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El Djem is famous for its amphitheatre, capable of seating 35,000 spectators. Only Rome's Colosseum (about 45,000 spectators) and the ruined theatre of Capua are larger. The amphitheatre at El Djem was built by the Romans and was probably mainly used for gladiator shows and chariot races (like in Ben-Hur).
The movie "GLADIATOR" have several scenes recorded here.
El Jem Amphitheatre is an Unesco Heritage site.
Tunisia Jan 2009
Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Djem
Audi A4 B5
Bonhams
Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris
The Grand Palais Éphémère
Place Joffre
Parijs - Paris
Frankrijk - France
February 2023
Estimated : € 50.000 - 70.000
Sold for € 46.000
"... the alternative verdict is that this is a landmark car for Audi... an extremely rapid, capable ground-coverer with a beautifully built interior and a heap of driveway appeal. It's also surprisingly poised and enjoyable to drive at speed, without the lumpen ride and stodgy feel of previous fast Audis. As such, it's a really rather likeable, even at 50 grand." – Autocar.
The high-performance variant of the Audi A4 range, the RS 4 debuted on the B5 platform in 1999, at which time there was only one body style on offer: the five-door Avant estate. This first model was powered by a twin-turbocharged, 2.7-litre, 30-valve V6, developed in collaboration with Cosworth, which produced a maximum of 375bhp. Being a high-performance Audi, the RS 4 delivered its power to the road via the firm's famous Quattro four-wheel drive transmission. The B5 lasted in production until 2001 with only approximately 6000 examples built, and there would be no RS 4 in the successor B6 range.
Already regarded as a future classic, the RS 4 B5 enjoys a dedicated following among knowledgeable Audi enthusiasts, many of whom are holding on to 1st Generation cars such as this example. Notable features for the model and this specific example include manual transmission, a sunroof, a Bose sound system, and special Recaro seats for the RS 4 model.
Ordered new in popular 'Avussiblermetallic', this car was originally delivered to Vicenza, Italy and stayed with the original owner in Italy for six years. In 2007 (at 28,527 kilometres) the RS was purchased by the previous owner and moved to Germany. This new owner kept the Audi until 2013 when it was sold to our vendor. When purchased in 2014 the odometer reading was a little under 64,000 kilometres. We're advised by the vendor the car was sold as accident free, with original paint and in excellent condition. Only a repaint of the front bumper due to scratches and stone chips has been carried out by the vendor recently. Moreover, in order to protect the paint, the car received a professional Modesta ceramic coating in 2021.
Never tuned (unlike most of them), this unmolested RS 4 has been maintained by Audi specialists: the last timing belt service in 2020 at the same place as before. The brakes have been completely overhauled twice, on the last occasion by Auto Fischer using only original parts. In 2022 correct Pirelli P Zero tyres have been fitted. Today the odometer reading is a little under 95,000 kilometres (whilst most examples have high mileages) and the next German TüV (roadworthiness test) is due in March 2024. All TüV documents covering the vendor's ownership are contained within the history file together with numerous service bills, German registration documents and the original stamped service booklet.
A French Air Force Mirage 2000N during Exercise Capable Eagle.
The exercise was the latest in a series designed to further improve the interoperability and effectiveness of Anglo-French military co-operation.
As well as Typhoons of 1(F) Sqn the exercise included Mirage 2000N aircraft of the Escadron de Chasse 2/4 "La Fayette".
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© Crown Copyright 2013
Photographer: Sgt Ralph Merry ABIPP RAF
Image 45156238.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk
This image is available for high resolution download at www.defenceimagery.mod.uk subject to the terms and conditions of the Open Government License at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/. Search for image number 45156238.jpg
For latest news visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
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The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at 80 to 128 km/h (50 to 80 mph) with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being 93 and 98 km/h (58 and 61 mph), and as such has several adaptations for speed, including a light build, long thin legs and a long tail. It typically reaches 67–94 cm (26–37 in) at the shoulder, and the head-and-body length is between 1.1 and 1.5 m (3 ft 7 in and 4 ft 11 in). Adults weigh between 21 and 72 kg (46 and 159 lb). Its head is small and rounded, and has a short snout and black tear-like facial streaks. The coat is typically tawny to creamy white or pale buff and is mostly covered with evenly spaced, solid black spots. Four subspecies are recognised.
The cheetah lives in three main social groups: females and their cubs, male "coalitions", and solitary males. While females lead a nomadic life searching for prey in large home ranges, males are more sedentary and may instead establish much smaller territories in areas with plentiful prey and access to females. The cheetah is active mainly during the day, with peaks during dawn and dusk. It feeds on small- to medium-sized prey, mostly weighing under 40 kg (88 lb), and prefers medium-sized ungulates such as impala, springbok and Thomson's gazelles. The cheetah typically stalks its prey to within 60–70 m (200–230 ft), charges towards it, trips it during the chase and bites its throat to suffocate it to death. It breeds throughout the year. After a gestation of nearly three months, a litter of typically three or four cubs is born. Cheetah cubs are highly vulnerable to predation by other large carnivores such as hyenas and lions. They are weaned at around four months and are independent by around 20 months of age.
The cheetah occurs in a variety of habitats such as savannahs in the Serengeti, arid mountain ranges in the Sahara and hilly desert terrain in Iran. The cheetah is threatened by several factors such as habitat loss, conflict with humans, poaching and high susceptibility to diseases. Historically ranging throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa and extending eastward into the Middle East and to central India, the cheetah is now distributed mainly in small, fragmented populations in central Iran and southern, eastern and northwestern Africa. In 2016, the global cheetah population was estimated at around 7,100 individuals in the wild; it is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. In the past, cheetahs were tamed and trained for hunting ungulates. They have been widely depicted in art, literature, advertising, and animation.
The vernacular name "cheetah" is derived from Hindustani Urdu: چیتا and Hindi: चीता (ćītā). This in turn comes from Sanskrit: चित्रय (Chitra-ya) meaning 'variegated', 'adorned' or 'painted'. In the past, the cheetah was often called "hunting leopard" because they could be tamed and used for coursing. The generic name Acinonyx probably derives from the combination of two Greek words: ἁκινητος (akinitos) meaning 'unmoved' or 'motionless', and ὄνυξ (onyx) meaning 'nail' or 'hoof'. A rough translation is "immobile nails", a reference to the cheetah's limited ability to retract its claws. A similar meaning can be obtained by the combination of the Greek prefix a– (implying a lack of) and κῑνέω (kīnéō) meaning 'to move' or 'to set in motion'. The specific name jubatus is Latin for 'crested, having a mane'.
A few old generic names such as Cynailurus and Cynofelis allude to the similarities between the cheetah and canids.
In 1777, Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber described the cheetah based on a skin from the Cape of Good Hope and gave it the scientific name Felis jubatus. Joshua Brookes proposed the generic name Acinonyx in 1828. In 1917, Reginald Innes Pocock placed the cheetah in a subfamily of its own, Acinonychinae, given its striking morphological resemblance to the greyhound and significant deviation from typical felid features; the cheetah was classified in Felinae in later taxonomic revisions.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, several cheetah specimens were described; some were proposed as subspecies. An example is the South African specimen known as the "woolly cheetah", named for its notably dense fur—this was described as a new species (Felis lanea) by Philip Sclater in 1877, but the classification was mostly disputed. There has been considerable confusion in the nomenclature of cheetahs and leopards (Panthera pardus) as authors often confused the two; some considered "hunting leopards" an independent species, or equal to the leopard.
The Mayahuel Gunship, also nicknamed 'Sky Dominator' is a tactical and weapons-packed helicopter capable of traveling long distances due to it's tiltrotor system. Inspired by the V22 Osprey and the Apache helicopter, this hybrid was developed to support and coordinate the Tequilatron war effort from above. Its name is derived from the Aztec female goddess of booze. Nuff said.
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Fulfilling category 8 in Decisive Action 2 over on Mocpages.
If you like this, please consider 5 smiles on Mocpages. Your support contributes directly to this unit's efficiency on the battlefield!
Tequila. Have you hugged your toilet today?
Nathan and Ozz track down one of the spies mentioned in Mayla's destroyed Manifest, but they run into obstacles. Enter an unexpected ally, a mysterious young man who might be able to help them in their mission, but Ozz resents the intrusion of another goody-two-shoes human into his and Nathan's still-new partnership.
Suffering a bit of turbulence on re-entry, Nathan stumbled against one of the Lucky Star’s bulkheads. As soon as he made impact, an overhead storage bin flapped open, spilling junk onto the floor.
“Hey, watch that spot, would you?” Ozz complained. “It’s loose!”
“No kidding? That nearly hit me in the head!”
“Well then, watch that spot!”
“I’m going to make some…adjustments to your ship when we land, I swear. This thing is a death trap.”
“Stow it and grab a seat, we’re comin’ in on Yavin IV.”
The Lucky Star hurried down out of orbit, over the vast green jungles covering the fourth moon of Yavin. Nathan reached across the dashboard to point at a temple that breached the trees.
"Massassi 12, that's got to be it. See the landing beacons?"
"Yeah, yeah. I can land the ship myself! You must think I need help, but I don’t. Perfectly capable on my own…"
“Someone seems hangry.”
“Shut it.”
Their craft sunk below the dense, green foliage to join a few other starships at a makeshift landing platform. The buzz of activity reached them from the temple grounds.
Nathan and Ozz made for the market to get the lay of the land. Massassi 12 was originally just a private dig site, but then merchants arrived to service the guards and archeologists. Colonists and refugees followed the merchants, and they were followed by more merchants, and before long Massassi 12 had become a colony all of its own.
The dig site itself had only become more exclusive and well-guarded in response to the surge in population. Armed guards stood watch at the crumbling old entrances, keeping things quiet for the researchers inside. There was a thin film between the bustling markets in the stone courtyards and the secretive work happening meters away.
The ruins were pretty impressive. The ground was mostly broken cobblestones, and tarps and trees overhead created shade. Merchants had built their stalls on the bedrock of the ruined temple grounds, a strange kind of contrast to Nathan’s fresh perspective.
Ozz gave one of the guards a wary eye. "There's no way we're getting in there. Oh well! Guess we’ll give up. I wasn’t too excited about all this anyway."
Nathan looked at him incredulously. “I thought you wanted a payday?”
“Yeah, well, I also want to live. That guard looks like he wants his payday too.”
Nathan shook his head. “I'm not giving up just like that. There's an Imperial spy on this planet, Mayla’s Manifest listed this settlement as one of the hotspots. I bet you they're not far."
Ozz smelled the money in that. "I'm still not convinced you can bring home the bacon. Flying isn't free! You go do what you're gonna do, I can make busy for a few hours..."
"Yeah, you can. I’ll need your help, Ozz."
Ozz was pleased to hear it, but hid any sign of being so behind a veneer of suspicion. He raised a wispy white eyebrow. "You want help, you gotta have a plan. Let me hear your plan."
Nathan laid out what he had so far. The Iakaru wasn't impressed.
"Nope, no sir! I'm not playing your muscle. Nobody would believe it anyway, I'm obviously the brains of the operation."
Nathan frowned. "It's the best I've got. Do you want to get this bounty? You know it means money, right? You like money, don't you?"
"You do what you want to do, nerd," Ozz said, shrugging. "I'm gonna sample the local wares, breath some fresh air, and come up with a better plan."
He turned to leave, nearly walking into someone in the process. A man in a black tunic, wearing a brown cloak, had approached them from a nearby alley.
"Excuse me, sorry to eavesdrop,” the man said calmly. “But...I'm on your side. The Archeologists have things pretty tight, don't they?"
Nathan and Oz exchanged looks. The 'are we in trouble' kind. They turned towards the man, prepared to disavow anything they'd said.
Nathan peered at the man's face. He didn't look dangerous. He had wide blue eyes, sandy hair...he looked trustworthy. Of course, that really meant nothing. Danger came in all forms. Mayla came to Nathan's mind (not an uncommon occurance): she was cute, and he’d trusted her, but she was also an Imperial spy. He probably needed to be a little more on guard.
"You've got a good plan, and I can help," the stranger continued. "You should see some of the places I've just...walked inside."
Ozz crossed his arms. "Oh yeah? Like what?" He challenged.
The stranger shrugged. "A dangerous tribal village...a Hutt's palace...an Imperial base..."
"Pretty good resume...if it's TRUE. What do you want out of it?"
"Same thing as you: a look at what they've dug up, and to expose any spies. And like you, I'd rather get it over with quickly. Let's just say I'd like to avoid any entanglements."
Ozz stared up into the hood suspiciously, jabbing a finger at the man's chest. "You some kind of bounty hunter? We've got claim, pal."
"No, no! I'm just a do-gooder,” said the man, smiling and holding his hands up peacefully. “I promise, I don't mean you any harm."
Nathan was feeling a bit more cheered about his plan, and the idea of having another co-conspirator that wasn’t Ozz didn’t hurt. "It's not our place to judge," Nathan said. "And I guess we could use some actual muscle."
Ozz looked alarmed, and pulled Nathan by the lapels of his jacket into a private conversation.
"Are you kidding me? You let the first guy we see join our secret mission?"
"I trust him. I mean, come on, it's not crazy that someone might want to help uncover an Imperial spy."
“I thought this was just you and me, kid!”
“I thought you didn’t want to do my plan? This guy does,” Nathan said smugly.
Ozz, who felt somewhat betrayed and cast aside (though it was up for discussion whether he had any right to complain), tried to manage his grumbling expression. He threw up his hands.
"...Geez, fine, he seems alright. But you gotta get out more." The Iakaru sighed. "I guess we can make him the fall guy, instead of you."
Nathan gave him an admonishing look. Ozz brushed it off.
“I’m jokin’, obviously.”
They turned back to the hooded stranger, who had been waiting patiently while they talked. Nathan extended his hand, which the stranger shook.
"You're in. What should we call you?"
"I'm Luke," said the stranger. "Ozz, Nathan, right?"
Ozz glowered. He still didn’t trust this newcomer. He seemed a little too knowledgeable. "You catch on fast, clean-cut."
"Yeah, nice to meet you, Luke." Nathan glanced at his short, grumpy companion with a wry smile. "Hey Ozz, you don’t have to play muscle anymore, you’re off the hook.”
Ozz crossed his arms and grumbled, “Oh boy. You got anything for me to do? You gonna include me in this little plan? Or is this guy your new partner?” he jabbed a thumb at Luke.
"He’ll warm up to you,” Nathan said, grinning. He tried to come up with someone useful for the Iakaru to do. “You can be on lookout, Ozz. Let me go change clothes, and then we'll do this thing."
"That's right, Inspector Strader, from the CFS Research Grant Foundation,” Nathan said in his firmest, most confident voice. “As I told you before, the CFS is interested in contributing funding to your research, but they'll require an audit of your operation's safety standards before they even consider sending a credit."
"All our credentials check out," Luke added gently.
The guard left to bring someone in charge. A researcher, fresh from the dig site, approached with a suspicious look already on her face. But as Nathan explained his purpose, her manner became much more open and welcoming. Something about "tens of thousands of credits in grant funding" seemed to help her relax. Luke wasn't a problem: he apparently came off as trustworthy to everyone else, too.
"I see! Well, we'll need to have you carefully watched, but allow me to show you around the site."
"I'll need full access. And I'll need my assistant, of course."
The researcher frowned and met eyes with the guard. Nathan looked aside to Luke, who smiled reassuringly.
"I'm not going to be a problem," he told the suspicious scientist. She stared, her face contorting as though she was struggling to make a decision, but finally she turned to the guard. "He's not going to be a problem. Let them in."
Once inside, they had to move quickly. Nathan played the role of overbearing, severe safety inspector, checking over everything and making all the researchers very nervous. It was the sort of long plan that would fall apart in the hands of a conman, but Nathan came with the experience, appearance, and know-how needed. He just walked around and inspected their safety standards for real, occasionally mentioning some jargon to communicate his authenticity.
Seemingly unnoticed, Luke ducked away to peek into the project records and the personnel communications.
Meanwhile, Ozz had nothing to do. He stood on an outer corner of the dig site and watched pedestrians amble by.
“Keep walkin’,” he barked at a leering thug, a gran who kept watching him even as he walked on. Guys with that look were trouble.
“Blondie sure takes over everything, doesn’t he? Hah, ‘partners’ my arp. Doesn’t need Ozzie anymore, does he? Not now that he’s got the majestic hooded child-man. Pah! Nerd’s gonna get killed one day, trusting every loser he sees.”
The thought surfaced that Nathan had also, in fact, trusted Ozz himself on many occasions when others had not, and had stood up for him the first several times he was in-line to be fired from the plant on Targonn. He pushed this thought down somewhere deep and dark and summarily ignored it. After all, he’d let him get fired in the end anyway, so what difference did it make? And he knew he hadn’t done anything to deserve that.
“Pah! ‘Lookout duty’. What a load of plog. Might as well have gone back to the ship,” he mumbled bitterly to himself.
The more he thought about it, the more that sounded like a great idea. He was doing absolutely nothing here, except wearing out his legs and offering all the local pickpockets an enticing challenge. Cursing humans (Nathan in particular), Ozz stomped off through the crowds, heading back for the landing pad.
Ozz was napping soundly in the Lucky Star’s cockpit when he was suddenly awoken by the beeping of his comlink.
“Ozz, are you there? OZZ!”
Ozz lurched up in his chair and smacked the transmit button. “What?” he said groggily.
“Are we clear? Is the coast clear?”
“Oh yeah, yeah. Super clear,” the Iakaru replied, still half-asleep. The comlink went silent, and Ozz once again began to snore.
Ozz’s dreams were tumultuous.
“Get out of here! I don’t want to see your face again!”
“But, pop! I swear I got it this next time, no more problems!”
“Get out!” the father screamed. “You’ve been nothing but trouble since the day we first had the misfortune to call you our son! You will always be a problem, and we cannot have more problems! Leave my house, or I’ll call security!”
“You know what, that’s fine!” the son shouted back. “You stupid old fool! You think you’re always right? I don’t gotta be what you think is right. I’ll be what I think is right, and do what I wanna do, and I’ll be just dandy, watch!”
“You idiot, you’re making your mother weep!”
“Oh sure, I’m—that was YOU!” the son yelled. He was shaking with rage. His father looked ready to kill. “Whatever, I’m outta here…See ya never, pops!”
He heard his father launch into another tirade over the sound of his mother crying, but he didn’t look back. He never did.
Ozz was rudely awoken again, this time by Nathan and Luke as they came hurtling into the parked ship.
“Ozz! Get out the medkit!” Nathan shouted.
Ozz flew out of his seat, blinking sleep from his eyes. “Wha-what?”
“A medkit, Ozz! Luke’s hit!”
Ozz flailed into action, popping the latch on a storage container and rummaging inside for the medkit. “Medkit! Right! It’s here somewhere, I know it…”
Nathan was supporting Luke up the ramp, and helped heave him into a chair. Smoke rose from a blaster burn on Luke’s leg.
Ozz’s eyes widened. “Geez, kid! What in the world happened?”
“Bounty hunters,” Luke groaned. “Looking for me. Sorry to make things more complicated.”
Nathan turned to Ozz, glaring. “Wouldn’t have been a problem if someone was where they were supposed to be! ‘Super clear’? You’ve got to be kidding me…where’s that Medkit?”
Ozz blinked again, staring dumbly at the two humans. “…Bounty hunters? But…”
When it was clear the medkit was somewhere deep in the recesses of the ship, Nathan threw up his hands.
“I’ve got to go find a doctor. Wrap something around that wound!” he called back, and he ran down the ramp and back towards the ruins.
Ozz finally came to his senses, and found some loose old clothes to use as wrappings. He knelt by Luke, wincing. “Geez, doesn’t look too good, pal…”
Luke, to his credit, smiled. “I’ve had worse,” he said through his teeth.
“Hey, look, I’m—I feel terrible—“ Ozz managed.
“I appreciate it, but…things happen as they’re meant to. No hard feelings.”
“Well, that’s bunk. But…Aw, geez. Let me keep lookin’ for that medkit. You keep that pressure on good and tight, you got it?”
“Sure, sure,” Luke replied, grimacing.
Soon, Nathan had returned with someone in tow. He came up the ramp followed by two males: a polished man in a coat, along with his Gran assistant…
The Gran from before, the one that was trouble.
“How did this happen?” asked the doctor, hurrying over to the wounded young man.
“Uh, a…weapons malfunction,” Nathan lied, badly.
Ozz immediately knew, with the kind of instinct honed over many years, that these guys were here for Luke. And not here for Luke in a nice, supportive way. Here for Luke in a bounty hunting way.
He kept himself from shouting. They weren’t tipping their hand. He couldn’t either.
The doctor took something out of his coat. “Just a bacta stim, do not worry.”
That was no bacta stim. Wrong fluid color, wrong consistency. Ozz didn’t know what he was about to inject into Luke, but it wasn’t gonna heal him.
The Gran shot him a look. Its hand inched towards its jacket, where a concealed blaster sat holstered. The look said, “Don’t interfere.”
To hell with that, Ozz thought. He made a fist, and bashed the wall with his hand. In a very specific spot.
The overhead storage unit flopped open, spilling debris and a large white case—the Medkit. The deluge of junk hit the Gran in the head, and he fell to the floor with a ‘thwump!’
The doctor spun to look, then, realizing he’d lost his backup, tried to jab the dubious stim into Luke’s leg. Before he could, a “SCHWISH” sound filled the ship, and he found himself stopped by the glow of a blade of green light. Ozz and Nathan leapt back with shouts of alarm. The doctor, only inches from the humming weapon, blinked and gasped in terror, his hand frozen in the air.
Luke, sweaty and injured, stared the man in the eye.
“I’ll let you choose what you do next.”
Nathan and Ozz dropped both of the Bounty Hunters off with a local constable, but the dangerous looks they got made them beat a path back to the Lucky Star as quickly as they could.
“Where did you go, Ozz?” Nathan said angrily.
“What?” Ozz grunted.
“You were supposed to be on lookout, where did you go?” Nathan demanded.
“Back to my ship, of course. Where else would I go?”
“You weren’t supposed to go anywhere in the first place. If you hadn’t, he might not have gotten shot!”
Ozz spun toward him, jabbing a finger at his chest. “Whatcha gonna do about it, you gonna fire me? Huh? Well you can’t, because without my ship, you’re nowhere. And what about you, huh? Your bright-eyed view of the galaxy just almost got us all killed! You wanna check somebody out with me next time you bring ‘em on board my ship? Oh, and that’s right, you’d be on Targonn in cuffs if not for me, and MY SHIP!”
Nathan backed down, speechless. Breathing hard, Ozz slowly cooled off too. They both stood awkwardly outside the Lucky Star, avoiding having to look at each other.
“You’re right,” Nathan admitted.
Ozz let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, yeah…well, maybe you are too, about part of this,” he mumbled.
Nathan looked sheepishly at his companion. “Ozz, I’m sorry.”
The Iakaru turned and glowered at him. “Look here, you don’t you cut me out of plans, and you don’t bring just anyone you see onto our operation! We’re partners, ain’t that what you said back on Garel? We’re doing this bounty hunting gig together, until you pay me what you owe me! You don’t just charge ahead without the both of us bein’ okay with it. That goes for everything we do, you got it?”
Nathan nodded seriously. “…That’s…yeah. Agreed.”
“…Well…good. Glad that’s settled, then,” Ozz muttered. He hadn’t expected so little resistance, but Nathan was obviously sincere. “Let’s…get back onboard, huh?”
They turned to ascend the ramp.
“Hey nerd,” Oz said. “Still worried about the overhead bins?”
“Are you kidding me? Way more than before. Now the Star is a proven deathtrap.”
“But a useful deathtrap!”
Onboard, Nathan and Luke briefed Ozz on what they’d gotten from the dig site, before the Bounty Hunters had jumped them. Luke managed to extract not only the identity of the Imperial Spy, based on info Nathan gave him, but he had found communication records locked up with old Imperial codes; nearly verifiable proof of Imperial activity.
“But that’s not all,” Nathan said with a sigh. “It also looks like the dig site is partly funded by some sketchy, Imperial-linked sources. That means they probably won’t turn over one of their own researchers just because we say he’s an Imperial.”
“Hmm, makes things tough,” Ozz agreed. “Maybe we can make this guy disappear some other way. Grab him when he makes a borka run, or somethin’?”
“Maybe.”
Ozz stood up and rummaged in the storage unit. “Well, you think about it, I’m gonna rustle us up some grub. Who likes Tortaul?”
“Only in stew,” Luke said. “My aunt used to make great Tortaul stew.”
“Well, I ain’t your aunt. No promises.”
Smiling, Nathan went to step outside. “I’m gonna get some air. Be back in a few.”
They had what they needed: the identity of the spy, and proof of his wrongdoing. But learning about the Imperial funding complicated things; there was no guarantee that trying to turn the spy over wouldn’t land them in even deeper trouble. Nathan stood outside the Lucky Star, looking into the night-dark tree line and listening to the sounds of the forest, conflict roiling in his head. He must’ve been too deep in thought to notice Luke approach him.
“Nice work today,” he said.
“Thanks, you too.”
Luke looked at him closely. “Everything alright?”
“Sure, sure…” Nathan replied, but it was hollow and untrue. Luke knew it. His incredulous look made Nathan scoff at himself, and he relaxed his defenses.
“Well, no.”
“I thought so,” Luke said kindly. “What’s on your mind?”
Nathan took a deep breath. “Right now, the Empire isn’t causing any trouble,” he said. “This place is…peaceful. I’m not sure how we’re going to stop the spy. If we can’t trust the law here, then we might have to take things into our own hands. It feels…I don’t know. It almost feels wrong to bring violence somewhere where things are peaceful.”
Luke thought for a moment before responding. “Things aren’t peaceful, just quiet. I know what you mean, Nathan, but you have to look past the way that things appear and see what they really are.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The Empire isn’t oppressing this place, you’re right. But their research here could lead to the deaths of people elsewhere. It wouldn’t be the first time.” He turned to the younger man, his expression serious. “Just because evil is speaking in a whisper doesn’t mean we should stop up our ears and ignore it.”
That made sense to Nathan, and he saw a clear path through part of his confusion. “Okay, you’re right. Being afraid to start trouble now could mean much worse for someone later. So, what do we do?” he asked helplessly. “Murder the spy? How can that be right?”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Is that your only possible option?”
Nathan thought for a moment. He was being dumb. “No,” he admitted.
“What else is there?”
Nathan hesitated before answering. He wanted to be confident of his reply. “…We confront him. We let him make the choice. If we have to, we use our weapons in defense. Otherwise, we take him to somewhere he’ll never hurt someone again.”
Luke nodded. “I think that’s wise. See? There’s always a right way. Sometimes you have to look hard to see it, but it’s always there.”
“Thanks for helping me look.”
Luke smiled and clapped him on the back. “Anytime! I think Ozz has something resembling food ready.”
Dinner was surprisingly edible. Ozz had spiced the stew with a variety of flavoring cocktails he’d picked up on his travels. It turns out he perceived himself as something of a gourmet.
“My specialty is taking trash, and turning it into a bee-ute-a-ful artful masterpiece,” he had said, grinning toothily in a way that did not inspire confidence.
“We need a plan. What have we got to work with? Tell me about everything you have on the ship, Ozz. Anything that could be useful.”
“Useful for…”
“Specifically, for hunting bounties. But I don’t want you to leave anything out, so think useful for anything at all.”
They talked over their bowls about how to trap the Imperial spy and eventually decided on a final plan, one that mitigated the risk of their untimely deaths. It was nevertheless a bold plan, once that was to be executed that very night. They busied themselves with finding the various pieces of equipment they would need, and stumbled on a few along the way that Ozz had either neglected to mention, or had never seen in his life, so deep had they delved into the Lucky Star’s storage bins.
“Luke, you should stay here.” Nathan said.
“No, no, I’m coming along, you guys will want the help—“
Nathan shook his head sternly, glancing at Ozz. They had obviously talked it over in private. “I appreciate that, but this is something we’ve got to do on our own.”
“Not like we’ll have ya next time, clean-cut,” Ozz added.
“Besides, you should rest that leg.”
Luke was surprised, but he complied with their wishes. He borrowed a bunk on the Lucky Star for the night, and saw them off with a wish of good luck.
Ked Ereda said goodnight to his fellow researchers and stole away to the communications relay. Tense, he watched the stone entrance for any interruptions while he uploaded the most recent batch of encoded data, but once again, he was undiscovered and successful.
He slept in a habitat just outside the ruin complex, a Spartan, bare space that befitted a servant. This suited him. His life for the cause. His comfort, as well. His comfort was the dream of a new Sith Empire, the kind of the former order could only have dreamed of. But he had done the research, seen things in his studies. These temples were their monuments. He would bleed for the honor to scrape the stones they’d walked on.
His nature had him keep away from the main paths, preferring to go unnoticed by the rabble who leeched off the dig site. He crossed into the shadows of a narrow passage, stone on both sides and tangled vines overhead.
Someone stepped into his path ahead. Instinctively, he turned to go back, but another had blocked him there. One tall, one stocky, both wearing helmets that hid their faces. He ground his teeth. Muggers, no doubt. He carried nothing valuable, the fools could do what they liked.
“You’re Dr. Ereda, aren’t you?” said the taller one.
Ereda raised his hands. “I have nothing of value, please, leave me be,” he said carefully.
“Ha! Nothing of value?” scoffed the shorter. “Why? Didja already send it off to your Imperial pals?”
The researcher paled in the darkness. They knew. How could they know? His mind flew to the capsule embedded his wisdom teeth. He knew what he was supposed to do, but Dr. Ereda did not welcome death.
“Hit it, Nate.”
A flash of blue came from the taller thug, and Dr. Ereda felt a strange, painless shock course through his body. An ion blast. Startled, he realized this would disable the disintegration capsule. How could they have known? These were no simple thugs, these creatures were a threat to the dream.
He grabbed for the knife at his belt.
“Feisty, eh? Wait…Nate! Stop him before he--!”
Nathan rushed forward and grabbed the man’s wrist, just as he had been pushing the knife towards his own throat.
“Woah, not today, pal!” he said as they struggled, and the knife was knocked safely away. “You’re coming with us, doctor!”
Dr. Ereda felt something hot press into his back. His body jolted, and he slumped to the ground, stunned and unconscious.
Ozz pocketed the stunner and depolarized the visor of the old EVA harness he was wearing, revealing the wide grin on his face. Nathan followed suit with his old mining helmet.
“Not bad, nerd! Not bad at all!” Ozz said. “You’re scrappier than I thought. Gotta admit, Ozzie’s a little bit—a tiny bit—impressed. Where the hell’d you learn to hit like that?”
“Grew up in an orphanage,” Nathan said, his breath short. “Comes with the territory, I guess.”
“Huh! We might just be able to do this bounty hunting thing!”
Nathan gave him a wry smile. “What, you had doubts?”
“Only ‘bout you,” Ozz grunted, as he tried to lift the limp, flailing form of the unconscious spy. “But hey, gotta admit, that helmet helps you look the part. Covers up the serious, snot-nosed brat face of yours. Help me out here, would ya?”
Nathan positioned himself at the man’s torso while Ozz had the legs. “I can’t believe that didn’t go wrong. I was sure it was going to wrong.”
“Hey, bring back the optimism, would ya? You know, you’re not bad for muscle. Wanna be my official employee?”
“Shut up.”
They were lucky the streets were quiet, they only had to spin a “he had a little too much to drink” explanation a few times, and nobody seemed interested in questioning them any further. Apparently, Massassi 12 was a terrible place to get kidnapped if you’re relying on community spirit to come to your aid.
When they reached the ship, they found Luke sitting just outside. He smiled and clapped as they set the man down.
“Hey! You guys did it, you apprehended an Imperial spy.”
“Well, kid, we are professionals,” Ozz boasted.
Luke’s smile took on a wry quality. “Sure, sure, and these spies aren’t what they were a few years ago, but…”
Nathan gave Luke a pained look. He grinned.
“…But still, you should be proud,” he said earnestly, and then he stood in preparation to leave. “Thank you both, you helped me find what I was looking for.”
“Hey, likewise, clean-cut!”
Nathan stepped forward, worry creasing his face. “Luke, did you find anything about Mayla?”
“No, I didn’t,” replied the young man, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Nathan.”
Nathan’s face fell, and the hope left him in a sigh. Before he could get too despondent, Luke continued.
“But I have something else. A lead on what Moff Pyerce is looking for. If you’re able to find it first, maybe you’ll find her too.”
“Yes! I’ll take anything you’ve got.”
“Pyerce is searching for old artifacts, holocrons, objects used to store knowledge by both the Jedi and the Sith in ages past.”
“He must be getting desperate, I thought all that stuff was just fairy tales.”
“Maybe less than you think,” Luke said with a coy smile. “Nathan, can I trust you to help me with something?”
Nathan nodded seriously. Ozz rolled his eyes at the two humans, who were painfully sincere from his point of view.
Luke produced a small, weathered book, which he held out to Nathan. “These are just a few notes I’ve written down while searching for similar objects. You can take them, they might help on your search.”
“Wow, thanks—“
“If you could, I’d like you to add to them as you go. One day, when we meet again, I want to hear about what you learned.”
Nathan looked at the book, skimmed its contents, and looked up at Luke with wide eyes. “You want…my help? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have your book?”
“I trust you, Nathan. I sense a good heart in you. Besides, I remember everything in the book.”
Ozz looked on, speechless, as Nathan eagerly stepped forward and shook the man’s hand. “I’d be glad to.”
“Great,” Luke smiled. “As for your next steps, I recommend the planet Ossus. There’s a Duros there, studying the ancient Jedi ruins. His name is Abay. He should be able to help you out.” Luke lifted his hood over his head, and turned back before leaving. “I hope you find what you’re looking for, Nathan. Take care of each other! May the Force be with both of you.”
Nathan looked at him quizzically. “Uh, sure. You too, with the force thing.”
“Huh,” Ozz grunted. “It’s been real, clean-cut. Take care of yourself, alright?"
Luke grinned and nodded. “I will.”
Then he turned, and disappeared into the darkness of Yavin’s jungle.
Ozz and Nathan stood there for a moment, watching where he had been, before they finally returned to the present.
“Weird guy,” said Nathan, staring at the book he’d been given.
“Sure is,” Ozz agreed. “No wonder you two get along.” He turned and gave the unconscious spy a gentle kick.
“Alright, Payday. Let’s get you to a guild broker, eh? I got fuel to put in my tank.” He leaned down to drag the man up the ramp. “You get to share a closet with the droid.”
Once everything was settled, they raised the ramp and took their spots in the cockpit.
“We’ve got a heading. We’re looking for these ‘holocron’ things. If we can beat Pyerce’s agents to them, that’s our best bet of stopping whatever he’s got planned.”
“And findin’ yer girl.”
“And finding Mayla.”
“This better not be a wild bantha chase,” Ozz said, shaking his head. “We’re still gonna make money, right?”
Nathan nodded. “If we don’t, we won’t be at this long…imagine if we brought in Pyerce himself. You can’t even imagine the credits that’d get us.”
“Oh yeah? Betcha I can.” He eased up the throttle, lifting the Lucky Star slowly into the air. “I’m going to fly to one of the bigger settlements, bet we’ll find a broker in one of those. Strap yourself in, nerd. I don’t need anyone else getting a head injury on my ship. It’s bad luck.”
Nathan tapped the navicomputer’s controls, zeroing in a course for Ossus. “Once we’ve offloaded the guy, and we’re out of orbit, we’re jumping to Maridun, then Phindar. From there, we’ll take the Salin Corridor. I’ve never heard of Ossus,” he mused. “What do you think it’s like?”
“I bet it’s terrible,” Ozz said grimly. “This whole ‘holocron hunt’ thing is going to bankrupt me, just you watch.”
