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Photo manipulation made in Photoshop. Made from a big hunk and lots of photos of fire. No idea where the model came from but if anyone knows, let me know and I'll give proper credit.
In the breakneck age of early jet travel, it was a race between the transatlantic superpowers to become king of the skies. To combat America's rising star, the Boeing 707, Britain hoped that its latest development, the Vickers VC10, would be the answer to our prayers, but instead has come to encompass all that was right and all that was wrong with the British aviation industry.
As part of a consolidation of the UK aviation industry to reduce costs, the British Government cut down on the number of companies available to build aircraft. By 1959, only two engine makers, Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley, were allowed to take part in aviation powerplant construction. By 1960, the government had merged the aircraft manufacturers into a selection of larger companies, including British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), which encompassed Vickers, Bristol and English Electric's aviation interests, Hawker Siddeley, that was built on de Havilland's heavy aircraft experience, and Westland consolidated helicopter manufacture. The British government also controlled route-licensing for private airlines and also oversaw the newly established publicly-owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) long-range and British European Airways (BEA) short and medium-range airlines.
In 1951, the Ministry of Supply commissioned Vickers to create a military troop/freighter aircraft based on the Vickers Valiant nuclear bomber. The concept interested BOAC, who entered into discussion with Vickers and the RAF for a passenger variant to become the flagship of transatlantic flights. In October 1952, Vickers were contracted to build a prototype which they designated the Type 1000 (Vickers V-1000), followed in June 1954 by a production order for six aircraft for the RAF, together with the planned civil variant for BOAC known then as the VC7 (the seventh Vickers civil design).
Work commenced in 1955, but was put on hold after the RAF order was cancelled the same year due to major cutbacks in the face of a recession. Vickers hoped that BOAC would remain interested, but waning confidence in the British aviation industry following the Comet crashes and delayed production of the Bristol Britannia turboprop made them reluctant to follow the project through. Although BOAC would later order a set of the Comet 4 aircraft, these were only seen as temporary stop-gaps until the airline received 15 Boeing 707's in 1959. However, while the 707 was an able aircraft, it was very poor at operating the Empire services to the colonies in Africa and Asia. In these regions, many airports are located in hot climates at high altitudes, examples being Singapore and Nairobi, therefore reducing aircraft performance. The 707 was oversized and underpowered for such a task, and thus BOAC once again searched for options.
De Havilland offered the DH.118, a development of the Comet 5 project while Handley Page proposed the HP.97, based on their V bomber, the Victor. After carefully considering the routes, Vickers offered the VC10. Crucially, Vickers was the only firm willing to launch its design as a private venture, instead of relying on government financing.
The design of the VC10 included a T-Tail with four Rolls Royce Conway engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage. It had a generous wing equipped with wide chord Fowler flaps and full span leading edge slats for good take-off and climb performance; its rear engines gave an efficient clean wing and reduced cabin noise. The engines were also further from the runway surface than an underwing design, an important factor in operations from rough runways such as those common in Africa; wide, low-pressure tyres were also adopted with this same concern in mind. The VC10 was capable of landing and taking off at slower speeds than the rival 707 and its engines could produce considerably more thrust, providing good 'hot and high' performance, and was considered to be a safer aircraft.
The Rolls Royce Conway engines provided the VC10 with 22,500lbf each, propelling the aircraft to a top speed of 580mph, a range of 5,800 miles and an operational ceiling of 43,000ft. However, the combined engine pack at the rear of the aircraft made the VC10 incredibly noisy externally, so much so that it has gone on record as the loudest commercial airliner in history, something that even the mighty Concorde couldn't top!
Another party-piece of the VC10 was its revolutionary and highly advanced onboard avionics, including a quadruplicated automatic flight control system, intended to enable fully automatic zero-visibility landings. Capacity was up to 135 passengers in a two-class configuration. The VC10 came in two variants, the Standard and the Super. Super VC10's differed in that they were equipped with more powerful Conway engines and a 28ft longer fuselage offering up to 212 seats, 23 more than the Boeing 707–320 series.
