1.
Triumph TR3
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The Triumph TR3 is a British sports car produced between 1955 and 1962 by the Standard-Triumph Motor Company of Coventry, England. A traditional roadster, the TR3 is an evolution of the company’s earlier TR2 model, with greater power, updated variants, popularly but unofficially known as the TR3A and TR3B, entered production in 1957 and 1962 respectively. The TR3 was succeeded by the Michelotti-styled, mechanically similar Triumph TR4, the rugged ‘sidescreen’ TR, so named for its employment of removable plexiglass side curtains, was a sales and motorsport success. With approximately 74,800 TR3s sold across all variants, the model was the third best seller, behind the TR7. The Triumph was campaigned in races, hill climbs, and rallies across Europe and North America, with several outright, team, although the car was usually supplied as an open two-seater, an occasional rear seat and bolt-on steel hard top were available as extras. The car is powered by a 1991 cc straight-four OHV engine initially producing 95 bhp and this was later increased to 100 bhp at 5000 rpm by the addition of a high port cylinder head and enlarged manifold. The four-speed manual gearbox could be supplemented by a unit on the top three ratios, electrically operated and controlled by a switch on the dashboard. In 1956 the front brakes were changed from drums to discs, the suspension is by double A-arms, manganese bronze trunnion, coil springs and tube shocks at the front, optional anti-roll bar, and with worm and peg steering. Unlike MGs of the period, the steering mechanism and linkage have considerable play and friction. The rear is conventional leaf springs, with solid axle and lever arm dampers, the wheels are 15 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches wide, with 48-spoke wire wheels optional. Wire wheels were painted, either body colour or argent. The front disc or drum brakes and rear drums have no servo assistance, the TR3s weight is significantly more than the Morgan +4 and the Porsche 356, but not much more than the MG-A and MG-B. All except the Morgan, which shares the engine, are substantially less powerful as is the Sunbeam Alpine. Under most conditions the car is very responsive and forgiving, the chassis, which is shared by the TR2, TR3, TR3A and TR4 has limited wheel travel. As a result, on hard cornering, the inside rear wheel can lift. This is particularly true with radial tyres, the original TR2/3/3A suspension was built with older, the TR3 is a true roadster, designed for sunny weather but with removable rain protection. It has a hood that snaps on and off and removable side curtains. There are holes in the floor, with rubber plugs, so that the originally supplied jack might be used from inside the car, the optional heater is poor and the shut-off valve is under the bonnet
2.
Unidentified flying object
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An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, UFOs are often identified after their sighting. Sometimes, however, UFOs cannot be identified because of the low quality of evidence related to their sightings, during the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as flying saucers or flying discs. The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as An unidentified flying object, a flying saucer. The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe, the acronym UFO was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAFs official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, Obviously the term flying saucer is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape, for this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name, unidentified flying objects. Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include flying flapjack, flying disc, unexplained flying discs, unidentifiable object, the phrase flying saucer had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph, at the time, he claimed he described the objects flying in a saucer-like fashion, leading to newspaper accounts of flying saucers and flying discs. In popular usage, the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft, between 5% and 20% of reported sightings are not explained, and therefore can be classified as unidentified in the strictest sense. The term Ufology is used to describe the efforts of those who study reports. UFOs have become a prevalent theme in culture, and the social phenomena have been the subject of academic research in sociology and psychology. Unexplained aerial observations have been reported throughout history, an example is Halleys Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC and possibly as early as 467 BC. Such sightings throughout history often were treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens. On January 25,1878, the Denison Daily News printed an article in which John Martin, Martin, according to the newspaper account, said it appeared to be about the size of a saucer, the first known use of the word saucer in association with a UFO. In April 1897, thousands of people reported seeing airships in various parts of the United States, scores of people even reported talking to the pilots. Thomas Edison was asked his opinion, and said, You can take it from me that it is a pure fake, the largest had an apparent size of about six Suns, he said
3.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
4.
Aurora (aircraft)
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Aurora was a rumored mid-1980s American reconnaissance aircraft. There is no evidence that it was ever built or flown. The U. S. government has denied such an aircraft was ever built. Aviation and space reference site Aerospaceweb. org concluded, The evidence supporting the Aurora is circumstantial or pure conjecture, there is reason to contradict the governments position. Former Skunk Works director, Ben Rich, confirmed that Aurora was simply a myth in Skunk Works, a book detailing his days as the director. Mr. Rich wrote that a young colonel working in the Pentagon arbitrarily assigned the name Aurora to the funding for the B-2 bomber design competition, in 2006, veteran black project watcher and aviation writer Bill Sweetman said, Does Aurora exist. According to Aviation Week, Project Aurora referred to a group of exotic aircraft, funding of the project allegedly reached $2.3 billion in fiscal 1987, according to a 1986 procurement document obtained by Aviation Week. By the late 1980s many aerospace industry observers believed that the U. S. had the capability to build a Mach-5 replacement for the aging Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Detailed examinations of the U. S. defense budget claimed to have found money missing or channeled into black projects. Nothing ever linked any of these observations to any program or aircraft type, gibson and his girlfriend watched the aircraft for several minutes, until they went out of sight. He subsequently drew a sketch of the formation, gibson, who had been in the Royal Observer Corps trophy-winning international aircraft recognition team since 1980, was unable to identify the aircraft. He dismissed suggestions that the aircraft was an F-117, Mirage IV or fully swept wing F-111, a crash at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire on 26 September 1994 appeared closely linked to black missions, according to a report in AirForces Monthly. Further investigation was hampered by aircraft from the USAF flooding into the base, the crash site was protected from view by firetrucks and tarpaulins and the base was closed to all flights soon afterwards. An unsubstantiated claim on the Horsted Keynes Village Web Site purports to show photos of the left after an unusual sonic boom was heard over the village in July 2002. In 2005 the information was used in a BBC report about the Aurora project, the sonic booms were characteristic of a smaller vehicle, rather than of the 37-meter long Space Shuttle orbiter. Furthermore, neither the Shuttle nor NASAs single SR-71B was operating on the days the booms had been registered. In the article, In Plane Sight. which appeared in the Washington City Paper on 3 July 1992, one of the seismologists, Jim Mori, noted and they seem stronger than other sonic booms that we record once in a while. Theyve all come on Thursday mornings about the time, between 4 and 7.2
5.
Belgian UFO wave
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The Belgian UFO wave was a series of sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium, which lasted from 29 November 1989 to April 1990. The Belgian UFO wave began in November 1989, the events of 29 November would be documented by thirty different groups of witnesses, and three separate groups of police officers. All the reports related a large object flying at low altitude, the craft was of a flat, triangular shape, with lights underneath. This giant craft did not make a sound as it moved across the landscape of Belgium. There was free sharing of information as the Belgian populace tracked this craft as it moved from the town of Liege to the border of the Netherlands, the Belgian UFO wave peaked with the events of the night of 30–31 March 1990. Following the incident, the Belgian air force released a report detailing the events of that night, the lights were reported to be brighter than stars, changing color between red, green and yellow, and appeared to be fixed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. At this point, Glons CRC requested the Wavre gendarmerie send a patrol to confirm the sighting, approximately 10 minutes later, a second set of lights was sighted moving towards the first triangle. By around 23,30, the Wavre gendarmerie had confirmed the initial sightings, during this time, the second set of lights, after some erratic manoeuvres, had also formed themselves into a smaller triangle. Witnesses also reported two dimmer lights towards the municipality of Eghezee displaying similar erratic movements to the set of lights. Over the next hour, the two scrambled F-16s attempted nine separate interceptions of the targets, on three occasions, they managed to obtain a radar lock for a few seconds but each time the targets changed position and speed so rapidly that the lock was broken. Similar manoeuvres were observed during both subsequent radar locks, on no occasion were the F-16 pilots able to make visual contact with the targets and at no point, despite the speeds involved, was there any indication of a sonic boom. During this time, ground witnesses broadly corroborate the information obtained by radar and they described seeing the smaller triangle completely from sight at one point, while the larger triangle moved upwards very rapidly as the F-16s flew past. After 00,30, radar contact became more sporadic. This final lock was once again broken by an acceleration from around 160 km/h to 1,120 km/h, after which the radar of the F-16s, following several further unconfirmed contacts, the F-16s eventually returned to base shortly after 01,00. The final details of the sighting were provided by the members of the Wavre gendarmerie who had sent to confirm the original report. In April 1990, a photo of an object upon which three lights are visible at each corner was taken by an anonymous photographer. Since then, a man named Patrick M. publicly claimed that the picture was a hoax by him, skeptics say there is no background in the photograph and no element that would allow calculation of the objects size or distance from the camera. Wim van Utrecht, a Belgian skeptic, has reproduced a copy of the photograph with devices
6.
