View allAll Photos Tagged stability
As the politics of Roawia shifted towards stability after the War, Sir Rivings adapted to a new life as a guardian and protector- one of a parent. The apartments and dens that he had once called his home were no suitable place for a lady, even if he was there to protect her. Instead, he purchased a small keep from a failing baron near the border of Lenfald to call his own.
Controversy had stormed around him as he had taken her home, but soon faded. Those who had seen Sir Faulenhart's face now suddenly noticed how similar Sir Rivings appeared to the fabled knight. Others called him baser names, accusing him of taking her as a wife. On top of buying a castle, the scandal took new heights. Needless to say, Sir Rivings was gaining himself a reputation as an increasingly eccentric noble. He did not mind that claim one bit.
The new Queen decided that she too cared little for such claims. Sir Rivings received word of a great feast for everybody who is anybody in Roawia. Seeing it as an opportunity to learn more about those enemies of the Prince whom he had not yet met, Sir Rivings accepted at once. He called for Faelin and had her make new armor for the occasion. She finished just in time for him to make a leisurely journey to the King's Palace. He made the final preparations for his journey while wearing his new treasure to ensure that it allowed for the movements and physical requirements his work might entail. When it passed his inspection, Sir Rivings discovered he was not ready after all.
"What could I possibly bring to a Queen as a gift? She'll be getting gold, clothes, jewels, and other treasures from nobles all over the land. How can I stand apart?" Rivings pondered aloud. "Perhaps an exquisite armoire, or other furnishing? No, I'd sooner be known as Sir who brought nothing than Sir Decor."
After examining his own treasure room, Sir Rivings returned with a beautiful amulet. "Now this treasure is truly worthy! The gold itself may not be worth much, but the story it carries is worth entire kingdoms. Pirates, valiant knights battling duels for kings, and spies. All the things she ought know about here in Roawia, before she befalls any tragedy herself. It will certainly bring interest to the table. Now I am ready."
"You wouldn't want to leave without your scepter, Sir. I've had Faelin fashion a gem in the pommel, you'll look much more courtly. Bring back stories, Dad. I've had far too few of them from you over the years." Lady Jayne stood in the doorway, dressed in simple, elegant robes of the desert.
"I will bring back more than stories, little dove. Thank you for your kindness. I only hope it doesn't offend the Queen that I carry one." Sir Rivings' smile had become a common sight these days, and it graced the room again now. "One doesn't receive an invitation from royalty every day. Hopefully things go peacefully, but should they turn ugly, it will be my only weapon."
SOUTH CHINA SEA (Jan. 15, 2016) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) conducts a live fire gunnery exercise with its 5-inch .54-caliber gun. Curtis Wilbur is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt.j.g. Jonathan Peterson/Released)
PHILIPPINE SEA (Aug. 6, 2020) A CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft attached to the Air Force 21st Special Operations Squadron launches from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to maintain security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Walter Estrada)
I built the M40 Hungarian diesel locomotive in minifigure scale.
(This version only original lego parts.)
Aspects of creation:
1.similarity
2.full details
3.massiveness/stability
4.playability
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Ez az alkotásom a nagy népszerűségnek örvendő "púpost",
vagyis a MÁV M40-es dízelmozdonyát modellezi.
Sok lego vonatot készítettem már, de ez az első dízelem, illetve az első amit "makettező" stílusban kívántam megvalósítani, ezért igyekeztem valami egyszerű de
szép mozdonyt választani. Így is jóval több tanulsággal lettem gazdagabb a végére, mint amire számítottam. :)
ELKÉSZÍTÉSI SZEMPONTOK:
1.hasonlóság
Ezúttal erre a szempontra igyekeztem a legnagyobb hangsúlyt fektetni.
A hosszúsági és magassági arányokat sikerült is szépen tartani, de mivel terepasztalra szánt darabról van szó, egy "lego-s" arányrendszerbe kellet
illeszkednie, ezért a szélességében kicsit össze kellet nyomnom.
A színválasztásnál is némi kompromisszumot kellet kötnöm. A leginkább hasonlatos
talán akkor lett volna ha felül bright green és white, alul pedig green-ben készítem.
Viszont sajnos bright green-ből nagyon sok alkatrésztípust nem adtak még ki a legoék, és a rendelkezésemre álló öntapadós fólia színek között sem volt kellően hasonló
árnyalat.. ezért esett a választásom a green-white és dark green színösszeállításra.
Sőt, ehhez a színváltozathoz is sok alkatrész hiányzott, vagy éppen létezett, de számomra elérhetetlen volt. "Gyenge pillanatomban" már majdnem lemondtam a zöld verzióról, :) és el is kezdtem megépíteni egy red-yellow változatot, de végül sikerült beszereznem a szükséges zöld és sötétzöld alkatrészeket.
2.részletgazdagság
Azt hiszem elég sok részletet kidolgoztam, rengeteg kísérletezés árán persze..
pl:
-ütközők kialakítása
-elől a kis létra megoldása
-kerék szerkezet
-kémény és kürtök
-tetején a radar szerű rács stb.
3.masszivság
Kiemelt fontosságú volt.
Nem csak azért mert a terepasztalon sok-sok kort fog megtenni ami rengeteg rázkódással, illetve "megrázkódtatással" jár, hanem mert tervek a szerint kiállításra
is vinni fogjuk, és a szállítást is nagyban megkönnyíti ha az alkatrészek nem mozdulnak el, és nem esnek le könnyen.
4.játszhatóság
Könnyen levehető a vezető fülke teteje, és mindkét irányba be lehet ültetni a
mozdonyvezető minifigurát.
..és persze a lényeg, hogy nagy megbízhatósággal fut 9V-os sínpályán.
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 3, 2020) The amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18), left, conducts a replenishment-at-sea with the dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10) with MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters from the “Archangels” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 25, Detachment 6. New Orleans, part of the America Amphibious Ready Group assigned to Amphibious Squadron 11, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Taylor DiMartino)
Panorama View of Midnight Sun
Location : NordKapp , Norway
Camera : Nikon D3X
Lens : Nikon 24-70mm
Day : July 25th 2010
Midnight Sun in Nordkapp - North Cape 13 May 29 July
Before shooting the midnight sun, you should STUDY the weather of the country that you are going to shoot in. We choose the last land of Europe North Cape/Nordkapp , and study the stability of the weather. You need sunny day, no windy or cloudy weather.
The phenomenon of midnight sun can only be seen north of the polar circle. At the mainland the North Cape have the first day (24 hours) of midnight sun. May 14th one can see the whole sun above the horizon in the night, at the polar circle this is a reality almost a month later.
During this day, we stayed from 8pm to 8am just to get this Panoramic view. The technique of shooting was interesting and long one; we start shooting half hour before 8pm to test the camera and get use to the procedure.
The Camera; Nikon D3X with using Nikon 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens, was on Monofrotto Tripod, and the center view finder of the camera was on the sun. Also the horizon line was dividing the photo: 3/4 the sky and 1/4 the sea. The 1st shoot was on 8pm, and every 5 min. the shutter was clicked, with adjustment of the center of the camera on the sun. We stayed until 8am but actually we used the photos from 8pm - 5am; 4 hours before 12am (the midnight sun) and 5 hours after, just to balance the panoramic view.
Please don't use this photo without the permission of the photographers: Nada and Najwa Marafie.
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Gear: Nikon D3X
PHILIPPINE SEA (Aug. 26, 2020) The forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) transits the Philippine Sea to maintain stability in the region. America, flagship of the America Amphibious Ready Group, assigned to Amphibious Squadron Eleven, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Matthew Cavenaile)
See how these 6 simple ways can change your life.
Although some religions have introduced us as sinners and guilty, it doesn't and hasn't changed
our reality. We are love covered by the conditioned mind which has taken command of our whole existence. Nevertheless it has never and will never be able to change our being.
Inside all and every single one of us there is a reality untouched by any mind and thanks to yoga and meditation, it is starting to reveal itself in a way it never had. Below are the six secrets we have found will lead to Living Your Truth and also Loving Your Life in the quickest amount of time.
Key 1: Know Your Truth
Exactly how can we listen to the body's knowledge if we're constantly hurrying, reflecting concerning the past, projecting into the future, as well as mishandling time? Our authentic self realities existing in silence. In order to disclose that self, we should find stillness and also silence for a dedicated time frame every day. During this moment, show on exactly how you were educated "fact." Were you encouraged to reject your personal fact? As an example, did you want to be an artist, instead were informed to obtain a degree in company due to the fact that the job market is a lot better? Were you interested in learning a particular sport, instead a moms and dad pressed you to play a different one at which they stood out? Lots of might have been shown that talking the truth was impolite if it somehow angered one more person, so you established the "Disease to Please" in order to maintain the peace and not hurt feelings. Journal concerning exactly what your reflections expose from youth as well as attach the dots onward to problems you could have today.
Key 2: Speak Your Truth
Once you have systems in position to aid you identify your fact, the following action is to be able to properly honor as well as interact it. Ask on your own: How do I really feel? What do I require? Just what do I want? Express the solutions without have to validate or safeguard. You have to start every interaction with the hope that your demands will certainly be satisfied. Occasionally, our requirements can not be fulfilled nor do we have the need or storage capacity to fulfill another person's, so we must also learn how to with dignity, yet absolutely, say and also get "no." Along with spoken expression, revealing your authentic self through garments, embellishing your individual area, and developing something from absolutely nothing (art, creating, etc.) are all fun as well as liberating ways to mirror your credibility back to you.
Key 3: Lose Your Mafia (FEAR) Mind
Consider exactly how much of your day is worked on autopilot. This is your subconscious mind which is helpful in enabling you to keep in mind ways to reach work and tie your shoes, yet is detrimental in that it creates you to hang onto the same ol' ways of believing and the "this is the means it's consistently been so this is the method it will certainly continue to be" attitude. This is where the initial key is also vital due to the fact that all unfavorable inner voices have a beginning. Allow yourself to peel back the layers to subject when/ where/ by which the fear came from and also why you have actually transformed it right into scripture. If your auto-pilot worry mind runs your life's show, it additionally extorts pleasure from it. Understanding that many anxiety is a sensation not a fact releases you to transform your feedback. Worry belongs to the human condition and insightful, instead you do have control over exactly how much it controls you. To be genuine, you need to want to extend of your comfort zone. Have faith that you will make it through, grow, as well as learn just what it is you are indicated to know when you do exactly what you are called to do. Fear can be your largest instructor or the obstruction to where you intend to go. You determine.
Key 4: You = The Only ONE
"Comparison is the thief of delight."-- Dwight Edwards
When you cannot accept and also celebrate your originality, you adapt as well as pack on your own down, ultimately bring about those high qualities being lost. This "opposite side" of us becomes our shadow self-- the component of ourselves that we reject, dismiss, and think to be unwanted. The building of the shadow self returns to your upbringing as well as what high qualities were kept in esteem. Residing in your fact indicates allowing and embracing all aspects of YOU. Because you are the just you, now and also evermore, attempting to live another's life is just impossible. Concentrate on the high qualities that set you apart, honor your stability in all you do, and also accept your shadow self with kindness. Nobody else has your distinct presents and also abilities.
Key 5: Downloaded Blueprints
A belief is merely a thought you've had sometimes. Any type of area of your life that is not working is more than likely built on a malfunctioning plan (aka belief) designed by others. Disclosing your restricting, acquired ideas is the start of redrawing your plan to actually match the life you wish to develop. Identify you have control to flip the old downloaded and install blueprint from the past into a new, fresh version that matches your reality. (Check out the Daily Living tab on my site for assist with downloaded and install blueprints around love, cash, and health and wellness.).
Key 6: Revealing as well as Building Core Self with Balance.
When encountered with a decision, ask yourself two concerns to find your reality and live from your core self. What is my highest excellent in this moment? Exactly what is the following ideal action for me to take? When you attain this quality, you are in balance as well as can examine where you run out equilibrium. In those locations that are imbalanced, replying these concerns will certainly set you on course to creating concrete modifications to come back to center. Chump changes will certainly include up to big shifts, so ditch the all-or-nothing mentality and also begin today to know your truth and melt in joy.
With love by Yogasensing
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (May 12, 2020) - 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron B-1B Lancer is refueled by an Ohio Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker from the 166th Aerial Refueling Squadron, May 12, 2020, during a training mission in the vicinity of Japan where they integrated with Japan Air Self Defense Force assets. The 9th EBS is deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, as part of a Bomber Task Force and is supporting Pacific Air Forces’ strategic deterrence missions and commitment to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman River Bruce) 200512-F-GD886-1043
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Since I can't decide: which version do you prefer?
I tried to make the U-Wing a bit thinner, hoping that it would make the smaller engines look more accurate compared to the rest of the body. The lower cabin was no problem at all, since I already designed a smaller version of that for the 1.0-version.
The cockpit section however is much more difficult, since it has to inhabit the hinges that angle the side panels.
I came up with the design shown in the image, which does make the whole model more sleek, at the cost of a lot of stability (the 1x2 and 1x4 panel pieces are all just held together with single studs of a few brackets!). It also introduces a few new gaps, and it leaves no space for the wedge-details that I so badly wanted to implement (even though they stand out too much).
It also makes the sides of the cockpit much bulkier and more round than they should be, resulting in a sleeker but more inaccurate look of that section. But the alternative would be to leave giant gaps between the Cockpit and the angled panels (showing the hinges I used to angle cockpit and side panels), which I personally dislike even more
Another (minor) Problem with the small engines is the fact that the round 2x2 plate isn't availabe in dark blue, but that's the least of my worries...
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 24, 2020) As seen from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42), an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter from the “Archangels” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 25, Detachment 6, prepares to transport stores from the fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Ericsson (T-AO 194) to Germantown during a replenishment-at-sea, as the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18), left, and the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) sail behind Ericsson. Germantown, part of Expeditionary Strike Group Seven (ESG 7), along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners, and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Taylor DiMartino)
If you were looking for ways to both strengthen and increase stability of the musculature of the spine one could perform various exercises, but there is only one solution that doesn't require any kind of exercise - active sitting on SpinaliS chairs. Strengthen your core muscles while sitting!
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Core stability refers to a person's ability to stabilise their core. Stability, in this context, should be considered as an ability to control the position and movement of the core. Thus, if a person has greater core stability, they have a greater level of control over the position and movement of this area of their body. The body's core is frequently involved in aiding other movements of the body, such as the limbs, and it is considered that by improving core stability a person's ability to perform these other movements may also be improved i.e. core stability training may help improve someone's running ability. The bodies core region is sometimes referred to as the torso or the trunk, although there are some differences in the muscles identified as constituting them. The major muscles involved in core stability include the pelvic floor muscles, transversus abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae (sacrospinalis) especially the longissimus thoracis, and the diaphragm. The minor muscles involved include the latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, and trapezius. Notably, breathing, including the action of the diaphragm, can significantly influence the posture and movement of the core; this is especially apparent in regard to extreme ranges of inhalation and exhalation. On this basis, how a person is breathing may influence their ability to control their core.