Each aircraft cost £1.75m (£39m in today's money) and confidence in the aircraft was high, with most of the development team expecting it to thrash the comparatively simple 707. However, the costs of development meant that in order to earn a profit, Vickers would have to sell at least 80 of the aircraft at the asking price. Eventually BOAC took on 25 of the aircraft, 55 short of their required amount. In response, Vickers offered a regional alternative known as the VC11, intending BEA to consider its usage, but this plan came to no avail, the company instead ordering the Hawker Siddeley Trident.
The prototype, G-ARTA, rolled out of the Weybridge factory on 15th April, 1962. On 29th June, after two months of ground, engine and taxi tests, it was first flown by Vickers' chief test pilot G R 'Jock' Bryce, co-pilot Brian Trubshaw and flight engineer Bill Cairns from Brooklands to Wisley for further testing. Flight tests revealed a serious drag problem, which was addressed via the adoption of Küchemann wingtips and "beaver tail" engine nacelle fairings, as well as a redesigned basal rudder segment for greater control effectiveness; these aerodynamic refinements considerably elongated the testing process. The certification programme included visits to Nairobi, Khartoum, Rome, Kano, Aden, and Beirut. A VC10 flew across the Atlantic to Montreal on 8th February, 1964.
Problems regarding the construction of the VC10 however were due largely to the location of the factory at Weybridge. Weybridge, a former RAF Spitfire base, had a runway that was too short for the VC10, and thus the aircraft, following construction, had to be flown without furnishings and with less than half a tank of fuel to the nearby BAC factory at Wisley, located 3 miles to the south, where the aircraft would be fitted out for final delivery to an airline.
The first deliveries to BOAC took place in 1964, and immediately received acclaim from passengers and crews for their low noise level, comfort, ease of flying and stylistic beauty, especially in the BOAC livery. BOAC would eventually take on 11 Standard VC10's and 17 Super VC10's, these being put to work on the Empire flights as well as transatlantic services to New York. Most other carriers that took on the VC10 used it to exploit the hot and high flight capability, and thus it was very popular among Middle Eastern and African airlines such as Gulf Air, East African Airways and Ghana Airways. In addition to commercial aviation, the VC10 also found itself in its original intended role working for the RAF, which took on 9 aircraft originally as strategic transport and VIP aircraft.
However, despite it being lauded for its advanced design and superb looks, the VC10 would very quickly come to symbolise all that made the British aviation industry lag behind the foreign competition, and it would cost Vickers dearly.
Vickers wanted the VC10 to be a mass-produced competitor to the 707 and Douglas DC-8, and though equally as capable and much more advanced, its failure to sell in the same numbers came down to three things. The first was that most airlines didn't have the hot and high problem that the VC10 was specifically designed to overcome, and thus its technology was somewhat surplus to requirement. At the same time the VC10 was considered cutting edge, a risk many airlines weren't willing to take, especially during the economically and politically unstable times of the 1960's and also following the failure of the Comet. The final, and arguably most important, reason was because the VC10 was much more expensive to operate. Whilst the 707 and DC-8 followed the barn-door approach to building aircraft, the VC10 was a highly advanced and extremely complex plane by comparison, and thus didn't suit the needs of its opponents.
As a result, only 54 VC10's were built when production ended in 1970, and very soon the ones that had been built found themselves redundant. Throughout the 1950's and 60's, the economically unstable UK, like many other colonial powers, were forced to give independence to many of its overseas territories, including Kenya, the Sudan, Singapore, Nigeria, Rhodesia and countries of the Arabian Peninsula such as Yemen. As such, the requirements for the VC10's hot and high abilities were reduced as BOAC, later British Airways, removed or reduced services on routes to these former colonies. The political unrest that ensued also broke apart many of the other operators that used VC10's, namely East African Airways, which was an airline jointly owned by the governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Following independence, relations between these countries began to deteriorate, and the airline folded in 1977.