Belgian Air Component
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The Belgian Air Component is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces. The Belgian military aviation was founded in 1909 and is one of the worlds oldest air services, the commander is Major General aviator Frederik Vansina, appointed on 23 July 2009. The Belgian military aviation was founded in 1909 as a branch of the Belgian Army, King Alberts interest in the military use of aircraft was the main impetus for its formation. Coincidentally, in the aviation sector, Baron Pierre de Caters earned the first civil pilots brevet that same year. Caters would promptly establish an aviation school, at approximately the same time, the War Ministry followed the French militarys example and had pilots earn a civil pilots brevet before their military one. In 1910, three Belgian lieutenants earned their pilots brevets at the school, paying their own fees, two of the artillery lieutenants were Baudoin de Montens dOosterwyck, who earned Brevet No.19 on 30 September, and Alfred Sarteel, granted No.23 on 10 November. The third lieutenant, Georges Nelis, was the new forces first aviation candidate, an aircraft was personally purchased for him. In spring of 1911, the new air force established its aviation school with five pilots. It received its first aircraft via Baron Caters, who gave the aircraft to King Albert and they were disciplined for their efforts. Belgium entered World War I with aircraft tasked solely for reconnaissance missions, a truck was assigned to each squadron, along with a fifth truck serving as a mobile workshop. Each squadron had a commander, five pilots, and six observers, as a result, most of the new aviators were from the Engineers and Artillery components of the Belgian armed forces. As the war began, a squadron was created, staffed with civilian pilots called to the colors. Sous Lieutenant Henri Crombez flew one of the first war patrols, adjutant Behaeghe was the first to engage an enemy, a few days later. On 3 January 1915, two guns supplied by British were fitted to two Belgian aircraft, making a dual effort against the foe possible, these were Belgiums first dedicated fighter planes. In February, thirteen of the Belgian airmen flew 28 offensive patrols, on 26 March, Sous Lieutenant Boschmans sent a German two-seater into a steep dive when he seemed to hit the pilot, the German was not seen to either crash or land. This was the Belgian aviators first victory claim, in April, Lieutenant Fernand Jacquet mounted a machine gun on his pusher aircraft and sought out the enemy. On the 17th, he and his observer scored Belgiums first confirmed aerial victory, luckily for them, they missed, success would probably have blown them out of the sky. On 18 January 1916, the decision was made to form a fighter squadron
7.
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
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The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft, over 4,500 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976. Although no longer being purchased by the U. S. Air Force, in 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which in turn became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and 11 locations for mounting weapons, the F-16 has also been procured to serve in the air forces of 25 other nations. As of 2015, it is the second most common operational military aircraft in the world. Experiences in the Vietnam War revealed the need for air superiority fighters, boyds work called for a small, lightweight aircraft that could maneuver with the minimum possible energy loss, and which also incorporated an increased thrust-to-weight ratio. Air Force F-X proponents remained hostile to the concept because they perceived it as a threat to the F-15 program, however, the Air Forces leadership understood that its budget would not allow it to purchase enough F-15 aircraft to satisfy all of its missions. The Advanced Day Fighter concept, renamed F-XX, gained political support under the reform-minded Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard. As a result, in May 1971, the Air Force Prototype Study Group was established, with Boyd a key member and this was the region where USAF studies predicted most future air combat would occur. The anticipated average flyaway cost of a version was $3 million. This production plan, though, was only notional as the USAF had no plans to procure the winner. Five companies responded and in 1972, the Air Staff selected General Dynamics Model 401 and Northrops P-600 for the prototype development. GD and Northrop were awarded contracts worth $37.9 million and $39.8 million to produce the YF-16 and YF-17, respectively, with first flights of both prototypes planned for early 1974. To overcome resistance in the Air Force hierarchy, the Fighter Mafia, the high/low mix would allow the USAF to be able to afford sufficient fighters for its overall fighter force structure requirements. The mix gained broad acceptance by the time of the flyoff, defining the relationship of the LWF. The YF-16 was developed by a team of General Dynamics engineers led by Robert H. Widmer. The first YF-16 was rolled out on 13 December 1973, and its 90-minute maiden flight was made at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California and its actual first flight occurred accidentally during a high-speed taxi test on 20 January 1974. The test pilot, Phil Oestricher, decided to lift off to avoid a potential crash, the slight damage was quickly repaired and the official first flight occurred on time
8.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
9.
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
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The Ministry of Defence is the British government department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by Her Majestys Government and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces. The MoD states that its objectives are to defend the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its interests and to strengthen international peace. The MoD also manages day-to-day running of the forces, contingency planning. As rearmament became a concern during the 1930s, Stanley Baldwin created the position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. Winston Churchill, on forming his government in 1940, created the office of Minister of Defence to exercise control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until Clement Attlees government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act of 1946, the new ministry was headed by a Minister of Defence who possessed a seat in the Cabinet. These departments merged in 1964, the functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971. The Ministers in the Ministry of Defence are as follows, The Ministers and Chiefs of the Defence Staff are supported by a number of civilian, scientific, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence is the senior civil servant at the MoD. His or her role is to ensure the MoD operates effectively as a department of the government, Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Stephen Lovegrove—commencing April 2016 Defence Equipment & Support CEO - Tony Douglas — commencing 2016 Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Vernon C. He is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Gordon Messenger, Royal Marines. First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, Royal Navy Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, the Surgeon General, represents the Defence Medical Services on the Defence Staff, and is the clinical head of that service. These forces must be capable of representing Britain as lead nation in any coalition operations, the ability, at longer notice, to deploy forces in a large-scale operation while running a concurrent small-scale operation. The MoD has since been regarded as a leader in elaborating the post-Cold War organising concept of defence diplomacy, the UK is establishing air and naval bases in the Persian Gulf, located in the UAE and Bahrain. A presence in Oman is also being considered, the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 included £178 billion investment in new equipment and capabilities. The review set a policy with four primary missions for the Armed Forces, Defend and contribute to the security and resilience of the UK. Contribute to improved understanding of the world through strategic intelligence and the defence network. Reinforce international security and the capacity of our allies, partners. Conduct operations to restore peace and stability, conduct major combat operations if required, including under NATO Article 5
10.
Post-Soviet states
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On March 11,1990, Lithuania was the first to declare its independence, with Estonia and Latvia following suit in August 1991. All three Baltic states claimed continuity from the states that existed prior to their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944 and were admitted to the United Nations on 17 September 1991. The remaining 12 republics all subsequently seceded,12 of the 15 states, excluding the Baltic states, initially formed the CIS and most joined CSTO, while the Baltic states focused on European Union and NATO membership. The 15 post-Soviet states are divided into the following five groupings. Each of these regions has its own set of traits, owing not only to geographic and cultural factors. In addition, there are a number of de facto independent, the dissolution of the Soviet Union took place as a result and against the backdrop of general economic stagnation, even regression. In all, the process triggered severe economic declines, with Gross Domestic Product dropping by more than 40% overall between 1990 and 1995. This decline in GDP was much more intense than the 27% decline that the United States suffered in the wake of the Great Depression between 1930 and 1934. The economic shocks associated with wholesale privatization resulted in the deaths of roughly 1 million working age individuals throughout the former Soviet bloc in the 1990s, by 2007,10 of the 15 post-Soviet states had recovered and reached GDP greater than what they had in 1991. Only Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan had GDP significantly below the 1991 level, the recovery in Russia was marginal, with GDP in 2006-2007 just nudging above the 1991 level. Combined with the aftershocks of the 1998 economic crisis it led to a return of more interventionist economic policies by Vladimir Putins administration. Change in Gross Domestic Product in constant prices, 1991-2015 *Economy of most Soviet republics started to decline in 1989-1990, **The year when GDP decline switched to GDP growth. List of the present Gross domestic product, The post-Soviet states listed according to their Human Development Index scores, only organizations that are mainly composed of post-Soviet states are listed in this section, organizations with wider memberships are not discussed. The 15 post-Soviet states are divided in their participation to the blocs, Belarus, Russia. It was conceived as an organization to the USSR. It currently consists of nine of the 15 former Soviet republics, with one participating state, Georgia withdrew from the CIS in August 2008. The sole exception to the above has been their recent membership in the Community of Democratic Choice, the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are members of the CIS and participate in several regional organizations that have Russia as a primary mover. Such organizations are the Eurasian Economic Community, Collective Security Treaty Organization, the last two groups only became distinct once Uzbekistan withdrew from GUAM and sought membership in EurAsEc and CSTO
11.
Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
12.
Shropshire
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Shropshire Council was created in 2009, a unitary authority taking over from the previous county council and five district councils. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a unitary authority since 1998. The county has many towns, including Whitchurch in the north, Newport north-east of Telford. The Ironbridge Gorge area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covering Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, there are other historic industrial sites in the county, such as at Shrewsbury, Broseley, Snailbeach and Highley, as well as the Shropshire Union Canal. The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers about a quarter of the county, Shropshire is one of Englands most rural and sparsely populated counties, with a population density of 136/km2. The Wrekin is one of the most famous landmarks in the county, though the highest hills are the Clee Hills, Stiperstones. Wenlock Edge is another significant geographical and geological landmark, the River Severn, Great Britains longest river, runs through the county, exiting into Worcestershire via the Severn Valley. Shropshire is landlocked and with an area of 3,487 square kilometres is Englands largest inland county, the county flower is the round-leaved sundew. The area was part of the lands of the Cornovii. This was a tribal Celtic iron age kingdom and their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hill fort on the Wrekin. Ptolemys 2nd century Geography names one of their towns as being Viroconium Cornoviorum, after the Roman occupation of Britain ended in the 5th century, the Shropshire area was in the eastern part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, known in Welsh poetry as the Paradise of Powys. It was annexed to the Angle kingdom of Mercia by King Offa in the 8th century, in subsequent centuries, the area suffered repeated Danish invasion, and fortresses were built at Bridgnorth and Chirbury. Many defensive castles were built at this time across the county to defend against the Welsh and enable effective control of the region, including Ludlow Castle, the western frontier with Wales was not finally determined until the 14th century. Also in this period, a number of foundations were formed, the county largely falling at this time under the Diocese of Hereford. The county contains a number of historically significant towns, including Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, additionally, the area around Coalbrookdale in the county is seen as highly significant, as it is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. The village of Edgmond, near Newport, is the location of the lowest recorded temperature in England, the origin of the name Shropshire is the Old English Scrobbesbyrigscīr, which means Shrewsburyshire. The name may, therefore, be derived indirectly from a name such as Scrope. Salop is an old name for Shropshire, historically used as a form for post or telegrams
13.
