552nd ACW Bids Farewell to First AWACS

The right side nose landing gear door of E-3 Sentry #75-0560 bears the names of current and former 552nd Air Control Wing members after a divestment signing event at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, March 31, 2023. This E-3 Sentry is the first aircraft to be divested. -USAF

DMAFB

Aircraft 0560 is the first E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning Air Control System aircraft to retire from the fleet this year. As part of the FY23 President’s Budget Request, the Department of the Air Force announced its intent to divest 13 E-3 AWACS aircraft and redirect funding to procure and field a replacement.

I am pleased to present a replica of the legendary Mercedes W196R from 1954.

The car won the F1 World Championship races twice in the years 1954-55, winning virtually all competitions.

The best drivers of that time - British Sir Stirling Moss and the all-time Argentinian driver, Juan Manuel Fangio – were behind the wheel of this model.

And it is precisely the model with which Fangio won the world championship twice that is presented here. It is also the most accomplished of all the W196R cars that have survived to this day.

The W196R was powered by an inline-eight engine with a final output of 340 HP. At that time, it was the only F1 car with such advanced fuel technology, which gave it a significant advantage over other carburettor engine cars.

The Mercedes W196R entered the automotive history again in 2013 as it becomes the most valuable motor vehicle at that time after it is sold at the Bonhams auction to a private collector for 29.6 million dollars.

This 1:8 scale model consists of over 1,600 elements.

It has an operating control system, air inlets that can be opened and its engine cover, removable as in the original, reveals the engine compartment with the faithfully reproduced R8 unit.

Length / width / height - 54.5 / 21.5 / 14 cm, weight approx. 1.6 kg

Airbus A380-841

MSN 114 (100th A380 delivery)

9M-MNF '100th A380' decal

malaysia airlines

MAS MH

[300 mm - NO CROP]

Copyright © 2013 A380spotter. All rights reserved.

SoulRider.222 / Eric Rider © 2022

The M42 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun, or Duster; is an American armored light air-defense gun built for the United States Army from 1952 until December 1960, in service until 1988. Production of this vehicle was performed by the tank division of the General Motors Corporation. It used components from the M41 light tank and was constructed of all-welded steel.

A total of 3,700 M42s were built. The vehicle has a crew of six and weighs 49,500 lbs fully loaded. Maximum speed is 45 mph with a range of 100 miles. Armament consists of fully automatic twin 40 mm M2A1 Bofors, with a rate of fire of 2×120 rounds per minute enabling nearly 85 seconds of fire time before running out of ammo, and either a .30 caliber Browning M1919A4 or 7.62mm M60 machine gun.

Initially, the 40 mm guns were aimed with the assistance of a radar fire control system housed in a secondary vehicle of similar design but this idea was scrapped as development costs mounted.

The 500 hp, six-cylinder, Continental (or Lycoming Engines), air-cooled, gasoline engine is located in the rear of the vehicle. It was driven by a cross-drive, two-speed Allison transmission.

Although the M42 Duster was initially designed for an anti-aircraft role, it proved to be effective against unarmored ground forces in the Vietnam war.

Production of the M42 began in early 1952 at GM's Cleveland Tank Plant. It entered service in late 1953 and replaced a variety of different anti-aircraft systems in armored divisions. In 1956, the M42 received a new engine and other upgrades along with other M41 based vehicles, becoming the M42A1. Production was halted in December 1960 with 3,700 examples made during its production run.

Sometime in the late 50s, the U.S. Army reached the conclusion that anti-aircraft guns were no longer viable in the jet age and began fielding a self-propelled version of the HAWK SAM instead. Accordingly, the M42 was retired from front line service and passed to the National Guard with the last M42s leaving the regular Army by 1963, except for the 4th Battalion, 517th Air Defense Artillery Regiment in the Panama Canal Zone, which operated two batteries of M42s into the 1970s.

The HAWK missile system performed poorly in low altitude defense. To ensure some low altitude anti-aircraft capability for the ever-increasing amount of forces fielded in South Vietnam, the Army began recalling M42A1s back into active service and organizing them into air defense artillery (ADA) battalions. Starting in the fall of 1966, the U.S. Army deployed three battalions of Dusters to South Vietnam, each battalion consisting of a headquarters battery and four Duster batteries, each augmented by one attached Quad-50 battery and an artillery searchlight battery.

Despite a few early air kills, the air threat posed by North Vietnam never materialized and ADA crews found themselves increasingly involved in ground support missions. Most often the M42 was on point security, convoy escort, or perimeter defense. The Duster; (as it was called by U.S. troops in Vietnam) was soon found to excel in ground support. The 40 mm guns proved to be effective against massed infantry attacks. According to an article that appeared in Vietnam Magazine:

M42s were old pieces of equipment that needed a lot of maintenance and required hard-to-get spare parts. The gasoline-powered Dusters were particularly susceptible to fires in the engine compartment. Thus, despite its cross country capability, it was not wise to use the Duster in extended search and destroy operations in heavy jungle terrain because of excessive wear on engines, transmissions, and suspensions.

On the plus side, the Duster was essentially a fairly simple piece of machinery on which the crews could perform maintenance. Better yet, the Duster's high ground clearance and excellent suspension-system design gave it an ability to withstand land mine explosions with minimal crew casualties.

Although the Duster's 40mm shell had a terrific blast and fragmentation effect, it also had a highly sensitive point-detonating fuse that limited effectiveness in heavy vegetation. Under those conditions, the better weapon was the Quad, because the heavy .50-caliber projectile could easily punch through cover that would detonate the Duster's 40mm shell too early for it to be effective. At long ranges, however the 40mm shell was far more useful, particularly against field formations. The Duster also was able to deliver indirect fires by using data from field artillery fire-directions centers.

Soldiers of the 1-44th Artillery and their Marine counterparts in I Corps set the pattern of Quad and Duster operations. Because of an early scarcity of armored-combat vehicles, M42s were first used as armor. Often thankful men quickly learned the value of high volumes of 40mm and .50-caliber fire, both in the field and perimeter defenses. Quads beefed up the defenses of remote fire bases, while Dusters accompanied both supply and tactical convoys along contested highways to break up ambushes. Dusters of Battery C, 1-44th Artillery, led the task force of Operations Pegasus that broke the siege of Khe Sanh in April 1968. Dusters and Quads provided critical final-protective fires throughout Vietnam during the Tet offensive and later took part in Operation Lam Son 719. Whenever fire support was needed, M42s could be found.

Most of the Duster crew members had their AIT training in the 1st Advanced Individual Training Brigade (Air Defense) at Fort Bliss, Texas. Some of the Duster NCOs had received training at the Non Commissioned Officers Candidate School which was also held at Fort Bliss, Texas.

The 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery was the first ADA battalion to arrive in South Vietnam on November 1966. A self-propelled M42A1 Duster unit, the 1-44th supported the Marines at places like Con Thien and Khe Sanh Combat Base as well as Army divisions in South Vietnam's rugged I Corps region. The battalion was assigned to I Field Force, Vietnam and was located at Đông Hà. In 1968 it was attached to the 108th Artillery Group (Field Artillery). Attached to the 1-44th was G Battery 65th Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and G Battery 29th Artillery Searchlights. The 1-44th served alongside the 3rd Marine Division along the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in I Corps thru December 1971. Sergeant Mitchell W. Stout, a member of C Battery, 1-44th Artillery was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The second Duster battalion to arrive in Vietnam was the 5th Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in November 1966 and was diverted to III Corps, II Field Force, Vietnam and set up around Bien Hoa Air Base. Attached units were D Battery71st Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and I Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights. The Second First; served the southern Saigon region through mid 1971. D-71st Quads remained active through March 1972.

The third Duster battalion to arrive was the 4th Battalion, 60th Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in June 1967 and set up operations in the Central Highlands, based out of An Khê (1967–70) and later Tuy Hoa (1970-71). Attached units were E Battery 41st Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and B Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights (which were already in country since October 1965). Members of these units not only covered the entire Central Highlands, but also supported firebases and operations along the DMZ to the north and Saigon to the south.

Each Duster Battalion had four line batteries (A, B, C, D) and a headquarters battery. Each battery had two platoons (1st, 2nd), which contained four sections each with a pair of M42A1 Dusters. At full deployment there were roughly 200 M42 Dusters under command throughout the entire war. The Duster and Quads largely operated in pairs at firebases, strong points, and in support of engineers building roads and transportation groups protecting convoys. At night they protected the firebases from attack and were often the first targets of enemy sappers, rockets, and mortars. Searchlight jeeps operated singly but often in support of a Duster or Quad section at a firebase.

Between the three Duster battalions and the attached Quad-50 and Searchlight batteries over 200 fatalities were recorded.

The three M42A1 equipped ADA battalions (1-44th, 4-60th and 5-2d) deactivated and left Vietnam in late December 1971. Most if not all of the in-country Dusters were turned over to ARVN forces. Most of the training Dusters at Fort Bliss were returned to various National Guard units. The U.S. Army maintained multiple National Guard M42 battalions as a corps-level ADA asset. 2nd Battalion, 263 ADA, headquartered in Anderson, SC was the last unit to operate the M42 when the system was retired in 1988.

SLR Class :- S9

Introduction year :- 2000

No of Sets :- 15

Power car Nos :- 849 to 863

Builder :- Sifang Loco. & Rolling Stock Works

State :- China

Prime Mover :- MTU - V12 396 TC 14

Mode of Power transmission: - Diesel Electric (AC to DC Power Transmission)

Power :- 1400 H.P.

rpm :- 1500

Weight :- 67 ton

Length :- 65’

Wheel arrangement :- Bo-Bo

Brake system :- Air and Dynamic

Max speed :- 100 Km/h

Gauge :- 1676 mm

Type :- Diesel Multiple Unit

Set Formation :- One power car,Four 3rd Class Compartment and 3rd Class dummy car

Purpose/Used line :- Suburban and Commuter service.

S9 855,856,857,858 and 863 Installed new control system by CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd in 2017

Information as at 22.11.2020

The Rosette Nebula is part of a massive molecular cloud and star forming region located in the constellation of Monoceros. Lying approximately 5,200 light-years from Earth it is about 130 light-years in diameter.

At the heart of the Rosette lies the open star cluster NGC 2244 that lights up the nebula. Fairly young (relatively speaking), this cluster formed out of the surrounding gas 'only' a few million years ago and the hot solar wind emanating from these stars adds to the complexity of dust and gas filaments as it hollows out the center of the nebula.

Image Details: The data for the attached image were taken by Jay Edwards on October 29, 2022 using an Orion 80mm f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor (i.e. an ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and an IDAS NBZ dual band filter which has narrowband passes centered on the emissions of Hydrogen-alpha (656.3 nanometers) and Oxygen III (495.9 & 500.7 nanometers) on an ASI2600MC Pro cooled astronomical camera.

The 80mm was piggybacked on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7, Criterion newtonian reflector and was tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor, which itself was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.

The image consists of 2 1/2 hours of total integration time (not including applicable dark, flat and flat dark calibration frames) and was constructed using a stack of fifty 3 minutes sub-exposures. Processed using a combination of PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here it has been cropped. resized down and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Since I utilized a H-alpha / OII dual band filter, I'm looking forward to creating images of this object in other palettes.

Wishing clear, dark, and calm skies to all !

just testing my "pixel"-soldier wireless system

Type: FSK 2.4 Ghz wireless control system

Sync: 1/250s

Channel: 16

max. Distance: 100m

Cognisys will launch this new controller at PDN on Oct 30th www.photoplusexpo.com/. I'll be at PDN will you ?

SoulRider.222 / Eric Rider © 2022

The M42 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun, or Duster; is an American armored light air-defense gun built for the United States Army from 1952 until December 1960, in service until 1988. Production of this vehicle was performed by the tank division of the General Motors Corporation. It used components from the M41 light tank and was constructed of all-welded steel.

A total of 3,700 M42s were built. The vehicle has a crew of six and weighs 49,500 lbs fully loaded. Maximum speed is 45 mph with a range of 100 miles. Armament consists of fully automatic twin 40 mm M2A1 Bofors, with a rate of fire of 2×120 rounds per minute enabling nearly 85 seconds of fire time before running out of ammo, and either a .30 caliber Browning M1919A4 or 7.62mm M60 machine gun.

Initially, the 40 mm guns were aimed with the assistance of a radar fire control system housed in a secondary vehicle of similar design but this idea was scrapped as development costs mounted.

The 500 hp, six-cylinder, Continental (or Lycoming Engines), air-cooled, gasoline engine is located in the rear of the vehicle. It was driven by a cross-drive, two-speed Allison transmission.

Although the M42 Duster was initially designed for an anti-aircraft role, it proved to be effective against unarmored ground forces in the Vietnam war.

Production of the M42 began in early 1952 at GM's Cleveland Tank Plant. It entered service in late 1953 and replaced a variety of different anti-aircraft systems in armored divisions. In 1956, the M42 received a new engine and other upgrades along with other M41 based vehicles, becoming the M42A1. Production was halted in December 1960 with 3,700 examples made during its production run.

Sometime in the late 50s, the U.S. Army reached the conclusion that anti-aircraft guns were no longer viable in the jet age and began fielding a self-propelled version of the HAWK SAM instead. Accordingly, the M42 was retired from front line service and passed to the National Guard with the last M42s leaving the regular Army by 1963, except for the 4th Battalion, 517th Air Defense Artillery Regiment in the Panama Canal Zone, which operated two batteries of M42s into the 1970s.

The HAWK missile system performed poorly in low altitude defense. To ensure some low altitude anti-aircraft capability for the ever-increasing amount of forces fielded in South Vietnam, the Army began recalling M42A1s back into active service and organizing them into air defense artillery (ADA) battalions. Starting in the fall of 1966, the U.S. Army deployed three battalions of Dusters to South Vietnam, each battalion consisting of a headquarters battery and four Duster batteries, each augmented by one attached Quad-50 battery and an artillery searchlight battery.