Here in the UK, almost all VC10's were now under the ownership of British Airways, taking on former British United and later British Caledonian units. The VC10, though a useful aircraft, was now both needlessly expensive due to its inefficient nature, especially after the Oil Crisis of 1973, and had been superseded by a variety of later builds, including Boeing 747's. The first VC10's were retired as early as 1974, though would later find use with Gulf Air. Eventually, almost at the same time, every VC10 in passenger operation was retired, with all commercial examples being withdrawn by 1982. British Airways made its last flight of a VC10 in May 1981 after attempting to sell them on to other airlines with no avail. Eventually, those that had not been scrapped were instead sold to the RAF.
The RAF, by the mid-1980's, owned 28 VC10's, including both their original orders from 1964 and converted commercial examples. All of these aircraft, including the transports, were retrofitted into air-to-air tankers to replace the Handley-Page Victors, which were converted nuclear V Bombers. Under RAF service, the VC10's saw action in both Gulf Wars, the War in Afghanistan, the Kosovo Crisis and assisted in the Arab Spring of 2011. Each aircraft was capable of carrying 80 tons of fuel over their range of 5,800 miles, making them important parts of any airborne tactical situation. The VC10's remained in service with the RAF until the final examples were retired on the 25th September, 2013, being replaced by the Airbus A330 MRTT Voyager aircraft. After 49 years of service, of which only 18 had been spent in passenger service, the last mass-produced long-range British jet airliner fell silent and was consigned to the history books.
However, the VC10 does have the distinction of being among the safest aircraft in aviation history. Although 7 aircraft were written-off during its career, only two were fatal, and none were as a result of a fault with the aircraft itself. Three VC10's were hijacked, two of which were destroyed, one being at the infamous Dawson's Field in Jordan alongside other hijacked aircraft, though in all three situations only one hostage was murdered. One VC10 was destroyed by small arms fire on the ground at Beirut during an Israeli raid, one was written-off after a hard landing, and another was written-off on the ground after an error in fuel distribution. In the case of the two fatal landings, these were due to pilot error more than anything else, and the combined loss of life for both incidents was 130.
Today, 10 VC10's have been preserved, including one commercial example, two former VIP aircraft, and 7 ex-RAF tankers and one partial fuselage.
It is truly a shame that the VC10 never caught on in the way Vickers had hoped, but, as mentioned, it is one of several aircraft that summarize the best and worst regarding the motivations of the British aviation industry, creating highly advanced aircraft that are far more reliable and endearing than the competition, but being too expensive or complex to have a mass-market appeal. The VC10 was an unfortunate case in point, with all passenger examples retired within 15 to 20 years. A sad waste perhaps, but at least there are still Vickers VC10's in the world to show us all the lengths of British innovation and aircraft manufacturing.
This aircraft is one of my all time fave's and for a very, very good reason!
Mr Eggs
I did it my way......
#mreggs #mcrgraff #stencilart #mreggz @tamesidecorrespondent @granadareports @officialfranksidebottom @propermcr @liamgallagher @the.manc @chrishallitv @manchestereveningnews #graffitiblock #paralympics #discrimination #superpowers #dontstopmenow #bestrong #notbanksyforum #notbanksy
Pere Marquette Lima Superpower 1225 with a Model T Ford. 27th September 2008. NW of Owosso, Michigan.
Superpower for a three-coach train as 55016 "Gordon Highlander" and D5054 head for Oxenhope with the 11:00 from Keighley. 6/11/88.
Hey guys,
I've been commissioned to create a computer and smartphone wallpaper each week for SportsPLAN Studio!!! SPS is a cool group of Architects who love to design sports and recreation facilities nationwide.
I'll post up the iphone wallpapers to my feed, however the computer backgrounds (wallpaper) won't be posted here. I would ask (beg and plead) everyone who would enjoy a free, weekly sports related background to please go over to their feed and mark them as a contact... really it's me and you can see more stuff I do that won't appear here!