Some researchers have argued that the generation of intra-abdominal pressure, caused by the activation of the core muscles and especially the transversus abdominis, may serve to lend support to the lumbar spine.
Typically, the core is associated with the body's center of gravity, which is over the region of the second sacral vertebrae groups and stability is associated with isometric or static strength. In addition, it is the lumbar spine that is primarily responsible for posture and stability thus providing the strength needed for the stability especially utilized in dynamic sports.
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SOUTH CHINA SEA (Sept. 6, 2020) Force Reconnaissance Marines with Command Element, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) board a CH-53 E Super Stallion helicopter with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262, for extraction during a visit, board, search and seizure exercise aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42). Germantown, part of the America Amphibious Ready Group assigned to Amphibious Squadron 11, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners, and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Taylor DiMartino)
On Wednesday, Nov. 18, a portion of an adjacent hillside slid and carried several trees onto the roadway following a recent rainstorm. While the debris also damaged several power lines and blocked the highway, the long-term concern is the stability of the hillside.
Geotechnical engineers from the Washington State Department of Transportation will investigate the potential for additional slides and determine if a slope repair is necessary before the highway reopens to traffic.
The first free library in Bright was a wooden building established in the mid 1880s. However, but the Twentieth Century, the citizenry wanted something finer and more permanent as their free library, something that would reflect the stability and prosperity of the township. Wangaratta architect J. E. Ludholm and building contractors Messrs. McNichol and McNichol were awarded the design and construction of the new Bright Free Library. The elegant Federation Free Classical style building built on Ireland Street was the result. Completed in August 1910, the building was opened on the 23rd of September 1910. Constructed of red brick with contrasting materials for decoration, it has a symmetrical façade, a prominent tower and decorative finials. It also has some classical decorative accents. All of these elements are common characteristics of Federation Free Classical style architecture.
Bright, a town in north-east Victoria, is situated in the Ovens Valley and is part of the Alpine Region of Victoria. 210 kilometres from Melbourne, Bright was one of the towns in the Ovens Valley where gold was discovered. Gold was found near the junction of Morses Creek and the Ovens River in the 1850s. Established in 1862 and named Bright, most likely after John Bright (1811 - 1889) an English publicist, reformer and parliamentarian the township thrived. With the Gold Rush in full swing, Bright soon had Catholic, Wesleyan and Presbyterian churches, schools, three hotels, three quartz mills and two bank branches. As the yield of gold declined in the 1870s, so too did Bright’s population, yet by the 1880s, it became an alpine tourism town. The Bright Alpine club was formed in 1887 and a community library was started there in 1889. In the following year Bright was connected by railway to Myrtleford and Wangaratta, bringing with it much needed tourists from Melbourne. In 1910 a grand chalet was opened at Mount Buffalo and Bright ran a hire car service for visitors, who often stayed there overnight at a hotel or guesthouse. In 1919 a secondary school was opened in Bright. It also had a tourist progress association and local angling, bowling, racing, tennis and golf clubs amongst its many attractions. By the mid 1920s the people of Bright began planting exotic trees partly for landscape improvement and partly to lay the summer dust. The street tree plantings produced extraordinary autumn colours. By 1933, Bright was described as the “Tourism Capital of the Ovens Valley”. Bright’s train line continued until 1983 when it was finally discontinued and replaced with coaches. By that time, it was a well established tourism town with people flocking there all throughout the year for different reasons. Bright is a base for exploring the peaks of Mount Buffalo National Park and Alpine National Park as well as Mount Hotham, a popular ski resort. Bright is a starting point for the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail, a hiking and cycling path. Bright Museum, in the town’s former train station, documents rail and gold rush history. The region is also known for wineries and of course its amazing display of autumnal foliage.
The Basílica de la Sagrada Família is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica, as distinct from a cathedral, which must be the seat of a bishop.
Construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882 and Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly, as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.
The basílica has a long history of dividing the citizens of Barcelona: over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona's cathedral, over Gaudí's design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí's death disregarded his design, and the recent proposal to build an underground tunnel of Spain's high-speed rail link to France which could disturb its stability. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said, "It is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art" and Paul Goldberger called it, "The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages."
“BALLOON EXPERIMENT -- The MA-7 spacecraft has been outfitted with a system that will deploy a tethered balloon during the mission orbital phase. Of primary interest will be the visual phenomena in a space environment. Aerodynamic drag measurements will be a secondary objective.
The visual portion of this experiment will be concerned with the reflection characteristics of various colored surfaces in space. The relative merit of these colors for optimum visibility will be evaluated and a correlation between observed and actual separation of the object from the spacecraft after release will be established. The aerodynamic portion will measure atmospheric drag and stability while deployed and a relationship between these parameters and object separation following release will be analyzed.
An additional objective is provided by simultaneous dispersion of a cluster of multi-colored particles or “confetti” -- one-fourth inch Mylar discs which will be placed in the folds of the balloon. The visual effects and the behavior of these known objects will be closely studied.
The test apparatus consists of a 30-inch, Mylar-aluminum sphere which is to be inflated by an attached 900 [psi] nitrogen bottle. The balloon is divided equally into five segments. The corresponding colors on these reflective surfaces are orange, white, silver (aluminum), yellow, and phosphorescent, which has a glow characteristic at night. The balloon is tethered with a 100-foot nylon line and coiled eight-foot strip of .005 aluminum, which acts as a shock absorber as it uncoils. A small metal beam, instrumented with a strain gage, will provide the means of measuring drag. Electric squibs will actuate the spring-loaded deployment and line-cutting mechanisms.
The entire experiment package weighs about 7 pounds and will be installed within the antenna section.”
No artist signature visible, who deftly employed a textured(?) and mottled depiction of earth's surface, obviating the need to even semi-accurately depict land masses, oceans, etc. ;-)
What a joy to read. I sorely miss the precise, effective & articulate 'old school' style of intelligent, informative writing.
The following, other than as noted, is from the “MERCURY PROJECT SUMMARY (NASA SP-45)”, at:
history.nasa.gov/SP-45/ch12.htm
“A 30-inch mylar inflatable sphere was packaged in the antenna canister of both the MA-7 (see ref. 1) and MA-9 Mercury spacecraft. These balloons were to be ejected, inflated, and towed at the end of a 100-foot nylon line through one orbital pass to measure the drag experienced by the balloon throughout the orbit. The measured drag could then be readily converted into air density over the Mercury altitude profile. In addition, it was hoped that the astronaut could obtain some sightings yielding visual data on objects in close proximity to the spacecraft.
The design, construction, and qualification of the equipment used on this experiment were carried out by the NASA Langley Research Center. The components of the equipment are shown in figure 12-16. The results of this experiment conducted during the MA-7 flight are contained in reference 1.
[reference 1 being “RESULTS OF THE SECOND U.S. MANNED ORBITAL SPACE FLIGHT, MAY 24, 1962”, specifically:
The objectives of the balloon experiment were to measure the drag and to provide visibility data regarding an object of known size and shape in orbital] space. The balloon was 30 inches in diameter, and was constructed of five equal-sized lunes of selected colors and surface finishes The sphere was constructed of a plastic and aluminum foil sandwich material, and was to be inflated with a small nitrogen bottle immediately after release from the antenna canister at the end of the first orbital pass. In addition, numerous 1/4-inch discs of aluminized plastic were placed in the folds of the balloon and dispersed when the balloon was deployed.. is intended, the pilot observed the rate of dispersion and the associated visual effects of the "confetti."
The balloon was deployed at 01:38:00 ground elapsed time, but it failed to inflate properly. The cause has been attributed to a ruptured seam in the skin. Aerodynamic measurements were taken with the strain-gage pickup, but these are of little use since the actual frontal area of the partial inflated balloon is not known. The visibility portion of the experiment was also only partially successful because only two of the surface colors were visible, the orange and aluminum segments. While the balloon was deployed a series of spacecraft maneuvers evidently fouled the tethering line on the destabilizing flap located on the end of the cylindrical portion of the spacecraft, thus preventing the jettisoning of the balloon. No difficulty was encountered during retrofire and the balloon burned up during reentry.]
The above at:
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-6/ch1.htm
Briefly summarized, the balloon was deployed satisfactorily but was only partially inflated; hence, little useful data were obtained on this flight.
By a thorough investigation of the MA-7 failure, it was concluded that the balloon failed to inflate because one of the seams connecting the many gores comprising the balloon skin pulled apart.
The experiment was believed to have been of sufficient value to be repeated on a later Mercury flight; therefore, new equipment was developed and qualified for the MA-9 flight. Careful control of balloon construction was maintained throughout the development program and numerous deployment and inflation tests were conducted by the Langley Research Center to insure the quality of the device. These tests were conducted with the flight equipment under conditions which closely simulated the space environment without a single failure. Numerous squib firings were made, without a single failure, to insure that either one or both of the squibs used to unlatch the cover of the canister would accomplish this task. The assembled unit was carefully checked after installation on the spacecraft and was found to be satisfactory. It was, therefore, believed that this experiment was well qualified for flight, but unfortunately the balloon failed to deploy in flight. Failure was attributed to some malfunction in the squib firing circuit that released the hatch cover of the balloon canister. The exact cause of this malfunction could not be determined because the circuit was contained in the spacecraft antenna canister which is jettisoned prior to landing.”
And so began the mixed history of space tether missions, which seems to be well documented here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tether_missions
Credit: Wikipedia
The geodesic dome that is The Climatron awash with light during the first ever Garden Glow holiday light event at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Because tripods are prohibited, this image was made by resting my camera bag on top of a concrete bench. I then used a thick sweater to act as a type of sandbag with my camera perched atop this trio of stability.
Image © Copyright Philip Leara - Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
A group of U.S. Soldiers keeps an eye on the demarcation line during a security patrol outside Manbij, Syria, June 24, 2018. These independent, coordinated patrols with Turkish military forces help ensure the stability, safety and the continued defeat of ISIS in the region. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Timothy R. Koster)
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 15, 2020) Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handling) 3rd Class Alex Sagastume, left, from Pearson, Ga., supports Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handling) Airman Tony Holland, from Dallas, as he directs the landing of an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 on the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18). New Orleans, part of the America Amphibious Ready Group assigned to Amphibious Squadron 11, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kelby Sanders)
Breaking the tragedy of the horizon – climate change and financial stability.
Read the speech here:
www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/2015/...
Copyright: Johnny Millar
SYDNEY, Australia (July 27, 2017) The forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG 85) departs Sydney following a port visit. McCampbell is on patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jeremy Graham)
PHILIPPINE SEA (Aug. 24, 2016) Sailors wave off a MV-22 Osprey, assigned to the ‘Flying Tigers’ of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262, from the flight deck of the Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42). Germantown, attached to Expeditionary Strike Group 7, is underway in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operation in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Raymond D. Diaz III/Released)
Madison Square area, Manhattan
The 40-story tower (thirty-four stories plus the six-story crown) for the New York Life Insurance Company, one of the "big three" insurance companies, was designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert in 1926 and constructed in 1927-28. The building is Gilbert's third and final version of the neo-Gothic skyscraper in New York City, following his successful use of the style for 90 West Street in 1907 and later for the 1913 Woolworth Building (both designated New York City Landmarks).
With the New York Life Insurance Company design, Gilbert melded the neo-Gothic embellishments of his earlier buildings with the cubic geometries of 1920s skyscrapers, making this building a significant transition from the historical revival-styled skyscrapers of the 1900s to the Art Deco towers of the late 1920s. New York Life's desire for a monumental headquarters building allowed Gilbert to finally achieve his wish of creating a skyscraper clad in stone.
Details include the richly-molded surrounds of the entrance, window spandrels, and gargoyles at the roof line. The structure's pyramidal tower makes the building a distinctive contribution to the Madison Square neighborhood and the New York City skyline. The New York Life Insurance Company was founded in 1841 as the Nautilus Insurance Company in New York City.
The building was constructed during the administration of President Darwin P. Kingsley, an internationally-renowned businessman who expanded the firm's operations and developed new types of insurance policies. The New York Life Building, the most prominent insurance company building constructed between World War I and the Great Depression, was also the last signature home office building constructed for an insurance company in New York City. It was designed to project a strong corporate image through its siting, style, and silhouette. Rising above Madison Square Park, the building is a powerful symbol of the New York Life Insurance Company's lasting stability.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
Madison Square Park
The New York Life Insurance Company Building overlooks the verdant Madison Square Park. The park itself had been included by the street commissioners in their 1811 Map of Manhattan. Then the park was a reserve of almost 239 acres; it was not pared down to its present seven acres until 1844.^
Decades before the architecture of commerce came to dominate its borders, Madison Square possessed a rich civic, military, social and cultural history. With the onset of the War of 1812, President James Madison mobilized troops and the site, a temporary home to upstate volunteers, became "Camp Madison," a likely source for the square's name. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a Republican Party stronghold, opened in 1858 and the park opposite became a pantheon of the party's most revered public servants from New York; with bronze statues of Secretary William H. Seward, Senator Roscoe Conkling, and President Chester A. Arthur.^ To the east, Madison Avenue, insulated by the park, became a fashionable residential enclave.
In the 1880s and 1890s the Madison Square area became a theatrical center, causing residents to move uptown. In 1890 McKim, Mead & White's famous Madison Square Garden (demolished in 1924 for construction of the New York Life Insurance Company Building) opened at the northeast comer of Madison Avenue and East 26th Street on the site where P.T. Bamum formerly had his Hippodrome, and Gilmore's Garden had sheltered boxing demonstrations and the annual National Horseshow.^ At the same time, office buildings were also being constructed.
Also in 1890, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased the houses on the square's east side between 23"* and 24^ Streets, the first of many property acquisitions the company would make on Madison Square. With the exception of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, the whole block front was demolished to build the company's new headquarters, an eleven-story office building faced with Tuckahoe marble, designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's new and solid presence helped to revive Madison Square's eastern border. In 1896 the State of New York erected the marble courthouse for the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court (James Brown Lord, architect, a designated New York City Landmark), located on the northeast comer ofMadison and 25th Street. In 1907-09, Metropolitan Life replaced its 1890 building with the present fifty-story tower (a designated New York City Landmark), designed by Pierre L. LeBrun of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons. Evoking the campanile in Venice's St. Mark's Square, it was for a time the tallest building in the world.
History of the Life Insurance Industry and the New York Life Insurance Company
Life insurance in the modem sense, in which a large group shares financial liability calculated on the basis of statistics and laws of probability, is a relatively recent phenomenon, although it has its roots in earlier kinds of insurance.^ It was during the 1840s that America's large mutual insurance companies got their start, including New York Life. Such mutual associations allowed for the protection of policyholders without requiring large security deposits^
The New York Life Insurance Company was first chartered in 1841 as the Nautilus Insurance Company, offering marine and fire insurance. A mutual plan of life insurance was first offered in 1845, and the company officially changed its name to the New York Life Insurance Company in 1849.