Nathan watched the tops of the trees fly by underneath them. He looked down, to the weathered book sitting in his lap. It was nice to be entrusted with something again. He had always taken to tasks quickly, he liked to do things well. This would be no different.
One step closer to Mayla, he thought to himself. That also meant another step closer to danger, danger that, at the moment, he couldn't even imagine.
Some background:
The Rolls-Royce Griffon engine was designed in answer to Royal Navy specifications for an engine capable of generating good power at low altitudes. Concepts for adapting the Spitfire to take the new engine had begun as far back as October 1939; Joseph Smith felt that "The good big 'un will eventually beat the good little 'un." and Ernest Hives of Rolls-Royce thought that the Griffon would be "a second power string for the Spitfire". The first of the Griffon-engined Spitfires flew on 27 November 1941. Although the Griffon-powered Spitfires were never produced in the large numbers of the Merlin-engined variants they were an important part of the Spitfire family, and in their later versions kept the Spitfire at the forefront of piston-engined fighter development. The first Griffon-powered Spitfires suffered from poor high- altitude performance due to having only a single stage supercharged engine. By 1943, Rolls-Royce engineers had developed a new Griffon engine, the 61 series, with a two-stage supercharger. In the end it was a slightly modified engine, the 65 series, which was used in the Mk. XIV, the first Spitfire mark with a Griffon engine to enter service. The resulting aircraft provided a substantial performance increase over the Mk IX. Although initially based on the Mk VIII airframe, common improvements made in aircraft produced later included the cut-back fuselage and tear-drop canopies, and the E-Type wing with improved armament.
The Mk. XIV differed from its direct predecessor, the Mk XII, in that the longer, two-stage supercharged Griffon 65, producing 2,050 hp (1,528 kW), was mounted 10 inches (25.4 cm) further forward. The top section of the engine bulkhead was angled forward, creating a distinctive change of angle to the upper cowling's rear edge. A new five-bladed Rotol propeller of 10 ft 5 in (3.18 m) in diameter was used. The "fishtail" design of ejector exhaust stub gave way to ones of circular section. The increased cooling requirements of the Griffon engine meant that all radiators were much bigger, and the underwing housings were deeper than previous versions. The cowling fasteners were new, flush fitting "Amal" type and there were more of them. The oil tank (which had been moved from the lower cowling location of the Merlin engine variants to forward of the fuselage fuel tanks) was increased in capacity from 6 to 10 gal.
To help balance the new engine, the radio equipment was moved further back in the rear fuselage and the access hatch was moved from the left fuselage side to the right. Better VHF radio equipment allowed for the aerial mast to be removed and replaced by a "whip" aerial further aft on the fuselage spine. Because the longer nose and the increased slipstream of the big five-bladed propeller a new tail unit with a taller, broader fin and a rudder of increased area was adopted.
When the new fighter entered service with 610 Squadron in December 1943 it was a leap forward in the evolution of the Spitfire. The Mk. XIV could climb to 20,000 ft (6,100 m) in just over five minutes and its top speed, which was achieved at 25,400 ft (7,700 m), was 446 mph (718 km/h). In operational service many pilots initially found that the new fighter could be difficult to handle, particularly if they were used to earlier Spitfire marks. But in spite of the difficulties, pilots appreciated the performance increases.
F Mk. XIVs had a total of 109.5 gal of fuel consisting of 84 gal in two main tanks and a 12.5 imp gal fuel tank in each leading-edge wing tank; other 30, 45, 50 or 90 gal drop tanks could be carried. The fighter's maximum range was just a little over 460 miles (740 km) on internal fuel, since the new Griffon engine consumed much more fuel per hour than the original Merlin engine of earlier variants. By late 1944, Spitfire XIVs were fitted with an extra 33 gal in a rear fuselage fuel tank, extending the fighter's range to about 850 miles (1,370 km) on internal fuel and a 90 gal drop tank. Mk. XIVs with "tear-drop" canopies had 64 gal. As a result, F and FR Mk. XIVs had a range that was increased to over 610 miles (980 km), or 960 miles (1,540 km) with a 90 gal drop tank. The armament initially consisted of two 20 mm Hispano cannon and four light 0.303” machine guns (in a standard “C” wing configuration), but later builds had the latter replaced with a pair of heavier 0.5” machine guns that had better range and weight of fire (“E” wing configuration).
The first test of the aircraft was in intercepting V1 flying bombs and the Mk. XIV was the most successful of all Spitfire marks in this role. When 150 octane fuel was introduced in mid-1944 the "boost" of the Griffon engine was able to be increased to +25 lbs (80.7"), allowing the top speed to be increased by about 30 mph (26 kn; 48 km/h) to 400 mph (350 kn; 640 km/h) at 2,000 ft (610 m).
The Mk. XIV was used by the 2nd Tactical Air Force as their main high-altitude air superiority fighter in northern Europe with six squadrons operational by December 1944.
One problem which did arise in service was localized skin wrinkling on the wings and fuselage at load attachment points; although Supermarine advised that the Mk. XIVs had not been seriously weakened, nor were they on the point of failure, the RAF issued instructions in early 1945 that all F and FR Mk. XIVs were to be refitted with clipped wings. Spitfire XIVs began to arrive in the South-East Asian Theatre in June 1945, too late to operate against the Japanese. In total, 957 Mk. XIVs were built, over 430 of which were FR Mk. XIVs.
After the war, secondhand Mk. XIVs still in good shape were exported to a number of foreign air forces; 132 went to the Royal Belgian Air Force, 70 went to the Royal Indian Air Force and 30 of the reconnaissance version went to the Royal Thai Air Force. The Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF) was another operator, even though only a small one.
In late 1946, five years after the Anglo-Iraqi War had left the RIrAF shattered, the Iraqis reached an agreement with the British under which they would return their surviving Avro Ansons in exchange for the authorization to order more modern and potent fighter aircraft from the UK, namely Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Furies. The next year, three de Havilland Doves and three Bristol Freighters were ordered, too, and they arrived in early 1947 with a batch of ten refurbished ex-RAF Spitfire F Mk. XIVcs, some of them WWII survivors. All these machines received the original wing tips to better cope with the expected higher ambient temperatures in the Middle Eastern theatre of operations, reinforced aluminum skinning along the wing roots, and they were retrofitted with hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage to carry unguided missiles, bombs and drop tanks, what gave them an additional ground attack capability. The radio equipment was modernized, too, including a DF loop antenna as navigational aid. Despite these standardizations, though, the Spitfires were delivered with a mix of the different canopies.
The RIrAF was still recovering and re-structuring its assets when it joined in the war against the newly created state of Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The RIrAF only played a small role in the first war against Israel, though. A few Spitfire F Mk. XIVs as well as Avro Anson training bombers operated from Transjordan airfields from where they flew several attacks against the Israelis. After a series of indiscriminate attacks on Arab capitals, flown by three Boeing B-17s that had been pressed into service by the Israeli Air Force, the governments of Transjordan and Syria demanded that the Iraqis take more offensive action and replace their Ansons with Hawker Furies. However, only six Furies were sent to Damascus to join the Spitfires in the region, and they never encountered any Israeli aircraft during their deployment.
Despite some effective attacks on ground targets by the Spitfires, limited amount of cannon ammunition, RPGs and suitable bombs heavily limited the Iraqi operations. The fighters were mostly used for armed reconnaissance, and three Spitfires were upgraded to FR Mk. XIV standard for this purpose. In 1949 a second batch of eight more Spitfire F Mk. XIVs was delivered from Britain, and in 1951 the RIrAF purchased 20 more Fury F.Mk.1s, for a total of 50 F.Mk.1s single-seaters and 2 two-seaters. They soon replaced the Spitfires in frontline units, even though the machines were still kept in service.
In the early Fifties, thanks to increased income from oil and agricultural exports, the RIrAF was thoroughly re-equipped. In 1951, 15 each of de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks, Percival Provosts and North American T-6s were bought to replace obsolete de Havilland Tiger Moth trainers. With these new aircraft the RIrAF Flying School was expanded into the Air Force College. The training curriculum was improved, and the number of students graduating each year was increased. This allowed to form a solid basis for the RIrAF's long-term growth. Also in 1951, the RIrAF bought its first helicopters: three Westland Dragonflies. The RIrAF's first jet fighter was the de Havilland Vampire: 12 FB.Mk.52 fighters and 10 T.Mk.55 trainers were delivered from 1953 to 1955, and they fully replaced the Spitfires. The Vampires were quickly supplemented by 20 de Havilland Venoms, delivered between 1954 and 1956.
Following the formation of the Baghdad Pact, the United States donated at least six Stinson L-5 Sentinels and seven Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs to the RIrAF. The RAF also vacated Shaibah Air Base, and the RIrAF took over it as Wahda Air Base. In 1957, six Hawker Hunter F.Mk.6s were delivered. The next year, the United States agreed to provide 36 F-86F Sabres free of charge.
However, following the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which resulted in the end of monarchy in Iraq, the influence of the Iraqi Communist Party grew significantly. The first commander of the Iraqi Air Force (the "Royal" prefix was dropped after the revolution), Jalal Jaffar al-Awqati, was an outspoken communist, and encouraged prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim to improve relations between Iraq and the USSR. The Soviets reacted quickly, and in the autumn of 1958 a series of arms contracts was passed between Iraq and the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. These stipulated the delivery of MiG-15UTI trainers, MiG-17F fighters, Ilyushin Il-28 bombers, and Antonov An-2 and An-12 transports. The first aircraft arrived in Iraq in January 1959; during the late Sixties and the early Seventies additional MiG-17s may have been purchased and then forwarded to either Syria or Egypt.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 32 ft 8 in (9.96 m)
Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m) with full span elliptical tips
Height: 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)
Wing area: 242.1 sq ft (22.49 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 2213 (root), NACA 2209.4 (tip)
Empty weight: 6,578 lb (2,984 kg)
Gross weight: 7,923 lb (3,594 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,400[53] lb (3,810 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 supercharged V12, 2,050 hp (1,530 kW) at 8,000 ft (2,438 m),
driving a 5-bladed Jablo-Rotol propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 441 mph (710 km/h, 383 kn) in FS supercharger gear at 29,500 ft.
391 mph in MS supercharger gear at 5,500 ft.
Combat range: 460 mi (740 km, 400 nmi)
Ferry range: 1,090 mi (1,760 km, 950 nmi)
Service ceiling: 43,500 ft (13,300 m)
Rate of climb: 5,040 ft/min (25.6 m/s) in MS supercharger gear at 2,100 ft.
3,550 ft/min in FS supercharger gear at 22,100 ft.
Time to altitude: 7 mins to 22,000 ft (at max weight)
Wing loading: 32.72 lb/sq ft (159.8 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.24
Armament:
2× 20 mm (0.787-in) Hispano Mk II cannon, 120 rpg
4× 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 350 rpg,
Underwing hard points for 8× 60 lb (27 kg) rockets, 2 x 250 lb (113 kg) bombs or slipper tanks,
1× ventral hardpoint for a 500 lb (227 kg) bomb or a drop tank
The kit and its assembly:
This was a rather spontaneous interim build. The Academy Spitfire was left over from a D-Day combo that contained a Hawker Typhoon, too, and I lacked an idea for the Spitfire for a long time) since I am not a big fan of the aircraft, at least what-if-inspiration-wise). However, when pondering about a potential operator from the very early pos-war period I remembered the Royal Iraqi Air Force and its later Hawker Hunters which retained their NATO-style camouflage (RAF green/grey) despite being primarily operated in a desert environment. This, on a Spitfire…?
From this idea the Academy Spitfire was built almost OOB. Because the kit offers them as an option and for the cool look, I gave the Spitfire four RPGs under each outer wing. The ventral drop tank was taken from a Special Hobby late Spitfire kit. The only other additions are the antenna mast and the non-standard DF loop antenna behind the cockpit, created from thin wire and mounted on a small, streamlined socket.
Painting and markings:
The upper surfaces were painted in standard RAF WWII colors, Dark Green and Ocean Grey, using a mix of Humbrol 163 and 30 for a slightly more bluish WWII-style green and a mix of 106 and 145 for a lightened grey tone, respectively. As an individual contrast and paint scheme variation the undersides and the spinner were painted in RAF Azure Blue (Humbrol 157, lightened up with 47), more appropriate than the standard WWII Medium Sea Grey from the European theatre of operations. The cockpit interior became RAF cockpit green (Humbro,78) while the inside surfaces of the landing gear were painted in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165), reflecting the original undersides’ tone in former RAF service.
Other markings were minimal. The Iraqi triangles were taken from a Balkan Models Su-25 sheet, because their green was rather pale, for more contrast to the surrounding camouflage. RIrAF fin flash was taken from a PM Model Hawker Fury two-seater (a.k.a. “Bagdad Fury”). The tactical code came from an Airfix Hawker Hunter (from an optional Kuwaiti machine). This looked O.K. but somewhat bleak, so I added more markings. I could not find any evidence for special ID markings on Iraqi aircraft during the Arab-Israel war, but to add an eye-catcher I gave the aircraft white ID bands on the wings and on the fuselage – inspired by markings carried by Egyptian aircraft (e. g. Spitfires) during the conflict, but somewhat simplified, without black trim. They were created from generic white decal sheet material.
After some soot stains around the gun ports and the exhausts, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
A relatively simple project and just a fictional livery - but the Iraqi Spitfire looks pretty cool, especially the ID stripes add a special touch. The European RAF scheme looks a bit off on an aircraft that would be delivered to the Middel East, but the Iraqi Air Force operated British types like the Hunter in this guise, and later Su-22 fighter bombers carried a similarly murky camouflage in very dark green and earth brown.
Nature is capable of taking us on the most amazing journeys.
An overwintering colony of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) flying in warmth of midday sun in Michoacan, Mexico. Their Stay in Mexico is just one inter-generational part of one of nature's most astounding migrations. These butterflies will embark on an arduous journey to Canada for the Summer - only they will not make it themselves but the generations that come after them.
Find out more: bit.ly/Vbdg5E
© naturepl.com / Ingo Arndt / WWF-Canon
Find out more:about WWF's work to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature: wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/
image may not be used without permission.
ex 4R-ADF SriLankan Air.
To be converted into a 90 seat VIP/ Corporate transport,capable of UK-Sydney non stop.
Having posted what the camera capable of previously, this photo is 2 frame stack to show what I see.
Below links for your leisure reading:
www.cambridgeincolour.com/t…/cameras-vs-human-eye.htm
petapixel.com/…/…/17/the-camera-versus-the-human-eye/
Pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica)
The Pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in tropical southern Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. It is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. This bird is associated with coasts, but is increasingly spreading to forested uplands.
This species is a small swallow at 13 cm. It has a blue back with browner wings and tail, a red face and throat, and dusky underparts. It differs from the barn swallow and the closely related welcome swallow in its shorter and less forked tail.
The Pacific swallow builds a neat cup-shaped nest, constructed with mud pellets collected in the beak, under a cliff ledge or on a man-made structures such as a building, bridge or tunnel. The nest is lined with softer material, and the clutch is two to three eggs, up to four in Sri Lanka. It is similar in behaviour to other aerial insectivores, such as other swallows and the unrelated swifts. It is a fast flyer and feeds on insects, especially flies, while airborne.
[Credit to en.wikipedia.org/]
I sever his right hand from the rest of his arm and the blood races of the wound. He takes a moment to look at it before he passes out due to shock. At first it looks as though he's losing a large amount of blood which has me worried but I choose not to help him. If he's strong he'll survive. If not, he didn't deserve the life he had.
As I pick the hard drive up off the ground I prepare to make my leave before a familiar noise is heard behind me.
*Click*
Looks like it's not just the dear old Commissioner who's a fool.
"Hold it right there buster! You're under arrest for assaulting an officer!"
The man is taking several deep breaths and notably over weight. No doubt he's raced up the stairs to try and find his beloved Commissioner only to stumble across me. It's tempting to off this fool here and now but I haven't the time. It won't be long before word of this attack reaches Bruce if it hasn't already so I need to take my leave before he shows up.
With that I ignore the officers orders and turn to exit the office through the window that I entered from.
"I said hold it! Stay right there or I will fire on you!"
He takes a few steps forward so he's stood above the commissioner and gives him a quick look trying to ascertain the injuries, if the severed hand wasn't enough of a clue.
"Jim? Jim are you alright? Come on you stubborn old fool get up!"
"He's already lost a substantial amount of blood, more than I expected. If you hurry he must just make it."
"What and just let you go? Yeah yeah buddy nice try."
"The choice is yours. You can try and restrain me if you think you're capable of it, but in reality what will happen if you're stupid enough to try that is I'll slit your throat. Then by the time any first aiders make it to either of you it will be too late."
He pauses for a few moments as he traits decide his next move. Wisely he makes the right choice and lowers his weapon.
"A wise choice."
The officer kneels down next to his commissioner and starts speaking into his radio.
"This Detective Harvey Bullock to any and all medical staff I need someone in the Commissioner's office right away, the Commissioner has been attack. Repeat I need a medical officer immediately!"
With that I take my leave, and all before dear old Bruce can make an appearance. Maybe he's not as clairvoyant as everyone says he is, or maybe our fight had more of an impact on him than I thought either way with this data from the GCPD can I move ahead with bringing in my support.
Digital cameras of today are technological marvels, and capable of capturing images that even the human eye can't see. This thirty second exposure was shot at 6:30 am, well before sunrise and in nearly complete darkness - but the camera's sensor captured enough light to render the scene as if it were shot in broad daylight.
Location: Jensen Beach, Florida
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© All rights reserved. Please do not use or repost - words and images, intellectual property of Florida Life / Thüncher Photography.
Capable of reaching a height of nearly three feet tall, this gentle giant of summer is among the largest members of the Lily Family. With recurved petals colored yellow to orange and bearing reddish-brown spots, this flower can be identified from some distance away, growing on moist roadsides and meadows. Up to 40 flowers have been counted on just one plant of L. superbum, while a similar but smaller species, L. michauxii bears only 1 to 6 flowers per plant. Blooming time for both species begins in July and runs through September. This plant possesses no significant medicinal properties, although early American Indians used the bulbs in soups.
C-130 Hercules military transport plane heading east over my house and turning south to approach the Davis-Monthan AFB runway from the southeast to the northwest.
______________________________
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules
C-130 Hercules
Straight-wing, four-engine turboprop-driven aircraft overflying water
USAF C-130E
Role: Military transport aircraft
National origin: United States
ManufacturerLockheed
Lockheed Martin
First flight23 August 1954
Status: In service
Primary users:
United States Air Force
United States Marine Corps
Royal Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Produced: 1954–present
Number built: Over 2,500 as of 2015[1]
Unit cost
C-130E $11.9 million[2]
C-130H $30.1 million[3]
Variants:
AC-130 Spectre/Spooky
Lockheed DC-130
Lockheed EC-130
Lockheed HC-130
Lockheed Martin KC-130
Lockheed LC-130
Lockheed MC-130
Lockheed WC-130
Lockheed L-100 Hercules
Developed into: Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin.
Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medivac, and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as a gunship (AC-130),for
airborne assault,
search and rescue,
scientific research support,
weather reconnaissance,
aerial refueling,
maritime patrol, and
aerial firefighting.
It is now the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over forty models and variants of the Hercules, including a civilian one marketed as Lockheed L-100, operate in more than sixty nations.
The C-130 entered service with the U.S. in the 1950s, followed by Australia and others. During its years of service, the Hercules family has participated in numerous military, civilian and humanitarian aid operations. In 2007, the C-130 became the fifth aircraft—after the English Electric Canberra, B-52 Stratofortress, Tu-95, and KC-135 Stratotanker—to mark 50 years of continuous service with its original primary customer, in this case, the United States Air Force. The C-130 Hercules is the longest continuously produced military aircraft at over 60 years, with the updated C-130J Super Hercules being produced today.[4]
Contents [hide]
1Design and development
1.1Background and requirements
1.2Design phase
1.3Improved versions
1.4More improvements
1.5Later models
1.6Next generation
1.7Upgrades and changes
1.8Replacement
2Operational history
2.1Military
2.2Civilian
3Variants
4Operators
5Accidents
6Aircraft on display
6.1Australia
6.2Canada
6.3Colombia
6.4Indonesia
6.5Norway
6.6Saudi Arabia
6.7United Kingdom
6.8United States
7Specifications (C-130H)
8See also
9References
10External links
Design and development[edit]
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Background and requirements[edit]
The Korean War, which began in June 1950, showed that World War II-era piston-engine transports—Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars, Douglas C-47 Skytrains and Curtiss C-46 Commandos—were inadequate for modern warfare. Thus, on 2 February 1951, the United States Air Force issued a General Operating Requirement (GOR) for a new transport to Boeing, Douglas, Fairchild, Lockheed, Martin, Chase Aircraft, North American, Northrop, and Airlifts Inc. The new transport would have a capacity of 92 passengers, 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers in a cargo compartment that was approximately 41 feet (12 m) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) high, and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide. Unlike transports derived from passenger airliners, it was to be designed from the ground-up as a combat transport with loading from a hinged loading ramp at the rear of the fuselage.
A key feature was the introduction of the Allison T56 turboprop powerplant, first developed specifically for the C-130. At the time, the turboprop was a new application of turbine engines that used exhaust gases to turn a propeller, which offered greater range at propeller-driven speeds compared to pure turbojets, which were faster but consumed more fuel. As was the case on helicopters of that era, such as the UH-1 Huey, turboshafts produced much more power for their weight than piston engines. Lockheed would subsequently use the same engines and technology in the Lockheed L-188 Electra. That aircraft failed financially in its civilian configuration but was successfully adapted into the Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol and submarine attack aircraft where the efficiency and endurance of turboprops excelled.
Design phase[edit]
The Hercules resembled a larger four-engine brother to the C-123 Provider with a similar wing and cargo ramp layout that evolved from the Chase XCG-20 Avitruc, which in turn, was first designed and flown as a cargo glider in 1947.[5] The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter also had a rear ramp, which made it possible to drive vehicles onto the plane (also possible with forward ramp on a C-124). The ramp on the Hercules was also used to airdrop cargo, which included low-altitude extraction for Sheridan tanks and even dropping large improvised "daisy cutter" bombs.
The new Lockheed cargo plane design possessed a range of 1,100 nmi (1,270 mi; 2,040 km), takeoff capability from short and unprepared strips, and the ability to fly with one engine shut down. Fairchild, North American, Martin, and Northrop declined to participate. The remaining five companies tendered a total of ten designs: Lockheed two, Boeing one, Chase three, Douglas three, and Airlifts Inc. one. The contest was a close affair between the lighter of the two Lockheed (preliminary project designation L-206) proposals and a four-turboprop Douglas design.
The Lockheed design team was led by Willis Hawkins, starting with a 130-page proposal for the Lockheed L-206.[6] Hall Hibbard, Lockheed vice president and chief engineer, saw the proposal and directed it to Kelly Johnson, who did not care for the low-speed, unarmed aircraft, and remarked, "If you sign that letter, you will destroy the Lockheed Company."[6] Both Hibbard and Johnson signed the proposal and the company won the contract for the now-designated Model 82 on 2 July 1951.[7]
The first flight of the YC-130 prototype was made on 23 August 1954 from the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California. The aircraft, serial number 53-3397, was the second prototype, but the first of the two to fly. The YC-130 was piloted by Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer on its 61-minute flight to Edwards Air Force Base; Jack Real and Dick Stanton served as flight engineers. Kelly Johnson flew chase in a Lockheed P2V Neptune.[8]
After the two prototypes were completed, production began in Marietta, Georgia, where over 2,300 C-130s have been built through 2009.[9]
The initial production model, the C-130A, was powered by Allison T56-A-9 turboprops with three-blade propellers and originally equipped with the blunt nose of the prototypes. Deliveries began in December 1956, continuing until the introduction of the C-130B model in 1959. Some A-models were equipped with skis and re-designated C-130D.
As the C-130A became operational with Tactical Air Command (TAC), the C-130's lack of range became apparent and additional fuel capacity was added in the form of external pylon-mounted tanks at the end of the wings.
Improved versions[edit]
A Michigan Air National Guard C-130E dispatches its flares during a low-level training mission
The C-130B model was developed to complement the A-models that had previously been delivered, and incorporated new features, particularly increased fuel capacity in the form of auxiliary tanks built into the center wing section and an AC electrical system. Four-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers replaced the Aeroproducts three-blade propellers that distinguished the earlier A-models. The C-130B had ailerons with increased boost—3,000 psi (21 MPa) versus 2,050 psi (14 MPa)—as well as uprated engines and four-blade propellers that were standard until the J-model's introduction.
An electronic reconnaissance variant of the C-130B was designated C-130B-II. A total of 13 aircraft were converted. The C-130B-II was distinguished by its false external wing fuel tanks, which were disguised signals intelligence (SIGINT) receiver antennas. These pods were slightly larger than the standard wing tanks found on other C-130Bs. Most aircraft featured a swept blade antenna on the upper fuselage, as well as extra wire antennas between the vertical fin and upper fuselage not found on other C-130s. Radio call numbers on the tail of these aircraft were regularly changed so as to confuse observers and disguise their true mission.
The extended-range C-130E model entered service in 1962 after it was developed as an interim long-range transport for the Military Air Transport Service. Essentially a B-model, the new designation was the result of the installation of 1,360 US gal (5,150 L) Sargent Fletcher external fuel tanks under each wing's midsection and more powerful Allison T56-A-7A turboprops. The hydraulic boost pressure to the ailerons was reduced back to 2050 psi as a consequence of the external tanks' weight in the middle of the wingspan. The E model also featured structural improvements, avionics upgrades and a higher gross weight. Australia took delivery of 12 C130E Hercules during 1966–67 to supplement the 12 C-130A models already in service with the RAAF. Sweden and Spain fly the TP-84T version of the C-130E fitted for aerial refueling capability.
The KC-130 tankers, originally C-130F procured for the US Marine Corps (USMC) in 1958 (under the designation GV-1) are equipped with a removable 3,600 US gal (13,626 L) stainless steel fuel tank carried inside the cargo compartment. The two wing-mounted hose and drogue aerial refueling pods each transfer up to 300 US gal per minute (19 L per second) to two aircraft simultaneously, allowing for rapid cycle times of multiple-receiver aircraft formations, (a typical tanker formation of four aircraft in less than 30 minutes). The US Navy's C-130G has increased structural strength allowing higher gross weight operation.
More improvements[edit]
Royal Australian Air Force C-130H, 2007
The C-130H model has updated Allison T56-A-15 turboprops, a redesigned outer wing, updated avionics and other minor improvements. Later H models had a new, fatigue-life-improved, center wing that was retrofitted to many earlier H-models. For structural reasons, some models are required to land with certain amounts of fuel when carrying heavy cargo, reducing usable range.[10] The H model remains in widespread use with the United States Air Force (USAF) and many foreign air forces. Initial deliveries began in 1964 (to the RNZAF), remaining in production until 1996. An improved C-130H was introduced in 1974, with Australia purchasing 12 of type in 1978 to replace the original 12 C-130A models, which had first entered RAAF Service in 1958.
The United States Coast Guard employs the HC-130H for long-range search and rescue, drug interdiction, illegal migrant patrols, homeland security, and logistics.
C-130H models produced from 1992 to 1996 were designated as C-130H3 by the USAF. The "3" denoting the third variation in design for the H series. Improvements included ring laser gyros for the INUs, GPS receivers, a partial glass cockpit (ADI and HSI instruments), a more capable APN-241 color radar, night vision device compatible instrument lighting, and an integrated radar and missile warning system. The electrical system upgrade included Generator Control Units (GCU) and Bus Switching units (BSU)to provide stable power to the more sensitive upgraded components.[citation needed]
Royal Air Force C-130K (C.3)
The equivalent model for export to the UK is the C-130K, known by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as the Hercules C.1. The C-130H-30 (Hercules C.3 in RAF service) is a stretched version of the original Hercules, achieved by inserting a 100 in (2.54 m) plug aft of the cockpit and an 80 in (2.03 m) plug at the rear of the fuselage. A single C-130K was purchased by the Met Office for use by its Meteorological Research Flight, where it was classified as the Hercules W.2. This aircraft was heavily modified (with its most prominent feature being the long red and white striped atmospheric probe on the nose and the move of the weather radar into a pod above the forward fuselage). This aircraft, named Snoopy, was withdrawn in 2001 and was then modified by Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace as flight-testbed for the A400M turbine engine, the TP400. The C-130K is used by the RAF Falcons for parachute drops. Three C-130K (Hercules C Mk.1P) were upgraded and sold to the Austrian Air Force in 2002.[11]
Later models[edit]
The MC-130E Combat Talon was developed for the USAF during the Vietnam War to support special operations missions in Southeast Asia, and led to both the MC-130H Combat Talon II as well as a family of other special missions aircraft. 37 of the earliest models currently operating with the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) are scheduled to be replaced by new-production MC-130J versions. The EC-130 Commando Solo is another special missions variant within AFSOC, albeit operated solely by an AFSOC-gained wing in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, and is a psychological operations/information operations (PSYOP/IO) platform equipped as an aerial radio station and television stations able to transmit messaging over commercial frequencies. Other versions of the EC-130, most notably the EC-130H Compass Call, are also special variants, but are assigned to the Air Combat Command (ACC). The AC-130 gunship was first developed during the Vietnam War to provide close air support and other ground-attack duties.
USAF HC-130P refuels a HH-60G Pavehawk helicopter
The HC-130 is a family of long-range search and rescue variants used by the USAF and the U.S. Coast Guard. Equipped for deep deployment of Pararescuemen (PJs), survival equipment, and (in the case of USAF versions) aerial refueling of combat rescue helicopters, HC-130s are usually the on-scene command aircraft for combat SAR missions (USAF only) and non-combat SAR (USAF and USCG). Early USAF versions were also equipped with the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, designed to pull a person off the ground using a wire strung from a helium balloon. The John Wayne movie The Green Berets features its use. The Fulton system was later removed when aerial refueling of helicopters proved safer and more versatile. The movie The Perfect Storm depicts a real life SAR mission involving aerial refueling of a New York Air National Guard HH-60G by a New York Air National Guard HC-130P.
The C-130R and C-130T are U.S. Navy and USMC models, both equipped with underwing external fuel tanks. The USN C-130T is similar, but has additional avionics improvements. In both models, aircraft are equipped with Allison T56-A-16 engines. The USMC versions are designated KC-130R or KC-130T when equipped with underwing refueling pods and pylons and are fully night vision system compatible.
The RC-130 is a reconnaissance version. A single example is used by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, the aircraft having originally been sold to the former Imperial Iranian Air Force.
The Lockheed L-100 (L-382) is a civilian variant, equivalent to a C-130E model without military equipment. The L-100 also has two stretched versions.
Next generation[edit]
Main article: Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules
In the 1970s, Lockheed proposed a C-130 variant with turbofan engines rather than turboprops, but the U.S. Air Force preferred the takeoff performance of the existing aircraft. In the 1980s, the C-130 was intended to be replaced by the Advanced Medium STOL Transport project. The project was canceled and the C-130 has remained in production.
Building on lessons learned, Lockheed Martin modified a commercial variant of the C-130 into a High Technology Test Bed (HTTB). This test aircraft set numerous short takeoff and landing performance records and significantly expanded the database for future derivatives of the C-130.[12] Modifications made to the HTTB included extended chord ailerons, a long chord rudder, fast-acting double-slotted trailing edge flaps, a high-camber wing leading edge extension, a larger dorsal fin and dorsal fins, the addition of three spoiler panels to each wing upper surface, a long-stroke main and nose landing gear system, and changes to the flight controls and a change from direct mechanical linkages assisted by hydraulic boost, to fully powered controls, in which the mechanical linkages from the flight station controls operated only the hydraulic control valves of the appropriate boost unit.[13] The HTTB first flew on 19 June 1984, with civil registration of N130X. After demonstrating many new technologies, some of which were applied to the C-130J, the HTTB was lost in a fatal accident on 3 February 1993, at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, in Marietta, Georgia.[14] The crash was attributed to disengagement of the rudder fly-by-wire flight control system, resulting in a total loss of rudder control capability while conducting ground minimum control speed tests (Vmcg). The disengagement was a result of the inadequate design of the rudder's integrated actuator package by its manufacturer; the operator's insufficient system safety review failed to consider the consequences of the inadequate design to all operating regimes. A factor which contributed to the accident was the flight crew's lack of engineering flight test training.[15]
In the 1990s, the improved C-130J Super Hercules was developed by Lockheed (later Lockheed Martin). This model is the newest version and the only model in production. Externally similar to the classic Hercules in general appearance, the J model has new turboprop engines, six-bladed propellers, digital avionics, and other new systems.[16]
Upgrades and changes[edit]
In 2000, Boeing was awarded a US$1.4 billion contract to develop an Avionics Modernization Program kit for the C-130. The program was beset with delays and cost overruns until project restructuring in 2007.[17] On 2 September 2009, Bloomberg news reported that the planned Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) upgrade to the older C-130s would be dropped to provide more funds for the F-35, CV-22 and airborne tanker replacement programs.[18] However, in June 2010, Department of Defense approved funding for the initial production of the AMP upgrade kits.[19][20] Under the terms of this agreement, the USAF has cleared Boeing to begin low-rate initial production (LRIP) for the C-130 AMP. A total of 198 aircraft are expected to feature the AMP upgrade. The current cost per aircraft is US$14 million although Boeing expects that this price will drop to US$7 million for the 69th aircraft.[17]
An engine enhancement program saving fuel and providing lower temperatures in the T56 engine has been approved, and the US Air Force expects to save $2 billion and extend the fleet life.[21]
Replacement[edit]
In October 2010, the Air Force released a capabilities request for information (CRFI) for the development of a new airlifter to replace the C-130. The new aircraft is to carry a 190 percent greater payload and assume the mission of mounted vertical maneuver (MVM). The greater payload and mission would enable it to carry medium-weight armored vehicles and drop them off at locations without long runways. Various options are being considered, including new or upgraded fixed-wing designs, rotorcraft, tiltrotors, or even an airship. Development could start in 2014, and become operational by 2024. The C-130 fleet of around 450 planes would be replaced by only 250 aircraft.[22] The Air Force had attempted to replace the C-130 in the 1970s through the Advanced Medium STOL Transport project, which resulted in the C-17 Globemaster III that instead replaced the C-141 Starlifter.[23] The Air Force Research Laboratory funded Lockheed and Boeing demonstrators for the Speed Agile concept, which had the goal of making a STOL aircraft that can take off and land at speeds as low as 70 kn (130 km/h; 81 mph) on airfields less than 2,000 ft (610 m) long and cruise at Mach 0.8-plus. Boeing's design used upper-surface blowing from embedded engines on the inboard wing and blown flaps for circulation control on the outboard wing. Lockheed's design also used blown flaps outboard, but inboard used patented reversing ejector nozzles. Boeing's design completed over 2,000 hours of windtunnel tests in late 2009. It was a 5 percent-scale model of a narrowbody design with a 55,000 lb (25,000 kg) payload. When the AFRL increased the payload requirement to 65,000 lb (29,000 kg), they tested a 5% scale model of a widebody design with a 303,000 lb (137,000 kg) take-off gross weight and an "A400M-size" 158 in (4.0 m) wide cargo box. It would be powered by four IAE V2533 turbofans.[24] In August 2011, the AFRL released pictures of the Lockheed Speed Agile concept demonstrator. A 23% scale model went through wind tunnel tests to demonstrate its hybrid powered lift, which combines a low drag airframe with simple mechanical assembly to reduce weight and better aerodynamics. The model had four engines, including two Williams FJ44 turbofans.[23][25] On 26 March 2013, Boeing was granted a patent for its swept-wing powered lift aircraft.[26]
As of January 2014, Air Mobility Command, Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Research Lab are in the early stages of defining requirements for the C-X next generation airlifter program to replace both the C-130 and C-17. An aircraft would be produced from the early 2030s to the 2040s. If requirements are decided for operating in contested airspace, Air Force procurement of C-130s would end by the end of the decade to not have them serviceable by the 2030s and operated when they can't perform in that environment. Development of the airlifter depends heavily on the Army's "tactical and operational maneuver" plans. Two different cargo planes could still be created to separately perform tactical and strategic missions, but which course to pursue is to be decided before C-17s need to be retired.[27]
Operational history[edit]
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Military[edit]
USMC KC-130F Hercules performing takeoffs and landings aboard the aircraft carrier Forrestal in 1963. The aircraft is now displayed at the National Museum of Naval Aviation.