Despite a few early air kills, the air threat posed by North Vietnam never materialized and ADA crews found themselves increasingly involved in ground support missions. Most often the M42 was on point security, convoy escort, or perimeter defense. The Duster; (as it was called by U.S. troops in Vietnam) was soon found to excel in ground support. The 40 mm guns proved to be effective against massed infantry attacks. According to an article that appeared in Vietnam Magazine:

M42s were old pieces of equipment that needed a lot of maintenance and required hard-to-get spare parts. The gasoline-powered Dusters were particularly susceptible to fires in the engine compartment. Thus, despite its cross country capability, it was not wise to use the Duster in extended search and destroy operations in heavy jungle terrain because of excessive wear on engines, transmissions, and suspensions.

On the plus side, the Duster was essentially a fairly simple piece of machinery on which the crews could perform maintenance. Better yet, the Duster's high ground clearance and excellent suspension-system design gave it an ability to withstand land mine explosions with minimal crew casualties.

Although the Duster's 40mm shell had a terrific blast and fragmentation effect, it also had a highly sensitive point-detonating fuse that limited effectiveness in heavy vegetation. Under those conditions, the better weapon was the Quad, because the heavy .50-caliber projectile could easily punch through cover that would detonate the Duster's 40mm shell too early for it to be effective. At long ranges, however the 40mm shell was far more useful, particularly against field formations. The Duster also was able to deliver indirect fires by using data from field artillery fire-directions centers.

Soldiers of the 1-44th Artillery and their Marine counterparts in I Corps set the pattern of Quad and Duster operations. Because of an early scarcity of armored-combat vehicles, M42s were first used as armor. Often thankful men quickly learned the value of high volumes of 40mm and .50-caliber fire, both in the field and perimeter defenses. Quads beefed up the defenses of remote fire bases, while Dusters accompanied both supply and tactical convoys along contested highways to break up ambushes. Dusters of Battery C, 1-44th Artillery, led the task force of Operations Pegasus that broke the siege of Khe Sanh in April 1968. Dusters and Quads provided critical final-protective fires throughout Vietnam during the Tet offensive and later took part in Operation Lam Son 719. Whenever fire support was needed, M42s could be found.

Most of the Duster crew members had their AIT training in the 1st Advanced Individual Training Brigade (Air Defense) at Fort Bliss, Texas. Some of the Duster NCOs had received training at the Non Commissioned Officers Candidate School which was also held at Fort Bliss, Texas.

The 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery was the first ADA battalion to arrive in South Vietnam on November 1966. A self-propelled M42A1 Duster unit, the 1-44th supported the Marines at places like Con Thien and Khe Sanh Combat Base as well as Army divisions in South Vietnam's rugged I Corps region. The battalion was assigned to I Field Force, Vietnam and was located at Đông Hà. In 1968 it was attached to the 108th Artillery Group (Field Artillery). Attached to the 1-44th was G Battery 65th Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and G Battery 29th Artillery Searchlights. The 1-44th served alongside the 3rd Marine Division along the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in I Corps thru December 1971. Sergeant Mitchell W. Stout, a member of C Battery, 1-44th Artillery was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The second Duster battalion to arrive in Vietnam was the 5th Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in November 1966 and was diverted to III Corps, II Field Force, Vietnam and set up around Bien Hoa Air Base. Attached units were D Battery71st Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and I Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights. The Second First; served the southern Saigon region through mid 1971. D-71st Quads remained active through March 1972.

The third Duster battalion to arrive was the 4th Battalion, 60th Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in June 1967 and set up operations in the Central Highlands, based out of An Khê (1967–70) and later Tuy Hoa (1970-71). Attached units were E Battery 41st Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and B Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights (which were already in country since October 1965). Members of these units not only covered the entire Central Highlands, but also supported firebases and operations along the DMZ to the north and Saigon to the south.

Each Duster Battalion had four line batteries (A, B, C, D) and a headquarters battery. Each battery had two platoons (1st, 2nd), which contained four sections each with a pair of M42A1 Dusters. At full deployment there were roughly 200 M42 Dusters under command throughout the entire war. The Duster and Quads largely operated in pairs at firebases, strong points, and in support of engineers building roads and transportation groups protecting convoys. At night they protected the firebases from attack and were often the first targets of enemy sappers, rockets, and mortars. Searchlight jeeps operated singly but often in support of a Duster or Quad section at a firebase.

Between the three Duster battalions and the attached Quad-50 and Searchlight batteries over 200 fatalities were recorded.

The three M42A1 equipped ADA battalions (1-44th, 4-60th and 5-2d) deactivated and left Vietnam in late December 1971. Most if not all of the in-country Dusters were turned over to ARVN forces. Most of the training Dusters at Fort Bliss were returned to various National Guard units. The U.S. Army maintained multiple National Guard M42 battalions as a corps-level ADA asset. 2nd Battalion, 263 ADA, headquartered in Anderson, SC was the last unit to operate the M42 when the system was retired in 1988.

Today Sunday 14th April 2019 I decided Torry Docks overlooking Aberdeen Harbour Scotland was the place for me to be, various ships entering and leaving the harbour though I knew that four war frigates had arrived a day or so ago with whispers of today as their departure day, camera loaded, I decided to dedicate my afternoon down at Aberdeen Harbour Scotland, waiting on these beauty's to leave.

Tonight at 20pm I was rewarded , I post a few of the shots I captured of HDMS Thetis F357 leaving followed by the minesweepers behind her.

Meeting fellow photographers and enthusiasts who also arrived to see these beauty's head out to the North Sea made the evening a bit of an event, I had a great experience , loved it .

HDMS Thetis is a Thetis-class ocean patrol vessel belonging to the Royal Danish Navy.

In mid-1990s the ship served as a platform for seismic operations in the waters near Greenland. In 2002 she took over the role from her sister ship Hvidbjørnen as a platform for Commander Danish Task Group.

The role was handed over to Absalon in September 2007. From February - April 2008 Thetis served as a protection vessel for the World Food Programme chartered ships, carrying food aid, off the Horn of Africa. In 2009 the ship served as staff ship for the NATO Mine Countermeasure Group 1.

Kingdom of Denmark

Name:Thetis

Laid down:10 October 1988

Launched:14 July 1989

In service:1 July 1991

Identification:

IMO number: 3993600

MMSI number: 219522000

Callsign: OUEU

Status:in active service

General characteristics

Class and type:Thetis-class patrol frigate

Type:Off Shore Patrol Frigates

Displacement:3,500 tons full load

Length:112.3 m (368 ft 5 in)

Beam:14.4 m (47 ft 3 in)

Height:37.0 m (121 ft 5 in)

Draft:6.0 m (19 ft 8 in)

Installed power:

3 Detroit Diesel GM 16V 7163-7305 à 460

1 Detroit Diesel 6L-71N 1063-7005 à 120 Kw (EMG)

Propulsion:

3 × MAN B&W Diesel 12v28/32A-D à 2940 kW (3990 hk), single shaft

1 Brunvoll azimuth thruster (800 kW)

1 electrical Brunvoll bow thruster (600 kW)

Speed:>21.8 knots (40.4 km/h; 25.1 mph)

Range:8.700 nautical miles (16.112 km; 10.012 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)

Endurance:60 days

Boats & landing

craft carried:2 7m RHIBs

Complement:52 + aircrew and transients (accommodation for up to 101 in total)

Sensors and

processing systems:

1 Terma Scanter Mil 009 navigational radar

1 Furuno FR-1505 DA surface search radar

1 Plessey AWS-6 air search radar

1 SaabTech Vectronics 9LV 200 Mk 3 fire control system

1 SaabTech CTS-36 hull-mounted sonar

Thales TMS 2640 Salmon variable depth sonar

FLIR Systems AN/AAQ-22 SAFIRE thermal imager

Electronic warfare

& decoys:

1 Thales Defense Ltd Cutlass radar warning receiver

1 Thales Defense Scorpion radar jammer

2 Sea Gnat launchers (for chaff and flares)

Armament:

1 76-mm 62-cal. OTO Melara Super Rapid DP

7 12.7 mm heavy machine guns

4 7.62 mm light machine guns

1 depth charge rack and MU90 Advanced Lightweight Torpedo for anti-submarine warfare

Aircraft carried:1 Westland Lynx Mk.90B helicopter.From approx. 2016: MH-60R

Aviation facilities:Aft helicopter deck and hangar

Four Thetis class frigates for the Royal Danish Navy have been built by the Svendborg Shipyard with headquarters on the island of Funen in Svendborg, Denmark. The Thetis (F357) and Triton (F358) were commissioned in 1991, and Vaedderen (F359) and Hvidbjornen (F360) in 1992.

The Thetis Class are multi-role frigates for fishery protection, surveillance, air-sea rescue, anti-pollution and ice reconnaissance.

THETIS DESIGN

The frigates have a double-skinned hull divided by ten bulkheads into watertight compartments. The basic hull shape corresponds to that of a high-speed trawler. There are no bilge keels, but stabilisation is achieved by a combination of fin stabilisers from Blohm and Voss and a controlled passive tank system supplied by Intering.

The frigates are ice-strengthened and are able to proceed through 80cm of solid ice. The hull has an icebreaking bow and stem lines suitable for operations in ice with only one propeller. To minimise ice formation on the superstructure, all winches, capstans, etc. are placed under deck. The allowed amount of icing is 375t.

Maximum continuous speed is 20kt in 4m seas. The ships can stand wind gusts of 150kt during light ice conditions and operate in all sea conditions at speeds of 4kt to 5kt. The ships have an endurance of 8,300nm at varying speeds with a 10% fuel reserve.

COMMAND AND CONTROL

Infocom Electronics, based in Sonderborg, Denmark produced the frigate’s integrated information system, which is based on a digital fibre-optic switch with digital multipurpose subscriber stations.

The system handles all internal and external communications, including data link and message handling for the ship’s Command, Control and Communications (C3) system, supplied by Terma Elektronik of Lystrup, Denmark.

WEAPONS

The armament consists of one Oto Melara 76mm Super Rapid main gun, one or two 20mm guns from Oerlikon and depth charge throwers. The Super Rapid gun has a rate of fire of 120 rounds a minute and range of 16km. The fire control system is the Saab Systems 9LV 200 mk3. A FLIR Systems Inc AN/AAQ-22 SAFIRE thermal imaging system is used for surveillance.

HELICOPTER

The frigate has a landing deck with a landing spot for a single helicopter. Helicopter support arrangements include a Glide Path Indicator (GPI) and a flight refuelling system. The hangar is equipped for helicopter maintenance and has capacity to hold a Lynx helicopter without having to fold the helicopter tail.

SENSORS

The frigates are fitted with a BAE Systems AWS-6 air and surface search radar operating at G band, a Terma Scanter Mil surface search radar operating at I band, a Furuno FR-1505 DA navigation radar operating at I band and a Saab Systems 9LV mk3 fire control radar operating at I and J bands.

Sonar equipment consists of a Saab Systems hull-mounted type CTS 36 RDN and a Thales Underwater Systems (formerly Thomson Marconi) TMS 2640 Salmon Variable Depth Sonar (VDS).

COUNTERMEASURES

“The Thetis Class frigates are ice-strengthened and are able to proceed through 80cm of solid ice.”

The countermeasures suite includes the Thales Defence Ltd Cutlass radar warning receiver, a Thales Defence Scorpion radar jammer and two Sea Gnat launchers for chaff and infrared flares.

PROPULSION

The propulsion machinery consists of three MAN B&W V28/32 diesel engines with combined power of 9,000kW. The fitted bow thruster is able to hold the bow against an athwartship wind of 28kt. A retractable azimuth thruster is capable of propelling the ship at 10kt.

The bow and azimuth thruster are produced by Brunvoll A/S. There is also a shaft generator of 1,500kW, supplied by Volund Motorteknik A/S, and three GM diesel motors with Volund Teknik generators, each with an output of 480kW.

The machinery is controlled by an integrated ship control and surveillance system (SCSS) designed by Soren T. Lyngso. The system allows the vessel to sail with unmanned engine rooms, the entire installation being controlled, and visually supervised from the bridge or from other locations in the ship.

Namesake: Thetis is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus..

Newspaper Article On 2019s War Exercise In Scotland.

E River Clyde is set to play host to the largest military exercise in Europe.

The Faslane Naval Base will be at the heart of the biggest 'tactically-focused' training operation - called Exercise Joint Warrior - from 16 to 26 April.

The multi-national event is conducted in the spring and autumn of each year, with the base hosting key Royal Navy and RAF personnel involved in it.

They will be joined by another 150 personnel, many of them reservists, with a joint warfare operations centre set up at the base to co-ordinate and manage the massive exercise.

A total of 32 separate naval units from eight different countries are taking part, as well as a considerable military air presence and multiple land forces.

Faslane will berth many of the vessels during the exercise, with the ships using the base for quick and easy access to some of the maritime training areas off the west coast.

The UK, USA, Germany, Netherlands, France, Norway, Denmark and Canada are all contributing and Royal Navy Flagship, HMS Bulwark, will be hosting the Commander United Kingdom Task Group and Commander Standing NATO Maritime Group 1.

Meanwhile the UK's joint force HQ will deploy to practice its command function both afloat on the high-readiness helicopter and commando carrier, HMS Illustrious, and ashore. The aim of the exercise is to provide the highest quality training for all three armed services and the numerous visiting forces from allied nations.