By the end of the 1850s, most of the basic principles of the life insurance industry had been formulated. Level premium policies were the norm (rather than one year term policies in which the premium increases annually with age), and company medical examiners reviewed applications. State regulatory boards had been set up; reserves, dividends and rates had been established; and a strongly competitive marketing system had engendered a thriving industry.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, New York Life had many policyholders in the south, and although all southern business was suspended in 1861, business in general boomed. Life insurance coverage was to triple during the war years. In New York City alone, some 50,000 policies were in effect in 1860; by 1870, the number had swelled to 650,000.
By mid-war, New York Life had an annual premium income of one million dollars, and in order to handle the increased volume, adopted the so-called general agency system. A general agent was granted exclusive territorial rights and was paid on a commission basis. Sales agents, in turn, were paid on commission by the general agent rather than the insurance company itself. This organization was to continue for the next three decades.
During the post-Civil War boom years, the older established insurance companies were faced with fierce competition from dozens of newcomers, the majority of which were stock rather than mutual companies. In the scramble for business, New York Life quickly reestablished its southern contacts; in 1864, it honored pre-war policies for those not directly active in the war, extending the same privilege to combatants in 1867.
The company also initiated a campaign of westward expansion, with general agents in Denver and Salt Lake City in 1869andinSanFranciscoin 1870. In the same year an agent for Europe and Great Britain was dispatched to Paris, thereby inaugurating a world-wide expansion, which by the turn of the century included agencies not only all over Europe but also in the Far East, Africa, and South America.
The Panic of 1873 dealt a heavy blow to the life insurance industry. A great many of the new companies failed and life insurance and the number of policies declined drastically. Company failures in a climate of widespread financial turmoil inevitably led to charges of corruption and resulted in a series of state investigations. New York Life came under scrutiny in 1877, but was cleared. With competition substantially reduced, New York Life, along with the Equitable Life Assurance Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company, became known as the "Big Three." These companies continued to lead the American life insurance industry virtually unchallenged for the rest of the century.
New York Life had been under the leadership of President Morris Franklin since 1848. His successor, WilliamH. Beers, another New York Life veteran who joined the company in 1851, embarked on a more aggressive course.
Under Beers' direction, New York Life, in the continuing race for supremacy among the Big Three, offered new types of polices, including the Accumulation Policy, which essentially had no restrictions and was incontestable after the first year, while the company's vast surpluses were invested in ever more diversified fields.
Beers' successors, however, were even more committed to his philosophy, and were distinctly more sophisticated in their approach. The new leadership was shared by President John A. McCall and his "right hand" man, George W. Perkins.^
At Perkins' instigation, the general agency system was dismantled. The flaws in the agent system had long been recognized: sales agents loyalties were to the general agent and not the company; all agents readily and frequently switched allegiance; unauthorized rebating was standard procedure. Perkins' new branch office system provided for a general manager on a Axed salary with only small commissions awarded for new policies; the manager and all sales agents reported directly to the home office; the company offered financial incentives for productivity and long term service. That the new system worked to the benefit of the company was demonstrated by its widespread imitation.
Investments, although limited to a degree by state law, were ever more varied and far-flung, including substantial commitments abroad. The extent of investment holdings, information never readily available, can however be at least suggested by other statistics. As early as 1890 there was more life insurance in force in the United States that in the entire British Empire. American companies had sold their first billion dollars worth of insurance by 1899; a second billion had been sold by 1905.
But if the mood at New York Life was euphoric, the anti-big business mood of the country had become even more inflamed. Under strong public pressure, the New York State Legislature instituted the Armstrong investigations of 1905-06, which were to alter the profile of America's insurance industry. The actual investigation, conducted under the aegis of Judge Charles Evans Hughes, resulted in condemnatory but non-criminal findings. A series of reform laws were passed, controlling the size and nature of investments, regulating the extent of annual company growth, restricting political involvement, and mandating a new election of board members.
New York Life experienced another period of rapid growth during the boom years of 1924 to 1929, which culminated in the construction of its new headquarters at 51 Madison Avenue. The company weathered the Great Depression with its assets and stature intact, and after World War II embarked on the greatest expansion in its history, as it diversified into the fields of group coverage and health insurance. New York Life is now a global organization with total assets exceeding ninety billion dollars.
The New Home Office at 51 Madison Avenue
The New York Life Insurance Company Building at 51 Madison Avenue is the product of the period of rapid economic growth following the First World War and accelerating in the 1920s. It represents a synthesis of historical style with contemporary scale and massing. Its setback skyscraper silhouette derives from the economic imperatives of commercial real estate in 1920s New York, as shaped by the strictures of city zoning regulations.
In 1912, four years after the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company completed its office tower on Madison Square in 1908, the New York Life Insurance Company assumed the mortgage on Madison Square Garden, which occupied the site of the present New York Life building. After years of operating at a loss, Madison Square Garden Anally declared bankruptcy in 1917, and New York Life acquired the property through foreclosure of the mortgage.
In 1919, architect Cass Gilbert prepared sketches of an office building for New York Life at the Madison Square site. New York Life recognized the architect's mastery of the skyscraper form and his ability to create a distinctive corporate image through architecture. The company clearly understood the impact of expressing the dependability and durability of New York Life through the architecture of its new building, and likewise recognized that it would be adding an iconic image to the city's skyline.
Gilbert proposed two schemes, both showing a monumental tower over a wide base occupying most or all of the full-block site. One version depicted a tall base opened up by deep light courts on the east and west facades; the other incorporated a much lower base treated as a simple platform for the high tower. The possibility of a very tall tower remained under consideration until 1926 but was ultimately abandoned.
It was not until early 1923 that New York Life began serious consideration of moving its home office to Madison Square, with the formation of the "Committee on the Survey of the Home Office Building and On the Desirability of Madison Square Garden as a Future Home for this Company."^" By this time, the Company's operations were outgrowing the home office building at 346 Broadway, forcing some departments into office space at other locations. By the end of the year, the committee concluded that the Madison Square Garden site was an acceptable location for the new home office, but that the company should explore other locations anyway.
Gilbert presented tentative plans for the Madison Square Garden site in February 1924. It consisted of a twenty-eight-story building with sixteen stories to be built immediately, and with structural provisions for the addition of twelve more at a later time. By April, Gilbert proposed a twenty-one-story building with a flat-topped, two-story central tower rising fifty feet.
The Board of Directors (The Board) approved the scheme in mid- May, and later that month, the Real Estate Record & published its first account of the proposed building, based on a preliminary filing with the New York City Department of Buildings: twenty eight stories overall, including a twenty-one-story base and a seven-story tower; broad, loft-like massing, with large floor plates, minimal setbacks, and no light courts; east-west passage through the ground floor connecting both avenues to the lobby, joined by a single transverse passage with entrances on 26^ and 27*^ Streets; five basement levels, including an entrance to the Fourth Avenue IRT subway; and ground-floor commercial space oriented to both the sidewalk and the interior passage. This scheme would form the basis of the plan that was finally approved.
For much of the rest of 1924, however, Gilbert continued to explore a number of designs. As late as November, the Board was still considering such diverse alternatives as a twenty-one-story block with a short tower, a 1000-foot tower with a broad base, and a sixteen-story slab with no tower. Nevertheless, the Board continued to favor the earlier twenty-eight-story scheme. Demolition of Madison Square Garden began in May 1925,^ and foundation excavation began in August.
In April 1926, with excavation over 60 percent complete, structural steel fabrication at least 20 percent complete, and after the expenditure of over $ 1 million, Gilbert's design was abandoned when bids for construction came in significantly higher than expected. Other drawbacks included the enormous floors plates that would require artificial lighting and ventilation since a large percent of the space would be too far from any of the building's exterior walls. These conditions would raise the company's cost per square foot for construction and for on-going operations, reduce the amount of lease revenue, and compromise working conditions for the company's staff.
The New York State Department of Insurance, the regulatory agency overseeing the insurance industry, also disapproved of the design on economic grounds: "It would appear, therefore, that your architect is not able to prepare plans of a solid block building, which would be practical for rentable purposes and bring proper return to your company on its investment."^ The Board directed Gilbert to develop a new plan as soon as possible, and he began redesigning the building in May.
By this time, Gilbert had delegated further design work on the building to his staff, which was consistent with the general character of his practice in the years after World War I. During this Anal period in the architect's career, the firm's buildings reflected Gilbert's design team as a whole.^ Under the watchful eye of New York Life's building subcommittee, anew plan was developed during the spring and early summer of 1926, with approval of the final, semi-monumental design coming in early August.
The thirty-four-story building, to be constructed of limestone rather than marble as originally envisioned, incorporated setbacks and a distinctive, gilded pyramidal roof containing six additional floors. The building's massing shares the geometry of other, zoning-influenced skyscrapers of the 1920s. Incorporating ornamentation of the Renaissance, Gothic, and ArtDeco styles, and inspired by old towers, town halls, and civic buildings in France and the Netherlands, Gilbert called the style of the building "American Perpendicular."^
Later in August, foundation work was completed and general construction of the building began.^ As construction progressed under the supervision of general contractor Starrett Brothers, the architects remained distant from the day-to-day operations. By 1927, Gilbert's office was "...simply approving or disapproving the contractor Starrett Brothers' decisions, largely without comment."^
The completion of the New York Life Building was celebrated by owner, architect, and critics alike. Proud New York Life officials dedicated their new home office with a gala ceremony in December 1928. Gilbert expressed his satisfaction with the final product as a special and distinctive synthesis of historical precedents and modem conditions. Architectural critics also praised the design's practical and aesthetic achievements. In March 1929, published an issue exclusively devoted to the New York Life Building, and reported:
"The New York Life Building is an important
economic factor in the community because of
its usefulness. Its observance of the accepted criteria of correct designing, harmonious proportions of its mass, cultured restraint and refinement of its ornamentation, general fitness and inspiring beauty and dignity, cause it to assume its rightfully pre-eminent position in the never ending pageant of the world's architecture."^
Later History
The New York Life Insurance Company enjoyed continuous prosperity following World War II and funded a number of housing developments in the city. The company constructed an annex located at 63 Madison Avenue in 1958-62. Called the North Building, it was designed by the firm Carson & Lundin. The original building at 51 Madison Avenue became known as the South Building. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Since its completion in 1928, the South Building's exterior has remained largely intact, while the interior has been continually upgraded and modernized. The original bronze window sash and frames remain intact, as do most of the original storefronts. The only major loss of original fabric took place during the reconfiguration of the original tower roof in 1966-67, which included the removal of much of the stonework on the thirty-fifth floor. Temporary roof repairs began in 1956, and a major roof replacement, designed by Carson, Lundin & Shaw, commenced in 1966.
The work included removal of the original copper-and-gold-leaf roof, reinforcement and reconfiguring of the structural steel, and extending the slope of the roof downward. The new roof consists of gold-toned ceramic tile over a double layer of plywood sheathing. Modification of the stonework at the thirty-fifth floor included removal of the tourelles and limestone masonry screens. The bronze lantern and spire were restored. Nighttime illumination of the tower roof began in 1985 to mark the 140^ anniversary of the company's founding.
In 1988, mechanical equipment was installed on the fourteenth floor setback, and in 1992, new roofs were installed on the twenty-sixth, thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth-floor setbacks. New cooling towers were installed on the twenty-sixth-floor setback on the western side of the building in 1991. Major exterior ( rehabilitation work took place in 1994 in preparation [ for New York Life's 150^ anniversary, including the installation of new gold-toned ceramic tile on the tower roof and the cleaning and repointing of the exterior masonry.
Description
The building contains thirty-four stories of office and ground-floor commercial space, five basement levels, a first-floor mezzanine, and six penthouse levels, enclosing mechanical equipment, within the roof structure; it rises to a total of 617 feet. It is a steel-framed structure, clad on the exterior with granite at the base and Indiana limestone on the upper floors. There are setbacks at the fifth, fourteenth, twenty-sixth, thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth floors. The eight-sided pyramidal roof is topped by a cast-bronze lantern. The building's more than 2,200 exterior windows contain heavy bronze sash and frames.
The building has a four-story, full-block base and, above that, a nine-story central section from which the twenty-one-story tower rises. The tower is flanked by two square, twelve-story wings and is topped by a six-story crown featuring an eight-sided pyramidal roof. The ascending volumes and subtle arrangement of window bays give the building its solid vertically. Culminating in a grand, gilded crown, the building's mass achieves a distinctly recognizable silhouette.
Storefronts
The building retains original storefronts in many of its sidewalk-level masonry bays on all four facades. This infill consists of plate-glass show windows in bronze frames and granite bulkheads. Various storefront types exists, most of which are variations of four original types or early alterations. The first type has a central revolving door and a louvered transom. The second type has original tripartite show windows above a granite bulkhead. The third type, which was a design revision during construction in 1928, consists of original tripartite show windows with an ornamental bronze base panel above a granite bulkhead.^ The fourth type, which is either original or an early alteration, has tripartite show windows above a granite bulkhead with an operable transom.
A number of storefronts incorporate ventilation louvers at transom level in various configurations and of unknown date. A commercial tenant has recently removed one storefront on either side of the northeast comer (Park Avenue South and East 27^ Street) of the building to create a recessed comer entrance, and has installed fixed fabric awnings and exterior lighting in all its storefront bays. Two storefronts on either side of the southeast comer (Park Avenue South and East 26^ Street) of the building have recessed, centered, single-leaf doors inserted into the original tripartite glazing. Two storefronts along East 27"* Street have been replaced with truck dock openings.
Mezzanine Glazing
Directly above the storefronts, the windows of the first floor mezzanine occupy the upper portions of the arched masonry openings at the building's base on all four facades. These were originally glazed with panes of clear glass set three rows high in a framework of bronze supports. Each opening had an operable section, and many of these remain.
More than half of these mezzanine windows have been altered over the years in conjunction with the installation of floor-mounted heating con vectors on the mezzanine interior. These changes affected the lowermost row of panes, where the convectors are noticeable from the exterior through clear glass. Methods for obscuring the convectors include back painting the clear glazing, or replacement of some or all of the lower clear panes with frosted, textured, or ribbon glass. A small proportion of mezzanine-level glazing has been partially or completely replaced with louvered vents of various dates.
Roof Areas
Ventilation stacks and small louvered enclosures have been a minor presence on the roof setbacks since the building was completed in 1928, but none of the originals are visible from street level. Since at least the late 1960s, these setbacks have also been the location for various installations of power systems, cooling equipment, and other mechanical components and equipment rooms, some of which are visible from the street.
