prices of forty percent, an internal report at Citroën showed that producing the TPV post-war would not be economically viable, given the projected further increasing cost of aluminium. Boulanger decided to redesign the car to use mostly steel with flat panels, instead of aluminium. The Nazis had attempted to loot Citroën's press tools; this was frustrated after Boulanger got the French Resistance to re-label the rail cars containing them in the Paris marshalling yard. They ended up all over Europe, and Citroën was by no means sure they would all be returned after the war. In early 1944 Boulanger made the decision to abandon the water-cooled two-cylinder engine developed for the car and installed in the 1939 versions. Walter Becchia was now briefed to design an air-cooled unit, still of two cylinders, and still of 375 cc. Becchia was also supposed to design a three-speed gearbox, but managed to design a four-speed for the same space at little extra cost. At this time small French cars like the Renault Juvaquatre and Peugeot 202 usually featured three-speed transmissions, as did Citroën's own mid-size Traction Avant - but the 1936 Italian Fiat 500 "Topolino" "people's car" did have a four-speed gearbox. Becchia persuaded Boulanger that the fourth gear was an overdrive. The increased number of gear ratios also helped to pull the extra weight of changing from light alloys to steel for the body and chassis. Other changes included seats with tubular steel frames with rubber band springing and a restyling of the body by the Italian Flaminio Bertoni. Also, in 1944 the first studies of the Citroën hydro-pneumatic suspension were conducted using the TPV/2CV.
The development and production of what was to become the 2CV was also delayed by the incoming 1944 Socialist French government, after the liberation by the Allies from the Germans. The five-year "Plan Pons" to rationalise car production and husband scarce resources, named after economist and former French motor industry executive Paul-Marie Pons, only allowed Citroën the upper middle range of the car market, with the Traction Avant. The French government allocated the economy car market, US Marshall Plan aid, US production equipment and supplies of steel, to newly nationalised Renault to produce their Renault 4CV. The "Plan Pons" came to an end in 1949. Postwar French roads were very different from pre-war ones. Horse-drawn vehicles had re-appeared in large numbers. The few internal combustion-engined vehicles present often ran on town gas stored in gasbags on roofs or wood/charcoal gas from gasifiers on trailers. Only one hundred thousand of the two million pre-war cars were still on the road. The time was known as "Les années grises" or "the grey years" in France.
PRODUCTION
Citroën unveiled the car at the Paris Salon on 7 October 1948. The car on display was nearly identical to the 2CV type A that would be sold the next year, but it lacked an electric starter, the addition of which was decided the day before the opening of the Salon, replacing the pull cord starter. The canvas roof could be rolled completely open. The Type A had one stop light, and was only available in grey. The fuel level was checked with a dip stick/measuring rod, and the speedometer was attached to the windscreen pillar. The only other instrument was an ammeter.In 1949 the first delivered 2CV type A was 375 cc, 9 hp, with a 65 km/h top speed, only one tail light and windscreen wiper with speed shaft drive; the wiper speed was dependent on the driving speed. The car was heavily criticised by the motoring press and became the butt of French comedians for a short while. One American motoring journalist quipped, "Does it come with a can opener?" The British Autocar correspondent wrote that the 2CV "is the work of a designer who has kissed the lash of austerity with almost masochistic fervour".
Despite critics, Citroën was flooded with customer orders at the show. The car had a great impact on the lives of the low-income segment of the population in France. The 2CV was a commercial success: within months of it going on sale, there was a three-year waiting list, which soon increased to five years. At the time a second-hand 2CV was more expensive than a new one because the buyer did not have to wait. Production was increased from 876 units in 1949 to 6,196 units in 1950.
Grudging respect began to emanate from the international press: towards the end of 1951 the opinion appeared in Germany's recently launched Auto, Motor und Sport magazine that, despite its "ugliness and primitiveness" ("Häßlichkeit und Primitivität"), the 2CV was a "highly interesting" ("hochinteressantes") car.
In 1950, Pierre-Jules Boulanger was killed in a car crash on the main road from Clermont-Ferrand (the home of Michelin) to Paris.
In 1951 the 2CV received an ignition lock and a lockable driver's door. Production reached 100 cars a week. By the end of 1951 production totalled 16,288. Citroën introduced the 2CV Fourgonnette van. The "Weekend" version of the van had collapsible, removable rear seating and rear side windows, enabling a tradesman to use it as a family vehicle on the weekend as well as for business in the week.
By 1952, production had reached more than 21,000 with export markets earning foreign currency taking precedence. Boulanger's policy, which continued after his death, was: "Priority is given to those who have to travel by car because of their work, and for whom ordinary cars are too expensive to buy." Cars were sold preferentially to country vets, doctors, midwives, priests and small farmers. In 1954 the speedometer got a light for night driving. In 1955 the 2CV side repeaters were added above and behind the rear doors. It was now also available with 425 cc (AZ), 12.5 hp and a top speed of 80 km/h. In 1957 a heating and ventilation system was installed. The colour of the steering wheel changed from black to grey. The mirrors and the rear window were enlarged. The bonnet was decorated with a longitudinal strip of aluminium (AZL). In September 1957, the model AZLP (P for porte de malle, "boot lid"), appeared with a boot lid panel; previously the soft top had to be opened at the bottom to get to the boot. In 1958 a Belgian Citroën plant produced a higher quality version of the car (AZL3). It had a third side window, not available in the normal version, and improved details.
In 1960 the production of the 375 cc engine ended. The corrugated metal bonnet was replaced by a 5-rib glossy cover.
The 2 CV 4 × 4 2CV Sahara appeared in December 1960. This had an additional engine-transmission unit in the rear, mounted the other way around and driving the rear wheels. For the second engine there was a separate push-button starter and choke. With a gear stick between the front seats, both transmissions were operated simultaneously. For the two engines, there were separate petrol tanks under the front seats. The filler neck sat in the front doors. Both engines (and hence axles) could be operated independently. The spare wheel was mounted on the bonnet. 693 were produced until 1968 and one more in 1971. Many were used by the Swiss Post as a delivery vehicle. Today they are highly collectable.
From the mid-1950s economy car competition had increased — internationally in the form of the 1957 Fiat 500 and 1955 Fiat 600, and 1959 Austin Mini. By 1952, Germany produced a price-competitive car - the Messerschmitt KR175, followed in 1955 by the Isetta - these were microcars, not complete four-door cars like the 2CV. On the French home market, from 1961, the small Simca 1000 using licensed Fiat technology, and the larger Renault 4 hatchback had become available. The R4 was the biggest threat to the 2CV, eventually outselling it.
1960s
In 1960 the corrugated Citroën H Van style "ripple bonnet" of convex swages was replaced (except for the Sahara), with one using six larger concave swages and looked similar until the end of production. The 2CV had suicide doors in front from 1948 to 1964, replaced with front hinged doors from 1965 to 1990.
In 1961 Citroën launched a new model based on the 2CV chassis, with a 4-door sedan body, and a reverse rake rear window: the Citroën Ami. In 1962 the engine power was increased to 14 hp and top speed to 85 km/h. A sun roof was installed. In 1963 the engine power was increased to 16 hp. An electric wiper motor replaced the drive on the speedo. The ammeter was replaced by a charging indicator light. The speedometer was moved from the window frame into the dash. Instead of a dip stick/measuring rod, a fuel gauge was introduced.
Director of publicity Claude Puech came up with humorous and inventive marketing campaigns. Robert Delpire of the Delpire Agency was responsible for the brochures. Ad copy came from Jacques Wolgensinger Director of PR at Citroën. Wolgensinger was responsible for the youth orientated "Raids", 2CV Cross, rallies, the use of "Tin-Tin", and the slogan "More than just a car — a way of life". A range of colours was introduced, starting with Glacier Blue in 1959, then yellow in 1960. In the 1960s 2CV production caught up with demand. In 1966 the 2CV got a third side window. From September 1966 a Belgian-produced variant was sold in Germany with the 602 cc engine and 21 hp Ami6, the 3 CV (AZAM6). This version was only sold until 1968 in some export markets.