To achieve this, Joint Warrior features a wide-ranging exercise scenario which brings into play every possible situation experienced in complex, modern conflicts. It involves three sovereign nations, some disputed territory, drug smuggling, piracy, state-sponsored terrorism and counter insurgency. The scenario develops over the two-weeks of the exercise, beginning with a period of military and political tension and evolving into simulated war fighting and potential state-on-state hostilities.

Our criticism on society and the systems that govern it.

This is collaboration with photographers: Haris Astaniou (www.fluid-photography.com/) & Spooki (500px.com/Spooki)

Models: Myself and Zoi Dimopoullou

Published on 1x.com:

1x.com/artist/26679#!/photo/46674/all/latest-additions/th...

MK56 Gun Director on the USS Intrepid CV-11 Essex Class Aircraft Carrier - The Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in New York, New York U.S.A.

Gun Fire Control System Mark 56 is an intermediate-range antiaircraft fire control system. Designed for use against high-speed subsonic aircraft targets, it provides gun train, gun elevation, and fuze orders for 3-, 5- and 6-inch guns. It may also be used against surface targets. Where a ship has two batteries (of different calibers) capable of AA fire, the system can produce different gun orders for both batteries simultaneously, thus permitting both to fire on the same target. This variation is known as a dual-ballistic system.

©Copyright Notice

This photograph and all those within my photostream are protected by copyright. The photos may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written permission.

Very nice North American Rockwell artist’s concept – looking across northern Florida and the eastern seaboard - of an Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) departing the Skylab Orbital Workshop (OWS).

Based on the similarities between this and several other artist’s concepts of this ‘scene’, in which the signature is visible, I think this is by Manuel E. Alvarez. Or Bert Winthrop maybe?

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (June 3, 2023) - A Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) E-767 Airborne Warning and Control System assigned to the 602nd Airborne Air Control Squadron, Hamamatsu Air Base, Japan, arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), Alaska, to participate in RED FLAG-Alaska 23-2, June 3, 2023. RF-A serves as an ideal platform for international engagement and enables all involved to exchange tactics, techniques, and procedures while improving interoperability. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Julia Lebens) 230603-F-RJ686-1053

** Interested in following U.S. Indo-Pacific Command? Engage and connect with us at www.facebook.com/indopacom | twitter.com/INDOPACOM | www.instagram.com/indopacom | www.flickr.com/photos/us-pacific-command; | www.youtube.com/user/USPacificCommand | www.pacom.mil/ **

I just won a very cool artifact, the first flown Command Module sextant from the Apollo program. AS-202 was the second unmanned test flight of a production Block I Apollo Command/Service Module, launched with the Saturn IB launch vehicle in 1966. This was the first flight of the guidance and navigation system as well as the fuel cell electrical system, to validate their use for the first manned flight. But, the subsequent flight became what is now known as Apollo 1, ending with a tragic fire on the pad and prompting a redesign of the wiring for much of the Block I hardware.

Following the mission, this sextant was returned to the manufacturer, Kollsman, for post-flight inspection and evaluation.

The sextant determines the Command Module’s position and attitude with relation to stars or landmarks. This data was then supplied to the onboard computer to calibrate the spacecraft’s Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU).

Luxembourg-registered NATO E-3 Sentry LX-N/90454 taxis at RAF Waddington ready to take part in the first day of the Cobra Warrior 23-2 exercise.

Aircraft: NATO Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System LX-N/90454.

Location: RAF Waddington (WTN/EGXW), Lincolnshire.

Object Details: After imaging the North America nebula in various wavelengths earlier this month - whose images can be found at the attached link - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51365555158/

; once the NA transited I took a bit of time each evening to capture some shots of the Andromeda Galaxy, catalogued as Messier 31. Shown in the attached image it appears along with it's satellite galaxies M32 - left of M31's core in this orientation and classified as a relatively rare, compact / dwarf elliptical, and M110 - shown here lower-right of the core and classified as a peculiar elliptical).

The Andromeda Galaxy itself is part of the 'local group' of galaxies and is the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way. Lying 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it consists of an estimated 1.23 trillion solar masses and has a diameter of 110,000 light-years - similar to, but larger than, our own Milky Way.

It is easily visible from a reasonably dark site and is often quoted as being the most distant object visible without optical aid. Extremely large, M31 spans about 3 degrees in our sky (i.e. the width of 6 full moons) and makes for an wonderful view in binoculars and in larger instruments it is simply spectacular!

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards on the evenings of August 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th, 2021 from the HomCav Observator in Maine, NY, It is a stack of seventy-nine, 3 minute light exposures (for a total of 3 hours 57 minutes of integration time), along with associated flat, dark and bias calibration frames and was shot using an unmodded Canon 700D (t5i) DSLR controlled by APT & a 0.8X Televue field flattener / focal reducer connected to an Orion ED80T CF (i.e. an 80MM, f/6, triplet, carbon-fiber, apochromatic refractor). This scope was mounted piggyback on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector which rides on a Losmandy G-11 with a Gemini 2 control system. It was guided using a Celestron 80mm, f/6 'short-tube' refractor, piggybacked on top of the apo., and utilizing an ASI290MC planetary camera / autoguider controlled by PHD2.

Given that I also had the camera lens & CCD I used for the NA nebula shots, as well as an identical Canon 700D that I used for this M31 80MM image connected to the 8-inch newt., I took shots of M31 through those instruments as well but have yet to examine those data sets. Processed using a combination of PixInsight & Paint Shop Pro, as presented here it has been resized down to HD resolution, cropped vertically to match the HD aspect ratio and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Although M31 was not near transiting, the seeing and transparency varied quite a bit from night to night (with two of the nights being plagued by haze & / or wildfire smoke), and with the use of the non-cooled camera's reported sensor temperature being quite high (running between 18C & 24C degrees); overall I was fairly pleased with the results.

I looking forward to trying this object and setup again later this fall & winter when it is higher in the sky & with the colder ambient temperatures hopefully providing a natural cooling for the camera's sensor (and also hopefully reducing the associated haze in our skies as well).

Wishing clear, dark & calm skies to all!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The РТАК-30 attack vintoplan (also known as vintokryl) owed its existence to the Mil Mi-30 plane/helicopter project that originated in 1972. The Mil Mi-30 was conceived as a transport aircraft that could hold up to 19 passengers or two tons of cargo, and its purpose was to replace the Mi-8 and Mi-17 Helicopters in both civil and military roles. With vertical takeoff through a pair of tiltrotor engine pods on the wing tips (similar in layout to the later V-22 Osprey) and the ability to fly like a normal plane, the Mil Mi-30 had a clear advantage over the older models.

And this was just about to happen: Despite the РТАК-30’s development problems, the innovative attack vintoplan was included in the Soviet Union’s 5-year plan for 1989-1995, and the vehicle was eventually expected to enter service in 1996. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dwindling economics, neither the РТАК-30 nor its civil Mil Mi-30 sister did soar out in the new age of technology. In 1990 the whole program was stopped and both surviving РТАК-30 prototypes were mothballed – one (the 3rd prototype) was disassembled and its components brought to the Rostov-na-Donu Mil plant, while the other, prototype No. 1, is rumored to be stored at the Central Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, to be restored to a public exhibition piece some day.

General characteristics:

Crew: Two (pilot, copilot/WSO) plus space for up to three passengers or cargo

Length: 45 ft 7 1/2 in (13,93 m)

Rotor diameter: 20 ft 9 in (6,33 m)

Wingspan incl. engine nacelles: 42 ft 8 1/4 in (13,03 m)

Total width with rotors: 58 ft 8 1/2 in (17,93 m)

Height: 17 ft (5,18 m) at top of tailfin

Disc area: 4x 297 ft² (27,65 m²)

Wing area: 342.2 ft² (36,72 m²)

Empty weight: 8,500 kg (18,740 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 12,000 kg (26,500 lb)

Powerplant:

4× Klimov VK-2500PS-03 turboshaft turbines, 2,400 hp (1.765 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 275 knots (509 km/h, 316 mph) at sea level

305 kn (565 km/h; 351 mph) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

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

Stall speed: 110 kn (126 mph, 204 km/h) in airplane mode

Range: 879 nmi (1,011 mi, 1,627 km)

Combat radius: 390 nmi (426 mi, 722 km)

Ferry range: 1,940 nmi (2,230 mi, 3,590 km) with auxiliary external fuel tanks

Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Rate of climb: 2,320–4,000 ft/min (11.8 m/s)

Glide ratio: 4.5:1

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

Power/mass: 0.259 hp/lb (427 W/kg)

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon with 450 rounds

7 external hardpoints for a maximum ordnance of 2.500 kg (5.500 lb)

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic, fictional aircraft-thing is a contribution to the “The Flying Machines of Unconventional Means” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2019. While the propulsion system itself is not that unconventional, I deemed the quadrocopter concept (which had already been on my agenda for a while) to be suitable for a worthy submission.

The Mil Mi-30 tiltrotor aircraft, mentioned in the background above, was a real project – but my alternative combat vintoplan design is purely speculative.

I had already stashed away some donor parts, primarily two sets of tiltrotor backpacks for 1:144 Gundam mecha from Bandai, which had been released recently. While these looked a little toy-like, these parts had the charm of coming with handed propellers and stub wings that would allow the engine nacelles to swivel.

The search for a suitable fuselage turned out to be a more complex safari than expected. My initial choice was the spoofy Italeri Mi-28 kit (I initially wanted a staggered tandem cockpit), but it turned out to be much too big for what I wanted to achieve. Then I tested a “real” Mi-28 (Dragon) and a Ka-50 (Italeri), but both failed for different reasons – the Mi-28 was too slender, while the Ka-50 had the right size – but converting it for my build would have been VERY complicated, because the engine nacelles would have to go and the fuselage shape between the cockpit and the fuselage section around the original engines and stub wings would be hard to adapt. I eventually bought an Italeri Ka-52 two-seater as fuselage donor.

In order to mount the four engines to the fuselage I’d need two pairs of wings of appropriate span – and I found a pair of 1:100 A-10 wings as well as the wings from an 1:72 PZL Iskra (not perfect, but the most suitable donor parts I could find in the junkyard). On the tips of these wings, the swiveling joints for the engine nacelles from the Bandai set were glued. While mounting the rear wings was not too difficult (just the Ka-52’s OOB stabilizers had to go), the front pair of wings was more complex. The reason: the Ka-52’s engines had to go and their attachment points, which are actually shallow recesses on the kit, had to be faired over first. Instead of filling everything with putty I decided to cover the areas with 0.5mm styrene sheet first, and then do cosmetic PSR work. This worked quite well and also included a cover for the Ka-52’s original rotor mast mount. Onto these new flanks the pair of front wings was attached, in a mid position – a conceptual mistake…

The cockpit was taken OOB and the aircraft’s nose received an additional thimble radome, reminiscent of the Mi-28’s arrangement. The radome itself was created from a German 500 kg WWII bomb.

At this stage, the mid-wing mistake reared its ugly head – it had two painful consequences which I had not fully thought through. Problem #1: the engine nacelles turned out to be too long. When rotated into a vertical position, they’d potentially hit the ground! Furthermore, the ground clearance was very low – and I decided to skip the Ka-52’s OOB landing gear in favor of a heavier and esp. longer alternative, a full landing gear set from an Italeri MiG-37 “Ferret E” stealth fighter, which itself resembles a MiG-23/27 landing gear. Due to the expected higher speeds of the vintoplan I gave the landing gear full covers (partly scratched, plus some donor parts from an Academy MiG-27). It took some trials to get the new landing gear into the right position and a suitable stance – but it worked. With this benchmark I was also able to modify the engine nacelles, shortening their rear ends. They were still very (too!) close to the ground, but at least the model would not sit on them!

However, the more complete the model became, the more design flaws turned up. Another mistake is that the front and rear rotors slightly overlap when in vertical position – something that would be unthinkable in real life…

With all major components in place, however, detail work could proceed. This included the completion of the cockpit and the sensor turrets, the Ka-52 cannon and finally the ordnance. Due to the large rotors, any armament had to be concentrated around the fuselage, outside of the propeller discs. For this reason (and in order to prevent the rear engines to ingest exhaust gases from the front engines in level flight), I gave the front wings a slightly larger span, so that four underwing pylons could be fitted, plus a pair of underfuselage hardpoints.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the Italeri Ka-52 and from an ESCI Ka-34 (the fake Ka-50) kit.

Painting and markings:

With such an exotic aircraft, I rather wanted a conservative livery and opted for a typical Soviet tactical four-tone scheme from the Eighties – the idea was to build a prototype aircraft from the state acceptance trials period, not a flashy demonstrator. The scheme and the (guesstimated) colors were transferred from a Soviet air force MiG-21bis of that era, and it consists of a reddish light brown (Humbrol 119, Light Earth), a light, yellowish green (Humbrol 159, Khaki Drab), a bluish dark green (Humbrol 195, Dark Satin Green, a.k.a. RAL 6020 Chromdioxidgrün) and a dark brown (Humbrol 170, Brown Bess). For the undersides’ typical bluish grey I chose Humbrol 145 (FS 35237, Gray Blue), which is slightly lighter and less greenish than the typical Soviet tones. A light black ink wash was applied and some light post-shading was done in order to create panels that are structurally not there, augmented by some pencil lines.

The cockpit became light blue (Humbrol 89), with medium gray dashboard and consoles. The ejection seats received bright yellow seatbelts and bright blue pads – a detail seen on a Mi-28 cockpit picture.

Some dielectric fairings like the fin tip were painted in bright medium green (Humbrol 101), while some other antenna fairings were painted in pale yellow (Humbrol 71).

The landing gear struts and the interior of the wells became Aluminum Metalic (Humbrol 56), the wheels dark green discs (Humbrol 30).

The decals were puzzled together from various sources, including some Begemot sheets. Most of the stencils came from the Ka-52 OOB sheet, and generic decal sheet material was used to mark the walkways or the rotor tips and leading edges.