Current roof-top installations include, on the fifth floor, enclosed mechanical space on the 27th Street side (date unknown), with ventilation and air-conditioning above, and other equipment on the 26th Street side; on the fourteenth floor, a number of enclosed mechanical spaces of varying heights, dates, and materials, back-up power systems, cooling equipment, duct runs from the exterior walls to the parapet openings, vent stacks, and exhaust and ventilation units; and on the twenty-sixth floor, main cooling towers (east side installed by the late 1960s, west side c. 1991-92) and miscellaneous antennae.
Windows
The building retains the vast majority of its original one-over-one bronze window sash and frames. Four basic types exist, distinguished by the lintel configuration. A fifth type, which was a later addition consists of fixed, single panes of glass, enclosing previously open or louvered openings at the thirty-fourth floor.
A number of window openings are partially or completely given over to ventilation louvers. Originally, artificial ventilation was provided for the interior from the basement through the thirteenth floor. Vent fans with louvered exterior intakes were located on the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh floors. Basement intakes were located in the ceilings of the outer vestibules of the side entrances. The exhaust was vented at penthouse level. The original vent louver distribution has been partially retained, particularly on the ninth and eleventh floors.
Additional louvers have been installed at various window openings across the 26^ and 27"* Street facades.
Signage
Non-tenant signage includes bronze New York Life corporate nameplates at the building comers and flanking the east and west entrances; a New York Community Trust "Landmarks of New York" plaque, installed in the 1960s at the west entrance; and original, projecting bronze "subway entrance" signs with internally illuminated letters, flanking the east entrance.
Commercial tenant signage consists of a number of different types, including: vinyl and back painted lettering on glass; interior illuminated signs, flat exterior window signage at the storefront and mezzanine level; Axed fabric awnings (at the northeast comer restaurant only); and a projecting blade sign at the northeast comer of the building..
Madison Avenue Facade
The ground floor consists of a nine-bay arcade with a central, double-height main entryway flanked by smaller openings, all leading into a recessed outer vestibule. The central arch has an omate surround supported by masked bosses. The flanking openings feature ogee labels with bosses, shields, crockets, and finials. Each opening contains elaborate bronze gates. The entry ways are flanked by historic wall lamps. The recessed vestibule features a granite and terrazzo floor, a barrel vault with coffering flanked by domed vaults, bronze and glass doors, multi-light transom with molded enframent and crestwork, and bronze hanging lamps. The remaining ground-floor arches have compound heads and contain historic storefront infill, except for one bay containing an historic projecting bronze secondary entryway featuring decorative panels and another bay containing a non-historic, polished-metal commercial entrance.
The second-story windows, which are paired above the storefront arches, sit upon a continuous, molded band and have bracketed sills.
They have enframents consisting of compound columns sitting on molded bases. They are topped by carved, projecting panels. The third- and fourth-story windows, which are arranged similarly as those on the second floor, except for the grouped sash above the central arch, are recessed and separated by narrow columns and geometrically-carved panels between the floors.
A bracketed balcony, featuring elaborately-carved panels, is located above the main entryway. The fourth-story windows are arched and topped by ogee labels that pierce the crown moldings above the windows and extend into the parapet. The parapet consists of alternating carved and solid sections.
Central -Section.
The seven-bay central section, which rises nine stories above the base, has paired sash in the five center bays, divided by compound columns, and single sash in the end bays. The bays are separated by multi-story piers, broken by a wide, molded band at the level of the twelfth-story window sills. Decorative spandrels separate the floors.
The thirteenth-story window openings are arched and topped by decorative panels below the parapets. The parapets consist of alternating sections of solid stone and sections containing cusped screens. Gargoyles protrude around the entire thirteenth floor. Flagpoles, dating from 1928, stand at the comers of the fourteenth floor setback.
Wing.
The five-bay wing facade, beside the tower, rises twelve stories above the fourteenth-story setback. Its three center bays are grouped, divided by compound columns and separated from the outer bays by multistory piers. There are paneled spandrels from the fourteenth to the twenty-first floors; the twenty-second-floor window openings are arched and topped by ogee labels that extend through the ornamented spandrels above.
Decorative spandrels featuring a shield motif separate the twenty-third to the twenty-fifth floors. The twenty-fifth-floor window openings are arched and topped by decorative panels below open sections of the cusped parapets at the twenty-sixth floor setback. Flagpoles, dating from 1928, stand at the comers of the twenty-sixth-floor setback.
The tower rises twenty-one stories from the fourteenth-story setback. The twelve-story, one-bay wide lower sections of the tower flank the projecting wing and are ornamented similarly to the wing facade, except that a wide, molded band crowns the twenty-fifth floor. The tower above the twenty-fifth floor has five bays, separated by multi-story piers. The three center bays contain paired sash divided by compound columns. There are paneled spandrels from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-ninth floors. The twenty-ninth and thirtieth-floor window openings are arched and topped by ogee labels that extend through the spandrels to pierce the thirtieth-story sills. The thirtieth and thirty-first stories have small setbacks.
At the thirty-second through thirty-fourth stories, the three central bays are recessed below relieving arches. They contain paired sash separated by compound columns and have ornate spandrels. The thirty-fourth-floor window openings are arched. The center piers feature slim pilasters. Gargoyles protrude around the entire thirty-fourth floor, which is topped by a decorative parapet featuring alternating solid areas and open sections with cusps.
Park Avenue South Facade
Base. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the Madison Avenue facade, including the historic, projecting bronze secondary en try way featuring decorative panels. In addition, one storefront at the north comer of the facade was removed to create a recessed comer entrance and several fixed fabric awnings have been installed. There is also a recessed, historic bronze entryway at the south comer. Original, projecting bronze "subway entrance" signs with internally illuminated letters, flank the main entrance
Central Section. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the Madison Avenue facade.
The treatment and detail is similar to that on the Madison Avenue facade.
Tower. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the Madison Avenue facade.
East 26th Street Facade
Base. The 26^ Street base features articulation and ornament similar to the Madison Avenue facade. The ground floor of the four-story base consists of a nineteen bay arcade containing entryways in the seventh and thirteenth bays leading to recessed outer vestibules. The entryways contain elaborate bronze gates, bracketed jambs, flanking bronze wall lamps, and surmounting bronze grilles featuring the New York Life seal. The vestibules contain granite and terrazzo floors, bronze doors, multi-light transoms with molded frames, bronze hanging lamps, and grilled ceilings. There is also a recessed, historic, bronze entryway at the east comer.
The seventeen-bay central section, which rises above the base behind the fifth-floor setback, includes two-bay light wells that are one bay deep. The bays contain single, paired, and grouped fenestration. The central section is ornamented similarly to the corresponding area facing Madison Avenue.
The wings, which sit symmetrically next to the east and west sides of the tower, have three bays; the two inner bays of each wing contain paired sash separated by compound columns. The wings are ornamented similarly to the corresponding areas facing Madison Avenue.
Tower.
The tower rises twenty stories from the fourteenth-story setback. The lower twelve story sections of the tower, flanking the projecting wings have ornamentation that is similar to the facade of the wings facing Madison Avenue. The ornamentation of the tower above the twenty-fifth floor is similar to the corresponding area facing Madison Avenue. East 27"* Street Facade
Base. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the East 26^ Street facade, except that four of the bays between the vestibule entryways contain loading docks, one storefront at the east comer of the facade was removed to create a recessed comer entrance, and several fixed fabric awnings have been installed.
The treatment and detail is similar to that on the East 26"* Street facade. Wi'ngj. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the East 26^ Street facade.
Tower. The treatment and detail is similar to that on the East 26"* Street facade.
The Crown
The crown, which consists of an octagonal pyramid sitting upon a square base, has been significantly altered and simplified over time. The crown incorporates the thirty-fifth through the fortieth stories. The thirty-fifth story falls within the base and the others within the pyramid. The thirty-fifth floor is setback from the floor below and contains comer turrets, arched fenestration, finials rising up from the piers below, and an open parapet with cusps.
Louvered openings pierce the base of the roof behind the parapet and exterior lighting arrays are mounted atop the parapet itself. The only major loss of original fabric took place during the reconfiguration of the original tower roof in 1966-67, which included the removal of much of the stonework on the thirty-fifth floor. The work included removal of the original copper-and-gold-leaf roof, reinforcement and reconfiguring of the structural steel, and extending the slope of the roof downward.
The present roof, installed in 1994, consists of gold-toned ceramic tile over a double layer of plywood sheathing. Modification of the stonework at the thirty-fifth floor included removal of the tourelles and limestone masonry screens. The bronze lantern and spire have been restored. At present, a narrow walkway between the base of the roof and upper parapet houses a number of pieces of air-conditioning equipment.
- From the 2000 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
OKINAWA, Japan (Jan. 15, 2021) Aviation Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Lance Boruszewski, from Saginaw, Mich., assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 25, performs maintenance on a MH-60S Sea Hawk on the flight deck aboard USS America (LHA 6). America, part of the America Amphibious Ready Group, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners, serving as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Kelsey Culbertson)
the skeletal remains of this of this beautiful Gothic styled. considering the condition of this church, it is amazing to see some totally intact stained glass windows.
YOUR COMMENT IS THE GREATEST "AWARD" YOU COULD GIVE -- No graphics please.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY COMMENTS!!!
I have not edited these shots in any particular order, so, in the end I miss out some, or post others twice or even more. But, it was such an experience, saw so many wonderful things, I could post everything at once, but trying not to.
Anyway, on with the show, and some more wide angle shots with the camera on a rickety tripod.
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Christianity reached Roman Britain in the second-century AD. A number of Roman artefacts - pots, tiles and glass - have been found in excavations around St Paul’s, however no evidence has emerged that the site of St Paul’s, as once believed, was ever used for a Roman temple. The official withdrawal of Roman administration in 410 AD did not end Christian belief in England but it was to be almost two hundred years before St Paul’s Cathedral was founded. The two names most associated with the establishment of the first St Paul’s are Saint Mellitus and Saint Erkenwald. The former, a monk who arrived in Britain with Saint Augustine on a mission from Rome instigated by Pope Gregory the Great, founded St Paul’s in 604 AD. The latter was the Abbot of Chertsey whose consecration as Bishop of London in 675 AD, following the city’s brief return to paganism, confirmed the return of the Roman Church to London. The earliest Cathedral buildings were relatively short-lived structures, repeatedly damaged by fires and Viking attacks. It was the Cathedral begun in about 1087 AD by Bishop Maurice, Chaplain to William the Conqueror, which would provide the longest standing home for Christian worship on the site to date, surviving for almost six hundred years.
1087–1559: Medieval Splendour
The Cathedral quire was the first part of the new building to be completed in 1148, enabling the Cathedral to function as a place of worship as quickly as possible. Up to the Reformation of the Church in England St Paul’s was a Catholic cathedral in which the celebration of the Mass, the preaching of sermons, the veneration of many saints, shrines, reliquaries, chapels, the observance of Saints’ feast days, masses for the dead said in chantry chapels, a wooden cross known as a rood, and a chapel devoted to The Virgin, all played a part in the liturgical life of the building. A great deal of public activity also took place; although not always welcomed by those looking after the Cathedral, trade, sports and ball games were common and a north/south route through the Cathedral transepts was used as a general thoroughfare. Paul’s Cross was an important feature of Cathedral life from at least the mid thirteenth-century. It was an outdoor covered pulpit from which proclamations were made and leading prelates expounded, often controversially, on theology and politics. It ceased to be used in the 1630s, and stood in the north churchyard until 1642.
The Cathedral School was re-established with new statutes just to the east of Paul’s Cross in 1512 by John Colet (1466–1519) a Renaissance scholar and friend of Erasmus who viewed education as prerequisite for spiritual regeneration.
All of these enterprises, the spiritual, the educational, and the civic, took place within or beside the largest building in medieval England: longer, taller and wider than the present building and richly decorated.
The reign of King Henry VIII saw the beginning of the end for many aspects of the religious life of the building associated with Roman Catholicism. The shrine of St Erkenwald was plundered and waves of iconoclasm followed in which shrines and images were destroyed. The full suppression of Catholic worship and fittings was carried out under Edward VI by the first Protestant Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, who was martyred by Mary I's government in 1555. After a restoration of Catholic rites under Mary, settled Protestant worship was confirmed finally under Elizabeth I's first Bishop of London, Edmund Grindal, in 1559.
1560–1666: Reformation to Conflagration
The new form of worship continued at St Paul’s in the wake of the Reformation, with the choir singing in English instead of Latin at Mattins and Evensong according to the new Book of Common Prayer. The Cathedral already had a long history as a place of commemoration and some of the grandest tombs were still to be added to the building in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. One of the most remarkable monuments from this period still survives, that of John Donne (1572–1631), the poet and clergyman who, after a raffish youth, went on to become Dean of St Pauls from 1621 until his death. During his lifetime, St Paul's and Paul's Cross were leading centres of a newly confident and thriving Protestant culture in England.
The physical destruction wrought during the Reformation had only been the start of a series of threats to the fabric. In June 1561 lightning struck the Cathedral spire igniting a fire which destroyed the steeple and roofs, the heat and falling timbers causing such damage to the Cathedral structure that it would never fully recover. Plans were made for restoration and the architect Inigo Jones (1573–1652) was engaged to carry out work in 1633, but his work was left incomplete at the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. Parliamentary forces took control of the Cathedral and its Dean and Chapter dissolved; the Lady Chapel became a large preaching auditorium, while the vast nave was used as a cavalry barracks with, at one point, 800 horses stabled inside.
By the 1650s the building was in a serious state of disrepair and it was only after the Restoration in 1660 of King Charles II (1630–1685) that repair was once again considered in earnest as an architectural proclamation of the restored Church of England and the monarchy. Leading architects wrestled with the how to restore the medieval structure and were often in disagreement. Inspired by his travels in France and his knowledge of Italian architecture, Christopher Wren (1632–1732) proposed the addition of a dome to the building, a plan agreed upon in August 1666. Only a week later The Great Fire of London was kindled in Pudding Lane, reaching St Paul’s in two days. The wooden scaffolding contributed to the spread of the flames around the Cathedral and the high vaults fell, smashing into the crypt, where flames, fuelled by thousands of books stored there in vaults leased to printers and booksellers, put the structure beyond hope of rescue.
1666–1711: A new Cathedral for London
Sir Christopher Wren was a brilliant scientist and mathematician and Britain’s most famous architect. The building he designed to replace the pre-Fire Cathedral is his masterpiece. Nine years of planning were required to ensure that the new design would meet the requirements of a working cathedral; the quire was to be the main focus for liturgical activity, a Morning Chapel was required for Morning Prayer, vestries were needed for the clergy to robe, a treasury for the church plate, a home had to be planned for the enormous organ, bell towers were essential, and the interior had to be fitted for the grandest of occasions and ceremonies. The building which Wren delivered in thirty five years fulfilled all these needs and provided a symbol for the Church of England, the renewed capital city, and the emerging empire.