Brian Dunning (author)
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Brian Andrew Dunning is an American writer and producer who focuses on skepticism. He has hosted a weekly podcast, Skeptoid, since 2006 and is an author of five books on the subject of scientific skepticism, the Skeptoid podcast has been the recipient of several podcast awards including the Parsec Award and Stitcher award. Skeptoid currently attracts 161,000 listeners weekly, Dunning has also created a spin-off video series and has written several books based on the podcast. Dunning co-founded Buylink, a service provider, in 1996. He later became eBays second biggest affiliate marketer, he has since been convicted of fraud through a cookie stuffing scheme. In August 2014, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, in 1996 Dunning co-founded and was chief technology officer for Buylink Corporation. Buylink received venture funding from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. In 2000 he participated in a presentation on Buylink at The Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum called Bricks to Clicks in the New Internet Reality and he discussed the company on CNNfns Market Call, in Rhonda Schafflers Maverick of the Morning segment. In 2002, Dunning left his position as CTO of BuyLink and he is also the author of the book of the same title and a sequel. He was also winner of the 2010 Parsec Award for Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast, in August 2010 he received an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field from the Independent Investigations Group during its 10th Anniversary Gala. Dunning also wrote articles for Skepticblog. org, and was a producer for the unreleased network television pilot The Skeptologists. In August 2008, eBay filed suit against Dunning, accusing him of defrauding eBay and eBay affiliates in a cookie stuffing scheme for his company, Kesslers Flying Circus. In June 2010, based on the allegations and following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On April 15,2013, in the San Jose, California, U. S. District Court, as part of a plea agreement, Dunning pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Dunning admitted that he received payments to which he was not entitled, commenting I fully accept this determination, the show follows an audio essay format, and is dedicated to the critical examination of pseudoscience and the paranormal. In May 2012, Skeptoid became a California state non-profit corporation, in May 2014, Skeptoid’s website reported that the podcast had a weekly average of 161,000 downloads. Each roughly ten-minute Skeptoid episode focuses on a pop culture phenomenon that is pseudoscientific in nature. It is the story of a girl who challenged the Queen
14.
Skeptical movement
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The skeptical movement is a modern social movement promoting the idea of scientific skepticism. The process followed is referred to as skeptical inquiry. Medical quackery was also targeted by such as the Dutch Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij. The Belgian Comité Para has been deemed the oldest broad mandate skeptical organization, using that organization as a template, in 1976, Paul Kurtz and Marcello Truzzi founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in Amherst, New York. The North American skeptical organization, which provides journals and publications, Scientific skepticism is different from philosophical skepticism, which questions our ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how we perceive it. Methodological skepticism, a process of being skeptical about the truth of ones beliefs, is similar. The New Skepticism described by Paul Kurtz is scientific skepticism, for example, Robert K. Merton asserts that all ideas must be tested and are subject to rigorous, structured community scrutiny. According to Hammer, the forebears of the modern skeptical movement are rather to be found among the many writers throughout history who have argued against beliefs they did not share. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion, Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims. It is the application of reason to any and all ideas—no sacred cows allowed, in other words, skepticism is a method, not a position. With regard to the social movement, Loxton refers to other movements already promoting humanism, atheism, rationalism, science education. He saw the demand for the new movement of people called skeptics — being based on a lack of interest by the scientific community to address paranormal. In line with Kendrick Frazier, he describes the movement as a surrogate in that area for institutional science, the movement in so far set up a distinct field of study and provided an organizational structure, while long-standing genre of individual skeptical activities lacked such a community and background. However, skeptical organizations do typically tend to have education and promotion among their goals. Scientific skeptics maintain that empirical investigation of reality leads to the truth, Scientific skeptics attempt to evaluate claims based on verifiability and falsifiability and discourage accepting claims on faith or anecdotal evidence. Skeptics often focus their criticism on claims they consider to be implausible, Skepticism in general may be deemed part of the scientific method, for instance an experimental result is not regarded as established until it can be shown to be repeatable independently. Some leaders of the movement, including Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, the movement has had issues with sexism. It was raised in a 1985 skeptic newsletter by Mary Coulman and this became known as Elevatorgate, based on Watsons discussion about being propositioned in a hotel elevator in the early morning after a skeptic event
15.
Bragg's law
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In physics, Braggs law, or Wulff–Braggs condition in post-Soviet countries, a special case of Laue diffraction, gives the angles for coherent and incoherent scattering from a crystal lattice. When X-rays are incident on an atom, they make the electronic cloud move as does any electromagnetic wave, the movement of these charges re-radiates waves with the same frequency, blurred slightly due to a variety of effects, this phenomenon is known as Rayleigh scattering. The scattered waves can themselves be scattered but this secondary scattering is assumed to be negligible, a similar process occurs upon scattering neutron waves from the nuclei or by a coherent spin interaction with an unpaired electron. These re-emitted wave fields interfere with each other either constructively or destructively, the resulting wave interference pattern is the basis of diffraction analysis. This analysis is called Bragg diffraction and they found that these crystals, at certain specific wavelengths and incident angles, produced intense peaks of reflected radiation. The concept of Bragg diffraction applies equally to neutron diffraction and electron diffraction processes, both neutron and X-ray wavelengths are comparable with inter-atomic distances and thus are an excellent probe for this length scale. Sir William Lawrence Bragg explained this result by modeling the crystal as a set of parallel planes separated by a constant parameter d. It was proposed that the incident X-ray radiation would produce a Bragg peak if their reflections off the various planes interfered constructively. Although simple, Braggs law confirmed the existence of particles at the atomic scale, as well as providing a powerful new tool for studying crystals in the form of X-ray. William Lawrence Bragg and his father, Sir William Henry Bragg, were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1915 for their work in determining crystal structures beginning with NaCl, ZnS and they are the only father-son team to jointly win. William Lawrence Bragg was 25 years old, making him then, for a crystalline solid, the waves are scattered from lattice planes separated by the interplanar distance d. When the scattered waves interfere constructively, they remain in phase since the difference between the lengths of the two waves is equal to an integer multiple of the wavelength. The path difference between two waves undergoing interference is given by 2dsinθ, where θ is the scattering angle, the effect of the constructive or destructive interference intensifies because of the cumulative effect of reflection in successive crystallographic planes of the crystalline lattice. Note that moving particles, including electrons, protons and neutrons, have an associated wavelength called de Broglie wavelength, a diffraction pattern is obtained by measuring the intensity of scattered waves as a function of scattering angle. Very strong intensities known as Bragg peaks are obtained in the pattern at the points where the scattering angles satisfy Bragg condition. Suppose that a single wave is incident on aligned planes of lattice points, with separation d. Points A and C are on one plane, and B is on the plane below, there will be a path difference between the ray that gets reflected along AC and the ray that gets transmitted, then reflected, along AB and BC respectively. Putting everything together, n λ =2 d sin θ =2 d sin θ sin 2 θ, which simplifies to n λ =2 d sin θ, which is Braggs law
16.
Phoenix Lights
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The Phoenix Lights was a UFO sighting which occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico on Thursday, March 13,1997. Lights of varying descriptions were reported by thousands of people between 19,30 and 22,30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. There were allegedly two distinct events involved in the incident, a formation of lights seen to pass over the state. The United States Air Force later identified the group of lights as flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft that were on training exercises at the Barry Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona. Witnesses claim to have observed a huge V-shaped, coherently-moving dark UFO, producing no sound, Fife Symington, the governor at the time, was one witness to this incident. As governor he ridiculed the idea of alien origin, but several years later he called the lights he saw otherworldly after admitting he saw a similar UFO, at about 18,55 PST, a man reported seeing a V-shaped object above Henderson, Nevada. He said it was about the size of a 747, sounded like rushing wind, the lights reportedly traversed northwest to the southeast. An unidentified former officer from Paulden, Arizona is claimed to have been the next person to report a sighting after leaving his house at about 20,15 MST. As he was driving north, he saw a cluster of reddish or orange lights in the sky, comprising four lights together. Each of the lights in the formation appeared to the witness to consist of two separate point sources of orange light. He returned home and through binoculars watched the lights until they disappeared south over the horizon, Lights were also reportedly seen in the areas of Prescott and Prescott Valley. At approximately 20,17 MST, callers began reporting the object was definitely solid, john Kaiser was standing outside with his wife and sons in Prescott Valley when they noticed a cluster of lights to the west-northwest of their position. The lights formed a pattern, but all of them appeared to be red, except the light at the nose of the object. The altitude could not be determined, however it was fairly low, tim Ley, his wife Bobbi, his son Hal, and his grandson Damien Turnidge first saw the lights when they were above Prescott Valley about 65 miles away from them. At first they appeared to them as five separate and distinct lights in an arc-shape like they were on top of a balloon, but they soon realized the lights appeared to be moving towards them. Over the next ten or so minutes they appeared to be coming closer, soon the object with the embedded lights appeared to be coming right down the street where they lived about 100 to 150 feet above them, traveling so slowly it appeared to hover and was silent. When the triangular formation entered the Phoenix area, Bill Greiner, before this, if anybody had told me they saw a UFO, I wouldve said, Yeah and I believe in the Tooth Fairy. Now Ive got a new view and I may be just a dumb truck driver
17.
Phoenix, Arizona
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Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U. S. state of Arizona. Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the metropolitan area is the 12th largest by population in the United States, with approximately 4.3 million people as of 2010. Settled in 1867 as a community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers. Located in the reaches of the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix has a subtropical desert climate. Despite this, its canal system led to a farming community, many of the original crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton, citrus. The city averaged a four percent annual growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, and has rebounded slowly, Phoenix is the cultural center of the Valley of the Sun, as well as the entire state. For more than 2,000 years, the Hohokam people occupied the land that would become Phoenix, the Hohokam created roughly 135 miles of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable. Paths of these canals would later used for the modern Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal. The Hohokam also carried out trade with the nearby Anasazi, Mogollon and Sinagua. It is believed that between 1300 and 1450, periods of drought and severe floods led to the Hohokam civilizations abandonment of the area. After the departure of the Hohokam, groups of Akimel Oodham, Tohono Oodham and Maricopa tribes began to use the area, as well as segments of the Yavapai and Apache. The Oodham were offshoots of the Sobaipuri tribe, who in turn were thought to be the descendants of the formerly urbanized Hohokam and their crops included corn, beans, and squash for food, while cotton and tobacco were also cultivated. Mostly a peaceful group, they did together with the Maricopa for their mutual protection against incursions by both the Yuma and Apache tribes. The Tohono Oodham lived in the region as well, but their concentration was to the south. Living in small settlements, the Oodham were seasonal farmers who took advantage of the rains and they also hunted local game such as deer, rabbit, and javalina for meat. When the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, Mexico ceded its northern zone to the United States, the Phoenix area became part of the New Mexico Territory. In 1863 the mining town of Wickenburg was the first to be established in what is now Maricopa County, at the time Maricopa County had not yet been incorporated, the land was within Yavapai County, which included the major town of Prescott to the north of Wickenburg
18.