In 1967 Citroën launched a new model based on the 2CV chassis, with an updated but still utilitarian body, with a hatchback (a hatchback kit was available from Citroën dealers for the 2CV, and aftermarket kits are available) that boosted practicality: the Citroën Dyane. The exterior is more modern and distinguished by the recessed lights in the fenders and bodywork. Between 1967 and 1983 about 1.4 million were built. This was in response to competition by the Renault 4. The Dyane was originally planned as an upmarket version of the 2CV and was supposed to supersede it, but ultimately the 2CV outlived the Dyane by seven years. Citroën also developed the Méhari off-roader.
From 1961, the car was offered, at extra cost, with the flat-2 engine size increased to 602 cc, although for many years the smaller 425 cc engine continued to be available in France and export markets where engine size determined car tax levels. This was replaced by an updated 435 cc engine in 1968.
1970s
In 1970 the car gained rear light units from the Citroën Ami 6, and also standardised a third side window in the rear pillar on 2CV6 (602 cc) models. From 1970, only two series were produced: the 2CV 4 (AZKB) with 435 cc and the 2CV 6 (Azka) with 602 cc displacement. All 2CVs from this date can run on unleaded fuel. 1970s cars featured rectangular headlights, except the Spécial model. In 1971 the front bench seat was replaced with two individual seats. In 1972 2CVs were fitted with standard three-point seat belts. In 1973 new seat covers, a padded single-spoke steering wheel and ashtrays were introduced.
The highest annual production was in 1974. Sales of the 2CV were reinvigorated by the 1974 oil crisis. The 2CV after this time became as much a youth lifestyle statement as a basic functional form of transport. This renewed popularity was encouraged by the Citroën "Raid" intercontinental endurance rallies of the 1970s where customers could participate by buying a new 2CV, fitted with a "P.O." kit (Pays d'Outre-mer — overseas countries), to cope with thousands of miles of very poor or off-road routes.
1970: Paris–Kabul: 1,300 young people, 500 2CVs, 16,500 km to Afghanistan and back.
1971: Paris–Persepolis: 500 2CVs 13,500 km to Iran and back.
1973: Raid Afrique, 60 2CVs 8000 km from Abidjan to Tunis, the Atlantic capital of Ivory Coast through the Sahara, (the Ténéré desert section was unmapped and had previously been barred to cars), to the Mediterranean capital of Tunisia.
The Paris to Persepolis rally was the most famous. The Citroën "2CV Cross" circuit/off-road races were very popular in Europe.
Because of new emission standards, in 1975 power was reduced from 28 hp to 25 hp. The round headlights were replaced by square ones, adjustable in height. A new plastic grille was fitted.
In July 1975, a base model called the 2CV Spécial was introduced with the 435 cc engine. Between 1975 and 1990 under the name of AZKB "2CV Spécial" a drastically reduced trim basic version was sold, at first only in yellow. The small, square speedometer (which dates back to the Traction Avant), and the narrow rear bumper was installed. Citroën removed the third side window, the ashtray, and virtually all trim from the car. It also had the earlier round headlights. From the 1978 Paris Motor Show the Spécial regained third side windows, and was available in red and white; beginning in mid-1979 the 602 cc engine was installed. In June 1981 the Spécial E arrived; this model had a standard centrifugal clutch and particularly low urban fuel consumption.
1980s
In 1981 a yellow 2CV6 was driven by James Bond (Roger Moore) in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only. The car in the film was fitted with the flat-4 engine from a Citroën GS which more than doubled the power. In one scene the ultra light 2CV tips over and is quickly righted by hand. Citroën launched a special edition 2CV "007" to coincide with the film; it was fitted with the standard engine and painted yellow with "007" on the front doors and fake bullet hole stickers.
In 1982 all 2CV models got inboard front disc brakes.
In 1988, production ended in France after 40 years but continued at the Mangualde plant in Portugal. This lasted until 1990, when production of the 2CV ended. The 2CV outlasted the Visa, another of the cars which might have been expected to replace it, and was produced for four years after the start of Citroën AX production.
Portuguese-built cars, especially those from when production was winding down, have a reputation in the UK for being much less well made and more prone to corrosion than those made in France. According to Citroën, the Portuguese plant was more up-to-date than the one in Levallois near Paris, and Portuguese 2CV manufacturing was to higher quality standards.
As of October 2016, 3,025 remained in service in the UK.
SPECIAL EDITION SALOON MODELS
The special edition models began with the 1976 SPOT model and continued in the with the 1980 Charleston, inspired by Art-Deco two colour styles 1920s Citroën model colour schemes. In 1981 the 007 arrived. In 1983 the 2CV Beachcomber arrived in the United Kingdom; it was known as "France 3" in France or "Transat" in other continental European markets — Citroën sponsored the French America's Cup yacht entry of that year. In 1985 the two-coloured Dolly appeared, using the "Spécial" model's basic trim rather than the slightly better-appointed "Club" as was the case with the other special editions. In 1986 there was the Cocorico. This means "cock-a-doodle-doo" and tied in with France's entry in the 1986 World Cup. "Le Coq Gaulois" or Gallic rooster is an unofficial national symbol of France. In 1987 came the Bamboo, followed by the 1988 Perrier in association with the mineral water company.
The Charleston, having been presented in October 1980 as a one-season "special edition" was incorporated into the regular range in July 1981 in response to its "extraordinary success". By changing the carburetor to achieve 29 hp a top speed of 115 km/h was achieved. Other changes were a new rear-view mirror and inboard disc brakes at the front wheels. In the 1980s there was a range of four full models:
Spécial
Dolly (an improved version of the Spécial)
Club (discontinued in the early 1980s)
Charleston (an improved version of the Club)
In Germany and Switzerland a special edition called, "I Fly Bleifrei" — "I Fly Lead Free" was launched in 1986, that could use unleaded, instead of then normal leaded petrol and super unleaded. It was introduced mainly because of stricter emissions standards. In 1987 it was replaced by the "Sausss-duck" special edition.
EXPORT MARKETS
The 2CV was originally sold in France and some European markets, and went on to enjoy strong sales in Asia, South America, and Africa. During the post-war years Citroën was very focused on the home market, which had some unusual quirks, like puissance fiscale. The management of Michelin was supportive of Citroën up to a point, and with a suspension designed to use Michelin's new radial tyres the Citroën cars clearly demonstrated their superiority over their competitors' tyres. But they were not prepared to initiate the investment needed for the 2CV (or the Citroën DS for that matter) to truly compete on the global stage. Citroën was always under-capitalised until the 1970s Peugeot takeover. The 2CV sold 8,830,679 vehicles; the Volkswagen Beetle, which was available worldwide, sold 21 million units.
CONSTRUCTION
The level of technology in the 1948 2CV was remarkable for the era. While colours and detail specifications were modified in the ensuing 42 years, the biggest mechanical change was the addition of front disc brakes (by then already fitted for several years in the mechanically similar Citroën Dyane 6), in October 1981 (for the 1982 model year). The reliability of the car was enhanced by the minimalist simplification of the designers, being air-cooled (with an oil cooler), it had no coolant, radiator, water pump or thermostat. It had no distributor either, just a contact breaker system. Except for the brakes, there were no hydraulic parts on original models; damping was by tuned mass dampers and friction dampers.
The 1948 car featured radial tyres, which had just been commercialised; front-wheel drive; rack and pinion steering mounted inside the front suspension cross-tube, away from a frontal impact; rear fender skirts (the suspension design allowed wheel changes without removing the skirts); bolt-on detachable front and rear wings; detachable doors, bonnet (and boot lid after 1960), by "slide out" P-profile sheet metal hinges; flap-up windows, as roll up windows were considered too heavy and expensive.; and detachable full length fabric sunroof and boot lid, for almost pickup-like load-carrying versatility. Ventilation in addition to the sunroof and front flap windows was provided by an opening flap under the windscreen. The car had load adjustable headlights and a heater (heaters were standardised on British economy cars in the 1960s).