Construction commenced in 1675: the process involved many highly skilled draughtsmen and craftsmen and was pursued in phases, largely dependent on the availability of funding and materials. Portland stone predominated but other types of stone were necessary as well as bricks, iron and wood. All of the building accounts, contracts and records of the rebuilding commission survive, and many original drawings. A detailed history of the design of the cathedral can be found in the online Wren Office Drawings catalogue written by Dr Gordon Higgott (2012). Christopher Wren lived to see the building completed: the last stone of the Cathedral’s structure was laid on 26 October 1708 by two sons named after their fathers, Christopher Wren junior and Edward Strong (the son of master mason). The first service had already been held in 1697 – a Thanksgiving for the Peace between England and France.
1712–1795: Perilous painting and memorialising the Greats
The violent and iconoclastic transition from Roman Catholicism and the debate over the reformed faith which followed were tumultuous. The Cathedral was built at a time when the Civil War and Protectorate had again heightened sensitivity to the confluence of art and Protestantism. What constituted appropriate decoration for the Cathedral was the subject of great debate. After a competition Sir James Thornhill was chosen to provide a decorative scheme for the interior of the Cathedral dome in 1715 and immediately began work to produce eight scenes from the life of St Paul. Working precariously over fifty metres from the ground he completed the work within two years and was soon commissioned to continue his scheme into the lantern and onto the drum beneath the dome.
Daily rounds of worship were observed within view of the new murals, but despite the efforts to enliven the interior of the building, St Paul’s proved an unpopular venue with the Hanoverian dynasty and royal attendance dwindled; after George I’s visit in 1715 no monarch came again for seventy-four years. The capture of the French fortress of Louisburg during the course of the Seven Years War was marked by an impressive service in 1758, but it would not be until 1789 that George III marked his recovery with a special Thanksgiving service attended by thousands.
A monument to the philanthropist and prison reformer John Howard which was placed on the Cathedral floor in 1795 was the first of a host of sculptures commemorating the lives of clergy, writers, artists, scientists and military figures which were to populate vacant floor and wall space in the next century.Two of the most distinguished military commanders of the Napoleonic Wars were commemorated with state funerals and later great monuments on the church floor: Admiral Horatio Nelson in 1806 and Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington in 1852, both of whom are interred in the Cathedral crypt.
1800–1905 Heat, light and colour: St Paul’s in the age of industry
Institutional reform was matched by physical changes to St Paul’s in the nineteenth-century. Queen Victoria lamented that St Pauls was "most dreary, dingy and un-devotional” adding her voice to the general criticism of the Cathedral for being, dark, dirty and cold .The Cathedral Chapter took steps to make the building more inviting and began work on the so called "completion of the decoration”. While the use of vivid mosaic in the dome and the quire area were being explored, and programmes of stained glass were designed. The rearrangement of the quire by the Surveyor F C Penrose (1817–1903) was the most significant of many changes to the interior made under his supervision. By removing the screen dividing the quire from the nave many more people were able to participate in services. Great Victorian Deans, especially Henry H Millman and Robert Gregory, seized the opportunity to hold routine worship under the dome and in the nave, as well as in the quire – thus for the first time actively making the whole of the vast building a place of worship and Christian teaching. The full ceremonial potential of St Paul’s was also realised by this reordering, something anticipated in the state funeral for Nelson, and confirmed with that for Wellington.
Victorian philanthropy more generally flourished at a reinvigorated St Paul's. During the first half of the nineteenth-century Maria Hackett (1783–1874) devoted her time and money to a campaign to improve the living and educational conditions of boy choristers in St Paul’s and other cathedrals and Anglican choral foundations. In 1860 the Chapter of St Paul's presented William Weldon Champneys (1807–1875), to the vicarage of St Pancras, where he developed the schools, ragged schools, and Sunday schools and provided an invalids dinner table. The Canons of St Paul’s focused on the welfare of the thousands of clerks and warehousemen who worked in the vicinity of the Cathedral through the Amen Court Guild. At the end of the century St Paul’s had one of its most dynamic of English cathedral Chapters, with the many facets of the life of the Cathedral attaining new levels of distinction and in 1897 the organisation of the Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving Service for Queen Victoria (1819–1901) proved an outstanding success.
906–1960 Belt and Braces: Strengthening the Dome and Defending the Building
Cracks had appeared in some parts of the Cathedral as a result of settlement even before the Cathedral was topped-off in 1710 and concern over the structural stability of the Cathedral persisted in to the early years of the twentieth-century. After various investigations, fears culminated in the Corporation of London's serving of a dangerous structure notice to the Dean on Christmas Eve 1924: the Cathedral was closed from 1925 to 1930 while the piers and dome were strengthened under the supervision of the surveyor Walter Godfrey Allen (1891–1986). Some of the strengthening interventions may have been excessive; however they were to provide valuable structural support when the Cathedral suffered two significant bomb strikes during the Second World War.
St Paul’s Watch, the group of volunteers who defended the Cathedral during The Blitz, enabled the continuation of services as normally as possible throughout the war years. At the end of the conflict, on 8 May 1945, ten consecutive services were held in thanksgiving for peace, each attended by over three thousand people. The last of the services focused on the work of the St Paul’s Watch. In the years that followed St Paul’s played an important role in commemorating those who had sacrificed their lives and in reconciliation. The American Memorial Chapel was constructed and consecrated in the presence of President Eisenhower (1890–1969) and on 21st October 1958, Theodor Heuss (1884–1963), President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1959, visited St Paul’s to present an altar set with the words "The German people have asked me to hand to you, Mr Dean, and to the Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral this crucifix and these two candlesticks. Our gifts are a token of our sincere wish to serve, together with the British People, the cause of Peace in the World”.
1960–2012: Royal events and Social reformers
With the major structural issues resolved and war damage repaired, the Cathedral continued to welcome world leaders, thinkers, theologians, politicians and the public in pursuit of hope for a better society. Canon John Collins (1905–1982), who had been a leader in the drive for post-war reconciliation, campaigned tirelessly for peace, human rights, and nuclear disarmament, and against apartheid in South Africa. Dr Martin Luther King (1929–1968) stopped at St Paul's to speak from the west steps en route to collect his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and his widow Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) became the first woman to preach in a statutory service in St Paul’s. On January 30th, 1969 the Cathedral Choir was joined by Indian singers and instrumentalists, and addresses were given to mark the centenary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) the champion of non-violent resistance, civil rights and freedom across the world. Continuing this tradition, in 2012 the Dalai Lama (b. 1935) was welcomed to receive the Templeton prize ('for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities'). The St Paul’s Institute was established in 2003 to foster an informed Christian response to the most urgent ethical and spiritual issues of our times and engaged with the Occupy Protests of 2011/12 seeking constructive debate on financial ethics.
The wedding in St Paul’s of HRH the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer gripped the nation and much of the world in 1981, and Queen Elizabeth II officially marked both her Golden and Diamond Jubilees with Thanksgiving services in St Paul’s Cathedral. There have been occasions for national mourning: in 1965 Winston Churchill (1874–1965) who had led Britain during the war received a state funeral, a ceremony reserved for heads of state and others who have given significant leadership in the defence of the nation. A large ceremonial funeral was held for former Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher, in 2013. Vast crowds gathered at St Paul's following the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11 2001, as London expressed its solidarity with the people of New York at a time of grief; and the victims of the 7/7 bombings were mourned in special services in 2005. The Diamond Jubilee and the special summer service at St Paul's celebrating the Paralympic Games made 2012 a spectacular year for the Cathedral.
www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/cathedral-h...
Puck's Glen is a river-formed ravine on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, with a popular scenic walking trail beside the Eas Mòr stream (Gaelic for "big waterfall"). In 2020 the glen and adjoining trails were closed temporarily due to issues of stability of the gorge, and felling of trees infected by larch disease.
It comes under Forestry and Land Scotland which has highlighted it as a feature of the Argyll Forest Park (itself within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park), and described it as "One of the most magical forests in Scotland, with a delightful trail along a rocky gorge."
The stream tumbles down a series of waterfalls and rapids, joining the River Eachaig about 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) south of the entrance to the Benmore Botanic Garden. A car park off the A815 road (about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Dunoon on the road to Loch Eck) gives access by a track to the foot of the glen path, as well as forest paths giving an alternative route to the top of the glen.
The Benmore Estate, previously hunting grounds of the Campbells of Ballochyle, was improved by a succession of owners in the 19th century. Forestry plantation began in the 1820s, and extensive garden improvements were made from 1862 by James Piers Patrick. The Ordnance Survey from 1865 shows the Eas Mòr gorge extending uphill through a small area of woodland into open moorland with some trees in the ravine.
In 1870 the Greenock sugar refiner and philanthropist James Duncan bought the estate, and added the adjacent Kilmun and Bernice Estates. He arranged extensive plantings, including more than six million trees around the estate, and added paths leading up the Eas Mòr gorge for his visitors to enjoy the magical atmosphere of the glen, reminiscent of the mythological Puck, the character Puck in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Henry Younger of the Edinburgh brewer Younger's bought the estate in 1889, and with his son Harry George Younger made many improvements to the woods and gardens.
Two strips of Japanese larch planted at Puck's Glen around 1903 were successfully established by 1912, though European larch had failed in the locality. In 1918, the Anchor Line Staff Magazine noted that Benmore House was celebrated for "Puck's Glen with its amber stream cutting a channel through moss-draped schistose rock, and tumbling from one silver rock-chalice to another."
In 1924, Harry George Younger presented the estates to the Forestry Commissioners. The Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society made a visit in July 1925, and described Puck's Glen as "a striking example of how man, working hand in hand with nature, has made what was once a bare hillside ravine into one of the most lovely walks imaginable." Starting near the sixth milestone from Dunoon on the old main road to Arrochar, the bridle-path "by the stream which the Ordnance Survey map calls the Eas Mor, but which is better known as Puck's Burn" was soon hemmed in by steep banks, "while growing on their slopes are conifers of a dozen or more varieties, rhododendrons, and many of the rarer species of ferns. The path follows the stream through the whole course of the ravine".
In commemoration of the improvements James Duncan had made to the estate, Younger provided the Bayley Balfour Memorial Hut above the glen, dedicated to the memory of the botanist Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour. The hut was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with wood panelling featuring all the varieties of timber grown at Benmore, and positioned above the tree-tops. The dedication ceremony in September 1928 enjoyed fine weather; The Gardeners' Chronicle described its site as commanding "beautiful views above a gorge where 'the singing waters fall to the Eachaig River from lofty heights' " amidst towering woods, with Beinn Mhòr visible through a faint blue haze.
In 1929 the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh opened the Younger Botanic Garden in the Benmore estate as its first outstation, and in the 1930s the Forestry Commission established Kilmun Arboretum to the south of Puck's Glen, planting large groups of tree species rather than individual specimens
The Forestry Commission's Scottish National Forest Park Guide, issued in 1947, calls Puck's Glen "a rocky cleft beside a rushing stream, leading up to a fine viewpoint, which may be visited without charge or formality", and describes access by Clyde steamer and bus services.
In 1948, the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal noted regular visits to Puck's Glen, "attractive at all seasons but at its best in the Rhododendron month of June", and praised the view "from the Rest Hut, exquisitely designed by Robert Lorimer".
The Bayley Balfour Memorial Hut, Puck's Hut, was moved in 1968 to the walled garden in the Botanic Garden. It originally had a fireplace and chimney, but these were not reconstructed, and were replaced by an additional window. In 1992 the hut was listed as a Grade C listed building.[15] The Puck's Glen path needed repair, and was restored in May 1986, with renewed bridges.
The high rainfall, with an average annual precipitation of around 200 to 230 cm (79 to 91 in), is suited to temperate rainforest and associated undergrowth. The acid soil makes the area particularly suitable for conifers. The Forestry Commission has planted coniferous trees at the sides of Puck's Glen, which runs through Uig Wood. The lower slopes of this woodland feature some of the earliest tree plantations on the estate.
The wood forms part of Benmore forest, which features waymarked trails leading visitors among trees including giant Californian redwoods, Douglas fir and Western hemlock. Puck's Glen itself is part of the Puck's Glen Gorge Trail, leading from the car park, and the Black Gates Trail which starts at the entrance to Benmore Botanic Garden, and goes past extensive mature conifers on the hillside of Benmore forest before connecting to the top of the Upper Puck's Glen loop.
A signpost at the forestry track crossing Puck's Glen points south along the track to Kilmun Arboretum and north along the track to Benmore Botanic Garden. It also points to the Upper Puck's Glen Loop path which continues further uphill beside the stream before connecting to the top of the Black Gates Trail. Some detailed routes are available online at Walkhighlands.
Argyll Forest Park is a forest park located on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. Established in 1935, it was the first forest park to be created in the United Kingdom.[2] The park is managed by Forestry and Land Scotland, and covers 211 km2 in total.
From the Holy Loch in the south to the Arrochar Alps in the north, the park includes a variety of landscapes, from high peaks to freshwater and seawater lochs.
Much of the forest park lies within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, which was established in 2002, however the forests at Corlarach and Ardyne in Cowal are outwith the national park boundary but within the forest park.
Forestry and Land Scotland highlight trails at the following places:
Glenbranter, bike trails and walks, featuring ancient oaks
Puck's Glen, trail up rocky gorge among woodlands
Benmore, forest around Benmore Botanic Garden, with giant trees
Kilmun Arboretum, collection of tree species in woodland groves
Ardentinny, easy trails and beach walk
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (Scottish Gaelic: Pàirc Nàiseanta Loch Laomainn is nan Tròisichean) is a national park in Scotland centred on Loch Lomond and the hills and glens of the Trossachs, along with several other ranges of hills. It was the first of the two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament in 2002, the second being the Cairngorms National Park. The park extends to cover much of the western part of the southern highlands, lying to the north of the Glasgow conurbation, and contains many mountains and lochs. It is the fourth-largest national park in the British Isles, with a total area of 1,865 km2 (720 sq mi) and a boundary of some 350 km (220 mi) in length. It features 21 Munros (including Ben Lomond, Ben Lui, Beinn Challuim, Ben More and two peaks called Ben Vorlich) and 20 Corbetts.
The park straddles the Highland Boundary Fault, which divides it into two distinct regions - lowland and highland - that differ in underlying geology, soil types and topography. The change in rock type can most clearly be seen at Loch Lomond itself, as the fault runs across the islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch and Inchcailloch and over the ridge of Conic Hill. To the south lie green fields and cultivated land; to the north, mountains.
The Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park lies close to Scotland's heavily populated Central Belt, and the area has long been popular with visitors. Principal attractions are viewing scenery and wildlife, walking, climbing, water sports, and other outdoor activities. In 2017, there were 2.9 million visits to the park, of which 2.1 million were day visits and 783,000 were made by visitors staying overnight within the park.
Argyll and Bute is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020). The administrative centre for the council area is in Lochgilphead at Kilmory Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival building and estate. The current council leader is Robin Currie, a councillor for Kintyre and the Islands.
