1.
Higgins Industries
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Higgins Industries was the company owned by Andrew Higgins based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Higgins also manufactured PT boats, and produced the first American airborne lifeboat, Andrew Higgins also owned the New Orleans-based Higgins Lumber and Export Co. and Higgins Aircraft, which contracted to provide aircraft for the US military during World War II. Before World War Two, Higgins got its big start with the design and these small but fast boats were called Eureka Boats or Spoonbills, and they could impact partially submerged logs without suffering damage. The propeller was partially enclosed in a tunnel to protect it against submerged objects, the Spoonbill was the first design used for a personnel landing craft used by the US Navy, the LCPL, before the famous and much improved Higgins LCVP, the Higgins Boat was offered. These were the landing craft that were main type used on the invasion of Guadalcanal, unfortunately, these first primitive landing craft required the landing party to go over the sides to exit the craft exposing them to enemy fire. In 1964, Dwight D. Eisenhower said to historian Stephen Ambrose, is the man who won the war for us, if Higgins had not designed and built those landing craft, we never would have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different, Higgins Industries produced over sixty different items for the US government during the war. Higgins ranked 70th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, the resulting business success allowed Andrew Higgins to expand into several other ventures, including Higgins Aircraft, Higgins Engine Co. and Higgins Plastics Corp. After the war he tried to transition this capability into consumer products such as appliances, personal watercraft, in late 1945 Frank P. Higgins, brother of Andrew, became director of marketing, operating the Higgins Marine Sales Corp. However, labor strife complicated the picture, and on 9 November 1945 Andrew Higgins liquidated the business, in January of the following year he formed another company to resume building pleasure watercraft. The other industrial properties of the previous Higgins Industries were transferred to ownership of the new company, by 1948 all the other plants were closed, and watercraft production was concentrated in the Industrial Canal plant. Andrew Higgins died of a stomach ailment at age sixty-five on August 1,1952 and his sons continued the business through the 1950s, but mounting debts resulted in the sale of Higgins, Inc. to New York Ship in 1959. New York Ship was subsequently sold to what would eventually become Equitable Equipment Company, Higgins Marine Sales Corporation continued at the old City Park Plant until 1970, when it moved to Thalia Street, where it operated for five more years before closing. One of the Higgins factories in New Orleans was converted into NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in 1961
2.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
3.
Museum ship
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A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the number of museum ships that are still operational. Many, if not most, museum ships are also associated with a maritime museum, only a few survive, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often due to luck and circumstance. The restoration and maintenance of museum ships presents problems for historians who are asked for advice, for instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources. Studying the ships also allows historians to analyze how life on and operation of the ships took place, numerous scientific papers have been written on ship restoration and maintenance, and international conferences are held discussing the latest developments. Another consideration is the distinction between a museum ship, and a ship replica. As repairs accumulate over time, less and less of the ship is of the materials. Visitors without historical background are often unable to distinguish between a historical museum ship and a ship replica, which may serve solely as a tourist attraction. Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the logs, menus. Some add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to enhance the experience, in some cases, the ships radio room has been brought back into use, with volunteers operating amateur radio equipment. Often, the callsign assigned is a variation on the identification of the ship. For example, the submarine USS Cobia, which had the call NBQV, is now on the air as NB9QV. The World War II submarine USS Pampanito, berthed at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, had the wartime call NJVT and is now on the air as NJ6VT, in other cases, such as the USS Missouri, a distinctive call is used. This radio work not only helps restore part of the vessel, a number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, other events, and sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In the United States, this includes the USS Constitutions annual turnaround, a place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized. Many consider the appeal of an interesting old vessel on the city waterfront strong enough that any port city should showcase one or more museum ships. This may even include building a ship at great expense
4.
PT boat
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A PT boat was a torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II. The PT boat was very different from the first generation of torpedo boat and these first generation torpedo boats rode low in the water, displaced up to 300 tons, and had a top speed of 25 to 27 kn. During World War I the US and UK developed the first high-performance motor torpedo boats and corresponding torpedo tactics, but these projects were all quickly disbanded with the Armistice. World War II PT boats continued to some of the advances in planing hull design borrowed from offshore powerboat racing and were able to grow in size due to advancements in engine technology. During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, as gunboats they could be effective against enemy small craft, especially armored barges used by the Japanese for inter-island transport. Several saw service with the Philippine Navy, where they were named Q-boats most probably after President Manuel L. Quezon Primary anti-ship armament was four 2,600 pound Mark 8 torpedoes. Launched by 21-inch Mark 18 torpedo tubes, each bore a 466-pound TNT warhead and had a range of 16,000 yards at 36 knots, Two twin M2.50 cal machine guns were mounted for anti-aircraft defense and general fire support. Some boats shipped a 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, propulsion was via a trio of Packard 4M-2500 and later 5M-2500 supercharged gasoline-fueled, liquid-cooled marine engines. In September 1914, Hickman completed plans for a 50-foot Sea Sled torpedo boat and his plan was promptly rejected by the Admiralty, so Hickman built and launched his own privately financed 41-foot Sea Sled capable of carrying a single 18 Whitehead Mark 5 torpedo. In February 1915, this Hickman sea sled demonstrated 35 kn speeds in rough seas off Boston to both US and foreign representatives but again, he received no contracts. The Admiralty representative for this sea sled demonstration was Lieutenant G. C. E, in the summer of 1915, Lieutenants Hampden, Bremner, and Anson approached John I. Thornycroft & Company about developing a high speed torpedo boat. Meanwhile, in August 1915, the General Board of the United States Navy approved the purchase of an experimental small torpedo boat that could be transportable. This contract for C-250 ended up going to Greenport Basin and Construction Company, of Greenport, NY. When it eventually was delivered and tested in the Summer of 1917, it was not deemed a success, so a second boat of the sea sled design was ordered from Hickman in either late 1917 or early 1918. Using his previous design from September 1914 and the unsuccessful bid for C-250. The Sea Sled would not surface again as a torpedo boat topic until 1939, in 1922, the US Navy reconsidered using small internal combustion engine powered torpedo boats. As a result, two types of British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats were obtained for testing, the larger boat was used for experiments until 1930
5.