BODY
The body was constructed of a dual H-frame platform chassis and aircraft-style tube framework, and a very thin steel shell that was bolted to the chassis. Because the original design brief called for a low speed car, little or no attention was paid to aerodynamics; the body had a drag coefficient of Cd=0.51, high by today's standards but typical for the era.
The 2CV used the fixed-profile convertible, where the doors and upper side elements of its bodywork remain fixed, while its fabric soft top can be opened. This reduces weight and lowers the centre of gravity, and allows the carrying of long or irregularly shaped items, but the key reason was that fabric was cheaper than steel which was in short supply and expensive after the war. The fixed-profile concept was quite popular in this period.
SUSPENSION
The suspension of the 2CV was very soft; a person could easily rock the car side to side dramatically. The swinging arm, fore-aft linked suspension system with inboard front brakes had a much smaller unsprung mass than existing coil spring or leaf spring designs. The design was modified by Marcel Chinon.
The system comprises two suspension cylinders mounted horizontally on each side of the platform chassis. Inside the cylinders are two springs, one for each wheel, mounted at each end of the cylinder. The springs are connected to the front leading swinging arm and rear trailing swinging arm, that act like bellcranks by pull rods (tie rods). These are connected to spring seating cups in the middle of the cylinder, each spring being compressed independently, against the ends of the cylinder. Each cylinder is mounted using an additional set of springs, originally made from steel, called "volute" springs, on later models made from rubber. These allow the front and rear suspension to interconnect. When the front wheel is deflected up over a bump, the front pull rod compresses the front spring inside the cylinder, against the front of the cylinder. This also compresses the front "volute" spring pulling the whole cylinder forwards. That action pulls the rear wheel down on the same side via the rear spring assembly and pull rod. When the rear wheel meets that bump a moment later, it does the same in reverse, keeping the car level front to rear. When both springs are compressed on one side when travelling around a bend, or front and rear wheels hit bumps simultaneously, the equal and opposite forces applied to the front and rear spring assemblies reduce the interconnection. It reduces pitching, which is a particular problem of soft car suspension.
The swinging arms are mounted with large bearings to "cross tubes" that run side to side across the chassis; combined with the effects of all-independent soft springing and excellent damping, keeps the road wheels in contact with the road surface and parallel to each other across the axles at high angles of body roll. A larger than conventional steering castor angle, ensures that the front wheels are closer to vertical than the rears, when cornering hard with a lot of body roll. The soft springing, long suspension travel and the use of leading and trailing arms means that as the body rolls during cornering the wheelbase on the inside of the corner increases while the wheelbase on the outside of the corner decreases. As the corning forces put more of the car's weight on the inside pair of wheels the wheelbase extends in proportion, keeping the car's weight balance and centre of grip constant. promoting excellent road holding. The other key factor in the quality of its road holding is the very low and forward centre of gravity, provided by the position of the engine and transmission.
The suspension also automatically accommodates differing payloads in the car- with four people and cargo on board the wheelbase increases by around 4 cm as the suspension deflects, and the castor angle of the front wheels increases by as much as 8 degrees thus ensuring that ride quality, handling and road holding are almost unaffected by the additional weight. On early cars friction dampers (like a dry version of a multi-plate clutch design) were fitted at the mountings of the front and rear swinging arms to the cross-tubes. Because the rear brakes were outboard, they had extra tuned mass dampers to damp wheel bounce from the extra unsprung mass. Later models had tuned mass dampers ("batteurs") at the front (because the leading arm had more inertia and "bump/thump" than the trailing arm), with hydraulic telescopic dampers / shock absorbers front and rear. The uprated hydraulic damping obviated the need for the rear inertia dampers. It was designed to be a comfortable ride by matching the frequencies encountered in human bipedal motion.
This suspension design ensured the road wheels followed ground contours underneath them closely, while insulating the vehicle from shocks, enabling the 2CV to be driven over a ploughed field without breaking any eggs, as its design brief required. More importantly it could comfortably and safely drive at reasonable speed, along the ill-maintained and war-damaged post-war French Routes Nationales. It was commonly driven "Pied au Plancher" — "foot to the floor" by their peasant owners.
FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE AND GEARBOX
Citroën had developed expertise with front-wheel drive due to the pioneering Traction Avant, which was the first mass-produced steel monocoque front-wheel-drive car in the world. The 2CV was originally equipped with a sliding splined joint, and twin Hookes type universal joints on its driveshafts; later models used constant velocity joints and a sliding splined joint.
The gearbox was a four-speed manual transmission, an advanced feature on an inexpensive car at the time. The gear stick came horizontally out of the dashboard with the handle curved upwards. It had a strange shift pattern: the first was back on the left, the second and third were inline, and the fourth (or the S) could be engaged only by turning the lever to the right from the third. Reverse was opposite first. The idea was to put the most used gears opposite each other — for parking, first and reverse; for normal driving, second and third. This layout was adopted from the H-van's three-speed gearbox.
OTHER
The windscreen wipers were powered by a purely mechanical system: a cable connected to the transmission; to reduce cost, this cable also powered the speedometer. The wipers' speed was therefore dependent on car speed. When the car was waiting at a crossroad, the wipers were not powered; thus, a handle under the speedometer allowed them to be operated by hand. From 1962, the wipers were powered by a single-speed electric motor. The car came with only a speedometer and an ammeter.
The 2CV design predates the invention of disc brake, so 1948–1981 cars have drum brakes on all four wheels. In October 1981, front disc brakes were fitted. Disc brake cars use green LHM fluid – a mineral oil – which is not compatible with standard glycol brake fluid.
ENGINES
The engine was designed by Walter Becchia and Lucien Gerard, with a nod to the classic BMW boxer motorcycle engine. It was an air-cooled, flat-twin, four-stroke, 375 cc engine with pushrod operated overhead valves and a hemispherical combustion chamber. The earliest model developed 9 PS (6.6 kW) DIN (6.5 kW). A 425 cc engine was introduced in 1955, followed in 1968 by a 602 cc one giving 28 bhp (21 kW) at 7000 rpm. With the 602 cc engine, the tax classification of the car changed so that it became a 3CV, but the name remained unchanged. A 435 cc engine was introduced at the same time to replace the 425 cc; the 435 cc engine car was named 2CV 4 while the 602 cc took the name 2CV 6 (a variant in Argentina took the name 3CV). The 602 cc engine evolved to the M28 33 bhp (25 kW) in 1970; this was the most powerful engine fitted to the 2CV. A new 602 cc giving 29 bhp (22 kW) at a slower 5,750 rpm was introduced in 1979. This engine was less powerful, and more efficient, allowing lower fuel consumption and better top speed, but decreased acceleration. All 2CVs with the M28 engine can run on unleaded petrol.
The 2CV used the wasted spark ignition system for simplicity and reliability and had only speed-controlled ignition timing, no vacuum advance taking account of engine load.
Unlike other air-cooled cars (such as the Volkswagen Beetle and the Fiat 500) the 2CV's engine had no thermostat valve in its oil system. The engine needed more time for oil to reach normal operating temperature in cold weather. All the oil passed through an oil cooler behind the fan and received the full cooling effect regardless of the ambient temperature. This removes the risk of overheating from a jammed thermostat that can afflict water- and air-cooled engines and the engine can withstand many hours of running under heavy load at high engine speeds even in hot weather. To prevent the engine running cool in cold weather (and to improve the output of the cabin heater) all 2CVs were supplied with a grille blind (canvas on early cars and a clip-on plastic item called a "muff" in the owner's handbook, on later ones) which blocked around half the aperture to reduce the flow of air to the engine.