Only some light weathering was done to the leading edges of the wings, and then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A complex kitbashing project, and it revealed some pitfalls in the course of making. However, the result looks menacing and still convincing, esp. in flight – even though the picture editing, with four artificially rotating proprotors, was probably more tedious than building the model itself!

+++ 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 Waffenträger (Weapon Carrier) VTS3 “Diana” was a prototype for a wheeled tank destroyer. It was developed by Thyssen-Henschel (later Rheinmetall) in Kassel, Germany, in the late Seventies, in response to a German Army requirement for a highly mobile tank destroyer with the firepower of the Leopard 1 main battle tank then in service and about to be replaced with the more capable Leopard 2 MBT, but less complex and costly. The main mission of the Diana was light to medium territorial defense, protection of infantry units and other, lighter, elements of the cavalry as well as tactical reconnaissance. Instead of heavy armor it would rather use its good power-to-weight ratio, excellent range and cross-country ability (despite the wheeled design) for defense and a computerized fire control system to accomplish this mission.

Since the tactical value of the vehicle was doubtful and other light anti-tank weapons in the form of the HOT anti-tank missile had reached operational status, so that very light vehicles and even small infantry groups could now effectively fight against full-fledged enemy battle tanks from a safe distance, the Diana’s development was stopped in 1988. Both VTS3 prototypes were mothballed, stored at the Bundeswehr Munster Training Area camp and are still waiting to be revamped as historic exhibits alongside other prototypes like the Kampfpanzer 70 in the German Tank Museum located there, too.

Specifications:

Crew: 4 (commander, driver, gunner, radio operator/second driver)

Weight: 22.6 t

Length: 7.74 m (25 ft 4 ¼ in)

Width: 2.98 m ( 9 ft 9 in)

Height: XXX

Ground clearance: 440 mm (1 ft 4 in)

Suspension: hydraulic all-wheel drive and steering

Armor:

Unknown, but sufficient to withstand 14.5 mm AP rounds

Performance:

Speed: 90 km/h (56 mph) on roads

Operational range: 720 km (445 mi)

Power/weight: 13,3 hp/ton with petrol, 17,3 hp/ton with diesel

Engine:

1× Daimler Benz OM 403A turbocharged 10-cylinder 4-stroke multi-fuel engine,

delivering 300 hp with petrol, 390 hp with diesel

Armament:

1× 105 mm L7 rifled gun with autoloader (8 rounds ready, plus 16 in reserve)

1× co-axial 7.92 mm M3 machine gun with 2.000 rounds

Two groups of four Wegmann 76 mm smoke mortars

The kit and its assembly:

I have been a big Luchs fan since I witnessed one in action during a public Bundeswehr demo day when I was around 10 years old: a huge, boxy and futuristic vehicle with strange proportions, gigantic wheels, water propellers, a mind-boggling mobility and all of this utterly silent. Today you’d assume that this vehicle had an electric engine – spooky! So I always had a soft spot for it, and now it was time and a neat occasion to build a what-if model around it.

This fictional wheeled tank prototype model was spawned by a leftover Revell 1:72 Luchs kit, which I had bought some time ago primarily for the turret, used in a fictional post-WWII SdKfz. 234 “Puma” conversion. With just the chassis left I wondered what other use or equipment it might take, and, after several weeks with the idea in the back of my mind, I stumbled at Silesian Models over an M1128 resin conversion set for the Trumpeter M1126 “Stryker” 8x8 APC model. From this set as potential donor for a conversion the prototype idea with an unmanned turret was born.

Originally I just planned to mount the new turret onto the OOB hull, but when playing with the parts I found the look with an overhanging gun barrel and the bigger turret placed well forward on the hull goofy and unbalanced. I was about to shelf the idea again, until I recognized that the Luchs’ hull is almost symmetrical – the upper hull half could be easily reversed on the chassis tub (at least on the kit…), and this would allow much better proportions. From this conceptual change the build went straightforward, reversing the upper hull only took some minor PSR. The resin turret was taken mostly OOB, it only needed a scratched adapter to fit into the respective hull opening. I just added a co-axial machine gun fairing, antenna bases (from the Luchs kit, since they could, due to the long gun barrel, not be attached to the hull anymore) and smoke grenade mortars (also taken from the Luchs).

An unnerving challenge became the Luchs kit’s suspension and drive train – it took two days to assemble the vehicle’s underside alone! While this area is very accurate and delicate, the fact that almost EVERY lever and stabilizer is a separate piece on four(!) axles made the assembly a very slow process. Just for reference: the kit comes with three and a half sprues. A full one for the wheels (each consists of three parts, and more than another one for suspension and drivetrain!

Furthermore, the many hull surface details like tools or handles – these are more than a dozen bits and pieces – are separate, very fragile and small (tiny!), too. Cutting all these wee parts out and cleaning them was a tedious affair, too, plus painting them separately.

Otherwise the model went together well, but it’s certainly not good for quick builders and those with big fingers and/or poor sight.

Painting and markings:

The paint scheme was a conservative choice; it is a faithful adaptation of the Bundeswehr’s NATO standard camouflage for the European theatre of operations that was introduced in the Eighties. It was adopted by many armies to confuse potential aggressors from the East, so that observers could not easily identify a vehicle and its nationality. It consists of a green base with red-brown and black blotches, in Germany it was executed with RAL tones, namely 6031 (Bronze Green), 8027 (Leather Brown) and 9021 (Tar Black). The pattern was standardized for each vehicle type and I stuck to the official Luchs pattern, trying to adapt it to the new/bigger turret. I used Revell acrylic paints, since the authentic RAL tones are readily available in this product range (namely the tones 06, 65 and 84). The big tires were painted with Revell 09 (Anthracite).

Next the model was treated with a highly thinned washing with black and red-brown acrylic paint, before decals were applied, taken from the OOB sheet and without unit markings, since the Diana would represent a test vehicle. After sealing them with a thin coat of clear varnish the model was furthermore treated with lightly dry-brushed Revell 45 and 75 to emphasize edges and surface details, and the separately painted hull equipment was mounted. The following step was a cloudy treatment with watercolors (from a typical school paintbox, it’s great stuff for weathering!), simulating dust residue all over the hull. After a final protective coat with matt acrylic varnish I finally added some mineral artist pigments to the lower hull areas and created mud crusts on the wheels through light wet varnish traces into which pigments were “dusted”.

Basically a simple project, but the complex Luchs kit with its zillion of wee bits and pieces took time and cost some nerves. However, the result looks pretty good, and the Stryker turret blends well into the overall package. Not certain how realistic the swap of the Luchs’ internal layout would have been, but I think that the turret moved to the rear makes more sense than the original forward position? After all, the model is supposed to be a prototype, so there’s certainly room for creative freedom. And in classic Bundeswehr colors, the whole thing even looks pretty convincing.

“This photo of an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) shows the upper stage after it has placed a geostationary platform in orbit above the Earth. The totally-reusable liquid-fueled spacecraft is being studied by Boeing Aerospace Company under a contract with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The geostationary platform contains various antenna for communications with Earth. The OTV could place cargo or people into higher orbits in space and be able to return to the Space Shuttle for reuse.”

8.375" x 11.5". Yet another exquisite work by Boeing’s John “Jack” Olson.

Continue to Rest In Peace Brother, and thank you:

www.398th.org/Images/Images_Association/Text/Olson_Cleari...

Credit: 398th Bomb Group Memorial Association website

space.nss.org/national-space-society-governor-jack-olson-...

Credit: NSS website

“MOON-BOUND APOLLO 8 --Separated from the McDonnell Douglas-built S-IVB rocket (foreground), Apollo 8, with its crew of three astronauts, speeds toward moon and historic first lunar fly-around. When astronauts splash down in the Pacific Ocean, they will have flown 230,000 miles from earth (370,150 km) and orbited the moon 10 times. As third stage of Saturn V launch vehicle, S-IVB will fire for 2.6 minutes to propel Apollo 8 into parking orbit. Following orbital checkout of rocket and spacecraft, S-IVB will restart and propel Apollo 8 into translunar trajectory, as shown in artist’s rendering. McDonnel Douglas Astronautics Company, a division of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, builds the S-IVB for National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Marshall Space Flight Center.”

This beautiful conceptual Apollo Program artwork is by Gary Meyer, who was, at least during the first half of the 1960's, an illustrator for North American Aviation (NAA). Mr. Meyer was possibly the illustrator for the 1963 "series/family" of Apollo concept illustrations that I have posted. Hard to confirm, as most illustrations have no signature visible, being either cropped out or possibly never signed(?) Fortunately, this particular illustration "slipped through the cracks" of anonymity by the presence of his signature.

Mr. Meyer's credentials, achievements and honors are actually quite amazing!!!:

garymeyerillustration.net/BIOGRAPHY.html

Wow!!!:

garymeyerillustration.net/ILLUSTRATIONS/Pages/early_work....

In this instance, specifically:

garymeyerillustration.net/ILLUSTRATIONS/Pages/early_work....

In my world, I find MANY of his works to be iconic, proliferated through varied media: prints, posters, as 'figures' (in a range of NASA manuals, books, brochures, etc.), and much more. Whenever I stumble upon some morsel pertaining to the identity of any NASA/NASA contractor artist/illustrator, I'm always a little saddened as to his, and others', nearly total anonymity, at least in this 'venue'.

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See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

Manufacturer:

Rockwell International Corporation

Country of Origin:

United States of America

Dimensions:

Overall: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. long x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.

(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)

Materials:

Aluminum airframe and body with some fiberglass features; payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite; thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.

The first Space Shuttle orbiter, "Enterprise," is a full-scale test vehicle used for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground; it is not equipped for spaceflight. Although the airframe and flight control elements are like those of the Shuttles flown in space, this vehicle has no propulsion system and only simulated thermal tiles because these features were not needed for atmospheric and ground tests. "Enterprise" was rolled out at Rockwell International's assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-long approach-and-landing test flight program. Thereafter it was used for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred "Enterprise" to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. However, during the construction of Columbia, details of the final design changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an expensive proposition, it was determined to be less costly to build Challenger around a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead.

Service

Construction began on the first orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A write-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. Although Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who during World War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) that served with USS Enterprise (CV-6)—said that he was "partial to the name" and overrode NASA officials.

The design of OV-101 was not the same as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model; the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A large number of subsystems—ranging from main engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this vehicle, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. Instead of a thermal protection system, its surface was primarily fiberglass.

In mid-1976, the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.

On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell's plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony.

Approach and landing tests (ALT)

Main article: Approach and Landing Tests

On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to begin operational testing.

While at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was used by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for "Approach and Landing Test". These tests included a maiden "flight" on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight.

The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the flight characteristics of the mated combination. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight control systems.

Enterprise underwent five free flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed under astronaut control. These tests verified the flight characteristics of the orbiter design and were carried out under several aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation problems were revealed, which had to be addressed before the first orbital launch occurred.

On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its own for the first time.

Preparation for STS-1

Following the ALT program, Enterprise was ferried among several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.

Retirement

With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to allow certain components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (during the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition). It was also used to fit-check the never-used shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Finally, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution.

Post-Challenger

After the Challenger disaster, NASA considered using Enterprise as a replacement. However refitting the shuttle with all of the necessary equipment needed for it to be used in space was considered, but instead it was decided to use spares constructed at the same time as Discovery and Atlantis to build Endeavour.

Post-Columbia

In 2003, after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board conducted tests at Southwest Research Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing leading edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise's wing to perform analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. While the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the impact was enough to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was 2.5 times weaker, this suggested that the RCC leading edge would have been shattered. Additional tests on the fiberglass were canceled in order not to risk damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam impact test created a hole 41 cm by 42.5 cm (16.1 inches by 16.7 inches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam impact of the type Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing leading edge.

The board determined that the probable cause of the accident was that the foam impact caused a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, allowing hot gases generated during re-entry to enter the wing and cause structural collapse. This caused Columbia to spin out of control, breaking up with the loss of the entire crew.

Museum exhibit

Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian's hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport before it was restored and moved to the newly built Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection once the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that happens, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was safe to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once again.

Very little is known about the Gundrarian Conglomerate. It is a very secretive faction within the galaxy, allowing almost no trade or travel within its borders. No military vessels belonging to another faction are known to have ever travelled into Gundrarian space and come out.

A Vamyr battle flotilla is known to have entered a Gundrarian-controlled system, but the Confederate scout ships reported none had exited. When any trade is made with the Gundrarian Conglomerate, it is usually for exceedingly rare items or materials, which are then put onto unmanned ships and sent into Conglomerate space, where they are never seen or heard from again. The Gundrarians always pay in full, upfront, for the enitre cargo AND the ship it is sent on. No one has yet to try and renege or cheat on a contract with the Gundrarian Conglomerate.

Consequently, what is known about the Traveler-class heavy frigate is known only through careful observation, mostly by the Confederation Of Republic Systems and the Royal Empire, both of which border the few systems occupied by the Gundrarian Conglomerate. Although sized like a destroyer, it has very few visible weapons, and so was classified as a heavy frigate. It was known to be very fast, however the strength of its defenses were not well known until the Skirmish at Adriak.

A wealthy trading outpost, Adriak was the site of a massive Vamyr attack, a full battle fleet intent on ransacking the outpost and destroying it, weaking the economic ties it had to the rest of the galaxy. A single Traveler was in-system, negotiating for a trade agreement, when the attack happened. By chance, two small battle groups, one each from the Royal Empire and the Confederation of Republic Systems, were conducting a military exercise in the system. They moved to engage the Vamyr ships and allow all civilian and private craft a chance to escape. However, they were too far away, and the Vamyr started opening fire, destroying everything in site, including the Adrika-1 space station, the lifeblood of the system. The sole Traveler-class, apparently to protect the fleeing civilian vessels, hung back, attracting the fire of the Vamyr ships.