The first production aircraft, C-130As were first delivered beginning in 1956 to the 463d Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma and the 314th Troop Carrier Wing at Sewart AFB, Tennessee. Six additional squadrons were assigned to the 322d Air Division in Europe and the 315th Air Division in the Far East. Additional aircraft were modified for electronics intelligence work and assigned to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany while modified RC-130As were assigned to the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) photo-mapping division.
In 1958, a U.S. reconnaissance C-130A-II of the 7406th Support Squadron was shot down over Armenia by MiG-17s.[28]
Australia became the first non-American force to operate the C-130A Hercules with 12 examples being delivered from late 1958. These aircraft were fitted with AeroProducts three-blade, 15-foot diameter propellers. The Royal Canadian Air Force became another early user with the delivery of four B-models (Canadian designation C-130 Mk I) in October / November 1960.[29]
In 1963, a Hercules achieved and still holds the record for the largest and heaviest aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier.[30] During October and November that year, a USMC KC-130F (BuNo 149798), loaned to the U.S. Naval Air Test Center, made 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings and 21 unassisted take-offs on Forrestal at a number of different weights.[31] The pilot, LT (later RADM) James H. Flatley III, USN, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in this test series. The tests were highly successful, but the idea was considered too risky for routine "Carrier Onboard Delivery" (COD) operations. Instead, the Grumman C-2 Greyhound was developed as a dedicated COD aircraft. The Hercules used in the test, most recently in service with Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron 352 (VMGR-352) until 2005, is now part of the collection of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
In 1964, C-130 crews from the 6315th Operations Group at Naha Air Base, Okinawa commenced forward air control (FAC; "Flare") missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos supporting USAF strike aircraft. In April 1965 the mission was expanded to North Vietnam where C-130 crews led formations of B-57 bombers on night reconnaissance/strike missions against communist supply routes leading to South Vietnam. In early 1966 Project Blind Bat/Lamplighter was established at Ubon RTAFB, Thailand. After the move to Ubon the mission became a four-engine FAC mission with the C-130 crew searching for targets then calling in strike aircraft. Another little-known C-130 mission flown by Naha-based crews was Operation Commando Scarf, which involved the delivery of chemicals onto sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos that were designed to produce mud and landslides in hopes of making the truck routes impassable.[citation needed]
In November 1964, on the other side of the globe, C-130Es from the 464th Troop Carrier Wing but loaned to 322d Air Division in France, flew one of the most dramatic missions in history in the former Belgian Congo. After communist Simba rebels took white residents of the city of Stanleyville hostage, the U.S. and Belgium developed a joint rescue mission that used the C-130s to airlift and then drop and air-land a force of Belgian paratroopers to rescue the hostages. Two missions were flown, one over Stanleyville and another over Paulis during Thanksgiving weeks.[32] The headline-making mission resulted in the first award of the prestigious MacKay Trophy to C-130 crews.
In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, as a desperate measure the transport No. 6 Squadron of the Pakistan Air Force modified its entire small fleet of C-130Bs for use as heavy bombers, capable of carrying up to 20,000 lb (9,072 kg) of bombs on pallets. These improvised bombers were used to hit Indian targets such as bridges, heavy artillery positions, tank formations and troop concentrations.[33][34] Some C-130s even flew with anti-aircraft guns fitted on their ramp, apparently shooting down some 17 aircraft and damaging 16 others.[35]
The C-130 Hercules were used in the Battle of Kham Duc in 1968, when the North Vietnamese Army forced U.S.-led forces to abandon the Kham Duc Special Forces Camp.
In October 1968, a C-130Bs from the 463rd Tactical Airlift Wing dropped a pair of M-121 10,000 pound bombs that had been developed for the massive B-36 bomber but had never been used. The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force resurrected the huge weapons as a means of clearing landing zones for helicopters and in early 1969 the 463rd commenced Commando Vault missions. Although the stated purpose of COMMANDO VAULT was to clear LZs, they were also used on enemy base camps and other targets.[citation needed]
During the late 1960s, the U.S. was eager to get information on Chinese nuclear capabilities. After the failure of the Black Cat Squadron to plant operating sensor pods near the Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Base using a Lockheed U-2, the CIA developed a plan, named Heavy Tea, to deploy two battery-powered sensor pallets near the base. To deploy the pallets, a Black Bat Squadron crew was trained in the U.S. to fly the C-130 Hercules. The crew of 12, led by Col Sun Pei Zhen, took off from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in an unmarked U.S. Air Force C-130E on 17 May 1969. Flying for six and a half hours at low altitude in the dark, they arrived over the target and the sensor pallets were dropped by parachute near Anxi in Gansu province. After another six and a half hours of low altitude flight, they arrived back at Takhli. The sensors worked and uploaded data to a U.S. intelligence satellite for six months, before their batteries wore out. The Chinese conducted two nuclear tests, on 22 September 1969 and 29 September 1969, during the operating life of the sensor pallets. Another mission to the area was planned as Operation Golden Whip, but was called off in 1970.[36] It is most likely that the aircraft used on this mission was either C-130E serial number 64-0506 or 64-0507 (cn 382-3990 and 382-3991). These two aircraft were delivered to Air America in 1964.[37] After being returned to the U.S. Air Force sometime between 1966 and 1970, they were assigned the serial numbers of C-130s that had been destroyed in accidents. 64-0506 is now flying as 62-1843, a C-130E that crashed in Vietnam on 20 December 1965 and 64-0507 is now flying as 63-7785, a C-130E that had crashed in Vietnam on 17 June 1966.[38]
The A-model continued in service through the Vietnam War, where the aircraft assigned to the four squadrons at Naha AB, Okinawa and one at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan performed yeoman's service, including operating highly classified special operations missions such as the BLIND BAT FAC/Flare mission and FACT SHEET leaflet mission over Laos and North Vietnam. The A-model was also provided to the South Vietnamese Air Force as part of the Vietnamization program at the end of the war, and equipped three squadrons based at Tan Son Nhut AFB. The last operator in the world is the Honduran Air Force, which is still flying one of five A model Hercules (FAH 558, c/n 3042) as of October 2009.[39] As the Vietnam War wound down, the 463rd Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift Wing B-models and A-models of the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing were transferred back to the United States where most were assigned to Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units.
U.S. Marines disembark from C-130 transports at the Da Nang Airbase on 8 March 1965
Another prominent role for the B model was with the United States Marine Corps, where Hercules initially designated as GV-1s replaced C-119s. After Air Force C-130Ds proved the type's usefulness in Antarctica, the U.S. Navy purchased a number of B-models equipped with skis that were designated as LC-130s. C-130B-II electronic reconnaissance aircraft were operated under the SUN VALLEY program name primarily from Yokota Air Base, Japan. All reverted to standard C-130B cargo aircraft after their replacement in the reconnaissance role by other aircraft.
The C-130 was also used in the 1976 Entebbe raid in which Israeli commando forces carried a surprise assault to rescue 103 passengers of an airliner hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. The rescue force — 200 soldiers, jeeps, and a black Mercedes-Benz (intended to resemble Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin's vehicle of state) — was flown over 2,200 nmi (4,074 km; 2,532 mi) almost entirely at an altitude of less than 100 ft (30 m) from Israel to Entebbe by four Israeli Air Force (IAF) Hercules aircraft without mid-air refueling (on the way back, the planes refueled in Nairobi, Kenya).
During the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) of 1982, Argentine Air Force C-130s undertook highly dangerous, daily re-supply night flights as blockade runners to the Argentine garrison on the Falkland Islands. They also performed daylight maritime survey flights. One was lost during the war. Argentina also operated two KC-130 tankers during the war, and these refueled both the Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and Navy Dassault-Breguet Super Étendards; some C-130s were modified to operate as bombers with bomb-racks under their wings. The British also used RAF C-130s to support their logistical operations.
USMC C-130T Fat Albert performing a rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO)
During the Gulf War of 1991 (Operation Desert Storm), the C-130 Hercules was used operationally by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, along with the air forces of Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the UK. The MC-130 Combat Talon variant also made the first attacks using the largest conventional bombs in the world, the BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" and GBU-43/B "Massive Ordnance Air Blast" bomb, (MOAB). Daisy Cutters were used to clear landing zones and to eliminate mine fields. The weight and size of the weapons make it impossible or impractical to load them on conventional bombers. The GBU-43/B MOAB is a successor to the BLU-82 and can perform the same function, as well as perform strike functions against hardened targets in a low air threat environment.
Since 1992, two successive C-130 aircraft named Fat Albert have served as the support aircraft for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team. Fat Albert I was a TC-130G (151891),[40] while Fat Albert II is a C-130T (164763).[41] Although Fat Albert supports a Navy squadron, it is operated by the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and its crew consists solely of USMC personnel. At some air shows featuring the team, Fat Albert takes part, performing flyovers. Until 2009, it also demonstrated its rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) capabilities; these ended due to dwindling supplies of rockets.[42]
The AC-130 also holds the record for the longest sustained flight by a C-130. From 22 to 24 October 1997, two AC-130U gunships flew 36 hours nonstop from Hurlburt Field Florida to Taegu (Daegu), South Korea while being refueled seven times by KC-135 tanker aircraft. This record flight shattered the previous record longest flight by over 10 hours while the two gunships took on 410,000 lb (190,000 kg) of fuel. The gunship has been used in every major U.S. combat operation since Vietnam, except for Operation El Dorado Canyon, the 1986 attack on Libya.[43]
C-130 Hercules performs a tactical landing on a dirt strip
During the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the ongoing support of the International Security Assistance Force (Operation Enduring Freedom), the C-130 Hercules has been used operationally by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the United States.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom), the C-130 Hercules was used operationally by Australia, the UK and the United States. After the initial invasion, C-130 operators as part of the Multinational force in Iraq used their C-130s to support their forces in Iraq.
Since 2004, the Pakistan Air Force has employed C-130s in the War in North-West Pakistan. Some variants had forward looking infrared (FLIR Systems Star Safire III EO/IR) sensor balls, to enable close tracking of Islamist militants.[44]
Civilian[edit]
A C-130E fitted with a MAFFS-1 dropping fire retardant
The U.S. Forest Service developed the Modular Airborne FireFighting System for the C-130 in the 1970s, which allows regular aircraft to be temporarily converted to an airtanker for fighting wildfires.[45] In the late 1980s, 22 retired USAF C-130As were removed from storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and transferred to the U.S. Forest Service who then sold them to six private companies to be converted into air tankers (see U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal). After one of these aircraft crashed due to wing separation in flight as a result of fatigue stress cracking, the entire fleet of C-130A air tankers was permanently grounded in 2004 (see 2002 airtanker crashes). C-130s have been used to spread chemical dispersants onto the massive oil slick in the Gulf Coast in 2010.[46]
A recent development of a C-130–based airtanker is the Retardant Aerial Delivery System developed by Coulson Aviation USA . The system consists of a C-130H/Q retrofitted with an in-floor discharge system, combined with a removable 3,500- or 4,000-gallon water tank. The combined system is FAA certified.[47]
Variants[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2014)
C-130H Hercules flight deck
A U.S. JC-130 aircraft retrieving a reconnaissance satellite film capsule under parachute.
C-130s from the: U.S., Canada, Australia and Israel (foreground to background)
RAAF C-130J-30 at Point Cook, 2006
Brazilian Air Force C-130 (L-382)
For civilian versions, see Lockheed L-100 Hercules.
Significant military variants of the C-130 include:
C-130A/B/E/F/G/H/K/T
Tactical airlifter basic models
C-130A-II Dreamboat
Early version Electronic Intelligence/Signals Intelligence (ELINT/SIGINT) aircraft[48]
C-130J Super Hercules
Tactical airlifter, with new engines, avionics, and updated systems
C-130K
Designation for RAF Hercules C1/W2/C3 aircraft (C-130Js in RAF service are the Hercules C.4 and Hercules C.5)
AC-130A/E/H/J/U/W
Gunship variants
C-130D/D-6
Ski-equipped version for snow and ice operations United States Air Force / Air National Guard
CC-130E/H/J Hercules
Designation for Canadian Armed Forces / Royal Canadian Air Force Hercules aircraft. U.S. Air Force used the CC-130J designation to differentiate standard C-130Js from "stretched" C-130Js (Company designation C-130J-30s).
DC-130A/E/H
USAF and USN Drone control
EC-130
EC-130E/J Commando Solo – USAF / Air National Guard psychological operations version
EC-130E – Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC)
EC-130E Rivet Rider – Airborne psychological warfare aircraft
EC-130H Compass Call – Electronic warfare and electronic attack.[49]
EC-130V – Airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) variant used by USCG for counter-narcotics missions[50]
GC-130
Permanently Grounded "Static Display"
HC-130
HC-130B/E/H – Early model combat search and rescue
HC-130P/N Combat King – USAF aerial refueling tanker and combat search and rescue
HC-130J Combat King II – Next generation combat search and rescue tanker
HC-130H/J – USCG long-range surveillance and search and rescue
JC-130
Temporary conversion for flight test operations
KC-130F/R/T/J
United States Marine Corps aerial refueling tanker and tactical airlifter
LC-130F/H/R
USAF / Air National Guard – Ski-equipped version for Arctic and Antarctic support operations; LC-130F previously operated by USN
MC-130
MC-130E/H Combat Talon I/II – Special operations infiltration/extraction variant
MC-130W Combat Spear/Dragon Spear – Special operations tanker/gunship[51]
MC-130P Combat Shadow – Special operations tanker
MC-130J Commando II (formerly Combat Shadow II) – Special operations tanker Air Force Special Operations Command[52]
YMC-130H – Modified aircraft under Operation Credible Sport for second Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt
NC-130
Permanent conversion for flight test operations
PC-130/C-130-MP
Maritime patrol
RC-130A/S
Surveillance aircraft for reconnaissance
SC-130J Sea Herc
Proposed maritime patrol version of the C-130J, designed for coastal surveillance and anti-submarine warfare.[53][54]
TC-130
Aircrew training
VC-130H
VIP transport
WC-130A/B/E/H/J
Weather reconnaissance ("Hurricane Hunter") version for USAF / Air Force Reserve Command's 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in support of the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center
_________________________________
IMG_5181
Japanese people are capable of coping with a lot of stresses. Tolerance and never complaining is special skill of Japanese people. Still no one can take this kind of huge earthquake and tsunami tragedy. My prayers go out to anyone that is being affected by the disaster zone/epic center (to all tsunami victims). Very devastating to see on TV.
I hope that our family members Keiko, my only and first nephew
Akira (あきら, アキラ)and my youngest niece Hayuna are on dry land and safe. (no information available yet).
Hope is all we have!
This is one of the most photographed sculptures in Iceland and this is far from being the best shot of it! The day was dull and very misty and I am not as capable as many who have captured it but even so it really is beautiful and evocative!
Wiki has the following: Sun Voyager (Icelandic: Sólfar) is a sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason, located next to the Sæbraut road in Reykjavík, Iceland. Sun Voyager is described as a dreamboat, or an ode to the sun. The artist intended it to convey the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.
And here is the story as told by the sculptur: In an interview published in the newspaper Þjóðviljinn on June 11, 1987, Jón Gunnar describes the genesis of the work as being part of the Scandinavian art project, Experimental Environment, which conducted various artistic experiments in Iceland, Denmark and other places in the 1980s:
In May 1985, a group of artists, members of the Scandinavian art project, Experimental Environment, gathered to take part in the Saari-Vala Environmental Art Action in Bockholm, Finland. There I experienced a sense of the history of the origins of Icelanders, something which is also related in the present exhibition at the Nordic House in Reykjavík. [1]
I had an uncanny feeling that I had been on this island before, when travelling on my way from Mongolia to Iceland, hundreds of years ago.
As you know, there have been speculations that the Icelanders as a race originated in Mongolia. I have discovered the history of their migration to Iceland, which runs as follows: Many centuries ago, a mighty warlord, let’s say it was Alexander the Great, was living in the centre of the known world. He dispatched his bravest and most experienced warriors, along with some women, scribes and other followers, on an exploratory expedition to the cardinal directions, the north, west, south, and east, in order to discover and conquer new, unknown territories. Those who headed east followed the rising sun until they reached the steppes of Mongolia. There they settled down and lived in comfort. Those scribes who accompanied the warriors were expected to document the expedition for the king. Several centuries later, when the documents written by the scribes eventually came to be examined, the people discovered that they had another fatherland in the west. They therefore decided to gather together their belongings and head back west towards the setting sun. We followed the sun for days and years, walking, riding and sailing. We enriched our experience and our determination grew in strength as our journey progressed, and we recorded everything that we saw and experienced. I remember endless pine forests, mountains and waterfalls, lakes, islands, rivers and seas before we eventually reached the ocean. We then constructed huge ships and sailed on westwards towards the setting sun.
As a result of this vivid experience of my participation in this expedition while on the island of Bockholm in the Finnish archipelago, I carved a picture of a sun ship into a granite rock by the sea. The sun ship symbolizes the promise of new, undiscovered territory. It is also being exhibited here at the Nordic House, made of aluminium.[2]
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
After the Falklands War, Argentina was not only left with a much reduced aerial strike force – budget restraints, inner and external political pressure as well as delivery boycotts plagued the country for years in its efforts to rejuvenate the air force. Recent years were troublesome, too. In early 2005 the top seventeen brigadiers of the Air Force, including the Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Carlos Rohde, were sacked by President Néstor Kirchner following a scandal involving drug trafficking through Ezeiza International Airport. The primary concerns of the Air Force as of 2010 were the establishment of a radar network for control of the country's airspace, the replacement of its older combat aircraft (Mirage III, Mirage V) and the incorporation of new technologies. The possibility of purchasing surplus French Air Force Mirage 2000C fighters, like the option chosen by the Brazilian Air Force, had been considered.
As of 2010, budgetary constraints continued, leading to the disbanding of the Boeing 707 transport squadron and maintenance problems for half of the C-130 Hercules fleet. In August 2010 a contract was signed for two Mi-17E helicopters, plus an option on a further three, to support Antarctic bases. All the time, though, the FAA had been seeking to replace its ageing force with a more capable and more serviceable modern aircraft. Argentina’s Super Étendard fighters, which had been used to launch Exocet missiles in the 1980s and still served, come from France. Its Mirage III/ V/ “Nesher” fighters were originally bought second-hand from Israel and Peru, but they had deteriorated badly. Its A-4P Skyhawk models were originally sold to Argentina by the USA but phased out in 1999, the more modern A-4AR “Fightinghawks” were rebuilt and modernized ex USMC A-4Ms. What was left of those deliveries made up the bulk of the Argentinian jet fleet.
The acquisition of Spanish Mirage F1Ms, IAI Kfir Block 60s from Israel and Saab Gripen E/Fs from Sweden was considered, but all of those deals stalled, for various reasons. The Mirage F1 deal was scrapped by the Spanish government after pressure of the UK to not assist in FAA modernization over tensions between the countries over the Falkland Islands. The UK also managed to successfully veto the sale of Gripen E/Fs, as 30% of the Gripen's parts were manufactured there. British diplomacy furthermore worked to delay Argentina’s proposed Super Étendard modernization. To make matters worse, despite steadily worsening relations with Britain under the Obama administration, the USA would neither sell Argentina any jet fighters, nor supply spare parts or engines.
This only left Argentina with the original source for its Nesher/Dagger/Finger fighters as a reliable and (moreover) affordable option: Israel. The (realistic) object of desire was the successor of the Nesher, the Kfir, which entered service with the IAF in 1975. The Kfir was, like the Nesher, a Mirage III/V derivative, but a major improvement. Substantial structural changes had been made and IAI replaced the original Atar 9C of French origin with a more powerful J79 turbojet, which had been used at the time by IDF F-4 Phantom IIs of American origin, too. The Kfir received during its career progressive modifications to its airframe (in the form of canards which improved the fighter’s handling considerably), radar, electronics, and weapons, and these upgrades continued even after the Kfirs were retired from Israeli service in the late 1990s, on behalf of export customers like Colombia, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka.
The Kfir’s retirement in Israeli service led to a great number of surplus airframes with considerable flying hours left, so that the Kfir C.10/Block 60, a dedicated export variant with many updates, was developed on their basis and offered to foreign customers. These machines carried modern multi-mode radars and electronics on par with contemporary F-16 Block 40/50s, giving them the ability to use beyond visual range aerial weapons, advanced short range AAMs, and a variety of precision strike weapons. However, it would take a brave Kfir pilot to face a Eurofighter Typhoon in single combat… even so, the late an updated Kfirs were capable and redoubtable fighters.
Their combat radius was a bit short, though, due to the thirsty and somewhat outdated J79 engine, but their aerial refueling capability compensated for this flaw and made them well-suited to intimidation and presence patrols. The Kfir’s relatively small price tag made it, despite the airframe’s overall age, very attractive for small nations with limited defense budgets – and consequently it attained Argentinian interest.
Argentinian negotiations went so far that Israel not only agreed to sell 18 revamped Kfir fighters from ex-IDF overstock, IAI also offered to adapt the airframes to a different engine, the French Atar 9K-50 afterburning turbojet, which were not part of the deal, though. This appeared like a backward roll, since the Kfir was originally constructed to replace the French Atar 9C with the American J79 in Israel’s Mirage III/V copy – but this move was the only way to provide Argentina with a suitable engine that was freely available on the Western world market without British or American bans and interventions.
The result of this deal became the so-called Kfir C.9, even though this was just an internal designation at IAI and never officially adopted in order to avoid political problems. In the course of 2013 and 2014, the engine-less Kfir airframes were delivered as knocked-down kits via ship to Argentina. At Argentina’s nationalized aircraft manufacturer Fábrica Argentina de Aviones SA (FAdeA) in Córdoba they were mated with the new engines, imported separately from France, and equipped with imported and domestic avionics. In Argentinian service and to the public, the aircraft became known as FAdeA “IA-96A” and was, keeping up the FAA’s tradition to christen its fleet of various Mirage III derivatives after domestic animals, called “Quique” (lesser grison).
The IA-96A/Kfir C.9 was specifically tailored to the Argentinian needs and restrictions. Despite wishes to buy Kfirs according to the more versatile and capable C.10 export standard with a modern Elta EL/M-2032 multi-mode radar, Argentina’s highly limited defense budget and other equipment constraints imposed by foreign suppliers and governments only allowed the procurement of what basically was a re-engined Kfir C.7 with some minor updates.
In contrast to the Kfir C.10, the older C.7 was only outfitted with the Elta EL/M-2021B radar. This was a multi-mode radar, too, which still offered air-to-air and air-to-surface capability, but it was less powerful than the C.10 standard and offered only a relatively short range of max. 46 mi/74 km.
Like the Israeli C.7, the C.9 had inflight refueling capability through a fixed but removable probe, and it featured a HOTAS-configured cockpit. Individual updates were a new, frameless wrap-around windshield for a better field of view, two 127×177mm MFDs in the cockpit, full HMD capability, a simple TAV38 laser rangefinder in a small fairing under nose, and improved avionics to deploy state-of-the-art guided weapons of Israeli and French origin (see below).
Outwardly, the C.9’s biggest difference to the original C.7 configuration – even though it was not very obvious – was the modified rear fuselage, which had to be changed in order to cover the longer and more slender Atar 9K-50 engine and its afterburner. In fact, the original IAI Nesher blueprints and toolings had been dusted off and used to produce these new parts.
Since the lighter Atar 9K-50 would not need the J79’s extra cooling and had a lower air mass flow, the Kfir’s characteristic auxiliary air intake at the fin’s root as well as several prominent air scoops along the fuselage disappeared, giving the aircraft a more streamlined look. As a positive side effect, this measure, together with the slimmer fuselage, improved aerodynamics, compensating for the slight reduction of overall thrust through the engine swap, and the longer fuselage made the aircraft directionally more stable, so that no fin fillet was necessary anymore. With the resulting short fin, the IA-96’s profile resembled that of the South African Atlas Cheetah E a lot, even though the latter were modernized Mirage IIIs and not converted IAI Kfirs. Compared with the Kfir C.7, top speed and service ceiling were slightly reduced, but the Atar 9K-50 consumed considerably less fuel, so that the unrefueled range of the short-legged Kfir with its thirsty J79 was markedly improved. The new engine was furthermore more responsive, so that overall performance and agility of the IA-96A remained on par with the Kfir or became even slightly better.
Beyond the aircraft order, Argentina also procured a modernized weapon arsenal from Israel for its new multi-role fighter generation. This included an undisclosed number of Derby medium range air-to-air missiles with an active-radar seeker, BVR capability and a range of 28 mi (45 km), Gabriel III anti-ship missiles with fire-and-forget capabilities and a range of more than 40 mi (60 km), as well as Griffin LGB guidance sets that could be added to various standard iron and cluster bombs. Furthermore, ten second-hand Thomson-CSF ATLIS II laser/electro-optical targeting pods were procured from France. Even though these pods lacked FLIR capabilities and were limited to being primarily a daylight/clear-weather system, they gave the Quique, in combination with the Griffin LGBs, full precision strike capability, esp. against ship targets – a clear political statement into the British direction.
The Quique fleet was supposed to replace all the older FAA types. With the roll-out of the first IA-96A in early 2015, all vintage FAA Mirages were officially decommissioned in November of the same year. Furthermore, all FAA’s A-4 Skyhawks were grounded as of January 2016, too (also for the lack of spares), even though a handful A-4ARs remained airworthy as a reserve and the rest in storage. Quique deliveries ended in September 2017 with the eighteenth machine, and all of them were allocated to FAA’s Grupo 5 de Caza at Villa Reynolds, 200 km (125 ml) in the South of Córdoba, where they had been assembled. However, since becoming operational, the aircraft were frequently deployed to other Argentinian air bases, including El Plumerillo Military Air Base in the Mendoza Province at the Chilean border and Rio Gallegos in Patagonia, in reach of the Malvinas/Falklands Islands.
If future budgets allow it, ten more IA-96A/Kfir C.9 might be ordered soon in order to replace the Argentinian Navy’s vintage Super Étendard fleet (which has been, since the decommissioning of ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in the late Eighties, land-based, anyway). The acquisition of four to six two-seaters, also modernized ex-IDF aircraft following the IA-96A pattern, with full attack capability and tentatively designated IA-96B, has been under consideration, too.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 15.65 m (51 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 8.22 m (27 ft 0 in)
Height: 4.55 m (14 ft 11 in)
Wing area: 34.8 m² (375 ft²)
Empty weight: 7,285 kg (16,061 lb)
Gross weight: 11,603 kg (25,580 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 16,200 kg (35,715 lb)
Powerplant:
1× SNECMA Atar 9K50C-11 afterburning turbojet engine,
49.2 kN (11,100 lbf) dry thrust and 70.6 kN (15,900 lbf) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 2,350 km/h (1,460 mph, 1,270 kn) / Mach 2.2 at high altitude
1,390 km/h (860 mph; 750 kn) at sea level
Combat range: 1,300 km (810 mi, 700 nmi), clean, with internal fuel only
Ferry range: 2,600 km (1,600 mi, 1,400 nmi) w. three 1,300 l (340 US gal; 290 imp gal) drop tanks
Service ceiling: 17,000 m (56,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 233 m/s (45,900 ft/min)
Armament:
2× Rafael-built 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannon with 140 RPG
Nine external hardpoints for a maximum payload of 5,775 kg (12,732 lb) and a wide range of ordnance, including bombs such as the Mark 80 series, unguided air-to-ground rocket pods, Paveway and Griffin series of LGBs, guided air-to-ground missiles like the AGM-65 Maverick, and AIM-9 Sidewinders, Shafrir/Python/Derby-series AAMs
The kit and its assembly:
This what-if model was inspired by a short entry about the IAI Kfir I had found at Wikipedia: a proposed C.9 variant for Argentina, as a revamped and re-engined C.7, even though the entry lacked any further details and I was not able to dig anything about the C.9 up in the WWW. However, I tried to interpret this scarce basis and deduct a model from it, because the story was/is so good. Having recently read a lot about the Argentinian Mirage III/Nesher fleet and the Malvinas/Falklands conflict helped a lot, too. With many import limitations imposed by Great Britain and the USA as well as Argentina’s highly restricted budget, I eventually settled upon the idea of a rather simple, re-engined Kfir of C.7 standard, so that outwardly not much had to be changed – a better radar would have been desirable (Block 60 standard), but I’d assume that this would not have been possible with Argentina’s highly limited funds that already prevented updates to the existing and rather vintage (if not outdated) aircraft fleet.
The basis for the model is a Hasegawa Kfir, which I bought without box (and it turned it to lack the dashboard). The Hasegawa Kfir is a C.2 and the model is very similar to the Italeri kit (a C.7, but it is virtually identical), but it has a much better fit, goes together more easily and calls for considerably less PSR. As another bonus, the Hasegawa kit comes with a wider range of ordnance and also has the construction benefit of a connecting ventral “floor”, which makes the fuselage more stable and therefor suitable for my modification (see below).
The different engine for the C.9 variant was the biggest challenge – the Kfir’s rear fuselage is wider and shorter than the Mirage III’s with the Atar engine. These are just subtle differences at 1:72 scale, but not easy to realize: I needed a completely new rear fuselage! As a convenient solution, I dug out a PM Model Nesher (which is no Nesher at all, just a poor Mirage III at best) from the donor bank and let the saw sing. This kit is horrible in many ways (really, stay away!), but it’s tail section and the jet nozzle, pimped with an afterburner interior, were acceptable as conversion fodder.
Blending the (crappy!) Mirage III parts into the crisp Hasegawa Kfir took some serious PSR, though, including the need to fill 3mm wide gaps along the delta wing roots and bridging disparate fuselage shapes and diameters at the implant’s intersections. The Kfir’s fin was re-transplanted and lost its characteristic auxiliary air intake for the J79 engine, so that the profile became more Mirage III/V-esque. Due to the longer afterburner section, the brake parachute fairing had to be extended, too. The longer (just 3-4mm), more slender tail section and the cleaner fin change the Kfir’s look markedly – for the better, IMHO, and the model could also depict an Atlas Cheetah E!
Further minor mods include an in-flight refueling receptacle, scratched from wire and white glue for the tip, the modified windshield (the OOB part was simply sanded smooth and polished back again to transparency) and the ordnance; the Gabriel ASMs were created on the basis of a photograph, and they once were AIM-54 Phoenix AAMs from a Matchbox F-14, modified with new wings, a blunted tip and a pitot made from thin wire. Their pylons were once parts of F-14 wing root pylons from an Italeri F-14, with launch rails made from styrene profiles. The Derby AAMs are heavily modified Matchbox Sidewinders with an extended, pointed tip, mounted onto the OOB pylons. The ventral drop tank comes from the Hasegawa kit.
Painting and markings:
This was quite a challenge, because I wanted to apply something modern and plausible, yet avoid standard paint schemes. In fact, a realistic Argentinian Kfir C.9 from the late 2010s would probably have been painted in an overall pale grey or in two pale shades of grey with little contrast (as applied to the very late Mirage IIIs and the A-4ARs), with subdued low-viz markings and no roundels at all. I found this boring, but I also did not want to apply a retro SEA scheme, as used on the Nesher/Dagger/Finger during the Falklands War.
After turning over many options in my mind, I settled upon a two-tone grey livery, somewhat of a compromise between air superiority and attack operations, esp. over open water. The pattern was inspired by the livery of late Turkish RF-4Es, which were supposed to be painted in FS 36118 over an FS 36270 (or 36375, sources are contradictive and pictures inconclusive) overall base with a rising waterline towards the rear and the light undersides color spilling over to the wings’ upper surfaces. This scheme is simple, but looks pretty interesting, breaks up the aircraft’s outlines effectively, and it could be easily adapted to the delta-wing Kfir.
However, I changed two details in favor of an IMHO better camouflage effect at height. Firstly, the fin’s upper section was painted in the light grey (it’s all dark grey on the Turkish Phantoms), what IMHO reduces the strong contrast against the sky and the horizon. For a similar reason I secondly raised the underside’s light grey waterline towards the nose, so that the upper dark grey area became an integral anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen and the aircraft show less contrast from a frontal point of view. On the Turkish F-4s, the dark grey slopes downwards for a wrap-around area directly behind the radome.
I used Humbrol 125 (FS 36118, a pretty bluish interpretation of “Gunship Gray”) and 126 (FS 36270, US Medium Grey) as basic colors. The Gunship Gray was, after a light washing with black ink, post-shaded with FS 35164 (Humbrol 144), giving the dark grey an even more bluish hue, while the Medium Grey was treated with FS 36320.
The cockpit was painted in Camouflage Grey (Humbrol 156), the landing gear with the wells as well as the air intake ducts in standard gloss white (Humbrol 22). The Derby AAMs became light grey (Humbrol 127) with a beige radome tip, while the Gabriel ASM received a multi-color livery in black, white and light grey.
Decals and markings are purely fictional - as mentioned above, I’d assume that a real-world FAA Kfir would these days only carry minimal national markings in the form of a simple fin flash, no roundels at all and just a tiny tactical code (if at all), and everything toned-down or black. However, I wanted the model to be identified more easily, so I added some more markings, including small but full-color FAA roundels on fuselage and wings as well as full-color fin flashes, all procured from an Airfix Pucará sheet. The “Fuerza Aérea Argentina” inscription on the nose came from a Colorado Decals Mirage III/V sheet. The tactical code was taken from an Airfix sheet for an Argentinian Mirage III – it’s actually “I-016”, just turned upside down for a (much) higher/later number. 😉
After shading effects, the model only received little weathering in the form of graphite around the jet nozzle and the guns under the air intakes. Then it was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
In the end a rather subtle conversion – even though the different rear fuselage was a major PSR stunt! The most obvious modification is probably the intake-less fin? The transplanted, different rear fuselage is hard to recognize and only true Mirage/Kfir experts might tell the changes – or the model is directly mistaken for a Mirage V fighter bomber? And even though the model carries a grey-in-grey scheme which I originally wanted to avoid, I think that the bluish touch and the integral, wavy pattern still look interesting?
However, I also like the story behind this whif that has real life roots – the real Kfir C.9 just failed to materialize because of lack of funding, and its introduction would certainly have had severe consequences for the unstable Argentinian-British relationships, since this capable aircraft would certainly pose a serious threat to the shaky peace in the Southern Atlantic and have stirred up the more or less dormant Falklands/Malvinas conflict again.
Replacing the Terran Federation's aging fleet of AC-12s, the Cygnus-Sikorsky BH-114S Whitetip is a versatile midsized space/atmospheric craft designed for ground attack and anti-capital ship roles. Vastly outstripping its predecessor, the BH-114 is capable of extended missions; hyperdrive-equipped and capable of on-the-fly refueling, mission duration is primarily limited by available crew consumables. Available armaments include:
12 standard wing hardpoints for standard missiles or bombs.
2 aft-mounted rear defensive 15mm Gauss guns.
2 wing-mounted forward defensive 15mm Gauss guns.
Internal bomb rack capable of holding up to 8 bombs.
2 wing heavy hardpoints for anti-base missiles or drop tanks.
2 fixed forward 80mm Gauss cannons
The craft has a normal crew of three: pilot, weapons officer, and tail gunner.