The engine's design concentrated on the reduction of moving parts. The cooling fan and dynamo were built integrally with the one-piece crankshaft, removing the need for drive belts. The use of gaskets, seen as another potential weak point for failure and leaks, was also kept to a minimum. The cylinder heads are mated to the cylinder barrels by lapped joints with extremely fine tolerances, as are the two halves of the crankcase and other surface-to-surface joints.
As well as the close tolerances between parts, the engine's lack of gaskets was made possible by a unique crankcase ventilation system. On any 2-cylinder boxer engine such as the 2CV's, the volume of the crankcase reduces by the cubic capacity of the engine when the pistons move together. This, combined with the inevitable small amount of "leakage" of combustion gases past the pistons leads to a positive pressure in the crankcase which must be removed in the interests of engine efficiency and to prevent oil and gas leaks. The 2CV's engine has a combined engine "breather" and oil filler assembly which contains a series of rubber reed valves. These allow positive pressure to escape the crankcase (to the engine air intake to be recirculated) but close when the pressure in the crankcase drops as the pistons move apart. Because gases are expelled but not admitted this creates a slight vacuum in the crankcase so that any weak joint or failed seal causes air to be sucked in rather than allowing oil to leak out.
These design features made the 2CV engine highly reliable; test engines were run at full speed for 1000 hours at a time, equivalent to driving 80,000 km at full throttle. They also meant that the engine was "sealed for life" — for example, replacing the big-end bearings required specialised equipment to dismantle and reassemble the built-up crankshaft, and as this was often not available the entire crankshaft had to be replaced. The engine is very under-stressed and long-lived, so this is not a major issue.
If the starter motor or battery failed, the 2CV had the option of hand-cranking, the jack handle serving as starting handle through dogs on the front of the crankshaft at the centre of the fan. This feature, once universal on cars and still common in 1948 when the 2CV was introduced, was kept until the end of production in 1990.
PERFORMANCE
In relation to the 2CV's performance and acceleration, it was joked that it went "from 0–60 km/h in one day". The original 1948 model that produced 9 hp had a 0–40 time of 42.4 seconds and a top speed of 64 km/h, far below the speeds necessary for North American highways or the German Autobahns of the day. The top speed increased with engine size to 80 km/h in 1955, 84 km/h in 1962, 100 km/h in 1970, and 115 km/h in 1981.
The last evolution of the 2CV engine was the Citroën Visa flat-2, a 652 cc featuring electronic ignition. Citroën never sold this engine in the 2CV, but some enthusiasts have converted their 2CVs to 652 engines, or even transplanted Citroën GS or GSA flat-four engines and gearboxes.
In the mid-1980s Car magazine editor Steve Cropley ran and reported on a turbocharged 602 cc 2CV that was developed by engineer Richard Wilsher.
END OF PRODUCTION
The 2CV was produced for 42 years, the model finally succumbing to customer demands for speed, in which this ancient design had fallen significantly behind modern cars, and safety. Although the front of the chassis was designed to fold up, to form a crumple zone according to a 1984 Citroën brochure, in common with other small cars of its era its crashworhiness was very poor by modern standards. (The drive for improved safety in Europe happened from the 1990s onwards, and accelerated with the 1997 advent of Euro NCAP.) Its advanced underlying engineering was ignored or misunderstood by the public, being clothed in an anachronistic body. It was the butt of many a joke, especially by Jasper Carrott in the UK.
Citroën had attempted to replace the ultra-utilitarian 2CV several times (with the Dyane, Visa, and the AX). Its comically antiquated appearance became an advantage to the car, and it became a niche product which sold because it was different from anything else on sale. Because of its down-to-earth economy car style, it became popular with people who wanted to distance themselves from mainstream consumerism — "hippies" — and also with environmentalists.
Although not a replacement for the 2CV, the AX supermini, a conventional urban runabout, unremarkable apart from its exceptional lightness, seemed to address the car makers' requirements at the entry level in the early 1990s. Officially, the last 2CV, a Charleston, which was reserved for Mangualde's plant manager, rolled off the Portuguese production line on 27 July 1990, although five additional 2CV Spécials were produced afterwards.[citation needed]
In all a total of 3,867,932 2CVs were produced. Including the commercial versions of the 2CV, Dyane, Méhari, FAF, and Ami variants, the 2CV's underpinnings spawned 8,830,679 vehicles.
The 2CV was outlived by contemporaries such as the Mini (out of production in 2000), Volkswagen Beetle (2003), Renault 4 (1992), Volkswagen Type 2 (2013) and Hindustan Ambassador (originally a 1950s Morris Oxford), (2014).
CONTINUED POPULARITY
The Chrysler CCV or Composite Concept Vehicle developed in the mid-1990s is a concept car designed to illustrate new manufacturing methods suitable for developing countries. The car is a tall, roomy four-door sedan of small dimensions. The designers at Chrysler said they were inspired to create a modernised 2CV.
The company Sorevie of Lodève was building 2CVs until 2002. The cars were built from scratch using mostly new parts. But as the 2CV no longer complied with safety regulations, the cars were sold as second-hand cars using chassis and engine numbers from old 2CVs.
The long-running 2CV circuit racing series organized by The Classic 2CV Racing Club continues to be popular in the UK.
English nicknames include "Flying Dustbin", "Tin Snail", "Dolly", "Tortoise"
WIKIPEDIA
Joint capability demonstration.
Trident Juncture 2018 is NATO’s largest exercise in many years, bringing together around 50,000 personnel from all 29 Allies, plus partners Finland and Sweden. Around 65 vessels, 250 aircraft and 10,000 vehicles will participate.
A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.
Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building
Listing Text
CHARLECOTE
SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK
1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park
06/02/52
(Formerly Listed as:
Charlecote Park House)
GV I
Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.
Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and
extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;
north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by
John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.
MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has
diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in
C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with
octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.
PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south
wing.
EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;
3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar
plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,
sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.
2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking
pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed
entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion
mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained
glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has
Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded
cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite
detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters
supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;
original diapered brick to returns.
3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,
that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay
window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced
rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and
flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals
and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light
ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.
Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,
ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much
diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.
East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to
strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed
windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of
reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.
Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,
top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to
south mostly original, that to north with round-headed
entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.
North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;
3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;
cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on
strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to
turrets.
Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with
octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded
balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel
with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped
parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with
3-light transomed windows.
Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks
each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over
Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch
and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,
blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window
and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South
return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external
stack with clustered shafts.
South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;
recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next
4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks
forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;
stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy
Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).
Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows
are 3-light and transomed.
South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned
windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with
strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated
1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light
single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar
windows to each turret, one to each floor.
East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.
South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed
window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to
first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to
full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking
4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel
with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has
loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a
single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;
first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of
south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and
transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light
windows.
INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained
plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;
armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by
Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace
with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and
fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.
Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling
by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork
ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room
has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured
marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace
with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired
columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial
bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.
Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed
in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a
tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;
bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and
panelled ceiling probably C19.
Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white
marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster
ceiling with bands.
Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to
north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and
Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style
fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with
Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and
ceiling, and large pier glasses.
Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with
egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that
to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style
fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.
South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with
symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first
floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle
scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.
First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement
wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with
wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble
fireplace.
Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of
gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,
papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble
architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with
c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700
balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and
north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and
servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;
some bells.
South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2
segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess
with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.
Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and
cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former
south window retaining glass.
First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary
Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep
coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west
similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace
with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door
to spiral timber turret staircase.
Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;
probably 1920s wallpaper.
Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.
While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best
examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property
of National Trust.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:
Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust
Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic
Interior).
Listing NGR: SP2590656425
This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.