It sustained a tremendous amount of firepower, more than even a larger ship than it with full power to shields should have been able to withstand, and did so for far longer than it should have, until the Allied ships came to the rescue, allowing it to escape. After the battle, with the Vamyr refusing to pay compensations, the Gundrarians offered to pay to rebuild the Adrika-1 for a discount on future trade agreements. The Adriak system's government readily agreed.

The Traveler-class is the only known Gundrarian ship type, and no Traveler has ever been observed to commit acts of aggression. While the peace between the Gundrarian Conglomerate and the rest of the galaxy is uneasy, it is most welcome.

SWACS ( Space Warning And Control System ) Tactical Surveillance and Interceptor Starfighter.

AKSM-32100D is a trolleybus with a transistorized control system based on IGBT modules and an AC induction motor, equipped with accumulators based on lithium-iron-phosphate batteries with a reserve of autonomous travel up to 30 kilometers. Unlike base model AKSM-32100, it is equipped with a 150 kW traction motor. The first three ones were delivered to Ulyanovsk, Russia at the end of 2015. In 2016-2019 St. Petersburg received 35 ones, others were delivered to Belarus cities (5 to Grodno, 4 to Gomel, 4 to Vitebsk). In 2021, they were delivered to Belarus capital Minsk (25 ones) and Vratsa (9). In December 2021, three more restyled trolleybuses came to Grodno to operate the new route 24.

АКСМ-32100D trolleybuses are produced by the Belarus company Belkommunmash (BKM; Производственное Объединение «Белкоммунмаш», БКМ). BKM was organized in 1973 on the basis of the streetcar and trolleybus repair shop under the Ministry of Municipal Economy of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the first two decades the plant was repairing trolleybuses and streetcars of Minsk. After USSR breakage the independent Belarus got a strong incentive to develop its own vehicles production. Therefore a few articulated trolleybuses YMZ T1 (ЮМЗ Т1) were assembled at the plant in 1993 from engineering sets of Yuzhny Machine Building Plant of Ukraine. The enterprise also modernized trolleybuses of the ZIU models 100 - 101 produced by the Engels Electric Transportation Plant (later CJSC "TrolZa") in Engels, Saratov region of Russia. Later the company started to develop its own trolleybus models, the first model AKSM 201 (АКСМ 201) appeared in 1996, followed by models 213, 221, 321 (as in foto) and 333. Since 2000 the production of streetcars started: AKSM-1M, AKSM-60102. In 2016, the production of electric buses has been organized. Today the BKM Holding (ОАО «Управляющая компания холдинга «Белкоммунмаш» - ОАО «УКХ «БКМ) is the leading industrial enterprise in Belarus in the field of production and overhaul of rolling stock of urban electric transport.

I have always had an affinity for surreal imagery and have utilized various broadband and narrowband filters for decades on monochrome CCDs.

Therefore when putting together my latest imaging rig, although I wanted the convenience of a one-shot-color camera, I also desired the ability to have narrowband wavelengths available. Making a compromise between factors such as ease-of-use, resolution, sensitivity, flexibility, etc.; last fall I purchased an ASI2600MC Pro cooled CMOS camera and an IDAS H-alpha / Oxygen III dual band filter. The attached is a result of my attempt to process a shot I took last fall using that camera and filter on my 80mm triplet apochromatic refractor.

Object Details: The attached shows various view of the Heart Nebula - catalogued as IC 1805, the common name is of course a result of pareidolia. A massive star forming region some 100 to 200 light-years in diameter, it lies approximately 7,500 light-years from Earth in the Perseus spiral arm of our galaxy. For this composite I have stripped out the stars to concentrate on the nebulosity. Found in the constellation of Cassiopeia it spans over twice the width of the full moon in our sky and is powered & sculpted by the an open star cluster (removed in these images) which contains stars 50 times more mass than our sun.

Image Details: Processed using a narrowband palette, the data for this composite were taken by Jay Edwards on October 22 & 29, 2022 with an ED80T CF (i.e. an Orion 80mm, f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor and a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer with an IDAS NBZ dual band (H-a / OIII) filter whose narrowband passes are centered on the emissions of Hydrogen-alpha (656.3 nanometers) and Oxygen III (495.9 & 500.7 nanometers). This was attached to an ASI2600MC Pro cooled CMOS camera and the 80mm was piggybacked on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7, Criterion newtonian reflector and tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. Guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.

The image consists of two and a half hours (150 minutes) of total integration time (excluding applicable dark, flat and flat dark calibration frames) and is a stack of fifty 3 minute long exposures.

Processed using a combination of PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here the entire composite has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.

A version of this data processed in a more natural palette, and contains the stars, can be found the link attached here -

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/52689249163/

Currently collecting data on objects in our southern Milky Way, I'm looking forward to processing more images from this new rig in these types of alternate palettes.

Wishing clear, calm and dark skies to all !

Test train at Crewe, a new design of WSP control system was fitted to a Mk III locomotive hauled coach number 17174. Other vehicles in the train are ADW150375, RDB975428 and ADB975397. The tests were conducted on the down slow line north of Crewe using the slip/brake test method controlled from test car 2 (ADB975397). This view shows the train paused at Crewe on the return trip to the RTC Derby after testing on the 24 May 1988.

Read about how and why trains were tested in the 80s and 90s in my RAIL VEHICLE TESTING book - ISBN-9781999935603.

© Dave Bower - Rail Vehicle Testing

This loco was renumbered 97545, then again to 47972, it carried the name The Royal Army Ordnance Corps and also the Central Services livery before withdrawal.

To view more of my images, of aircraft, please click "here" !

Commonly known as AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) after its US nomenclature, the E-3D Sentry AEW.Mk 1 is an airborne early warning (AEW) and command and control aircraft. The Sentry monitors airspace to provide threat detection of adversary aircraft and situational awareness on friendly assets. Information gathered by the Northrop Grumman APY-2 radar is processed by the mission crew and disseminated via a variety of data links and communication systems. Sentry also has the capability to detect ships, relaying information to maritime aircraft or allied vessels for further investigation. Its electronic support measures equipment enables the E-3D to gather emissions from other radar systems and emitters, enhancing the crew’s understanding of the environment in which it is operating.Seeking a modern, jet-powered replacement for the piston-engined types it was operating in the AEW role, on July 23, 1970, the US Air Force chose the Boeing 707-320 airliner as the base airframe for a new Airborne Warning And Control System aircraft. Modified with a Westinghouse AN/APY-1 radar system, its antenna covered by a massive rotating radome held over the rear fuselage, the first of two EC-137D prototypes completed its initial flight on February 5, 1972. After an extensive test programme, the E-3A production version entered service in March 1977. Although the type is officially named ‘Sentry’, the USAF designates it E-3 AWACS. In January 1972, just days before the EC-137D took off for the first time, 8 Sqn, RAF, re-formed to operate the Avro Shackleton AEW.Mk 2, a conversion of the Shackleton MR.Mk 2 to accommodate radar systems recently removed from Fleet Air Arm Fairey Gannet AEW platforms. With its dedicated and highly skilled crews, the Shackleton provided a useful stopgap capability and it was expected that the Nimrod AEW.Mk 3 would replace it sometime in the early to mid-1980s. A dramatic modification of the Nimrod MR.Mk 1, the AEW.Mk 3 first flew on July 16, 1980, but suffered insurmountable technical problems, primarily caused by the incompatibility of its avionics and airframe; it was finally cancelled early in 1987. With an urgent need to replace the piston-engined Shackleton, the Ministry of Defence looked to a solution that had previously been suggested during the Nimrod AEW.Mk 3 programme and ordered seven E-3s. Officially designated Sentry AEW.Mk 1 in RAF service, but commonly known as E-3D, the new aircraft differed from the US fleet in its powerplant of more efficient CFM56 engines. The Shackleton remained on strength until 1991, 8 Sqn taking its first E-3D at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire in July. Little more than a year later, the type was in action over the Balkans, before making a valuable contribution to Operation Warden over northern Iraq in 1994. Today the Sentry is fully integrated into the ISTAR Force, yet retains its core competencies of airborne early warning and airspace management. Its capability is no more appreciated than in the skies over Iraq and Syria, where an ongoing commitment to Operation Shader sees the E-3D deconflicting airspace, providing ‘big picture’ situational awareness for Coalition aircraft and early warning of aircraft movements outside Coalition control. The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review called for Sentry to remain in service until 2035.

I have been lost in Photoshop. I was having ideas in Lightroom and they led to edits and on to Photoshop CS and from there they are stretching out towards some notion of motion pictures. I have not used this Film Temperature Control System. I have been calling a film cooker. It looks superb and it comes with a three pin U.K. Plug fitted ready for accurate simmering film into tender toner and sharpish shadows and might fine highlights.

I have used two fonts to give °CineStill a look as it has in the packaging.

I forget to mention the soundtrack. Two tracks from those provided by my editing service with no composers and players listed. I have edited tracks individually and together. All errors on me and all praise to unknown originators of music. I wish that I had some names to praise.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

CineStill TCS-1000 - Temperature Control System - UK Plug

analoguewonderland.co.uk/products/cinestill-tcs-1000-temp...

°CS "TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM", TCS-1000 IMMERSION CIRCULATOR THERMOSTAT FOR MIXING CHEMISTRY AND PRECISION FILM PROCESSING, 120V ONLY

cinestillfilm.com/products/tcs-temperature-control-system...

The fire control system offers Dual Target Attack capability, whereby two targets up to 1km apart can be simultaneously engaged by two different sensors using two different guns. Navigational devices include the inertial navigation system (INS) and global positioning system (GPS). The aircraft is pressurized, enabling it to fly at higher altitudes, saving fuel and time, and allowing for greater range than the H-variant.

Defensive systems include a countermeasures dispensing system that releases chaff and flares to counter radar infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles. Also, an infrared heat shield mounted underneath the engines disperse and hide engine heat sources from infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles.

The name "Spooky" was given about one of the first gunships, the AC-47D Spooky, rather than continuing the "Spectre" nickname used by the AC-130H gunships. The moniker "Spooky II" sometimes distinguishes the AC-130U from the AC-47D. Here, a Spooky (serial number: 89-0510), nicknamed “Gunslinger,” unloads all guns upon a target in Afghanistan.

Sample image of Canon 5DSR

web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/samples/eos5dsr/index.html

The EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R – key features

EOS 5DS: 50.6 Megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with ISO 100-6400 (Lo: 50 and H1:12,800) sensitivity range.

EOS 5DS R: 50.6 Megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with low-pass cancellation filter and ISO 100-6400 (Lo: 50 and H1:12,800) sensitivity range.

Dual DIGIC 6 processors for outstanding image processing speed and camera responsiveness.

5 frames per second (fps) with selectable burst speeds and silent shutter mode.

61-point wide area AF with 41 cross-type sensors with iTR, AI Servo AF III and AF Configuration tool.

150k pixel RGB+IR metering sensor.

100% magnification Intelligent Viewfinder II with electronic overlay.

1.3x, 1.6x and 1:1 ratio crop modes with masked viewfinder display.

Mirror Vibration Control System to reduce mirror vibration blur.

Fine Detail Picture Style.

CF + SD (UHS I) dual memory card slots.

Peripheral Illumination and Chromatic Aberration Lens Correction in-camera.

Multiple Exposure and HDR mode.

Customisable Quick Control screen.

Built-in timer functionality – bulb timer and interval shooting timer.

Time-lapse Movie function.

Super Speed USB 3.0 for high-speed tethering and image/movie transfer.

150,000 shutter cycle life.

Compatible with most EOS 5D Mark III accessories (note: for WFT-E7 new USB cables required and firmware needs to be updated).

50.6 Megapixels! A revolution in DSLR resolution

Canon has announced the 50.6 Megapixel EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R; its highest-ever resolution cameras, offering unparalleled levels of detail never before seen in a 35mm full-frame DSLR...

The EOS 5DS is Canon’s highest resolution DSLR to date, designed to offer editorial, landscape and advertising photographers the ultimate in image size and quality thanks to the 50.6 Megapixel sensor with an optical low-pass filter.

The EOS 5DS R is the same as EOS 5DS, bar one important difference in that it incorporates a low-pass cancellation filter to offer the maximum level of sharpness from Canon’s revolutionary new sensor. Studio and advertising photographers in particular will appreciate the extra level of detail offered by the EOS 5DS R, while all photographers will relish the ability to produce stunningly detailed 8688 x 5792 images from both cameras, with A0 prints readily achievable at 200dpi.

The 50.6 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor is the highest ever seen in a full-frame DSLR, offering photographers new levels of resolution and detail.

Revolutionary image sensor – where every pixel counts

Canon has won itself a strong reputation over the years for sensor design, innovation and image quality and this commitment to continuous development is ably demonstrated with the introduction of the 50.6 Megapixel CMOS sensor.

The sensor’s advanced architecture provides ISO 100-6400 sensitivity (expandable to 50-12,800) ensuring ultra-high resolution with low noise, accurate colours and a wide dynamic range.

For added flexibility, the cameras’ resolution enables three new in-camera crop shooting modes – 1.3x, 1.6x and 1:1. Visible through the viewfinder, the crop modes deliver outstanding, high-resolution results; still producing a 19 Megapixel still image when cropped to 1.6x.

Ultra-fast image processing

Built to withstand the most demanding of shoots, both the EOS 5DS and 5DS R feature EOS 5D Mark III weather-sealing along with Dual DIGIC 6 processors to ensure the rapid performance and responsiveness required to deliver first-class images with exceptional colour reproduction. The dual processors are built to comfortably manage huge levels of image data from the 50.6 Megapixel sensor, whilst simultaneously reducing image noise and providing the freedom to shoot at five frames per second, even with such large amounts of data being produced.

