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.'

Members of the Guam Army National Guard’s mortar platoon, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment, set up a hasty position with their 60- and 81-millimeter mortars June 12 during the 2016 Exportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) exercise at Camp Roberts, California. (U.S. Army National Guard photo/Staff Sgt. Eddie Siguenza)

On Thursday, July 28, 2016, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro and Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Dr. Feniosky Peña-Mora broke ground on the site of the future home of FDNY Rescue Company 2, at 1815 Sterling Place in Brooklyn. Rescue Company 2 is one of FDNY’s five rescue companies – specially-trained units that respond to a variety of unique emergencies in addition to fires; including building collapses, high-angle rescues, hazardous materials incidents and water rescues.

The planned 21,000 square-foot facility provides parking for multiple apparatus, as well as ample space for tools and workshops, SCUBA equipment storage, locker rooms, fitness equipment and training. The entire firehouse has been designed with training in mind, including specific areas for trench rescue and confined space rescue training, a room to simulate the smoke-filled environments in which Firefighters operate, and an elevated area that allows Firefighters to train to rappel from the roof of a building to perform a rescue.

The construction plans continue the Department’s goal of sustainable and energy efficient facilities with several green elements incorporated into the design; including a solar water heating system, 100% LED lighting with motion sensors to reduce electricity usage, and a green roof to help mitigate storm water runoff from the site. The total cost for construction and design is $32 million.

Rescue Company 2 was formed in 1925 to establish special rescue capability in the borough of Brooklyn. Originally located at 160 Carlton Avenue, the current home of Rescue Company 2 is at 1472 Bergen Street. The company is staffed daily by five Firefighters and one officer and responds to emergencies throughout the borough, and into neighboring boroughs, as needed.

Parked at Örebro Airport awaiting its next freight mission.

Andrew C. Teich, CEO, of Flir systems inc. speaks at a ceremony to commemorate the production, handover and acceptance of the first group of Mobile Surveillance Capability vehicles for enhanced situational awareness along our Nation's borders with Office of Border Patrol and Flir systems inc. photo by James Tourtellotte

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.

Granny's Summerhouse

Grade II Listed Building

Granny's Summerhouse

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/24 Granny's Summerhouse

18/03/97

GV II

Summerhouse. Mid C19. For Mary Elizabeth Lucy. Small L-plan

single-storey structure. Brick with applied rustic timbering;

thatch roof and brick end stack.

EXTERIOR: canted west gable end has rustic timber surrounds to

openings; segmental-headed entrance with paired bark-panelled

doors; flanking lights with stained glass with dates: 1826 and

1828. South front has canted bay window with gablet and wood

lattice glazing to right of small window with stained glass;

small cast-iron edging to narrow flower beds.

East return has gabled bay containing aviary with bark

cladding below openings with meshed frame to front and

projecting side nest boxes; stained-glass window to rear.

North front has wing with detached stack to left of oriel-like

timber projection.

INTERIOR: reused timber fielded panelling, decorative woodwork

and stained glass throughout; 2 rooms with canted ceilings.

Hall has mirrored cupboard doors; segmental arch to main room,

which has fireplace and overmantel.

HISTORY: the house was built for Lady Mary Elizabeth Lucy's

children and was modelled on Plas Newydd, Llangollen, the home

of Lady Eleanor Butler and Hon. Sarah Ponsonby, whom Lady Mary

Elizabeth Lucy visited when a child. Property of the National

Trust.

(The National Trust: Charlecote Park: 1991-: 45).

Listing NGR: SP2597256490

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

The new Sony Alpha A7 full frame camera has the capability to also accept lenses designed for usage on cameras with the APS-C sensor. Thus,lenses designed for Sony’s APS-C sensor-based 'NEX’ camera line, when used on Sony's full frame A7 body, affectively will provide a 1.5x reach because of the APS-C lenses 1.5x crop factor.

The larger 28-70mm full frame lens pictured here is the kit lens which comes with the full frame Sony A7. The smaller pancake zoom 16-50mm lens is the kit lens for the NEX-6. When the pancake-zoom 16-50mm is docked to the Sony A7 full frame, that essentially provides the equivalent of 24-75mm focal length range because of the 1.5x crop factor, or roughly the same focal length range of the larger camera.

A nice aspect of the Sony Alpha A7 full frame is, one can have the best of two worlds, full frame and APS-C. When you want to use the A7 camera as designed as full frame, there is the larger 28-70mm full frame lens. If one desires a more compact, lightweight setup, and/or gain added reach for ‘free’, then docking the pancake-zoom 16-50mm provides added reach, more compactness and more compact design.

In this album, I compare both bodies without lenses. Then, I show the equivalent lens for each camera. Finally, I show what the Sony A7 looks like with it’s full frame 28-70mm lens attached to the body and then when attaching the NEX APS-C lens, 16-50mm pancake zoom lens.

The new Alpha A7 has an APS-C mode setting option to accommodate APS-C lenses. The setting can be OFF (vignetting will occur), AUTO (detects whether FF or APS-C lens is attached) or ON (forces APS-C mode to accommodate legacy manual lenses). Thus, the Alpha A7 offers both worlds, full frame and APS-C. The gains…. More compactness, lighter weight, greater reach. (i.e, a 55-210mm APS-C lens will effectively provide 82mm to 315mm) accompanied by reduction in size and weight. Of course the trade off is, you will be reduced to using the equivalent of an APS-C sensor on a full frame body. But hey, what the heck! APS-C is still mainstream for the most part.

Now that I have acquired the new Alpha A7 as it’s replacement, the Sony NEX-6 is being sold on auction.

Camera Used for Photos: iPhone 5

your mom's birthday

is not as big of a deal to you as it probably ought to be

you talked about her a lot on that day though

play by play of ramadan, ok thank you

i have been doubting my ability to make any other human being feel anything lately

or at least my ability to make people feel anything worth talking about

everyone wants to be good at some certain things

victoria would just say something pretty in response

or just sigh and blink a little and laugh and then i would feel soft towards her for seven seconds

emma sent me a picture of her dressed like andy warhol for halloween in my email account

her face so solid behind big black glasses

unmoving, pixelated

hardcore

"shit goddamn motherfucker!"

thinking about her sympathizing with police officers because they are still human beings

is one of the most forgiving things i can possibly imagine

i wish i had that inside of me

the kind of yearnin' that causes police officers to go non-profit

maybe i do, i probably do, i just ignore it for whatever reason

you could write an opus if you would let yourself, is an example of a "good" attitude

can i just turn out the light or something

you could write the album of the year if you would just get up

can we just have sex already

you could win the pulitzer or whatever the hell it's called

i'd actually rather just eat some factory processed pita and a pear, quick once in a while

the movies have a message and they say to enjoy your life while you are alive because life is short

thank you for your brilliant input, movie

not that i have seen a movie in a zillion yars

yes, yars

and the flash on a camera has the ability to depress you which i think is relatively impressive

for the camera flash, i mean

you said touch yourself the way you touch other people and only then will you understand your warmth

what to do when you're done writing and there is nothing else to do at night

you said, sitting on top of the apartment roofs looking at the city lights that this is your new life, sans internet and television and new music and it's weird and everything is transient

you said, now talking to people you don't know is fun, because there is nothing else to do

you said i was taking a chance by deciding not to have a cell phone

and then you said, but you already knew that

how many people can i write about and refer to them as "you"

it is impossible to protect the identity of someone when you write about them

if you really, really, really, really, really love them

(if love is real)

or is it just something in my cellular phone cell structure prison cell sell me a muffin

the kinda yearnin' and all night writing that causes your muffin to go non-profit

i don't care that i don't like my writing anymore because there is no such thing as actually liking your own writing

noreen's painting

you didn't mean to decapitate the dandilion

there is no such thing as liking your own painting, and i loved it

i will miss that painting forever, the painting became gentrified

i remember the day you painted white over it

to try to get the canvas back to the way it was, before you touched it

you liked it more before you touched it

and i think you registered me for economics 101 as a joke

with my email password

and it was the funniest joke of all time, ensue drop it like it's hot sprang semestarrr

really fucking scared of taking a class called environmental ethics because it will probably be fairly depressing

because i don't even see the point in arguing about whether or not we should take care of the environment if we know how to

it seems like common sense

to take care of things that are within your power of taking care of

to show whatever it is that you love it or at the very least don't want it to die

at the very least you respect it enough to save it when it is dying

because you have the capability

so hopefully i will remember that and say as little as possible in that class

but we know how that goes

and i know that amber phillips could build a house out of potatoes if she had to held together with saffronnnnnnnn!

and it would resemble a brick house and there would be a million prayer flags on it

and she could save me from songs that anyone would refer to as "sexy"

listening to beach house

it makes me feel like i am on good drugs, or what people i know would consider good drugs

like prozac for people who like prozac

and marijuana for people who like marijuana

and xanax for people who like xanax

etcetera

but i do not have to buy the drugs

these are free drugs that i have checked out from the public library over the summer

tax drugs

benefit the working class drugs & buy a new road make you a mix cd and give you a papercut you will have to staunch

you went outside to smoke, i thought it was supersad3000 cause you said it was all you have in life for yourself

your husband said it helped you with "the hurt of being"

if i could change one thing about myself i would make myself a gentle, sweet, and calm person

because i have always thought the world of gentle people

light green presence and beautiful dirty hair, i miss you

your black electric guitar and lightweight frame bike

and i loved your silence and i hated it at the same time

it could have meant any number of things

or it could have meant nothing

and i go to sleep!

Petworth Park is a 700 acre deer park, landscaped by 'Capability Brown', painted by Turner ...and photographed by me :-)

Blenheim's Grand Bridge seen from the West over the King Pool of the lake.

The light today was highly variable; the cloud was often nearly 10/10 and brisk winds were pushing the clouds along very fast. However, the Sun did break through from time to time and often produced some remarkable effects. There is a rise by the King Pool from which the Grand Bridge can be seen full on, and I spent about an hour there waiting for the right effect! I was hoping that I could catch the bridge in sunlight while the background was in shadow. The right effect came along eventually, and shortly after I took this photo the cloud cleared almost completely, but only for a few minutes.

Blenheim's Grand Bridge was designed by Vanbrugh as a part of the original scheme for the Palace and Park, however it was not completed as planned. There were to have been a number of rooms in the bridge, but Sarah, the first Duchess of Marlborough, thought the bridge an unnecessary extravagance. As built this very large bridge crossed a tiny river and two subsidiary streams, and it was not until the 1770's that 'Capability' Brown replanned the grounds and created the lake. This flooded the lower part of the Bridge but these rooms had never been used for any purpose.

The Palace and grounds are a UNESCO world heritage site.

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.

Orangery Tea Room - had a drink in the outside area.

Grade II Listed Building

Orangery

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/29 Orangery

18/03/97

GV II

Orangery, now tea room. 1857 with late C20 kitchen added to

rear. Probably by John Gibson. Brick with ashlar dressings;

hipped parapeted roof with skylight.