The house on this side houses the Victorian Kitchen, Servant's Hall Shop and Charlecote Pantry.
Seen from the West Park.
Crossed the Slaughter Bridge to the West Park but wasn't there for long.
Grade II Listed
Park Bridge at Ngr Sp 259 562 to South of Park
Listing Text
CHARLECOTE
SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK
1901-1/10/30 Park Bridge at NGR SP 259 562, to
18/03/97 south of Park
GV II
Bridge over River Dene. 1867. Ashlar and wrought-iron.
Segmental arch with fluted key flanked by similar flood
arches; roll-moulded cornice extends over abutments with curve
forward either side; parapets with intersecting arcading and
fluted console-piers, ending in scrolls. Wrought-iron gates to
south end of bridge.
Property of the National Trust.
(Charlecote Park leaflet on the deer park: 1993-).
Listing NGR: SP2591656257
This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.
With the crummy weather we are having in England at present it's a bit difficult to take attractive photos, but this is one from last year of the Blenheim King Pool. This is one of the lesser known areas of the Park, however it is very attractive and quiet, which is appreciated by the fishermen and bird-watchers who do venture this far! This is an Autumnal scene; the colours seem to have been particularly striking!
The grounds of Blenheim Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage site) were reworked by Capability Brown in the 1770's, some 50 years after completion of the Palace. In the 18th Century there was a great vogue to have a lake in one's stately home; the Blenheim lake was created by damming the River Glyme which flows through the grounds.
Capability Brown's Bridge. In the 1770s Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the park including joining up Tudor fishponds to create serpentine lakes by a dam-cum-bridge.
A Minnesota National Guard Black Hawk helicopter from the 2-147 Assault Helicopter Battalion conducts a mission at dusk in support of an eXportable Combat Training Capability exercise at Fort Hood, Texas. Soldiers from 2-147 contributed to the aviation support for the XCTC exercise for the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment from the Tennessee National Guard as they prepare for an upcoming rotation to the National Training Center in 2018. (Minnesota National Guard photo by 1st Lt. Katherine Zins)
While the F-16A had proven a success, its lack of long-range missile and true all-weather capability hampered it, especially in projected combat against the Warsaw Pact over Central Europe. General Dynamics began work on the upgraded F-16C/D version, with the first Block 25 F-16C flying in June 1984 and entering USAF service that September.
Externally, the only ways to tell apart the F-16C from the F-16A is the slightly enlarged base of the tail and a UHF radio antenna at the base of the tail. The intake is also slightly larger, though later marks of the F-16A also have this feature. Internally, however, the F-16C is a significantly different aircraft. The earlier APG-66 radar was replaced by the APG-68 multimode radar used by the F/A-18, which gave the F-16C the same capability to switch between ground-attack and dogfight mode and vastly improved all-weather capability. Cockpit layout was also changed in response to pilots’ requests, with a larger Heads-Up Display and movement of the radar display to eye level rather than between the pilot’s legs on the F-16A. The F-16C would also have the capability to carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM, though it would not be until 1992 that the missile entered service. Other small upgrades were made throughout the design, including the engine.
The Block 25 initial production was superseded by the Block 30 F-16C in 1987, which gave it better navigation systems, and the capability to carry the either the General Electric F110 or the Pratt and Whitney F100 turbofan. The Block 40/42 “Night Falcon” followed in 1988, equipped with LANTIRN night attack pods, followed by the Block 50/52, which was a dedicated Wild Weasel variant. In USAF service, the latter are semi-officially known as F-16CG and F-16CJ variants.
The F-16C had replaced the F-16A in nearly all overseas USAF units by the First Gulf War in 1991, and as a result, the aircraft was among the first deployed to the theater in August 1990. During the war, the F-16C was used mainly in ground attack and strike sorties, due to delays in the AIM-120, but it performed superbly in this role. USAF F-16s finally scored kills in the F-16C, beginning in 1992, when an Iraqi MiG-23 was shot down over the southern no-fly zone; the victory was also the first with the AMRAAM. Four Serbian G-4 Super Galebs were shot down over Bosnia in 1994. F-16Cs had replaced the F-16A entirely in regular and Reserve USAF service by 1997, and further service was seen over Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya by 2012. Subsequent upgrades to USAF F-16Cs with GPS allow them to carry advanced precision weapons such as JSOW and JDAM.
Whatever the variant, the F-16 is today the most prolific combat aircraft in existence, with 28 nations operating the type (17 of which operate F-16Cs). Over 4450 have been built, with more in production; the F-16C is also license-produced by Turkey and South Korea. It also forms the basis for the Mitsubishi F-2 fighter for Japan, though the F-2 is significantly different, with a longer nose and larger wing. Though the USAF projects that the F-16C will be replaced by the F-35 beginning in 2020, it will likely remain in service for a very long time.
This F-16 is actually the combination of two airframes: F-16C 84-1228 and F-16B 78-0105, so it is something of a "Frankenfalcon," with the forward half from the F-16C and the rear the F-16B. 84-1228 was a F-16C delivered to the USAF in 1985 to the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Shaw AFB, South Carolina; on January 5, 1989, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair when the pilot hit birds on takeoff. Though the pilot was able to abort the takeoff, 84-1228 ran off the runway and exploded. The pilot was able to escape, but the F-16 behind the wingroot was a burned-out wreck.
Rather than completely scrap it, the front section was cut off and mated with the rear section of 78-0105. This F-16 had crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in 1981 while assigned to the 56th Tactical Fighter Training Wing at MacDill AFB, Florida. The crew ejected successfully and the F-16 was recovered from the water, but the nose was considered unsalvageable and scrapped. The two sections were put together as a ground instruction trainer, but since the aircraft could not be powered up, the "Frankenfalcon" was of little use even as a trainer. It was returned to General Dynamics for disposal, and it sat forgotten in the company plant until 2016, when it was donated to the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark.
For something put together from two wrecks, the aircraft looks pretty good, though it lacks landing gear. (78-0105 still had its gear intact, so why it was removed is unknown.) It also lacks any national markings, and the camouflage is somewhat close to an aggressor scheme, or Royal Moroccan Air Force F-16s. (Joe Davies seems to have an inventive approach to painting some of its aircraft.) The name "Salty Dog" comes from 78-0105's inadvertent bath in the Gulf of Mexico!
fountain reflection in the gardens of temple newsam leeds.temple newsam a tudor-jacobean mansion and historic estate situated in leeds england. birthplace of lord darnley and gardens designed by capability brown in the 18 century.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Vought F4U Corsair was an American fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–53).
The Corsair was designed as a carrier-based aircraft but its difficult carrier landing performance rendered it unsuitable for Navy use until the carrier landing issues were overcome by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. The Corsair thus came to and retained prominence in its area of greatest deployment: land based use by the U.S. Marines.
The Corsair served only to a lesser degree in the U.S. Navy, the role of the dominant U.S. carrier based fighter in the second part of the war was thus filled by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, powered by the same Double Wasp engine first flown on the Corsair's first prototype in 1940. In addition to its use by the U.S. and British, the Corsair was also used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the French Navy Aéronavale and other, smaller, air forces until the 1960s.
A little known fact is that, under the Lend-Lease act, a small number of F4U-1A/D "Corsair" fighter planes was also delivered to the Soviet Union. The Lend-Lease policy, formally titled "An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States", was a program under which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. Canada operated a similar smaller program under a different name.
The F4U, being a high performance fighter at its time, was included into support deliveries only from early 1945 on, and the machines earmarked for foreign operations were mostly 2nd hand aircraft that had served with the USMC in the Pacific TO. These planes were directly delivered from US units to various IAPs (IAP = Istrebitelnyi Aviatsionnyj Polk = Fighter Aviation Regiment) on the Pacific coast and formally part of the Soviet Union's Pacific Fleet air arm. The machines, overhauled in field workshops, became operational in Spring 1945 and were operated from land bases only. The core of the Soviet Corsair operations took place primarily in the Sea of Okhotsk region, mostly in the form of bomber escorts and CAS missions for advancing army troops.