Packard
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Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, United States, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last in 1958, with one of the last concept cars built in 1956, henry Bourne Joy, a member of one of Detroits oldest and wealthiest families, bought a Packard. Impressed by its reliability, he visited the Packards and soon enlisted a group of investors—including Truman Handy Newberry, on October 2,1902, this group refinanced and renamed the New York and Ohio Automobile Company as the Packard Motor Car Company, with James Packard as president. Alger later served as vice president, Packard moved operations to Detroit soon after, and Joy became general manager. An original Packard, reputedly the first manufactured, was donated by a grateful James Packard to his alma mater, Lehigh University, another is on display at the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio. In the beginning, all Packards had a single-cylinder engine until 1903, Packard produced its Twin Six model series of 12-cylinder cars from 1915 to 1923. The marque developed a following among wealthy purchasers both in the United States and abroad, competing with European marques like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes Benz, the 3,500, 000-square-foot Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit was located on over 40 acres of land. Its skilled craftsmen practiced over 80 trades, the dilapidated plant still stands, despite repeated fires. The factory is in proximity to the current General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly. Architect Kahn also designed the Packard Proving Grounds at Utica, Michigan, from this beginning, through and beyond the 1930s, Packard-built vehicles were perceived as highly competitive among high-priced luxury American automobiles. The company was referred to as being one of the Three Ps of American motordom royalty, along with Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York and Peerless of Cleveland. For most of its history, Packard was guided by its President and General Manager James Alvan Macauley, inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame, Macauley made Packard the number one designer and producer of luxury automobiles in the United States. The marque was also highly competitive abroad, with markets in 61 countries, gross income for the company was $21,889,000 in 1928. Macauley was also responsible for the iconic Packard slogan, Ask the Man Who Owns One, in the 1920s, Packard exported more cars than any other in its price class, and in 1930, sold almost twice as many abroad as any other marque priced over $2000. In 1931,10 Packards were owned by Japans royal family, between 1924 and 1930, Packard was also the top-selling luxury brand. In addition to excellent luxury cars, Packard built trucks, a Packard truck carrying a three-ton load drove from New York City to San Francisco between 8 July and 24 August 1912. The same year, Packard had service depots in 104 cities, the Packard Motor Corporation Building at Philadelphia, also designed by Albert Kahn, was built in 1910-1911. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, by 1931, Packards were also being produced in Canada
6.
V12 engine
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By using split crankpins or ignoring minor vibrations, any V angle is possible. The 180° configuration is referred to as a flat-twelve engine or a boxer although it is in reality a 180° V since the pistons can. This is not important in a car if all-out performance is the only goal. Since cost and fuel economy are usually important even in luxury and racing cars and it is often used in marine engines where great power is required, and the hull width is limited, but a longer vessel allows faster hull speed. In twin-propeller boats, two V12 engines can be enough to sit side-by-side, while three V12 engines are sometimes used in high-speed three-propeller configurations. Large, fast cruise ships can have six or more V12 engines, after World War II, the compact, more powerful, and vibration-free turboprop and turbojet engines replaced the V12 in aircraft applications. The first V-type engine was built in 1889 by Daimler, to a design by Wilhelm Maybach, by 1903 V8 engines were being produced for motor boat racing by the Société Antoinette to designs by Léon Levavasseur, building on experience gained with in-line four-cylinder engines. In 1904, the Putney Motor Works completed a new V12 marine racing engine—the first V12 engine produced for any purpose, a single camshaft mounted in the central V operated the valves directly. As in many engines, the camshaft could be slid longitudinally to engage a second set of cams. Starting is by pumping a charge into each cylinder and switching on the trembler coils, a sliding camshaft gave direct reversing. The camshaft has fluted webs and main bearings in graduated thickness from the largest at the flywheel end, displacing 1,120 cu in, the engine weighed 950 pounds and developed 150 bhp. Little is known of the achievements in the 40-foot hull for which it was intended. One V12 Dörwald marine engine was still running in a Hong Kong junk in the late-1960s. Two more V12s appeared in the 1909-1910 motor boat racing season, the Lamb Boat & Engine Company of Clinton, Iowa built a 1,559 cu in engine for the companys 32-foot Lamb IV. It weighed in at 2,114 pounds, no weight is known for the massive 3,464 cu in F-head engine built by the Orleans Motor Company. Output is quoted as nearly 400 bhp, by 1914, when Panhard built two 2,356 cu in engines with four-valve cylinder heads the V12 was well established in motor boat racing. In October 1913, Louis Coatalen, chief engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Car Company entered a V12 powered car in the Brooklands short, the engine displaced 9 L, with bore and stroke of 80 x 150 mm. An aluminum crankcase carried two blocks of three cylinders each along each side, with a 60 degree included angle, the cylinders were of iron, with integral cylinder heads with L-shaped combustion chambers
7.