This thing has been on my shelf for damn near a year. Finally took some okay enough to post shots.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO reporting name: "Farmer") was a Soviet second-generation, single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. "Century Series" fighter was the North American F-100 Super Sabre, although the MiG-19 would primarily oppose the more modern McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Republic F-105 Thunderchief over North Vietnam. Furthermore, the North American YF-100 Super Sabre prototype appeared approximately one year after the MiG-19, making the MiG-19 the first operational supersonic jet in the world.
On 20 April 1951, OKB-155 was given the order to develop the MiG-17 into a new fighter called "I-340", also known as "SM-1". It was to be powered by two Mikulin AM-5 non-afterburning jet engines, a scaled-down version of the Mikulin AM-3, with 19.6 kN (4,410 lbf) of thrust. The I-340 was supposed to attain 1,160 km/h (725 mph, Mach 0.97) at 2,000 m (6,562 ft), 1,080 km/h (675 mph, Mach 1.0) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft), climb to 10,000 m (32,808 ft) in 2.9 minutes, and have a service ceiling of no less than 17,500 m (57,415 ft).
After several prototypes with many detail improvements, the ministers of the Soviet Union issued the order #286-133 to start serial production on February 17, 1954, at the factories in Gorkiy and Novosibirsk. Factory trials were completed on September 12 the same year, and government trials started on September 30.
Initial enthusiasm for the aircraft was dampened by several problems. The most alarming of these was the danger of a midair explosion due to overheating of the fuselage fuel tanks located between the engines. Deployment of airbrakes at high speeds caused a high-g pitch-up. Elevators lacked authority at supersonic speeds. The high landing speed of 230 km/h (145 mph), compared to 160 km/h (100 mph) for the MiG-15, combined with the lack of a two-seat trainer version, slowed pilot transition to the type. Handling problems were addressed with the second prototype, "SM-9/2", which added a third ventral airbrake and introduced all-moving tailplanes with a damper to prevent pilot-induced oscillations at subsonic speeds. It flew on 16 September 1954, and entered production as the MiG-19S.
Approximately 5,500 MiG-19's were produced, first in the USSR and in Czechoslovakia as the Avia S-105, but mainly in the People's Republic of China as the Shenyang J-6. The aircraft saw service with a number of other national air forces, including those of Cuba, North Vietnam, Egypt, Pakistan, and North Korea. The aircraft saw combat during the Vietnam War, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1971 Bangladesh War.
However, jet fighter development made huge leaps in the 1960s, and OKB MiG was constantly trying to improve the MiG-19's performance, esp. against fast and high-flying enemies, primarily bombers but also spy planes like the U-2.
As the MiG-19S was brought into service with the Soviet air forces in mid-1956, the OKB MiG was continuing the refinement of the SM-1/I-340 fighter. One of these evolutionary paths was the SM-12 (literally, “SM-1, second generation”) family of prototypes, the ultimate extrapolation of the basic MiG-19 design, which eventually led to the MiG-19bis interceptor that filled the gap between the MiG-19S and the following, highly successful MiG-21.
The SM-12 first saw life as an exercise in drag reduction by means of new air intake configurations, since the MiG-19’s original intake with rounded lips became inefficient at supersonic speed (its Western rival, the North American F-100, featured a sharp-lipped nose air intake from the start). The first of three prototypes, the SM-12/1, was essentially a MiG-19S with an extended and straight-tapered nose with sharp-lipped orifice and a pointed, two-position shock cone on the intake splitter. The simple arrangement proved to be successful and was further refined.
The next evolutionary step, the SM-12/3, differed from its predecessors primarily in two new R3-26 turbojets developed from the earlier power plant by V. N. Sorokin. These each offered an afterburning thrust of 3,600kg, enabling the SM-12/3 to attain speeds ranging between 1,430km/h at sea level, or Mach=1.16, and 1,930km/h at 12,000m, or Mach=1.8, and an altitude of between 17,500 and 18,000m during its test program. This outstanding performance prompted further development with a view to production as a point defense interceptor.
Similarly powered by R3-26 engines, and embodying major nose redesign with a larger orifice permitting introduction of a substantial two-position conical centerbody for a TsD-30 radar, a further prototype was completed as the SM-12PM. Discarding the wing root NR-30 cannon of preceding prototypes, the SM-12PM was armed with only two K-5M (RS-2U) beam-riding missiles and entered flight test in 1957. This configuration would become the basis for the MiG-19bis interceptor that eventually was ordered into limited production (see below).
However, the SM-12 development line did not stop at this point. At the end of 1958, yet another prototype, the SM-12PMU, joined the experimental fighter family. This had R3M-26 turbojets uprated to 3.800kg with afterburning, but these were further augmented by a U-19D accelerator, which took the form of a permanent ventral pack containing an RU-013 rocket motor and its propellant tanks. Developed by D. D. Sevruk, the RU-013 delivered 3,000kg of additional thrust, and with the aid of this rocket motor, the SM-12PMU attained an altitude of 24,000m and a speed of Mach=1.69. But this effort was to no avail: the decision had been taken meanwhile to manufacture the Ye-7 in series as the MiG-21, and further development of the SM-12 series was therefore discontinued.
Nevertheless, since full operational status of the new MiG-21 was expected to remain pending for some time, production of a modified SM-12PM was ordered as a gap filler. Not only would this fighter bridge the performance gap to the Mach 2-capable MiG-21, it also had the benefit of being based on proven technologies and would not require a new basic pilot training.
The new aircraft received the official designation MiG-19bis. Compared with the SM-12PM prototype, the MiG-19bis differed in some details and improvements. The SM-12PM’s most significant shortfall was its short range – at full power, it had only a range of 750 km! This could be mended through an additional fuel tank in an enlarged dorsal fairing behind the cockpit. With this internal extra fuel, range could be extended by a further 200 - 250km range, but drop tanks had typically to be carried, too, in order to extend the fighter’ combat radius with two AAMs to 500 km. Specifically for the MiG-19bis, new, supersonic drop tanks (PTB-490) were designed, and these were later adapted for the MiG-21, too.
The air intake shock cone was re-contoured and the shifting mechanism improved: Instead of a simple, conical shape, the shock cone now had a more complex curvature with two steps and the intake orifice area was widened to allow a higher airflow rate. The air intake’s efficiency was further optimized through gradual positions of the shock cone.
As a positive side effect, the revised shock cone offered space for an enlarged radar dish, what improved detection range and resolution. The TsD-30 radar for the fighter’s missile-only armament was retained, even though the K-5’s effective range of only 2–6 km (1¼ – 3¾ mi) made it only suitable against slow and large targets like bombers. All guns were deleted in order to save weight or make room for the electronic equipment. The tail section was also changed because the R3M-26 engines and their afterburners were considerably longer than the MiG-19's original RM-5 engines. The exhausts now markedly protruded from the tail section, and the original, characteristic pen nib fairing between the two engines had been modified accordingly.
Production started in 1960, but only a total of roundabout 180 MiG-19bis, which received the NATO code "Farmer F", were built and the Soviet Union remained the only operator of the type. The first aircraft entered Soviet Anti-Air Defense in early 1961, and the machines were concentrated in PVO interceptor units around major sites like Moscow, Sewastopol at the Black Sea and Vladivostok in the Far East.
With the advent of the MiG-21, though, their career did not last long. Even though many machines were updated to carry the K-13 (the IR-guided AA-2 "Atoll") as well as the improved K-55 AAMs, with no change of the type’s designation, most MiG-19bis were already phased out towards the late 1960s and quickly replaced by 2nd generation MiG-21s as well as heavier and more capable Suchoj interceptors like the Su-9, -11 and -15. By 1972, all MiG-19bis had been retired.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 13.54 m (44 ft 4 in), fuselage only with shock cone in forward position
15.48 m (50 8 ½ in) including pitot
Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.8885 m (12 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 25 m² (269 ft²)
Empty weight: 5,210 kg (11,475 lb)
Loaded weight: 7,890 kg (17,380 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,050 kg (19,935 lb)
Fuel capacity: 2,450 l (556 imp gal; 647 US gal) internal;
plus 760 l (170 imp gal; 200 US gal) with 2 drop tanks
Powerplant:
2× Sorokin R3M-26 turbojets, rated at 37.2 kN (8,370 lbf) thrust each with afterburning
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,380km/h at sea level (Mach=1.16)
1,850km/h at 12,000m (Mach=1.8)
Range: 1,250 km (775 mi; 750 nmi) at 14,000 m (45,000 ft) with 2 × 490 l drop tanks
Combat range: 500 km (312 mi; 270 nmi)
Ferry range: 2,000 km (1,242 mi; 690 nmi)
Service ceiling: 19,750 m (64,690 ft)
Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 353.3 kg/m² (72.4 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.86
Armament:
No internal guns.
4× underwing pylons; typically, a pair of PTB-490 drop tanks were carried on the outer pylon pair,
plus a pair of air-to air missiles on the inner pair: initially two radar-guided Kaliningrad K-5M (RS-2US)
AAMs, later two radar-guided K-55 or IR-guided Vympel K-13 (AA-2 'Atoll') AAMs
The kit and its assembly:
Another submission for the 2018 Cold War Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and again the opportunity to build a whiffy model from the project list. But it’s as fictional as one might think, since the SM-12 line of experimental “hybrid” fighters between the MiG-19 and the MiG-21 was real. But none of these aircraft ever made it into serial production, and in real life the MiG-21 showed so much potential that the attempts to improve the MiG-19 were stopped and no operational fighter entered production or service.
However, the SM-12, with its elongated nose and the central shock cone, makes a nice model subject, and I imagined what a service aircraft might have looked like? It would IMHO have been close, if not identical, to the SM-12PM, since this was the most refined pure jet fighter in the development family.
The basis for the build was a (dead cheap) Mastercraft MiG-19, which is a re-edition of the venerable Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) kit – as a tribute to modern tastes, it comes with (crudely) engraved panel, but it has a horrible fit all over. For instance, there was a 1mm gap between the fuselage and the right wing, the wing halves’ outlines did not match at all and it is questionable if the canopy actually belongs to the kit at all? PSR everywhere. I also had a Plastyk version of this kit on the table some time ago, but it was of a much better quality! O.K., the Mastercraft kit comes cheap, but it’s, to be honest, not a real bargain.
Even though the result would not be crisp I did some mods and changes. Internally, a cockpit tub was implanted (OOB there’s just a wacky seat hanging in mid air) plus some serious lead weight in the nose section for a proper stance.
On the outside, the new air intake is the most obvious change. I found a Su-17 intake (from a Mastercraft kit, too) and used a piece from a Matchbox B-17G’s dorsal turret to elongate the nose – it had an almost perfect diameter and a mildly conical shape. Some massive PSR work was necessary to blend the parts together, though.
The tail received new jet nozzles, scratched from steel needle protection covers, and the tail fairing was adjusted according to the real SM-12’s shape.
Ordnance was adapted, too: the drop tanks come from a Mastercraft MiG-21, and these supersonic PTB-490 tanks were indeed carried by the real SM-12 prototypes because the uprated engines were very thirsty and the original, teardrop-shaped MiG-19 tanks simply too draggy for the much faster SM-12. As a side note, the real SM-12’s short range was one of the serious factors that prevented the promising type’s production in real life. In order to overcome the poor range weakness I added an enlarged spine (half of a drop tank), inspired by the MiG-21 SMT, that would house an additional internal fuel tank.
The R2-SU/K-5 AAMs come from a vintage Mastercraft Soviet aircraft weapon set, which carries a pair of these 1st generation AAMs. While the molds seem to be a bit soft, the missiles look pretty convincing. Their pylons were taken from the kit (OOB they carry unguided AAM pods and are placed behind the main landing gear wells), just reversed and placed on the wings’ leading edges – similar to the real SM-12’s arrangement.
Painting and markings:
No surprises. In the Sixties, any PVO aircraft was left in bare metal, so there was hardly an alternative to a NMF finish.
Painting started with an all-over coat with acrylic Revell 99 (Aluminum), just the spine tank became light grey (Revell 371) for some contrast, and I painted some di-electric covers in a deep green (Revell 48).
The cockpit interior was painted with a bright mix of Revell 55 and some 48, while the landing gear wells and the back section of the cockpit were painted in a bluish grey (Revell 57).
The landing gear was painted in Steel (unpolished Modelmaster metallizer) and received classic, bright green wheel discs (Humbrol 2). As a small, unusual highlight the pitot boom under the chin received red and white stripes – seen on occasional MiG-19S fighters in Soviet service, and the anti-flutter booms on the stabilizers became bright red, too.
After the basic painting was done the kit received a black ink wash. Once this had dried and wiped off with a soft cotton cloth, post shading with various metallizer tones was added in order to liven up the uniform aircraft (including Humbrol’s matt and polished aluminum, and the exhaust section was treated with steel). Some panel lines were emphasized with a thin pencil.
Decals were puzzled together from various sources, a Guards badge and a few Russian stencils were added, too. Finally, the kit was sealed with a coat of sheen acrylic varnish (a 2:1 mix of Italeri matt and semi-gloss varnish).
The K-5 missiles, last but not least, were painted in aluminum, too, but their end caps (both front and tail section) became off-white.
The Mastercraft kit on which this conversion was based is crude, so I did not have high expectations concerning the outcome. But the new nose blends nicely into the MiG-19 fuselage, and the wide spine is a subtle detail that makes the aircraft look more “beefy” and less MiG-19-ish. The different drop tanks – even though they are authentic – visually add further speed. And despite many flaws, I am quite happy with the result of roundabout a week’s work.
Heir of Pruianus was a smart spaceship from Ceenden Planets Council . It was equiped with a powerful submaterial acceleration double cannon capable of destroying enemy shields quickly.
During a rutine surveilliance mission the ship landed on a satellite of Scilles D. While the crew was performing a ventilation system purge several Chry termites entered the ship and made their nests in the ventilation conduits.
The attemps to expel them failed and took control the ship's systems. When the termites took control of the life support system the ceendians had to leave the ship.
As most readers know the Chry termites are an inteligent insectoid species from the outer rim. They are organized in colonies where each termite has a role (workers, explorers, guardians, queens, engineers...). Their size can vary from 50 cm of the explorers to 15 m of some guardians but some people say they have seen larger specimens. Its shell makes them highly resistant to environmental conditions and can work in vacuum.
They have spread by numerous solar systems traveling as stowaways on ships from other species. Although it was known they had took control of some freighters and small ships, the Heir of Pruianus is the first warship stolen by Chry termites.
Chry termites cover their ships with an organic sustance that resists energetic weapons an high power impacts.
Heir of Pruianus now is called Ktrrykkr by its new ownwers.
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Puedes leer esto en español en mi blog.
A.C.B. Drapers:
The 1920s was a decade of significant growth in Fortitude Valley. The success it had attained as a commercial and industrial hub from the beginning of the twentieth century, expanded further in the 1920s. In this decade, the newly amalgamated Brisbane City Council undertook major civic work programs in the Valley. Large and small retailers extended their premises and many public and community buildings were erected. Not least of these extensive building plans were those of Albert Charles Byerley, director of the A.C.B. Ladies Drapers.
Byerley had commenced the A.C.B. Ladies Drapers on Wickham Street in the Valley on 13 October 1916 with £5000 worth of stock and 17 employees. Fortitude Valley was not short of drapers in 1916, with the well-known and long-established drapery stores of T.C. Beirne, Overell and Sons and McWhirter and Sons dominating the shopping precinct. The draperies were large, able to provide a wide variety of goods to eager customers, and with a combination of well-priced goods and attractive displays, were capable of attracting enthusiastic crowds of shoppers. Small businesses in the Valley profited from the customers drawn to the draperies, but entering into direct competition with the drapers’ firms was risky. Byerley’s gamble paid off, however, and by 1923 the A.C.B employed 600 people, with branches in Gympie, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Toowoomba, Warwick and Pittsworth. Byerley even won bowls championships with one of the Overell managers towards the end of the 1910s. At 40 years old, Byerley declared proudly, he was the youngest drapery executive in Australia.
From the 1920s, Byerley and the A.C.B Drapers embarked on a period of tireless expansion. The A.C.B’s flagship Valley store was first run from Northcote Chambers on Wickham Street, close to the Wickham Street frontage of the massive Overell department store. In February 1920, Byerley and partner George Henry Birkbeck obtained title to 32.15 perches of land adjacent to Northcote Chambers, along with a £18,500 mortgage from former land owner Colonel Charles Plant. By April, the A.C.B. Drapers had announced its plans for large extensions to its showrooms. The company spent £38,000 to renovate its branches and promoted its new plans with a building sale. It was boasted that the new building would have the largest single street plate-glass window frontage in the Commonwealth. Plans for brick alterations to the property were approved in October 1920, to be constructed by contractor Henry Roberts. No architect was listed, although Roberts may have been responsible for the design of the building. Roberts was a speculative builder who later went on to become an architect and designed several buildings, particularly as his own investments.
The new building opened in February 1921, with a sketch included in the advertisements of the Brisbane Courier.
In July 1921, the Brisbane Municipal Council approved plans for the A.C.B Ladies’ Drapers to build a new brick building, again constructed by Henry Roberts. The first part of the new building was completed in twelve weeks and four days, ready to open in October. The A.C.B.’s business was so large that it continued its occupation of Northcote Chambers (which was owned, in part, by Henry Roberts) as well as moving into the new building. Birkbeck retired from business and the entire property was transferred to Byerley in December.
The second part of the new building was completed in August 1922, just as a fire broke out in the Northcote Chambers building and caused £15,000 worth of damage to stock, as well as to other tenants. All drapery stock was moved into the new building. Expansion continued, with new footwear sections opened in April 1923. At the same time, Byerley proposed to construct a ten-storey building on a newlypurchased site adjoining the property in Wickham Street. The building was to have bulk stores, two floors of show rooms, a mail order department, offices, three floors for manufacturing and two storeys for lunch rooms – one for employees, the other for the public. Designed by the Queensland Construction Company, it would cost the A.C.B. £50,000. Byerley entered into a mortgage with the Australian Mutual Providential Society to the value of £24,000 and a second to Colonel Plant for £10,000 (both registered on 10 April).
Work on the foundations was announced to start in May 1923, and the A.C.B again celebrated with a ‘building sale’. Progress slowed, and a concrete warehouse was finally approved on 11 March 1924. The buildings between the A.C.B building and Clark Street were cleared at the end of the year; a photograph published in the Brisbane Courier in September 1923 shows workmen from the Queensland Construction Company near the Wickham and Clark Street corner, preparing to demolish the shops.
In the interim, Byerley was expanding the A.C.B. branches to regional Queensland. New premises had been opened in Cairns, Innisfail, Charters Towers in 1924 and Atherton and South Brisbane in 1926, and each branch had been registered as a separate company.
By 1926, however, the A.C.B. had passed the peak of its commercial success. Only one floor and a basement of the ten-storey building had emerged. Two fires broke out in the Valley premises in November 1927, causing £28,115 worth of damage (including £3,298 to the building). Repairs were undertaken by the Queensland Constructional Company, which had set up its offices in the A.C.B’s buildings.
Further troubles followed. While Byerley expanded, borrowing from banks and other creditors, the financial situation of his companies began to worsen. The stock market crash and ensuing depression hit in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and by 1930 Byerley was almost certainly insolvent. Officially, however, it was not until 1932 that A.C.B. Limited crashed, with £282,276/12/5 in liabilities and over 130 creditors. In the hearings over the ensuing years, Byerley’s one-man A.C.B. drapery chain was described as a ‘bubble organisation’ which had finally burst. The company was compulsorily wound up and Byerley declared bankrupt. There were only two secured creditors in the company, both with charges over the Wickham Street property. Of AMP’s original £24,000 mortgage, £22,999/14/10 remained, while the estate of
Colonel Plant had a £6,000 charge over the property. Byerley had claimed the Wickham-street building was worth £46,150, but it was judged that the property would raise insufficient money to cover the debts of the two creditors. James Malouf, a draper, took possession of the Valley property in October 1932, with the blessing of the Australian Mutual Provident Society.
With debtors to be paid, the A.C.B property was offered for sale at auction in March 1933. The entire property was composed of two allotments, totalling just over a quarter of an acre and with a frontage (138 feet 6 inches) said to be one of the largest in the city. The sites contained two buildings: a ‘substantial brick building’ of three floors and a basement, with 69 foot and four inch frontage (now number 282). There was also a two-storey building on the site adjacent (now number 302). The properties had an advantageous location near the Brunswick Street train station, but at auction they were passed in without any bids. (Similarly, Foy and Gibson’s large premises had received only one bid at auction eight months earlier, while Stewart and Sons’ large factory in McLachlan Street was offered for sale unsuccessfully for several years.)
Malouf continued his drapery store from the premises until 1937, when the Australian Mutual Provident Society became the holder of the estate. Smith’s furniture store leased the building until 1949, when the Brisbane City Mission relocated there. The Mission purchased the property at number 282 (a site of just under thirty-two perches) in 1952. The building became known as ‘Revesby House’ after Revesby Holdings purchased it in 1985, using it for shops and offices. In 1987 it passed to Richard and Juliana Martin and was transferred to For Angels Ltd in 2003.
McWhirters Bulk Store:
The drapery firm of James McWhirter and Son Ltd was founded in 1898. Business commenced in a single shop fronting Brunswick Street, but quickly expanded to include other retail. James McWhirter senior had been employed by T.C. Beirne, another draper in Fortitude Valley, before establishing his own business. Competition between the two major retailers played out over the twentieth century, with their stores facing each other across Brunswick Street.
By the early twentieth century, McWhirters was one of the three largest Valley retailers, alongside TC Beirne and Overells. Following the disastrous 1890s floods which drove south side retailers to the north side, the Valley became the shopping hub for greater Brisbane, rivalled only by the city centre itself. McWhirters flourished as a family department store, its many customers attracted by a high quality of goods, variety of merchandise and moderate prices. The store’s shop windows, especially at Christmas, became a Fortitude Valley attraction.
The massive trade of McWhirter and Son necessitated expansion during this period. Large buildings and additions were undertaken in 1912, 1923 and 1930-31. These buildings engulfed one side of the ‘Valley Corner’, taking up most of the block fronting Wickham, Warner and Brunswick Streets. These buildings are all listed together on the State Heritage Register.
McWhirters’ development was not limited to Fortitude Valley. James McWhirter’s sharp business acumen had enabled him to expand his business to branches throughout Queensland. McWhirters worked on the principle that ‘distance shall be no bar to trade’. It had a large number of Queensland country clients and regularly sent parcels to customers in New South Wales, South Australia and New Guinea. The firm was renowned for its postal service for country customers and produced regular catalogues for mail orders. Similarly, the large city-based drapery firm of McDonnell and East’s advertised itself as the ‘Home of the Mail Order’ in 1918, while T.C. Beirne had a rural store in Mackay.
Expansion of McWhirters around the late 1910s seems to have focused on catering for this business: the firm’s garage, from which many parcels would have been delivered, was built in 1918 in nearby Ballow Street.
McWhirters had contributed greatly to the attraction of Friday night shopping in the Valley in the early 1900s. However, in 1908 a Shop Assistants’ Wages Board was established, and in the following years agitation to abolish Friday night trading and to reinstate the 48 hour week, grew. The Drapers’ Association, which included McWhirters, agreed in 1916 to cease their Friday night trading, foreshadowing the 1917 stipulation that overtime rates had to be paid for Friday night shopping, in effect abolishing Friday night shopping. To counteract the reduction in trading hours, McWhirters advertised the introduction of a suburban section of their Mail Order Department, for the convenience of customers. In reality, the loss of Friday night trading does not seem to have harmed most of the Valley firms, who were reported not to want re-establish Friday night trading, and whose takings increased after the abolition. The success of the mail order department can be seen in the 1918 purchase of the Warner Street site on which the bulk store was built.
In 1918 McWhirter and Son purchased the Warner Street site. It had been owned from 1913 by T.C. Beirne, although it was not used as part of Beirne’s retail business, but rather the location of the Elite Skating Palace.
On 25 September 1918 plans for the new brick warehouse on Warner Street were registered, though they were not approved until 20 December. The architect, Thomas Ramsay Hall of Queen St and contractor, Henry Roberts of Adelaide St, had been employed to construct the Ballow Street garage earlier in 1918. Hall was a prominent Brisbane architect from a family of prominent Brisbane architects: John Hall, his father, designed buildings for the Queensland National Bank and private residences including ‘Greylands’, ‘Langlands’ and ‘Pahroombin’, while Francis Richard Hall, his half-brother, was in practice with Robin Dods as Hall and Dods. T.R. Hall contributed significantly to the architectural design of Brisbane and Queensland, as a solo practitioner (with designs including the Castlemaine Perkins Building in Adelaide St (1918-19), McDonnell and East Limited Building (1912-1928) and the Sandgate Town Hall (1911-12)); with partner GG Prentice (most notably City Hall (1930), Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church (1924-5)); and with later partner LB Phillips (Gayndah Shire Hall (1935), Southport Bathing Pavillion (1934) and the Southport Town Hall (1935)). Hall, ‘well and popularly known in Brisbane’, also worked with Henry and D.F. Roberts on developments of McWhirters in 1914, where his ‘considerable technical resource’ was considered invaluable on the intricate remodelling scheme.
As Hall formed an architectural firm with GG Prentice in 1919, Prentice may also have contributed to the design of the McWhirters bulk store.
The McWhirters Bulk Store was completed in 1919. Four storeys high, spacious and imposing, it afforded ‘convincing evidence of the wonderful growth of that firm’s [McWhirter and Son] business.’ It was considered ‘decidedly attractive’ and appreciated for its ‘thorough modernity’. A dock on the ground floor was connected to the upper storage levels by an electric lift, with electric lighting and fire sprinklers installed throughout the building. A lunch room for the employees took up half a floor, making it large enough to be considered for dances and socials. A tower above the roof was capped with a concrete water tank. The total floor space was 46,000 square feet.
The completion of the bulk store unfortunately coincided with the death of James McWhirter, son of the founder. James junior died in Sydney in September 1919. McWhirters Limited was incorporated in the following year. James senior lived only a few years longer, dying in 1925. However the success of McWhirters continued well into the first half of the twentieth century: in 1928 McWhirters earned a record profit of ₤77,888, with more settled earnings of ₤37,072 by June 1940. In 1949 the turnover of Valley residents was estimated at ₤15 million each year, of which McWhirters, T.C. Beirne’s and Overells accounted for more than ₤5 million.
In the late 1920s, the mail order business and packing department were moved into the building. Business had grown so significantly in the 1920s that it was seen as more beneficial to relocate the department into separate and larger premises. This also had the advantage of locating the mail order department conveniently close to the Ballow Street motor garage, from which the parcels were sent. However, the building was also used for events outside its normal business: it was the location for a wireless concert and horticultural exhibit in 1925. In 1933, the bulk store was the site of distribution of free Christmas hampers donated by McWhirters to those suffering the effects of the Depression. 5,000 people arrived on Christmas morning to claim a hamper.
Architect T.R. Hall was retained for the McWhirters 1930-31 addition, with new partner G.G. Phillips. The striking building on the Wickham and Brunswick Street corner, joined the two existing buildings and was built by G.A. Stronach. This five-storey addition provided another 250,000 square feet (a little more than two hectares) of floor space at a cost of ₤130,000.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
Lately it seems to have become very easy for people to take aerial images of pretty much everything. The availability of financially accessible drones with stabilization equipped with cameras capable of decent image quality has caused a huge boom in aerial photography. You just drive or walk to wherever you desire to take your pictures, release the drone. Plenty time to establish a composition, if a cloud takes your light away you can simply wait for it to go again. You can take multiple images of the same place from different angles and different altitudes. You see everything on your screen right where you're stood. There is a lot of positives about this type of aerial imaging, including time management. Just go pretty much anywhere when it suits you, stay for as long as you like, wait for the right conditions. Awesome.
As charming as it all sounds, there is one thing that's missing. To me personally, at least. And that is the experience of being up there yourself, seeing with your own eyes all the opportunities for shots you would like to take. Then that bit of adrenalin when you see it and try to set up a composition knowing that in a few seconds the scene ends up behind you with no chance of returning. You race to check, respectively quickly adjust the settings on your camera before you press the shutter. And just as you have captured what you wanted and you take your eye off the viewfinder, another potential for another photograph is right there and you through it all again. And finally, the plane lands and you go home with not just the images in your camera - you go home with the experience. You were up there, you saw all the bays and shapes of various places. You saw the shallow bays of Sanday and the many legs of Stronsay's coastline. And in your head, you forever have the scenery imprinted in your memory.
Below are the picture from the evening flight to North Ronaldsay and back, timed just for sunset.
Feel free to share my story if you like it, leave a comment if you feel like it.
The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, it was later officially known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer when Blackburn became a part of the Hawker Siddeley Group, but this name is rarely used.
The Buccaneer was originally designed in response to the Soviet Union's Sverdlov-class cruiser construction programme. Instead of building a new fleet of its own, the Royal Navy could use the Buccaneer to attack these ships by approaching at low altitudes below the ship's radar horizon. The Buccaneer could attack using a nuclear bomb, or conventional weapons. It was later intended to carry short-range anti-shipping missiles to improve its survivability against more modern ship-based anti-aircraft weapons.
The Buccaneer entered Royal Navy service in 1962. The initial production aircraft suffered a series of accidents due to insufficient engine power, which was quickly addressed in the Buccaneer S.2, equipped with more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines. The Buccaneer was also offered as a possible solution for the Royal Air Force (RAF) requirement for a supersonic interdictor carrying nuclear weapons. It was rejected as not meeting the specification in favour of the much more advanced supersonic BAC TSR-2, but the cost of the TSR-2 programme led to its cancellation, only to be followed by the cancellation of its selected replacement, the General Dynamics F-111K. The RAF purchased Buccaneers and American Phantom IIs as TSR-2 substitutes, the Buccaneer entering service in 1969.
The Royal Navy retired the last of its large aircraft carriers in 1978, moving their strike role to the British Aerospace Sea Harrier, and passing their Buccaneers to the RAF. After a crash in 1980 revealed metal fatigue problems, the RAF fleet was reduced to 60 aircraft, while the rest were scrapped. The ending of the Cold War led to a reduction in strength of the RAF, and the accelerated retirement of the remaining fleet, with the last Buccaneers in RAF service being retired in 1994 in favour of the Panavia Tornado. The South African Air Force (SAAF) also procured the type. Buccaneers saw combat action in the first Gulf War of 1991, and the South African Border War.
XN974 was first built and flew as and S.1, but was later converted to a S.2 - she was the first S.2 off the production line making her first flight as an S.2 on the 5th June 1964. This was the only Buccaneer that flew both as an S.1 and S.2.
The airframe on to the Royal Aeronautical Establishment in Bedford for work trials and from there to HMS Eagle for sea trials. On her return flight from the USA after hot weather testing, she achieved a record from Goose Bay to Lossiemouth by becoming the first Fleet Air Arm aircraft to fly the transatlantic route non-stop without the support of re-fuelling.
Eyes of human being is capable to say the words of soul with its visual language. Eyes of this child is complaining against Child Labour and wanting her innocence and childhood back. Poverty and illiteracy, these two rectifiers are giving the pace of child labor. If you have that inner eyes, then you can able to read those eyes. They are complaining about us and our society. Society and we can retrieve their childhood by putting a little contribution to them. Doesn’t she deserve that one chance that she is lacking behind? Yes. She deserves. However, we are the people who don't have that much time to read those eyes and it's complaining. A little contribution of everyone can make huge differences to their lives.
So, please come forward and try to contribute a little for those innocent eyes that inherent enormous opportunities which can lead this country in future. Therefore, please try to listen to those eyes and what they are trying to say to us. If we can able to hear the voice of a single eye then we can able to build a healthier, wealthier Bangladesh in future times.
Special thanks and gratitude for previewing my photostream. You all are most welcome to criticize the photo as well as can comments and favorites if you like.
|| PEACE ||
© All Rights Reserved; 2013.
Not everyone was capable of carrying their own bags down several flights of stairs and across the pontoons to board the Century Diamond in the Yangtze River at Chongqing. Even if you were able and willing these "porters" were very aggressive about providing service - for a feee of course.
Dam they look like they are earning their keep.
Colosseum
Following, a text, in english, from the Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia:
The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering.
Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD[1] under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus,[2] with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign (81–96).[3] The name "Amphitheatrum Flavium" derives from both Vespasian's and Titus's family name (Flavius, from the gens Flavia).
Capable of seating 50,000 spectators,[1][4][5] the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.
Although in the 21st century it stays partially ruined because of damage caused by devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close connections with the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession that starts in the area around the Colosseum.[6]
The Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin.
The Colosseum's original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheater. The building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, hence its original name, after the reign of Emperor Nero.[7] This name is still used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum. In antiquity, Romans may have referred to the Colosseum by the unofficial name Amphitheatrum Caesareum; this name could have been strictly poetic.[8][9] This name was not exclusive to the Colosseum; Vespasian and Titus, builders of the Colosseum, also constructed an amphitheater of the same name in Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli).[10]
The name Colosseum has long been believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby.[3] (the statue of Nero itself being named after one of the original ancient wonders, the Colossus of Rhodes[citation needed]. This statue was later remodeled by Nero's successors into the likeness of Helios (Sol) or Apollo, the sun god, by adding the appropriate solar crown. Nero's head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors. Despite its pagan links, the statue remained standing well into the medieval era and was credited with magical powers. It came to be seen as an iconic symbol of the permanence of Rome.
In the 8th century, a famous epigram attributed to the Venerable Bede celebrated the symbolic significance of the statue in a prophecy that is variously quoted: Quamdiu stat Colisæus, stat et Roma; quando cadet colisæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus ("as long as the Colossus stands, so shall Rome; when the Colossus falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, so falls the world").[11] This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus (as in, for instance, Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage). However, at the time that the Pseudo-Bede wrote, the masculine noun coliseus was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Flavian amphitheatre.
The Colossus did eventually fall, possibly being pulled down to reuse its bronze. By the year 1000 the name "Colosseum" had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre. The statue itself was largely forgotten and only its base survives, situated between the Colosseum and the nearby Temple of Venus and Roma.[12]
The name further evolved to Coliseum during the Middle Ages. In Italy, the amphitheatre is still known as il Colosseo, and other Romance languages have come to use similar forms such as le Colisée (French), el Coliseo (Spanish) and o Coliseu (Portuguese).
Construction of the Colosseum began under the rule of the Emperor Vespasian[3] in around 70–72AD. The site chosen was a flat area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited. It was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain. He built the grandiose Domus Aurea on the site, in front of which he created an artificial lake surrounded by pavilions, gardens and porticoes. The existing Aqua Claudia aqueduct was extended to supply water to the area and the gigantic bronze Colossus of Nero was set up nearby at the entrance to the Domus Aurea.[12]
Although the Colossus was preserved, much of the Domus Aurea was torn down. The lake was filled in and the land reused as the location for the new Flavian Amphitheatre. Gladiatorial schools and other support buildings were constructed nearby within the former grounds of the Domus Aurea. According to a reconstructed inscription found on the site, "the emperor Vespasian ordered this new amphitheatre to be erected from his general's share of the booty." This is thought to refer to the vast quantity of treasure seized by the Romans following their victory in the Great Jewish Revolt in 70AD. The Colosseum can be thus interpreted as a great triumphal monument built in the Roman tradition of celebrating great victories[12], placating the Roman people instead of returning soldiers. Vespasian's decision to build the Colosseum on the site of Nero's lake can also be seen as a populist gesture of returning to the people an area of the city which Nero had appropriated for his own use. In contrast to many other amphitheatres, which were located on the outskirts of a city, the Colosseum was constructed in the city centre; in effect, placing it both literally and symbolically at the heart of Rome.
The Colosseum had been completed up to the third story by the time of Vespasian's death in 79. The top level was finished and the building inaugurated by his son, Titus, in 80.[3] Dio Cassius recounts that over 9,000 wild animals were killed during the inaugural games of the amphitheatre. The building was remodelled further under Vespasian's younger son, the newly designated Emperor Domitian, who constructed the hypogeum, a series of underground tunnels used to house animals and slaves. He also added a gallery to the top of the Colosseum to increase its seating capacity.