Argyll and Bute covers the second-largest administrative area of any Scottish council. The council area adjoins those of Highland, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
History
Buteshire and Argyll were two of the historic counties of Scotland, having originated as shires (the area controlled by a sheriff) in the Middle Ages. From 1890 until 1975 both counties had an elected county council.
In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, Scotland's counties, burghs and landward districts were abolished and replaced with upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. The Strathclyde region was created covering a large part of western Scotland. Strathclyde was divided into nineteen districts, one of which the 1973 Act called "Argyll", covering most of the former county of Argyll, but also including the Isle of Bute from Buteshire. The shadow authority elected in 1974 requested a change of name to "Argyll and Bute", which was agreed by the government before the new district came into being on 16 May 1975.
As created in 1975 the Argyll and Bute district covered the whole area of fourteen of Argyll's sixteen districts and part of a fifteenth, plus two of Buteshire's five districts, which were all abolished at the same time:
From Argyll:
Campbeltown Burgh
Cowal District
Dunoon Burgh
Inveraray Burgh
Islay District
Jura and Colonsay District
Kintyre District
Lochgilphead Burgh
Mid Argyll District
Mull District
North Lorn District: the Lismore and Appin, and Ardchattan electoral divisions only, rest (Ballachulish and Kinlochleven electoral divisions) went to Lochaber district of Highland
Oban Burgh
South Lorn District
Tiree and Coll District
Tobermory Burgh
From Buteshire:
Bute District
Rothesay Burgh
The two Buteshire districts together corresponded to the whole Isle of Bute. The rest of Buteshire, being the Isle of Arran and The Cumbraes went to Cunninghame district. The Ardnamurchan district from Argyll went to the Lochaber district of Highland. The new district was made a single Argyll and Bute lieutenancy area.
Local government was reformed again in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, which abolished the regions and districts which had been created in 1975, replacing them with unitary council areas. Argyll and Bute became one of the new council areas, but had its territory enlarged to include the town of Helensburgh and surrounding rural areas which had been in the Dumbarton district prior to 1996, and had formed part of the county of Dunbartonshire prior to 1975. The Helensburgh area had voted in a referendum in 1994 to join Argyll and Bute rather than stay with Dumbarton.
Transport
Railways
The main railway line in Argyll and Bute is the West Highland Line, which links Oban to Glasgow, passing through much of the eastern and northern parts of the area. From the south the line enters Argyll and Bute just to the west of Dumbarton, continuing north via Helensburgh Upper to the eastern shores of the Gare Loch and Loch Long. The line comes inland at Arrochar and Tarbet to meet the western shore of Loch Lomond. At the northern end of the loch the lines leaves Argyll and Bute to enter Stirling council area. The Oban branch of the West Highland Line re-enters the area just west of Tyndrum, and heads west to Oban: stations on this section of the line include Dalmally and Taynuilt railway station. The majority of services on the line are operated by ScotRail: as of 2019 the summer service has six trains a day to Oban, with four on Sundays. In addition to the ScotRail service is the nightly Caledonian Sleeper, although this does not run on the Oban branch.
Helensburgh also has a much more frequent service into Glasgow and beyond via the North Clyde Line, which has its western terminus at the town's central railway station.
Roads
The main trunk roads in Argyll and Bute are:
The A82, which runs along the western shore of Loch Lomond, providing the main route between Glasgow and Fort William.
The A83, which leaves the A82 at Tarbet, heading west and then south to eventually reach Campbeltown by way of Inveraray and Lochgilphead.
The A85, which leaves the A82 at Tyndrum (just outside Argyll and Bute) and heads west to Oban via Dalmally.
The A828, which leaves the A85 at Connel and north through Appin to join the A82 at Ballachulish.
The A815, which leaves the A83 in Glen Kinglas near Cairndow, heading south through Strachur and Dunoon and ends at Toward 40 miles later, on the southern tip of the Cowal peninsula. The A815 is the main road through Cowal.
The A886, which leaves the A815 at Strachur, passing through Glendaruel, the route includes a ferry link to the Isle of Bute, Colintraive - Rhubodach terminating at Port Bannatyne to the north of Rothesay.
Ferry services
Due to its heavily indented coastline and many islands, ferries form an important part of the council area's transport system. The main ferry operator in Argyll and Bute is Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac), which operates services from the mainland to most of the inhabited islands. Several other routes are operated by commercial operators, usually on contract to the council, although the Western Ferries service across the Firth of Clyde is run on a commercial basis.
Bute is served by a route across the Kyles of Bute between Rhubodach and Colintraive in Cowal, as well as a route between Rothesay to Wemyss Bay in Inverclyde. Both routes are operated by CalMac.
Coll and Tiree are each served from Oban, via a CalMac service that also provides links between the two islands, and a once-weekly link to Barra.
Gigha is served by a CalMac route from Tayinloan in Kintyre.
Islay is served by a CalMac route from Kennacraig in Kintyre. The service is timetabled to utilise either one of two ports on the island, with both Port Askaig and Port Ellen having a service to the mainland.
Feolin on Jura is linked to Port Askaig on Islay via a vehicle ferry run by ASP Ship Management on behalf of Argyll and Bute Council. There is also a passenger-only service between the island's main centre, Craighouse, and Tayvallich on the mainland that is operated by Islay Sea Safaris.
Kerrera is linked to Gallanach (about 3 km (1.9 mi) southwest of Oban) by a passenger-only service operated by CalMac.
Lismore is served by two ferries, a vehicle and passenger service operated by CalMac that runs from Oban, and a passenger-only service from Port Appin that is operated by ASP Ship Management on behalf of Argyll and Bute Council.
Mull is served by a route between Oban and Craignure on the island's east coast, as well as routes across the Sound of Mull (between Lochaline and Fishnish, and Tobermory and Kilchoan). All three routes are operated by CalMac.
Iona is linked to Mull via a CalMac service from Fionnphort at Mull's southwest tip.
The island of Seil, which itself is linked to the mainland via the Clachan Bridge, has links to two further islands: Easdale and Luing. Both services are operated by ASP Ship Management on behalf of Argyll and Bute Council.
There are also routes connecting some mainland locations in Argyll and Bute to other parts of the mainland:
There is a CalMac service across Loch Fyne which provides a link between Portavadie in Cowal and Tarbert in Kintyre.
The Cowal peninsula route is a passenger-only service from the Dunoon Breakwater to Gourock pier, giving easy access to ScotRail services at Gourock railway station with onward transport to Glasgow Central station. This route was for a period run by a CalMac subsidiary company, Argyll Ferries, but has since January 2019 been operated directly by CalMac.
CalMac provide a limited (3 ferry each way per week) service between Cambeltown in Kintyre and Ardrosssan in North Aryshire during the summer months.
Western Ferries, a commercial operator, runs a vehicle and passenger service between Hunters Quay to McInroy's Point that also provides a link between Cowal and Inverclyde in (partial) competition with the subsidised CalMac service.
A service operated by Clyde Marine Services on behalf of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport runs between Kilcreggan and Gourock pier, providing a link from the Rosneath peninsula to the rail network at Gourock.
Argyll and Bute also has ferry services linking it to islands in neighbouring council areas:
Oban is the mainland terminal for services to Barra in Na h-Eileanan Siar (the Outer Hebrides).
Lochranza on Arran, in North Ayrshire, has a year-round service to Kintyre: during the summer the mainland port used is Claonaig, however in winter the service is reduced to a single daily return crossing from Tarbert.
There is also a passenger-only ferry service linking Campbeltown and Port Ellen on Islay with Ballycastle in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, running seasonally from April to September, operated by West Coast Tours as the Kintyre Express.
Cultural references
The later scenes of the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love were filmed around the lochs and hills of Argyll and Bute.
The area has also been indirectly immortalised in popular culture by the 1977 hit song "Mull of Kintyre" by Kintyre resident Paul McCartney's band of the time, Wings.
SOUTH CHINA SEA (June 11, 2019) Sailors wait with chocks and chains on the flight deck of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG 85). McCampbell is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Isaac Maxwell/Released)
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 25, 2020) San Antonio Class amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18) transits the Philippine Sea. The America Amphibious Ready Group, assigned to Amphibious Squadron Eleven, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Matthew Cavenaile)
WATERS TO THE WEST OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA (March 17, 2013) U.S. and Republic of Korea Navy ships sail in formation during exercise Foal Eagle 2013. Ships from Destroyer Squadron 15, forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, are underway to conduct exercise Foal Eagle 2013 with allied nation Republic of Korea in support of regional security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Declan Barnes/Released)
The views from here are amazing, then along comes a sunset... "the icing on the cake."
Black Rocks, Cromford, Derbyshire.
The U.S. flag at the headquarters, Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan. The flag was flown at half-mast today in remembrance and honor of those lost 10 years ago in the attacks on 9/11.
Combined Joint Interagency Task Force (CJIATF) 435
Photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Tom Jones
Date Taken:09.11.2011
Location:CAMP PHOENIX, AF
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/zf6bca
+++ 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:
In 1948, a swept wing version of the F-84 was created with the hope of bringing performance to the level of the F-86. The last production F-84E was fitted with a swept tail, a new wing with 38.5 degrees of leading-edge sweep and 3.5 degrees of anhedral, and a J35-A-25 engine producing 5,300 pound-force (23.58 kN) of thrust. The aircraft was designated XF-96A and flew on 3 June 1950. Although the airplane was capable of 602 knots (693 mph, 1,115 km/h), the performance gain over the F-84E was considered minor. Nonetheless, it was ordered into production in July 1950 as the F-84F Thunderstreak. The F-84 designation was eventually retained because the fighter was expected to be a low-cost improvement of the straight-wing Thunderjet with over 55 percent commonality in tooling.
In the meantime, the USAF, hoping for improved high-altitude performance from a more powerful engine, arranged for the British Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engine to be built in the United States as the Wright J65. To accommodate the larger engine, YF-84Fs with a British-built Sapphire as well as production F-84Fs with the J65 had a vertically stretched fuselage, with the air intake attaining an oval cross-section. Production quickly ran into problems, though. Although tooling commonality with the Thunderjet was supposed to be 55 %, but just 15 % of the tools could actually be re-used. To make matters worse, the F-84F utilized press-forged wing spars and ribs. At the time, only three presses in the United States could manufacture these, and priority was given to the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber over the F-84. The YJ65-W-1 engine was considered obsolete, too, and the improved J65-W-3 did not become available until 1954. When the first production F-84F flew on 22 November 1952, it was considered not ready for operational deployment due to control and stability problems. The first 275 aircraft, equipped with conventional stabilizer-elevator tailplanes, suffered from accelerated stall pitch-up and poor turning ability at combat speeds. Beginning with Block 25, the problem was improved upon by the introduction of a hydraulically powered one-piece stabilator. A number of aircraft were also retrofitted with spoilers for improved high-speed control. As a result, the F-84F was not declared operational until 12 May 1954.
The second YF-84F prototype was completed with wing-root air intakes. These were not adopted for the fighter due to loss of thrust, but this arrangement kept the nose section free and permitted placement of cameras, and the different design was adopted for the RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance version. Being largely identical to the F-84F, the Thunderflash suffered from the same production delays and engine problems, though, delaying operational service until March 1954.
During the F-84F’s development the Air Defense Command was looking for a replacement for the outdated F-94 ‘Starfire’ interceptor, a hasty development from the T-33 trainer airframe with an afterburner engine and an on-board radar. However, the F-94 was only armed with machine guns in its early versions or unguided missiles in its later incarnations, which were inadequate. An aircraft with better performance, ideally with supersonic speed, a better radar, and the ability to carry guided missiles (in the form if the AIR-1 and 2 ‘Falcon’ AAMs) as well as the AIR-2 ‘Genie’ missile was now requested.
The Douglas AIR-2 Genie followed a unique but effective concept that represented the technological state-of-the-art: it was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. The interception of Soviet strategic bombers was a major military preoccupation of the late 1940s and 1950s. The World War II-age fighter armament of machine guns and cannon were inadequate to stop attacks by massed bomber formations, which were expected to come in at high altitude and at high subsonic speed. Firing large volleys of unguided rockets into bomber formations was not much better, and true air-to-air missiles were in their infancy. In 1954 Douglas Aircraft began a program to investigate the possibility of a nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon. To ensure simplicity and reliability, the weapon would be unguided, since the large blast radius made precise accuracy unnecessary. Full-scale development began in 1955, with test firing of inert warhead rockets commencing in early 1956. The final design carried a 1.5-kiloton W25 nuclear warhead and was powered by a Thiokol SR49-TC-1 solid-fuel rocket engine of 162 kN (36,000 lbf) thrust, sufficient to accelerate the rocket to Mach 3.3 during its two-second burn. Total flight time was about 12 seconds, during which time the rocket covered 10 km (6.2 mi). Targeting, arming, and firing of the weapon were coordinated by the launch aircraft's fire-control system. Detonation was by time-delay fuze, although the fuzing mechanism would not arm the warhead until engine burn-out, to give the launch aircraft sufficient time to turn and escape. However, there was no mechanism for disarming the warhead after launch. Lethal radius of the blast was estimated to be about 300 meters (980 ft). Once fired, the Genie's short flight-time and large blast radius made it virtually impossible for a bomber to avoid destruction. The rocket entered service with the designation MB-1 Genie in 1957.
During the development phase the first carrier aircraft earmarked to carry the AIR-2 was the Northrop F-89 Scorpion, which had already been introduced in the early Fifties. While being an all-weather interceptor with on-board radar, it was a slow and large aircraft, and outdated like the F-94. Trying to keep the F-84 production lines busy, however, Republic saw the chance to design an all-weather interceptor aircraft that would surpass the F-89’s mediocre performance and meet the AIR-2 carrier requirements on the basis of the swept-wing (R)F-84F. To emphasize its dedicated interceptor role and set it apart from its fighter-bomber ancestors, the heavily modified aircraft was designated F-96B (even though it had little to do with the XF-96A that became the F-84F) and called ‘Thunderguard’.
The F-96B was largely based on the RF-84F’s airframe with its wing-root air intakes, what offered ample space in the aircraft’s nose for a radar system and other equipment. The radar was coupled with a state-of-the-art Hughes MC-10 fire control system. To relieve the pilot from operating the radar system one of the fuel cells behind the cockpit was deleted and a second crew member was placed behind him under an extended, strutless hood that opened to starboard. To compensate for the loss of fuel and maintain the F-84F’s range, a new tank was mounted under the cockpit floor in the aircraft’s center of gravity.