Las Vegas
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The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
20.
Luke Air Force Base
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Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located seven miles west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is also about 15 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, Luke AFB is a major training base of the Air Education and Training Command, training pilots in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. On 16 July 2013, the Air Force announced that Luke AFB will house a total of 144 F-35A Lightning IIs and it is a designated Superfund site due to a number of soil and groundwater contaminants. Luke Air Force Base is an active-duty F-16 Fighting Falcon training base with 170 F-16s assigned, the host command at Luke is the 56th Fighter Wing, under Air Education and Training Commands 19th Air Force. The 56th FW is composed of four groups,27 squadrons, there are several tenant units on base, including the 944th Fighter Wing, assigned to 10th Air Force and the Air Force Reserve. The 56th Fighter Wing also trains more than 700 maintenance technicians each year, the base population includes about 7500 military members and 15,000 family members. With about 80,000 retired military members living in greater Phoenix, an integral part of Lukes F-16 fighter pilot training mission is the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. The range consists of 1,900,000 acres of relatively undisturbed Sonoran Desert southwest of Luke Air Force Base between Yuma and Tucson south of Interstate 8. Overhead are 57,000 cubic miles of airspace where pilots practice air-to-air maneuvers, roughly the size of Connecticut, the immense size of the complex allows for simultaneous training activities on nine air-to-ground and two air-to-air ranges. The Luke Air Force Base Range Management Office manages the eastern range activities, in addition to flying and maintaining the F-16, Luke airmen also deploy to support on-going operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and to combatant commanders in other locations around the world. In 2004, more than 900 Luke airmen deployed, with most supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, since June 2012, Luke AFB has been the permanent home of Naval Operational Support Center Phoenix of the US Navy. A NOSC is a facility used to provide support for training. NOSC Phoenix supports over 750 Navy Reservists in sixteen Navy Reserve units, the new 32,055 square foot, one-story facility is located on a 1.85 acre site at Luke AFB with sufficient parking and a secured perimeter to meet current anti-terrorism and force protection standards. NOSC Phoenix serves a full-time command and administrative staff, a medical unit, the $11.2 million facility is the first LEED Platinum certified building of the US Navy Reserve Force. The host unit, the 56th Fighter Wing, is tasked to train F-35 and F-16 fighter pilots and maintainers, historically, the wing graduated more than 400 F-16 pilots and 470 crew chiefs annually. Groups, 56th Operations Group The 56th OG has operational control, 56th Mission Support Group The 56th MSG sustains the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35 Lightning II, provides for the community, and delivers responsive combat support. 56th Medical Group The 56th MDG is an outpatient only Medical Treatment Facility, tenant Units, 607th Air Control Squadron 944th Fighter Wing The 944th Fighter Wing is an adjunct Air Force Reserve wing to the 56th FW that trains Air Force F-16 pilots for reserve duty. This is due to a buffer of public land around it, also, the private sector in Glendale has been helping to maintain the buffer of public land, and with it the Arizona defense economy
21.
Highland, Illinois
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Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,919 at the 2010 census, Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants. Highland is a city of Sursee in Switzerland. Highland, because it is located in Madison County, Illinois, is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, Highland, Illinois was settled in the early 19th century by Swiss-German settlers. The town was founded in 1837 and is celebrating its 175th Jubilee in 2012 with a Festival for the occasion planned in September and it was first named Helvetia in accordance with the Heritage of the towns Swiss-German founding members. Around the same time, a town in northern Illinois also started calling itself Highland. Eventually, the town in northern Illinois became Highland Park, Highland also has been home to many well-known businesses including Pet Milk and the Wicks Organ Company. For the past 60 years, Highland Supply Corporation has been producing and selling Floral Grass - a traditional decorative product used to line Easter baskets, Highland is also home to The Korte Company. Highland has a rich history including extended visits by such notables as Abraham Lincoln, on November 21,1915, the Liberty Bell passed through Highland on its nationwide tour returning to Pennsylvania from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. After that trip, the Liberty Bell returned to Pennsylvania and will not be moved again, the current mayor is Joseph R. Michaelis. Highland is in the process of implementing citywide availability of a broadband network using Fiber to the home technology. According to the 2010 census, Highland has an area of 7.591 square miles. The following highways run through or around Highland, IL-160, IL-143, US-40, the Highland Community Unit School District serves Highland area students including those from Alhambra, Illinois, Grantfork, Illinois, and New Douglas, Illinois. Kindergarten through sixth grade schools are located in each of the districts municipalities while the districts middle, starting in August 2014 6th grade is located at the Highland Middle School. In September 2014, the districts teachers staged a strike for the first time in the districts history, additionally, Highland has a local parochial school named St. Paul Catholic School offering Kindergarten through eighth grade education. It is also a member of the Illinois Heartland Library System, as of the census of 2010, there were 9,919 people,4,013 households, and 2,633 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,561.1 people per square mile, there were 3,610 housing units at an average density of 667.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 97. 00% White,0. 2% African American,0. 2% Native American,0. 9% Asian,0. 4% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 4% of the population
22.
Dupo, Illinois
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Dupo is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,138 at the 2010 census, an increase from 3,933 in 2000, the village was settled in about 1750 and was incorporated in 1876. Its name is derived from Common Fields of Prairie du Pont, Dupo is located at 38°30′57″N 90°12′29″W. It is located in the American Bottom floodplain of the Mississippi River, according to the 2010 census, Dupo has a total area of 4.42 square miles, all land. Dupo had its start ca.1905 when the railroad was extended to that point, the name is an abbreviation of DuPont. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,933 people,1,557 households, the population density was 888.6 people per square mile. There were 1,668 housing units at a density of 376.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 97. 20% White,1. 17% African American,0. 31% Native American,0. 25% Asian,0. 36% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 69% of the population. 26. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.04. In the village, the population was out with 25. 2% under the age of 18,10. 7% from 18 to 24,30. 5% from 25 to 44,21. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 96.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.9 males, the median income for a household in the village was $43,036, and the median income for a family was $47,000. Males had an income of $35,529 versus $24,135 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,505, about 2. 9% of families and 4. 3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5. 2% of those under age 18 and 3. 8% of those age 65 or over. Candace Jordan, television personality, Playboy Playmate December 1979 American Bottom
23.
Lebanon, Illinois
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Lebanon is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,523 at the 2010 census, like many other places in Little Egypt or Southern Illinois, Lebanon was named after the Middle Eastern country of the same name. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, Lebanon is home to McKendree University, the oldest college in Illinois. Emerald Mound and Village Site Lebanon Historic District Mermaid House Hotel Lebanon is located at 38°36′12″N 89°48′41″W. According to the 2010 census, Lebanon has an area of 2.474 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 5,523 people,1,275 households, the population density was 1,641.4 people per square mile. There were 1,389 housing units at a density of 647.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 78. 46% White,18. 45% African American,0. 34% Native American,0. 48% Asian,0. 09% Pacific Islander,0. 40% from other races, and 1. 79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 53% of the population,28. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the family size was 2.98. In the city, the population was out with 20. 8% under the age of 18,18. 6% from 18 to 24,22. 9% from 25 to 44,21. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 36 years, for every 100 females there were 84.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.8 males, the median income for a household in the city was $37,042, and the median income for a family was $48,711. Males had an income of $30,597 versus $21,341 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,125, about 9. 8% of families and 13. 4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14. 2% of those under age 18 and 7. 1% of those age 65 or over. Christine Brewer, Grammy-award-winning operatic/classical singer, graduate of McKendree University, has resided in Lebanon, ed Busch, MLB shortstop for the St. There have been at least a dozen newspapers that have called Lebanon home, the Lebanon Advertiser has operated there since 1911. On December 26,2013, it was purchased by David Porter, the former owner, Harrison Leon Church, owned the newspaper for 40 years
24.
Shiloh, Illinois
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Shiloh is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. A2005 census recorded a population of 11,000 and it was organized by the Rev. William McKendree, Presiding Elder of the Western Conference and 4th Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This assembly inspired construction of the log Shiloh Meeting House on the site shortly afterward, being the first Methodist church in the county and second in the Illinois Country. This meeting house came to be the longest-organized United Methodist church in the state of Illinois, bequeathing its name to the village, Three members of this church played significant roles in state government in the effort to prevent slaveholding from gaining a foothold in Illinois. Shiloh is located at 38°33′N 89°55′W, according to the 2010 census, Shiloh has a total area of 10.95 square miles, of which 10.86 square miles is land and 0.09 square miles is water. Shiloh is the site of Scott Air Force Base and is also the present eastern terminus of the Saint Louis area electric interurban Metrolink Red Line. As of the census of 2000, there were 7,643 people,2,778 households, the population density was 760.2 people per square mile. There were 2,928 housing units at a density of 291.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 82. 14% White,13. 32% African American,0. 27% Native American,1. 79% Asian,0. 08% Pacific Islander,0. 75% from other races, and 1. 65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 62% of the population,20. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 5. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the family size was 3.05. In the village, the age distribution was 27. 7% under 18,10. 7% from 18 to 24,34. 6% from 25 to 44,20. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 33 years, for every 100 females there were 102.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.0 males, the median income for a household in the village was $57,692, and the median income for a family was $67,054. Males had an income of $42,083 versus $30,843 for females. The per capita income for the village was $25,550, about 6. 1% of families and 7. 7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11. 1% of those under age 18 and 1. 6% of those age 65 or over. A special annual event for residents of Shiloh is the Shiloh Homecoming, the Homecoming is a two-day celebration with various amusements and rides, held the first Friday and Saturday after Labor Day every year. The end of the Friday celebration is marked by a fireworks display, at the entrance of the Shiloh Park and Police Station is a September 11 memorial
25.