Upon delivery, the Soviet Corsairs generally wore their former standard US Navy three color camouflage scheme. Only the national markings and tactical codes were quickly oversprayed with whatever paint was at hand, and prominent Red Star markings were applied in standard positions. Later, during routine maintenance overhauls, some machines received individual paint schemes. Several machines for the ground attack role were also retrofitted with Soviet bomb shackles and launch rails for indigenous unguided missiles like the RS-82 or RS-132.
One notable operation in which Soviet F4U took part in was the liberation of southern Sakhalin in August-September 1945. During the war against Japan, the Pacific Ocean Fleet successfully landed a number of operational and tactical landing bodies, mostly in close cooperation with the Soviet Army units. After repudiating the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviet Union invaded southern Sakhalin, the Soviet attack started on August 11, 1945, a few days before the surrender of Japan. The Soviet 56th Rifle Corps, part of the 16th Army, consisting of the 79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214 Armored Brigade, attacked the Japanese 88th Infantry Division.
Although the Soviet Red Army outnumbered the Japanese by three to one, they advanced only slowly due to strong Japanese resistance. It was not until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Naval Infantry Rifle Battalion from Sovetskaya Gavan landed on Tōro, a seashore village of western Karafuto on August 16 that the Soviets broke the Japanese defense line. Japanese resistance grew weaker after this landing. Actual fighting continued until August 21. From August 22 to August 23, most remaining Japanese units agreed to a ceasefire. The Soviets completed the conquest of Karafuto on August 25, 1945 by occupying the capital of Toyohara.
Further operations with Soviet F4U involvement were the liberation of the Kuril Islands and of several ports along the eastern coast of Korea, eventually reaching Port-Artur (Lüshunkou) at the coast of the Yellow Sea. Roundabout 150 F4U-1A/Ds were operated by the Soviet Pacific Fleet's air arm, and after the end of hostilities almost all of the war-worn aircraft were scrapped.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 33 ft 4 in (10.1 m)
Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.5 m)
Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m)
Wing area: 314 ft2 (29.17 m²)
Empty weight: 8,982 lb (4,073 kg)
Loaded weight: 11,432 lb (5,185 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8 radial engine, 2,000 hp (1,491 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 417 mph (362 kn/671 km/h)
Range: 1,015 mi (882 nmi/1,633 km)
Service ceiling: 36,900 ft (11,247 m)
Rate of climb: 2,890 ft/min (15.2 m/s)
Armament:
6× 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns with 400 RPG
Up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of external ordnance, incl. unguided missiles and bombs of up to 1,000 lb (454 kg) caliber;
The kit and its assembly:
This whif is actually a tribute build. It's based upon a profile drawing, posted in 2010 by Czech fellow modeler Wenzel a.k.a. PantherG at whatifmodelers.com. I found the idea of a Lend-Lease Corsair charming, esp. the overpainted markings on a standard USN scheme.
I kept the concept in the back of my mind, and the "Soviet Group Build" at whatifmodelers.com in early 2017 was a good motivation to finally turn the idea into hardware.
The kit is Academy's F4U-1D, IMHO a pretty good rendition of the early Corsair, even though with some fishy details like the exhausts. Anyway, the kit was mostly built OOB with just some minor modifications. The only true whiffy addition are the RS-82 missiles and their respective launch rails, resin aftermarket parts from AML Models, and the modified bomb on the ventral hardpoint which is to look more Soviet.
Painting and markings:
Nothing fancy, intentionally, and basically close to the inspiring profile. The Corsair was painted in standard USN colors of Dark Sea Blue ANA 607, Intermediate Blue ANA 608 and Insignia White ANA 601 (= FS 35042, 35164 and 37875). I used Modelmaster 1718, Humbrol 144 and 147, respectively, the latter being a very light grey (FS 36495), leaving room for post-shading with pure white. The places, where formerly USN markings had been, were painted with typical Russian tones: Green (Humbrol 114) on the upper surfaces and flanks, and Blue under the wings (Humbrol 115).
The model was thoroughly weathered, including some panels in slightly different tones, and received a black ink wash, dry-brushed panel post-shading and some aluminum stains on the leading edges and around the cockpit for simulated chipped paint.
The Soviet markings were puzzled together from the spares box and several aftermarket sheets, including big Red Stars from a P-47D in Soviet service and several Lend Lease P-40Ns, including a specimen operated by the Northern Fleet which donated the nice anchor symbol and the patriotic mural.
After a final dry brushing treatment with shades of grey, some oil stains (with Tamiya’s Smoke) and grinded graphite around the exhausts, machine guns and the wing undersides around the RS-82 launch rails, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
A simple whif, but the USN Corsair with Red Stars looks interesting and strangely plausible when you take other Allied aircraft under the Lend Lease program into account – a decent initial entry for the group build. The overpainted former US markings do not stand out as much as I expected, but this just adds to the subtle overall impression, IMHO.
With greetings to Wenzel and his creative input – some good ideas just take time to enter the hardware stage! :D
An F/A-18 aircraft is towed toward a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-177 Globemaster for transport back to Canada, as part of the Interim Fighter Capability Project at RAAF Base Williamtown, Australia, February 7, 2020.
Photo: Sergeant Vincent Carbonneau, Canadian Forces Combat Camera
20200207ISA0008D002
~
À la base Williamtown de l’Aviation royale australienne (RAAF) en Australie, un avion F/A 18 se fait remorquer vers un CC-177 Globemaster de l’Aviation royale canadienne, lequel le transportera au Canada dans le cadre du Projet de capacité des chasseurs provisoires, le 7 février 2020.
Photo : Sergent Vincent Carbonneau, Caméra de combat des Forces canadiennes
20200207ISA0008D002
+++ DISCLAIMER +++Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Gudkov Gu-1 was a Soviet fighter aircraft produced shortly after World War II in small numbers at the start of the jet age, but work on the Gudkov Gu-1 already started in 1944. Towards the end of World War II the Soviet Union saw the need for a strategic bombing capability similar to that of the United States Army Air Forces. The Soviet VVS air arm had the locally designed Petlyakov Pe-8 four-engined heavy bomber in service at the start of the war, but only 93 had been built by the end of the war and the type had become obsolete. By that time the U.S. regularly conducted bombing raids on Japan from distant Pacific forward bases using B-29 Superfortresses, and the Soviet Air Force lacked this capability.
Joseph Stalin ordered the development of a comparable bomber, and the U.S. twice refused to supply the Soviet Union with B-29s under Lend Lease. However, on four occasions during 1944, individual B-29s made emergency landings in Soviet territory and one crashed after the crew bailed out. In accordance with the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviets were neutral in the Pacific War and the bombers were therefore interned and kept by the Soviets. Despite Soviet neutrality, America demanded the return of the bombers, but the Soviets refused. Three repairable B-29s were flown to Moscow and delivered to the Tupolev OKB. One B-29 was dismantled, the second was used for flight tests and training, and the third one was left as a standard for cross-reference.
Stalin told Tupolev to clone the Superfortress in as short a time as possible. The reverse-engineering effort involved 900 factories and research institutes, who finished the design work during the first year. 105,000 drawings were made, and the American technology had to be adapted to local material and manufacturing standards – and ended in a thorough re-design of the B-29 “under the hood”. By the end of the second year, the Soviet industry was to produce 20 copies of the aircraft ready for State acceptance trials.
While work on what would become the Tupolev Tu-4 was on the way, the need for a long range escort fighter arose, too. Soviet officials were keen on the P-51 Mustang, but, again, the USA denied deliveries, so that an indigenous solution had to be developed. With the rising tension of international relationships, this became eventually the preferred solution, too.