Knot (unit)
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The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. The ISO Standard symbol for the knot is kn, the same symbol is preferred by the IEEE, kt is also common. The knot is a unit that is accepted for use with the SI. Etymologically, the term derives from counting the number of knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a log in a specific time. 1 international knot =1 nautical mile per hour,1.852 kilometres per hour,0.514 metres per second,1.151 miles per hour,20.254 inches per second,1852 m is the length of the internationally agreed nautical mile. The US adopted the definition in 1954, having previously used the US nautical mile. The UK adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having used the UK Admiralty nautical mile. The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel are measured in knots, for consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground and rate of progress towards a distant point are given in knots. Until the mid-19th century, vessel speed at sea was measured using a chip log, the chip log was cast over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out. Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms -47 feet 3 inches from each other, passed through a sailors fingers, the knot count would be reported and used in the sailing masters dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, the difference from the modern definition is less than 0. 02%. On a chart of the North Atlantic, the scale varies by a factor of two from Florida to Greenland, a single graphic scale, of the sort on many maps, would therefore be useless on such a chart. Recent British Admiralty charts have a latitude scale down the middle to make this even easier, speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as knots per hour, which is in fact a measure of acceleration. Prior to 1969, airworthiness standards for aircraft in the United States Federal Aviation Regulations specified that distances were to be in statute miles. In 1969, these standards were amended to specify that distances were to be in nautical miles. At 11000 m, an airspeed of 300 kn may correspond to a true airspeed of 500 kn in standard conditions. Beaufort scale Hull speed, which deals with theoretical estimates of maximum speed of displacement hulls Knot count Knotted cord Metre per second Orders of magnitude Rope Kemp
8.
Identification friend or foe
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Identification, friend or foe is an identification system designed for command and control. It enables military and national interrogation systems to identify aircraft, vehicles or forces as friendly and to determine their bearing, IFF may be used by both military and civilian aircraft. IFF was first developed during the Second World War, with the arrival of radar, despite the name, IFF can only positively identify friendly targets, not hostile ones. If an IFF interrogation receives no reply or a reply, the object cannot be identified as friendly. There are in addition many reasons that friendly aircraft may not properly reply to IFF, the broadest characterization is that of friend, enemy, neutral, or unknown. CID not only can reduce friendly fire incidents, but also contributes to overall tactical decision-making and this led to incidents such as the battle of Barking Creek, over Britain, and the air attack on the fortress of Koepenick, over Germany. Already before the deployment of their Chain Home radar system, the RAF had considered the problem of IFF, robert Watson-Watt had filed patents on such systems in 1935 and 1936 respectively. By 1938, researchers at Bawdsey Manor began experiments with reflectors consisting of a dipole antennas tuned to resonate at the frequency of the CH radars. When a pulse from the CH transmitter hit the aircraft, the antennas would resonate for a short time, the antenna was connected to a motorized switch that periodically shorted it out, preventing it from producing a signal. This caused the return on the CH set to periodically lengthen and shorten as the antenna was turned on and off. It was suspected this system would be of use in practice. This consisted of a set of tracking stations using HF/DF radio direction finders and their aircraft radios were modified to send out a 1 kHz tone for 14 seconds every minute, allowing the tracking stations ample time to measure the aircrafts bearing. Known as pip-squeak, the system worked but was labour-intensive and did not display its information directly to the radar operators, a system that worked directly with the radar was clearly desirable. The first active IFF transponder was the IFF Mark I and was put into operation in 1939, on receipt of a signal from the CH radar, an oscillator in the system began to ring with the same frequency. This signal was amplified and sent out an omnidirectional monopole antenna, the oscillator circuit rang only for a short time, causing the signal to quickly disappear again. Since the signal was received at the time as the original reflection of the CH signal. Mark I was technically complete as the war began, but a lack of sets meant it was not available in quantity, pip-squeak was kept in operation during this period, but as the Battle ended, IFF Mark I was quickly put into operation. Pip-squeak was still used for areas over land where CH did not cover, the primary problem with the Mark I was that it operated at a single set frequency
United States
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