Summerfield, Illinois
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Summerfield is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 472 at the 2000 census, Summerfield is located at 38°35′49″N 89°45′4″W. According to the 2010 census, Summerfield has an area of 0.431 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 472 people,161 households, the population density was 1,122.6 people per square mile. There were 180 housing units at a density of 428.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 96. 61% White,1. 27% African American,0. 85% Native American,0. 21% Asian,0. 85% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 12% of the population. 17. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.93 and the average family size was 3.20. In the village, the population was out with 32. 2% under the age of 18,6. 8% from 18 to 24,30. 3% from 25 to 44,23. 1% from 45 to 64. The median age was 33 years, for every 100 females there were 109.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.1 males, the median income for a household in the village was $42,031, and the median income for a family was $42,500. Males had an income of $27,813 versus $18,472 for females. The per capita income for the village was $13,283, about 5. 8% of families and 6. 7% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 22. 2% of those age 65 or over. Friedrich Hecker, German lawyer, politician and revolutionary Wally Rehg, outfielder for four Major League Baseball teams, was born in Summerfield
26.
Millstadt, Illinois
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Millstadt is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of St. Louis, located at the crossing of Illinois Routes 163 and 158. The village is known for its German heritage, with more than half its people of German descent, the population was 2,794 at the 2000 census, but a more recent study in July 2006 estimated the number at 3,247. During a barn raising in 1836, it was proposed that a town be incorporated on land belonging to Henry Randleman, the name Centerville was proposed, as the site was equidistant from Belleville, Columbia, and Pittsburg Lake. The town was platted on March 13,1837, in 1880, its name was changed to Millstadt, as the name Centreville was in use by another nearby town. Another account, The story of how Millstadt developed out of Centerville goes something like this, the current Centreville and our Centerville each had a post offices through which a great deal of mail became confused and mis-delivered. As you can guess, the group decided to keep that name as we had several mills at that time. In 1874, a German immigrant farm family was killed in a hamlet known as Saxtown. It made national headlines and became the subject of the book The Ax Murders of Saxtown, as of the census of 2000, there were 2,794 people,1,148 households, and 813 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,511.9 people per square mile, there were 1,196 housing units at an average density of 1,075.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 99% White, 0% Native American, 1% Asian, 0% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0% of the population. 25. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.92. In the village, the population was out with 23. 7% under the age of 18,7. 6% from 18 to 24,28. 6% from 25 to 44,22. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 91.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.5 males, the median income for a household in the village was $47,824, and the median income for a family was $56,378. Males had an income of $40,893 versus $27,196 for females. The per capita income for the village was $21,914, about 3. 2% of families and 4. 0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5. 9% of those under age 18 and 5. 1% of those age 65 or over. According to the 2010 census, the village has an area of 3.58 square miles. The town center is formed by the intersection of two state highways, Illinois Route 158, or Washington Avenue, leads west to Columbia and east to Belleville
27.
O'Fallon, Illinois
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OFallon is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and one of the fastest-growing communities in the Metropolitan St. Louis area. The 2010 census listed the population at 28,281. The city is the third largest city in the Metro-East region, due to its close proximity to Scott Air Force Base, the population receives a boost from military and federal civilian personnel, defense contractors, and military retirees. The city center is located two miles east of the intersection of Interstate 64 and U. S. Route 50. Like its namesake in St. Charles County, Missouri, OFallon is part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area and this makes OFallon one of the few pairs of like-named municipalities to be part of the same MSA. Founded in 1854, OFallons namesake comes from Colonel John OFallon who was a gentleman from St. Louis. In downtown OFallon, a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad railroad depot was built, City lots were platted and sold at a public auction on May 18,1854. A post office was established the year and the city began attracting German settlers looking for fertile farming land. On January 27,1874, OFallon was incorporated as a village, on March 14,1905, the citizens voted for a change to the city form of government. Since its founding, OFallon has gained population every year except 1930, growth in OFallon has accelerated since the 1980s. A new city hall was completed in 1996, more than 50 percent of OFallons housing is less than 15 years old. Clair Recreation Complex St. E. Hinchcliffe Sr, as of the census of 2010, there were 28,281 people,8,310 households, and 6,016 families residing in the city. The population density was 1, 970/sq mi, there were 8,310 housing units at an average density of 580/sq mi. The racial makeup of the city was 82. 67% White,11. 99% African American,0. 23% Native American,2. 47% Asian,0. 07% Pacific Islander,0. 79% from other races, and 1. 77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 23% of the population,23. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the family size was 3.13. In the city, the population was out with 28. 3% under the age of 18,8. 0% from 18 to 24,32. 2% from 25 to 44,22. 7% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 93.2 males
28.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
29.
Peter Jennings
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Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian-American journalist who served as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of school, he transformed himself into one of American televisions most prominent journalists. Jennings started his early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. He began his career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting a teen dance show, Saturday Date. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its evening news program. His inexperience was attacked by critics and others in television news, Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East. He returned as one of World News Tonights three anchors in 1978, and was promoted to the role of sole anchor in 1983, in addition to anchoring, he was the host of many ABC News special reports and moderated several American presidential debates. Having always been fascinated with the United States, Jennings became a naturalized United States citizen in 2003, Peter Jennings started his broadcasting career at the age of nine, hosting Peters People, a half-hour, Saturday morning, CBC Radio show for kids. When Jennings was 11 he began attending Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, after the CBC moved his father to its Ottawa headquarters in the early 1950s, Jennings transferred to Lisgar Collegiate Institute. He struggled academically, and Jennings later surmised that it was out of pure boredom that he failed 10th grade, and for reasons I dont understand, I was pretty lazy. Jennings then briefly attended Carleton University, where he says he lasted about 10 minutes before dropping out and he also attended the University of Ottawa. Although Jennings dreamed of following in his fathers footsteps in broadcasting and he had hoped that the company would assign him to its Havana branch, instead, it located him to the small town of Prescott, Ontario, before transferring him to its nearby Brockville branch. During this time, he explored acting by appearing in amateur musical productions with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society, including Damn Yankees. It was in Brockville that the 21-year-old Jennings started his rise in broadcasting. In 1959, CFJR, a radio station, hired him as a member of its news department, many of his stories. By 1961, Jennings had joined the staff of CJOH-TV, then a new station in Ottawa. When the station launched in March 1961, Jennings was initially an interviewer and co-producer for Vue and his producers saw a youthful attractiveness in him that resembled that of Dick Clark, and Jennings soon found himself hosting Club Thirteen, a dance show similar to American Bandstand. The next year, CTV, Canadas first private TV network, while reporting for CTV, he was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
30.
Discovery Channel
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Discovery Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is the flagship television property of Discovery Communications, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. S. Flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally, programming on the flagship Discovery Channel in the U. S. A popular annual feature on the channel is Shark Week, which airs on Discovery during the summer months, as of February 2015, Discovery Channel is available to approximately 96,589,000 pay television households in the United States. John Hendricks founded the channel and its parent company, Cable Educational Network Inc. in 1982, several investors raised $5 million in start-up capital to launch the network. The Discovery Channel began broadcasting on June 17,1985 and it was initially available to 156,000 households and broadcast for 12 hours each day between 3 p. m. and 3 a. m. About 75 percent of its content had never been broadcast on U. S. television before. In its early years, the focus centered on educational programming in the form of cultural and wildlife documentaries. It also broadcast some Soviet programming during this time, including the news program Vremya, in 1988, the channel premiered the nightly program World Monitor. By 1990, the channel was available in over 50 million households, the drop in viewership was widely attributed to an over-reliance on a few hit series, such as Monster Garage and American Chopper. Some critics said such shows strayed from Discoverys intention of providing more educationally based shows aimed at helping viewers learn about the world around them, in 2005, Discovery changed its programming focus to include more popular science and historical themes. The networks ratings eventually recovered in 2006, the network was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards that year for shows including The Flight that Fought Back and Deadliest Catch. In 2007, Discovery Channels top series included the Emmy Award- and Peabody Award-winning Planet Earth, Dirty Jobs, MythBusters, Discovery Channels 2008 lineup included Fight Quest and Smash Lab. On September 1,2010, 43-year-old James Jay Lee entered the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, Lee fired at least one shot and held several employees hostage, he was later shot dead by police. Lee had published criticisms of the network at Savetheplanetprotest. com, in December 2015, Discovery Communications launched its TV Everywhere service, Discovery Go, which features live and video-on-demand content from Discovery Channel and eight of its sister networks. Popular programs on the channel have included the Shark Week programming event, Deadliest Catch, MythBusters, How Its Made, Dirty Jobs, Cash Cab, Christopher Lowell won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000 for The Christopher Lowell Show. After the 2007 victory with the Spaniard Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel discontinued the cycling sponsorship, Discovery Channel Radio was a radio network, whose programming consisted of audio versions of popular programs from the Discovery Communications family of television channels. Discovery Channel Radio was previously carried by XM Satellite Radio, until its removal from the provider in early September 2005, sirius Satellite Radio dropped Discovery Radio from its lineup on February 21,2007, it was also carried on both of Canadas major satellite radio services. Discovery Channel lent its brand to stores in malls and other locations across America
31.
Syfy
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Syfy is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel features science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, paranormal, drama, as of February 2015, approximately 94.8 million American households receive Syfy. In March 1992, the concept was picked up by USA Networks, Star Treks creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were among those on the initial advisory board, but both had died by the time the channel finally launched on September 24,1992. Rubenstein recalled, The first thing that was on the screen was Dedicated to the memories of Isaac Asimov, leonard Nimoy was master of ceremonies at the channels launch party, held at the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan. Asimovs widow Janet and Roddenberrys widow Majel Barrett were both in attendance, the first program shown on the network was the film Star Wars. In 1994, Paramount was sold to Viacom, followed by Seagrams purchase of a stake in MCA from Matsushita (a. k. a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. the next year. In 1997, Viacom sold its stake in USA Networks to Universal, Three years later, Diller would sell these assets back to Universal, by then a subsidiary of Vivendi SA. Vivendis film and television production and cable television assets were merged with General Electrics NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004. A high definition version of the launched on October 3,2007 on DirecTV. In 2013, Syfy was awarded the James Randi Educational Foundations Pigasus Award, from 1992 to 1999, the networks first logo consisted of a planet with a ring, which made to look like Saturn, and it has SCI-FI CHANNEL written on it. The networks second logo ran from 1999 to 2002, which dropped the hyphen, the networks third and final logo ran from 2002 to 2009, and was designed by Lambie-Nairn. The logo made its debut on December 2,2002, with the launch of the Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken, the network also launched a new image campaign with the tagline If, which expresses the limitless possibilities of the imagination. Identification bumps depicted surreal situations such as a baby breathing fire, on March 16,2009, NBCUniversal announced that Sci Fi was rebranding as Syfy. The name change was greeted with initial negativity, with people deliberately mispronouncing Syfy as SIF-ee, SKIF-ee, the new name took effect on July 7,2009. Syfy has since added reality shows and edged further from strictly science fiction, fantasy, in Polish, Syfy does not suggest imagination or science fiction, but rather syphilis. Syfys programming includes original made-for-cable movies, miniseries, and series, in the past, the channel concentrated on classic science fiction shows. However, under NBCUniversal ownership, the channel has altered its programming to more mainstream audiences. In 2006, it began airing programs such as Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, ECW, the network had gained significant international attention for its successful original miniseries and subsequent four-season series Battlestar Galactica
32.
Sufjan Stevens
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Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label which he cofounded with his stepfather. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 album Illinois, which hit one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. Stevens makes use of a variety of instruments, often playing many of himself on the same recording. Though his songs are imbued with his Christian faith, he has stated an intent to separate his beliefs from his music. Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of nine and he was raised by his father Rasjid and his stepmother Pat, only occasionally visiting his mother, Carrie, in Oregon after she married her second husband Lowell Brams. He attended the Detroit Waldorf School, Petoskey High School and Interlochen Arts Academy and he went on to attend Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and earned a Masters of Fine Arts from The New School in New York City. Sufjan is a Persian name meaning comes with a sword and it predates Islam and most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. The name was given to Stevens by the founder of Subud, while in school, he studied the oboe and English horn, which he also plays on his albums. Stevens did not learn to play the guitar until his time at Hope College, Stevens currently lives in Kensington, Brooklyn, in New York City, where he makes up the Brooklyn staff of Asthmatic Kitty Records. His brother Marzuki Stevens is a formerly recognized road runner, who competed in the marathon, Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan, as well as garage band Con Los Dudes. He also played instruments for Danielson Famile. While in his final semester at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his solo album, A Sun Came. He later moved to New York City, where he enrolled in a program at the New School for Social Research. During his time at the New School, Stevens developed a preoccupation with short story that he believed would lead him to write a novel, but ultimately returned him to songwriting. While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. Stevens followed this with the first album to be released as a part of his Fifty States Project, the result, the expansive Michigan, included odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls. Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith, sorrow, love, following the release of Michigan, Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the album Seven Swans, which was released in March 2004
33.
Illinois (Sufjan Stevens album)
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Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American indie folk songwriter Sufjan Stevens. It is his studio album, and features songs referencing places, events. The artwork and lyrics explore the history, culture, art, and geography of the state—Stevens developed them after analyzing criminal, literary, following a July 4,2005 release date, Stevens promoted Illinois with a world tour. Critics praised the album for its lyrics and complex orchestrations, in particular. Illinois was named the album of 2005 by review aggregator Metacritic, and was included on several reviewers best of the decade lists—including those of Paste, NPR. The album amounted to Stevens greatest public success to date, it was his first to place on the Billboard 200, the varied instrumentation and experimental songwriting on the album invoked comparisons to work by Steve Reich, Neil Young, and The Cure. Besides numerous references to Illinois history, geography, and attractions, Stevens continued a theme of his career by including multiple references to his Christian faith. He also took trips through several locations in Illinois and asked friends, an Arkansas-related song was released through NPR as The Lord God Bird and material intended for New Jersey and New York became The BQE. I spent a lot of time alone, a few months in isolation working on my own, I let things germinate and cultivate independently, without thinking about an audience or a live show at all. Stevens employed low-fidelity recording equipment, which allowed him to retain creative control, typically, his process involved recording to 32 kHz 8-track tape using inexpensive microphones such as the Shure SM57 and AKG C1000. He then employed Pro Tools for mixing and other production tasks, after consulting with Michael Kaufmann and Lowell Brams of Asthmatic Kitty about the amount of material he had recorded, Stevens decided against a double album, saying that would be arrogant. Among these outtakes are three separate recordings of the song Chicago—including the Multiple Personality Disorder Version, which was produced during a subsequent tour, the Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version of the song was supposed to appear on the Illinois album, but was changed at the last minute. Illinois was released on July 4,2005, through Rough Trade Records in Europe and was distributed domestically by Asthmatic Kitty Records starting July 5,2005 and he deliberately chose to avoid television as a promotional tool and focused on the tour performances themselves. He was supported on some dates by opening acts Liz Janes and he toured in support of the album again from September through November 2006, this time including dates in several European cities. During the 2006 dates, Stevens and his band transitioned from wearing University of Illinois-themed outfits to butterfly suits, reviewers have noted similarities between this album and those of musicians and composers in several musical genres—from pop to contemporary classical, even show tunes and jazz-based time signatures. The lyrics and their rich thematic elements have been noted for their quality, earning comparisons to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Carlos Williams. Reviewers of Illinois have compared Stevens style to Steve Reich, Vince Guaraldi, the Danielson Famile, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Stevens use of large orchestral arrangements in his music—much of it played by himself through the use of multi-track recording—has been noted by several reviewers. Club referred to some of the work as regressively twee communalism
34.
Tinley Park
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Tinley Park is a village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion in Will County. The population was 56,703 at the 2010 census and it is one of the fastest growing suburbs south of Chicago. In 2009, Tinley Park was selected by BusinessWeek as the best place to raise a family in America, records show that prior to European settlement, the area was primarily occupied by the Potawatomi tribe. Settlement of the area now comprises Tinley Park began in the 1820s by emigrants from the Eastern United States. German settlers became predominant in area by the 1840s, and the village was established in 1853 as Bremen. Irish, English, Scottish, Canadian, and other American settlers were common in the area. In the late 19th century, railroads expanded rapidly, and the village happened to be located on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad line. The influence of the railroad on Bremen was so great that, in 1890, its name was changed to Tinley Park in honor of the villages first railroad agent, Samuel Tinley. Even the villages official incorporation took place at the depot on June 27,1892. With the railroad industry and commerce. 1905 saw the Diamond Spiral Washing Machine Company found its first factory in Tinley Park, local businessmen established an electric utility in 1909. A bottling facility for soda was operated in Tinley Park until the 1950s, inventor John Rauhoff developed and manufactured a waterproofing additive for cement called Ironite, later used in the construction of Hoover Dam. After its centennial, Tinley Park from the late 20th century to the present has been focused on renovation of its historic district. The historic district is made up of the villages original 1892 boundaries, in this district, landowners are encouraged to maintain the historic edifices or to create new, historically friendly facades for otherwise non-historic buildings built in the last 30 years. The Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, a venue which seats 28,000, is located in Tinley Park. Tinley Park was the site of the Tinley Park Lights, an anomalous multiple mass UFO sighting event in 2004,2005 and 2006, Tinley Park is located at 41°34′26″N 87°48′14″W. According to the 2010 census, Tinley Park has an area of 16.039 square miles. The village lies on the Tinley Moraine and/or the Valparaiso Moraine, as of the 2010 census, there were 56,703 people,17,478 households, and 12,793 families residing in the village
35.
Oak Park, Illinois
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Oak Park is a village adjacent to the West Side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Pace buses serve the Village for travel within its borders and connecting to neighboring suburbs, as of the 2010 United States Census the Village had a total population of 51,878. Oak Park was settled beginning in the 1830s, with rapid growth later in the 19th century and it incorporated in 1902, breaking off from Cicero. Development was spurred by railroads and street cars connecting the village to jobs in Chicago, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled here in 1889. Population peaked at 66,015 in 1940, smaller families led to falling population in the same number of homes and apartments. In the 1960s, Oak Park faced the challenge of racial integration, devising many strategies to integrate rather than re-segregate the village, Oak Park includes three historic districts for the historic homes, Ridgeland, Frank Lloyd Wright and Seward Gunderson, reflecting the focus on historic preservation. In 1835, Joseph Kettlestrings, an immigrant from England, purchased 172 acres of land just west of Chicago for a farm and their home. Once their children were born, they moved to Chicago for the schools in 1843, more farmers and settlers had entered the area. Their land was called by several names locally, including Oak Ridge, by 1850, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was constructed as far as Elgin, Illinois, and passed through the settlement area. In the 1850s the land on which Oak Park sits was part of the new Chicago suburb, the town of Cicero. The population of the area boomed during the 1870s, with Chicago residents resettling in Cicero following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the expansion of railroads and street cars to the area. In 1872, when Oak Park received its own depot on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. As Chicago grew from a center to a national metropolis Oak Park expanded – from 500 residents in 1872 to 1,812 in 1890, to 9,353 in 1900, to 20,911 in 1910. Oak Park thus emerged as a leading Chicago suburb, one of the first streetcar lines was the Chicago, Harlem, & Batavia “dummy” line, which ran approximately along the present-day route of the Eisenhower Expressway. The “dummy” trains used a steam locomotive with a false cladding designed to conceal most of the moving parts. This line first began operation in 1881, but did not provide direct service to downtown Chicago until June 1888. A more extensive network throughout Oak Park was opened in 1890. In the future village of Oak Park, this system ran east-west on Madison Street and Lake Street, streetcar service was discontinued in 1947, to be replaced by buses
36.
Dateline NBC
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Dateline NBC, or simply Dateline, is a weekly American television newsmagazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the networks flagship news magazine, but now mainly on true crime stories with only occasional editions that focus on other topics. Two-hour feature-length editions sometimes air on any given scheduled evening, often to fill holes in the schedule on the programs respective nights due to program cancellations. Dateline is historically notable for its longevity on the network, the program debuted on March 31,1992, initially airing only on Tuesdays, with Stone Phillips and Jane Pauley serving as its co-anchors. Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric joined the program when the previously separate newsmagazine Now with Tom Brokaw, gradually, the program expanded with the addition of a third night in 1994 and a fourth night in 1997, peaking at five nights of airings each week in mid-1999 and 2000. Editions first began to be removed in the spring of 2001, Dateline was the first multi-night franchise that established brand power by stripping editions, a strategy by NBCs entertainment division to place the program in the same time slot every week. It was considered to be a singular program rather than multiple weekly programs, in its prime, from 1995 to 1999, Dateline provided significant breaking news coverage. The program featured sensationalized news stories and drew in viewers with stories aired in multiple installments, by 1999, any one individual Dateline edition placed in Nielsens top 10 most-watched television programs among total viewers during most weeks. NBC capitalized on its relationship with CNBC and MSNBC by airing repackaged stories seen on past Dateline broadcasts on the retrospective series Headliners and Legends and Time, the program first originated from NBC Studio 3K, using the same set that was used at the time for NBC Nightly News. When Today moved to its current facility, NBC Studio 1A, in 1994, Dateline took over Studio 3B and received its own brand-new dedicated set. Past contributing anchors were Bryant Gumbel, who left NBC in 1997, Maria Shriver, who left NBC in 2004, and Katie Couric, on June 24,2005, Ann Curry co-anchored Dateline for the first time and became permanent host shortly thereafter. Dateline began broadcasting in high definition for the first time on July 21,2008, Dateline previously shared the multi-level Studio 1A with Today. However, in 2013, the program moved back to Studio 3K, lester Holt replaced Ann Curry as host of Dateline with the start of the 20th season on September 23,2011, shortly after Curry became permanent co-host of Today. The program did not disclose the fact that the accident was staged, acting on a tip from someone involved with the Dateline crash test, investigators with FaAA searched through 22 junkyards in Indiana before finding the charred wreckage of the GM pickups. It was also revealed that the Dateline report had been dishonest about the fuel tanks rupturing. GM subsequently filed a lawsuit against NBC after conducting an extensive investigation. The General Motors lawsuit and the subsequent settlement were arguably the most devastating blows for NBC in a series of reputation damaging incidents during the 1990s, within NBC, Michael Gartner, who resigned under pressure shortly after the incident, was the source for much of the blame. Michele Gillen, the correspondent involved in the segment, was transferred to NBCs Miami owned-and-operated station WTVJ, in August 2007, Dateline reporter Michelle Madigan attempted to secretly record hackers admitting to crimes at that years DEF CON in Las Vegas, Nevada
37.
UFO Hunters
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UFO Hunters is an American television series that premiered on January 30,2008 on The History Channel, produced by Motion Picture Production Inc. and ran for three seasons. UFO Hunters was not a direct spin-off from a 2005 History Channel special with the same title, the tagline of the show is, Hoax or History. In the US, History Channel only released the first two seasons on DVD in the correct airdate order, however, the format was only released in full screen instead of wide screen. In the UK, History Channel released the third and final season on DVD however, in a 2011 interview with podcaster Jim Harold, William J. Birnes claimed that after the Dulce Base episode aired, the show was canceled by top level executives at History Channel. In 2013, Bill Birnes, Pat Uskert, and Ted Acworth were reunited on an interview with Inception Radio Network to discuss the possibilities of a UFO Hunters reboot. In the second season, Tomlinson departed, in the third season, Acworth was replaced by mechanical engineer Kevin Cook. In each episode, the team reports of unidentified aerial phenomena in which they interview witnesses of close encounters with UFOs, USOs. They also analyze any evidence collected such as photographs, video and they also conduct research with other investigators and scientists in the field in an attempt to find conclusive evidence that a report is real or a hoax. The show also investigates long-standing UFO cases such as the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash incident, the opening theme song The Only One was performed by the band Operator. In later seasons the song was removed and the theme was changed. Color Key Season 1 aired from January 30,2008 to May 7,2008, Season 2 aired from October 29,2008 to February 25,2009. History ended Season 3 of the series abruptly on May 20,2009, according to his Facebook page, Bill Birnes headed up an online petition for History to continue the series. On October 29,2009, History aired the last four episodes as a four-hour marathon. com
38.
History (U.S. TV network)
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The channel originally broadcast documentary programs and historical fiction series. More recently, it has mostly broadcast various reality series such as Pawn Stars, Ax Men. As of February 2015, approximately 96,149,000 American households receive History, International localized versions of History are available, in various forms, in India, Canada, Europe, Australia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The first European version was launched in Scandinavia in 1997 by Viasat which now operates their own channel, History was launched on January 1,1995 as The History Channel, its original format focused entirely on historical series and specials. On February 16,2008, a new logo was launched on the U. S. network as part of a rebranding effort, while the trademark H was kept, the triangle shape on the left acts as a play button for animation and flyouts during commercials and shows. On March 20,2008, as part of that same rebranding effort, The History Channel dropped The, on June 1,2015, the History logo was slightly updated, completely removing the triangle shape on the left. Programming on History has covered a range of historical periods and topics. Programming also includes mainstream reality television-style shows involving truck drivers, alligator hunters, pawn stores, antique and collectible pickers, car restorers, photography, occasionally some programs compare contemporary culture and technology with that of the past. On March 3,2013, History channel premiered its first original series, during the 1990s, History was jokingly referred to as The Hitler Channel for its extensive coverage of World War II. Much of its programming has been shifted to its sister network Military History. The network has also criticized for having a bias towards US history. The network was criticized by Stanley Kutner for airing the series The Men Who Killed Kennedy in 2003. Kutner was one of three historians commissioned to review the documentary, which the channel disavowed and never aired again, programs such as Modern Marvels have been praised for their presentation of detailed information in an entertaining format. Some of the series, including Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men. Senator Chuck Grassley is a critic of the channel and its lack of historical or educational programming, showing disdain for Ax Men. In his book 2012, Its Not the End of the World, Peter Lemesurier describes the channels Nostradamus series, in which he was invited to participate, as largely fiction, the History Channel was also singled out for ridicule by Smithsonian magazine. The article took issue with the show Ancient Aliens for postulating the idea that caused the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. The online magazine Cracked also lampooned the channel for its definition of history
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Surveillance aircraft
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A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance—collecting information over time. This article concentrates on aircraft used in roles, rather than for traffic monitoring, law enforcement. Surveillance aircraft usually carry no armament, or only limited defensive armament, a surveillance aircraft does not necessarily require high-performance capability or stealth characteristics. It may be a civilian aircraft. Surveillance aircraft have also included moored balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance is sometimes grouped with Intelligence, Target acquisition and Reconnaissance under the title ISTAR. Observation was the used for surveillance when the main sensor was the human eye. In 1794, during the Battle of Fleurus, the French Aerostatic Corps balloon LEntreprenant remained afloat for nine hours. French officers used the balloon to observe the movements of the Austrian Army, dropping notes to the ground for collection by the French Army, and also signalled messages using semaphore. One of the first aircraft used for surveillance was the Rumpler Taube during World War I, the translucent wings of the plane made it very difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 m. The French also called this plane the Invisible Aircraft, and it is also referred to as the worlds very first stealth plane. German Taube aircraft were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg, during World War II, light aircraft such as the Auster were used as air observation posts. Officers from the British Royal Artillery were trained as pilots to fly AOP aircraft for artillery spotting, the air observation role was generally taken over by light observation helicopters, such as the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse, from the mid-1960s. Pre war, the British identified a need for an aircraft that could follow, to this end the slow-flying Airspeed Fleet Shadower and General Aircraft Fleet Shadower designs were built and flown in 1940 but they were made obsolete by the introduction of airborne radar. Spy flights were a source of contention between the US and Russia during most of the 1960s. Maritime patrol aircraft are typically large, slow machines capable of flying continuously for many hours, such aircraft include the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod, the Breguet Atlantique, the Tupolev Tu-95, the Lockheed P-2 Neptune and the Lockheed P-3 Orion/CP-140 Aurora. Predator UAVs have been used by the US for border patrol, unmanned surveillance aircraft have been deployed or are under development in many countries, including Israel, the UK, the United States, Canada, China, India, South Africa and Pakistan. Unmanned surveillance UAVs include both airships—such as Sky Sentinel and HiSentinel 80—and airplanes, most air forces around the world lack dedicated surveillance planes. Several countries adapt aircraft for intelligence gathering
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Flying wing
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A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage. Similar aircraft designs that are not - strictly speaking - flying wings, are referred to as such. These types include blended wing aircraft, and microlights, which typically carry the pilot below the wing. Tailless aircraft have been experimented with since the earliest attempts to fly, from 1910 John William Dunnes swept-wing biplane and monoplane designs displayed inherent stability. Hugo Junkers patented an air transport concept around the same time. He saw it as a solution to the problem of building an airliner large enough to carry a reasonable passenger load. He believed that the flying wings potentially large internal volume and low drag made it a design for this role. His deep-chord monoplane wing was incorporated in the otherwise conventional Junkers J1 in December 1915, however, it still required a short fuselage to house the crew and additional passengers. The flying wing configuration was studied extensively from the 1920s, often in conjunction with other tailless designs, the Soviet Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky began testing tailless flying wing gliders in 1924 gliders, eventually producing the powered BICh-3. After the 1920s, Soviet designers such as Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky worked independently, with significant breakthrough in materials and construction methods, aircraft such as the BICh-3, BICh-14, BICh-7A became possible. The BICh-11 by Cheranovsky in 1932 was competing with the Horten brothers H1 and Adolf Galland at the Ninth Glider Competitions in 1933, the BICh-26 was one of the first attempts at a supersonic jet flying wing aircraft, ahead of its time in 1948. The airplane was not accepted by the military and the design died with Cheranovsky, in Germany, Alexander Lippisch worked first on tailless types before progressively moving to flying wings, while the Horten brothers developed a series of flying wing gliders through the 1930s. The H1 glider was flown with success in 1933. In the United States, from the 1930s Jack Northrop and Cheston L. Eshelman each worked on their own designs, the Northrop N-1M scale prototype for a long-range bomber flew in 1940. Other 1930s examples of flying wings include Frenchman Charles Fauvels AV3 glider of 1933. Featuring a self-stabilizing airfoil on a straight wing, by World War II aerodynamic issues were well enough understood for work on production prototypes to begin while research continued. In 1942 Northrop flew the N-9M scale development aircraft for a proposed long-range bomber, the German Horten Ho 229 of March 1944 was the worlds first twin jet engine pure flying wing, and pre-production examples were test-flown during the closing stages of the war. The British Armstrong Whitworth A. W. 52G of 1944 was a glider test bed for tailless resrearch. for the later Armstrong Whitworth A. W.52 jet-powered version
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Antelope Valley
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Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi and the San Gabriel Mountains, the valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until being eliminated by bad weather in the 1880s and hunters. The principal cities in the Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster, the Antelope Valley comprises the western tip of the Mojave Desert, opening up to the Victor Valley and the Great Basin to the east. Lying north of the San Gabriel Mountains and southeast of the Tehachapis, precipitation in the surrounding mountain ranges contributes to groundwater recharge. The Antelope Valley is home to a range of plants. This includes hundreds of such as the California Juniper, Joshua tree, California Scrub Oak, Creosote. Winter brings much-needed rain which slowly penetrates the areas dry ground, bringing up native grasses, poppy season depends completely on the precipitation, but a good bloom can be killed off by the unusual weather in the late winter and early spring months. The Antelope Valley gets its name from its history of pronghorn grazing in large numbers, in 1882-85, the valley lost 30,000 head of antelope, almost half of the species for which it was named. Unusually heavy snows in both the mountains and the valley floor drove the antelope toward their normal feeding grounds in the part of the valley. Since they would not cross the tracks, many of them starved to death. The remainder of these pronghorn were hunted for their fur by settlers, once abundant, they either died off or migrated into the Central Valley. A drought in the early 1900s caused a scarcity in bunch grass, now the sighting of a pronghorn is rare, although there are still a small number in the western portion of the valley. Human water use in the Antelope Valley depends mainly on pumping of groundwater from the valleys aquifers, long-term groundwater pumping has lowered the water table, thereby increasing pumping lifts, reducing well efficiency, and causing land subsidence. All stakeholders agree the estuary is in trouble and requires long-term solutions to ensure reliable, quality water supplies, the Antelope Valleys population growth and development place considerable stress on the local and regional water systems. The first peoples of the Antelope Valley include the Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, Serrano, europeans first entered in the 1770s during the colonization of North America. Father Francisco Garces, a Spanish Franciscan friar, is believed to have traveled the west end of the valley in 1776, the Spanish established El Camino Viejo through the western part of the valley between Los Angeles and the missions of the San Francisco Bay in the 1780s. By 1808, the Spanish had moved the people out of the valley. Jedediah Smith came through in 1827, and John C, fremont made a scientific observation of the valley in 1844
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Edwards Air Force Base
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Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, located approximately 22 miles northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles east of Rosamond. It operates the U. S. Air Force Test Pilot School and is home to NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center, previously known as Muroc Air Force Base, Edwards AFB is named in honor of Captain Glen Edwards. Edwards became a test pilot in 1943 and spent much of his time at Muroc Army Air Field, on Californias high desert and he died in the crash of a Northrop YB-49 flying wing near Muroc AFB on 5 June 1948. The base is next to Rogers Dry Lake, an endorheic salt pan whose hard dry lake surface provides a natural extension to Edwards runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the good for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark, the base has played a significant role in the development of virtually every aircraft to enter the Air Force inventory since World War II. Almost every United States military aircraft since the 1950s has been at least partially tested at Edwards, the Wing also oversees the base’s day-to-day operations and provides support for military, federal civilian, and contract personnel assigned to Edwards AFB. 412th Operations Group. There are eight flight test squadrons under the 412th Operations Group with as many as 20 aircraft assigned to each, the 412 OS flies an average of 90 aircraft with upwards of 30 different aircraft designs. It also performs more than 7,400 missions on an annual basis and they provide the tools, talent and equipment for the core disciplines of aircraft structures, propulsion, avionics and electronic warfare evaluation of the latest weapon system technologies. The Project and Resource Management Divisions provide the foundation for the program management of test missions. 412th Civil Engineer Division 412th Maintenance Group 412th Medical Group 412th Mission Support Group U. S, the comprehensive curriculum of Test Pilot School is fundamental to the success of flight test and evaluation. There are a vast array of organizations at Edwards that do not fall under the 412th Test Wing and these units do everything from providing an on-base grocery store to testing state-of-the-art rockets. The 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron provides Air Combat Command personnel to support combined test, established in 1917, it is one of the oldest units of the United States Air Force. The Desert Pirates are part of the 53d Test and Evaluation Group, Nellis AFB, Nevada, the 31st is staffed with a mixture of operations, maintenance and engineering experts who plan and conduct tests, evaluate effectiveness and suitability, and influence system design. The squadrons personnel are integrated into the B-1, B-2, B-52, Global Hawk, MQ-9 and their results and conclusions support Department of Defense acquisition, deployment and employment decisions. AFOTEC Detachment 5 is responsible for conducting the operational test and evaluation of USAF aircraft, certification by Detachment 5 is required in advance prior to new aircraft prior to AFMC full rate production and combat fielding decisions. During 1978 and 1979, an AFFTC test pilot and a pair of flight test engineers were engaged in testing with Lockheeds low-observable technology demonstrator. The successful conduct of tests led immediately to the development of the F-117A Nighthawk
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United States Air Force Plant 42
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United States Air Force Plant 42 is a classified United States Government aircraft manufacturing plant, used by the United States Air Force. It is also used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Plant 42 and Palmdale Regional Airport are separate facilities that share a common runway at the site. The facility is located in the Antelope Valley, approximately 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles, Plant 42 is a United States Air Force facility. It is the Antelope Valleys second-largest employer, and is owned by Wright-Patterson AFB, most of the facilities are operated by private contractors and serve as a manufacturing plant for aircraft used by the United States and their allies militaries. Plant 42 has 3.2 million square feet of space and has a replacement value of $1.1 billion. Aerospace contractors at Air Force Plant 42 share a common runway complex and either lease building space from the Air Force, there are eight separate production sites specially suited for advanced technology and/or black program projects. Currently the most well-known contractors at Plant 42 are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, previously the facilities were operated by IT&T, McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft Co. Norair, a Division of Northrop Corp. and Lockheed Air Terminal, Plant 42 remains a GOCO but also now includes AF operations. Contractually operated for the Air Force since 1954, the Air Force under the Obama administration chose to insource the operations of the plant. Now the airfield is operated by DoD resources, with 412 TW/Operating Location, Plant 42 controls over 5,800 acres of Mojave Desert land north of Avenue P and south of Columbia Way. The western border is Sierra Highway, and the Plant extends east to around 40th Street East south of Avenue N to Avenue P, Northrop Grummans B-2 final assembly and modification facility is at Palmdale. The Department of Defense, in February 1995, announced its plan for providing support for the B-2. The plan includes a mix of commercial and organic sources for providing various functions and/or maintaining various components, Rockwells Palmdale assembly facility is where all the individual parts, pieces and systems of the Space Shuttle came together and were assembled and tested. Upon completion, the spacecraft was turned over to NASA for transport overland from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base, nASAs Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base was the site of the mate-demate facility for mating or demating the spacecraft and the shuttle carrier aircraft. Approximately 250 major subcontractors supplied various systems and components to Rockwells Palmdale assembly facility, the structures of the orbiter were manufactured at various companies under contract to Rockwell Internationals Space Transportation Systems Division, Downey, Calif. assembly facility. The midfuselage was manufactured by General Dynamics, San Diego, Calif. the vertical tail were manufactured by Fairchild Republic, Farmingdale, Long Island, N. Y. and transported overland to Rockwells Palmdale assembly facility. The payload bay doors were manufactured at Rockwell Internationals Tulsa, Okla. facility, the body flap was manufactured at Rockwell Internationals Columbus, Ohio, facility and transported overland to Rockwells Palmdale assembly facility. The aft orbital maneuvering system/reaction control system pods were manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, St. Louis, Mo. and they were also transported by aircraft from Rockwells Palmdale assembly facility to the Kennedy Space Center