In 217, the Colosseum was badly damaged by a major fire (caused by lightning, according to Dio Cassius[13]) which destroyed the wooden upper levels of the amphitheatre's interior. It was not fully repaired until about 240 and underwent further repairs in 250 or 252 and again in 320. An inscription records the restoration of various parts of the Colosseum under Theodosius II and Valentinian III (reigned 425–455), possibly to repair damage caused by a major earthquake in 443; more work followed in 484[14] and 508. The arena continued to be used for contests well into the 6th century, with gladiatorial fights last mentioned around 435. Animal hunts continued until at least 523, when Anicius Maximus celebrated his consulship with some venationes, criticised by King Theodoric the Great for their high cost.
The Colosseum underwent several radical changes of use during the medieval period. By the late 6th century a small church had been built into the structure of the amphitheatre, though this apparently did not confer any particular religious significance on the building as a whole. The arena was converted into a cemetery. The numerous vaulted spaces in the arcades under the seating were converted into housing and workshops, and are recorded as still being rented out as late as the 12th century. Around 1200 the Frangipani family took over the Colosseum and fortified it, apparently using it as a castle.
Severe damage was inflicted on the Colosseum by the great earthquake in 1349, causing the outer south side, lying on a less stable alluvional terrain, to collapse. Much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. A religious order moved into the northern third of the Colosseum in the mid-14th century and continued to inhabit it until as late as the early 19th century. The interior of the amphitheatre was extensively stripped of stone, which was reused elsewhere, or (in the case of the marble façade) was burned to make quicklime.[12] The bronze clamps which held the stonework together were pried or hacked out of the walls, leaving numerous pockmarks which still scar the building today.
During the 16th and 17th century, Church officials sought a productive role for the vast derelict hulk of the Colosseum. Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) planned to turn the building into a wool factory to provide employment for Rome's prostitutes, though this proposal fell through with his premature death.[15] In 1671 Cardinal Altieri authorized its use for bullfights; a public outcry caused the idea to be hastily abandoned.
In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed as official Church policy the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred. He forbade the use of the Colosseum as a quarry and consecrated the building to the Passion of Christ and installed Stations of the Cross, declaring it sanctified by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there (see Christians and the Colosseum). However there is no historical evidence to support Benedict's claim, nor is there even any evidence that anyone prior to the 16th century suggested this might be the case; the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that there are no historical grounds for the supposition. Later popes initiated various stabilization and restoration projects, removing the extensive vegetation which had overgrown the structure and threatened to damage it further. The façade was reinforced with triangular brick wedges in 1807 and 1827, and the interior was repaired in 1831, 1846 and in the 1930s. The arena substructure was partly excavated in 1810–1814 and 1874 and was fully exposed under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.
The Colosseum is today one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, receiving millions of visitors annually. The effects of pollution and general deterioration over time prompted a major restoration programme carried out between 1993 and 2000, at a cost of 40 billion Italian lire ($19.3m / €20.6m at 2000 prices). In recent years it has become a symbol of the international campaign against capital punishment, which was abolished in Italy in 1948. Several anti–death penalty demonstrations took place in front of the Colosseum in 2000. Since that time, as a gesture against the death penalty, the local authorities of Rome change the color of the Colosseum's night time illumination from white to gold whenever a person condemned to the death penalty anywhere in the world gets their sentence commuted or is released,[16] or if a jurisdiction abolishes the death penalty. Most recently, the Colosseum was illuminated in gold when capital punishment was abolished in the American state of New Mexico in April 2009.
Because of the ruined state of the interior, it is impractical to use the Colosseum to host large events; only a few hundred spectators can be accommodated in temporary seating. However, much larger concerts have been held just outside, using the Colosseum as a backdrop. Performers who have played at the Colosseum in recent years have included Ray Charles (May 2002),[18] Paul McCartney (May 2003),[19] Elton John (September 2005),[20] and Billy Joel (July 2006).
Exterior
Unlike earlier Greek theatres that were built into hillsides, the Colosseum is an entirely free-standing structure. It derives its basic exterior and interior architecture from that of two Roman theatres back to back. It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of 6 acres (24,000 m2). The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating.
The outer wall is estimated to have required over 100,000 cubic meters (131,000 cu yd) of travertine stone which were set without mortar held together by 300 tons of iron clamps.[12] However, it has suffered extensive damage over the centuries, with large segments having collapsed following earthquakes. The north side of the perimeter wall is still standing; the distinctive triangular brick wedges at each end are modern additions, having been constructed in the early 19th century to shore up the wall. The remainder of the present-day exterior of the Colosseum is in fact the original interior wall.
The surviving part of the outer wall's monumental façade comprises three stories of superimposed arcades surmounted by a podium on which stands a tall attic, both of which are pierced by windows interspersed at regular intervals. The arcades are framed by half-columns of the Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, while the attic is decorated with Corinthian pilasters.[21] Each of the arches in the second- and third-floor arcades framed statues, probably honoring divinities and other figures from Classical mythology.
Two hundred and forty mast corbels were positioned around the top of the attic. They originally supported a retractable awning, known as the velarium, that kept the sun and rain off spectators. This consisted of a canvas-covered, net-like structure made of ropes, with a hole in the center.[3] It covered two-thirds of the arena, and sloped down towards the center to catch the wind and provide a breeze for the audience. Sailors, specially enlisted from the Roman naval headquarters at Misenum and housed in the nearby Castra Misenatium, were used to work the velarium.[22]
The Colosseum's huge crowd capacity made it essential that the venue could be filled or evacuated quickly. Its architects adopted solutions very similar to those used in modern stadiums to deal with the same problem. The amphitheatre was ringed by eighty entrances at ground level, 76 of which were used by ordinary spectators.[3] Each entrance and exit was numbered, as was each staircase. The northern main entrance was reserved for the Roman Emperor and his aides, whilst the other three axial entrances were most likely used by the elite. All four axial entrances were richly decorated with painted stucco reliefs, of which fragments survive. Many of the original outer entrances have disappeared with the collapse of the perimeter wall, but entrances XXIII (23) to LIV (54) still survive.[12]
Spectators were given tickets in the form of numbered pottery shards, which directed them to the appropriate section and row. They accessed their seats via vomitoria (singular vomitorium), passageways that opened into a tier of seats from below or behind. These quickly dispersed people into their seats and, upon conclusion of the event or in an emergency evacuation, could permit their exit within only a few minutes. The name vomitoria derived from the Latin word for a rapid discharge, from which English derives the word vomit.
Interior
According to the Codex-Calendar of 354, the Colosseum could accommodate 87,000 people, although modern estimates put the figure at around 50,000. They were seated in a tiered arrangement that reflected the rigidly stratified nature of Roman society. Special boxes were provided at the north and south ends respectively for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins, providing the best views of the arena. Flanking them at the same level was a broad platform or podium for the senatorial class, who were allowed to bring their own chairs. The names of some 5th century senators can still be seen carved into the stonework, presumably reserving areas for their use.
The tier above the senators, known as the maenianum primum, was occupied by the non-senatorial noble class or knights (equites). The next level up, the maenianum secundum, was originally reserved for ordinary Roman citizens (plebians) and was divided into two sections. The lower part (the immum) was for wealthy citizens, while the upper part (the summum) was for poor citizens. Specific sectors were provided for other social groups: for instance, boys with their tutors, soldiers on leave, foreign dignitaries, scribes, heralds, priests and so on. Stone (and later marble) seating was provided for the citizens and nobles, who presumably would have brought their own cushions with them. Inscriptions identified the areas reserved for specific groups.
Another level, the maenianum secundum in legneis, was added at the very top of the building during the reign of Domitian. This comprised a gallery for the common poor, slaves and women. It would have been either standing room only, or would have had very steep wooden benches. Some groups were banned altogether from the Colosseum, notably gravediggers, actors and former gladiators.
Each tier was divided into sections (maeniana) by curved passages and low walls (praecinctiones or baltei), and were subdivided into cunei, or wedges, by the steps and aisles from the vomitoria. Each row (gradus) of seats was numbered, permitting each individual seat to be exactly designated by its gradus, cuneus, and number.
The arena itself was 83 meters by 48 meters (272 ft by 157 ft / 280 by 163 Roman feet).[12] It comprised a wooden floor covered by sand (the Latin word for sand is harena or arena), covering an elaborate underground structure called the hypogeum (literally meaning "underground"). Little now remains of the original arena floor, but the hypogeum is still clearly visible. It consisted of a two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages beneath the arena where gladiators and animals were held before contests began. Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and scenery pieces concealed underneath; larger hinged platforms, called hegmata, provided access for elephants and the like. It was restructured on numerous occasions; at least twelve different phases of construction can be seen.[12]
The hypogeum was connected by underground tunnels to a number of points outside the Colosseum. Animals and performers were brought through the tunnel from nearby stables, with the gladiators' barracks at the Ludus Magnus to the east also being connected by tunnels. Separate tunnels were provided for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins to permit them to enter and exit the Colosseum without needing to pass through the crowds.[12]
Substantial quantities of machinery also existed in the hypogeum. Elevators and pulleys raised and lowered scenery and props, as well as lifting caged animals to the surface for release. There is evidence for the existence of major hydraulic mechanisms[12] and according to ancient accounts, it was possible to flood the arena rapidly, presumably via a connection to a nearby aqueduct.
The Colosseum and its activities supported a substantial industry in the area. In addition to the amphitheatre itself, many other buildings nearby were linked to the games. Immediately to the east is the remains of the Ludus Magnus, a training school for gladiators. This was connected to the Colosseum by an underground passage, to allow easy access for the gladiators. The Ludus Magnus had its own miniature training arena, which was itself a popular attraction for Roman spectators. Other training schools were in the same area, including the Ludus Matutinus (Morning School), where fighters of animals were trained, plus the Dacian and Gallic Schools.
Also nearby were the Armamentarium, comprising an armory to store weapons; the Summum Choragium, where machinery was stored; the Sanitarium, which had facilities to treat wounded gladiators; and the Spoliarium, where bodies of dead gladiators were stripped of their armor and disposed of.
Around the perimeter of the Colosseum, at a distance of 18 m (59 ft) from the perimeter, was a series of tall stone posts, with five remaining on the eastern side. Various explanations have been advanced for their presence; they may have been a religious boundary, or an outer boundary for ticket checks, or an anchor for the velarium or awning.
Right next to the Colosseum is also the Arch of Constantine.
he Colosseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events. The shows, called munera, were always given by private individuals rather than the state. They had a strong religious element but were also demonstrations of power and family prestige, and were immensely popular with the population. Another popular type of show was the animal hunt, or venatio. This utilized a great variety of wild beasts, mainly imported from Africa and the Middle East, and included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, aurochs, wisents, barbary lions, panthers, leopards, bears, caspian tigers, crocodiles and ostriches. Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings. Such events were occasionally on a huge scale; Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in Dacia in 107 with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.
During the early days of the Colosseum, ancient writers recorded that the building was used for naumachiae (more properly known as navalia proelia) or simulated sea battles. Accounts of the inaugural games held by Titus in AD 80 describe it being filled with water for a display of specially trained swimming horses and bulls. There is also an account of a re-enactment of a famous sea battle between the Corcyrean (Corfiot) Greeks and the Corinthians. This has been the subject of some debate among historians; although providing the water would not have been a problem, it is unclear how the arena could have been waterproofed, nor would there have been enough space in the arena for the warships to move around. It has been suggested that the reports either have the location wrong, or that the Colosseum originally featured a wide floodable channel down its central axis (which would later have been replaced by the hypogeum).[12]
Sylvae or recreations of natural scenes were also held in the arena. Painters, technicians and architects would construct a simulation of a forest with real trees and bushes planted in the arena's floor. Animals would be introduced to populate the scene for the delight of the crowd. Such scenes might be used simply to display a natural environment for the urban population, or could otherwise be used as the backdrop for hunts or dramas depicting episodes from mythology. They were also occasionally used for executions in which the hero of the story — played by a condemned person — was killed in one of various gruesome but mythologically authentic ways, such as being mauled by beasts or burned to death.
The Colosseum today is now a major tourist attraction in Rome with thousands of tourists each year paying to view the interior arena, though entrance for EU citizens is partially subsidised, and under-18 and over-65 EU citizens' entrances are free.[24] There is now a museum dedicated to Eros located in the upper floor of the outer wall of the building. Part of the arena floor has been re-floored. Beneath the Colosseum, a network of subterranean passageways once used to transport wild animals and gladiators to the arena opened to the public in summer 2010.[25]
The Colosseum is also the site of Roman Catholic ceremonies in the 20th and 21st centuries. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI leads the Stations of the Cross called the Scriptural Way of the Cross (which calls for more meditation) at the Colosseum[26][27] on Good Fridays.
In the Middle Ages, the Colosseum was clearly not regarded as a sacred site. Its use as a fortress and then a quarry demonstrates how little spiritual importance was attached to it, at a time when sites associated with martyrs were highly venerated. It was not included in the itineraries compiled for the use of pilgrims nor in works such as the 12th century Mirabilia Urbis Romae ("Marvels of the City of Rome"), which claims the Circus Flaminius — but not the Colosseum — as the site of martyrdoms. Part of the structure was inhabited by a Christian order, but apparently not for any particular religious reason.
It appears to have been only in the 16th and 17th centuries that the Colosseum came to be regarded as a Christian site. Pope Pius V (1566–1572) is said to have recommended that pilgrims gather sand from the arena of the Colosseum to serve as a relic, on the grounds that it was impregnated with the blood of martyrs. This seems to have been a minority view until it was popularised nearly a century later by Fioravante Martinelli, who listed the Colosseum at the head of a list of places sacred to the martyrs in his 1653 book Roma ex ethnica sacra.
Martinelli's book evidently had an effect on public opinion; in response to Cardinal Altieri's proposal some years later to turn the Colosseum into a bullring, Carlo Tomassi published a pamphlet in protest against what he regarded as an act of desecration. The ensuing controversy persuaded Pope Clement X to close the Colosseum's external arcades and declare it a sanctuary, though quarrying continued for some time.
At the instance of St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758) forbade the quarrying of the Colosseum and erected Stations of the Cross around the arena, which remained until February 1874. St. Benedict Joseph Labre spent the later years of his life within the walls of the Colosseum, living on alms, prior to his death in 1783. Several 19th century popes funded repair and restoration work on the Colosseum, and it still retains a Christian connection today. Crosses stand in several points around the arena and every Good Friday the Pope leads a Via Crucis procession to the amphitheatre.
Coliseu (Colosseo)
A seguir, um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre:
O Coliseu, também conhecido como Anfiteatro Flaviano, deve seu nome à expressão latina Colosseum (ou Coliseus, no latim tardio), devido à estátua colossal de Nero, que ficava perto a edificação. Localizado no centro de Roma, é uma excepção de entre os anfiteatros pelo seu volume e relevo arquitectónico. Originalmente capaz de albergar perto de 50 000 pessoas, e com 48 metros de altura, era usado para variados espetáculos. Foi construído a leste do fórum romano e demorou entre 8 a 10 anos a ser construído.
O Coliseu foi utilizado durante aproximadamente 500 anos, tendo sido o último registro efetuado no século VI da nossa era, bastante depois da queda de Roma em 476. O edifício deixou de ser usado para entretenimento no começo da era medieval, mas foi mais tarde usado como habitação, oficina, forte, pedreira, sede de ordens religiosas e templo cristão.
Embora esteja agora em ruínas devido a terremotos e pilhagens, o Coliseu sempre foi visto como símbolo do Império Romano, sendo um dos melhores exemplos da sua arquitectura. Actualmente é uma das maiores atrações turísticas em Roma e em 7 de julho de 2007 foi eleita umas das "Sete maravilhas do mundo moderno". Além disso, o Coliseu ainda tem ligações à igreja, com o Papa a liderar a procissão da Via Sacra até ao Coliseu todas as Sextas-feiras Santas.
O coliseu era um local onde seriam exibidos toda uma série de espectáculos, inseridos nos vários tipos de jogos realizados na urbe. Os combates entre gladiadores, chamados muneras, eram sempre pagos por pessoas individuais em busca de prestígio e poder em vez do estado. A arena (87,5 m por 55 m) possuía um piso de madeira, normalmente coberto de areia para absorver o sangue dos combates (certa vez foi colocada água na representação de uma batalha naval), sob o qual existia um nível subterrâneo com celas e jaulas que tinham acessos diretos para a arena; Alguns detalhes dessa construção, como a cobertura removível que poupava os espectadores do sol, são bastante interessantes, e mostram o refinamento atingido pelos construtores romanos. Formado por cinco anéis concêntricos de arcos e abóbadas, o Coliseu representa bem o avanço introduzido pelos romanos à engenharia de estruturas. Esses arcos são de concreto (de cimento natural) revestidos por alvenaria. Na verdade, a alvenaria era construída simultaneamente e já servia de forma para a concretagem. Outro tipo de espetáculos era a caça de animais, ou venatio, onde eram utilizados animais selvagens importados de África. Os animais mais utilizados eram os grandes felinos como leões, leopardos e panteras, mas animais como rinocerontes, hipopótamos, elefantes, girafas, crocodilos e avestruzes eram também utilizados. As caçadas, tal como as representações de batalhas famosas, eram efetuadas em elaborados cenários onde constavam árvores e edifícios amovíveis.
Estas últimas eram por vezes representadas numa escala gigante; Trajano celebrou a sua vitória em Dácia no ano 107 com concursos envolvendo 11 000 animais e 10 000 gladiadores no decorrer de 123 dias.
Segundo o documentário produzido pelo canal televisivo fechado, History Channel, o Coliseu também era utilizado para a realização de naumaquias, ou batalhas navais. O coliseu era inundado por dutos subterrâneos alimentados pelos aquedutos que traziam água de longe. Passada esta fase, foi construída uma estrutura, que é a que podemos ver hoje nas ruínas do Coliseu, com altura de um prédio de dois andares, onde no passado se concentravam os gladiadores, feras e todo o pessoal que organizava os duelos que ocorreriam na arena. A arena era como um grande palco, feito de madeira, e se chama arena, que em italiano significa areia, porque era jogada areia sob a estrutura de madeira para esconder as imperfeições. Os animais podiam ser inseridos nos duelos a qualquer momento por um esquema de elevadores que surgiam em alguns pontos da arena; o filme "Gladiador" retrata muito bem esta questão dos elevadores. Os estudiosos, há pouco tempo, descobriram uma rede de dutos inundados por baixo da arena do Coliseu. Acredita-se que o Coliseu foi construído onde, outrora, foi o lago do Palácio Dourado de Nero; O imperador Vespasiano escolheu o local da construção para que o mal causado por Nero fosse esquecido por uma construção gloriosa.
Sylvae, ou recreações de cenas naturais eram também realizadas no Coliseu. Pintores, técnicos e arquitectos construiriam simulações de florestas com árvores e arbustos reais plantados no chão da arena. Animais seriam então introduzidos para dar vida à simulação. Esses cenários podiam servir só para agrado do público ou como pano de fundo para caçadas ou dramas representando episódios da mitologia romana, tão autênticos quanto possível, ao ponto de pessoas condenadas fazerem o papel de heróis onde eram mortos de maneiras horríveis mas mitologicamente autênticas, como mutilados por animais ou queimados vivos.
Embora o Coliseu tenha funcionado até ao século VI da nossa Era, foram proibidos os jogos com mortes humanas desde 404, sendo apenas massacrados animais como elefantes, panteras ou leões.
O Coliseu era sobretudo um enorme instrumento de propaganda e difusão da filosofia de toda uma civilização, e tal como era já profetizado pelo monge e historiador inglês Beda na sua obra do século VII "De temporibus liber": "Enquanto o Coliseu se mantiver de pé, Roma permanecerá; quando o Coliseu ruir, Roma ruirá e quando Roma cair, o mundo cairá".
A construção do Coliseu foi iniciada por Vespasiano, nos anos 70 da nossa era. O edifício foi inaugurado por Tito, em 80, embora apenas tivesse sido finalizado poucos anos depois. Empresa colossal, este edifício, inicialmente, poderia sustentar no seu interior cerca de 50 000 espectadores, constando de três andares. Aquando do reinado de Alexandre Severo e Gordiano III, é ampliado com um quarto andar, podendo suster agora cerca de 90 000 espectadores. A grandiosidade deste monumento testemunha verdadeiramente o poder e esplendor de Roma na época dos Flávios.
Os jogos inaugurais do Coliseu tiveram lugar ano 80, sob o mandato de Tito, para celebrar a finalização da construção. Depois do curto reinado de Tito começar com vários meses de desastres, incluindo a erupção do Monte Vesúvio, um incêndio em Roma, e um surto de peste, o mesmo imperador inaugurou o edifício com uns jogos pródigos que duraram mais de cem dias, talvez para tentar apaziguar o público romano e os deuses. Nesses jogos de cem dias terão ocorrido combates de gladiadores, venationes (lutas de animais), execuções, batalhas navais, caçadas e outros divertimentos numa escala sem precedentes.
O Coliseu, como não se encontrava inserido numa zona de encosta, enterrado, tal como normalmente sucede com a generalidade dos teatros e anfiteatros romanos, possuía um “anel” artificial de rocha à sua volta, para garantir sustentação e, ao mesmo tempo, esta substrutura serve como ornamento ao edifício e como condicionador da entrada dos espectadores. Tal como foi referido anteriormente, possuía três pisos, sendo mais tarde adicionado um outro. É construído em mármore, pedra travertina, ladrilho e tufo (pedra calcária com grandes poros). A sua planta elíptica mede dois eixos que se estendem aproximadamente de 190 m por 155 m. A fachada compõe-se de arcadas decoradas com colunas dóricas, jónicas e coríntias, de acordo com o pavimento em que se encontravam. Esta subdivisão deve-se ao facto de ser uma construção essencialmente vertical, criando assim uma diversificação do espaço.
Os assentos eram em mármore e a cavea, escadaria ou arquibancada, dividia-se em três partes, correspondentes às diferentes classes sociais: o podium, para as classes altas; as maeniana, sector destinado à classe média; e os portici, ou pórticos, construídos em madeira, para a plebe e as mulheres. O pulvinar, a tribuna imperial, encontrava-se situada no podium e era balizada pelos assentos reservados aos senadores e magistrados. Rampas no interior do edifício facilitavam o acesso às várias zonas de onde podiam visualizar o espectáculo, sendo protegidos por uma barreira e por uma série de arqueiros posicionados numa passagem de madeira, para o caso de algum acidente. Por cima dos muros ainda são visíveis as mísulas, que sustentavam o velarium, enorme cobertura de lona destinada a proteger do sol os espectadores e, nos subterrâneos, ficavam as jaulas dos animais, bem como todas as celas e galerias necessárias aos serviços do anfiteatro.
O monumento permaneceu como sede principal dos espetáculos da urbe romana até ao período do imperador Honorius, no século V. Danificado por um terremoto no começo do mesmo século, foi alvo de uma extensiva restauração na época de Valentinianus III. Em meados do século XIII, a família Frangipani transformou-o em fortaleza e, ao longo dos séculos XV e XVI, foi por diversas vezes saqueado, perdendo grande parte dos materiais nobres com os quais tinha sido construído.
Os relatos romanos referem-se a cristãos sendo martirizados em locais de Roma descritos pouco pormenorizadamente (no anfiteatro, na arena...), quando Roma tinha numerosos anfiteatros e arenas. Apesar de muito provavelmente o Coliseu não ter sido utilizado para martírios, o Papa Bento XIV consagrou-o no século XVII à Paixão de Cristo e declarou-o lugar sagrado. Os trabalhos de consolidação e restauração parcial do monumento, já há muito em ruínas, foram feitos sobretudo pelos pontífices Gregório XVI e Pio IX, no século XIX.
Balda Baldina - seems capable of nice shots, but I think the shutter blades might be hanging on occasion. Later frames in the roll show curious over-exposed area. It is not light-leak, and I suspect the shutter, which does not behave itself on the slower speeds.
The vessel, Maersk Connector, was completed in February 2016 and is now underway with a seven-year charter with DeepOcean. Featuring a carousel capable of carrying 7,000 tonnes of power cables, Maersk Connector is available for the offshore interconnector and export cable markets as well as oil and gas projects.
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is a municipal museum in Sunderland, England. It contains the only known British example of a gliding reptile, the oldest known vertebrate capable of gliding flight. The exhibit was discovered in Eppleton quarry. The museum has a Designated Collection of national importance.
My Daddy Wears one of These, a teacher (himself blind) at Sunderland Council Blind School teaches a blind child the shape of First World War helmets through handling them. Beginning in 1913, John Alfred Charlton Deas, a former curator at Sunderland Museum, organised several handling sessions for the blind. This included an invitation to the school to handle some of the museum collection, which was 'eagerly accepted'.
It was established in 1846, in the Athenaeum Building on Fawcett Street, the first municipally funded museum in the country outside London. The first recorded fine art acquisition was commissioned by the Sunderland Corporation, a painting of the opening of the new South Dock in 1850. This may have been the first time that an artwork was commissioned by a town council.
In 1879, the Museum moved to a new larger building next to Mowbray Park including a library and winter garden based on the model of the Crystal Palace. U.S. President Ulysses Grant was in attendance at the laying of the foundation stone by Alderman Samuel Storey in 1877. The building opened in 1879.
During World War II, Winter Garden was damaged by a parachute mine in 1941 and demolished the following year. A 1960s extension took its place, but in 2001, a lottery funded refurbishment of the museum created a new Winter Garden extension and improved facilities.
The Winter Gardens contain over 2,000 flowers and plants.
In 2003, the Museum was recognised as the most attended outside London.
The Museum contains a large collection of the locally made Sunderland Lustreware pottery. Other highlights of the Museum are a stuffed Lion which was acquired in 1879, the remains of a walrus brought back from Siberia in the 1880s and the first Nissan car to be made in Sunderland. Also featured are the skeletal remains of a male human being and a dinosaur bone which was found in the local area.
The library moved in 1995 to the new City Library and Arts Centre on Fawcett Street (occupying part of the former Binns Department Store). The relocation left more space for museum exhibitions. The new City Library Arts Centre also houses the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, renowned as one of the leading forums for emerging artists in the North of England.
John Morrison wrote an affectionate memoir of the two and a half years he spent working in the museum as a junior curator, starting about 1918, which appeared in the Australian literary journal Overland in 1968.
L.S. Lowry described his discovery of Sunderland in 1960, after which it became his second home: "One day I was travelling south from Tyneside and I realised this was what I had always been looking for."
Sunderland Museum, with six works and 30 on long-term loan, have a Lowry collection surpassed only by Salford and Manchester.
Mowbray Park is a municipal park in the centre of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, located a few hundred yards from the busy thoroughfares of Holmeside and Fawcett Street and bordered by Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens to the north, Burdon Road to the west, Toward Road to the east and Park Road to the south. The park was voted best in Britain in 2008.
Mowbray Park is one of the oldest municipal parks in North East England.
The roots of Mowbray Park date back to the 1830s, when a health inspector recommended building a leafy area in the town after Sunderland recorded the first cholera epidemic in 1831. A grant of £750 was provided by the Government to buy a £2,000 plot of land from the Mowbray family for a new park.
Work on Mowbray Park – then known as The People's Park – began in the mid-1850s, incorporating a former limestone quarry set within what was known as Building Hill. It appears that spoil heaps were shaped and mounded to create distinctive paths amongst steep sided hummocks. The effect was to afford the Victorian user plenty of opportunity to perambulate within a relatively small green area.
The park was opened by John Candlish, Lord Mayor MP of Sunderland on 21 May 1857.
On the day of the park's opening on 12 May 1857, shops closed early as thousands of people flocked to attend the ceremony. An extension to Mowbray Park, from the railway cutting to Borough Road, was opened on 11 July 1866.
It was opened in 1857 in response to a demand for more open spaces in the town. The land was purchased from the Mowbray family, and named after them in recognition. The park was extended in 1866 to include a lake and a terrace, and in 1879 the Winter Gardens, museum and art gallery were added along the Borough Road side.
The Second World War affected the park; It was hit with numerous German bombs, the iron structures – most notably the Winter Gardens, a cast iron bridge, and the bandstand – were taken away to be melted down for weapons, and the open spaces were converted into vegetable patches.
Following the war, the park fell into neglect. Sunderland Civic Centre was built on the west portion of the park. The area became known for anti-social and abusive behaviour, and was considered generally unsafe. In August 1993, over £13,000 worth of damage was caused, and a survey by the Sunderland Echo showed that locals were too scared to use the park.
Following a public campaign, in 1994 work began on restoring the park to its Victorian glory, funded by a £3.3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, described as: "The jewel in the crown of the city centre regeneration". The Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens were rebuilt, the lake was restored, the bandstand was rebuilt, and the park was re-shaped and adorned with new artworks. A large adventure play area for children was built, to an "Alice Through The Looking Glass Theme" featuring a distorted giant chequer board and giant chess pieces. The park officially re-opened in 2000.
In the first year following re-opening, the park received over 800,000 visitors, making it the most visited attraction outside London.
The cast iron drinking fountain was constructed by Glenfield and Kennedy of Kilmarnock and erected in 1878 by the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. It is a memorial to William Hall, who was the oldest Oddfellow in the North of England when he died, aged 75, in 1876. The domed canopy has elaborate foliage and four cupsed arches on the columns, which shelter the bollard-shaped drinking fountain. Above each arch is an escutcheon and motto: on the north and south is "Keep the pavement dry" and "Nil desperandum auspice deo 1878" (the motto on the Coat of arms of Sunderland) with symbols of the Borough of Sunderland and of Oddfellows.; on the east and west is "Amicitia Amor et Veritas" (the motto of Oddfellows), "In memory of Wm. Hall PPGM of the Sunderland District Independent Order of Oddfellows" and "Presented to the Corporation of Sunderland by the Oddfellows NU". The fountain was repaired and restored with the re-opening of Mowbray Park in 2000.
Mowbray Park was the original site of the memorial for the Victoria Hall disaster of 1883 in which 183 children were trampled to death in the Victoria Hall, which overlooked Mowbray Park. The marble statue of a mother holding her dead child was later moved to Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, but in 2002 it was restored and moved back to the park.
The Havelock statue, constructed in 1861, is located on Building Hill at the south of the park and commemorates Sir Henry Havelock, a celebrated military general born in Bishopwearmouth. Either side of the statue are cannons, named Joshua and Caleb, replicas of those captured from the Russians during the Crimean war. The originals were melted down for metal during the Second World War.
The over life-sized bronze figure of Havelock in military uniform and a sword in his hand is on a high stepped based and a tall, square, granite plinth and faces toward his birthplace. The figure is signed 1861 by Behnes and the founder's mark on the rear of plinth reads: "The Statue Foundry, Pimlico, London". The inscription on the front of the plinth reads: "Born 5 April 1775 at Ford Hall, Bishopwearmouth. Died 24 November 1857 at Dil Koosha, Lucknow". There is a statue of Havelock by the same sculptor in Trafalgar Square, London.
Jack Crawford, born in Sunderland, was honoured for bravery when he climbed the mast of his ship, HMS Venerable, during the Battle of Camperdown to nail the British flag back up. Although he died a pauper (he was also the second victim of the cholera epidemic in Britain), a memorial statue was erected for him in 1890.
The monument is signed and dated "Percy Wood fecit 1889–90". The life size, bronze figure of Crawford is on a granite plinth set on a mound of magnesian limestone. Crawford is in seaman's dress nailing a flag to the mast, using a pistol butt as hammer. The irregularly-piled pieces of limestone rock support the plinth which has an inscription on its north side: "The sailor who so heroically nailed Admiral Duncan's flag to the main-top-gallant-mast of HMS Venerable in the glorious action off Camperdown on October 11, 1797. Jack Crawford was born at the Pottery Bank, in Sunderland, 1775 and died in his native town in 1831 aged 56 years. Erected by public subscription."
Roughly in the centre of the park, stands a statue of John Candlish, who was mayor and later Member of Parliament for Sunderland from 1866 to 1874.
The statue is signed and dated "C Bacon Sc London 1875", with the founder's mark "H Young & Co. Art Founders Pimlico". The slightly larger than life size figure shows Candlish in contemporary dress on a square plinth with a moulded stepped base of polished porphyritic granite. The inscription reads: "John Candlish M.P. Born 1815 Died 1874".
Sunderland has strong links with author Lewis Carroll – it is believed Carroll drew upon the sights of Sunderland in his work. To commemorate the link, there is a themed play area and – most notably a walrus sculpture by the lake made by the sculptor Andrew Burton in 1999.
Sunderland is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. The city has a population of 347000, making it the largest settlement in the North East of England. It is the administrative centre of the metropolitan borough of the same name.
The centre of the modern city is an amalgamation of three settlements founded in the Anglo-Saxon era: Monkwearmouth, on the north bank of the Wear, and Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth on the south bank. Monkwearmouth contains St Peter's Church, which was founded in 674 and formed part of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey, a significant centre of learning in the seventh and eighth centuries. Sunderland was a fishing settlement and later a port, being granted a town charter in 1179. The city traded in coal and salt, also developing shipbuilding industry in the fourteenth century and glassmaking industry in the seventeenth century. Following the decline of its traditional industries in the late 20th century, the area became an automotive building centre. In 1992, the borough of Sunderland was granted city status. It is historically part of County Durham.
Locals from the city are sometimes known as Mackems, a term which came into common use in the 1970s. ; its use and acceptance by residents, particularly among the older generations, is not universal. The term is also applied to the Sunderland dialect, which shares similarities with the other North East England dialects.
In 685, King Ecgfrith granted Benedict Biscop a "sunder-land". Also in 685 The Venerable Bede moved to the newly founded Jarrow monastery. He had started his monastic career at Monkwearmouth monastery and later wrote that he was "ácenned on sundorlande þæs ylcan mynstres" (born in a separate land of this same monastery). This can be taken as "sundorlande" (being Old English for "separate land") or the settlement of Sunderland. Alternatively, it is possible that Sunderland was later named in honour of Bede's connections to the area by people familiar with this statement of his.
The earliest inhabitants of the Sunderland area were Stone Age hunter-gatherers and artifacts from this era have been discovered, including microliths found during excavations at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth. During the final phase of the Stone Age, the Neolithic period (c. 4000 – c. 2000 BC), Hastings Hill, on the western outskirts of Sunderland, was a focal point of activity and a place of burial and ritual significance. Evidence includes the former presence of a cursus monument.
It is believed the Brigantes inhabited the area around the River Wear in the pre- and post-Roman era. There is a long-standing local legend that there was a Roman settlement on the south bank of the River Wear on what is the site of the former Vaux Brewery, although no archaeological investigation has taken place.
In March 2021, a "trove" of Roman artefacts were recovered in the River Wear at North Hylton, including four stone anchors, a discovery of huge significance that may affirm a persistent theory of a Roman Dam or Port existing at the River Wear.
Recorded settlements at the mouth of the Wear date to 674, when an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, Benedict Biscop, granted land by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, founded the Wearmouth–Jarrow (St Peter's) monastery on the north bank of the river—an area that became known as Monkwearmouth. Biscop's monastery was the first built of stone in Northumbria. He employed glaziers from France and in doing he re-established glass making in Britain. In 686 the community was taken over by Ceolfrid, and Wearmouth–Jarrow became a major centre of learning and knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England with a library of around 300 volumes.
The Codex Amiatinus, described by White as the 'finest book in the world', was created at the monastery and was likely worked on by Bede, who was born at Wearmouth in 673. This is one of the oldest monasteries still standing in England. While at the monastery, Bede completed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in 731, a feat which earned him the title The father of English history.