Both the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R feature a 150k pixel RGB+IR metering sensor with Flicker Detection for accurate exposures.

Stunningly fast autofocus

Designed to ensure that every detail is in focus, the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R feature an advanced 61-point AF system with 41 cross-type points, delivering incredible levels of image sharpness and accuracy across the frame. Both cameras comfortably maintain sharp and accurate focus with moving subjects, using EOS Intelligent Tracking and Recognition AF (iTR) to track both faces and colour. To reduce image blur, Canon’s advanced Mirror Vibration Control System uses miniature cams to drive the camera’s mirror up and down in a highly controlled fashion, avoiding sudden stops which cause vibration and softening the shutter-release sound in the process.

Both bodies feature a 150k pixel RGB+IR metering sensor with Flicker Detection, ensuring images can be captured with consistent and accurate exposures under varying lighting scenarios, including fluorescent strip lights.

Exceptional detail and unrestricted creativity

Putting unrivalled image quality at your fingertips, the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R include a number of customisable modes and settings to ensure stunning results every time. A new Fine Detail Picture Style maximises the level of detail that can be achieved from the sensor, by prioritising the gradation of tones and detail, enabling advanced sharpness adjustment without the need for editing software.

Popular creative modes, including Multiple Exposure and HDR provide instant, in-camera creativity, while a built-in timer allows you to shoot over long periods and create stunning time-lapse videos without being tied to the camera or the need for advanced software and excessive kit.

The EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R feature magnesium alloy body shells, steel base plates and are weather-sealed to protect against dust and moisture.

First-class construction

The EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R have been carefully crafted using Canon’s iconic design DNA. Superb ergonomics and handling based around the EOS 5D Mark III allow users to select controls quickly and accurately while a 100% viewfinder with electronic overlay makes framing vital shots easy and can be customised to your preferred style.

The large, 8.11cm (3.2in) Clear View II LCD screen, with an anti-reflective structure, minimises reflection or glare when reviewing shots and also acts as a visual and accessible dashboard of the most commonly used settings.

A new Custom Quick Control screen means that the cameras’ type, size and position of icons are easily customisable to the user or shooting scenario. For simple, secure, workflows multiple card slots enable instant backup and extra storage, thus offering added flexibility.

Commenting on the launch of the EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R, Mike Owen, European Professional Imaging Communications Manager, Canon Europe, said: “The EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R take Canon into a whole new imaging arena, bringing medium format resolution to the award-winning EOS System with its vast range of lenses and accessories. Canon has consistently led the way with its sensor technology and this latest iteration of the CMOS sensor boasts levels of detail never before seen in an EOS body. The flexibility, reliability and ruggedness of the EOS System means that, for the first time, photographers can harness the speed of EOS with medium format levels of image resolution in almost any location, no matter how extreme. This is all possible in a product that is smaller, lighter and significantly easier to use than other cameras that offer this level of resolution.”

SoulRider.222 / Eric Rider © 2022

The M42 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun, or Duster; is an American armored light air-defense gun built for the United States Army from 1952 until December 1960, in service until 1988. Production of this vehicle was performed by the tank division of the General Motors Corporation. It used components from the M41 light tank and was constructed of all-welded steel.

A total of 3,700 M42s were built. The vehicle has a crew of six and weighs 49,500 lbs fully loaded. Maximum speed is 45 mph with a range of 100 miles. Armament consists of fully automatic twin 40 mm M2A1 Bofors, with a rate of fire of 2×120 rounds per minute enabling nearly 85 seconds of fire time before running out of ammo, and either a .30 caliber Browning M1919A4 or 7.62mm M60 machine gun.

Initially, the 40 mm guns were aimed with the assistance of a radar fire control system housed in a secondary vehicle of similar design but this idea was scrapped as development costs mounted.

The 500 hp, six-cylinder, Continental (or Lycoming Engines), air-cooled, gasoline engine is located in the rear of the vehicle. It was driven by a cross-drive, two-speed Allison transmission.

Although the M42 Duster was initially designed for an anti-aircraft role, it proved to be effective against unarmored ground forces in the Vietnam war.

Production of the M42 began in early 1952 at GM's Cleveland Tank Plant. It entered service in late 1953 and replaced a variety of different anti-aircraft systems in armored divisions. In 1956, the M42 received a new engine and other upgrades along with other M41 based vehicles, becoming the M42A1. Production was halted in December 1960 with 3,700 examples made during its production run.

Sometime in the late 50s, the U.S. Army reached the conclusion that anti-aircraft guns were no longer viable in the jet age and began fielding a self-propelled version of the HAWK SAM instead. Accordingly, the M42 was retired from front line service and passed to the National Guard with the last M42s leaving the regular Army by 1963, except for the 4th Battalion, 517th Air Defense Artillery Regiment in the Panama Canal Zone, which operated two batteries of M42s into the 1970s.

The HAWK missile system performed poorly in low altitude defense. To ensure some low altitude anti-aircraft capability for the ever-increasing amount of forces fielded in South Vietnam, the Army began recalling M42A1s back into active service and organizing them into air defense artillery (ADA) battalions. Starting in the fall of 1966, the U.S. Army deployed three battalions of Dusters to South Vietnam, each battalion consisting of a headquarters battery and four Duster batteries, each augmented by one attached Quad-50 battery and an artillery searchlight battery.

Despite a few early air kills, the air threat posed by North Vietnam never materialized and ADA crews found themselves increasingly involved in ground support missions. Most often the M42 was on point security, convoy escort, or perimeter defense. The Duster; (as it was called by U.S. troops in Vietnam) was soon found to excel in ground support. The 40 mm guns proved to be effective against massed infantry attacks. According to an article that appeared in Vietnam Magazine:

M42s were old pieces of equipment that needed a lot of maintenance and required hard-to-get spare parts. The gasoline-powered Dusters were particularly susceptible to fires in the engine compartment. Thus, despite its cross country capability, it was not wise to use the Duster in extended search and destroy operations in heavy jungle terrain because of excessive wear on engines, transmissions, and suspensions.

On the plus side, the Duster was essentially a fairly simple piece of machinery on which the crews could perform maintenance. Better yet, the Duster's high ground clearance and excellent suspension-system design gave it an ability to withstand land mine explosions with minimal crew casualties.

Although the Duster's 40mm shell had a terrific blast and fragmentation effect, it also had a highly sensitive point-detonating fuse that limited effectiveness in heavy vegetation. Under those conditions, the better weapon was the Quad, because the heavy .50-caliber projectile could easily punch through cover that would detonate the Duster's 40mm shell too early for it to be effective. At long ranges, however the 40mm shell was far more useful, particularly against field formations. The Duster also was able to deliver indirect fires by using data from field artillery fire-directions centers.

Soldiers of the 1-44th Artillery and their Marine counterparts in I Corps set the pattern of Quad and Duster operations. Because of an early scarcity of armored-combat vehicles, M42s were first used as armor. Often thankful men quickly learned the value of high volumes of 40mm and .50-caliber fire, both in the field and perimeter defenses. Quads beefed up the defenses of remote fire bases, while Dusters accompanied both supply and tactical convoys along contested highways to break up ambushes. Dusters of Battery C, 1-44th Artillery, led the task force of Operations Pegasus that broke the siege of Khe Sanh in April 1968. Dusters and Quads provided critical final-protective fires throughout Vietnam during the Tet offensive and later took part in Operation Lam Son 719. Whenever fire support was needed, M42s could be found.

Most of the Duster crew members had their AIT training in the 1st Advanced Individual Training Brigade (Air Defense) at Fort Bliss, Texas. Some of the Duster NCOs had received training at the Non Commissioned Officers Candidate School which was also held at Fort Bliss, Texas.

The 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery was the first ADA battalion to arrive in South Vietnam on November 1966. A self-propelled M42A1 Duster unit, the 1-44th supported the Marines at places like Con Thien and Khe Sanh Combat Base as well as Army divisions in South Vietnam's rugged I Corps region. The battalion was assigned to I Field Force, Vietnam and was located at Đông Hà. In 1968 it was attached to the 108th Artillery Group (Field Artillery). Attached to the 1-44th was G Battery 65th Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and G Battery 29th Artillery Searchlights. The 1-44th served alongside the 3rd Marine Division along the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in I Corps thru December 1971. Sergeant Mitchell W. Stout, a member of C Battery, 1-44th Artillery was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The second Duster battalion to arrive in Vietnam was the 5th Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in November 1966 and was diverted to III Corps, II Field Force, Vietnam and set up around Bien Hoa Air Base. Attached units were D Battery71st Air Defense Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and I Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights. The Second First; served the southern Saigon region through mid 1971. D-71st Quads remained active through March 1972.

The third Duster battalion to arrive was the 4th Battalion, 60th Air Defense Artillery. Activated in June 1966 it arrived in Vietnam in June 1967 and set up operations in the Central Highlands, based out of An Khê (1967–70) and later Tuy Hoa (1970-71). Attached units were E Battery 41st Artillery equipped with Quad-50s and B Battery, 29th Artillery Searchlights (which were already in country since October 1965). Members of these units not only covered the entire Central Highlands, but also supported firebases and operations along the DMZ to the north and Saigon to the south.

Each Duster Battalion had four line batteries (A, B, C, D) and a headquarters battery. Each battery had two platoons (1st, 2nd), which contained four sections each with a pair of M42A1 Dusters. At full deployment there were roughly 200 M42 Dusters under command throughout the entire war. The Duster and Quads largely operated in pairs at firebases, strong points, and in support of engineers building roads and transportation groups protecting convoys. At night they protected the firebases from attack and were often the first targets of enemy sappers, rockets, and mortars. Searchlight jeeps operated singly but often in support of a Duster or Quad section at a firebase.

Between the three Duster battalions and the attached Quad-50 and Searchlight batteries over 200 fatalities were recorded.

The three M42A1 equipped ADA battalions (1-44th, 4-60th and 5-2d) deactivated and left Vietnam in late December 1971. Most if not all of the in-country Dusters were turned over to ARVN forces. Most of the training Dusters at Fort Bliss were returned to various National Guard units. The U.S. Army maintained multiple National Guard M42 battalions as a corps-level ADA asset. 2nd Battalion, 263 ADA, headquartered in Anderson, SC was the last unit to operate the M42 when the system was retired in 1988.

Messier 15 (NGC 7078) is a globular star cluster located in the constellation of Pegasus. Consisting of over 100,000 stars with a combined luminosity 360,000 times that of our Sun, it lies approximately 33,600 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of about 175 light-years. Although all globular clusters in the Milky Way are believed to be at least 10 billion years old; M15, at 12 billion years old, is believed to be one of the most ancient (by comparison our Sun is a 'mere' 4.6 billion years old). Having undergone a contraction known as a 'core collapse', M15's core is one of the densest concentrations of stars known, and there is on-going debate that it may actually contain an intermediate-size black hole.

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Maine, NY as a quick test shot. It is the first image of this object using our (vintage 1970) 8-inch f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector. Consisting of stack of very short 'subs', it is only 20 mins of total exposure time (excluding darks, flats & bias frames). The scope, connected to a Canon 700D DSLR, was tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount with a Gemini 2 control system and auto-guided with a Celestron 80mm 'short tube' refractor and a ZWO ASI290MC auto-guider / planetary camera controlled by PHD2. Resized down to HD resolution with the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel, it is presented here with it's 'full-width' FOV, having only been cropped slightly vertically to match an HD format. Since it was only meant as a test shot of using the 8-in. newt. on this object, if given the opportunity to re-image it before it is lost to the sun's glare, I may try an HDR approach to reduce the core's brightness while still trying to maintain the outer halo (as well as rotating the FOV 90 degrees to better frame the blue star at the top of the frame). Given the limited amount of data used I was pleased with the result, and although somewhat truncated due to the camera's orientation, I liked the appearance of the cyan colored diffraction spikes on the star near the top of the frame.

Nikon’s in-camera Picture Control system offers a range of preset options and you can create custom controls for specific subjects and scenes. Easily define parameters such as sharpness, saturation, and hue whether you’re shooting stills or video.

Photo © Vivien Liu

I was interested to see this, the only member of Class 89 at Barrow Hill, it is being worked on, but looks a long way from being ready to move under its own power.

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

The Class 89 was a prototype design for an electric locomotive. Only one was built in 1986, by British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works. It was used on test-trains on both the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines. It was fitted with advanced power control systems and developed over 6,000 bhp (4,500 kW). It was given the nickname Aardvark although railfans used to call it The Badger owing to its slanted front ends

The Class 89 locomotive was designed by Brush Traction, Loughborough to meet a specification issued by British Rail, which subsequently changed the requirements, but not before Brush had already committed to build the prototype locomotive.

The locomotive had six DC traction motors. The main armature current for all the motors is fed from a common thyristor drive, whilst each motor has an independent field current controller. The field current controllers comprised a two quadrant chopper inside a thyristor bridge. The bipolar transistor based choppers provides a fast fine control of motor torque for electric braking and slip control, whilst the thyristor bridge is used to invert the field current polarity.