EXTERIOR: single-storey; symmetrical 5-bay range. Top

bracketed cornice and parapet with pierced strapwork patterns

similar to that on south wing of Charlecote Park (qv). Large

ovolo-moulded cross-mullion windows with pairs of narrow

plate-glass sashes, the entrance with similar overlight to

paired glazed doors.

INTERIOR: 4 cast-iron posts down centre support tie-beam

trusses with spine beam and raking struts; boarded roof with

central skylight; rear wall pierced by 2 C20 openings; large

round plaque with grotesque mask to one end.

Property of the National Trust.

(The National Trust: Charlecote Park: 1991-: 45).

Listing NGR: SP2598956489

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Broadway Tower is an 18th-century folly near the village of Broadway. It was the brainchild of landscaper Capability Brown and designed by architect James Wyatt in 1794. It was built by the 6th Earl of Coventry for his wife, Barbara. Broadway Hill was a beacon hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions.

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

Raven - B Model - Mach 8-10 - Supersonic / Hypersonic Business Jet - Iteration 6 Integration Perspective

Seating: 22 | Crew 2+1

Length: 100ft | Span: 45ft 8in

Engines: 2 U-TBCC (Unified Turbine Based Combined Cycle)

Fuel: H2 (Compressed Hydrogen)

Cruising Altitude: 100,000-125,000 ft @ Mach 8-10

Air frame: 75% Proprietary Composites

Operating Costs, Similar to the hourly operating costs of a Gulfstream G650 or Bombardier Global Express 7000 Series

IO Aircraft www.ioaircraft.com

Drew Blair www.linkedin.com/in/drew-b-25485312/

-----------------------------

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-----------------------------

Unified Turbine Based Combined Cycle. Current technologies and what Lockheed is trying to force on the Dept of Defense, for that low speed Mach 5 plane DOD gave them $1 billion to build and would disintegrate above Mach 5, is TBCC. 2 separate propulsion systems in the same airframe, which requires TWICE the airframe space to use.

Unified Turbine Based Combined Cycle is 1 propulsion system cutting that airframe deficit in half, and also able to operate above Mach 10 up to Mach 15 in atmosphere, and a simple nozzle modification allows for outside atmosphere rocket mode, ie orbital capable.

Additionally, Reaction Engines maximum air breather mode is Mach 4.5, above that it will explode in flight from internal pressures are too high to operate. Thus, must switch to non air breather rocket mode to operate in atmosphere in hypersonic velocities. Which as a result, makes it not feasible for anything practical. It also takes an immense amount of fuel to function.

-------------

Advanced Additive Manufacturing for Hypersonic Aircraft

Utilizing new methods of fabrication and construction, make it possible to use additive manufacturing, dramatically reducing the time and costs of producing hypersonic platforms from missiles, aircraft, and space capable craft. Instead of aircraft being produced in piece, then bolted together; small platforms can be produced as a single unit and large platforms can be produces in large section and mated without bolting. These techniques include using exotic materials and advanced assembly processes, with an end result of streamlining the production costs and time for hypersonic aircraft; reducing months of assembly to weeks. Overall, this process greatly reduced the cost for producing hypersonic platforms. Even to such an extent that a Hellfire missile costs apx $100,000 but by utilizing our technologies, replacing it with a Mach 8-10 hypersonic missile of our physics/engineering and that missile would cost roughly $75,000 each delivered.

Materials used for these manufacturing processes are not disclosed, but overall, provides a foundation for extremely high stresses and thermodynamics, ideal for hypersonic platforms. This specific methodology and materials applications is many decades ahead of all known programs. Even to the extend of normalized space flight and re-entry, without concern of thermodynamic failure.

*Note, most entities that are experimenting with additive manufacturing for hypersonic aircraft, this makes it mainstream and standardized processes, which also applies for mass production.

What would normally be measured in years and perhaps a decade to go from drawing board to test flights, is reduced to singular months and ready for production within a year maximum.

Unified Turbine Based Combined Cycle (U-TBCC)

To date, the closest that NASA and industry have achieved for turbine based aircraft to fly at hypersonic velocities is by mounting a turbine into an aircraft and sharing the inlet with a scramjet or rocket based motor. Reaction Engines Sabre is not able to achieve hypersonic velocities and can only transition into a non air breathing rocket for beyond Mach 4.5

However, utilizing Unified Turbine Based Combine Cycle also known as U-TBCC, the two separate platforms are able to share a common inlet and the dual mode ramjet/scramjet is contained within the engine itself, which allows for a much smaller airframe footprint, thus engingeers are able to then design much higher performance aerial platforms for hypersonic flight, including the ability for constructing true single stage to orbit aircraft by utilizing a modification/version that allows for transition to outside atmosphere propulsion without any other propulsion platforms within the aircraft. By transitioning and developing aircraft to use Unified Turbine Based Combined Cycle, this propulsion system opens up new options to replace that airframe deficit for increased fuel capacity and/or payload.

Enhanced Dynamic Cavitation

Dramatically Increasing the efficiency of fuel air mixture for combustion processes at hypersonic velocities within scramjet propulsion platforms. The aspects of these processes are non disclosable.

Dynamic Scramjet Ignition Processes

For optimal scramjet ignition, a process known as Self Start is sought after, but in many cases if the platform becomes out of attitude, the scramjet will ignite. We have already solved this problem which as a result, a scramjet propulsion system can ignite at lower velocities, high velocities, at optimal attitude or not optimal attitude. It doesn't matter, it will ignite anyways at the proper point for maximum thrust capabilities at hypersonic velocities.

Hydrogen vs Kerosene Fuel Sources

Kerosene is an easy fuel to work with, and most western nations developing scramjet platforms use Kerosene for that fact. However, while kerosene has better thermal properties then Hydrogen, Hydrogen is a far superior fuel source in scramjet propulsion flight, do it having a much higher efficiency capability. Because of this aspect, in conjunction with our developments, it allows for a MUCH increased fuel to air mixture, combustion, thrust; and ability for higher speeds; instead of very low hypersonic velocities in the Mach 5-6 range. Instead, Mach 8-10 range, while we have begun developing hypersonic capabilities to exceed 15 in atmosphere within less then 5 years.

Conforming High Pressure Tank Technology for CNG and H2.

As most know in hypersonics, Hydrogen is a superior fuel source, but due to the storage abilities, can only be stored in cylinders thus much less fuel supply. Not anymore, we developed conforming high pressure storage technology for use in aerospace, automotive sectors, maritime, etc; which means any overall shape required for 8,000+ PSI CNG or Hydrogen. For hypersonic platforms, this means the ability to store a much larger volume of hydrogen vs cylinders.

As an example, X-43 flown by Nasa which flew at Mach 9.97. The fuel source was Hydrogen, which is extremely more volatile and combustible then kerosene (JP-7), via a cylinder in the main body. If it had used our technology, that entire section of the airframe would had been an 8,000 PSI H2 tank, which would had yielded 5-6 times the capacity. While the X-43 flew 11 seconds under power at Mach 9.97, at 6 times the fuel capacity would had yielded apx 66 seconds of fuel under power at Mach 9.97. If it had flew slower, around Mach 6, same principles applied would had yielded apx 500 seconds of fuel supply under power (slower speeds required less energy to maintain).

Enhanced Fuel Mixture During Shock Train Interaction

Normally, fuel injection is conducted at the correct insertion point within the shock train for maximum burn/combustion. Our methodologies differ, since almost half the fuel injection is conducted PRE shock train within the isolator, so at the point of isolator injection the fuel enhances the combustion process, which then requires less fuel injection to reach the same level of thrust capabilities.

Improved Bow Shock Interaction

Smoother interaction at hypersonic velocities and mitigating heat/stresses for beyond Mach 6 thermodynamics, which extraordinarily improves Type 3, 4, and 5 shock interaction.

6,000+ Fahrenheit Thermal Resistance

To date, the maximum thermal resistance was tested at AFRL in the spring of 2018, which resulted in a 3,200F thermal resistance for a short duration. This technology, allows for normalized hypersonic thermal resistance of 3,000-3,500F sustained, and up to 6,500F resistance for short endurance, ie 90 seconds or less. 10-20 minute resistance estimate approximately 4,500F +/- 200F.

*** This technology advancement also applies to Aerospike rocket engines, in which it is common for Aerospike's to exceed 4,500-5,000F temperatures, which results in the melting of the reversed bell housing. That melting no longer ocurrs, providing for stable combustion to ocurr for the entire flight envelope

Scramjet Propulsion Side Wall Cooling

With old technologies, side wall cooling is required for hypersonic flight and scramjet propulsion systems, otherwise the isolator and combustion regions of a scramjet would melt, even using advanced ablatives and ceramics, due to their inability to cope with very high temperatures. Using technology we have developed for very high thermodynamics and high stresses, side wall cooling is no longer required, thus removing that variable from the design process and focusing on improved ignition processes and increasing net thrust values.

Lower Threshold for Hypersonic Ignition

Active and adaptive flight dynamics, resulting in the ability for scramjet ignition at a much lower velocity, ie within ramjet envelope, between Mach 2-4, and seamless transition from supersonic to hypersonic flight, ie supersonic ramjet (scramjet). This active and dynamic aspect, has a wide variety of parameters for many flight dynamics, velocities, and altitudes; which means platforms no longer need to be engineered for specific altitude ranges or preset velocities, but those parameters can then be selected during launch configuration and are able to adapt actively in flight.

Dramatically Improved Maneuvering Capabilities at Hypersonic Velocities

Hypersonic vehicles, like their less technologically advanced brethren, use large actuator and the developers hope those controls surfaces do not disintegrate in flight. In reality, it is like rolling the dice, they may or may not survive, hence another reason why the attempt to keep velocities to Mach 6 or below. We have shrunken down control actuators while almost doubling torque and response capabilities specifically for hypersonic dynamics and extreme stresses involved, which makes it possible for maximum input authority for Mach 10 and beyond.

Paradigm Shift in Control Surface Methodologies, Increasing Control Authority (Internal Mechanical Applications)

To date, most control surfaces for hypersonic missile platforms still use fins, similar to lower speed conventional missiles, and some using ducted fins. This is mostly due to lack of comprehension of hypersonic velocities in their own favor. Instead, the body itself incorporates those control surfaces, greatly enhancing the airframe strength, opening up more space for hardware and fuel capacity; while simultaneously enhancing the platforms maneuvering capabilities.

A scramjet missile can then fly like conventional missile platforms, and not straight and level at high altitudes, losing velocity on it's decent trajectory to target. Another added benefit to this aspect, is the ability to extend range greatly, so if anyone elses hypersonic missile platform were developed for 400 mile range, falling out of the sky due to lack of glide capabilities; our platforms can easily reach 600+ miles, with minimal glide deceleration.

Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. It is a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set in 1,000 acres (400 ha) of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, with 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of let farmland and 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of woodland, which includes a Center Parcs holiday village.[1] It was the first stately home to open to the public, and the Longleat estate includes the first safari park outside Africa.[2][3]

The house was built by Sir John Thynne and was designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after the original priory was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. Longleat is occupied by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, a direct descendant of the builder; however, the peer passed the management of the business to his son Viscount Weymouth early in 2010.

Meteor

Meteor is an active radar guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) being developed by MBDA. Meteor will offer a multi-shot capability against long range manoeuvring targets in a heavy electronic countermeasures (ECM) environment with range in excess of 100 km.

It is intended to equip the Eurofighter Typhoons of the United Kingdom Royal Air Force (RAF), Germany's Luftwaffe, Spain's Ejército del Aire and Italy's Aeronautica Militare Italiana, British and Italian F-35s, French Dassault Rafale, and the Saab JAS 39 Gripen of the Swedish Air Force, and the Eurofighter Typhoons of the Royal Saudi Air Force.

It is scheduled to enter service for with the RAF and with the Swedish Air Force in 2015, possibly with the SwAF as the first operator of the missile due to most testing having been done on the JAS-39. According to MBDA, Meteor has three to six times the kinematic performance of current air-air missiles of its type. The key to Meteor's performance is a throttleable ducted rocket (ramjet) manufactured by Bayern-Chemie of Germany.

Seeker

Terminal guidance is provided by an active radar homing seeker which is a joint development (June 2003) between MBDA's Seeker Division and Thales Airborne Systems and builds on their co-operation on the AD4A (Active Anti-Air Seeker) family of seekers that equip the MICA and ASTER missiles. Thales produces four sub-assemblies representing approximately 35% of the seeker.

Forebody

Immediately aft of the seeker, the missile forebody which is designed and manufactured by Indra Sistemas, contains the inertial measurement system (IMS), provided by Litef, a German subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. The active radar proximity fuze subsystem (PFS) is provided by Saab Bofors Dynamics (SBD). The PFS detects the target and calculates the optimum time to detonate the warhead in order to achieve the maximum lethal effect. The PFS has four antennae, arranged symmetrically around the forebody. The Impact Sensor is fitted inside the PFS. Behind the PFS is a section containing thermal batteries, provided by ASB, the AC Power Supply Unit, and the Power and Signal Distribution Unit.

Warhead

The blast-fragmentation warhead is produced by TDW of Germany. The warhead is a structural component of the missile. A Telemetry and Break-Up System (TBUS) replaces the warhead on trials missiles.

Propulsion

The propulsion sub-system (PSS) is a Throttleable Ducted Rocket (TDR) with an integrated nozzleless Booster (rocketry), designed and manufactured by Bayern-Chemie. TDR propulsion provides a long range, a high average speed, a wide operational envelope from sea level to high altitude, a flexible mission envelope via active variable thrust control, relatively simple design, and logistics similar to those of conventional solid-fuel rocket motors.

The PSS consists of four main components: a ramcombustor with integrated nozzleless booster; the air intakes; the interstage; and the sustain gas generator. The PSS forms a structural component of the missile, the gas generator and ramcombustor having steel cases. The propulsion control unit electronics are mounted in the port intake fairing, ahead of the fin actuation subsystem.

The solid propellant nozzleless booster is integrated within the ramcombustor and accelerates the missile to a velocity where the TDR can take over. The reduced smoke propellant complies with STANAG 6016.

The air intakes and the port covers which seal the intake diffusors from the ramcombustor remain closed during the boost phase. The intakes are manufactured from titanium. The interstage is mounted between the GG and the ramcombustor and contains the Motor Safety Ignition Unit (MSIU), the booster igniter, and the gas generator control valve. The gas generator is ignited by the hot gases from the booster combustion which flow through the open control valve. The gas generator contains an oxygen deficient composite solid propellant which produces a hot, fuel-rich gas which auto-ignites in the air which has been decelerated and compressed by the intakes. The high energy boron-loaded propellant provides a roughly threefold increase in specific impulse compared to conventional solid rocket motors. When it enters service it will yield a no-escape zone more than three times greater than that of the current AIM-120 AMRAAM (AIM-120C-7) used by Eurofighter Typhoon-equipped airforces.

Thrust is controlled by a valve which varies the throat area of the gas generator nozzle. Reducing the throat area increases the pressure in the gas generator which increases the propellant burn rate, increasing the fuel mass flow into the ramcombustor. The mass flow can be varied continuously over a ratio greater than 10:1.

The Meteor PSS will be able to cope with high incidence and limited sideslip angles during manoeuvres but not negative incidences or large amounts of sideslip.

Control

The missile trajectory is controlled aerodynamically using four rear-mounted fins. Meteor's control principles are intended to allow high turn rates while maintaining intake and propulsion performance.

The fin actuation subsystem (FAS) was originally designed and manufactured by the Claverham Group (formerly Fairey Hydraulics Limited) a Somerset, UK, based division of the U.S. company Hamilton Sundstrand. Currently the design has been taken onboard by the MBDA UK, at Stevenage. The FAS is mounted at the rear of the intake fairings. The design of the FAS is complicated by the linkages required between the actuators, which are located in the intake fairings, and the body-mounted fins.

Datalink

Meteor will be 'network-enabled'. A datalink will allow the launch aircraft to provide mid-course target updates or retargeting if required, including data from offboard third parties.

The datalink electronics are mounted in the starboard intake fairing, ahead of the FAS. The antenna is mounted in the rear of the fairing.

On 19 November 1996 Bayern-Chemie completed the latest in a series of tests designed to assess the attenuation of signals by the boron rich exhaust plume of the TDR, a concern highlighted by opponents of this form of ramjet propulsion. Tests were conducted with signals transmitted through the plume at various angles. The initial results suggested that the attenuation was much less than expected.

Eurofighter and Gripen

With Eurofighter and Gripen, it is a two-way datalink, which will be able to transmit missile information such as functional and kinematic status, information on multiple targets, and notification of target acquisition by the seeker.

Rafale

It is different with Rafale, which is fitted with a one-way link originally designed for use with its MICA missiles.

Mid-course guidance is provided by the fighter until the active seeker acquires the target; the missile then becomes autonomous.

Alternatively, the Meteor can be fired without using mid-course update, allowing the Rafale to immediately turn away (similar to "Fire and forget" AASM, MICA or Exocet missile types). This denies the enemy aircraft any firing possibility.

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Jennings (right) and Senior Airman David Poynter, 169th Civil Engineer Squadron heavy equipment operators, place poured concrete into a repaired section of runway during an Expedient and Expeditionary Airfield Damage Repair (E-ADR) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, April 22, 2021. The demonstration simulates the rapid repair of a battle damaged runway. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Lt. Col. Jim St.Clair, 169th Fighter Wing Public Affairs)

Andrew C. Teich, CEO, of Flir systems inc. speaks at a ceremony to commemorate the production, handover and acceptance of the first group of Mobile Surveillance Capability vehicles for enhanced situational awareness along our Nation's borders with Office of Border Patrol and Flir systems inc. photo by James Tourtellotte

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

A visit in Biddulph Grange Garden in late July 2021. The heatwave seemed to have ended, and was much cooler here, but was warm in certain areas.

Arrival at the gardens. From the car park, and past the tea rooms before you go down into the garden.

Biddulph Grange was developed by James Bateman (1811–1897), the accomplished horticulturist and landowner; he inherited money from his father, who had become rich from coal and steel businesses. He moved to Biddulph Grange around 1840, from nearby Knypersley Hall. He created the gardens with the aid of his friend and painter of seascapes Edward William Cooke. The gardens were meant to display specimens from Bateman's extensive and wide-ranging collection of plants.

Biddulph Grange "started life as a bog-standard rectory, but around 1840 it was bought by James Bateman...he and his wife Maria had a passion for plants and the money to indulge their interests, and as the house was enlarged they began work on the surrounding gardens. In this they were helped by an artist friend, Edward William Cooke, who was not just a keen designer but whose father-in-law owned one of the biggest plant nurseries of the day, Loddiges of Hackney." The gardens "were designed by James and Maria Bateman. Bateman...bought specimens brought back by the great Victorian plant-hunters and became an expert on orchids."

Bateman was president of the North Staffordshire Field Society, and served on the Royal Horticultural Society's Plant Exploration Committee. The gardens "were meant to display specimens from Bateman's extensive and wide-ranging collection of plants." He especially loved Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Bateman was "a collector and scholar on orchids," He had a number of notable sons who grew up at Biddulph Grange, including the painter Robert Bateman.

His gardens are a rare survival of the interim period between the Capability Brown landscape garden and the High Victorian style. The gardens are compartmentalised and divided into themes: Egypt, China, etc.

In 1861 Bateman and his sons, who had used up their savings, gave up the house and gardens, and Bateman moved to Kensington in London. Robert Heath bought Biddulph Grange in 1871. After the house burnt down in 1896, architect Thomas Bower rebuilt it.

The post-1896 house served as a children's hospital from 1923 until the 1960s; known first as the "North Staffordshire Cripples' Hospital" and later as the "Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic Hospital" (though it took patients with non-orthopaedic conditions as well. Under this latter title the hospital's role expanded to accommodate adults, continuing in operation into the mid-1980s.) The 15 acres (6.1 ha) garden became badly run-down and neglected during this period, and the deeply dug-out terraced area near the house around Dahlia Walk was filled in level to make a big lawn for patients to be wheeled out on in summertime. The Bateman property was (and still is) divided: the hospital got the house and its gardens, and the uncultivated remainder of Biddulph Grange's land became the Biddulph Grange Country Park.

Until 1991 the house and gardens "housed an orthopaedic hospital, whose managers (understandably enough) were more concerned with their patients than the weird stuff looming out of rocky outcrops in the grounds. For the best part of a century the gardens decayed, visited only by passing vandals and, more rarely, intrepid folly-hunters."

Grade II* Listed Building

Biddulph Grange

Description

BIDDULPH C.P. BIDDULPH GRANGE

SJ 85 NE

7/2 Biddulph Grange

20.3.74

GV II*

Country house. The house of 1848-60 for John Bateman overlays an earlier

farmhouse; virtually replaced by the present grandiloquent mansion of

1897 by John Bower. The former is yellow brick and render with slate

roofs, the latter is built of sandstone ashlar with lead roofs and brick

chimneys. The style employed is a revived English Baroque. Garden front:

in 3 parts: the Main Elevation is 3 storeys rising in centre to attic

storey under pediment; second floor cill-string, cornice and parapet,

balustraded between sides and centre which have urn finials. 10-bay

front with outer and central 2-bay breaks flanked by pilasters, the centre

break has also a central pilaster. Glazing bar sashes in architraves,

cornices to first floor centre windows, antae to centre of window heads

of outer bays; alternate triangular and segmental pediments to ground

floor windows in pairs; understated entrance to left in architrave and

with bracketted cornice. Irregularly placed balustraded tower (?belvedere

or water tower) to right of centre and set back unbalances the composition.