While the design bureau Lavochkin had already started with work on the La-9 fighter (which entered service after WWII) and the jet age was about to begin, the task of designing a long range escort fighter for the Tu-4 was relegated to Mikhail I. Gudkov who had been designing early WWII fighters like the LaGG-1 and -3 together with Lavochkin. Internally, the new fighter received the project handle "DIS" (Dalnij Istrebitel' Soprovozhdenya ="long-range escort fighter").
In order to offer an appropriate range and performance that could engage enemy interceptors in the bombers’ target area it was soon clear that neither a pure jet nor a pure piston-engine fighter was a viable solution – a dilemma the USAAF was trying to solve towards 1945, too. The jet engine alone did not offer sufficient power, and fuel consumption was high, so that the necessary range could never be achieved with an agile fighter. Late war radials had sufficient power and offered good range, but the Soviet designers were certain that the piston engine fighter had no future – especially when fast jet fighters had to be expected over enemy territory.
Another problem arose through the fact that the Soviet Union did not have an indigenous jet engine at hand at all in late 1945. War booty from Germany in the form of Junkers Jumo 004 axial jet engines and blueprints of the more powerful HeS 011 were still under evaluation, and these powerplants alone did neither promise enough range nor power for a long range fighter aircraft. Even for short range fighters their performance was rather limited – even though fighters like the Yak-15 and the MiG-9 were designed around them.
After many layout experiments and calculation, Gudkov eventually came up with a mixed powerplant solution for the DIS project. But unlike the contemporary, relatively light I-250 (also known as MiG-13) interceptor, which added a mechanical compressor with a primitive afterburner (called VRDK) to a Klimov VK-107R inline piston engine, the DIS fighter was equipped with a powerful radial engine and carried a jet booster – similar to the US Navy’s Ryan FR-1 “Fireball”. Unlike the FR-1, though, the DIS kept a conservative tail-sitter layout and was a much bigger aircraft.
The choice for the main powerplant fell on the Shvetsov ASh-82TKF engine, driving a large four blade propeller. This was a boosted version of the same 18 cylinder twin row radial that powered the Tu-4, the ASh-73. The ASh-82TKF for the escort fighter project had a rating of 2,720 hp (2,030 kW) while the Tu-4's ASh-73TK had "only" a temporary 2,400 hp (1,800 kW) output during take-off. The airframe was designed around this massive and powerful engine, and the aircraft’s sheer size was also a result of the large fuel capacity which was necessary to meet the range target of at least 3.000 km (1.860 mi, 1.612 nmi).
The ASh-82TKF alone offered enough power for a decent performance, but in order to take on enemy jet fighters and lighter, more agile propeller-driven fighters, a single RD-20 axial-flow turbojet with 7.8 kN (1,754 lbf) thrust was added in the rear-fuselage. It was to add power for take-off and in combat situations only. Its fixed air intakes were placed on the fuselage flanks, right behind the cockpit, and the jet pipe was placed under the fin and the stabilizers.
Outwardly, Gudkov’s DIS resembled the late American P-47D or the A-1 Skyraider a lot, and the beefy aircraft was comparable in size and weight, too. But the Soviet all-metal aircraft was a completely new construction and featured relatively small and slender laminar flow wings. The wide-track landing gear retracted inwards into the inner wings while the tail wheel retracted fully into a shallow compartment under the jet pipe.
The pilot sat in a spacious cockpit under a frameless bubble canopy with very good all-round visibility and enjoyed amenities for long flights such as increased padding in the seat, armrests, and even a urinal. In addition, a full radio navigation suite was installed for the expected long range duties over long stretches of featureless landscape like the open sea.
Armament consisted of four 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannons with 100 RPG in the wings, outside of the propeller arc. The guns were good for a weight of fire of 6kg (13.2 lb)/sec, a very good value. Five wet hardpoints under the fuselage, the wings outside of the landing gear well and under the wing tips could primarily carry auxiliary drop tanks or an external ordnance of up to 1.500 kg (3.300 lb).
Alternatively, iron bombs of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber could be carried on the centerline pylon, and a pair of 250 kg (550 lb) bombs under the wings, but a fighter bomber role was never seriously considered for the highly specialized and complex aircraft.
The first DIS prototype, still without the jet booster, flew in May 1947. The second prototype, with both engines installed, had its fuel capacity increased by an additional 275 l (73 US gal) in an additional fuel tank behind the cockpit. The aircraft was also fitted with larger tires to accommodate the increased all-up weight, esp. with all five 300 l drop tanks fitted for maximum range and endurance.
Flight testing continued until 1948 and the DIS concept proved to be satisfactory, even though the complicated ASh-82TKF hampered the DIS’ reliability - to the point that fitting the ASh-73TK from the Tu-4 was considered for serial production, even if this would have meant a significant reduction in performance. The RD-20 caused lots of trouble, too. Engine reliability was generally poor, and re-starting the engine in flight did not work satisfactorily – a problem that, despite several changes to the starter and ignition system, could never be fully cured. The jet engine’s placement in the tail, together with the small tail wheel, also caused problems because the pilots had to take care that the tail would not aggressively hit the ground upon landings, because the RD-20 and its attachments were easily damaged.
Nevertheless, the DIS basically fulfilled the requested performance specifications and was, despite many shortcomings, eventually cleared for production in mid 1948. It received the official designation Gudkov Gu-1, honoring the engineer behind the aircraft, even though the aircraft was produced by Lavochkin.
The first machines were delivered to VVS units in early 1949 - just in time for the Tu-4's service introduction after the Russians had toiled endlessly on solving several technical problems. In the meantime, jet fighter development had quickly progressed, even though a purely jet-powered escort fighter for the Tu-4 was still out of question. Since the Gu-1 was capricious, complex and expensive to produce, only a limited number left the factories and emphasis was put on the much simpler and more economical Lavochkin La-11 escort fighter, a lightweight evolution of the proven La-9. Both types were regarded as an interim solution until a pure jet escort fighter would be ready for service.
Operationally the Gu-1s remained closely allocated to the VVS’ bomber squadrons and became an integral part of them. Anyway, since the Tu-4 bomber never faced a serious combat situation, so did the Gu-1, which was to guard it on its missions. For instance, both types were not directly involved in the Korean War, and the Gu-1 was primarily concentrated at the NATO borders to Western Europe, since bomber attacks in this theatre would certainly need the heavy fighter’s protection.
The advent of the MiG-15 - especially the improved MiG-15bis with additional fuel capacities and drop tanks, quickly sounded the death knell for the Gu-1 and any other post-WWII piston-engine fighter in Soviet Service. As Tu-4 production ended in the Soviet Union in 1952, so did the Gu-1’s production after only about 150 aircraft. The Tu-4s and their escort fighters were withdrawn in the 1960s, being replaced by more advanced aircraft including the Tupolev Tu-16 jet bomber (starting in 1954) and the Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop bomber (starting in 1956).
The Gudkov Gu-1, receiving the NATO ASCC code “Flout”, remained a pure fighter. Even though it was not a success, some proposals for updates were made - but never carried out. These included pods with unguided S-5 air-to-air-rockets, to be carried on the wing hardpoints, bigger, non-droppable wing tip tanks for even more range or, alternatively, the addition of two pulsejet boosters on the wing tips.
There even was a highly modified mixed powerplant version on the drawing boards in 1952, the Gu-1M. Its standard radial powerplant for cruise flight was enhanced with a new, non-afterburning Mikulin AM-5 axial flow jet engine with 2.270 kgf/5,000 lbf/23 kN additional thrust in the rear fuselage. With this temporary booster, a top speed of up to 850 km/h was expected. But to no avail - the pure jet fighter promised a far better performance and effectiveness, and the Gu-1 remained the only aircraft to exclusively carry the Gudkov name.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 12 m (39 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 14 m (45 ft 11 in)
Height: 4.65 m (15 ft 3 in)
Wing area: 28 m² (301.388 ft²)
Airfoil:
Empty weight: 4,637 kg (10,337 lb)
Loaded weight: 6.450 kg (14.220 lb)
Maximum take-off weight: 7,938 kg (17,500 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Shvetsov ASh-82TKF 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, rated at 2,720 hp (2,030 kW)
1x RD-20 axial-flow turbojet with 7.8 kN (1,754 lbf) thrust as temporary booster
Performance
Maximum speed: 676 km/h (420 mph) at 29,000 ft (8,839 m) with the radial only,
800 km/h (497 mph/432 kn,) with additional jet booster
Cruise speed: 440 km/h (237 kn, 273 mph)
Combat radius: 820 nmi (945 mi, 1,520 km)
Maximum range: 3.000 km (1.860 mi, 1.612 nmi) with drop tanks
Service ceiling: 14,680 m (48,170 ft)
Wing loading: 230.4 kg/m² (47.2 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 0.28 kW/kg (0.17 hp/lb)
Climb to 5,000 m (16,400 ft): 5 min 9 sec;
Climb to 10,000 m (32,800 ft): 17 min 38 sec;
Climb to 13,000 m (42,640 ft): 21 min 03 sec
Armament
4× 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannons with 100 RPG in the outer wings
Five hardpoints for an external ordnance of 1.500 kg (3.300 lb)
The kit and its assembly:
This whif is the incarnation of a very effective kitbashing combo that already spawned my fictional Japanese Ki-104 fighter, and it is another submission to the 2018 “Cold War” group build at whatifmodelers.com. This purely fictional Soviet escort fighter makes use of my experiences from the first build of this kind, yet with some differences.
The kit is a bashing of various parts and pieces:
· Fuselage, wing roots, landing gear and propeller from an Academy P-47D
· Wings from an Ark Model Supermarine Attacker (ex Novo)
· Tail fin comes from a Heller F-84G
· The stabilizers were taken from an Airfix Ki-46
· Cowling from a Matchbox F6F, mounted and blended onto the P-47 front
· Jet exhaust is the intake of a Matchbox Me 262 engine pod
My choice fell onto the Academy Thunderbolt because it has engraved panel lines, offers the bubble canopy as well as good fit, detail and solid material. The belly duct had simply been sliced off, and the opening later faired over with styrene sheet and putty, so that the P-47’s deep belly would not disappear.
The F6F cowling was chosen because it looks a lot like the ASh-73TK from the Tu-4. But this came at a price: the P-47 cowling is higher, tighter and has a totally different shape. It took serious body sculpting with putty to blend the parts into each other. Inside of the engine, a styrene tube was added for a metal axis that holds the uncuffed OOB P-47 four blade propeller. The P-47’s OOB cockpit tub was retained, too, just the seat received scratched armrests for a more luxurious look.
The Attacker wings were chosen because of their "modern" laminar profile. The Novo kit itself is horrible and primitive, but acceptable for donations. OOB, the Attacker wings had too little span for the big P-47, so I decided to mount the Thunderbolt's OOB wings and cut them at a suitable point: maybe 0.5", just outside of the large main wheel wells. The intersection with the Attacker wings is almost perfect in depth and width, relatively little putty work was necessary in order to blend the parts into each other. I just had to cut out new landing gear wells from the lower halves of the Attacker wings, and with new attachment points the P-47’s complete OOB landing gear could be used.
With the new wing shape, the tail surfaces had to be changed accordingly. The trapezoid stabilizers come from an Airfix Mitsubishi Ki-46, and their shape is a good match. The P-47 fin had to go, since I wanted something bigger and a different silhouette. The fuselage below was modified with a jet exhaust, too. I actually found a leftover F-84G (Heller) tail, complete with the jet pipe and the benefit that it has plausible attachment points for the stabilizers far above the jet engine in the Gu-1’s tail.
However, the F-84 jet pipe’s diameter turned out to be too large, so I went for a smaller but practical alternative, a Junkers Jumo 004 nacelle from a Me 262 (the ancestor of the Soviet RD-20!). Its intake section was cut off, flipped upside down, the fin was glued on top of it and then the new tail was glued to the P-47 fuselage. Some (more serious) body sculpting was necessary to create a more or less harmonious transition between the parts, but it worked.
The plausible placement of the air intakes and their shape was a bit of a challenge. I wanted them to be obvious, but still keep an aerodynamic look. An initial idea had been to keep the P-47’s deep belly and widen the central oil cooler intake under the nose, but I found the idea wacky and a bit pointless, since such a long air duct would not make much sense since it would waste internal space and the long duct’s additional weight would not offer any benefit?
Another idea were air intakes in the wing roots, but these were also turned down since the landing gear wells would be in the way, and placing the ducts above or below the wings would also make no sense. A single ventral scoop (looking like a P-51 radiator bath) or two smaller, dorsal intakes (XP-81 style) behind the cockpit were other serious candidates – but these were both rejected because I wanted to keep a clean side profile.
I eventually settled for very simple, fixed side intakes, level with the jet exhaust, somewhat inspired by the Lavochkin La-200B heavy fighter prototype. The air scoops are simply parts from an Italeri Saab 39 Gripen centerline drop tank (which has a flat, oval diameter), and their shape is IMHO a perfect match.
Painting and markings:
While the model itself is a wild mix of parts with lots of improvisation involved, I wanted to keep the livery rather simple. The most plausible choice would have been an NMF finish, but I rather wanted some paint – so I used Soviet La-9 and -11 as a benchmark and settled for a simple two-tone livery: uniform light grey upper and light blue lower surfaces.
I used RAF Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165) and Soviet Underside Blue (Humbrol 114) as basic tones, and, after a black ink wash, these were lightened up through dry-brushed post-shading. The yellow spinner and fin tip are based on typical (subtle) squadron markings of the late 40ies era.
The cockpit as well the engine and landing gear interior became blue-grey (Revell 57), similar to the typical La-9/11’s colors. The green wheel discs and the deep blue propeller blades are not 100% in the aircraft's time frame, but I added these details in order to enhance the Soviet touch and some color accents.
Tactical markings were kept simple, too. The "38" and the Red Stars come form a Mastercraft MiG-15, the Guards badge from a Begemoth MiG-25 sheet and most of the stencils were taken from a Yak-38 sheet, also from Begemoth.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and it received some mild soot stains and chipped paint around the cockpit and on the leading edges. Some oil stains were added around the engine (with Tamiya Smoke), too.
A massive aircraft, and this new use of the P-47/Attacker combo results again in a plausible solution. The added jet engine might appear a bit exotic, but the mixed powerplant concept was en vogue after WWII, but only a few aircraft made it beyond the prototype stage.
While painting the model I also wondered if an all dark blue livery and some USN markings could also have made this creation the Grumman JetCat? With the tall fin, the Gu-1 could also be an F8F Bearcat on steroids? Hmmm...
The first Galileo Full Operational Capability satellite (SAT 5) during preparations inside the S5A building, before fuelling operations, on 30 July 2014.
The launch of the two Galileo satellites, aboard a Soyuz rocket, is set for August 2014, from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The definition, development and in-orbit validation phases of the Galileo programme were carried out by ESA and co-funded by ESA and the EU. The Full Operational Capability phase is managed and fully funded by the European Commission. The Commission and ESA have signed a delegation agreement by which ESA acts as design and procurement agent on behalf of the Commission.
Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2014
Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill). Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 65 feet (20 metres) high.
The "Saxon" tower was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1798–99. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly.
Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s. William Morris was so inspired by Broadway Tower and other ancient buildings that he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.
Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village.
Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.
Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.
The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.
Location[edit]
Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]
House[edit]
Croome Court South Portico
History[edit]
The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]
In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]
The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]
A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]
The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]
During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]
In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]
The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]
In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]
From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]
The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]
Exterior[edit]
The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]
Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]
A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]
Interior[edit]
The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]
The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]
The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]
To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]
At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery
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