SportsPLAN Studio: www.flickr.com/photos/sportsplanstudio/
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This iPhone Background (640x960 wallpaper) is crafted by Patrick Hoesly and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
If you like this image, please leave a comment. Thanks!
How do I get this onto my iPhone?
There are a number of ways to do this, however I think the easiest and fastest way is to download Flickr’s free app. Within the Flickr app you surf over to my photo feed to view the images (if you make me a contact then I’ll appear in the flickr contact list). When you find one you like, just click the download button and save the image directly to your phone. Quick & Simple!
I don’t have an iPhone. Can I still use it on my phone?
As of this writing this image (960 x 640) should be large enough to be used as wallpaper with the Droid / Android, BlackBerry, Windows 7, and iPhone.
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Again, please go over to SportsPLAN's Flickr feed and mark them as a contact. You really will be seeing more of my work, which won't be posted here. Cheers and Thanks!
SportsPLAN Studio: www.flickr.com/photos/sportsplanstudio/
Super Pig's superpower is providing super tasty meat to all the boys and girls.
ink on hemp paper.
Available here.
All images
© Alyson Thomas 2008-2010
Class '44' "Jumbo" and 'Rekolok' Class '52.80' 2-10-0s 44 1486-8 and 52 80790-7 get to grips with their heavy gravel train leaving the loading point at Immelborn on 11th October 2007.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
This was my first test run; I wasn't completely satisfied with the results (not interesting enough with my just "meshing" into the wall -- not "active"). Don't worry, more are on the way; but yesterday was quite busy and Sonya has the flu today so I'll do my best
GW Halls 4965 & 4936 speed through Churchdown with The City Express from Bristol to Nuneaton. 6th April 2002.
88010 Aurora and 68016 Fearless power 4Z27 05.48 Mossend Down Yard - Daventry International Railfreight Terminal past Marholm (north of Peterborough). Both locos are under power.
Several workings between Daventry and Scotland were diverted via the ECML and London over a few weekends in May and June 2020, due to planned engineering work on the northern end of the WCML (although some ran cross-country via Burton-upon-Trent). This bank holiday Monday working was the only southbound one in daylight at the southern end of the ECML.
Despite being a grey morning, the sight of two class 37's and a class 20 on the 6C22 Kingmoor Depot to Sellafield nuclear flask move was too good to pass up on. Here 37610 'T.S. (Ted) Cassady 14.5.61 - 6.4.08' and 37259 (with 20312 DIT), and a payload of two 'FNA' wagons and flasks from Torness the previous day, power away from Carlisle station passing High Wapping sidings and the power signal box at 6.40a.m. on Thursday 14th June 2012.
© Copyright Gordon Edgar - No unauthorised use
August 3, 2020 - What is your Superpower? Me in a Light Painting portrait by James Kao, in San Pedro, CA. Night Photo Shoot with James Kao, Andrea Parsons, and Scott Parsons. This was our Finale picture of the night. Tonight we went to San Pedro, CA to try to capture the Full Sturgeon Moon with the Angel's Gate Lighthouse. Unfortunately the marine layer clouds thickened and we could not capture the Full Moonrise. So we made the most of the night and did some light painting together instead! This was James' first time using his new Light Painting set, and he did a great job after some practice! Photo Credit: Scott Parsons.
In this issue, Ultra Force faces their first and most power super villain, Baron von Ogel. What is he here for? What does he have in store for New Blok City? More importantly, Can he be stopped!?! Find out what plans the terrible tyrant has for New Blok's newest heroes in this exciting issue.
*special thanks to Jeremy Green for giving me the idea to do a comic book cover*
This was built for the Lego League of Heroes Flickr Group: Suit up, Sign up! www.flickr.com/groups/llh/
I like the DC Classics, but wasn't satisfied with the Superman figures available in the line. So I set about making my own.
The body is from the DC Multiverse Super Friends version of Superman, because the blue is more accurate to the 1980s comics.
The fabric cape was replaced with a plastic one from the DC Icons Superman. Again, the color was better. Plus it has the yellow Superman logo on the back, and the collar is more accurate.