To improve performance and cope with the raised take-off weight, the F-96B was powered by an uprated Wright J65-W-18 turbojet, which generated 0.4 kN more dry thrust than the F-84F’s original J65-W-3 (7,700 lbf/34 kN). This was not too much, though, so that the J65 was additionally outfitted with an afterburner. With this upgrade the powerplant provided a maximum thrust of 10,500 lbf (47 kN), what resulted in a markedly improved rate of climb and the ability to break the sound barrier in level flight. The additional reheat section necessitated a wider and longer rear fuselage, which had to be redesigned. As an unintended side benefit, this new tail section reduced overall drag due to a slightly area-ruled coke-bottle shape behind the wings’ trailing edge, which was even emphasized through the ventral brake parachute fairing.
Armament consisted only of missiles, which were all carried externally on wing stations, all guns of the former F-84 versions were deleted to save weight. The F-96B’s weapons range included GAR-1/2/3/4 (Later re-designated as AIM-4) radar- and IR-guided Falcon air-to-air missiles and a pair of MB-1 Genie missiles. Up to four pods with nineteen unguided 2.75 in (70 mm) "Mighty Mouse" Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets each were an alternative, too, and a pair of drop tanks were typically carried under the inner wings to provide the aircraft with sufficient range, since the new afterburner significantly increased fuel consumption.
Even though it was only a derivative design, the F-96B introduced a lot of innovations. One of these was the use of a diverertless supersonic inlet (DSI), a novel type of jet engine air intake to control air flow into their engines. Initial research into the DSI was done by Antonio Ferri in the 1950s. It consisted of a "bump" and a forward-swept inlet cowl, which worked together to divert boundary layer airflow away from the aircraft's engine. In the case of the F-96B this was realized as an inward-turning inlet with a variable contraction ratio. However, even though they had not been deemed necessary to guarantee a clean airflow, the F-96B’s air intakes were further modified with splitter plates to adapt them to the expected higher flight speeds and direct the air flow. The initial flight tests had also revealed a directional instability at high speed, due to the longer nose, so that the tail surfaces (both fin and stabilizers) were enlarged for the serial aircraft to compensate.
Another novel feature was an IRST sensor in front of the windscreen which augmented the on-board radar. This sensor, developed by Hughes International and designated ‘X-1’, was still very experimental, though, highly unreliable, and difficult to handle, because it relied on pressurized coolant to keep the sensor cold enough to operate properly, and dosing it at a consistent level proved to be difficult (if not impossible). On the other side the IRST allowed to track targets even in a massively radar-jammed environment. The 7” diameter silicone sensor was, together with the on-board radar, slaved to the fire control system so that its input could be used to lock guided missiles onto targets, primarily the GAR-1 and GAR-2 AAMs. The X-1 had a field of view of 70×140°, with an angular resolution of 1°, and operated in 2.5 micron wavelength range. When it worked properly the sensor was able to detect a B-47-sized aircraft’s tails aspect from 25 nm (29 ml/46 km) and a target of similar size from directly ahead from 10 nm (12 ml/19 km). Later, better developed versions of Hughes IRST, like the X-3 that was retrofitted to the F-101B in the early Sixties, had a better range and were more reliable.
During the Thunderguard’s development another competitor entered the stage, the F-101B Voodoo. In the late 1940s, the Air Force had already started a research project into the future interceptor aircraft that eventually settled on an advanced specification known as the 1954 interceptor. Contracts for this specification eventually resulted in the selection of the F-102 Delta Dagger, but by 1952 it was becoming clear that none of the parts of the specification other than the airframe would be ready by 1954; the engines, weapons, and fire control systems were all going to take too long to get into service. An effort was then started to quickly produce an interim supersonic design to replace the various subsonic interceptors then in service, and the F-101 airframe was selected as a starting point. Although McDonnell proposed the designation F-109 for the new aircraft (which was to be a substantial departure from the basic Voodoo fighter bomber), the USAF assigned the designation F-101B. Its development was protracted, so that the F-96B – even though it offered less performance – was ordered into production to fill the USAF’s urgent interceptor gap.
F-96B production started after a brief test phase in late 1957, and the first aircraft were delivered to the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron in 1958. However, when it became clear that the F-101B would finally enter service in 1959, F-96B production was quickly cut down and the initial order of 300 aircraft reduced to only 150, which were produced until early 1960 in three batches. Only sixty were directly delivered to ADC units, because these were preferably equipped with the supersonic F-102A and the new F-101B, which could also carry the nuclear Genie missile. The rest was directly handed over to Air National Guard units – and even there they were quickly joined and replaced by the early ADC aircraft.
Operationally, almost all F-96Bs functioned under the US–Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), which protected North American airspace from Soviet intruders, particularly the threat posed by nuclear-armed bombers. In service, the F-96Bs were soon upgraded with a data link to the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, allowing ground controllers to steer the aircraft towards its targets by making adjustments through the plane's autopilot. Furthermore, the F-96B was upgraded to allow the carrying of two GAR-11/AIM-26 Nuclear Falcon missiles instead of the Genies when they became available in 1961.
A handful F-96Bs were camouflaged during the late Sixties with the USAF’s new SEA scheme, but most aircraft retained their original bare metal finish with more or less colorful unit markings. Due to its limited capabilities and the introduction of the Mach 2 McDonnell F-4 Phantom, the last F-96B was retired from ANG service in 1971.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 54t 11 1/2 in (16,77 m) incl. pitot
Wingspan: 33 ft 7.25 in (10,25 m)
Height: 16 ft 9 in (5,11 m)
Wing area: 350 sq ft (37,55 m²)
Empty weight: 13,810 lb (6.264 kg)
Gross weight: 21,035 lb (9.541 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 28,000 lb (12.701 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Wright J65-W-18 turbojet with 8,600 lbf (34 kN) dry thrust and 10,500 lbf (47 kN) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 695 mph (1,119 km/h, 604 kn, Mach 1.1) at 35,000 ft (10,668 m)
Cruise speed: 577 mph (928 km/h, 501 kn)
Range: 810 mi (1,304 km, 704 nmi) combat radius with two droptanks
Service ceiling: 49,000 ft (15,000 m)
Rate of climb: 16,300 ft/min (83 m/s)
Wing loading: 86 lb/sq ft (423 kg/m²)
Armament:
No internal guns;
6× underwing hardpoints for a total ordnance load of up to 6,000lb (2,727 kg), including
a pair of 191.5 US gal (727 l) or 375 US gal (1.429 l) drop tanks on the inner stations
and a mix of AIM-4 Falcon (up to six), MB-1 Genie (up to two) and/or pods with
nineteen 2.75”/70 mm FFAR unguided missiles each (up to four) on the outer stations
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional missing link between the RF-84F and the F-105 was conceived for the Fifties Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, an era when the USAF used a wide variety of interceptor aircraft types and technical advancements were quick and significant – in just a decade the interceptor evolved from a subsonic machine gun-toting aircraft to a guided weapons carrier platform, capable of Mach 2.
The F-96B (I re-used Republic’s dropped designation for the swept-wing F-84F) was to display one of the many “in between” designs, and the (R)F-84F was just a suitable basis for a conversion similar to the T-33-derived F-94, just more capable and big enough to carry the nuclear Genie missile.
The basis became Italeri’s vintage RF-84F kit, a rather simple affair with raised panel lines and a mediocre fit, plus some sinkholes. This was, however, heavily modified!
Work started with the implantation of a new tandem cockpit, taken wholesale from a Heller T-33. Fitting the cockpit tub into the wider Thunderflash hull was a bit tricky, putty blobs held the implant in place. The canopy was taken from the T-33, too, just the RF-84F’s original rear side windows were cut away to offer sufficient length for the longer clear part and the cockpit side walls had to be raised to an even level with the smaller windscreen with the help of styrene strips. With these adapters the T-33 canopy fitted surprisingly well over the opening and blended well into the spine.
The camera nose section lost its tip, which was replaced with the tail cone from a Matchbox H.S. Buccaneer (actually its air brake), and the camera windows as well as the slant surfaces that held them were PSRed away for a conical shape that extended the new pointed radome. Lots of weight in the nose and under the cockpit floor ensured a safe stance on the OOB landing gear.
The rear section behind the air brakes became all-new; for an afterburner I extended and widened the tail section and implanted the rear part from a B-66 (Italeri kit, too) engine nacelle, which received a wider nozzle (left over from a Nakotne MiG-29, a featureless thing) and an interior.
To balance the longer nose I also decided to enlarge the tail surfaces and replaced the OOB fin and stabilizers with leftover parts from a Trumpeter Il-28 bomber – the fin was shortened and the stabilizers reduced in span to match the rest of the aircraft. Despite the exotic source the parts blend well into the F-84’s overall design!
To add supersonic credibility and to connect the design further with the later F-105 I modified the air intakes and cut them into a raked shape – quite easy to realize. Once the wings were in place, I also added small splitter plates, left over from an Airfix BAC Strikemaster.
As an interceptor the armament had to be adapted accordingly, and I procured the quartet of IR-guided Falcons as well as the Genie duo from an Academy F-89. The large drop tanks were taken OOB from the Italeri kit. The Genies were mounted onto their massive Scorpion pylons under the outer wings of the F-96B, while the Falcons, due to relatively little space left under the wings, required a scratched solution. I eventually settled for dual launchers on small pylons, mounted in front of the landing gear wells. The pylons originally belong to an ESCI Ka-34 “Hokum” helicopter kit (they were just short enough!), the launch rails are a halved pair of F-4 Sidewinder rails from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set. With everything on place the F-96B looks quite crowded.
Painting and markings:
The machine would represent a late Fifties USAF type, so that the paint options were rather limited if I wanted to be authentic. ADC Grey was introduced in the early Sixties, SEA camouflage even later, so that bare metal became a natural choice – but this can be quite attractive! The model received an overall coat with acrylic “White Aluminum” from the rattle can, plus some darked panels all over the hull (Humbrol 56 for good contrast) and an afterburner section in Revell 91 (Iron Metallic) and Humbrol’s Steel Metallizer. The radome became deep black, the anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen olive drab (Revell 46). Light grey (Revell 75) was used for some small di-electric fairings.
Interior surfaces (cockpit and landing gear wells) were painted with Zinc Chromate primer (I used Humbrol 80), while the landing gear struts became silver-grey (Humbrol 56) and the inside of the covers as well as the air brakes were painted in bright red (Humbrol 19).
Once basic painting was done the model received a black ink washing and was rubbed with grinded graphite to emphasize the raised panel lines, and the material adds a nice dark metallic shine to the silver base coat.
Another challenge was to find suitable unit markings for the Fifties era in the decal vault, which would also fit onto the model. After a long search I eventually settled for rather simple markings from a 325th FIS F-102 from an Xtradecal sheet, which only features a rather timid fin decoration.
Finding other suitable standard markings remained demanding, though. Stars-And-Bars as well as the USAF taglines were taken from the Academy F-89 that also provided the ordnance, most stencils were taken from the OOB Italeri sheet and complemented by small markings from the scrap box. The biggest problem was the creation of a matching serial number. The “FF” code was originally used for P/F-51D Mustangs during the Korea War, but after the type had been phased out it might have been re-used? The letters as well as the serial number digits were created from various markings for USAF F-100s, also from an Xtradecal sheet.
Once the decals had been applied the model was sealed with semi-gloss acrylic varnish, except for the radome, the anti-glare panel as well as the walking areas on the wings as well as parts of the afterburner section, which were coated with matt varnish.
A rather straightforward conversion, even though finishing the project took longer than expected. But the result looks surprisingly natural and plausible. Lots of PSR was needed to modify the fuselage, though, especially the tail section was not easy to integrate into the Thunderflash’s hull. Sticking to the simple NMF livery paid IMHO out, too: the livery looks very natural and believable on the fictional aircraft, and it suits the F-84’s bulbous shape well.
This transforming Lego can convert from a flying machine to a standing robot mech. All parts easily fold out from flying mode to create the standing mech robot. This is version 1.3 and is not weaponized.
Fully vertical in humanoid form the tail rests on the ground for stability. The legs in this form are very sturdy and the creation can stand on its own. The foldable mini-wings will fold away completely. The balls of the feet include a rubber tire component that provides traction on slippery surfaces- that is the reason the some points of the toes are not in contact with the ground.
The tail is raw- it will be completed in future versions.
PHILIPPINE SEA (Aug. 26, 2020) Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 3rd Class Steven Weaver, left, from Green River, Wyo., and Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 3rd Class Devin Call, from Winchester, Va., both assigned to the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), signal a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unite (MEU), Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 to launch from the ship’s flight deck. America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Vincent E. Zline)
SEA OF JAPAN (May 15, 2022) Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician 3rd Class Chad Bowman, from Omaha, Neb., prepares to recover a MK 18 MOD 2 Kingfish during Exercise Noble Vanguard. Kingfish is an unmanned underwater vehicle with the sonar capabilities to scan the ocean floor for potential mines. Noble Vanguard serves as an enabler to reinforce tactics and techniques of different mission sets that contribute to regional stability. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign James French)
PHILIPPINE SEA (June 2, 2022) An MH-60S Seahawk, assigned to the "Golden Falcons" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 12, flies over the Republic of Korea Navy landing platform-helicopter ROKS Marado (LPH 6112) during Carrier Strike Group Exercise 2022. The U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and Marado conducted joint operations in the Indo-Pacific region. Carrier Strike Group Exercise is a bilateral exercise between the U.S. Navy and Republic of Korea Navy. This exercise allows our navies to refine operations and engagement to strengthen future cooperation while supporting the alliance that remains vital to the security interests of both nations and to stability in Northeast Asia. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael B. Jarmiolowski)
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 25, 2020) The forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) transits the Philippine Sea. America, flagship of Expeditionary Strike Group Seven, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Matthew Cavenaile)
Sculpted by Lee Lawrie, the imposing low-relief panel, Wisdom, was insalled over the entrance to the main building of Rockefeller Center,30 Rockefeller Plaza. The 37 foot high art deco icon can be clearly seen from Fifth Avenue. In addition to scale, Lawrie relied on mass, color, gilding and two different materials to create his piece.
The top piece, 22'x14' of Indiana limestone, depicts a figure set at an angular slant, thrusting out towards the spectator from a vast, swelling of clouds around his naked body. With furrowed brown and golden rays crowning his head, his left hand shoves away the "clouds of ignorance" and his right clutches a golden compass theat measures the cosmic forces swirling in 15'x55 glass screen below. His long beard, symbolizing experience, is blown back by sheer force of that which surrounds him. Below the figure reads the Biblical passage,"Wisdom and Knowledge Shall Be the Stability of Thy Times" (Isaiah 33:6).
Wisdom is flanked on either side by Sound and Light, and was the first exterior piece in the Center to be painted and gilded.
German-born Lee Lawrie was well known as an architectural sculptor. His work can be found at St. Thomas Church and throughout Rockefeller Center: Winged Mercury and Heraldic Lions at the British Empire Building; Fleur-de-lis and Seeds of Good Citizenship at La Maison Française; Progress at One Rockefeller Plaza; The Story of Mankind, Saint Francis of Assisi, Swords into Plowshares, Columbia Greeting a Woman, Boatman, Fourteen coats of Arms, Corncucopia of Plenty, and most famously, Atlas at the International building.