In the late 8th century the Vikings raided the coast, and by the middle of the 9th century the monastery had been abandoned. Lands on the south side of the river were granted to the Bishop of Durham by Athelstan of England in 930; these became known as Bishopwearmouth and included settlements such as Ryhope which fall within the modern boundary of Sunderland.
Medieval developments after the Norman conquest
In 1100, Bishopwearmouth parish included a fishing village at the southern mouth of the river (now the East End) known as 'Soender-land' (which evolved into 'Sunderland'). This settlement was granted a charter in 1179 by Hugh Pudsey, then the Bishop of Durham (who had quasi-monarchical power within the County Palatine); the charter gave its merchants the same rights as those of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but it nevertheless took time for Sunderland to develop as a port. Fishing was the main commercial activity at the time: mainly herring in the 13th century, then salmon in the 14th and 15th centuries. From 1346 ships were being built at Wearmouth, by a merchant named Thomas Menville, and by 1396 a small amount of coal was being exported.
Rapid growth of the port was initially prompted by the salt trade. Salt exports from Sunderland are recorded from as early as the 13th century, but in 1589 salt pans were laid at Bishopwearmouth Panns (the modern-day name of the area the pans occupied is Pann's Bank, on the river bank between the city centre and the East End). Large vats of seawater were heated using coal; as the water evaporated, the salt remained. As coal was required to heat the salt pans, a coal mining community began to emerge. Only poor-quality coal was used in salt panning; better-quality coal was traded via the port, which subsequently began to grow.
Both salt and coal continued to be exported through the 17th century, but the coal trade grew significantly (2–3,000 tons of coal were exported from Sunderland in the year 1600; by 1680 this had increased to 180,000 tons).[18] Because of the difficulty for colliers trying to navigate the shallow waters of the Wear, coal mined further inland was loaded onto keels (large, flat-bottomed boats) and taken downriver to the waiting colliers. The keels were manned by a close-knit group of workers known as 'keelmen'.
In 1634 a charter was granted by Bishop Thomas Morton, which incorporated the inhabitants of the 'antient borough' of Sunderland as the 'Mayor, Aldermen and Commonality' of the Borough and granted the privilege of a market and an annual fair. While as a consequence a mayor and twelve aldermen were appointed and a common council established, their establishment does not seem to have survived the ensuing Civil War.
Before the 1st English civil war the North, with the exclusion of Kingston upon Hull, declared for the King. In 1644 the North was captured by parliament. The villages that later become Sunderland, were taken in March 1644. One artifact of the English civil war near this area was the long trench; a tactic of later warfare. In the village of Offerton roughly three miles inland from the area, skirmishes occurred. Parliament also blockaded the River Tyne, crippling the Newcastle coal trade which allowed the coal trade of the area to flourish for a short period. There was intense rivalry between the ports of Sunderland and Newcastle when the two towns took opposing sides in the Civil War.
In 1669, after the Restoration, King Charles II granted letters patent to one Edward Andrew, Esq. to 'build a pier and erect a lighthouse or lighthouses and cleanse the harbour of Sunderland', and authorised the levying of a tonnage duty on shipping in order to raise the necessary funds; however it took time before these improvements were realized.
There is evidence of a growing number of shipbuilders or boatbuilders being active on the River Wear in the late 17th century: among others, the banking family Goodchilds opened a building yard in 1672 (it eventually closed when the bank went out of business in 1821); and in 1691 one Thomas Burn aged 17 is recorded as having taken over the running of a yard from his mother.
The River Wear Commission was formed in 1717 in response to the growing prosperity of Sunderland as a port. Under the Board of Commissioners (a committee of local land owners, ship owners, colliery owners and merchants) a succession of civil engineers adapted the natural riverscape to meet the needs of maritime trade and shipbuilding. Their first major harbour work was the construction in stone of the South Pier (later known as the Old South Pier), begun in 1723 with the aim of diverting the river channel away from sandbanks; the building of the South Pier continued until 1759. By 1748 the river was being manually dredged. A northern counterpart to the South Pier was not yet in place; instead, a temporary breakwater was formed at around this time, consisting of a row of piles driven into the seabed interspersed with old keelboats. From 1786 work began on a more permanent North Pier (which was later known as the Old North Pier): it was formed from a wooden frame, filled with stones and faced with masonry, and eventually extended 1,500 ft (460 m) into the sea. The work was initially overseen by Robert Stout (the Wear Commissioners' Engineer from 1781 to 1795). In 1794 a lighthouse was built at the seaward end, by which time around half the pier had been enclosed in masonry; it was completed in 1802.
By the start of the 18th century the banks of the Wear were described as being studded with small shipyards, as far as the tide flowed. After 1717, measures having been taken to increase the depth of the river, Sunderland's shipbuilding trade grew substantially (in parallel with its coal exports). A number of warships were built, alongside many commercial sailing ships. By the middle of the century the town was probably the premier shipbuilding centre in Britain. By 1788 Sunderland was Britain's fourth largest port (by measure of tonnage) after London, Newcastle and Liverpool; among these it was the leading coal exporter (though it did not rival Newcastle in terms of home coal trade). Still further growth was driven across the region, towards the end of the century, by London's insatiable demand for coal during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Sunderland's third-biggest export, after coal and salt, was glass. The town's first modern glassworks were established in the 1690s and the industry grew through the 17th century. Its flourishing was aided by trading ships bringing good-quality sand (as ballast) from the Baltic and elsewhere which, together with locally available limestone (and coal to fire the furnaces) was a key ingredient in the glassmaking process. Other industries that developed alongside the river included lime burning and pottery making (the town's first commercial pottery manufactory, the Garrison Pottery, had opened in old Sunderland in 1750).
The world's first steam dredger was built in Sunderland in 1796-7 and put to work on the river the following year. Designed by Stout's successor as Engineer, Jonathan Pickernell jr (in post from 1795 to 1804), it consisted of a set of 'bag and spoon' dredgers driven by a tailor-made 4-horsepower Boulton & Watt beam engine. It was designed to dredge to a maximum depth of 10 ft (3.0 m) below the waterline and remained in operation until 1804, when its constituent parts were sold as separate lots. Onshore, numerous small industries supported the business of the burgeoning port. In 1797 the world's first patent ropery (producing machine-made rope, rather than using a ropewalk) was built in Sunderland, using a steam-powered hemp-spinning machine which had been devised by a local schoolmaster, Richard Fothergill, in 1793; the ropery building still stands, in the Deptford area of the city.
In 1719, the parish of Sunderland was carved from the densely populated east end of Bishopwearmouth by the establishment of a new parish church, Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland (today also known as Sunderland Old Parish Church). Later, in 1769, St John's Church was built as a chapel of ease within Holy Trinity parish; built by a local coal fitter, John Thornhill, it stood in Prospect Row to the north-east of the parish church. (St John's was demolished in 1972.) By 1720 the port area was completely built up, with large houses and gardens facing the Town Moor and the sea, and labourers' dwellings vying with manufactories alongside the river. The three original settlements of Wearmouth (Bishopwearmouth, Monkwearmouth and Sunderland) had begun to combine, driven by the success of the port of Sunderland and salt panning and shipbuilding along the banks of the river. Around this time, Sunderland was known as 'Sunderland-near-the-Sea'.
By 1770 Sunderland had spread westwards along its High Street to join up with Bishopwearmouth. In 1796 Bishopwearmouth in turn gained a physical link with Monkwearmouth following the construction of a bridge, the Wearmouth Bridge, which was the world's second iron bridge (after the famous span at Ironbridge). It was built at the instigation of Rowland Burdon, the Member of Parliament (MP) for County Durham, and described by Nikolaus Pevsner as being 'a triumph of the new metallurgy and engineering ingenuity [...] of superb elegance'. Spanning the river in a single sweep of 236 feet (72 m), it was over twice the length of the earlier bridge at Ironbridge but only three-quarters the weight. At the time of building, it was the biggest single-span bridge in the world; and because Sunderland had developed on a plateau above the river, it never suffered from the problem of interrupting the passage of high-masted vessels.
During the War of Jenkins' Ear a pair of gun batteries were built (in 1742 and 1745) on the shoreline to the south of the South Pier, to defend the river from attack (a further battery was built on the cliff top in Roker, ten years later). One of the pair was washed away by the sea in 1780, but the other was expanded during the French Revolutionary Wars and became known as the Black Cat Battery. In 1794 Sunderland Barracks were built, behind the battery, close to what was then the tip of the headland.
In 1802 a new, 72 ft (22 m) high octagonal stone lighthouse was built on the end of the newly finished North Pier, designed by the chief Engineer Jonathan Pickernell. At the same time he built a lighthouse on the South Pier, which showed a red light (or by day a red flag) when the tide was high enough for ships to pass into the river. From 1820 Pickernell's lighthouse was lit by gas from its own gasometer. In 1840 work began to extend the North Pier to 1,770 ft (540 m) and the following year its lighthouse was moved in one piece, on a wooden cradle, to its new seaward end, remaining lit each night throughout the process.
In 1809 an Act of Parliament was passed creating an Improvement Commission, for 'paving, lighting, cleansing, watching and otherwise improving the town of Sunderland'; this provided the beginnings of a structure of local government for the township as a whole. Commissioners were appointed, with the power to levy contributions towards the works detailed in the Act, and in 1812–14 the Exchange Building was built, funded by public subscription, to serve as a combined Town Hall, Watch House, Market Hall, Magistrate's Court, Post Office and News Room. It became a regular gathering place for merchants conducting business, and the public rooms on the first floor were available for public functions when not being used for meetings of the Commissioners. By 1830 the Commissioners had made a number of improvements, ranging from the establishment of a police force to installing gas lighting across much of the town.
In other aspects, however, Local government was still divided between the three parishes (Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland, St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth, and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth) and when cholera broke out in 1831 their select vestrymen were unable to cope with the epidemic. Sunderland, a main trading port at the time, was the first British town to be struck with the 'Indian cholera' epidemic. The first victim, William Sproat, died on 23 October 1831. Sunderland was put into quarantine, and the port was blockaded, but in December of that year the disease spread to Gateshead and from there, it rapidly made its way across the country, killing an estimated 32,000 people; among those to die was Sunderland's Naval hero Jack Crawford. (The novel The Dress Lodger by American author Sheri Holman is set in Sunderland during the epidemic.)
Demands for democracy and organised town government saw the three parishes incorporated as the Borough of Sunderland in 1835. Later, the Sunderland Borough Act of 1851 abolished the Improvement Commission and vested its powers in the new Corporation.
In the early nineteenth century 'the three great proprietors of collieries upon the Wear Lord Durham, the Marquis of Londonderry and the Hetton Company'. In 1822 the Hetton colliery railway was opened, linking the company's collieries with staiths ('Hetton Staiths') on the riverside at Bishopwearmouth, where coal drops delivered the coal directly into waiting ships. Engineered by George Stephenson, it was the first railway in the world to be operated without animal power, and at the time (albeit briefly) was the longest railway in the world. At the same time Lord Durham began establishing rail links to an adjacent set of staiths ('Lambton Staiths'). Lord Londonderry, on the other hand, continued conveying his coal downriver on keels; but he was working on establishing his own separate port down the coast at Seaham Harbour.
Although the volume of coal exports were increasing, there was a growing concern that without the establishment of a purpose-built dock Sunderland would start losing trade to Newcastle and Hartlepool. The colliery rail links were on the south side of the river, but Sir Hedworth Williamson, who owned much of the land on the north bank, seized the initiative. He formed the Wearmouth Dock Company in 1832, obtained a Royal Charter for establishing a dock at Monkwearmouth riverside, and engaged no less a figure than Isambard Kingdom Brunel to provide designs (not only for docks but also for a double-deck suspension bridge to provide a rail link to the opposite side of the river). Building of the dock went ahead (albeit the smallest of Brunel's proposals) but not of the bridge; the resulting North Dock, opened in 1837, soon proved too small at 6 acres (2.4 ha), and it suffered through lack of a direct rail link to the colliery lines south of the Wear (instead, it would be linked, by way of the Brandling Junction Railway from 1839, to collieries in the Gateshead area).
Also in Monkwearmouth, further upstream, work began in 1826 on sinking a pit in the hope of reaching the seams of coal (even though, at this location, they were deep underground). Seven years later, coal was struck at 180 fathoms; digging deeper, the Bensham seam was found the following year at 267 fathoms and in 1835 Wearmouth Colliery, which was then the deepest mine in the world, began producing coal. When the superior Hutton seam was reached, at a still greater depth in 1846, the mine (which had begun as a speculative enterprise by Messrs Pemberton and Thompson) began to be profitable.
Meanwhile, south of the river, the Durham & Sunderland Railway Co. built a railway line across the Town Moor and established a passenger terminus there in 1836. In 1847 the line was bought by George Hudson's York and Newcastle Railway. Hudson, nicknamed 'The Railway King', was Member of Parliament for Sunderland and was already involved in a scheme to build a dock in the area. In 1846 he had formed the Sunderland Dock Company, which received parliamentary approval for the construction of a dock between the South Pier and Hendon Bay. The engineer overseeing the project was John Murray; the foundation stone for the entrance basin was laid in February 1848, and by the end of the year excavation of the new dock was largely complete, the spoil being used in the associated land reclamation works. Lined with limestone and entered from the river by way of a half tide basin, the dock (later named Hudson Dock) was formally opened by Hudson on 20 June 1850. Most of the dockside to the west was occupied with coal staiths linked to the railway line, but there was also a warehouse and granary built at the northern end by John Dobson in 1856 (this, along with a second warehouse dating from the 1860s, was demolished in 1992).
In 1850–56 a half-tidal sea-entrance was constructed at the south-east corner of the dock, protected by a pair of breakwaters, to allow larger ships to enter the dock direct from the North Sea. At the same time (1853–55) Hudson Dock itself was extended southwards and deepened, and, alongside the entrance basin to the north, the first of a pair of public graving docks was built. In 1854 the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway opened, linking the Londonderry and South Hetton collieries to a separate set of staiths at Hudson Dock South. It also provided a passenger service from Sunderland to Seaham Harbour.
In 1859 the docks were purchased by the River Wear Commissioners. Under Thomas Meik as engineer the docks were further extended with the construction of Hendon Dock to the south (1864–67). (Hendon Dock was entered via Hudson Dock South, but in 1870 it too was provided with a half-tidal sea-entrance providing direct access from the North Sea.) Under Meik's successor, Henry Hay Wake, Hudson Dock was further enlarged and the entrances were improved: in 1875 lock gates were installed (along with a swing bridge) at the river entrance, to allow entry at all states of the tide; they were powered by hydraulic machinery, installed by Sir William Armstrong in the adjacent dock office building. Similarly, a new sea lock was constructed at the south-east entrance in 1877–80. The breakwater (known as the 'Northeast Pier') which protected the sea entrance to the docks was provided with a lighthouse (29 ft (8.8 m) high and of lattice construction, since demolished) which Chance Brothers equipped with a fifth-order optic and clockwork occulting mechanism in 1888; it displayed a sector light: white indicating the fairway and red indicating submerged hazards.
By 1889 two million tons of coal per year was passing through the dock. The eastern wharves, opposite the coal staiths, were mainly occupied by saw mills and timber yards, with large open spaces given over to the storage of pit props for use in the mines; while to the south of Hendon Dock, the Wear Fuel Works distilled coal tar to produce pitch, oil and other products.
After completion of the dock works, H. H. Wake embarked on the construction of Roker Pier (part of a scheme to protect the river approach by creating an outer harbour). Protection of a different kind was provided by the Wave Basin Battery, armed with four RML 80 pounder 5 ton guns, constructed just inside the Old South Pier in 1874.
Increasing industrialisation had prompted affluent residents to move away from the old port area, with several settling in the suburban terraces of the Fawcett Estate and Mowbray Park. The area around Fawcett Street itself increasingly functioned as the civic and commercial town centre. In 1848 George Hudson's York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway built a passenger terminus, Monkwearmouth Station, just north of Wearmouth Bridge; and south of the river another passenger terminus, in Fawcett Street, in 1853. Later, Thomas Elliot Harrison (chief engineer to the North Eastern Railway) made plans to carry the railway across the river; the Wearmouth Railway Bridge (reputedly 'the largest Hog-Back iron girder bridge in the world') opened in 1879. In 1886–90 Sunderland Town Hall was built in Fawcett Street, just to the east of the railway station, to a design by Brightwen Binyon.
Sunderland's shipbuilding industry continued to grow through most of the 19th century, becoming the town's dominant industry and a defining part of its identity. By 1815 it was 'the leading shipbuilding port for wooden trading vessels' with 600 ships constructed that year across 31 different yards. By 1840 the town had 76 shipyards and between 1820 and 1850 the number of ships being built on the Wear increased fivefold. From 1846 to 1854 almost a third of the UK's ships were built in Sunderland, and in 1850 the Sunderland Herald proclaimed the town to be the greatest shipbuilding port in the world.
During the century the size of ships being built increased and technologies evolved: in 1852 the first iron ship was launched on Wearside, built by marine engineer George Clark in partnership with shipbuilder John Barkes. Thirty years later Sunderland's ships were being built in steel (the last wooden ship having been launched in 1880). As the century progressed, the shipyards on the Wear decreased in number on the one hand, but increased in size on the other, so as to accommodate the increasing scale and complexity of ships being built.
Shipyards founded in the 19th century, and still operational in the 20th, included:
Sir James Laing & Sons (established by Philip Laing at Deptford in 1818, renamed Sir James Laing & sons in 1898)
S. P. Austin (established in 1826 at Monkwearmouth, moving across the river to a site alongside Wearmouth Bridge in 1866)
Bartram & Sons (established at Hylton in 1837, moved to South Dock in 1871)
William Doxford & Sons (established at Cox Green in 1840, moved to Pallion in 1857)
William Pickersgill's (established at Southwick in 1845)
J. L. Thompson & Sons (yard established at North Sands by Robert Thompson in 1846, taken over by his son Joseph in 1860, another son (also Robert) having established his own yard at Southwick in 1854)
John Crown & Sons (yard established at Monkwearmouth by Luke Crown (or Crone) by 1807, taken over by his grandson Jackie in 1854)
Short Brothers (established by George Short in 1850, moved to Pallion in 1866)
Sir J Priestman (established at Southwick in 1882)
Alongside the shipyards, marine engineering works were established from the 1820s onwards, initially providing engines for paddle steamers; in 1845 a ship named Experiment was the first of many to be converted to steam screw propulsion. Demand for steam-powered vessels increased during the Crimean War; nonetheless, sailing ships continued to be built, including fast fully-rigged composite-built clippers, including the City of Adelaide in 1864 and Torrens (the last such vessel ever built), in 1875.
By the middle of the century glassmaking was at its height on Wearside. James Hartley & Co., established in Sunderland in 1836, grew to be the largest glassworks in the country and (having patented an innovative production technique for rolled plate glass) produced much of the glass used in the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851. A third of all UK-manufactured plate glass was produced at Hartley's by this time. Other manufacturers included the Cornhill Flint Glassworks (established at Southwick in 1865), which went on to specialise in pressed glass, as did the Wear Flint Glassworks (which had originally been established in 1697). In addition to the plate glass and pressed glass manufacturers there were 16 bottle works on the Wear in the 1850s, with the capacity to produce between 60 and 70,000 bottles a day.
Local potteries also flourished in the mid-19th century, again making use of raw materials (white clay and stone) being brought into Sunderland as ballast on ships. Sunderland pottery was exported across Europe, with Sunderland Lustreware proving particularly popular in the home market; however the industry sharply declined later in the century due to foreign competition, and the largest remaining manufacturer (Southwick Pottery) closed in 1897.
Victoria Hall was a large concert hall on Toward Road facing Mowbray Park. The hall was the scene of a tragedy on 16 June 1883 when 183 children died. During a variety show, children rushed towards a staircase for treats. At the bottom of the staircase, the door had been opened inward and bolted in such a way as to leave only a gap wide enough for one child to pass at a time. The children surged down the stairs and those at the front were trapped and crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.
The asphyxiation of 183 children aged between three and 14 is the worst disaster of its kind in British history. The memorial, a grieving mother holding a dead child, is located in Mowbray Park inside a protective canopy. Newspaper reports triggered a mood of national outrage and an inquiry recommended that public venues be fitted with a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits, which led to the invention of 'push bar' emergency doors. This law remains in force. Victoria Hall remained in use until 1941 when it was destroyed by a German bomb.
The Lyceum was a public building on Lambton Street, opened August 1852, whose many rooms included a Mechanics' Institute and a hall 90 by 40 feet (27 m × 12 m) which Edward D. Davis converted into a theatre, opened September 1854, then was gutted by fire in December the following year. It was refurbished and reopened in September 1856 as the Royal Lyceum Theatre, and is notable as the venue of Henry Irving's first successes. The building was destroyed by fire in 1880 and demolished. The site was later developed for the Salvation Army.
The public transport network was enhanced in 1900 – 1919 with an electric tram system. The trams were gradually replaced by buses during the 1940s before being completely axed in 1954. In 1909 the Queen Alexandra Bridge was built, linking Deptford and Southwick.
The First World War led to a notable increase in shipbuilding but also resulted in the town being targeted by a Zeppelin raid in 1916. The Monkwearmouth area was struck on 1 April 1916 and 22 lives were lost. Many citizens also served in the armed forces during this period, over 25,000 men from a population of 151,000.
In the wake of the First World War, and on through the Great Depression of the 1930s, shipbuilding dramatically declined: the number of shipyards on the Wear went from fifteen in 1921 to six in 1937. The small yards of J. Blumer & Son (at North Dock) and the Sunderland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (at Hudson Dock) both closed in the 1920s, and other yards were closed down by National Shipbuilders Securities in the 1930s (including Osbourne, Graham & Co., way upriver at North Hylton, Robert Thompson & Sons at Southwick, and the 'overflow' yards operated by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson and William Gray & Co.).
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Sunderland was a key target of the German Luftwaffe, who claimed the lives of 267 people in the town, caused damage or destruction to 4,000 homes, and devastated local industry. After the war, more housing was developed. The town's boundaries expanded in 1967 when neighbouring Ryhope, Silksworth, Herrington, South Hylton and Castletown were incorporated into Sunderland.
During the second half of the 20th century shipbuilding and coalmining declined; shipbuilding ended in 1988 and coalmining in 1993. At the worst of the unemployment crisis up to 20 per cent of the local workforce were unemployed in the mid-1980s.
As the former heavy industries declined, new industries were developed (including electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufacture) and the service sector expanded during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986 Japanese car manufacturer Nissan opened its Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK factory in Washington, which has since become the UK's largest car factory.
From 1990, the banks of the Wear were regenerated with the creation of housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites. Alongside the creation of the National Glass Centre the University of Sunderland has built a new campus on the St Peter's site. The clearance of the Vaux Breweries site on the north west fringe of the city centre created a further opportunity for development in the city centre.
Sunderland received city status in 1992. Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker, and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south. On 24 March 2004, the city adopted Benedict Biscop as its patron saint.
The 20th century saw Sunderland A.F.C. established as the Wearside area's greatest claim to sporting fame. Founded in 1879 as Sunderland and District Teachers A.F.C. by schoolmaster James Allan, Sunderland joined The Football League for the 1890–91 season. By 1936 the club had been league champions on five occasions. They won their first FA Cup in 1937, but their only post-World War II major honour came in 1973 when they won a second FA Cup. They have had a checkered history and dropped into the old third division for a season and been relegated thrice from the Premier League, twice with the lowest points ever, earning the club a reputation as a yo-yo club. After 99 years at the historic Roker Park stadium, the club moved to the 42,000-seat Stadium of Light on the banks of the River Wear in 1997. At the time, it was the largest stadium built by an English football club since the 1920s, and has since been expanded to hold nearly 50,000 seated spectators.
In 2018 Sunderland was ranked as the best city to live and work in the UK by the finance firm OneFamily. In the same year, Sunderland was ranked as one of the top 10 safest cities in the UK.
Many fine old buildings remain despite the bombing that occurred during World War II. Religious buildings include Holy Trinity Church, built in 1719 for an independent Sunderland, St Michael's Church, built as Bishopwearmouth Parish Church and now known as Sunderland Minster and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, part of which dates from AD 674, and was the original monastery. St Andrew's Church, Roker, known as the "Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement", contains work by William Morris, Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill. St Mary's Catholic Church is the earliest surviving Gothic revival church in the city.
Sunderland Civic Centre was designed by Spence Bonnington & Collins and was officially opened by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon in 1970. It closed in November 2021, following the opening of a new City Hall on the former Vaux Brewery redevelopment site.
Tyne and Wear is a ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is largely urbanised. It had a population of 1.14 million in 2021. After Newcastle (300,125) the largest settlements are the city of Sunderland (170,134), Gateshead (120,046), and South Shields (75,337). Nearly all of the county's settlements belong to either the Tyneside or Wearside conurbations, the latter of which also extends into County Durham. Tyne and Wear contains five metropolitan boroughs: Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside, and is covered by two combined authorities, North of Tyne and North East. The county was established in 1974 and was historically part of Northumberland and County Durham, with the River Tyne forming the border between the two.
The most notable geographic features of the county are the River Tyne and River Wear, after which it is named and along which its major settlements developed. The county is also notable for its coastline to the North Sea in the east, which is characterised by tall limestone cliffs and wide beaches.
In the late 600s and into the 700s Saint Bede lived as a monk at the monastery of St. Peter and of St. Paul writing histories of the Early Middle Ages including the Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Roughly 150 years ago, in the village of Marsden in South Shields, Souter Lighthouse was built, the first electric structure of this type.
The Local Government Act 1888 constituted Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Sunderland as county boroughs (Newcastle had "county corporate" status as the "County and Town of Newcastle upon Tyne" since 1400). Tynemouth joined them in 1904. Between the county boroughs, various other settlements also formed part of the administrative counties of Durham and of Northumberland.
The need to reform local government on Tyneside was recognised by the government as early as 1935, when a Royal Commission to Investigate the Conditions of Local Government on Tyneside was appointed. The three commissioners were to examine the system of local government in the areas of local government north and south of the river Tyne from the sea to the boundary of the Rural District of Castle Ward and Hexham in the County of Northumberland and to the Western boundary of the County of Durham, to consider what changes, if any, should be made in the existing arrangements with a view to securing greater economy and efficiency, and to make recommendations.
The report of the Royal Commission, published in 1937, recommended the establishment of a Regional Council for Northumberland and Tyneside (to be called the "Northumberland Regional Council") to administer services that needed to be exercised over a wide area, with a second tier of smaller units for other local-government purposes. The second-tier units would form by amalgamating the various existing boroughs and districts. The county boroughs in the area would lose their status. Within this area, a single municipality would be formed covering the four county boroughs of Newcastle, Gateshead, Tynemouth, South Shields and other urban districts and boroughs.
A minority report proposed amalgamation of Newcastle, Gateshead, Wallsend, Jarrow, Felling, Gosforth, Hebburn and Newburn into a single "county borough of Newcastle-on-Tyneside". The 1937 proposals never came into operation: local authorities could not agree on a scheme and the legislation of the time did not allow central government to compel one.
Tyneside (excluding Sunderland) was a Special Review Area under the Local Government Act 1958. The Local Government Commission for England came back with a recommendation to create a new county of Tyneside based on the review area, divided into four separate boroughs. This was not implemented. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed a Tyneside unitary authority, again excluding Sunderland, which would have set up a separate East Durham unitary authority.
The White Paper that led to the Local Government Act 1972 proposed as "area 2" a metropolitan county including Newcastle and Sunderland, extending as far south down the coast as Seaham and Easington, and bordering "area 4" (which would become Tees Valley). The Bill as presented in November 1971 pruned back the southern edge of the area, and gave it the name "Tyneside". The name "Tyneside" proved controversial on Wearside, and a government amendment changed the name to "Tyne and Wear" at the request of Sunderland County Borough Council.
Tyne and Wear either has or closely borders two official Met Office stations, neither located in one of the major urban centres. The locations for those are in marine Tynemouth where Tyne meets the North Sea east of Newcastle and inland Durham in County Durham around 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-west of Sunderland. There are some clear differences between the stations temperature and precipitation patterns even though both have a cool-summer and mild-winter oceanic climate.
Tyne and Wear contains green belt interspersed throughout the county, mainly on the fringes of the Tyneside/Wearside conurbation. There is also an inter-urban line of belt helping to keep the districts of South Tyneside, Gateshead, and Sunderland separated. It was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of belt.
Although Tyne and Wear County Council was abolished in 1986, several joint bodies exist to run certain services on a county-wide basis. Most notable is the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority, which co-ordinates transport policy. Through its passenger transport executive, known as Nexus, it owns and operates the Tyne and Wear Metro light rail system, and the Shields ferry service and the Tyne Tunnel, linking communities on either side of the River Tyne. Also through Nexus, the authority subsidises socially necessary transport services (including taxis) and operates a concessionary fares scheme for the elderly and disabled. Nexus has been an executive body of the North East Joint Transport Committee since November 2018.
Other joint bodies include the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, which was created from the merger of the Tyne and Wear Archives Service and Tyne and Wear Museums. These joint bodies are administered by representatives of all five of the constituent councils. In addition the Northumbria Police force covers Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.
There have been occasional calls for Tyne and Wear to be abolished and the traditional border between Northumberland and County Durham to be restored.
Tyne and Wear is divided into 12 Parliamentary constituencies. Historically, the area has been a Labour stronghold; South Shields is the only Parliamentary constituency that has never returned a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons since the Reform Act of 1832.
Newcastle and Sunderland are known for declaring their election results early on election night. Therefore, they frequently give the first indication of nationwide trends. An example of this was at the 2016 European Union referendum. Newcastle was the first large city to declare, and 50.6% of voters voted to Remain; this proportion was far lower than predicted by experts. Sunderland declared soon after and gave a 62% vote to Leave, much higher than expected. These two results were seen as an early sign that the United Kingdom had voted to Leave.
Offshore Group Newcastle make oil platforms. Sage Group, who produce accounting software, are based at Hazlerigg at the northern end of the Newcastle bypass. Northern Rock, which became a bank in 1997 and was taken over by Virgin Money in November 2011, and the Newcastle Building Society are based in Gosforth. The Gosforth-based bakery Greggs now has over 1,500 shops. The Balliol Business Park in Longbenton contains Procter & Gamble research and global business centres and a tax credits call centre for HMRC, and is the former home of Findus UK. The Government National Insurance Contributions Office in Longbenton, demolished and replaced in 2000, had a 1 mile (1.6 km) long corridor.
Be-Ro and the Go-Ahead Group bus company are in central Newcastle. Nestlé use the former Rowntrees chocolate factory on the east of the A1. BAE Systems Land & Armaments in Scotswood, formerly Vickers-Armstrongs, is the main producer of British Army tanks such as the Challenger 2. A Rolls-Royce apprentice training site is next door.[18] Siemens Energy Service Fossil make steam turbines at the CA Parsons Works in South Heaton. Sir Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine in 1884, and developed an important local company. Domestos, a product whose main ingredient is sodium hypochlorite, was originated in Newcastle in 1929 by William Handley, and was distributed from the area for many years.
Clarke Chapman is next to the A167 in Gateshead. The MetroCentre, the largest shopping centre in Europe, is in Dunston. Scottish & Newcastle was the largest UK-owned brewery until it was bought by Heineken and Carlsberg in April 2008, and produced Newcastle Brown Ale at the Newcastle Federation Brewery in Dunston until production moved to Tadcaster in September 2010. At Team Valley are De La Rue, with their largest banknote printing facility, and Myson Radiators, the second largest in the UK market. Petards make surveillance equipment including ANPR cameras, and its Joyce-Loebl division makes electronic warfare systems and countermeasure dispensing systems such as the AN/ALE-47. Sevcon, an international company formed from a part of Smith Electric, is a world leader in electric vehicle controls. AEI Cables and Komatsu UK construction equipment at Birtley.
J. Barbour & Sons make outdoor clothing in Simonside, Jarrow. SAFT Batteries make primary lithium batteries on the Tyne in South Shields. Bellway plc houses is in Seaton Burn in North Tyneside. Cobalt Business Park, the largest office park in the UK, is at Wallsend, on the former site of Atmel, and is the home of North Tyneside Council. Swan Hunter until 2006 made ships in Wallsend, and still designs ships. Soil Machine Dynamics in Wallsend on the Tyne makes Remotely operated underwater vehicles, and its Ultra Trencher 1 is the world's largest submersible robot.
The car dealership Evans Halshaw is in Sunderland. The car factory owned by Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK between North Hylton and Washington is the largest in the UK. Grundfos, the world's leading pump manufacturer, builds pumps in Sunderland. Calsonic Kansei UK, formerly Magna, make automotive instrument panels and car trim at the Pennywell Industrial Estate. Gestamp UK make automotive components. Smith Electric Vehicles originated in Washington. The LG Electronics microwave oven factory opened in 1989, closed in May 2004, and later became the site of the Tanfield Group. Goodyear Dunlop had their only UK car tyre factory next to the Tanfield site until its 2006 closure. BAE Systems Global Combat Systems moved to a new £75 million factory at the former Goodyear site in 2011, where they make large calibre ammunition for tanks and artillery.
The government's child benefit office is in Washington. Liebherr build cranes next to the Wear at Deptford. The outdoor clothing company Berghaus is in Castletown. Vaux Breweries, who owned Swallow Hotels, closed in 1999. ScS Sofas are on Borough Road. There are many call centres in Sunderland, notably EDF Energy at the Doxford International Business Park, which is also the home of the headquarters of the large international transport company Arriva and Nike UK. Rolls-Royce planned to move their production of fan and turbine discs to BAE Systems' new site in 2016.
A renovated amphibious Vietnam War vehicle.
refitted LARC-V vehicles
LARC-V (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo, 5 ton), is an aluminium-hulled amphibious cargo vehicle capable of transporting 5 tons. It was developed in the United States during the 1950s, and is used in a variety of auxiliary roles to this day.
In addition to the United States, LARC-Vs have been used by military forces in Australia, Argentina, Portugal, Philippines, Singapore and Iceland. Approximately 968 were made. About 500 were destroyed, most by scuttling during the American withdrawal from South Vietnam. About 200 have been retained in U.S. military service. Roughly 100 are privately owned and mostly used for tourism. These include tourist trips on the Jökulsárlón ice lake in Iceland and city and harbour tours in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
ManufacturerCondec, LeTourneau-Westinghouse
Specifications
Mass19,000 lb (8,618 kg)
Length420 in (11 m)
Width120 in (3 m)
Height122 in (3 m)
EngineCummins V8-300
785 cu in (12.9 L) Diesel V8
300 hp (220 kW)
Suspensionwheel 4x4
Operational
range
250 mi (402.3 km)
SpeedLand:30 mph (48 km/h)
Water:9.5 mph (15.3 km/h)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
A Royal Marine Landing Craft capable of carrying 120 troops as well as vehicles and euipment, enters the dock of amphibious landing ship HMS Bulwark during Cougar 14.
The Devonport-based warship was joined by the recently refurbished HMS Ocean and a number of other ships to form the UK’s high readiness Force Task Group.
The routine annual 4-month deployment includes a series of demanding amphibious and maritime based exercises with partner nations throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East region and ensures that the Task Group is ready to respond to any contingency the UK Government directs upon it.
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© Crown Copyright 2014
Photographer: LA(Phot) Des Wade
Image 45158373.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk
This image is available for high resolution download at www.defenceimagery.mod.uk subject to the terms and conditions of the Open Government License at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/. Search for image number 45158373.jpg
For latest news visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
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Proverbs 31. Equal in worth. Quite the opposite in strengths & weaknesses.
Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She finds wool and flax
and busily spins it.
14 She is like a merchant’s ship,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.
16 She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She is energetic and strong,
a hard worker.
18 She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
her lamp burns late into the night.
19 Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber.
20 She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
21 She has no fear of winter for her household,
for everyone has warm[c] clothes.