To left, one of the surviving portions of Bateman's house, 2 storeys,

raised quoins, Italianate, irregular 2+2 window arrangement with 2 full-

height hipped square bays (tripartite windows); principal feature is the

projecting semi-circular-headed domed porch to left with paired columns

and full entablature marking the position of Bateman's study; the left-

hand wing is set back and has round-headed plate-glass sashes in rusticated

surrounds. To right, further projecting irregular bay of 2 round-arch

windows and corbelled balcony, decorative frieze and cornice all built

out over a garden path. Entrance front: 3 parts to right of 3 storeys

project progressively towards the centre and elaborate port-cochère round-

arched with twinned Corinthian columns set back from angles surmounted

by balustraded parapet with urn finials. Interior: the 1897 house has

a splendid staircase with massive marble Ionic columns embraced by semi-

circular bays of a balustraded landing and 3-tiered staircase behind with

stained glass lighting first landing; coffered ceiling to otherwise

plain hall. More important is Bateman's study to the south, French-

inspired. Parquet floor, part-mirrored walls, flat-domed centre to

ceiling and much gilt enrichment; pedimented doorcases. The room is

set behind the domed porch and over the cascade of steps (q.v.) which

lead out to Bateman's miniature landscape park. John Bateman, the

horticulturist, started Biddulph Grange in 1848 from an unpromising

farmhouse set in a marsh. He had already commenced his horticultural

career at his Father.'s house, Knypersley Hall (q.v.), notably the culture

of orchids. Although the architect of Biddulph Grange is unknown, much of

Bateman's enterprise was worked out with his friend, the painter E.W. Cooke,

with whom he shared a passion for ferns. Work was completed to both house

and gardens by 1860; Bateman, having exhausted his funds derived from his

Father's pump manufactury, was forced to relinquish it. Heath, a mine

owner purchased the house and had it considerably enlarged after a severe

fire, completing the work in 1897, the year of Bateman's death.

Listing NGR: SJ8923459207

A visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire.The dome was being restored so part of the building was under scaffolding inside and out (including up the main staircase).

Berrington Hall is a country house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family.

It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, amongst 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. Berrington has been in the care of the National Trust since 1957 and is, along with its gardens, open to the public.

Berrington features Capability Brown's last landscape design. A notable feature is the ha-ha wall, which was subject to extensive renovation in the late 20th century by local craftsmen. Berrington Pool, a lake and island, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

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 in place of the previous old house. He 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.

In 1901 the Manchester businessman Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, purchased the estate. In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Crawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.

It was classified as a Grade I listed building in 1959.

A walk through Capability Brown's final landscape. We headed down to the Berrington Pool through several gates. In nearby fields were sheep. Was also an electric fence near one of the gates.

This view was from the walk to the house, not during the walk to the lake, but was my first view of it.

A Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) logistician stands by a C-130 aircraft during a hands-on segment of Uganda ADAPT 2010, a mentoring program conducted in Entebbe, Uganda, that resulted in certifying 25 soldiers as C-130 aircraft load planners.

U.S. Army photo by Gordon Christensen

A U.S. Army Africa (USARAF) organized Africa Deployment Assistance Partnership Team (ADAPT) recently trained, and for the first time ever, certified 25 soldiers of the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) as C-130 aircraft load planners in Entebbe, Uganda.

A five-person team, led by Gordon Christensen of Army Africa’s G-4 Mobility Division, completed Phase III training with UPDF soldiers Aug. 27 in Entebbe, Uganda, said John Hanson, chief of the G-4 Policy and Programs Branch.

“This was the first actual air load certification we’ve done, of all the previous ADAPT engagements,” Hanson said. “That’s what makes it unique.”

Two weeks of classroom instruction and hands-on training enabled 25 of 31 students to earn U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command Form 9 certification, significantly augmenting the Uganda land force’s air deployment capability, while developing greater interoperability with U.S. military forces, Hanson said.

The ADAPT program, developed to enhance the force projection capabilities of African militaries, is managed by the USARAF G-4 staff. Its aim is to bridge the gap between limited deployment capacity and the need to provide forces in support of peacekeeping or humanitarian relief operations, Hanson said.

“We’re building capacity for people to deploy, to do their own missions,” he said.

Even when the training doesn’t lead to actual U.S. Air Force certification, as it did this time in Uganda, it contributes to an enhanced deployment capacity for the land force involved, Hanson said.

“That’s the intent. They can’t do the certification, but they can continue to train their own people. Then we back off and they continue to do that,” he said.

The program is a Title 22 tactical logistics engagement funded by the U.S. Department of State, and focuses on African countries that contribute troops to peacekeeping operations, Hanson said.

Training is executed in four installments in order to create a long-term, phased approach to building deployment capacity, Hanson said. Instructors take students from a general orientation to tactical deployment principles to an advanced level of practical proficiency.

Instructors for the UPDF course were sourced using the Request For Forces (RFF) process, Hanson said.

Christensen was accompanied U.S. Army Capt. Jedmund Greene of 21st Theater Support Command’s 16th Sustainment Brigade, based in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and three Air Force noncommissioned officers: Tech. Sgt. Venus Washington, Robbins Air Force Base, Ga.; Tech. Sgt. Byran Quinn, Pope Air Force Base, N.C.; and Senior Master Sgt. Anthony D. Tate of the Illinois Air National Guard.

“The training helped to strengthen the relationship with our Ugandan partners, and also helped them build a self-sustaining deployment capacity,” Greene said. “I hope 21st TSC can increase its support to USARAF logistics theater security cooperation events in the future.”

Army Africa’s G-4 staff is presently working to synchronize ADAPT with the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. A proof of concept joint training was conducted with ACOTA in Rwanda earlier this year, combining tactical- and support-staff training in logistics with the more complex operational techniques of force deployment and mobility, Hanson said.

The Rwanda training demonstrated the feasibility of combining available U.S. government resources to achieve the most efficient and focused effort to advance common foreign policy objectives with U.S. partners in Africa, he said.

To date, ADAPT missions have been funded for eight African countries. Previous training sessions have been conducted in Rwanda, Ghana and Burkina Faso as well as Uganda, and the number is likely to grow in coming years, Hanson said.

“The programs were identified as being of interest to several other countries during the Army Africa Theater Army Security Cooperation Conference, held in Vicenza in August,” Hanson said.

The next planned ADAPT mission is for Phase I training in Botswana, scheduled for the first quarter of 2011, he said.

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

Capability Brown was hired in 1751 and he left hardly a square foot of the gardens untouched. The elements used were simple – small clumps of trees, rolling grassland and lakes - all used to create agreeable vistas, especially from Petworth House itself.

If the result looks impressively natural, the amount of work involved in creating this natural effect is astounding. Brown’s records show that around 70,000 tons of soil and clay were shifted to create to ensure that Petworth had curves in all the right places.

The wooded Pleasure Garden contains a rotunda and Doric temple. The Gardens have plenty of monuments and sculptures and the huge wall that surrounds Petworth Park stretches for 14 miles and winds its way menacingly through the town of Petworth.

Below is a photo of the Memorial for Lt HS Wyndham.

These are a fine, high quality Leicaflex variant with fully programmable exposure and TTL flash metering.

One of the later film Leicaflexes, these were very fast handling and versatile, and had motor winder capability, but no high speed motor setup.

In September 1936, the British Air Ministry issued a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber capable of carrying 3000 pounds of bombs 3000 miles at 275 mph. While many companies offered comparatively large aircraft with defensive turrets, along the lines of the Vickers Wellington and Avro Manchester, deHavilland believed it could satisfy the specification with a smaller aircraft that would carry no defensive armament: its speed would be its defense. The lack of turrets would also lower crew requirements, resulting in a cheaper and easier to produce aircraft; to save on strategic materials, deHavilland proposed to make the aircraft out of wood. Though deHavilland had experienced in building high speed wooden aircraft, the Air Ministry was horrified by the concept and rejected deHavilland’s proposal, even as the company doggedly continued to refine it as the DH.98. Wind tunnel projections showed the aircraft would be the fastest bomber in the world; as Geoffrey de Havilland himself stated, “It must be useful.” Eventually, by sheer persistence, the Air Ministry relented and allowed deHavilland to build 50 DH.98s in January 1940.

A shortage of Merlin engines and the emergency of the Battle of Britain meant that the prototype did not fly until November 1940 (although that was only 10 months since the order was placed). It surpassed the projections, which had claimed the DH.98 would fly at 327 mph: the prototype was capable of 397 mph, faster than the Spitfire fighter. The Air Ministry still did not believe an unarmed bomber would survive over Germany, and so determined that the initial order would only consist of 20 bombers—the other 30 would be nightfighters. This was not a difficult conversion to make, as deHavilland had already considered arming the DH.98 with four 20mm cannons for ground strafing; the clear nose of the bomber version would be replaced with a solid nose containing four .303 caliber machine guns.

After the inevitable teething problems of a radical design, the wings and tail were enlarged, the engine nacelles were lengthened, and small extensions added to the wings at the fuselage, curing the prototype’s vibration and instability problems at high speed. Finally, the DH.98—now known as the Mosquito for its smaller size compared to other bombers of its class—went into full-scale production in 1942.

Almost without realizing it, the Air Ministry had just bought the world’s first truly multirole aircraft. The Mosquito would go on to be produced in five different variants: photo-reconnaissance, nightfighter, bomber, fighter-bomber, and torpedo bomber. PR Mosquitoes were completely unarmed and could easily outdistance anything in the German inventory until the advent of the Messerschmitt 262 jet; part of the design principle behind the 262 was that it would be able to intercept the Mosquito. Bomber Mosquitoes, with a bomb capacity of 4000 pounds, usually operated as pathfinder aircraft or in the precision strike role. Nightfighter Mosquitoes patrolled the skies over England and the North Sea, equipped with radar, accounted for nearly 300 German bombers and other nightfighters during the war, as they were also used in raiding German nightfighter bases ahead of heavy bomber streams.

By far the most common Mosquito produced was the Mosquito FB.VI, which combined the heavy armament of the fighter version with the bomb capacity of the bomber. They could also be armed with rockets, giving them the approximate hitting power of a heavy cruiser’s broadside. Operating with RAF Coastal Command, FB.VIs, alongside FB.XVIIIs (which had their 20mms replaced by a single Molins 6-pounder antitank gun), devastated German coastal shipping and naval vessels. However, the FB.VI was also called upon for specialized strikes which became the Mosquito’s hallmark. This included the strike on the Berlin radio station during a broadcast by Hermann Goering (to which Goering said he was “green and yellow with envy” at the Mosquito’s capability), the Amiens Prison Raid, and raids on Gestapo headquarters in the center of Copenhagen and the Hague. In each case, the mission called for precision dropping of bombs at a time when precision weaponry was still 20 years away. The FB.VI also proved capable of defending itself, even against high-performance German fighters.