The locomotive was built at British Rail Engineering Limited's Crewe Works, between 1985–87,[2] emerging and being initially delivered to Derby Litchurch Lane Works on 2 October 1986.[4][7] The Class 89 was then transferred by road to Brush Traction at Loughborough, for static testing and commissioning.[4] It was initially delivered in the old-style InterCity Executive livery, with no British Rail double arrows, but these were added later when British Rail bought the locomotive from Brush.[citation needed]

The locomotive's first powered working was on 9 February 1987, and its first lone run was on 20 February 1987.[7] In April 1987, 89001 visited the Old Dalby Test Track for evaluation.[8] The locomotive was initially allocated to Crewe Electric depot, for trials along the West Coast Main Line.[2] Following the successful testing, 89001 was transferred to Hornsey, and later to Bounds Green, for passenger services on the East Coast Main Line.[2] In May 1988, the locomotive returned to Old Dalby for braking trials.[8] During the early summer of 1988, the International Traffic and Transport Exhibition (IVA88) was held in Hamburg, Germany. British Rail was asked to participate and sent a representative train of rolling stock to the exhibition. On 22 May 1988, 89001 along with a Class 90, Class 91[5] and a two car Class 150/2 unit left for Hamburg, returning on 17 June 1988.

After being used as a test bed, the locomotive was used on passenger trains from London King's Cross to Leeds. As the development of the ECML Electrification continued the engine was painted into the new style InterCity Swallow livery and named Avocet, in recognition of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB),[5] by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on 16 January 1989 at King's Cross station.[9] After the ceremony, the locomotive hauled a special train conveying the RSPB president Magnus Magnusson, along with other VIPs, to Sandy.[10] Passenger use continued on the ECML until 5 March 1989, a week before the Class 91s entered service on the diagrams.

All hope and opportunity ended, however, when 89001 suffered a serious failure and was withdrawn from traffic in July 1992.[2] When 89001 failed, it was still owned by British Rail, and Brush had no contractual obligation with regard to it. Additionally, having no orders from BR for their design investment, there was little incentive for Brush to construct spare parts for it. BR had written off the locomotive as part of the ECML development and thus it was seen as a surplus and nil value asset. As such, the locomotive was sidelined.

It was saved for preservation at the Midland Railway Centre by a group of Brush Traction employees.[11] During this time the locomotive appeared at every major British Rail depot open day, in a slowly deteriorating Intercity Swallow livery.

It was hoped that the Class 89 design would be used for electric locomotives for the Channel Tunnel, and some investigation was undertaken. It was also hoped the Class 89 would be a viable Class 86 replacement, however an upgraded version of the Class 87 was ordered as the Class 90 instead.

Ultimately only technology and ideas from 89001's internal design were used in the Class 9 Eurotunnel locomotives and some similarity in electronics lives on today in the Class 92 locomotive design. Brush did eventually win the contracts to build Channel Tunnel locomotives, and the similarities between these and 89001 enabled suitable spares to be constructed.

In 1996, the InterCity East Coast franchise was won by the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER). Suffering from a motive power shortage, it purchased 89001 and repaired it for use on London to Leeds and Bradford services, investing £100 000 in an overhaul.[12] It was also re-painted in the GNER blue and orange livery.[13] The locomotive returned to service in March 1997.[14] However, in 2001, the locomotive again suffered a major failure and was withdrawn from traffic. Its future was again in doubt, and it was laid up for a period at Doncaster Works.

In December 2004, the locomotive was moved into the care of the AC Locomotive Group at Barrow Hill Engine Shed for secure storage. With the overhaul of the Class 91 fleet complete, plus the availability of Class 373 trains for lease, 89001 was seen as a one-off asset with little economic value.

In October 2006, GNER put 89001 up for sale with a six-week deadline for bids. The AC Locomotive Group launched an appeal and fundraising effort to save the locomotive which was ultimately successful, purchasing the locomotive in December 2006.[15] The locomotive is mostly complete although a number of major components require expensive overhaul before the loco could run on the main line again. A thorough survey has been undertaken to establish exactly what is required, and costs drawn up. Cosmetic work in 2007 saw the loco return to its original InterCity Executive colour scheme. Electrical restoration work has focussed on repairing and/or refurbishing the items that led to the locomotive being withdrawn from service, namely the traction motors and their associated field converter electronics. The locomotive was lifted by Harry Needle Railroad Company at Barrow Hill Engine Shed in December 2010, and three traction motors were removed including the one known to be faulty. These are currently (February 2011) being examined at Bowers to allow repair cost estimates to be made. Two of the field converters have been removed, one is faulty and again repair estimates are being sought. Initially it is intended, as funds become available, to allow one power group (i.e. one bogie) to become fully operational.

After many months of waiting, 2 September finally saw testing of the first field converter overhauled at Fletcher Moorland Ltd, Stoke. There will be several iterations of testing so that there is a full understanding of any remaining defects and ensure that all aged or failed components are changed. The overhauled converter was completely dismantled with each power component being checked and replaced where required. A number of components were found to be performing outside of their specification and have been changed. The three control PCBs, these run the height of the converter, totalling the best part of £1m. The largest of the three is 2/3 of that. All electrolytic capacitors have been changed, both on the control PCBs and in the power circuit. These deteriorate with age.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_89

McDonnell Douglas (Mitsubishi) F-4EJ Kai Phantom II 57-8367 JASDF (cn M067), Chubu Koku Homentai (Central Air Defence Force), 301 Hikotai climb out at Hyakuri AB (RJAH). This Phantom was one of the last active JASDF Phantoms ultimately wearing a Phantom Forever color scheme before being retired.

F-4EJ / F-4EJ Kai

Two-seat all-weather specialized air defense fighter version of the F-4E. The F-4EJ has in common with the F-4E the Westinghouse AN/APQ-120 radar fire control system, the 20-mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon and the AIM-7 and AIM-9 air-to-air missile capability. The majority of the F-4EJs were built under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MIH) in Japan. 2 were directly delivered from McDonnell and built in St Louis. A further 138 were built by MIH, of which 8 were assembled using McDonnell delivered parts.

The original F-4EJ had no air to ground capability to make clear to its neighboring countries that it was purely meant for air defense purposes. As a result the nuclear weapons control unit, the bombing computer (ASQ-91), the air-to-ground missile ‘Bullpup’ and its control device ARW-77 were omitted. Also the F-4EJs lacked the aerial refueling capability of standard F-4s. The air defense role was further emphasized by removing the slats and replacing them by leading wing edge flaps to improve acceleration when scrambled on QRA. Removing the slat mechanism saves weight and reduces drag.

In a later stage air-to-ground capability as well as the aerial refueling capability were added on the improved (‘Kai’) version of the F-4EJ. The F-4EJ Kai has improved avionics, including the AN/APG-66J pulse-doppler radar and ground attack capability, including the ASM-1 anti-ship missile. 90 of the original 140 F-4EJs were converted to the ‘Kai’ standard.

Sadly the F-4 fleet has now been retired.

Sources: www.scramble.nl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phant...(%E6%88%A6%E9%97%98%E6%A9%9F) (Wikipedia Japan) , designer.home.xs4all.nl/models/f4ej-32/f4-32-1.htm

Object Details: The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a dark cloud of dust and gas (i.e. a 'dark' nebula) located in the constellation of Orion, and is a part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex (a massive star forming region). It lies approximately 1500 light-years from Earth and spans about 7 light-years in diameter. The Flame Nebula (seen to the lower left of the Horsehead in the wide-field image) is an emission nebula which spans about 12 light-years in diameter and also lies approximately 1500 light-years away. In it's case at it's core lies a young star cluster consisting of several hundred stars, most of which have been found to be surrounded by circumstellar disks (i.e. potential planetary systems in various stages of formation).

Image Details: The attached is a composite of two images, taken simultaneously using twin (unmodded) Canon 700D (t5i) DSLRs with (left) an ED80T CF (i.e. a carbon-fiber 80mm, f/6 apochromatic refractor) with a Televue 0.8X field flatener / focal reducer; and (right) an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with a coma corrector. The 80mm was piggybacked on the 8-inch (along with a second 80mm Celestron 'short-tube' as a guidescope), which was tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using an ASI290MC & PHD2. These are just quickly (and terribly ;) ) processed, relatively short exposure test shots taken to determine the area's applicability to simultaneous imaging through some of the various focal lengths we have available. A similar framing test of the Orion & Running Man nebulae taken the same evening can be found at the link attached here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/46195697944/

while a similar composite of the Pleiades taken while testing a new remote connection to our obs. can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/40317389883/

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The РТАК-30 attack vintoplan (also known as vintokryl) owed its existence to the Mil Mi-30 plane/helicopter project that originated in 1972. The Mil Mi-30 was conceived as a transport aircraft that could hold up to 19 passengers or two tons of cargo, and its purpose was to replace the Mi-8 and Mi-17 Helicopters in both civil and military roles. With vertical takeoff through a pair of tiltrotor engine pods on the wing tips (similar in layout to the later V-22 Osprey) and the ability to fly like a normal plane, the Mil Mi-30 had a clear advantage over the older models.

And this was just about to happen: Despite the РТАК-30’s development problems, the innovative attack vintoplan was included in the Soviet Union’s 5-year plan for 1989-1995, and the vehicle was eventually expected to enter service in 1996. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dwindling economics, neither the РТАК-30 nor its civil Mil Mi-30 sister did soar out in the new age of technology. In 1990 the whole program was stopped and both surviving РТАК-30 prototypes were mothballed – one (the 3rd prototype) was disassembled and its components brought to the Rostov-na-Donu Mil plant, while the other, prototype No. 1, is rumored to be stored at the Central Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, to be restored to a public exhibition piece some day.

General characteristics:

Crew: Two (pilot, copilot/WSO) plus space for up to three passengers or cargo

Length: 45 ft 7 1/2 in (13,93 m)

Rotor diameter: 20 ft 9 in (6,33 m)

Wingspan incl. engine nacelles: 42 ft 8 1/4 in (13,03 m)

Total width with rotors: 58 ft 8 1/2 in (17,93 m)

Height: 17 ft (5,18 m) at top of tailfin

Disc area: 4x 297 ft² (27,65 m²)

Wing area: 342.2 ft² (36,72 m²)

Empty weight: 8,500 kg (18,740 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 12,000 kg (26,500 lb)

Powerplant:

4× Klimov VK-2500PS-03 turboshaft turbines, 2,400 hp (1.765 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 275 knots (509 km/h, 316 mph) at sea level

305 kn (565 km/h; 351 mph) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

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

Stall speed: 110 kn (126 mph, 204 km/h) in airplane mode

Range: 879 nmi (1,011 mi, 1,627 km)

Combat radius: 390 nmi (426 mi, 722 km)

Ferry range: 1,940 nmi (2,230 mi, 3,590 km) with auxiliary external fuel tanks

Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Rate of climb: 2,320–4,000 ft/min (11.8 m/s)

Glide ratio: 4.5:1

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

Power/mass: 0.259 hp/lb (427 W/kg)

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon with 450 rounds

7 external hardpoints for a maximum ordnance of 2.500 kg (5.500 lb)

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic, fictional aircraft-thing is a contribution to the “The Flying Machines of Unconventional Means” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2019. While the propulsion system itself is not that unconventional, I deemed the quadrocopter concept (which had already been on my agenda for a while) to be suitable for a worthy submission.

The Mil Mi-30 tiltrotor aircraft, mentioned in the background above, was a real project – but my alternative combat vintoplan design is purely speculative.

I had already stashed away some donor parts, primarily two sets of tiltrotor backpacks for 1:144 Gundam mecha from Bandai, which had been released recently. While these looked a little toy-like, these parts had the charm of coming with handed propellers and stub wings that would allow the engine nacelles to swivel.

The search for a suitable fuselage turned out to be a more complex safari than expected. My initial choice was the spoofy Italeri Mi-28 kit (I initially wanted a staggered tandem cockpit), but it turned out to be much too big for what I wanted to achieve. Then I tested a “real” Mi-28 (Dragon) and a Ka-50 (Italeri), but both failed for different reasons – the Mi-28 was too slender, while the Ka-50 had the right size – but converting it for my build would have been VERY complicated, because the engine nacelles would have to go and the fuselage shape between the cockpit and the fuselage section around the original engines and stub wings would be hard to adapt. I eventually bought an Italeri Ka-52 two-seater as fuselage donor.

In order to mount the four engines to the fuselage I’d need two pairs of wings of appropriate span – and I found a pair of 1:100 A-10 wings as well as the wings from an 1:72 PZL Iskra (not perfect, but the most suitable donor parts I could find in the junkyard). On the tips of these wings, the swiveling joints for the engine nacelles from the Bandai set were glued. While mounting the rear wings was not too difficult (just the Ka-52’s OOB stabilizers had to go), the front pair of wings was more complex. The reason: the Ka-52’s engines had to go and their attachment points, which are actually shallow recesses on the kit, had to be faired over first. Instead of filling everything with putty I decided to cover the areas with 0.5mm styrene sheet first, and then do cosmetic PSR work. This worked quite well and also included a cover for the Ka-52’s original rotor mast mount. Onto these new flanks the pair of front wings was attached, in a mid position – a conceptual mistake…

The cockpit was taken OOB and the aircraft’s nose received an additional thimble radome, reminiscent of the Mi-28’s arrangement. The radome itself was created from a German 500 kg WWII bomb.

At this stage, the mid-wing mistake reared its ugly head – it had two painful consequences which I had not fully thought through. Problem #1: the engine nacelles turned out to be too long. When rotated into a vertical position, they’d potentially hit the ground! Furthermore, the ground clearance was very low – and I decided to skip the Ka-52’s OOB landing gear in favor of a heavier and esp. longer alternative, a full landing gear set from an Italeri MiG-37 “Ferret E” stealth fighter, which itself resembles a MiG-23/27 landing gear. Due to the expected higher speeds of the vintoplan I gave the landing gear full covers (partly scratched, plus some donor parts from an Academy MiG-27). It took some trials to get the new landing gear into the right position and a suitable stance – but it worked. With this benchmark I was also able to modify the engine nacelles, shortening their rear ends. They were still very (too!) close to the ground, but at least the model would not sit on them!