22 She makes her own bedspreads.
She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,
where he sits with the other civic leaders.
24 She makes belted linen garments
and sashes to sell to the merchants.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II was a carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft introduced to replace the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. The A-7 airframe design was based on the successful supersonic Vought F-8 Crusader, although it was somewhat smaller and rounded off. The Corsair II initially entered service with the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. It was later adopted by the United States Air Force, including the Air National Guard, to replace the Douglas A-1 Skyraider and North American F-100 Super Sabre. The aircraft was also exported to several foreign countries, including Greece, Portugal, Thailand and New Zealand.
For the latter operator, the Corsair II was part of a major modernization campaign in the early 1970s. For instance, in 1970 14 McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks were purchased to replace the Vampire FB5's, which had been the primary light attack aircraft for the RNZAF for years, but the type was hopelessly outdated.
Furthermore New Zealand was also looking for a replacement of its similarly ageing Canberra fleet. These 31 aircraft were also phased out of service in mid 1970, and the A-7 chosen as the RNZAFs new fighter bomber because of its proven all-weather strike capability and advances avionics.
The RNZAF bought and operated 22 LTV A-7 Corsair II aircraft primarily in the coastal defense/anti-ship and sea patrol roles, air interdiction and air defense roles being secondary duties. The RNZAF Corsair II was very similar to the US Navy’s A-7E, even though the machines would only be operated form land bases. Designated A-7N, the machines featured an AN/APN-190 navigational radar with a Doppler groundspeed and drift detector plus an AN/APQ-128 terrain following radar. For the deployment of smart weapons, the machines were outfitted with a Pave Penny laser target acquisition system under the air intake lip, similar to the USAF’s A-7D, and could carry a wide range of weaponry and sensors, including AN/AAR-45 FLIR pods for an improved all-weather performance. Against enemy ships and large ground targets, visually guided smart bombs (AGM-62 and the more modern GBU-8 HOBOS) were bought, as well as AGM-65 Maverick against smaller, high priority targets.
Active service lasted between 1975 and 1999, and the A-7Ns were originally allocated between RNZAF 2 and 75 Squadron at Ohakea, where they were operated together with A-4K and TA-4K. The latter were also emplyed for A-7N pilot conversion training, since the RNZAF did not operate any Corsair II two seaters.
Several times the Squadron deployed to Clark Air Base in the Philippines and to Hawaii with both of the Corsair IIs and Skyhawks to exercise with the United States Air Force. Furthermore, the annual deployments as part of the Five Power Defence Agreement (called Exercise Vanguard) had the Squadron visit Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand to practice with those countries. Two RNZAF A-7s of 75 Squadron even made visits to Great Britain.
In the early Nineties the Corsair IIs started to suffer from numerous maintenance and logistic problems due to the lack of spare parts and general financial problems. This also prevented a major avionics update and the procurement of AGM-84 Harpoon missiles for the A-7Ns and the RNZAF P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. The maintenance situation became so dire that several aircraft were cannibalized for spare parts to service other fighters. In 1992 only sixteen A-7Ns remained operational. This resulted in the available fighters no longer being assigned and dedicated to one specific squadron, but shared and assigned to one of the RNZAF combat squadrons (2, 14 and 75 Squadron, respectively), as needed.
During its 24 years of duty in the RNZAF, the A-7 fleet suffered 8 severe accidents with aircraft losses (and two pilots being killed). Nevertheless, the introduction of the A-7 was seen as a success due to the evolution that it allowed the Air Force in aircraft maintenance, with focus in modern computer and electronic systems, and in the steady qualification of pilots and technicians.
In 1999, the National Government selected an order of 28 F-16A/B Fighting Falcon aircraft to replace the complete fleet of A-4 Skyhawks and A-7 Corsair IIs, but this procurement plan was cancelled in 2001 following election by the incoming Labour Government under Helen Clark. This was followed by the disbanding of several fixed wing aircraft squadrons, with the consequence of removing the RNZAF's air combat capability. The last A-7 flight in RNZAF service took place on 1st of October 2001. Subsequently, most of the RNZAF's fighter pilots left New Zealand to serve in the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Air Force.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 46 ft 2 in (14.06 m)
Wingspan: 38 ft 9 in (11.8 m), 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m) wings folded
Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.9 m)
Wing area: 374.9 sq ft (34.83 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 65A007 root and tip
Empty weight: 19,127 lb (8,676 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 41,998 lb (19,050 kg) overload condition.
Fuel capacity: 1,338 US gal (5,060 l; 1,114 imp gal) (10,200 lb (4,600 kg)) internal
Powerplant:
1 × Allison TF41-A-2 non-afterburning turbofan engine, 15,000 lbf (66.7 kN) thrust
Performance:
Maximum speed: 600 kn (690 mph; 1,111 km/h) at Sea level
Range: 1,070 nmi; 1,231 mi (1,981 km) maximum internal fuel
Ferry range: 1,342 nmi; 1,544 mi (2,485 km) with maximum internal and external fuel
Service ceiling: 42,000 ft (13,000 m)
Wing loading: 77.4 lb/sq ft (378 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.50
Take-off run: 1,705 ft (519.7 m) at 42,000 lb (19,000 kg)
Armament:
1× M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm (0.787 in) rotary cannon with 1,030 rounds
6× under-wing and 2× fuselage pylon stations (for mounting AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs only)
with a total ordnance capacity of 15,000 lb (6,803.9 kg)
The kit and its assembly:
An idea that had been lingering on my project list for some years, and a recent build of an RNZAF A-7 by fellow modeler KiwiZac at whatifmodelers.com eventually triggered this build, a rather simple alternative livery whif. I had this idea on the agenda for some time, though, already written up a background story (which was accidently deleted early last year and sent the project into hiatus - until now) and had the kit as well as decals collected and stashed away.
The basis is the Hobby Boss A-7, which is available in a wide range of variant in 1:72 scale. Not cheap, but IMHO the best Corsair II kit at the moment, because it is full of ample surface details, goes together nicely and features a complete air intake, a good cockpit tub and even some maintenance covers that can be displayed in open position, in case you want to integrate the kit in a diorama. In my case it’s the A-7E kit, because I wanted a late variant and the US Navy’s refueling probe instead of the A-7D’s dorsal adapter for the USAF refueling boom system.
For the fictional RNZAF A-7N no fundamental changes were made. I just deliberately used OOB parts like the A-7D’s Pave Penny laser targeting pod under the air intake. As a personal addition I lowered the flaps slightly for a more lively look. Around the hull, some blade antennae were changed or added, and I installed the pair of pitots in front of the windscreen (made from thin wire).
The FLIR pod came with the kit, as well as the drop tank under the inner starboards wing pylon and the AIM-9Bs. Only the GBU-8s were externally sourced, from one of the Hasegawa USAF ordnance sets.
For the finalized kit on display I mounted the maintenance covers in open position, but for the beauty pics they were provisionally placed in closed position onto the kit’s flanks. The covers had to be modified for this stunt, but since their fit is very good and tight they easily stayed in place, even for the flight scenes!
Painting and markings:
This was the more interesting part – I wanted „something special“ for the fictional RNZAF Corsair II. Upon delivery, the USAF SEA scheme would certainly have been the most appropriate camouflage – the A-4K’s were painted this way and the aforementioned inspiring build by KiwiZac was finished this way.
Anyway, my plan had been from the start a machine in late service with low-viz markings similar to the A-4Ks, which received an attractive three-tone wrap-around scheme (in FS 34102, 34079 and 36081) or a simple all-around coat of FS 34079.
Both of these schemes could have been a sensible choice for this project, but… no! Too obvious, too simple for my taste. I rather wanted something that makes you wonder and yet make the aircraft look authentic and RNZAF-esque.
While digging for options and alternatives I stumbled upon the RNZAF’s C-130 Hercules transporters, which, like Canadian machines, carry a wrap-around scheme in two tones of grey (a light blue grey and a darker tone with a reddish hue) and a deep olive green tone that comes close to Dark Slate Grey, together with low-viz markings. A pretty unique scheme! Not as murky as the late A-4Ks and IMHO also well suited for the naval/coastal environment that the machine would patrol.
I was not able to positively identify the original tones on the CAF and RNZAF Hercs, so I interpreted various aircraft pictures. I settled upon Humbrol 163 (RAF Dark Green) 125 (FS 36118, Gunship Grey) and Revell 57 (RAL 7000, similar to FS 35237, but lighter and “colder”). For the wraparound scheme I used the C-130s as benchmark.
The cockpit became Dark Gull Grey (Humbrol 140) while the landing gear and the air intake duct became – behind 5mm of grey around the intake lip - white. The maintenance hatches’ interior was painted with a mix of Humbrol 81 and 38, for a striking zinc chromate primer look.
After a light black ink wash the kit received some panel post-shading for more contrast esp. between the dark colors and a slightly worn and sun-bleached look, since the aircraft would be depicted towards the end of its active service life.
Decals were the most challenging task, though: finding suitable RNZAF roundels is not easy, and I was happy when Xtradecal released an appropriate sheet that offers kiwi roundels for all positions (since motifs for port and starboard have to be mirrored). The Kiwi squadron emblem actually belongs to an RNZAF A-4K (from an Old Models sheet). The serial codes were puzzled together from single letter (TL Modellbau), most stencils come from the Hobby Boss OOB sheet.
A simple build, yet a very interesting topic and in the end also an IMHO very cool-looking aircraft in its fictional livery. Building the Hobby Boss A-7 was easy, despite some inherent flaws of the kit (e .g. totally blank dashboard and side consoles, and even no decals included!). The paint scheme lent from the RNZAF Hercs suits the SLUF well, though.
©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®
No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty seven metres at 11:33am on a showery morning on Monday 10th May 2021, off Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Here we see a juvenile Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), one of two brought down this morning by parents from their nests up on the house chimney stacks. This little fella could fly very well but was still marching around and demanding food from it's attentive parents.
Starlings are Passerines and often found in noisy flocks where squabbling and stealing food from one another are common traits. They run along the ground and are capable of mimicking many sounds around them and despite being a common sight in UK gardens, their decline elsewhere sees them on the red conservation list.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 600mm Shutter speed: 1/320s Aperture f/6.3 iso400 Tripod mounted with Tamron VC Vibration Control set to position 3. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (4128 x 2752). JPeg basic (14 bit uncompressed) AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Shutter priority mode Metering mode: Spot metering White balance on: Auto1 (4570k) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon fiber Geared tripod 3 sections. Neewer Carbon Fiber Gimble tripod head 10088736 with Arca Swiss standard quick release plate. Neewer 9996 Arca Swiss release plate P860 x2.Jessops Tripod bag. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.07s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.56s
ALTITUDE: 38.0m
JPeg (simple) FILE: 1.99MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 5.97MB PROCESSED (TIFF) FILE: 65.1MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, was an Australian variant of the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. In 1951, Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation obtained a license agreement to build the F-86F Sabre. In a major departure from the North American blueprint, it was decided that the CA-27 would be powered by a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.7, rather than the General Electric J47. In theory, the Avon was capable of more than double the maximum thrust and double the thrust-to-weight ratio of the US engine. This necessitated a re-design of the fuselage, as the Avon was shorter, wider and lighter than the J47.
To accommodate the Avon, over 60 percent of the fuselage was altered and there was a 25 percent increase in the size of the air intake. Another major revision was in replacing the F-86F's six machine guns with two 30mm ADEN cannon, while other changes were also made to the cockpit and to provide an increased fuel capacity.
The prototype aircraft first flew on 3 August 1953. The production aircrafts' first deliveries to the Royal Australian Air Force began in 1954. The first batch of aircraft were powered by the Avon 20 engine and were designated the Sabre Mk 30. Between 1957 and 1958 this batch had the wing slats removed and were re-designated Sabre Mk 31. These Sabres were supplemented by 20 new-built aircraft. The last batch of aircraft were designated Sabre Mk 32 and used the Avon 26 engine, of which 69 were built up to 1961.
Beyond these land-based versions, an indigenous version for carrier operations had been developed and built in small numbers, too, the Sea Sabre Mk 40 and 41. The roots of this aircraft, which was rather a prestigious idea than a sensible project, could be traced back to the immediate post WWII era. A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve, although funding cuts led to the purchase of only two carriers in June 1947: Majestic and sister ship HMS Terrible, for the combined cost of AU£2.75 million, plus stores, fuel, and ammunition. As Terrible was the closer of the two ships to completion, she was finished without modification, and was commissioned into the RAN on 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney. Work progressed on Majestic at a slower rate, as she was upgraded with the latest technology and equipment. To cover Majestic's absence, the Colossus-class carrier HMS Vengeance was loaned to the RAN from 13 November 1952 until 12 August 1955.
Labour difficulties, late delivery of equipment, additional requirements for Australian operations, and the prioritization of merchant ships over naval construction delayed the completion of Majestic. Incorporation of new systems and enhancements caused the cost of the RAN carrier acquisition program to increase to AU£8.3 million. Construction and fitting out did not finish until October 1955. As the carrier neared completion, a commissioning crew was formed in Australia and first used to return Vengeance to the United Kingdom.
The completed carrier was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Majestic on 26 October 1955, but only two days later, the ship was renamed Melbourne and recommissioned.
In the meantime, the rather political decision had been made to equip Melbourne with an indigenous jet-powered aircraft, replacing the piston-driven Hawker Fury that had been successfully operated from HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance, so that the "new jet age" was even more recognizable. The choice fell on the CAC Sabre, certainly inspired by North American's successful contemporary development of the navalized FJ-2 Fury from the land-based F-86 Sabre. The CAC 27 was already a proven design, and with its more powerful Avon engine it even offered a better suitability for carrier operations than the FJ-2 with its rather weak J47 engine.
Work on this project, which was initially simply designated Sabre Mk 40, started in 1954, just when the first CAC 27's were delivered to operative RAAF units. While the navalized Avon Sabre differed outwardly only little from its land-based brethren, many details were changed and locally developed. Therefore, there was also, beyond the general outlines, little in common with the North American FJ-2 an -3 Fury.
Externally, a completely new wing with a folding mechanism was fitted. It was based on the F-86's so-called "6-3" wing, with a leading edge that was extended 6 inches at the root and 3 inches at the tip. This modification enhanced maneuverability at the expense of a small increase in landing speed due to deletion of the leading edge slats, a detail that was later introduced on the Sabre Mk 31, too. As a side benefit, the new wing leading edges without the slat mechanisms held extra fuel. However, the Mk 40's wing was different as camber was applied to the underside of the leading edge to improve low-speed handling for carrier operations. The wings were provided with four stations outboard of the landing gear wells for up to 1000 lb external loads on the inboard stations and 500 lb on the outboard stations.
Slightly larger stabilizers were fitted and the landing gear was strengthened, including a longer front wheel strut. The latter necessitated an enlarged front wheel well, so that the front leg’s attachment point had to be moved forward. A ventral launch cable hook was added under the wing roots and an external massive arrester hook under the rear fuselage.
Internally, systems were protected against salt and humidity and a Rolls-Royce Avon 211 turbojet was fitted, a downrated variant of the already navalized Avon 208 from the British DH Sea Vixen, but adapted to the different CAC 27 airframe and delivering 8.000 lbf (35.5 kN) thrust – slightly more than the engines of the land-based CAC Sabres, but also without an afterburner.
A single Mk 40 prototype was built from a new CAC 27 airframe taken directly from the production line in early 1955 and made its maiden flight on August 20th of the same year. In order to reflect its naval nature and its ancestry, this new CAC 27 variant was officially christened “Sea Sabre”.
Even though the modified machine handled well, and the new, cambered wing proved to be effective, many minor technical flaws were discovered and delayed the aircraft's development until 1957. These included the wing folding mechanism and the respective fuel plumbing connections, the landing gear, which had to be beefed up even more for hard carrier landings and the airframe’s structural strength for catapult launches, esp. around the ventral launch hook.
In the meantime, work on the land-based CAC 27 progressed in parallel, too, and innovations that led to the Mk 31 and 32 were also incorporated into the naval Mk 40, leading to the Sea Sabre Mk 41, which became the effective production aircraft. These updates included, among others, a detachable (but fixed) refueling probe under the starboard wing, two more pylons for light loads located under the wing roots and the capability to carry and deploy IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, what significantly increased the Mk 41's efficiency as day fighter. With all these constant changes it took until April 1958 that the Sabre Mk 41, after a second prototype had been directly built to the new standard, was finally approved and cleared for production. Upon delivery, the RAN Sea Sabres carried a standard NATO paint scheme with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and Sky undersides.
In the meantime, the political enthusiasm concerning the Australian carrier fleet had waned, so that only twenty-two aircraft were ordered. The reason behind this decision was that Australia’s carrier fleet and its capacity had become severely reduced: Following the first decommissioning of HMAS Sydney in 1958, Melbourne became the only aircraft carrier in Australian service, and she was unavailable to provide air cover for the RAN for up to four months in every year; this time was required for refits, refueling, personnel leave, and non-carrier duties, such as the transportation of troops or aircraft. Although one of the largest ships to serve in the RAN, Melbourne was one of the smallest carriers to operate in the post-World War II period, so that its contribution to military actions was rather limited. To make matters worse, a decision was made in 1959 to restrict Melbourne's role to helicopter operations only, rendering any carrier-based aircraft in Australian service obsolete. However, this decision was reversed shortly before its planned 1963 implementation, but Australia’s fleet of carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft would not grow to proportions envisioned 10 years ago.
Nevertheless, on 10 November 1964, an AU£212 million increase in defense spending included the purchase of new aircraft for Melbourne. The RAN planned to acquire 14 Grumman S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and to modernize Melbourne to operate these. The acquisition of 18 new fighter-bombers was suggested (either Sea Sabre Mk 41s or the American Douglas A-4 Skyhawk), too, but these were dropped from the initial plan. A separate proposal to order 10 A-4G Skyhawks, a variant of the Skyhawk designed specifically for the RAN and optimized for air defense, was approved in 1965, but the new aircraft did not fly from Melbourne until the conclusion of her refit in 1969. This move, however, precluded the production of any new and further Sea Sabre.
At that time, the RAN Sea Sabres received a new livery in US Navy style, with upper surfaces in Light Gull Gray with white undersides. The CAC Sea Sabres remained the main day fighter and attack aircraft for the RAN, after the vintage Sea Furies had been retired in 1962. The other contemporary RAN fighter type in service, the Sea Venom FAW.53 all-weather fighter that had replaced the Furies, already showed its obsolescence.
In 1969, the RAN purchased another ten A-4G Skyhawks, primarily in order to replace the Sea Venoms on the carriers, instead of the proposed seventh and eighth Oberon-class submarines. These were operated together with the Sea Sabres in mixed units on board of Melbourne and from land bases, e.g. from NAS Nowra in New South Wales, where a number of Sea Sabres were also allocated to 724 Squadron for operational training.
Around 1970, Melbourne operated a standard air group of four jet aircraft, six Trackers, and ten Wessex helicopters until 1972, when the Wessexes were replaced with ten Westland Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and the number of jet fighters doubled. Even though the A-4G’s more and more took over the operational duties on board of Melbourne, the Sea Sabres were still frequently deployed on the carrier, too, until the early Eighties, when both the Skyhawks and the Sea Sabres received once more a new camouflage, this time a wraparound scheme in two shades of grey, reflecting their primary airspace defense mission.
The CAC 27 Mk 41s’ last carrier operations took place in 1981 in the course of Melbourne’s involvements in two major exercises, Sea Hawk and Kangaroo 81, the ship’s final missions at sea. After Melbourne was decommissioned in 1984, the Fleet Air Arm ceased fixed-wing combat aircraft operation. This was the operational end of the Sabre Mk 41, which had reached the end of their airframe lifetime, and the Sea Sabre fleet had, during its career, severely suffered from accidents and losses: upon retirement, only eight of the original twenty-two aircraft still existed in flightworthy condition, so that the aircraft were all scrapped. The younger RAN A-4Gs were eventually sold to New Zealand, where they were kept in service until 2002.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 1 in (11.3 m)
Height: 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m)
Wing area: 302.3 sq ft (28.1 m²)
Empty weight: 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,000 lb (7,256 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 21,210 lb (9,621 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Avon 208A turbojet engine with 8,200 lbf (36.44 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 700 mph (1,100 km/h) (605 knots)
Range: 1,153 mi, (1,000 NM, 1,850 km)
Service ceiling: 52,000 ft (15,850 m)
Rate of climb: 12,000 ft/min at sea level (61 m/s)
Armament:
2× 30 mm ADEN cannons with 150 rounds per gun
5,300 lb (2,400 kg) of payload on six external hardpoints;
Bombs were usually mounted on outer two pylons as the mid pair were wet-plumbed pylons for
2× 200 gallons drop tanks, while the inner pair was usually occupied by a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder
AAMs
A wide variety of bombs could be carried with maximum standard loadout being 2x 1,000 lb bombs
or 2x Matra pods with unguided SURA missiles plus 2 drop tanks for ground attacks, or 2x AIM-9 plus
two drop tanks as day fighter
The kit and its assembly:
This project was initially inspired by a set of decals from an ESCI A-4G which I had bought in a lot – I wondered if I could use it for a submission to the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2020. I considered an FJ-3M in Australian colors on this basis and had stashed away a Sword kit of that aircraft for this purpose. However, I had already built an FJ variant for the GB (a kitbashed mix of an F-86D and an FJ-4B in USMC colors), and was reluctant to add another Fury.
This spontaneously changed after (thanks to Corona virus quarantine…) I cleaned up one of my kit hoards and found a conversion set for a 1:72 CAC 27 from JAYS Model Kits which I had bought eons ago without a concrete plan. That was the eventual trigger to spin the RAN Fury idea further – why not a navalized version of the Avon Sabre for HMAS Melbourne?
The result is either another kitbash or a highly modified FJ-3M from Sword. The JAYS Model Kits set comes with a THICK sprue that carries two fuselage halves and an air intake, and it also offers a vacu canopy as a thin fallback option because the set is actually intended to be used together with a Hobby Craft F-86F.
While the parts, molded in a somewhat waxy and brittle styrene, look crude on the massive sprue, the fuselage halves come with very fine recessed engravings. And once you have cleaned the parts (NOTHING for people faint at heart, a mini drill with a saw blade is highly recommended), their fit is surprisingly good. The air intake was so exact that no putty was needed to blend it with the rest of the fuselage.
The rest came from the Sword kit and integrating the parts into the CAC 27 fuselage went more smoothly than expected. For instance, the FJ-3M comes with a nice cockpit tub that also holds a full air intake duct. Thanks to the slightly wider fuselage of the CAC 27, it could be mounted into the new fuselage halves without problems and the intake duct almost perfectly matches the intake frame from the conversion set. The tailpipe could be easily integrated without any mods, too. The fins had to be glued directly to the fuselage – but this is the way how the Sword kit is actually constructed! Even the FJ-3M’s wings match the different fuselage perfectly. The only modifications I had to make is a slight enlargement of the ventral wing opening at the front and at the read in order to take the deeper wing element from the Sword kit, but that was an easy task. Once in place, the parts blend almost perfectly into each other, just minor PSR was necessary to hide the seams!
Other mods include an extended front wheel well for the longer leg from the FJ-3M and a scratched arrester hook installation, made from wire, which is on purpose different from the Y-shaped hook of the Furies.
For the canopy I relied on the vacu piece that came with the JAYS set. Fitting it was not easy, though, it took some PSR to blend the windscreen into the rest of the fuselage. Not perfect, but O.K. for such a solution from a conversion set.
The underwing pylons were taken from the Sword kit, including the early Sidewinders. I just replaced the drop tanks – the OOB tanks are very wide, and even though they might be authentic for the FJ-3, I was skeptical if they fit at all under the wings with the landing gear extended? In order to avoid trouble and for a more modern look, I replaced them outright with more slender tanks, which were to mimic A-4 tanks (USN FJ-4s frequently carried Skyhawk tanks). They actually come from a Revell F-16 kit, with modified fins. The refueling probe comes from the Sword kit.
A last word about the Sword kit: much light, but also much shadow. While I appreciate the fine surface engravings, the recognizably cambered wings, a detailed cockpit with a two-piece resin seat and a pretty landing gear as well as the long air intake, I wonder why the creators totally failed to provide ANY detail of the arrester hook (there is literally nothing, as if this was a land-based Sabre variant!?) or went for doubtful solutions like a front landing gear that consists of five(!) single, tiny parts? Sadism? The resin seat was also broken (despite being packed in a seperate bag), and it did not fit into the cockpit tub at all. Meh!
Painting and markings:
From the start I planned to give the model the late RAN A-4Gs’ unique air superiority paint scheme, which was AFAIK introduced in the late Seventies: a two-tone wraparound scheme consisting of “Light Admiralty Grey” (BS381C 697) and “Aircraft Grey” (BS 381C 693). Quite simple, but finding suitable paints was not an easy task, and I based my choice on pictures of the real aircraft (esp. from "buzz" number 880 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, you find pics of it with very good light condition) rather than rely on (pretty doubtful if not contradictive) recommendations in various painting instructions from models or decal sets.
I wanted to keep things simple and settled upon Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231) and Light Blue (FS 35414), both enamel colors from Modelmaster, since both are rather dull interpretations of these tones. Esp. the Light Blue comes quite close to Light Admiralty Grey, even though it should be lighter for more contrast to the darker grey tone. But it has that subtle greenish touch of the original BS tone, and I did not want to mix the colors.
The pattern was adapted from the late A-4Gs’ scheme, and the colors were dulled down even more through a light black ink wash. Some post-shading with lighter tones emphasized the contrast between the two colors again. And while it is not an exact representation of the unique RAN air superiority scheme, I think that the overall impression is there.
The cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey, while the landing gear, its wells and the inside of the air intake became white. A red rim was painted around the front opening, and the landing gear covers received a red outline, too. The white drop tanks are a detail I took from real world RAN A-4Gs - in the early days of the air superiority scheme, the tanks were frequently still finished in the old USN style livery, hence the white body but fins and tail section already in the updated colors.
The decals became a fight, though. As mentioned above, the came from an ESCI kit – and, as expected, the were brittle. All decals with a clear carrier film disintegrated while soaking in water, only those with a fully printed carrier film were more or less usable. One roundel broke and had to be repaired, and the checkered fin flash was a very delicate affair that broke several times, even though I tried to save and repair it with paint. But you can unfortunately see the damage.
Most stencils and some replacements (e. g. the “Navy” tag) come from the Sword FJ-3. While these decals are crisply printed, their carrier film is utterly thin, so thin that applying esp. the larger decals turned out to be hazardous and complicated. Another point that did not really convince me about the Sword kit.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some soot stains were added around the exhaust and the gun ports with graphite.
In the end, this build looks, despite the troubles and the rather exotic ingredients like a relatively simple Sabre with Australian markings, just with a different Navy livery. You neither immediately recognize the FJ-3 behind it, nor the Avon Sabre’s bigger fuselage, unless you take a close and probably educated look. Very subtle, though.
The RAN air superiority scheme from the late Skyhawks suits the Sabre/Fury-thing well – I like the fact that it is a modern fighter scheme, but, thanks to the tones and the colorful other markings, not as dull and boring like many others, e. g. the contemporary USN "Ghost" scheme. Made me wonder about an early RAAF F-18 in this livery - should look very pretty, too?
Hummingbirds are native only to the Americas. They are known for their ability to hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings, 15–80 times per second (depending on the species). Capable of sustained hovering, the hummingbird has the ability to fly deliberately backwards or vertically, which is the only bird able to do so as to maintain its position while drinking from flower blossoms. They are named for the characteristic hum made by their wings.
ISO200, aperture f/5.8, exposure .008 seconds (1/125) focal length 300mm
10th October 2013 - A Mirage 2000N of the French Airforce on final approach at RAF Leeming during Ex. Capable Eagle.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later by McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the U.S. Navy's pre-1962 designation system.
Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War. Sixty years after the aircraft's first flight in 1954, some of the 2,960 produced (through February 1979). The Skyhawk found many users all around the world, and some still remain in service with the Argentine Air Force and the Brazilian Naval Aviation. Operators in Asia included Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Thailand procured the Skyhawk in 1984, for the Royal Thai Navy air arm to be used for naval and air space surveillance, against sea surface targets and for close air support for the Royal Thai Marine Corps. A total of thirty aircraft were purchased from the USA, twenty-four single seaters and six two-seat TA-4J trainers.
The single seaters were refurbished A-4Cs from USN overstock, modernized to a standard that came close to the USN’s A-4L, but with some specific differences and unique features that made them suitable for all-weather strike operations. This modified version was re-designated as A-4LT and featured the late Skyhawk versions’ distinct “Camelback” fairing that house the additional avionics as well as a heat exchanger. The most distinctive external difference to any other Skyhawk version was a unique, pointed radome.
The update for Thailand included an AN/APQ-126 terrain following radar in the nose, which was integrated into an ILAAS digital navigation system – a very modern system of its era. The radar also fed a navigation and weapons delivery computer which made possible accurate delivery of bombs from a greater stand-off distance, greatly improving survivability.
Further special equipment for the Thai Skyhawks included, among others, a Hughes AN/ASB-19 Angle Rate Bombing System, a Bendix AN/APN-141 Low altitude radar altimeter, an AN/AVQ-7(V) Head Up display (HUD), air refueling capability (with a fixed but detachable refueling probe), a brake parachute housing below the jet pipe, two additional underwing hardpoints (for a total for five, like the A-4E) and an increased payload. Avionics were modernized and expanded, giving the Thai Skyhawks ability to carry modern AIM-9L Sidewinder AAMs and AGM-65 Maverick AGMs. The latter became, beyond standard iron bombs and pods with unguided missiles, the aircrafts’ main armament against naval targets.
However, despite the modernization of the avionics, the A-4LTs retained the A-4Cs’ Wright J65-W-20 engine with 8,200 lbf (36 kN) of takeoff thrust.
The first aircraft were delivered in December 1985 to the Royal Thai Navy (RTN / กองทัพเรือไทย / Kong thap ruea thai), carrying a USN grey/white livery. They served in the No.104 RTN Squadron, distributed among two wings based at U-Tapao near Bangkok and at Songkhla in the south of Thailand, close to the Malaysian border. During regular overhauls (executed at Singapore Aircraft Industries, now ST Aerospace), the RTN Skyhawks soon received a new wraparound camouflage with reduced insignia and markings.
While in service, the Thai Skyhawks soon suffered from frequent maintenance issues and a low availability rate, since replacement parts for the reliable yet old J65 engine became more and more difficult to obtain. At times, half of the A-4LT fleet had to remain grounded because of engine problems. In consequence, the Thai Skyhawks were in the mid-Nineties supplemented by fourteen Vought A-7E Corsairs (plus four two-seaters) in the coastal defense, sea patrol and anti-shipping role. In 1999, they were retired and replaced by Royal Thai Air Force F-16s.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 40 ft 3 in (12.29 m)
Wingspan: 26 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Height: 15 ft (4.57 m)
Wing area: 259 ft² (24.15 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 0008-1.1-25 root, NACA 0005-0.825-50 tip
Empty weight: 9,146 lb (4,152 kg)
Loaded weight: 18,300 lb (8,318 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 24,500 lb (11,136 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Curtiss-Wright J65-W-20 turbojet with 8,200 lbf (36 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 575 kn (661 mph, 1,064 km/h)
Range: 1,700 nmi (2,000 mi, 3,220 km)
Combat radius: 625 nmi, 1,158 km
Service ceiling: 42,250 ft (12,880 m)
Rate of climb: 8,440 ft/min (43 m/s)
Wing loading: 70.7 lb/ft² (344.4 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.51
g-limit: +8/-3 g
Armament:
2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Colt Mk. 12 cannons in the wing roots, 100 RPG
Total effective payload of up to 7,700 lb (3,500 kg) on five hardpoints
- 1× Centerline: 3,500 lb capability
- 2× Inboard wing: 2,200 lb capability each
- 2× Outboard wing: 1,000 lb capability each
The kit and its assembly:
I originally had this project stashed away for the upcoming "1 Week Group Build" at whatifmodelers.com in June 2020, but since the current "In the Navy" GB had some days to go (and even received a two week extension) I decided to tackle this build on short notice.
The original idea was simply to build an A-4L, a modernized A-4C for the USN Reserve units, but similar machines had also been exported to Malaysia. For the naval theme I came across the Royal Thai Navy and its A-7E Corsairs - and from that the idea of a Skyhawk predecessor from the Eighties was born.
Instead of an A-4C (Fujimi does one in 1:72, but it's a rare kit) I based my build upon the nice Airfix A-4B/Q kit. Its biggest difference is the shorter nose, so that I decided to modify this "flaw" first and added a pointed radome instead of the usual blunt Skyhawk nose; not certain where it came from – it looks very Sea-Harrier-ish, but it’s actually the tip of a large drop tank (Italeri Tornado?). Nevertheless, this small change created a weird look, even more so with the black paint added to it later.
Further additions and mods are a dorsal avionics bulge from an Italeri A-4M, a scratched kinked refueling probe (made from wire and white glue, the early Skyhawks had straight probes but this would certainly interfere with the new radar in the nose), a brake parachute fairing under the tail (scratched, too, from sprue material) and additional antennae under the nose and behind the cockpit. Nothing fancy, rather details from more modern Skyhawk versions.
The AGM-65 Maverick missiles and their respective launch rails came from an Italeri Saab 39 Gripen, the drop tank on the ventral pylon is OOB.
Painting and markings:
This was a tough decision. The Thai Corsairs as primary (and historically later) benchmark carried a standard USN grey/white high-viz livery, even though with small roundels. There were also VTOL Harriers (former Spanish Matadors) operated for a short period by the Thai navy on board of the multi-purpose carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet, which wore a darker two-tone grey livery, pretty boring, too. I rather wanted something more exciting (if not exotic), a more modern wraparound scheme, suited for both overwater and high-altitude duties. That brought me to the Thai F-5Ts (a.k.a. Tigris), which carried - among others - a quite unique US export/aggressor scheme in three shades of light grey, including FS 35414, which looked like a pale turquoise on these machines. I furthermore took inspiration by early Indonesian A-4s, which also carried an US export scheme, nicknamed "Grape", which included darker shades of blue, blue-gray and the bright FS 35414, too.
I eventually settled upon a compromise between these two liveries and tried to adapt the standard F-5 aggressor camouflage pattern for the A-4, made up from FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey), 35164 (Intermediate Blue) and 35414 (Light Blue). Current Thai L-39 Albatros trainers seem to carry a similar livery, even though I am not certain about the tones that are actually used.
The basic enamel paints I used are Humbrol 129 and 144, and for the greenish Light Blue I used "Fulcrum Grey Green" from Modelmaster (#2134), a tone that is quite greenish but markedly darker and more dull than e.g. Humbrol 65, so that the color would not stand out brightly from the other greys and better fit between them. Worked quite well.
The inside of the slats as well as of the air brakes on the flanks were painted in bright red (Humbrol 19), while the landing gear and the interior of the air intake were painted in white (Humbrol 130). The cockpit was painted in a bluish mid grey (Revell 57).
After basic overall painting, the model received the usual light black ink washing and some post-panel-shading, for a lightly used/weathered look.
Most decals/markings come from a Thai Harrier (from an Italeri AV-8A kit), some other markings and stencils were puzzled together from the scrap box, e.g. from a USN F-5E aggressor and from a Peruvian Mirage 2000. Some additional details like the black gun soot areas on the wing roots or the fine white lines on the radome were created with generic decal sheet material.
Finally, the kit received an overall coat of matt acrylic varnish, except for the radome, which became semi-gloss.
As intended, this build was realized in just a couple of days - and I am positively surprised how good the Skyhawk looks in its unusual, if not exotic colors! This fictional livery certainly looks different from a potential standard USN grey/white outfit, and more exciting than a dull grey-in-grey livery. And it’s so weird that it even adds some credibility to this whiffy aircraft model. 😉
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was a first-generation jet aircraft of the United States Air Force. It was developed from the twin-seat Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in the late 1940s as an all-weather, day/night interceptor, replacing the propeller-driven North American F-82 Twin Mustang in this role. The system was designed to overtake the F-80 in terms of performance, but more so to intercept the new high-level Soviet bombers capable of nuclear attacks on America and her Allies - in particular, the new Tupelov Tu-4. The F-94 was furthermore the first operational USAF fighter equipped with an afterburner and was the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War in January 1953.
The initial production model, the F-94A, entered operational service in May 1950. Its armament consisted of four 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M3 Browning machine guns mounted in the fuselage with the muzzles exiting under the radome for the APG-33 radar, a derivative from the AN/APG-3, which directed the Convair B-36's tail guns and had a range of up to 20 miles (32 km). Two 165 US Gallon (1,204 litre) drop tanks, as carried by the F-80 and T-33, were carried on the wingtips. Alternatively, these could be replaced by a pair of 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs under the wings, giving the aircraft a secondary fighter bomber capability. 109 were produced.
The subsequent F-94B, which entered service in January 1951, was outwardly virtually identical to the F-94A. Its Allison J33 turbojet had a number of modifications made, though, which made it a very reliable engine. The pilot was provided with a roomier cockpit and the canopy received a bow frame in the center between the two crew members. A new Instrument Landing System (ILS) was fitted, too, which made operations at night and/or in bad weather much safer. However, this new variant’s punch with just four machine guns remained weak, and, to improve the load of fire, wing-mounted pods with two additional pairs of 0.5” machine guns were introduced – but these hardly improved the interceptor’s effectiveness. 356 of the F-94B were nevertheless built.
The following F-94C was extensively modified and initially designated F-97, but it was ultimately decided just to treat it as a new version of the F-94. USAF interest was lukewarm since aircraft technology had already developed at a fast pace – supersonic performance had already become standard. Lockheed funded development themselves, converting two F-94B airframes to YF-94C prototypes for evaluation with a completely new, much thinner wing, a swept tail surface and a more powerful Pratt & Whitney J48. This was a license-built version of the afterburning Rolls-Royce Tay, which produced a dry thrust of 6,350 pounds-force (28.2 kN) and approximately 8,750 pounds-force (38.9 kN) with afterburning. Instead of machine guns, the proposed new variant was exclusively armed with unguided air-to-air missiles.
Tests were positive and eventually the F-94C was adopted for USAF service, since it was the best interim solution for an all-weather fighter at that time. It still had to rely on Ground Control Interception Radar (GCI) sites to vector the interceptor to intruding aircraft, though.
The F-94C's introduction and the availability of the more effective Northrop F-89C/D Scorpion and the North American F-86D Sabre interceptors led to a quick relegation of the earlier F-94 variants from mid-1954 onwards to second line units and to Air National Guards. By 1955 most of them had already been phased out of USAF service, and some of these relatively young surplus machines were subsequently exported or handed over to friendly nations, too. When sent to the ANG, the F-94As were modified by Lockheed to F-94B standards and then returned to the ANG as B models. They primarily replaced outdated F-80C Shooting Stars and F-51D/H Mustangs.
At that time the USAF was looking for a tactical reconnaissance aircraft, a more effective successor for the RF-80A which had shown its worth and weaknesses during the Korea War. For instance, the plane could not fly at low altitude long enough to perform suitable visual reconnaissance, and its camera equipment was still based on WWII standards. Lockheed saw the opportunity to fill this operational gap with conversions of existing F-94A/B airframes, which had, in most cases, only had clocked few flying hours, primarily at high altitudes where Soviet bombers were expected to lurk, and still a lot of airframe life to offer. This led to another private venture, the RF-94B, auspiciously christened “Stargazer”.
The RF-94B was based on the F-94B interceptor with its J33 engine and the original unswept tail. The F-94B’s wings were retained but received a different leading-edge profile to better cope with operations at low altitude. The interceptor’s nose with the radome and the machine guns underneath was replaced by a new all-metal nose cone, which was more than 3 feet longer than the former radar nose, with windows for several sets of cameras; the wedge-shaped nose cone quickly earned the aircraft the unofficial nickname “Crocodile”.
One camera was looking ahead into flight direction and could be mounted at different angled downward (but not moved during flight), followed by two oblique cameras, looking to the left and the right, and a vertical camera as well as a long-range camera focussed on the horizon, which was behind a round window at port side. An additional, spacious compartment in front of the landing gear well held an innovative Tri-Metrogen horizon-to-horizon view system that consisted of three synchronized cameras. Coupled with a computerized control system based on light, speed, and altitude, it adjusted camera settings to produce pictures with greater delineation.
All cameras could be triggered individually by pilot or a dedicated observer/camera systems operator in the 2nd seat. Talking into a wire recorder, the crew could describe ground movements that might not have appeared in still pictures. A vertical view finder with a periscopic presentation on the cockpit panel was added for the pilot to enhance visual reconnaissance and target identification directly under the aircraft. Using magnesium flares carried under its wings in flash-ejector cartridges, the RF-94B was furthermore able to fly night missions.
The RF-94B was supposed to operate unarmed, but it could still carry a pair of 1.000 lb bombs under its wings or, thanks to added plumbings, an extra pair of drop tanks for ferry flights. The F-94A/B’s machine gun pods as well as the F-94C’s unguided missile launchers could be mounted to the wings, too, making it a viable attack aircraft in a secondary role.
The USAF was highly interested in this update proposal for the outdated interceptors (almost 500 F-94A/Bs had been built) and ordered 100 RF-94B conversions with an option for 100 more – just when a severe (and superior) competitor entered the stage after a lot of development troubles: Republic’s RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance version. The first YRF-84F had already been completed in February 1952 and it had an overall slightly better performance than the RF-94B. However, it offered more internal space for reconnaissance systems and was able to carry up to fifteen cameras with the support of many automatized systems, so that it was a single seater. Being largely identical to the F-84F and sharing its technical and logistical infrastructures, the USAF decided on short notice to change its procurement decision and rather adopt the more modern and promising Thunderflash as its standard tactical reconnaissance aircraft. The RF-94B conversion order was reduced to the initial 100 aircraft, and to avoid operational complexity these aircraft were exclusively delivered to Air National Guardss that had experience with the F-94A/B to replace their obsolete RF-80As.
Gradual replacement lasted until 1958, and while the RF-94B’s performance was overall better than the RF-80A’s, it was still disappointing and not the expected tactical intelligence gathering leap forward. The airframe did not cope well with constant low-level operations, and the aircraft’s marginal speed and handling did not ensure its survivability. However, unlike the RF-84F, which suffered from frequent engine problems, the Stargazers’ J33 made them highly reliable platforms – even though the complex Tri-Metrogen device turned out to be capricious, so that it was soon replaced with up to three standard cameras.
For better handling and less drag esp. at low altitude, the F-94B’s large Fletcher type wingtip tanks were frequently replaced with smaller ones with about half capacity. It also became common practice to operate the RF-94Bs with only a crew of one, and from 1960 on the RF-94B was, thanks to its second seat, more and more used as a trainer before pilots mounted more potent reconnaissance aircraft like the RF-101 Voodoo, which eventually replaced the RF-94B in ANG service. The last RF-94B was phased out in 1968, and, unlike the RF-84F, it was not operated by any foreign air force.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2 (but frequently operated by a single pilot)
Length: 43 ft 4 3/4 in (13.25 m)
Wingspan (with tip tanks): 40 ft 9 1/2 in (12.45 m)
Height: 12 ft. 2 (3.73 m)
Wing area: 234' 8" sq ft (29.11 m²)
Empty weight: 10,064 lb (4,570 kg)
Loaded weight: 15,330 lb (6,960 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 24,184 lb (10,970 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Allison J33-A-33 turbojet, rated at 4,600 lbf (20.4 kN) continuous thrust,
5,400 lbf (24 kN) with water injection and 6,000 lbf (26.6 kN) thrust with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 630 mph (1,014 km/h) at height and in level flight
Range: 930 mi (813 nmi, 1,500 km) in combat configuration with two drop tanks
Ferry range: 1,457 mi (1,275 nmi, 2,345 km)
Service ceiling: 42,750 ft (14,000 m)
Rate of climb: 6,858 ft/min (34.9 m/s)
Wing loading: 57.4 lb/ft² (384 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.48
Armament:
No internal guns; 2x 165 US Gallon (1,204 liter) drop tanks on the wing tips and…
2x underwing hardpoints for two additional 165 US Gallon (1,204 liter) ferry tanks
or bombs of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber each, plus…
2x optional (rarely fitted) pods on the wings’ leading edges with either a pair of 0.5" (12.7 mm)
machine guns or twelve 2.75” (70 mm) Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets each
The kit and its assembly:
This project was originally earmarked as a submission for the 2021 “Reconnaissance & Surveillance” group build at whatifmodellers.com, in the form of a Heller F-94B with a new nose section. The inspiration behind this build was the real-world EF-94C (s/n 50-963): a solitary conversion with a bulbous camera nose. However, the EF-94C was not a reconnaissance aircraft but rather a chase plane/camera ship for the Air Research and Development Command, hence its unusual designation with the suffix “E”, standing for “Exempt” instead of the more appropriate “R” for a dedicated recce aircraft. There also was another EF-94C, but this was a totally different kind of aircraft: an ejection seat testbed.
I had a surplus Heller F-94B kit in The Stash™ and it was built almost completely OOB and did – except for some sinkholes and standard PSR work – not pose any problem. In fact, the old Heller Starfire model is IMHO a pretty good representation of the aircraft. O.K., its age might show, but almost anything you could ask for at 1:72 scale is there, including a decent, detailed cockpit.
The biggest change was the new camera nose, and it was scratched from an unlikely donor part: it consists of a Matchbox B-17G tail gunner station, slimmed down by the gunner station glazing's width at the seam in the middle, and this "sandwich" was furthermore turned upside down. Getting the transitional sections right took lots of PSR, though, and I added some styrene profiles to integrate the new nose into the rest of the hull. It was unintentional, but the new nose profile reminds a lot of a RF-101 recce Voodoo, and there's, with the straight wings, a very F-89ish look to the aircraft now? There's also something F2H-2ish about the outlines?
The large original wing tip tanks were cut off and replaced with smaller alternatives from a Hasegawa A-37. Because it was easy to realize on this kit I lowered the flaps, together with open ventral air brakes. The cockpit was taken OOB, I just modified the work station on the rear seat and replaced the rubber sight protector for the WSO with two screens for a camera operator. Finally, the one-piece cockpit glazing was cut into two parts to present the model with an open canopy.
Painting and markings:
This was a tough decision: either an NMF finish (the natural first choice), an overall light grey anti-corrosive coat of paint, both with relatively colorful unit markings, or camouflage. The USAF’s earlier RF-80As carried a unique scheme in olive drab/neutral grey with a medium waterline, but that would look rather vintage on the F-94. I decided that some tactical camouflage would make most sense on this kind of aircraft and eventually settled for the USAF’s SEA scheme with reduced tactical markings, which – after some field tests and improvisations in Vietnam – became standardized and was officially introduced to USAF aircraft around 1965 as well as to ANG units.
Even though I had already built a camouflaged F-94 some time ago (a Hellenic aircraft in worn SEA colors), I settled for this route. The basic colors (FS 30219, 34227, 34279 and 36622) all came from Humbrol (118, 117, 116 and 28, respectively), and for the pattern I adapted the paint scheme of the USAF’s probably only T-33 in SEA colors: a trainer based on Iceland during the Seventies and available as a markings option in one of the Special Hobby 1:32 T-33 kits. The low waterline received a wavy shape, inspired by an early ANG RF-101 in SEA camouflage I came across in a book. The new SEA scheme was apparently applied with a lot of enthusiasm and properness when it was brand new, but this quickly vaned. As an extra, the wing tip tanks received black anti-glare sections on their inner faces and a black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen - a decal from a T-33 aftermarket sheet. Beyond a black ink wash the model received some subtle panel post-shading, but rather to emphasize surface details than for serious weathering.
The cockpit became very dark grey (Revell 06) while the landing gear wells were kept in zinc chromate green primer (Humbrol 80, Grass Green), with bright red (Humbrol 60, Matt Red) cover interiors and struts and wheels in aluminum (Humbrol 56). The interior of the flaps and the ventral air brakes became red, too.
The decals/markings came from a Special Hobby 1:72 F-86H; there’s a dedicated ANG boxing of the kit that comes with an optional camouflaged aircraft of the NY ANG, the least unit to operate the “Sabre Hog” during the Seventies. Since this 138th TFS formerly operated the F-94A/B, it was a perfect option for the RF-94B! I just used a different Bu. No. code on the fin, taken from a PrintScale A/T-37 set, and most stencils were perocured from the scrap box.
After a final light treatment with graphite around the afterburner for a more metallic shine of the iron metallic (Revell 97) underneath, the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
A camouflaged F-94 is an unusual sight, but it works very well. The new/longer nose considerably changes the aircraft's profile, and even though the change is massive, the "Crocodile" looks surprisingly plausible, if not believable! And, despite the long nose, the aircraft looks pretty sleek, especially in the air.
Capable of bursts of up to 70-75 mph, 0-60 in three seconds, this is the world's fastest land animal. But they still need stealth in order to survive. As I recall, she was stalking her sister.
100% capable of infinity focus on EOS bodies now using my self developed EdMika 0.75mm (and new 0.5mm 90 degree rotated) brass EF-FD glassless adapter.
Sick reach/resolving firepower at less than 1/4 the price of the equivalent spec'd EF autofocus lens.
EdMika adapters will again all be listed on eBay as they become ready (EOS kits for TS 35mm 2.8, FL 55mm 1.2, FD 55mm 1.2 chrome nose and SSC, and 0.5mm rotated EF-FD)
Already recognised as the most dynamically capable, performance-focused Jaguar, the F-TYPE sports car continues to evolve, with a fresh look, state-of-the-art infotainment system and world-first ReRun app that combines vehicle data with GoPro video to enhance the driving experience.
FUGRO BUCENTAUR
The Bucentaur is one of Fugro’s most experienced purposebuilt,
DP2 geotechnical and scientific drilling vessels. It was built in 1983,and since then, it has been extensively upgraded
The Bucentaur provides a large, stable
platform capable of operating independently
in remote regions around the world. During
a single survey program, the Bucentaur can
deploy the full suite of Fugro specialist
in-situ sampling and testing systems up to
2000 m water depth.
The Bucentaur has an exemplary safety
record and a long history of successfully
completed offshore investigations
Example projects for geotechnical
investigation include:
■■ Jack-up drilling locations, piled,
anchored and gravity based platforms,
subsea templates, power cables and
pipeline routes.
■■ Offshore wind farm developments.
■■ Scientific expeditions such as gas
hydrate research projects.
■■ Civil works, such as harbour
extensions, tunnel and bridge
■■ crossings.
■■ Shallow gas detection by pilot hole
drilling and monitoring.
General
Builder/year Drammen slip og verksted/ 1983
Port of registry Nassau, Bahamas
Speed Max. 12 knots
Notation dk(+), AUTR (99,99,94)
Class DnV + 1A1, Dynpos, AUTR, Heldk, E0, ICE C
Endurance Max. 45 days
Operational Water Depth 15 m to 3000 m (seabed operations)
Dimensions
Length overall 78.1 m
Beam (mid) 16.0 m
Freeboard 8.4 m
Draft 5.6 m
Displacement 4,499 tons
NRT 830 tons
GRT 2,768 tons
Dead weight tons 2,200 tons
Derrick height above keel 39.0 m
Moonpool 4.1m x 4.1m
Machinery
Propulsion 2x 2,000 HP Liaaen azimuth thrusters with CP
propeller in nozzle
Bow thrusters 2x KaMeWa tunnel thrusters with CP propellers
Emergency generator Volvo Penta eng. + Stamford gen. 215 kVA; 60 Hz;
180 Rpm
Power generation 4x Wärtsilä Vasa 8R22HE diesels driving 4x van
Kaick 600V/60 Hz AC generators
Deck Machinery
Deck crane 1x electric-hydraulic 5 tons deck crane
1x 3 tons combined deck / transponder crane
1x 1 tons provision/
A-Frame Maximum SWL: In air 15.5T and subsea 23T
Helideck Suitable for Bell 214, Super Puma, Sikorsky lS.61.N
in emergency
Anchors 2x 4 tons Flipper Delta
Navigation, Survey systems and Dynamic Positioning
S-band/X-band radar 2x Furuno FR2127 (X-band)
Gyrocompass 2 x Sperry Navigat X MK 1, 1x Seatex Seapath 200
Speed log Ben Marine Blind Anthea electromagnetic log
GPS 2 x Furuno GP150
ECDIS 2x Transas NS40000
VDR Netwave ND-4010 SVDR
Helipad related
Radio Beacon Aviation 2x ICOM IC-A110 EURO
Portable air-band radios 3x ICOM IC-A6E
Helideck monitoring system Kongsberg HMS-100
Survey systems
Echo sounder 1x 38/200 kHz Simrad EA400 with hull
mounted transducers
UPS 2 x Smart UPS 1500
Dynamic positioning
Type 1x Kongsberg Simrad, DP2 SDP-21
Reference systems 2x Fugro Starpack DGNSS receivers (GPS and
GLONASS) with G2, XP, HP and L1 corrections
Transponder 2x MPT 319/DTR, 3x SPT 313, 1x SPT314, 5x915H
Hydroacoustic 1x Kongsberg Simrad HiPap 500, 1x Kongsberg
Simrad HPR410, Kongsberg APOS
Vertical reference system 1x Kongsberg MRU-2, 1x Kongsberg MRU-5
Gyrocompass 2x Sperrymarine NavigatX MK1, 1x Seapath
UPS Kongsberg for 30min
Communication
Satellite 1x Furuno STD-C Felcom 18, 1x Nera F77
AIS Furuno UAIS FA150
Fixed VHF 2x Furuno FM-8500, 1x Sailor 6210
Portable VHF 2x Entel 10ATEX2066X, 2x Jotron TR20,
1x Sailor SP3520, 7x portable ASCOM VHF
transceivers
Navtex Furuno NX700
V-sat
Dual stabilized 1.5m KU-band antenna setup with
regional coverages and dedicated bandwidth, an
Admin LAN for business purposes, a Client LAN and
a dedicated Crew LAN for Internet access.
Geotechnical Laboratory
Floor space 40 m2
Workbench 3.2 m2
Hydraulic sample extruder
Laboratory drying ovens
¹Miniature laboratory miniature
vane, torvanes, pocket penetrometer
Motorized ¹UU triaxial system
machine
WYKEHAM FARANCE 5t
¹Point load tester
Sample Storage
Volume Stored in boxes, limited by deck space
available after mobilization
Free deck area 400 m2 Max. available
Drilling System
Power Swivel Wirth B3-5, 30,000 Nm
Drill winch Maaskant/Hägglunds: WLL 13.5 tons
Hard-tie Winch Maaskant/Hägglunds with CT function
Heavy load winch Riddrinkhof WLL 2 x 19 tons
Electric-hydraulic power pack Centralised 420 hp Rexroth
Heave compensator Fugro-Hydraudyne, rated capacity 80 tons
Line tensioner Fugro-Hydraudyne, rated capacity 60 tons
Drill string length Max. 1,600 m approx.
Pipe storage capacity 2x 1,600 m drill string (steel and/or aluminium drill
pipe on request)
Pipe feeder ScanTech crane WLL 3,15t x 16.54 m
¹Piggy-back coring NQ and PQ size
Drilling mud products Fresh water, bentonite, CMG, Soda Ash, Barite.
Bulk tanks for dry mud 324 m3
Tanks for liquid mud 105 tons
Mud pump 2x 4” line 200 rev. 680l/min.
1x 3” line 200 rev. 400l/min.
Gas detectors 12x spread throughout vessel, 2x portable gas
detectors, 1x ¹torus annual packer for mounting on
top of power swivel, 1x¹Baker wire line check valve
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) T-45 Goshawk was a highly modified version of the BAe Hawk land-based training jet aircraft. Manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) and British Aerospace (now BAe Systems), the T-45 was used by the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps (USMC) as an aircraft carrier-capable trainer.
The Goshawk's origins began in the mid-1970s, when the US Navy began looking for a single aircraft replacement for both its T-2 and TA-4 jet trainers. The US Navy started the VTXTS advanced trainer program in 1978. Several companies made submissions, e. g. North American or Northrop/Vought. Due to the size of the potential contract, European companies made submissions, too, including a navalized Alpha Jet from Dassault/Dornier and a fully carrier-capable version of the BAe Hawk Mk.60, mutually proposed by British Aerospace (BAe) and McDonnell Douglas (MDC). The latter eventually won the competition and BAe and MDC were awarded the T-45 contract in 1981.
The Hawk had not been designed for carrier operations and numerous modifications were required to make it suitable for use on carriers. These included improvements to the low-speed handling characteristics and a reduction in the approach speed. It was found that the aircraft was apt to stall at the low approach speed required. Modifications were designed by BAe in England; most notably a simple slat system was devised, operated by an actuator and linkage mechanism to fit into the small space available. Strakes were also added on the fuselage to improve airflow. Other changes were a strengthened airframe, a more robust and wider landing gear with a two-wheel nose landing gear, a catapult tow bar attachment and an arresting hook. The modified aircraft was christened “Goshawk”, flew in 1988 for the first time and became operational in 1991.
Beyond being a naval trainer the T-45 was also adapted for first-line duty with strike capabilities, in the form of the OA-45 for the USMC. The role of this aircraft dated back to the Vietnam War when twenty-three A-4 two-seaters were converted into OA-4Ms for “FastFAC” (Fast Forward Air Controller) missions, in order to control interdiction sorties dedicated to shaping the battlefield for future operations. Basically, the OA-4M was a TA-4F equipped with A-4M electronics. The most visible and characteristic change was the fitting of the A-4M’s dorsal electronics hump, neatly faired into the rear of the two-seat canopy. The nose sensor group of the OA-4M was basically the same as that of the A-4M, but the Angle/Rate Bombing system was not installed as it would not be needed.
When the T-45 was introduced in the early Nineties, the USMCs OA-4Ms had reached the end of their service life and the USMC started looking for a replacement, wanting a comparable, light and fast fixed-wing aircraft. The USMC did not accept the LTV A-7 as an A-4 replacement (even though a two-seater version was available), because it was already dated, too, and not part of the USMC inventory. The USMC's A-4Ms were supposed to be replaced by the VTOL AV-8 by the mid-nineties, but the AV-8, even as a two-seater, was deemed unsuitable for FFAC duties. The new T-45 looked like a good and economical alternative with future potential, since the airframe was brand new and the type's infrastructure was fully established, so that a small number of specialized aircraft could easily be supported without much extra cost.
With fresh experience from the 1st Gulf War in 1990-91 the decision was made to buy 25 extra T-45A airframes and convert them to OA-45A standard. Most important change were modified wings, using structures and systems from the BAe Hawk 100 series. While the T-45 only had two underwing and a single ventral hardpoint, the OA-45A featured a total of seven: four underwing and one ventral hardpoints, plus wingtip stations for defensive air-to-air missiles. Upgraded avionics allowed the deployment of a wide range of external stores, including air-to-ground missiles and rocket launchers, a reconnaissance pod, retarded and free-fall bombs of up to 1,000 pounds (450 kg) caliber, runway cratering, anti-personnel and light armor bombs, cluster bombs, practice bombs as well as external fuel tanks and ECM pods. This was a vital asset, since Desert Storm had proved that FFAC aircraft had to have an offensive capability to handle targets of opportunity on their own, when no air assets to control were available. A total ordnance load of up to 6,800 lb (3,085 kg) was possible, even though the aircraft was not supposed to play an offensive role and rather act from a distance, relying on its small size and agility.
Communication modifications for the FastFAC role included a KY-28 secure voice system, an ARC-159 radio and an ARC-114 VHF radio. Similar to the Skyhawk, a hump behind the cockpit had to be added to make room for the additional electronic equipment and a heat exchanger. Other additions were a continuous-wave Doppler navigation radar under a shallow ventral radome underneath the cockpit, a ground control bombing system, an APN-194 altimeter, an ALR-45 radar warning suite, a retrofitted, fixed midair refueling probe and cockpit armor plating that included Kevlar linings on the floor and the lower side walls as well as externally mounted armor plates for the upper areas.
VMA-131 of Marine Aircraft Group 49 (the Diamondbacks) retired its last four OA-4Ms on 22 June 1994, and the new OA-45A arrived just in time to replace the venerable Skyhawk two-seaters in the FastFAC role. Trainer versions of the Skyhawk remained in Navy service, however, finding a new lease on life with the advent of "adversary training". OA-45A deliveries were finished in 1996 and the 25 aircraft were distributed among the newly established Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron (MALS, formerly Headquarters & Maintenance Squadron/H&MS) 12 & 13. The USMC crews soon nicknamed their new mounts "GosHog", to underlöine ist offensive capabilities and to set themselves apart from the USN's "tame" trainers. Even though thos name was never officially approved it caught on quickly.
After initial experience with the new aircraft and in the wake of technological advances, the USMC decided to upgrade the OA-45As in 2000 to improve its effectiveness and interaction capabilities with ground troops. This primarily resulted in the addition of a forward-looking infrared camera laser in the aircraft’s nose section, which enabled the aircraft to execute all-weather/night reconnaissance and to illuminate targets for laser-guided infantry shells or ordnance launched by the OA-45 itself or by other aircraft. Through this measure the OA-45 became capable of carrying and independently deploying light laser-guided smart weapons like the GBU-12 and -16 “Paveway II” glide bombs or the laser-guided AGM-65E “Maverick” variant. The update was gradually executed during regular overhauls in the course of 2001 and 2002 (no new airframes were built/converted), the modified machines received the new designation OA-45B.
After this update phase, the OA-45Bs were deployed in several global conflicts and saw frequent use in the following years. For instance, MALS 13 used its OA-45Bs operationally for the first time in October 2002 when the squadron was tasked with providing support to six AV-8B Harrier aircraft in combat operations in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. This mission lasted until October 2003, four aircraft were allocated and one OA-45B was lost during a landing accident.
On 15 January 2003, MALS 13 embarked 205 Marines and equipment aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in support of combat operations in Southwest Asia during Operation Southern Watch. Four OA-45Bs successfully supported these troops from land bases, marking targets and flying reconnaissance missions.
Furthermore, six MALS 13 OA-45Bs took actively part in Operation Iraqi Freedom from Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, and An Numiniyah Expeditionary Air Field, Iraq, where the aircraft worked closely together with the advancing ground troops of the USMC’s 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. They successfully illuminated targets for US Navy fighter bombers, which were launched from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in the Persian Gulf, and effectively guided these aircraft to their targets. Two OA-45Bs were lost during this conflict, one through enemy MANPADS, the other through friendly AA fire. In late May 2003 the surviving machines and their crews returned to MCAS Yuma.
On 16 March 2007, the 200th T-45 airframe was delivered to the US Navy. From this final batch, six airframes were set aside and modified into OA-45Bs in order to fill the losses over the past years.
Later T-45 production aircraft were built with enhanced avionics systems for a heads-up display (HUD) and glass cockpit standard, while all extant T-45A aircraft were eventually converted to a T-45C configuration under the T-45 Required Avionics Modernization Program (T-45 RAMP), bringing all aircraft to same HUD plus glass cockpit standard. These updates, esp. concerning the cockpit, were introduced to the OA-45Bs, too, and they were re-designated again, now becoming OA-45Cs, to reflect the commonality with the Navy’s Goshawk trainers. Again, these modifications were gradually introduced in the course of the OA-45s’ normal maintenance program.
In 2007, an engine update of the whole T-45 fleet, including the OA-45s, with the Adour F405-RR-402 was considered. This new engine was based on the British Adour Mk 951, designed for the latest versions of the BAe Hawk and powering the BAe Taranis and Dassault nEUROn UCAV technology demonstrators. The Adour Mk 951 offered 6,500 lbf (29 kN) thrust and up to twice the service life of the F405-RR-401. It featured an all-new fan and combustor, revised HP and LP turbines, and introduced Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC). The Mk 951 was certified in 2005, the F405-RR-402 derived from it was certified in 2008, but it did not enter service due to funding issues, so that this upgrade was not carried out.
The final delivery of the 246th T-45 airframe took place in November 2009, and both T-45 and the OA-45 "GosHog" are supposed to remain in service until 2035.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2 (pilot, observer)
Length: 39 ft 4 in (11.99 m)
Wingspan: 30 ft 10 in (9.39 m)
Height: 13 ft 5 in (4.08 m)
Wing area: 190.1 ft² (17.7 m²)
Empty weight: 10,403 lb (4,460 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 14,081 lb (6,387 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Turbomeca F405-RR-401 (Adour) non-afterburning turbofan with 5,527 lbf (26 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: Mach 2 (2,204 km/h (1,190 kn; 1,370 mph) at high altitude
Combat radius: 800 km (497 mi, 432 nmi)
Ferry range: 3,200 km (1,983 mi) with drop tanks
Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)
Wing loading: 283 kg/m² (58 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.97
Maximum g-load: +9 g
Armament:
No internal gun; seven external hardpoints (three on each wing and one under fuselage)
for a wide range of ordnance of up to 6,800 lb (3,085 kg), including up to six AIM-9 Sidewinder for
self-defense, pods with unguided rockets for target marking or ECM pods, but also offensive weapons
of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) weight, including iron/cluster bombs and guided AGM-65, GBU-12 and -16.
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional T-45 variant is actually the result of a long idea evolution, and simply rooted in the idea of a dedicated OA-4M replacement for the USMC; in real life, the FFAC role has been transferred to F-18 two-seaters, though, but the T-45 appeared like a sound alternative to me.
There's only one T-45 kit available, a dubious T-45A from Italeri with poor wings and stabilizers. Wolfpack also offers a T-45, but it’s just a re-boxing of the Italeri kit with some PE parts and a price tag twice as big – but it does not mend the original kit’s issues… After reading the A-4 Skyhawk book from the French "Planes & Pilots" series, I was reminded of the USMC's special OA-4M FAC two-seaters (and the fact that it is available in kit form from Italeri and Hasegawa), and, cross-checking the real-world timeline of the T-45, I found that it could have been a suitable successor. The ide of the USMC’s OA-45 was born! :D
Building-wise the Italeri T-45 remained close to OOB, even though I transplanted several parts from an Italeri BAe Hawk Mk. 100 to create a different look. I modified the nose with the Mk. 100’s laser fairing and added some radar warning sensor bumps. This transplantation was not as easy as it might seem because the T-45’s nose is, due to the different and more massive front landing gear quite different from the Hawk’s. Took some major PSR to integrate the laser nose.
An ALR-45 “hot dog” fairing from a late A-4M (Italeri kit) was added to the fin, together with a small styrene wedge extending the fin’s leading edge. This small detail markedly changes the aircraft’s look. I furthermore added a refueling probe, scratched from coated wire and some white glue, as well as a low “camel back” fairing behind the cockpit, created from a streamlined bomb half with air outlets for an integrated heat exchanger. Blade antennae were relocated and added. A shallow bump for the Doppler radar was added under the fuselage behind the landing gear well – left over from an Airfix A-4B (from an Argentinian A-4P, to be correct, actually a dorsal fairing).
On the wings, a tailored pair of pylons and wing tip launch rails from the Italeri BAe Hawk Mk. 100 kit were added, too, as well as the donor kit’s pair of Sidewinders. The rest of the ordnance consists of drop tanks and LAU-19 pods for target marking missiles. The tanks were taken from the Hawk Mk. 100 kit, too, the rocket launchers came from an Italeri NATO aircraft weapons set. The centerline position carries an ALQ-131 ECM pod from a Hasegawa US aircraft weapons set on a pylon from the scrap box.
Painting and markings:
The low-viz idea prevailed, since I had some leftover OA-4M decals from Italeri kits in store, as well as some other suitable low-viz decals from a Revell A-4F kit. However, an all-grey livery was IMHO not enough, and when I came across a picture of a USN low-viz A-7E with an improvised desert camouflage in sand and reddish brown applied over the grey (even partly extending over its markings) from Operation Iraqi Freedom, I had that extra twist that would set the OA-45 apart. MALS-13 was chosen as operator because I had matching codes, and, as another benefit, the unit had actually been deployed overseas during the 2003 Iraq War, so that the whif’’s time frame was easily settled, adding to its credibility.
The livery was built up just like on the real aircraft: on top of a basic scheme in FS 36320 and 36375 (Humbrol 128 and 127) with a slightly darker anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit (FS 35237, I used Revell 57 as a slightly paler alternative) I applied the low-viz marking decals, which were protected with a coat of acrylic varnish. Next, additional desert camouflage was added with dry-brushed sand and millitary brown (supposedly FS 33711 and 30400 in real life, I used, after consulting pictures of aircraft from both Gulf Wars, Humbrol 103 (Cream) and 234 (Dark Flesh). They were applied with a kind of a dry-brushing technique, for a streaky and worn look, leaving out the codes and other markings. The pattern itself was inspired by an USMC OV-10 Bronco in desert camouflage from the 1st Gulf War.
On top of that a black ink washing was applied. Once things had thoroughly dried over night, I wet-sanded the additional desert camouflage away, carefully from front to back, so that the edges became blurred and the underlying grey became visible again.
The cockpit interior was painted in standard Dark Gull Grey (Humbrol 140), while the air intakes and the landing gear became white, the latter with red trim on the covers’ edges – just standard. Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
The upgraded T-45 is an interesting result. The add-ons suit the aircraft, which already looks sturdier than its land-based ancestor, well. The improvised desert paint scheme with the additional two-tone camouflage over the pale grey base really makes the aircraft an unusual sight, adding to its credibility.
Hardware-wise I am really happy how the added dorsal hump blends into the overall lines – in a profile view it extends the canopy’s curve and blends into the fin, much like the A-4F/M’s arrangement. And the modified fin yields a very different look, even though not much was changed. The T-45 looks much beefier now, and from certain angles really reminds of the OA-4M and sometimes even of a diminutive Su-25?
Une photo n'est pas toujours capable de montrer aussi précisément les détails que ce que nos yeux voient, encore moins de faire vivre les sensations percues dans un endroit ou á un moment donné, comme la chaleur, l'ambiance, la lumière, les odeurs etc. Les émotions ressenties rendent magiques ces instants, il est probable que personne ne puisse les apprécier á notre manière. Les photos qui nous font vibrer suite á ce vécu ne recoivent parfois pas l'attention que l'on croirait, ce n'est pas grave, elle font partie de notre jardin secret...
No siempre puede una foto mostrar precisamente los detalles que nuestros ojos ven, aún menos hacer vivir las sensaciones percibidas en un lugar o en un momento dado, como el calor, el ambiente, la luz, las fragancias, etc. Las emociones experimentadas hacen que estén mágicos estos instantes, es probable que nadie pueda apreciarlas a nuestra manera. A veces las fotos que nos hacen vibrar por lo vivido no reciben la atención que se pensaría, no esta grave, hacen parte de nuestro jardín secreto...
Kohuke is a Toa of Stone, a member of the Toa Toiri who joined the Toa Rangi to help them complete their mission. Tasked with the protection and large-scale maintenance of Le-Metru Moto-Hubs and Chute Stations, Kohuke is an easygoing and friendly Toa. He's always eager to help and provide his insight, and is the "heart" of the Toa Toiri, often serving as a mediator between Tinoro and Kōpera.
He's an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, enhancing his blows with his Crystal Blasters which are capable of creating and shooting pure elemental energy as well as creating crystal and gem-like protodermis formations. His Great Tipu, Mask of Growth, is especially powerful and allows him to have total control of the battlefield.
Mask of Growth by @rothanaki
Symmetrical Flames by Vahki6