Rockefeller Center was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1985.
In 2007, Rockefeller Center was ranked #56 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
Rockefeller Center National Register #87002591
+++ 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:
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, vice president of engineering and research at Lockheed's Skunk Works, visited USAF air bases across South Korea in November 1951 to speak with fighter pilots about what they wanted and needed in a fighter aircraft. At the time, the American pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, and many felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American design. The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance, especially high speed and altitude capabilities. Armed with this information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft on his return to the United States.
Work started in March 1952. In order to achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a small and simple aircraft, weighing in at 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) with a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79 turbojet, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs. The small L-246 design remained essentially identical to the Model 083 Starfighter as eventually delivered.
Johnson presented the design to the Air Force on 5 November 1952, and work progressed quickly, with a mock-up ready for inspection at the end of April, and work starting on two prototypes that summer. The first prototype was completed by early 1954 and first flew on 4 March at Edwards AFB. The total time from contract to first flight was less than one year.
The first YF-104A flew on 17 February 1956 and, with the other 16 trial aircraft, were soon carrying out equipment evaluation and flight tests. Lockheed made several improvements to the aircraft throughout the testing period, including strengthening the airframe, adding a ventral fin to improve directional stability at supersonic speed, and installing a boundary layer control system (BLCS) to reduce landing speed. Problems were encountered with the J79 afterburner; further delays were caused by the need to add AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. On 28 January 1958, the first production F-104A to enter service was delivered.
Even though the F-104 saw only limited use by the USAF, later versions, tailored to a fighter bomber role and intended for overseas sales, were more prolific. This was in particular the F-104G, which became the Starfighter's main version, a total of 1,127 F-104Gs were produced under license by Canadair and a consortium of European companies that included Messerschmitt/MBB, Fiat, Fokker, and SABCA.
The F-104G differed considerably from earlier versions. It featured strengthened fuselage, wing, and empennage structures; a larger vertical fin with fully powered rudder as used on the earlier two-seat versions; fully powered brakes, new anti-skid system, and larger tires; revised flaps for improved combat maneuvering; a larger braking chute. Upgraded avionics included an Autonetics NASARR F15A-41B multi-mode radar with air-to-air, ground-mapping, contour-mapping, and terrain-avoidance modes, as well as the Litton LN-3 Inertial Navigation System, the first on a production fighter.
Germany was among the first foreign operators of the F-104G variant. As a side note, a widespread misconception was and still is that the "G" explicitly stood for "Germany". But that was not the case and pure incidence, it was just the next free letter, even though Germany had a major influence on the aircraft's concept and equipment. The German Air Force and Navy used a large number of F-104G aircraft for interception, reconnaissance and fighter bomber roles. In total, Germany operated 916 Starfighters, becoming the type's biggest operator in the world. Beyond the single seat fighter bombers, Germany also bought and initially 30 F-104F two-seat aircraft and then 137 TF-104G trainers. Most went to the Luftwaffe and a total of 151 Starfighters was allocated to the Marineflieger units.
The introduction of this highly technical aircraft type to a newly reformed German air force was fraught with problems. Many were of technical nature, but there were other sources of problems, too. For instance, after WWII, many pilots and ground crews had settled into civilian jobs and had not kept pace with military and technological developments. Newly recruited/re-activated pilots were just being sent on short "refresher" courses in slow and benign-handling first-generation jet aircraft or trained on piston-driven types. Ground crews were similarly employed with minimal training and experience, which was one consequence of a conscripted military with high turnover of service personnel. Operating in poor northwest European weather conditions (vastly unlike the fair-weather training conditions at Luke AFB in Arizona) and flying low at high speed over hilly terrain, a great many Starfighter accidents were attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). German Air Force and Navy losses with the type totaled 110 pilots, around half of them naval officers.
One general contributing factor to the high attrition rate was the operational assignment of the F-104 in German service: it was mainly used as a (nuclear strike) fighter-bomber, flying at low altitude underneath enemy radar and using landscape clutter as passive radar defense, as opposed to the original design of a high-speed, high-altitude fighter/interceptor. In addition to the different and demanding mission profiles, the installation of additional avionic equipment in the F-104G version, such as the inertial navigation system, added distraction to the pilot and additional weight that further hampered the flying abilities of the plane. In contemporary German magazine articles highlighting the Starfighter safety problems, the aircraft was portrayed as "overburdened" with technology, which was considered a latent overstrain on the aircrews. Furthermore, many losses in naval service were attributed to the Starfighter’s lack of safety margin through a twin-engine design like the contemporary Blackburn Buccaneer, which had been the German navy air arm’s favored type. But due to political reasons (primarily the outlook to produce the Starfighter in Southern Germany in license), the Marine had to accept and make do with the Starfighter, even if it was totally unsuited for the air arm's mission profile.
Erich Hartmann, the world's top-scoring fighter ace from WWII, commanded one of Germany's first (post-war) jet fighter-equipped squadrons and deemed the F-104 to be an unsafe aircraft with poor handling characteristics for aerial combat. To the dismay of his superiors, Hartmann judged the fighter unfit for Luftwaffe use even before its introduction.
In 1966 Johannes Steinhoff took over command of the Luftwaffe and grounded the entire Luftwaffe and Bundesmarine F-104 fleet until he was satisfied that the persistent problems had been resolved or at least reduced to an acceptable level. One measure to improve the situation was that some Starfighters were modified to carry a flight data recorder or "black box" which could give an indication of the probable cause of an accident. In later years, the German Starfighters’ safety record improved, although a new problem of structural failure of the wings emerged: original fatigue calculations had not taken into account the high number of g-force loading cycles that the German F-104 fleet was experiencing through their mission profiles, and many airframes were returned to the depot for wing replacement or outright retirement.
The German F-104Gs served primarily in the strike role as part of the Western nuclear deterrent strategy, some of these dedicated nuclear strike Starfighters even had their M61 gun replaced by an additional fuel tank for deeper penetration missions. However, some units close to the German borders, e.g. Jagdgeschwader (JG) 71 in Wittmundhafen (East Frisia) as well as JG 74 in Neuburg (Bavaria), operated the Starfighter as a true interceptor on QRA duty. From 1980 onwards, these dedicated F-104Gs received a new air superiority camouflage, consisting of three shades of grey in an integral wraparound scheme, together with smaller, subdued national markings. This livery was officially called “Norm 82” and unofficially “Alberich”, after the secretive guardian of the Nibelung's treasure. A similar wraparound paint scheme, tailored to low-level operations and consisting of two greens and black (called Norm 83), was soon applied to the fighter bombers and the RF-104 fleet, too, as well as to the Luftwaffe’s young Tornado IDS fleet.
However, the Luftwaffe’s F-104Gs were at that time already about to be gradually replaced, esp. in the interceptor role, by the more capable and reliable F-4F Phantom II, a process that lasted well into the mid-Eighties due to a lagging modernization program for the Phantoms. The Luftwaffe’s fighter bombers and recce Starfighters were replaced by the MRCA Tornado and RF-4E Phantoms. In naval service the Starfighters soldiered on for a little longer until they were also replaced by the MRCA Tornado – eventually, the Marineflieger units received a two engine aircraft type that was suitable for their kind of missions.
In the course of the ongoing withdrawal, a lot of German aircraft with sufficiently enough flying hours left were transferred to other NATO partners like Norway, Greece, Turkey and Italy, and two were sold to the NASA. One specific Starfighter was furthermore modified into a CCV (Control-Configured Vehicle) experimental aircraft under control of the German Industry, paving the way to aerodynamically unstable aircraft like the Eurofighter/Typhoon. The last operational German F-104 made its farewell flight on 22. Mai 1991, and the type’s final flight worldwide was in Italy in October 2004.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 54 ft 8 in (16.66 m)
Wingspan: 21 ft 9 in (6.63 m)
Height: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Wing area: 196.1 ft² (18.22 m²)
Airfoil: Biconvex 3.36 % root and tip
Empty weight: 14,000 lb (6,350 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 29,027 lb (13,166 kg)
Powerplant:
1× General Electric J79 afterburning turbojet,
10,000 lbf (44 kN) thrust dry, 15,600 lbf (69 kN) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,528 mph (2,459 km/h, 1,328 kn)
Maximum speed: Mach 2
Combat range: 420 mi (680 km, 360 nmi)
Ferry range: 1,630 mi (2,620 km, 1,420 nmi)
Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)
Rate of climb: 48,000 ft/min (240 m/s) initially
Lift-to-drag: 9.2
Wing loading: 105 lb/ft² (510 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.54 with max. takeoff weight (0.76 loaded)
Armament:
1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan six-barreled Gatling cannon, 725 rounds
7× hardpoints with a capacity of 4,000 lb (1,800 kg), including up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder, (nuclear)
bombs, guided and unguided missiles, or other stores like drop tanks or recce pods
The kit and its assembly:
A relatively simple what-if project – based on the question how a German F-104 interceptor might have looked like, had it been operated for a longer time to see the Luftwaffe’s low-viz era from 1981 onwards. In service, the Luftwaffe F-104Gs started in NMF and then carried the Norm 64 scheme, the well-known splinter scheme in grey and olive drab. Towards the end of their career the fighter bombers and recce planes received the Norm 83 wraparound scheme in green and black, but by that time no dedicated interceptors were operational anymore, so I stretched the background story a little.
The model is the very nice Italeri F-104G/S model, which is based on the ESCI molds from the Eighties, but it comes with recessed engravings and an extra sprue that contains additional drop tanks and an Orpheus camera pod. The kit also includes a pair of Sidewinders with launch rails for the wing tips as well as the ventral “catamaran” twin rail, which was frequently used by German Starfighters because the wing tips were almost constantly occupied with tanks.
Fit and detail is good – the kit is IMHO very good value for the money. There are just some light sinkholes on the fuselage behind the locator pins, the fit of the separate tail section is mediocre and calls for PSR, and the thin and very clear canopy is just a single piece – for open display, you have to cut it by yourself.
Since the model would become a standard Luftwaffe F-104G, just with a fictional livery, the kit was built OOB. The only change I made are drooped flaps, and the air brakes were mounted in open position.
The ordnance (wing tip tanks plus the ventral missiles) was taken from the kit, reflecting the typical German interceptor configuration: the wing tips were frequently occupied with tanks, sometimes even together with another pair of drop tanks under the wings, so that any missile had to go under the fuselage. The instructions for the ventral catamaran launch rails are BTW wrong – they tell the builder to mount the launch rails onto the twin carrier upside down! Correctly, the carrier’s curvature should lie flush on the fuselage, with no distance at all. When mounted as proposed, the Sidewinders come very close to the ground and the whole installation looks pretty goofy! I slightly modified the catamaran launch rail with some thin styrene profile strips as spacers, and the missiles themselves, AIM-9Bs, were replaced with more modern and delicate AIM-9Js from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set. Around the hull, some small blade antennae, a dorsal rotating warning light and an angle-of-attack sensor were added.
Painting and markings:
The exotic livery is what defined this what-if build, and the paint scheme was actually inspired by a real world benchmark: some Dornier Do-28D Skyservants of the German Marineflieger received, late in their career, a wraparound scheme in three shades of grey, namely RAL 7030 (Steingrau), 7000 (Fehgrau) and 7012 (Basaltgrau). I thought that this would work pretty well for an F-104G interceptor that operates at medium to high altitudes, certainly better than the relatively dark Norm 64 splinter scheme or the Norm 83 low-altitude pattern.
The camouflage pattern was simply adopted from the Starfighter’s Norm 83 scheme, just the colors were exchanged. The kit was painted with acrylic paints from Revell, since the authentic tones were readily available, namely 75, 57 and 77. As a disrupting detail I gave the wing tip tanks the old Norm 64 colors: uniform Gelboliv from above (RAL 6014, Revell 42), Silbergrau underneath (RAL 7001, Humbrol’s 127 comes pretty close), and bright RAL 2005 dayglo orange markings, the latter created with TL Modellbau decal sheet material for clean edges and an even finish.
The cockpit interior was painted in standard medium grey (Humbrol 140, Dark Gull Grey), the landing gear including the wells became aluminum (Humbrol 56), the interior of the air intakes was painted with bright matt aluminum metallizer (Humbrol 27001) with black anti-icing devices in the edges and the shock cones. The radome was painted with very light grey (Humbrol 196, RAL 7035), the dark green anti-glare panel is a decal from the OOB sheet.
The model received a standard black ink washing and some panel post-shading (with Testors 2133 Russian Fulcrum Grey, Humbrol 128 FS 36320 and Humbrol 156 FS 36173) in an attempt to even out the very different shades of grey. The result does not look bad, pretty worn and weathered (like many German Starfighters), even though the paint scheme reminds a lot of the Hellenic "Ghost" scheme from the late F-4Es and the current F-16s?
The decals for the subdued Luftwaffe markings were puzzled together from various sources. The stencils were mostly taken from the kit’s exhaustive and sharply printed sheet. Tactical codes (“26+40” is in the real Starfighter range, but this specific code was AFAIK never allocated), iron crosses and the small JG 71 emblems come from TL Modellbau aftermarket sheets. Finally, after some light soot stains around the gun port, the afterburner and some air outlets along the fuselage with graphite, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
A simple affair, since the (nice) kit was built OOB and the only really fictional aspect of this model is its livery. But the resulting aircraft looks good, the all-grey wraparound scheme suits the slender F-104 well and makes an interceptor role quite believable. Would probably also look good on a German Eurofighter? Certainly more interesting than the real world all-blue-grey scheme.
In the beauty pics the scheme also appears to be quite effective over open water, too, so that the application to the Marineflieger Do-28Ds made sense. However, for the real-world Starfighter, this idea came a couple of years too late.
U.S. Army Soldiers provide security during an independent, coordinated patrol near the demarcation line near Manbij, Syria, June 28, 2018. The U.S. is conducting these patrols with Turkish military forces to continue providing safety and stability to the region since ISIS was defeated by the Syrian Democratic Forces. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Timothy R. Koster)
For my video; youtu.be/KacesV8AerE
At the 2004 North American International Auto Show, a Ford Bronco concept vehicle was unveiled. Inspired by the first-generation (1966-1977) Ford Bronco, the 2004 concept adapted a short wheelbase, round headlamps, and squared-off roofline; the concept marked one of the first uses of a three-bar grille on Ford vehicles. Using a minimalist exterior design, the Bronco design was unveiled alongside a Shelby Cobra Concept at the same show.
Using the Ford CD2 platform of the Ford Escape, the Bronco concept was powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder turbodiesel (from the Ford Mondeo) and a six-speed manual transmission. Replacing ControlTrac II, an "Intelligent" 4-wheel drive system was intended for improved stability and fuel economy.
Vancouver International Auto Show, 2007,
BC Place, Yaletown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada