George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Bush was born in New Haven and grew up in Texas. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and unsuccessfully ran for the U. S. House of Representatives shortly thereafter, he co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. Bush was elected President of the United States in 2000 when he defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore after a close and controversial win that involved a stopped recount in Florida, he became the fourth person to be elected president while receiving fewer popular votes than his opponent. Bush is a member of a prominent political family and is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States.
He is only the second president to assume the nation's highest office after his father, following the footsteps of John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. His brother Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, his paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S. Senator from Connecticut; the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine: launching a "War on Terror", an international military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War in 2003, he signed into law broad tax cuts, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors, funding for the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR. His tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, torture. In the 2004 presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election.
After his re-election, Bush received heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, other challenges. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. In December 2007, the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession referred to as the "Great Recession", prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Nationally, Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular U. S. presidents in history, having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis. Bush finished his term in office in 2009 and returned to Texas, where he had purchased a home in Dallas. In 2010, he published Decision Points, his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians' polls that were published in the late 2000s and 2010s.
However, his favorability ratings with the public have improved after leaving office. George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, at Yale–New Haven Hospital in New Haven, while his father was a student at Yale, he was his wife, Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, with four siblings, Neil and Dorothy. Another younger sister, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953, his grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S. Senator from Connecticut, his father was Ronald Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. president from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Irish and Scottish roots. Bush attended public schools in Midland, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade, he spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Piney Point Village in the Houston area. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, where he played baseball and was the head cheerleader during his senior year.
He attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968. During this time, he was a cheerleader and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon, serving as the president of the fraternity during his senior year. Bush became a member of the Skull and Bones society as a senior. Bush was a rugby union player and was on Yale's 1st XV, he characterized himself as an average student. His GPA during his first three years at Yale was 77, he had a similar average under a nonnumeric rating system in his final year. In the fall of 1973, Bush entered Harvard Business School, he graduated in 1975 with an MBA degree. He is the only U. S. president to have earned an MBA. Bush was engaged to Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967, but the engagement fizzled out. Bush and Wolfman remained on good terms after the end of the relationship. While Bush was at a backyard barbecue in 1977, friends introduced him to Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. After a three-month courtship, she accepted his marriage proposal and they wed on November 5 of that year.
The couple settled in Texas. Bush left his family's Episcopal Church to join his wife's United Methodist Church. On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters and Jenna. Prior to getting married, Bush struggled with multiple episodes of alcohol abuse. In one instance on September 4, 1976, he was pulled over near his fami
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American, he served as a U. S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. Obama was born in Hawaii. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, he enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he became a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004, he represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 until 2004 when he ran for the U. S. Senate, he received national attention in 2004 with his March primary win, his well-received July Democratic National Convention keynote address, his landslide November election to the Senate. In 2008, he was nominated for president a year after his campaign began and after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton.
He was elected over Republican John McCain and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Nine months he was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Regarded as a centrist New Democrat, Obama signed many landmark bills into law during his first two years in office; the main reforms that were passed include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, Job Creation Act of 2010 served as economic stimulus amidst the Great Recession. After a lengthy debate over the national debt limit, he signed the Budget Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts. In foreign policy, he increased U. S. troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the United States–Russia New START treaty, ended military involvement in the Iraq War. He ordered military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi.
He ordered the military operations that resulted in the deaths of Osama bin Laden and suspected Yemeni Al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki. After winning re-election by defeating Republican opponent Mitt Romney, Obama was sworn in for a second term in 2013. During this term, he promoted inclusiveness for LGBT Americans, his administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme Court to strike down same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional. He advocated for gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, indicating support for a ban on assault weapons, issued wide-ranging executive actions concerning climate change and immigration. In foreign policy, he ordered military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued the process of ending U. S. combat operations in Afghanistan in 2016, promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, initiated sanctions against Russia following the invasion in Ukraine and again after Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, brokered a nuclear deal with Iran, normalized U.
S. relations with Cuba. During his term in office, America's reputation in global polling improved. Evaluations of his presidency among historians, political scientists, the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents. Obama left office and retired in January 2017 and resides in Washington, D. C. A December 2018 Gallup poll found Obama to be the most admired man in America for an unprecedented 11th consecutive year, although Dwight D. Eisenhower was selected most admired in twelve non-consecutive years. Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, he is the only president, born outside of the contiguous 48 states. He was born to a black father, his mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas. His father, Barack Obama Sr. was a Luo Kenyan from Nyang'oma Kogelo. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student on a scholarship; the couple married in Hawaii, on February 2, 1961, six months before Obama was born.
In late August 1961, Barack and his mother moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, where they lived for a year. During that time, the elder Obama completed his undergraduate degree in economics in Hawaii, graduating in June 1962, he left to attend graduate school on a scholarship at Harvard University, where he earned an M. A. in economics. Obama's parents divorced in March 1964. Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964, where he married for a third time and worked for the Kenyan government as the Senior Economic Analyst in the Ministry of Finance. He visited his son in Hawaii only once, at Christmas time in 1971, before he was killed in an automobile accident in 1982, when Obama was 21 years old. Recalling his early childhood, Obama said, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me – that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk – registered in my mind." He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multira
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produced a number of well-known commercial and military aircraft such as the DC-10 airliner and F-15 Eagle air-superiority fighter; the corporation was based at St. Louis Lambert International Airport near St. Louis, while the headquarters for its subsidiary, the McDonnell Douglas Technical Services Company, were established in unincorporated St. Louis County, Missouri; the company was formed from the firms of James Smith McDonnell and Donald Wills Douglas in 1967. Both men were of Scottish ancestry, graduates of MIT and had worked for the aircraft manufacturer Glenn L. Martin Company. Douglas had been chief engineer at Martin before leaving to establish Davis-Douglas Company in early 1920 in Los Angeles, he bought out his backer and renamed the firm the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1921.
McDonnell founded J. S. McDonnell & Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1926, his idea was to produce a personal aircraft for family use. The economic depression from 1929 ruined his ideas and the company collapsed, he worked at three companies with the final being Glenn Martin Company in 1933. He left Martin in 1938 to try again with his own firm, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, this time based at Lambert Field, outside St. Louis, Missouri. World War II was a major earner for Douglas; the company produced 30,000 aircraft from 1942 to 1945 and the workforce swelled to 160,000. Both companies suffered at the end of hostilities, facing an end of government orders and a surplus of aircraft. After the war, Douglas continued to develop new aircraft, including the DC-6 in 1946 and the DC-7 in 1953; the company moved into jet propulsion, producing its first for the military – the conventional F3D Skyknight in 1948 and the more'jet age' F4D Skyray in 1951. In 1955, Douglas introduced the first attack jet of the United States Navy with the A4D Skyhawk.
Designed to operate from the decks of the World War II Essex class aircraft carriers, the Skyhawk was small and tough. Variants of it continued in use in the Navy for 50 years serving in large numbers in a two-seat version as a jet trainer. Douglas made commercial jets, producing the DC-8 in 1958 to compete with the Boeing 707. McDonnell was developing jets, but being smaller it was prepared to be more radical, building on its successful FH-1 Phantom to become a major supplier to the Navy with the F2H Banshee and F3H Demon; the Korean War-era Banshee and the F-4 Phantom II produced during the Vietnam War helped push McDonnell into a major military fighter supply role. Douglas created a series of experimental high-speed jet aircraft in the Skyrocket family, with the Skyrocket DB-II being the first aircraft to travel at twice the speed of sound in 1953. Both companies were eager to enter the new missile business, Douglas moving from producing air-to-air rockets and missiles to entire missile systems under the 1956 Nike program and becoming the main contractor of the Skybolt ALBM program and the Thor ballistic missile program.
McDonnell made a number of missiles, including the unusual ADM-20 Quail, as well as experimenting with hypersonic flight, research that enabled it to gain a substantial share of the NASA projects Mercury and Gemini. Douglas gained contracts from NASA, notably for part of the enormous Saturn V rocket; the two companies were now major employers. Douglas was strained by the cost of the DC-8 and DC-9, while McDonnell suffered lean times during any downturns in military procurement; the two companies began to sound each other out about a merger. Inquiries began in 1963; the two firms were merged on April 28, 1967 as the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. The two companies seemed to be a good fit for each other. McDonnell Douglas retained McDonnell Aircraft's headquarters location at what was known as Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, in Berkeley, near St. Louis. In 1967, with the merger of McDonnell and Douglas Aircraft, David S. Lewis president of McDonnell Aircraft, was named chairman of what was called the Long Beach, Douglas Aircraft Division.
At the time of the merger, Douglas Aircraft was estimated to be less than a year from bankruptcy. Flush with orders, the DC-8 and DC-9 aircraft were 9 to 18 months behind schedule, incurring stiff penalties from the airlines. Lewis was active in DC-10 sales in an intense competition with Lockheed's L-1011, a rival tri-jet aircraft. In two years, Lewis had the operation in positive cash flow, he returned to the company's St. Louis headquarters where he continued sales efforts on the DC-10 and managed the company as a whole as President and chief operating officer through 1971; the DC-10 began production in 1968 with the first deliveries in 1971. Several artists impressions exist of an aircraft named the "DC-10 Twin" or DC-X which McDonnell Douglas considered in the early 1970s but never built; this would have been an early twinjet similar to the Airbus A300, but never progressed to a prototype. This could have given McDonnell Douglas an early lead in the huge twinjet market that subsequently developed, as well as commonality with much of the DC-10's systems.
In 1977, the next generation of DC-9 variants, dubbed the "Super 80" series, was launched. In 1977, the KC-10 Extender was the second McDonnell Douglas transport aircraft
Boeing C-137 Stratoliner
The Boeing C-137 Stratoliner is a VIP transport aircraft derived from the Boeing 707 jet airliner used by the United States Air Force. Other nations bought both new and used 707s for military service as VIP or tanker transports. In addition, the 707 served as the basis for several specialized versions, such as the E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft; the designation C-18 covers several variants based on the 707-320B/C series. The C-137 should not be confused with the superficially-similar Boeing C-135 Stratolifter. USAF procurement of the Boeing 707 was limited, amounting to three Model 707-153s designated VC-137A; when delivered in 1959 these had four 13,500 lb dry thrust Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojets. Only one other variant served with the USAF: this was the VC-137C Air Force One presidential transport, the two examples of which were Model 707-320B Intercontinentals with specialized interior furnishings and advanced communications equipment. Two further non-presidential C-137C aircraft were added. To supplement its VC-137s, the USAF converted several C-135 airframes to VC-135 VIP standard, these were used for staff transport within the United States.
The C-18 is the US military designation for the conversions of the 707-320B series. C-18A Eight second-hand 707-323Cs bought as crew trainers for the EC-18Bs, four converted to EC-18B, two converted to EC-18D, one to C-18B. C-18B One C-18A modified with instrumentation and equipment to support the Military Strategic and Tactical Relay System. EC-18B Four C-18As modified alongside examples of the C-135 for Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft missions in support of the Apollo space program; the designation E-7 was applied to modified Boeing 707s before being replaced by the EC-18 designation. EC-18C Original designation for two prototype J-STAR aircraft redesignated E-8A. EC-18D Two C-18As modified as a Cruise Missile Mission Control Aircraft. TC-18E Two second-hand 707-331 aircraft modified for crew training. TC-18F Two second-hand 707-382 aircraft modified for E-6 pilot training; the USAF purchased a number of 707s under the C-137 series of designations: VC-137A Three 707-153s with a 22-passenger VIP interior and provision for use as an airborne command post, re-designated VC-137B.
VC-137B The three VC-137As re-engined with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3 engines, operated by the 89th Military Airlift Wing, redesignated C-137B. C-137B The three VC-137Bs redesignated. VC-137C Two 707-353Bs were purchased by the USAF for service as presidential transports with call signs SAM 26000 and SAM 27000. C-137C The two VC-137Cs were redesignated. SAM 26000 and SAM 27000 were retired in 2001 respectively. Both are now in aviation museums. Two further C-137Cs were acquired by the USAF, one 707-396C and one 707-382B bought second hand in 1987. EC-137D Two aircraft built as Early Control System prototypes. Re-engined and re-designated E-3A. A further second-hand 707-355C aircraft was acquired and configured as an airborne special operations command post. Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne warning and control system aircraft that provides all-weather surveillance, command and communications, to the United States, NATO and other air defense forces. Based on the 707-320B, production ended in 1992 after 68 had been built.
Boeing E-6 Mercury A version of the 707-320, it operates as an airborne command post and communications center, relaying instructions from the National Command Authority. Its role in relaying to the fleet ballistic missile submarines, known as "Take Charge and Move Out", gives it the suffix TACAMO. Only one version of the E-6 exists, the E-6B; the E-6B is an upgraded version of the E-6A that now includes a battlestaff area for the USSTRATCOM Airborne Command Post Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System is a USAF airborne battle management and command and control platform that conducts ground surveillance to develop an understanding of the enemy situation and to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay and destruction of enemy forces. CT-49A NATO Trainer-Cargo Aircraft operated to support E-3A AWACS training and air transport/cargo for NATO based on Boeing 707-320B. CC-137 Husky Canadian Forces designation for the 707-347C.
Five were purchased new in 1970. KC-137 Brazilian Air Force 707 IRIAF operates 707 Transports. 707T/T The 707 Tanker/Transport. Italy converted four 707s, two to tankers and two to a straight freighter. No 707 tankers remains operational as of 3 April 2008. Omega Aerial Refueling Services operates K707 tankers for lease. KE-3A The Royal Saudi Air Force purchased eight E-3 airframes configured as aerial refueling tankers. Condor Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft developed in conjunction with Israel Aircraft Industries using a former Lan Chile aircraft. BrazilBrazilian Air Force IranIslamic Republic of Iran Air Force United StatesUnited States Air Force The following aircraft are on public display: 58-6970 Model 707-120 USAF VC-137B "SAM 970", Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA. 58-6971 Model 707-153 USAF VC
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American three-engine wide-body jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. It has two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer; the DC-10 was intended as a successor to the company's DC-8 for medium- to long range flights, using a larger capacity wide-body layout with seating up to 380 and more powerful engines. Lockheed saw this niche as an ideal place to reenter the commercial airliner market with their similar L-1011 TriStar. Although the L-1011 was more technologically advanced, the DC-10 would go on to outsell the L-1011 by a significant margin due to the DC-10's lower price and earlier entry into the market; the initial DC-10-10 model was a "domestic" design with a typical range on the order of 3,800 miles in a two-class layout. The -15 was a "high" version with more powerful engines; the -30 and -40 models were the "international" versions with extended range of up to 6,220 miles and a third main landing gear leg to support the higher takeoff weights.
An longer-range version proposed for British Airways, the -50, was not built. The KC-10 Extender air-to-air refueling tanker version, was based on the -30 model. Production of the DC-10 ended in 1989, with 386 DC-10s delivered to airlines and 60 KC-10s to the U. S. Air Force; the DC-10 had a poor safety record in early operations due to a design flaw in the cargo doors. Its safety reputation was further damaged by the crash of American Airlines Flight 191, which remains the deadliest aviation accident in the United States. Following the Chicago crash, the FAA withdrew the DC-10's type certificate in June 1979, which temporarily grounded all U. S. DC-10s. In August 1983, McDonnell Douglas announced that it would end production of the DC-10, citing a lack of orders. Airline industry consensus at the time was that the DC-10 had a poor reputation for fuel economy and for its overall safety. In spite of the DC-10's early difficulties, it accumulated a good safety record, as design flaws were rectified and fleet hours increased, comparable to similar second-generation passenger jets as of 2008.
The DC-10 was succeeded by the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 an enlarged version of the DC-10 with some design improvements. Boeing, which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, conducted an upgrade program that equipped many in-service DC-10s with a glass cockpit that eliminated the flight engineer position; the DC-10's last commercial passenger flight took place in February 2014, although freighter versions continue to operate. The largest operator of the DC-10 is U. S. cargo airline FedEx Express. Despite the airliner's popularity, only a few DC-10s are on display, while other retired aircraft are in storage. DC-10s are used for specialist services, such as the Orbis International Flying Eye Hospital, which has a compartment for performing eye surgery. Following an unsuccessful proposal for the U. S. Air Force's CX-HLS in 1965, Douglas Aircraft began design studies based on its CX-HLS design. In 1966, American Airlines offered a specification to manufacturers for a widebody aircraft smaller than the Boeing 747 but capable of flying similar long-range routes from airports with shorter runways.
The DC-10 became McDonnell Douglas's first commercial airliner after the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. An early DC-10 design proposal was for a four-engine double-deck wide-body jet airliner with a maximum seating capacity of 550 passengers similar in length of a DC-8; the proposal was shelved in favor of a trijet single-deck wide-body airliner with a maximum seating capacity of 399 passengers, similar in length to the DC-8 Super 60. On February 19, 1968, in what was supposed to be a knockout blow to the competing Lockheed L-1011, George A. Spater, President of American Airlines, James S. McDonnell of McDonnell Douglas announced American Airlines' intention to acquire the DC-10; this was a shock to Lockheed and there was general agreement within the U. S. aviation industry. Together with American Airlines' decision to announce the DC-10 order, it was reported that American Airlines had declared its intention to have the British Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan engine on its DC-10 aircraft.
The DC-10 was first ordered by launch customers American Airlines with 25 orders, United Airlines with 30 orders and 30 options in 1968. The first DC-10, a series 10, made its maiden flight on August 29, 1970. Following a test program with 929 flights covering 1,551 hours, the DC-10 received its type certificate from the FAA on July 29, 1971, it entered commercial service with American Airlines on August 5, 1971 on a round trip flight between Los Angeles and Chicago. United Airlines began DC-10 service on August 16, 1971. American's DC-10s had 206 seats and United's had 222; the DC-10's similarity to the Lockheed L-1011 in design, passenger capacity, launch date resulted in a sales competition that affected profitability of the aircraft. The first DC-10 version was the "domestic" series 10 with a range of 3,800 miles with a typical passenger load and a range of 2,710 miles with maximum payload; the series 15 had a typical load range of 4,350 miles. The series 20 was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan engines, whereas the series 10 and 30 engines were General Electric CF6.
Before delivery of its aircraft, Northwest's president asked that the "series 20" aircraft be redesignated "series 40" because the aircraft was much improved over the
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns of northern Illinois, he graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to California in 1937, he found work as an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild—the labor union for actors—where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories. Reagan had been a Democrat until 1962, when he became a conservative and switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing", supported Barry Goldwater's foundering presidential campaign and earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman.
Building a network of supporters, he was elected governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of California, ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements in 1969, was re-elected in 1970, he twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1968 and 1976. Four years in 1980, he won the nomination and defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter. At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to have assumed office until Donald Trump in 2017. Reagan faced former vice president Walter Mondale when he ran for re-election in 1984, defeated him, winning the most electoral votes of any U. S. president, 525, or 97.6 percent of the 538 votes in the Electoral College. This was the second-most lopsided presidential election in modern U. S. history after Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 victory over Alfred M. Landon, in which he won 98.5 percent or 523 of the 531 electoral votes.
Soon after taking office, Reagan began implementing sweeping new economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, economic deregulation, reduction in government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, fought public sector labor. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, an average annual growth of real GDP of 3.4%. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, increased military spending which contributed to increased federal outlays overall after adjustment for inflation. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the Iran–Contra affair. In June 1987, four years after he publicly described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!", during a speech at the Brandenburg Gate.
He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the INF Treaty. Reagan began his presidency during the decline of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall fell just ten months after the end of his term. Germany reunified the following year, on December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed; when Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68 percent, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era, he was the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve two full terms, after a succession of five prior presidents did not. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent, he died at home on June 5, 2004. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States, he is an icon among conservatives.
Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois, he was the younger son of Jack Reagan. Jack was a salesman and storyteller whose grandparents were Irish Catholic emigrants from County Tipperary, while Nelle was of half English and half Scottish descent. Reagan's older brother, Neil Reagan, became an advertising executive. Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch", due to his "fat little Dutchman"-like appearance and "Dutchboy" haircut. Reagan's family lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C. Pitney Variety Store until settling in Dixon. After his election as president, Reagan resided in the upstairs White House private quarters, he would quip that he was "living above the store again". Ronald Reagan wrote that his mother "always expected to find the best in people and did".
She attended the Disciples of Christ church and was active, influential, within it.
Flare (countermeasure)
A flare or decoy flare is an aerial infrared countermeasure used by a plane or helicopter to counter an infrared homing surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile. Flares are composed of a pyrotechnic composition based on magnesium or another hot-burning metal, with burning temperature equal to or hotter than engine exhaust; the aim is to make the infrared-guided missile seek out the heat signature from the flare rather than the aircraft's engines. In contrast to radar-guided missiles, IR-guided missiles are difficult to find as they approach aircraft, they do not emit detectable radar, they are fired from a rear visual-aspect, directly toward the engines. In most cases, pilots have to rely on their wingmen to spot the missile's smoke trail and alert them. Since IR-guided missiles are inherently far shorter-legged in distance and altitude range than their radar-guided counterparts, good situational awareness of altitude and potential threats continues to be an effective defense. More advanced electro-optical systems can detect missile launches automatically from the distinct thermal emissions of a missile's rocket motor.
Once the presence of a "live" IR missile is indicated, flares are released by the aircraft in an attempt to decoy the missile. The aircraft would pull away at a sharp angle from the flare and reduce engine power in attempt to cool the thermal signature. Optimally, the missile's seeker head is confused by this change in temperature and flurry of new signatures, therefore follows the flare rather than the aircraft; the most modern IR-guided missiles have sophisticated on-board electronics that help discriminate between flares and targets, reducing the effectiveness of countermeasures. Since insurgents and terrorists are targeting helicopters with missiles, because helicopters are slower-moving, there is an increasing trend to equip military helicopters with flare countermeasures. Flare dispensers are now fitted to helicopters. Indeed all of the UK's helicopters, whether they are transport or attack models, are equipped with flare dispenser or missile approach warning systems; the US armed forces have adopted defensive technology on their helicopters.
Apart from military use, some civilian aircraft are equipped with countermeasure flares, against terrorism: the Israeli airline El Al, having been the target of the failed 2002 airliner attack, in which shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles were fired at an airliner while taking off, began equipping its fleet with radar-based, automated flare release countermeasures from June 2004. This caused concerns in some European countries, which proceeded to ban such aircraft from landing at their airports. A flare goes through three main stages: ignition and decoying. Most flares, like the MJU-27A/B flares, must be kept in an airtight storage compartment before deployment; these flares, known as pyrophoric flares, are made of special materials that ignite when they come in contact with the air. This is a safety and convenience factor, since attempting to ignite a flare inside the fuselage and deploying it is risky; however pyrotechnic flares exist, offer their own safety benefit. Flares are most gravity-fed from a dispenser inside the aircraft's fuselage.
These dispensers can be programmed by the pilot or ground crew to dispense flares in short intervals, one at a time, long intervals, or in clusters. Most used flares are of the pyrophoric variety, thus the dispensers do not have to ignite and deploy the flare at the same time. With pyrotechnic flares, a lanyard automatically pulls off a friction cap covering the exposed end of the flare as it falls from the dispenser. A friction ignites the flare. Flares burn at thousands of degrees, much hotter than the exhaust of a jet engine. IR missiles seek out the hotter flame, believing it to be an aircraft in afterburner or the beginning of the engine's exhaust source; as the more modern infrared seekers tend to have spectral sensitivity tailored to more match the emissions of airplanes and reject other sources, the modernized decoy flares have their emission spectrum optimized to match the radiation of the airplane. In addition to spectral discrimination, the CCMs can include trajectory discrimination and detection of size of the radiation source.
The newest generation of the FIM-92 Stinger uses a dual IR and UV seeker head, which allows for a redundant tracking solution negating the impact of modern decoy flares. While research and development in flare technology has produced an IR signature on the same wavelength as hot engine exhaust, modern flares still produce a notably different UV signature than an aircraft engine burning kerosene jet-fuel. For the infrared generating charge, two approaches are possible: pyrotechnic and pyrophoric; as stored, chemical-energy-source IR-decoy flares contain pyrotechnic compositions, liquid or solid pyrophoric substances, or liquid or solid flammable substances. Upon ignition of the decoy flare, a exothermal reaction is started, releasing infrared energy and visible smoke and flame, emission being dependent on the chemic