Lastly, the head was swapped with the one from the DC Direct First Appearance Superman. The change was inspired by a comment from my friend, pointing out that the original sculpt just doesn't look right. At first I thought the smile would be too much, but it ended up striking a chord. Like a nod to the old Super Powers/Super Friends.
The final, really final, absolutely final 6E62 Carlisle - Tees Dock intermodal is seen approaching Gilsland on the Tyne Valley line behind Class 60 No.60091, the loco' which had worked the consist from Workington the previous day.
In between those workings it had run light as 0N32 / 0C19 to Tyne Yard and return to transport railmen back east due to the non running of the 6X95 engineers' working.
Although working a backshift on Saturday I was up and about early doors to head out to my location, regardless of the sh1te weather.
Big "UP" to DBS for putting in the effort for this final trip out for the KFA twins.
Round 14
Creed formula: Red hood, amds, & hips, Nightwing torso, BrickForge Utility Belt, Trans-red round tile, BrickWarriors vambraces, Hawkeye legs, CMF Tomahawk Warrior head
Creed inspirations: Creed is my main character. He is modeled after your typical vigilante but it started when I got the idea from a character Stevie Washington who I later used to call Nitro. The similarities are the red and black color combo and his skate boarding ability. I settled on the name Creed as it pertains to his code about vengeance, justice and all that stuff. I gave him attributes of Batman & Nightwing by having him use gadgets and superior fighting skills while adding Spiderman's durability & danger sense. I also added minor regeneration because even though Spiderman doesn't actually have it, there is no way he can take a beating and be ready to go the next day without it. His alter ego is my real name with the letters mixed around and one letter missing. ;)
Liana formula: Gamora head (knockoff), BrickForge Ponytail, Brick Warriors Vines, CMF Plant Monster torso assembly & legs assembly
Liana inspirations: Obvious Poison Ivy inspiration here. No reason to hid it and frankly, no reason not to use it. The CMF plant monster body works great and the Gamora head looks like a further departure from Poison Ivy then the Hera Syndulla head which is the other lime colored head I own. The BF & BW accessory parts work great I felt for conveying the plant aspects from her. I was looking for a suitable name like Eve, Eden, Rose etc, and even thought about asking Andhe if I could simply use the name Vine when I came upon the name Liana. It works as a female name plus it is also the name of a specific vine (look it up, I'm not kidding).
Voodoom formula: CapeMadness Azreal cape, Brick Warriors Tribal Mask (painted by me), Tribal Plume, & , Thraex Plumes, Ninjago Sleven head, torso assembly, & legs assembly
Voodoom inspirations: Voodoom started all because of the Brick Warriors mask. I knew I could do something with it and decided to see where I could go. It took me a long time, since he had been in development for a long while. The decision to go with the dark red & dark purple combo was settled when I saw the Ninjago minifigs. I was unsure to use Haitian, African, or Creole inspirations, but decided to stick to something I had a slight bit more knowledge on (very little in fact). The CapeMadness cape was the final piece that I think works perfectly. I'm iffy about the use of magic in comics because I come from a D&D background where it is quite different. I tried to keep his powers in line with comic book characters like Dr. Strange, but limited them so I didn't go all OP. The name was tricky but in the end I ended up using the name that Marek Luinmor had used for a character when we had a create a villain contest at LOH. I contacted him for use of the name, but never got a reply and he has been inactive on Flickr forever, so I just went forward. His alter ego last name is french for crow and I liked it because it fit. I had a slight influence from the villain Kraven. I actually did research on the bayous of Louisiana plus a lot of research on Voodoo to get the character where he is today.
Check out their profiles here:
www.flickr.com/photos/51975999@N05/36145481025/in/album-7...
www.flickr.com/photos/51975999@N05/36644416340/in/album-7...
www.flickr.com/photos/51975999@N05/36271608324/in/album-7...
Hope you enjoyed it!
Built for the League of Lego Heroes