7781 Mosquitoes were produced during the war, and posted the lowest loss rate of any aircraft in the RAF. All were made of a combination of Brazilian balsa and Canadian fir. 19 air forces used the Mosquito either during the war or afterwards; Chinese Nationalist Mosquitoes would be used briefly in the Chinese Civil War of 1948, while Israeli Mosquitoes would see service in the 1956 Suez War. The RAF would itself use PR Mosquitoes as late as 1958, when they were used to support the successful Malaysian counterinsurgency campaign. Due to its wooden construction, maintaining or restoring Mosquitoes after their final withdrawal from service was difficult, and as a result only 24 remain in museums worldwide, and only one is currently flyable.

Dad and I have been long fans of the "Wooden Wonder," and Dad was more than happy to build me a 1/48 Monogram FB.VI when I asked. This aircraft represents the one flown in my World War II novel, "Audacity," by the main British character, Martin St. John (hence the M-SJ fuselage code; St. John is the squadron commander of the fictional No. 720 Squadron). This carries late-war RAF camouflage of medium gray and green over sky, with later roundels and fin flashes. It is equipped with four 2.75-inch rockets and underwing "slipper" fuel tanks. The engine exhausts are shrouded for night operations. This is one of the larger models I have in my collection, and one of the best.

Milton Abbas is sometimes considered the first planned settlement in England. In 1780, Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, the first Earl of Dorchester and owner of Milton Abbey, decided that he was being disturbed by the market town of Middleton and its residents living close to him in the Abbey. He commissioned architect Sir William Chambers and landscape gardener Capability Brown to design a new village, Milton Abbas, in a wooded valley nearby. Many of the existing villagers were relocated here, and the previous village was demolished. The village had many amenities - on the right of this photo can be seen the village almshouse; while the village church is just out of shot to the left of this image.

This slide was used in a lecture given by Professor JR James at the Department of Town and Regional Planning at The University of Sheffield between 1967 and 1978.

A visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire.The dome was being restored so part of the building was under scaffolding inside and out (including up the main staircase).

Berrington Hall is a country house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family.

It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, amongst 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. Berrington has been in the care of the National Trust since 1957 and is, along with its gardens, open to the public.

Berrington features Capability Brown's last landscape design. A notable feature is the ha-ha wall, which was subject to extensive renovation in the late 20th century by local craftsmen. Berrington Pool, a lake and island, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

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 in place of the previous old house. He 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.

In 1901 the Manchester businessman Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, purchased the estate. In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Crawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.

It was classified as a Grade I listed building in 1959.

Grade I Listed Building

Berrington Hall and Adjoining Outbuildings

Listing Text

EYE, MORETON &

SO 56 SW ASHTON CP

7/2 Berrington Hall and

adjoining outbuildings

11.6.59

GV I

Country house. 1778 - 1781 by Henry Holland for Thomas Harley. Alterations

of c1890 - 1900 involved the addition of a tower at the rear of the house,

this was removed in 1968 and the pediment to this face was reinstated. Set

in parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Brick core, faced with sandstone

ashlar with dressings of the same material, hipped Welsh slate roofs.

Rectangular plan main house with central entrance and stairwell, axial

stacks. Main entrance faces south-west, quadrant walls connect the main

block with the three outbuildings which form a courtyard to the rear (these

adjoining walls have been altered and one has been removed). Main house:

two storeys, attics and basements, south-west entrance front: seven bays

with plinth, dentilled cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet,

steps up to central projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico; frieze is decorated

only to central part by a floral type design which replaces the original one

of putti, ox heads and garlands, pediment has a lunette window. Dormer windows

to attics with glazing bar sash windows, glazing bar sash windows to first

floor with semi-circular heads and decorative glazing to those flanking the

portico. Square-headed glazing bar sash windows to ground floor, the semi-

circular headed basement windows have rusticated surrounds. Central tall

and narrow semi-circular headed doorway with panelled door has keystone

depicting Roman head flanked by narrow side lights with reliefs depicting

urns above. The north-west front is of five bays with a pediment over the

central three bays. The north-east front to the courtyard entrance is of

2:3:2 bays with central pedimented slightly forward break, semi-circular

headed glazing bar sash windows to upper floor, square-headed windows to

ground floor with central three openings set in semi-circular headed surrounds,

right-hand opening now forms a doorway and has a six-panelled door. The out-

buildings enclosing the courtyard are of two storeys. The range to the north-

east is of nine bays with central pedimented archway flanked by pairs of Doric

pilasters, clock face in pediment, string course to flanking bays with 6-pane

square-headed windows to upper floor and semi-circular headed windows with

decorative glazing to ground floor. The ranges enclosing the courtyard to

the north-west and south-east are also of nine bays, each with similar windows

to the upper and lower floors, the central window to each range having a moulded

architrave, semi-circular headed window and doorway openings to ground floors.

To the outer walls of these flanking ranges (ie facing the gardens) are central

niches with coffered semi-domes with ball cresting above. The south-western

ends of both ranges have a blank semi-circular headed arch flanked by oculi.

Interior: the main house retains many of its original features on both main

floors, with decorative surrounds to doorways, decorative plastered ceilings

and marble fireplaces. The entrance hall has trophies in roundels above the

doors and a central circular ceiling panel is carried to the corners on spandrels,

pedimented surround to doorway opposite the entrance; polychrome marble patterned

floor. The Drawing Room retains original elaborate pelmets above the three

windows, marble fireplace with caryatids and griffon frieze. Delicately patterned

ceiling with painted roundels depicting scenes and characters from classical

mythology and with putti and sea horses; entwined roundels to outer border

which flank central theme. The boudoir has an alcove with segmental arch and

a screen of two blue scagliola columns. The Dining Room has a good marble

fireplace with carved panels to the jambs, decorative plastered and painted

ceiling with central painted roundel and swagged and wreathed plastered

surround. Pedimented bookcases to the library with continuous "greekkey"

type frieze. Decorative painted panels to ceiling depicting authors from

Chaucer to Addison. Central staircase hall is lit by delicately iron ribbed

glass domed lantern, opposite the staircase is a coffered archway; staircase

and landings carried on screens of scagliola columns, decorative dolphin

frieze to the entablature. The staircase has bronze lyre-shaped balustrading.

The outbuilding to the north-west formed the laundry and retains many of its

fittings. A tiled dairy has been restored in the south-east range and the

north-east range contains part stabling. (National Trust, 1986, Berrington Hall:

BoE, p 72).

Listing NGR: SO5093063660

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Walking round the path to the entrance to the hall.

Leominster (pronounced 'Lemster') is an historic market town which dates back to the 7th century.

Berrington Hall

A neo-classical mansion built to a design by Henry Holland, set in superb gardens by Capability Brown.

The exterior is restrained classical design, the interiors are stunningly ornate, with painted ceilings and an exceptionally fine entry staircase.

The House

Built in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley, son of the 3rd Earl of Oxford, Berrington Hall is one of the few masterpieces of the architect Henry Holland to survive intact. The interiors are characteristic of Holland’s refined Louis XVI manner and the house is set amidst a park with an artificial 14-acre lake laid out by the landscape designer ‘Capability Brown’ who was also Holland’s business partner and father-in-law.

Thomas Harley made a fortune supplying the British army with clothing and when he decided he needed a new house to showcase his family's prestige and wealth, he called on landscape gardener Capability Brown. It was Brown who chose the location for Berrington Hall, selecting a site that gave sweeping views to the Black Mountains of Wales. While Brown busied himself with creating the parkland and semi-natural landscapes, for which he was famous, the task of building the house itself fell to Brown's son in law, the architect Henry Holland.

Holland began work in 1778 and the house was completed in 1783. He drew upon the popular neo-classical style to create a house with two very different characters. The exterior is plain, sparingly adorned and formal whilst the interior is a riot of lavish colour and ornate decoration.

The interior decoration is unrestrained, with wonderful painted ceilings, ornate plasterwork, and a high dome shedding light onto a spectacular entry staircase. The elegant Georgian theme is augmented by fine furniture most of it French.

Lord Admiral Lord George Rodney was a family friend and visited Berrington Hall frequently. The dining room is hung with huge paintings by Luny depicting Rodney's famous sea battles.

There is also a fascinating glimpse of life 'below stairs', with the Laundry, Butler's Pantry, and Dairy being the highlights.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/berrington-hall/features/the-man...

The Dining Room

War and Pieces

by Bouke de Vries

A magnificent, award winning, six-metre long, ceramic sculpture inspired by the extravagant sugar sculptures which used to take pride of place on wealthy dining tables during the seventeenth century.

This piece takes the form of a banquet given on the eve of a battle.

This sculpture depicts an element of Admiral Lord Rodney's royal command and his part in the Berrington story.

www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/regional/15180458.Art_give...

Capability display on the River Mersey. Picture: LA(Phot) Dean Nixon

70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic events kick off in Liverpool

Tens of thousands of people have enjoyed the first full day of Battle of the Atlantic 70th anniversary events in Liverpool.

There were battles on the Mersey River, flypasts, the opening of the Veterans Visitor Centre at the Port of Liverpool building and public open days on warships as young and old flocked to the city centre in the spring sunshine.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of the Second World War and was pivotal to the overall success of the allied forces.

To mark the 70th anniversary, events have been held in London and Derry-Londonderry, culminating in a weekend of activities around Liverpool which was home to the Western Approaches operations room and receiver of over 1,000 convoys.

MO130055

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.

Built as the sixth production F-16A, 75-0750 never formally reached the USAF. Instead, it was converted as a permanent testbed to serve with General Dynamics and NASA's Advanced Fighter Technology Integration aircraft. Redesignated NF-16A as a test aircraft, the AFTI F-16 would serve from 1981 to 2000 in various roles, testing new avionics and technologies. The AFTI was among the first aircraft to use "glass" cockpit technology, computer touch-screens, voice-activated flight controls, helmet-mounted targeting, advanced ground-collision avoidance systems, and entirely fly-by-wire controls, with no hydraulic or manual backups. When the test program was brought to an end in 2000, the AFTI project had contribued significantly to more advanced F-16 variants, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II. Afterwards, it was donated to the National Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Since the NMUSAF already has a F-16A on display (in Thunderbird colors), it was something of a surprise to see one in the Experimental Aircraft Gallery. The AFTI F-16's differences are readily seen: the extended fuselage spine (similar but not as thick as the F-16E/F/I), and the FLIR infrared sensor at the wing root. It is painted in standard USAF F-16 camouflage, aside from the bright blue test colors. "Power By Wire" refers to its entirely fly-by-wire microprocessor flight controls, while the JSF patch on the tail refers to the F-35 project.

The Space Shuttle in the background is not a real Shuttle--it is one of several full-scale mockups built for ground training.

This would be something like the view from Panshanger House, had it not been demolished in the fifties! The park was laid out from 1799, with advice from Humphry Repton, around the house begun 1806-7. The park incorporated the site of an earlier house and park, improved in 1756 with advice from Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.

Where the real people were - Downstairs at Harewood House, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Harewood House is a Grade 1 Country House near Leeds in West Yorkshire.

It was designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam and built between 1759 and 1771 for wealthy plantation and slave owner Edwin Lascelles - the 1st Baron Harewood, and is still home to the Lascelles family.

The 1000 acre grounds were designed by Capability Brown.

The house is one of the ten 'Treasure Houses of England'.

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 is an aggressor F-16C with the 64th Aggressor Squadron, operating out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, in support of the Red Flag training program. These aircraft are meant to simulate advanced enemy aircraft, namely the MiG-29 Fulcrum, and as such are flown by arguably the most skilled pilots in the USAF. Unique among USAF F-16 units, they have different camouflage schemes to differentiate them from regular USAF F-16s; this particular aircraft carries a mint green over light gray scheme similar to that carried by MiG-29s. As it is essentially a training aircraft, it carries only an inert Sidewinder training round and an ACMI datalink pod, which allows Red Flag trainers to track and record the aircraft’s movements for subsequent review.

Soldiers and Airmen from across North Carolina join forces to set up a satellite as part of the Joint Incident Site Communications Capability (JISCC) in Washington, D.C., from January 13 through to the January 20, 2021 Presidential Inauguration. The JISSC team, which is routinely requested for inaugurations, includes 10 service members, nine Army and one Air Force. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Chelsea Beale)

Ugbrooke House

Ugbrooke House is a stately home in the parish of Chudleigh, Devon, England, situated in a valley between Exeter and Newton Abbot.

It dates back over 900 years, having featured in the Domesday Book. Before the Reformation the land belonged to the Church and the house was occupied by Precentors to the Bishop of Exeter. It has been the seat of the Clifford family for over four hundred years, and the owners have held the title Baron Clifford of Chudleigh since 1672.

The 9th Baron Clifford was an aide-de-camp to Edward VII and entertained royalty, both Edward VII and George V, at Ugbrooke Park.

The house, now a Grade I listed building, was remodelled by Robert Adam, while the grounds were redesigned by Capability Brown in 1761.The grounds featured what were possibly the earliest plantings of the European White Elm Ulmus laevis in the UK.The gardens are now Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[4] The house and gardens are open to the public for a limited number of days each summer.

Baron Clifford of Chudleigh

Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, of Chudleigh in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Thomas Clifford. The title was created as "Clifford of Chudleigh" rather than simply "Clifford" to differentiate it from several other Clifford Baronies previously created for members of this ancient family, including the Barony of de Clifford (1299), which is extant but now held by a branch line of the Russell family, having inherited through several female lines.

Baron Clifford of Chudleigh is the major surviving male representative of the ancient Norman family which later took the name de Clifford which arrived in England during the Norman Conquest of 1066, feudal barons of Clifford, first seated in England at Clifford Castle in Herefordshire, created Baron de Clifford by writ in 1299. The family seat is Ugbrooke Park, near Chudleigh, Devon.

Notable members of this branch of the Clifford family include antiquarian Arthur Clifford (grandson of the 3rd Baron), Victoria Cross recipient Sir Henry Hugh Clifford (son of the 7th Baron), Catholic clergyman William Clifford (son of the 7th Baron) and colonial administrators Sir Bede Clifford (son of the 10th Baron) and Sir Hugh Clifford (grandson of the 7th Baron). The family is also related to the notable recusant Weld family, of Lulworth Castle, through the 7th Baron's marriage to the daughter of Cardinal Thomas Weld.

Barons Clifford of Chudleigh (1672)

Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1630–1673)

Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1663–1730)

Hugh Clifford, 3rd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1700–1732)

Hugh Clifford, 4th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1726–1783)

Hugh Edward Henry Clifford, 5th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1756–1793)

Charles Clifford, 6th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1759–1831)

Hugh Charles Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1790–1858)

Charles Hugh Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1819–1880)

Lewis Henry Hugh Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1851–1916)

William Hugh Clifford, 10th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1858–1943)

Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford, 11th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1887–1962)

Lewis Joseph Hugh Clifford, 12th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1889–1964)

Lewis Hugh Clifford, 13th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1916–1988)

Thomas Hugh Clifford, 14th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (b. 1948)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. Alexander Thomas Hugh Clifford (b. 1985)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire.The dome was being restored so part of the building was under scaffolding inside and out (including up the main staircase).

Berrington Hall is a country house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family.

It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, amongst 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. Berrington has been in the care of the National Trust since 1957 and is, along with its gardens, open to the public.

Berrington features Capability Brown's last landscape design. A notable feature is the ha-ha wall, which was subject to extensive renovation in the late 20th century by local craftsmen. Berrington Pool, a lake and island, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

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 in place of the previous old house. He 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.

In 1901 the Manchester businessman Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, purchased the estate. In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Crawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.

It was classified as a Grade I listed building in 1959.

Grade I Listed Building

Berrington Hall and Adjoining Outbuildings

Listing Text

EYE, MORETON &

SO 56 SW ASHTON CP

7/2 Berrington Hall and

adjoining outbuildings

11.6.59

GV I

Country house. 1778 - 1781 by Henry Holland for Thomas Harley. Alterations

of c1890 - 1900 involved the addition of a tower at the rear of the house,

this was removed in 1968 and the pediment to this face was reinstated. Set

in parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Brick core, faced with sandstone

ashlar with dressings of the same material, hipped Welsh slate roofs.

Rectangular plan main house with central entrance and stairwell, axial

stacks. Main entrance faces south-west, quadrant walls connect the main

block with the three outbuildings which form a courtyard to the rear (these

adjoining walls have been altered and one has been removed). Main house:

two storeys, attics and basements, south-west entrance front: seven bays

with plinth, dentilled cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet,

steps up to central projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico; frieze is decorated

only to central part by a floral type design which replaces the original one

of putti, ox heads and garlands, pediment has a lunette window. Dormer windows

to attics with glazing bar sash windows, glazing bar sash windows to first

floor with semi-circular heads and decorative glazing to those flanking the

portico. Square-headed glazing bar sash windows to ground floor, the semi-

circular headed basement windows have rusticated surrounds. Central tall

and narrow semi-circular headed doorway with panelled door has keystone

depicting Roman head flanked by narrow side lights with reliefs depicting

urns above. The north-west front is of five bays with a pediment over the

central three bays. The north-east front to the courtyard entrance is of

2:3:2 bays with central pedimented slightly forward break, semi-circular

headed glazing bar sash windows to upper floor, square-headed windows to

ground floor with central three openings set in semi-circular headed surrounds,

right-hand opening now forms a doorway and has a six-panelled door. The out-

buildings enclosing the courtyard are of two storeys. The range to the north-

east is of nine bays with central pedimented archway flanked by pairs of Doric

pilasters, clock face in pediment, string course to flanking bays with 6-pane

square-headed windows to upper floor and semi-circular headed windows with

decorative glazing to ground floor. The ranges enclosing the courtyard to

the north-west and south-east are also of nine bays, each with similar windows

to the upper and lower floors, the central window to each range having a moulded

architrave, semi-circular headed window and doorway openings to ground floors.

To the outer walls of these flanking ranges (ie facing the gardens) are central

niches with coffered semi-domes with ball cresting above. The south-western

ends of both ranges have a blank semi-circular headed arch flanked by oculi.

Interior: the main house retains many of its original features on both main

floors, with decorative surrounds to doorways, decorative plastered ceilings

and marble fireplaces. The entrance hall has trophies in roundels above the

doors and a central circular ceiling panel is carried to the corners on spandrels,

pedimented surround to doorway opposite the entrance; polychrome marble patterned

floor. The Drawing Room retains original elaborate pelmets above the three

windows, marble fireplace with caryatids and griffon frieze. Delicately patterned

ceiling with painted roundels depicting scenes and characters from classical

mythology and with putti and sea horses; entwined roundels to outer border

which flank central theme. The boudoir has an alcove with segmental arch and

a screen of two blue scagliola columns. The Dining Room has a good marble

fireplace with carved panels to the jambs, decorative plastered and painted

ceiling with central painted roundel and swagged and wreathed plastered

surround. Pedimented bookcases to the library with continuous "greekkey"

type frieze. Decorative painted panels to ceiling depicting authors from

Chaucer to Addison. Central staircase hall is lit by delicately iron ribbed

glass domed lantern, opposite the staircase is a coffered archway; staircase

and landings carried on screens of scagliola columns, decorative dolphin

frieze to the entablature. The staircase has bronze lyre-shaped balustrading.

The outbuilding to the north-west formed the laundry and retains many of its

fittings. A tiled dairy has been restored in the south-east range and the

north-east range contains part stabling. (National Trust, 1986, Berrington Hall:

BoE, p 72).

Listing NGR: SO5093063660

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Heading down through the parkland towards the Berrington Pool and back. The path goes through fields. Electric fences keep the sheep away from the visitors.

A visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire.The dome was being restored so part of the building was under scaffolding inside and out (including up the main staircase).

Berrington Hall is a country house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family.

It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, amongst 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. Berrington has been in the care of the National Trust since 1957 and is, along with its gardens, open to the public.

Berrington features Capability Brown's last landscape design. A notable feature is the ha-ha wall, which was subject to extensive renovation in the late 20th century by local craftsmen. Berrington Pool, a lake and island, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

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 in place of the previous old house. He 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.

In 1901 the Manchester businessman Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, purchased the estate. In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Crawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.

It was classified as a Grade I listed building in 1959.

Grade I Listed Building

Berrington Hall and Adjoining Outbuildings

Listing Text

EYE, MORETON &

SO 56 SW ASHTON CP

7/2 Berrington Hall and

adjoining outbuildings

11.6.59

GV I

Country house. 1778 - 1781 by Henry Holland for Thomas Harley. Alterations

of c1890 - 1900 involved the addition of a tower at the rear of the house,

this was removed in 1968 and the pediment to this face was reinstated. Set

in parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Brick core, faced with sandstone

ashlar with dressings of the same material, hipped Welsh slate roofs.

Rectangular plan main house with central entrance and stairwell, axial

stacks. Main entrance faces south-west, quadrant walls connect the main

block with the three outbuildings which form a courtyard to the rear (these

adjoining walls have been altered and one has been removed). Main house:

two storeys, attics and basements, south-west entrance front: seven bays

with plinth, dentilled cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet,

steps up to central projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico; frieze is decorated

only to central part by a floral type design which replaces the original one

of putti, ox heads and garlands, pediment has a lunette window. Dormer windows

to attics with glazing bar sash windows, glazing bar sash windows to first

floor with semi-circular heads and decorative glazing to those flanking the

portico. Square-headed glazing bar sash windows to ground floor, the semi-

circular headed basement windows have rusticated surrounds. Central tall

and narrow semi-circular headed doorway with panelled door has keystone

depicting Roman head flanked by narrow side lights with reliefs depicting

urns above. The north-west front is of five bays with a pediment over the

central three bays. The north-east front to the courtyard entrance is of

2:3:2 bays with central pedimented slightly forward break, semi-circular

headed glazing bar sash windows to upper floor, square-headed windows to

ground floor with central three openings set in semi-circular headed surrounds,

right-hand opening now forms a doorway and has a six-panelled door. The out-

buildings enclosing the courtyard are of two storeys. The range to the north-

east is of nine bays with central pedimented archway flanked by pairs of Doric

pilasters, clock face in pediment, string course to flanking bays with 6-pane

square-headed windows to upper floor and semi-circular headed windows with

decorative glazing to ground floor. The ranges enclosing the courtyard to

the north-west and south-east are also of nine bays, each with similar windows

to the upper and lower floors, the central window to each range having a moulded

architrave, semi-circular headed window and doorway openings to ground floors.

To the outer walls of these flanking ranges (ie facing the gardens) are central

niches with coffered semi-domes with ball cresting above. The south-western

ends of both ranges have a blank semi-circular headed arch flanked by oculi.

Interior: the main house retains many of its original features on both main

floors, with decorative surrounds to doorways, decorative plastered ceilings

and marble fireplaces. The entrance hall has trophies in roundels above the

doors and a central circular ceiling panel is carried to the corners on spandrels,

pedimented surround to doorway opposite the entrance; polychrome marble patterned

floor. The Drawing Room retains original elaborate pelmets above the three

windows, marble fireplace with caryatids and griffon frieze. Delicately patterned

ceiling with painted roundels depicting scenes and characters from classical

mythology and with putti and sea horses; entwined roundels to outer border

which flank central theme. The boudoir has an alcove with segmental arch and

a screen of two blue scagliola columns. The Dining Room has a good marble

fireplace with carved panels to the jambs, decorative plastered and painted

ceiling with central painted roundel and swagged and wreathed plastered

surround. Pedimented bookcases to the library with continuous "greekkey"

type frieze. Decorative painted panels to ceiling depicting authors from

Chaucer to Addison. Central staircase hall is lit by delicately iron ribbed

glass domed lantern, opposite the staircase is a coffered archway; staircase

and landings carried on screens of scagliola columns, decorative dolphin

frieze to the entablature. The staircase has bronze lyre-shaped balustrading.

The outbuilding to the north-west formed the laundry and retains many of its

fittings. A tiled dairy has been restored in the south-east range and the

north-east range contains part stabling. (National Trust, 1986, Berrington Hall:

BoE, p 72).

Listing NGR: SO5093063660

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Heading down through the parkland towards the Berrington Pool and back. The path goes through fields. Electric fences keep the sheep away from the visitors.

© All rights reserved

Blenheim palace (The Great Lake)

www.blenheimpalace.com/

Blenheim sits in the centre of a large undulating park, a classic example of the English landscape garden movement and style. When Vanbrugh first cast his eyes over it in 1704 he immediately conceived a typically grandiose plan: through the park trickled the small River Glyme, and Vanbrugh envisaged this marshy brook traversed by the finest bridge in Europe. Thus, ignoring the second opinion offered by Sir Christopher Wren, the marsh was channelled into three small canal-like streams and across it rose a bridge of huge proportions, so huge it was reported to contain some 30-odd rooms. While the bridge was indeed an amazing wonder, in this setting it appeared incongruous, causing Alexander Pope to comment:

the minnows, as under this vast arch they pass,/murmur, how like whales we look, thanks to your Grace

Horace Walpole saw it in 1760, shortly before Capability Brown's improvements the bridge, like the beggars at the old duchess's gate, begs for a drop of water and is refused. Another of Vanbrugh's schemes was the great parterre, nearly half a mile long and as wide as the south front. Also in the park, completed after the 1st Duke's death, is the Column of Victory. It is 134 ft (41 m) high and terminates a great avenue of elms leading to the palace, which were planted in the positions of Marlborough's troops at the Battle of Blenheim. Vanbrugh had wanted an obelisk to mark the site of the former royal manor, and the trysts of Henry II which had taken place there, causing the 1st Duchess to remark, If there were obelisks to bee made of all what our Kings have done of that sort, the countrey would bee stuffed with very odd things (sic). The obelisk was never realised.

The Column of Victory in the Palace grounds.

The cascade where the water flows into the great lake.

Following the 1st Duke's death the Duchess concentrated most of her considerable energies on the completion of the palace itself, and the park remained relatively unchanged until the arrival of Capability Brown in 1764. The 4th Duke employed Brown who immediately began an English landscape garden scheme to naturalise and enhance the landscape, with tree planting, and man-made undulations. However, the feature with which he is forever associated is the lake, a huge stretch of water created by damming the River Glyme and ornamented by a series of cascades where the river flows in and out. The lake was narrowed at the point of Vanbrugh's grand bridge, but the three small canal-like streams trickling underneath it were completely absorbed by one river-like stretch. Brown's great achievement at this point was to actually flood and submerge beneath the water level the lower stories and rooms of the bridge itself, thus reducing its incongruous height and achieving what is regarded by many as the epitome of an English landscape. Brown also grassed over the great parterre and the Great Court. The latter was re-paved by Duchene in the early 20th century. The 5th Duke was responsible for several other garden follies and novelties such as the swivelling boulder, which would suddenly roll across a path, to supposedly thrill the walker.

Sir William Chambers, assisted by John Yenn, was responsible for the small summerhouse known as The Temple of Diana down by the lake, where in 1908 Winston Churchill proposed to his future wife. However, the ornamental gardens seen today close to the palace, the Italian and water gardens, are entirely the design of Duchene and the 9th Duke.

Ref: Wiki

The Sabre was conceived in a time of war. It was in these troubled times that the constant pursuit for greater performance and capability led to a period of rapid advancement in weapons, and in aviation especially. Post-war innovations in engineering, materials, aerodynamics and propulsion would came at such an unprecedented pace that many new aircraft designs were often obsolete whilst still on the drawing board. The F-86 was an exception to this. In the light of new discoveries, pain-staking research and true invention, what had started out as an unremarkable straight-wing jet-powered fighter took on a completely new and revolutionary shape with the performance to match. The Sabre was the torchbearer of the swept-wing concept and it was endowed with a purity of design never to be repeated. It gave to the world the first truly transonic swept-wing fighter and with it the iconic shape of the ‘Jet Age’.

The Sabre remains the most produced Western jet fighter with nearly 10,000 of the series being built and was the first jet-powered fighter operated by many countries. It remained in active front-line service (with Bolivia) until 1993. The aircraft was produced in 20 different variants (including the Navy FJ series known as the Fury), with 5 different engines. Only the MiG-15 is believed to have been more widely produced with over 12,000 of these Russian fighters being built. Licensed foreign production of the MiG perhaps raised the total produced to over 18,000. During its long service life, the F-86 served with the air forces of 34 different countries, including the USA. Two production lines were established in the US and four foreign countries built the aircraft under licence.

The Sabre was a development of a straight wing project which was dramatically modified to incorporate swept flying surfaces based on research findings that came out of Germany at the end of World War II.

As well as the jet engine and the swept wings and tail other innovations included a highly ergonomic cockpit with outstanding visibility and powered controls. The first Sabre production run was the' A' model, one of which scored the first swept wing victory over a MiG-15 in Korea. It can be distinguished from later F-86 variants by the slimmer tail section and V windshield.

The' A: model has power assisted primary controls rather than the fully powered controls of the later versions.

Most of the 10,000 F-86s built were engined with J-47 axial flow General Electric's famous engine of which over 37,000 units were made across the full range of versions. (Every B-47 had 6 of them).

This particular F-86A (USAF 48-178) is a dash 5 upgraded to dash 7 and flies in markings with the distinctive recognition bands used by the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing early in the Korean War. It was rescued from a reclamation centre and restored in the early 1970s by former Mustang pilot Ben Hall of Seattle. Ben put 10,000 hours work into it and describes it as one of the great loves of his life. He maintained and flew it for 13 years. It was acquired by Golden Apple in 1990 and further work was carried out on it by Fort Wayne Air Service of Indiana. In 1991 it was nominated for the Rolls-Royce/Warbirds Worldwide award for best jet restoration and voted the winner.

Technical Data

Engine: General Electric J-47

Span: 37ft 1in

Length: 37ft 6in

Height: 14ft 9in

Empty Weight: 10,854lbs

Max Take-off Weight: 15,800lbs

Max Speed: 679mph at sea level

Cruising Speed: 533mph

Time to 40,000ft: 10.4 mins

Service Ceiling: 48,000ft

Range: 660miles

Operational Requirements

Fuel Type: Jet A-I AVTUR

Capacities: Internal 363 Imp gallons - external two 100 gallon drop tanks.

Filling Sequence: As indicated on filler covers.

Engine Oil: Aero Shell Turbine Oil 2.

Hydraulic Fluid: OM15 or U.S. Spec Mil-H-5606 - 2 x hydraulic accumulators to be charged with nitrogen to 1200psi.

Electrical: 28 V DC required to output 1600 Amps surge, 600 Amps continuous.

Fire Cover: Advisable for engine start and shut down.

Flying Control Lock: Internal.

Ejection Seat: When parked one safety pin in each arm rest and one pin in each of the two initiators (behind seat back).

Runway: Normal minimum 6000ft lSA conditions.

Temple Newsam is one of the great historic estates in England. Set within over 1500 acres of parkland, woodland and farmland landscaped by Capability Brown in the 18th century, it is a magnificent Tudor–Jacobean mansion. Famous as the birthplace of Lord Darnley and home to the Ingram family for over 300 years, the mansion houses rich collections of works of art. The garden is renowned for its Rhododendron and Azalea walk and features the National Plant Collections of Delphinium, Phlox and Aster novi–belgii. Europe's largest working Rare Breeds Farm, with over 400 animals, is set within the original estate Home Farm.

Information from the Temple Newsam website.

www.leeds.gov.uk/templenewsam/

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located 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 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

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. 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.

The Blackburn Buccaneer was a British low-level strike aircraft with nuclear weapon delivery capability serving with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force between 1962 and 1994, including service in the 1991 Gulf War. Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough it was later known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer when Blackburn became a part of the Hawker Siddeley group.

In the early 1950s the Russian Navy introduced the Sverdlov class cruiser into service. Light cruisers by Second World War measure, they were fast, effectively armed, and numerous. They presented a serious threat to the merchant fleets in the Atlantic, as the German "pocket battleships" of the war did, but in far greater numbers and over 25% faster. To counter this threat the Royal Navy decided not to use a new ship class of its own, but a new specialised strike aircraft employing conventional or nuclear weapons instead. Operating from its fleet carriers and attacking at high-speed and low-level, it would offer a solution to the Sverdlov problem.

Fleet Air Arm

The Buccaneer entered service in 1962. In addition to conventional ordnance, in 1965 the Buccaneer was type-approved for nuclear weapons delivery i.e. the Red Beard and WE177 bombs. All nuclear weapons were carried internally in a rotating bomb-bay.

A total of six FAA squadrons were equipped with the Buccaneer: 700B/700Z (Intensive Flying Trials Unit), 736 (training), 800, 801, 803 and 809 Naval Air Squadrons. Buccaneers were embarked on HMS Victorious, Eagle, Ark Royal and Hermes.

On 28 March 1967, Buccaneers from RNAS Lossiemouth bombed the shipwrecked supertanker Torrey Canyon off the western coast of Cornwall to make the oil blaze and to avoid an environmental disaster. The Buccaneers aboard HMS Ark Royal took part in a mission over British Honduras shortly before its independence to deter a possible Guatemalan invasion. They also took part in several exercises in the North Sea, "taking out" ground and naval targets, while always ready to respond to any Soviet interference.

The Buccaneer left Fleet Air Arm service with the decommissioning of the Ark Royal in 1978.

Royal Air Force

The first RAF unit to receive the Buccaneer S.2B was 12 Squadron at RAF Honington in 1969. This was to remain a key station for the type as 15 Squadron equipped with the Buccaneer the following year, before moving to RAF Laarbruch in 1971.

With the phased withdrawal of the Royal Navy's carrier fleet during the 1970s, Fleet Air Arm Buccaneers were transferred to the RAF, which had taken over the maritime strike role. 62 of the 84 S.2 aircraft were eventually transferred, redesignated S.2A. Some of these were later upgraded to S.2B standard.

Ex-FAA aircraft equipped 16 Squadron, joining 15 Squadron at RAF Laarbruch, and 208 Squadron at Honington. The last FAA aircraft went to 216 Squadron.

From 1970 with 12 Squadron initially, followed by 15, 16, 237 OCU, 208 and 216, the RAF Buccaneer force re-equipped with WE.177 nuclear weaponsAt peak strength Buccaneers equipped six RAF squadrons, although for one year only. A more sustained strength of five squadrons was made up of three squadrons (15, 16, 208) plus 237 OCU (a war reserve or 'Shadow Squadron') all assigned to SACEUR for land strike duties in support of land forces opposing Warsaw Pact land forces on the Continent, plus one squadron (12 Squadron) assigned to SACLANT for maritime strike duties. After 1983 the land strike duties were mostly re-assigned to the Tornado aircraft then entering service, and two Buccaneer squadrons remaining (12, and 208) were then assigned to SACLANT for maritime strike duties. Only the 'Shadow Squadron' 237 OCU remained assigned to a war role of land strike assigned to SACEUR until it stood down from its war reserve nuclear delivery role in 1991.

After a Buccaneer suffered a structural failure in mid-air during a Red Flag exercise, the entire RAF Buccaneer fleet was grounded in February 1980. Investigation discovered serious metal fatigue problems. 60 aircraft were selected to receive new spar rings and the nascent 216 Squadron was subsequently disbanded. Later the same year, the UK-based Buccaneer squadrons moved to RAF Lossiemouth.

The Buccaneer saw war service during the 1991 Gulf War when twelve examples were rushed to the area to provide a laser designation capability for British aircraft. They flew 218 missions, both designating for other aircraft and dropping 48 laser-guided bombs themselves. The last Buccaneers were withdrawn in March 1994 when 208 Squadron disbanded.

South African Air Force

South Africa was the only country other than the UK to operate the Buccaneer, where it was in service with the South African Air Force from 1965 to 1991. Of the 16 aircraft ordered, one was lost on its delivery flight, and 15 entered service. SAAF Buccaneers saw active service during the Border War in South West Africa, notably at Cassinga in 1981.

The Blackburn Buccaneer was a British low-level strike aircraft with nuclear weapon delivery capability serving with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force between 1962 and 1994, including service in the 1991 Gulf War. Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough it was later known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer when Blackburn became a part of the Hawker Siddeley group.

In the early 1950s the Russian Navy introduced the Sverdlov class cruiser into service. Light cruisers by Second World War measure, they were fast, effectively armed, and numerous. They presented a serious threat to the merchant fleets in the Atlantic, as the German "pocket battleships" of the war did, but in far greater numbers and over 25% faster. To counter this threat the Royal Navy decided not to use a new ship class of its own, but a new specialised strike aircraft employing conventional or nuclear weapons instead. Operating from its fleet carriers and attacking at high-speed and low-level, it would offer a solution to the Sverdlov problem.

Fleet Air Arm

The Buccaneer entered service in 1962. In addition to conventional ordnance, in 1965 the Buccaneer was type-approved for nuclear weapons delivery i.e. the Red Beard and WE177 bombs. All nuclear weapons were carried internally in a rotating bomb-bay.

A total of six FAA squadrons were equipped with the Buccaneer: 700B/700Z (Intensive Flying Trials Unit), 736 (training), 800, 801, 803 and 809 Naval Air Squadrons. Buccaneers were embarked on HMS Victorious, Eagle, Ark Royal and Hermes.

On 28 March 1967, Buccaneers from RNAS Lossiemouth bombed the shipwrecked supertanker Torrey Canyon off the western coast of Cornwall to make the oil blaze and to avoid an environmental disaster. The Buccaneers aboard HMS Ark Royal took part in a mission over British Honduras shortly before its independence to deter a possible Guatemalan invasion. They also took part in several exercises in the North Sea, "taking out" ground and naval targets, while always ready to respond to any Soviet interference.

The Buccaneer left Fleet Air Arm service with the decommissioning of the Ark Royal in 1978.

Royal Air Force

The first RAF unit to receive the Buccaneer S.2B was 12 Squadron at RAF Honington in 1969. This was to remain a key station for the type as 15 Squadron equipped with the Buccaneer the following year, before moving to RAF Laarbruch in 1971.

With the phased withdrawal of the Royal Navy's carrier fleet during the 1970s, Fleet Air Arm Buccaneers were transferred to the RAF, which had taken over the maritime strike role. 62 of the 84 S.2 aircraft were eventually transferred, redesignated S.2A. Some of these were later upgraded to S.2B standard.

Ex-FAA aircraft equipped 16 Squadron, joining 15 Squadron at RAF Laarbruch, and 208 Squadron at Honington. The last FAA aircraft went to 216 Squadron.

From 1970 with 12 Squadron initially, followed by 15, 16, 237 OCU, 208 and 216, the RAF Buccaneer force re-equipped with WE.177 nuclear weaponsAt peak strength Buccaneers equipped six RAF squadrons, although for one year only. A more sustained strength of five squadrons was made up of three squadrons (15, 16, 208) plus 237 OCU (a war reserve or 'Shadow Squadron') all assigned to SACEUR for land strike duties in support of land forces opposing Warsaw Pact land forces on the Continent, plus one squadron (12 Squadron) assigned to SACLANT for maritime strike duties. After 1983 the land strike duties were mostly re-assigned to the Tornado aircraft then entering service, and two Buccaneer squadrons remaining (12, and 208) were then assigned to SACLANT for maritime strike duties. Only the 'Shadow Squadron' 237 OCU remained assigned to a war role of land strike assigned to SACEUR until it stood down from its war reserve nuclear delivery role in 1991.

After a Buccaneer suffered a structural failure in mid-air during a Red Flag exercise, the entire RAF Buccaneer fleet was grounded in February 1980. Investigation discovered serious metal fatigue problems. 60 aircraft were selected to receive new spar rings and the nascent 216 Squadron was subsequently disbanded. Later the same year, the UK-based Buccaneer squadrons moved to RAF Lossiemouth.

The Buccaneer saw war service during the 1991 Gulf War when twelve examples were rushed to the area to provide a laser designation capability for British aircraft. They flew 218 missions, both designating for other aircraft and dropping 48 laser-guided bombs themselves. The last Buccaneers were withdrawn in March 1994 when 208 Squadron disbanded.

South African Air Force

South Africa was the only country other than the UK to operate the Buccaneer, where it was in service with the South African Air Force from 1965 to 1991. Of the 16 aircraft ordered, one was lost on its delivery flight, and 15 entered service. SAAF Buccaneers saw active service during the Border War in South West Africa, notably at Cassinga in 1981.

This magnificent informal landscape garden was laid out in the 18th century by 'Capability' Brown and further developed in the early years of the 20th century by its owner, Arthur G. Soames. The original four lakes form the centrepiece. There are dramatic shows of daffodils and bluebells in spring, and the rhododendrons and azaleas are spectacular in early summer. Autumn brings stunning colours from the many rare trees and shrubs, and winter walks can be enjoyed in this garden for all seasons. Visitors can now also explore South Park, 107 hectares (265 acres) of historic parkland, with stunning views.

Michael J Fisher, Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol speaks at a ceremony to commemorate the production, handover and acceptance of the first group of Mobile Surveillance Capability vehicles for enhanced situational awareness along our Nation's borders with Office of Border Patrol and the FLIR company. photo by James Tourtellotte

A multinational Strategic Airlift Capability Boeing C-17 III Globemaster transport aircraft arriving at RIAT.

The paper illustrates the computational capability of the collisional-radiative model ATMED CR for calculating the temporal evolution of accurate atomic populations including nlj-splitting, mean charge and atomic processes rates. The present work contains computed time-dependent plasmas with the average atom code ATMED CR of neon and aluminium created with X-ray Free Electron Lasers proposed in the 10th Non-LTE Code Comparison Workshop. The results for plasma properties can be considered as very precise, according to the electronic temperature profiles registered in experiments of laser-created plasmas with duration times of picoseconds and femtoseconds. As a consequence, the Crank-Nicholson implicit numerical iterative temporal module of ATMED CR can be considered a new rapid method for simulating this type of plasmas, avoiding some of the typical difficulties that appear in interpreting results of free electron laser experiments, as very different temporal scales in NLTE regime, enormous matrices of detailed collisional radiative codes, etc. In this paper, it is also presented a representative sample of steady state iron plasmas focusing the attention on two issues. First, the huge computation capability extension up to millions of plasmas with the implementation of a collisional radiative balance in the relativistic average atom model ATMED. Second, it will be addressed the good agreement of atomic and radiative properties not only with respect to very recent experimental measurements of laboratories and High Energy Density facilities, but also to the last theoretical developments in quantum mechanics of statistical methods, as new codes based on the self consistent Hartree-Fock-Slater model for the average atom which in turn solve the Schrödinger’s or Dirac’s equations of radial wave functions. The new codes have been validated with some state of the art models as OPAL, SCO-RCG, STA, CASSANDRA, LEDCOP, THERMOS, etc. The results for plasma properties can be considered as relatively precise and optimal, being checked fundamentally the high sensitivity of calculations to changes in regime, local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) or non-LTE (NLTE), electronic and radiation temperatures, dilution factor, matter or electronic density and plasma length. The systematic theoretical investigation is carried out through comparison of calculations performed with a wide set of atomic collisional radiative codes with detailed configurations or codes of the average atom formalism. Some transmissions computed with ATMED CR using UTA (Unresolved Transition Array) formalism are also checked with respect to very recent experimental measurements of laboratories.

Biography of author(s)

A. J. Benita

Plasma Atomic Physics Group, Madrid Polytechnic University, 28006 Madrid, Spain and Department of Physics, Las Palmas Canary Islands University, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

Read full article: bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/view/19/21/142-1

View More: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HQQNL398ys