However, the more complete the model became, the more design flaws turned up. Another mistake is that the front and rear rotors slightly overlap when in vertical position – something that would be unthinkable in real life…

With all major components in place, however, detail work could proceed. This included the completion of the cockpit and the sensor turrets, the Ka-52 cannon and finally the ordnance. Due to the large rotors, any armament had to be concentrated around the fuselage, outside of the propeller discs. For this reason (and in order to prevent the rear engines to ingest exhaust gases from the front engines in level flight), I gave the front wings a slightly larger span, so that four underwing pylons could be fitted, plus a pair of underfuselage hardpoints.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the Italeri Ka-52 and from an ESCI Ka-34 (the fake Ka-50) kit.

Painting and markings:

With such an exotic aircraft, I rather wanted a conservative livery and opted for a typical Soviet tactical four-tone scheme from the Eighties – the idea was to build a prototype aircraft from the state acceptance trials period, not a flashy demonstrator. The scheme and the (guesstimated) colors were transferred from a Soviet air force MiG-21bis of that era, and it consists of a reddish light brown (Humbrol 119, Light Earth), a light, yellowish green (Humbrol 159, Khaki Drab), a bluish dark green (Humbrol 195, Dark Satin Green, a.k.a. RAL 6020 Chromdioxidgrün) and a dark brown (Humbrol 170, Brown Bess). For the undersides’ typical bluish grey I chose Humbrol 145 (FS 35237, Gray Blue), which is slightly lighter and less greenish than the typical Soviet tones. A light black ink wash was applied and some light post-shading was done in order to create panels that are structurally not there, augmented by some pencil lines.

The cockpit became light blue (Humbrol 89), with medium gray dashboard and consoles. The ejection seats received bright yellow seatbelts and bright blue pads – a detail seen on a Mi-28 cockpit picture.

Some dielectric fairings like the fin tip were painted in bright medium green (Humbrol 101), while some other antenna fairings were painted in pale yellow (Humbrol 71).

The landing gear struts and the interior of the wells became Aluminum Metalic (Humbrol 56), the wheels dark green discs (Humbrol 30).

The decals were puzzled together from various sources, including some Begemot sheets. Most of the stencils came from the Ka-52 OOB sheet, and generic decal sheet material was used to mark the walkways or the rotor tips and leading edges.

Only some light weathering was done to the leading edges of the wings, and then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A complex kitbashing project, and it revealed some pitfalls in the course of making. However, the result looks menacing and still convincing, esp. in flight – even though the picture editing, with four artificially rotating proprotors, was probably more tedious than building the model itself!

You have to appreciate the brains of a garbage truck control system, because there is so much going on electrically when things are up and running constantly. This is especially the case when it comes to side loaders, given the wide array of functions and sensors that are interconnected so everything works as it should. Now not a very common sight on the modern garbage truck, in this picture we look inside the primary control box of an MJE MkIV side loader, where the equipment is brought to life. An extensive network of wires joins up the switches, relays, fuses and control modules that all work together so the collection vehicle can function properly as a whole. Press a button or turn a selector switch, and instantly an electrical signal shoots through this intricate message response structure. It’s pretty intense what occurs within the electrical system of a garbage truck, so it’s understandable when there are computer glitches or complete meltdowns sometimes.

“APOLLO 16 ON MOON -- Lunar Module ascent stage as viewed from the Command Service Modules prior to docking. Sea of Fertility is below. Apollo 16 Astronauts John W. Young, commander and Charles M. Duke, Jr., lunar module pilot during Apollo 16 lunar landing mission. Astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly II, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit. The A/s 16 mission was the fifth NASA manned voyage to the Moon.”

Object Details: The full moon on October 13, 2019 as it appeared from the observatory at our home here in upstate, NY using a Canon 700D / t5i DSLR & a vintage 1970 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector at prime focus.

Image Details: The attached is a stack of the best 62 frames using a 1/250 second exposure at ISO 100 and processed using a combination of PIPP, AS3, Registax, PS, PI & PSP. As shown here it has been re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Given the moon's low altitude, as well as the poor seeing conditions at the time (i.e. 1 out of 5), I was fairly pleased with the result.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Northrop Grumman X-47B is a demonstration unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) designed for aircraft carrier-based operations. Developed by the American defense technology company Northrop Grumman, the X-47 project began as part of DARPA's J-UCAS program, and subsequently became part of the United States Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. The X-47B is a tailless jet-powered blended-wing-body aircraft capable of semi-autonomous operation and aerial refueling.

The X-47B first flew in 2011, and as of 2015, its two active demonstrators have undergone extensive flight and operational integration testing, having successfully performed a series of land- and carrier-based demonstrations. In August 2014, the US Navy announced that it had integrated the X-47B into carrier operations alongside manned aircraft, and by May 2015 the aircraft's primary test program was declared complete. The X-47B demonstrators themselves were intended to become museum exhibits after the completion of their flight testing, but the Navy later decided to maintain them in flying condition pending further development.

Design and development

Origins

The US Navy did not commit to practical "UCAS" efforts until 2000, when the service awarded contracts of US$2 million each to Boeing and Northrop Grumman for a 15-month concept-exploration program. Design considerations for a naval UCAV included dealing with the corrosive saltwater environment, deck handling for launch and recovery, integration with command and control systems, and operation in an aircraft carrier's high-electromagnetic-interference environment. The Navy was also interested in procuring UCAVs for reconnaissance missions, penetrating protected airspace to identify targets for following attack waves. Northrop Grumman's proof-of-concept X-47A "Pegasus", which provided the basis for the X-47B's development, first flew in 2003.

The J-UCAS program was terminated in February 2006 following the US military's Quadrennial Defense Review. The US Air Force and Navy proceeded with their own UAV programs. The Navy selected Northrop Grumman's X-47B as its unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D) program. To provide realistic testing, the company built the demonstration vehicle to be the same size and weight as the projected operational craft, with a full-sized weapons bay capable of carrying existing missile systems.

The X-47B prototype rolled out from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on 16 December 2008. Its first flight was planned for November 2009, but the flight was delayed as the project fell behind schedule. On 29 December 2009, Northrop Grumman oversaw towed taxi tests of the aircraft at the Palmdale facility, with the aircraft taxiing under its own power for the first time in January 2010.

Flight testing

The first flight of the X-47B demonstrator, designated Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1), took place at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 4 February 2011. The aircraft first flew in cruise configuration with its landing gear retracted on 30 September 2011. A second X-47B demonstrator, designated AV-2, conducted its maiden flight at Edwards Air Force Base on 22 November 2011.

The two X-47B demonstrators were initially planned to have a three-year test program with 50 tests at Edwards AFB and NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, culminating in sea trials in 2013. However, the aircraft performed so consistently that the preliminary tests stopped after 16 flights. Thereafter, the Navy decided to use the aircraft to demonstrate carrier launches and recoveries, as well as autonomous inflight refueling with a probe and drogue. In November 2011, the Navy announced that aerial refuelling equipment and software would be added to one of the prototype aircraft in 2014 for testing. The Navy also affirmed that the demonstrator aircraft would never be armed. In 2012, Northrop Grumman tested a wearable remote control system, designed to allow ground crews to steer the X-47B while on the carrier deck.

In May 2012, AV-1 began high-intensity electromagnetic interference testing at Patuxent River, to test its compatibility with planned electronic warfare systems. In June 2012, AV-2 arrived at Patuxent River to begin a series of tests, including arrested landings and catapult launches, to validate the ability of the aircraft to conduct precision approaches to an aircraft carrier. The drone's first land-based catapult launch was conducted successfully on 29 November 2012.

On 26 November 2012, the X-47B began its carrier-based evaluation aboard the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. On 18 December 2012, the X-47B completed its first at-sea test phase. The system was remarked to have performed "outstandingly", having proved that it was compatible with the flight deck, hangar bays, and communication systems of an aircraft carrier. With deck testing completed, the X-47B demonstrator returned to NAS Patuxent River for further tests. On 4 May 2013, the demonstrator successfully performed an arrested landing on a simulated carrier deck at Patuxent River. The Navy launched the X-47B from the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on the morning of 14 May 2013 in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the first time that an unmanned drone was catapulted off an aircraft carrier. On 17 May 2013, another first was achieved when the X-47B performed touch-and-go landings and take-offs on the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush while underway in the Atlantic Ocean.

On 10 July 2013, the X-47B launched from Patuxent River and landed on the deck of the George H.W. Bush, conducting the first ever arrested landing of a UAV on an aircraft carrier at sea. The drone subsequently completed a second successful arrested landing on the Bush, but a third attempt was diverted to the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia after a technical problem was detected, aborting the planned carrier landing. One of the drone's three navigational sub-systems failed, which was identified by the other two sub-systems. The anomaly was indicated to the mission operator, who followed test plan procedures to abort the landing. The Navy stated that the aircraft's detection of a problem demonstrated its reliability and ability to operate autonomously.

On 15 July 2013, the second X-47B demonstrator, designated 501, was forced to abort another planned landing on the Bush due to technical issues. Officials asserted that only one successful at-sea landing was required for the program, though testers were aiming for three, and only two out of four were achieved. The Navy continued flying the two X-47B demonstrators through 2014, after the service was criticised for prematurely retiring the testbeds. The Navy subsequently deployed the aircraft to carriers for three further test phases between 2013 and 2015, with the intent of demonstrating that unmanned aircraft could seamlessly work with a 70-plane carrier air wing.

On 18 September 2013, the X-47B flew the 100th flight for the UCAS-D program. The objectives of the program were finally completed in July, which included a total of 16 precision approaches to the carrier flight deck, including five tests of X-47B wave-off functions, nine touch-and-go landings, two arrested landings, and three catapult launches. On 10 November 2013, flight testing for the X-47B continued on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). During this phase, the X-47B's digitized carrier-controlled environment was tested; this involved the interface between the unmanned aircraft and carrier personnel during launching, recovering, and flight operations.

Sea trials on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2014 were intended to test the X-47B's ability to swiftly take off, land, and hold in a pattern among manned aircraft without disruption to carrier operations. The X-47B also operated with a jet-blast deflector on deck for the first time, allowing it to conduct takeoffs without disrupting operations taking place behind it. On 10 April 2014, the X-47B performed its first night flight.

Later that year on 17 August the aircraft took off and landed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt alongside an F/A-18 "Hornet", marking the first time an unmanned aircraft operated in conjunction with manned aircraft aboard an aircraft carrier. The "Hornet" was launched from the carrier, followed by the X-47B. Both flew around the ship for 8 minutes, then the X-47B touched down and then immediately took off again to verify that all systems were working correctly. After 24 minutes, the X-47B landed on the flight deck and was then taxied away to give the "Hornet" room to land. All test objectives were met in the demonstration. The trials marked the X-47B's fifth test period at sea, having completed eight catapult launches from a carrier, 30 touch-and-goes, and seven arrested landings aboard the George H.W. Bush and Roosevelt. The testing was successfully completed on 24 August 2014, with the X-47B completing five catapult launches, four arrestments, and nine touch-and-go landings. Nighttime taxi and deckhandling operations on the flight deck were also performed for the first time. The X-47B met its objective of performing launches and recoveries at 90-second intervals with manned "Hornet" planes. In April 2015, the X-47B successfully conducted the world's first fully autonomous aerial refuelling, rendezvousing with an Omega Air KC-707 tanker over the coast of Maryland. This marked the effective completion of the X-47B's development, as it had completed all the primary demonstration tasks required of it.

In February 2016 the US Navy has decided to morph the X-47B from a surveillance and strike aircraft into a reconnaissance and aerial refuelling drone with "limited strike capability". The about-turn follows a top-level review and restructuring of the now-defunct unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) project, with the service's latest budget instead funding the MQ-25 Stingray CBARS, or carrier-based aerial refuelling system.

Costs

The project was initially funded under a US$635.8 million contract awarded by the Navy in 2007. By January 2012, the X-47B's total program cost had grown to an estimated $813 million. Government funding for the X-47B UCAS-D program was to run out at the end of September 2013, with the close of the fiscal year. However, in June 2014 the Navy provided an additional $63 million for "post-demonstration" development of the X-47B.

End of program

In February 2015, the Navy stated that the competition for private tenders for constructing the UCLASS fleet would begin in 2016, with the aircraft expected to enter service in the early 2020s. Reportedly, despite the X-47B's success in test flights, Navy officials were concerned that it would be too costly and insufficiently stealthy for the needs of the UCLASS project. In April 2015, it was reported that the X-47B demonstrators would become museum exhibits upon the completion of their flight testing. In June 2015, United States Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus stated that the X-47B test program should continue but that Northrop-Grumman should not gain an unfair advantage in the competition for the UCLASS contract. In July 2015, the Navy stated that the X-47B demonstrators would remain in flying condition rather than being converted to museum exhibits, allowing for a variety of follow-on evaluations.

In January 2017 the first X-47B departed NAS Patuxent River, Md. for a cross country trip back to Northrop Grumman's manufacturing facility in Palmdale, Calif. In August 2017 Aviation Week published photos of a modified X-47B as testbed for Northrop Grumman's MQ-25 bid. However, Northrop Grumman announced on 25 October 2017 that it was withdrawing its X-47B from the MQ-25 competition saying the company would have been unable to execute the program under the terms of the service's request for proposals.

552nd ACW Bids Farewell to First AWACS

The right-side nose landing gear door of E-3 Sentry 75-0560 bears the names of current and former 552nd Air Control Wing members after a divestment signing event at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, March 31, 2023. This E-3 Sentry is the first aircraft to be divested. -USAF

DMAFB

Aircraft 0560 is the first E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning Air Control System aircraft to retire from the fleet this year. As part of the FY23 President’s Budget Request, the Department of the Air Force announced its intent to divest 13 E-3 AWACS aircraft and redirect funding to procure and field a replacement.