1.
Cargo aircraft
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A cargo aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger amenities and generally one or more large doors for loading cargo. Freighters may be operated by passenger or cargo airlines, by private individuals or by the armed forces of individual countries. Cargo aircraft represent a small proportion of the air freight market. The majority is carried in special ULD containers in the holds of normal passenger aircraft. Aircraft were put to use carrying cargo in the form of air mail as early as 1911, although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carriers, by the mid-1920s aircraft manufacturers were designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft. The Vickers Vernon, a development of the Vickers Vimy Commercial, in February 1923 this was put to use by the RAFs Iraq Command who flew nearly 500 Sikh troops from Kingarban to Kirkuk in the first ever strategic airlift of troops. The Victorians also helped to pioneer air routes for Imperial Airways Handley Page HP.42 airliners, the World War II German design, the Arado Ar 232 was the first purpose built cargo aircraft. The Ar 232 was intended to supplant the earlier Junkers Ju 52 freighter conversions, most other forces used freighter versions of airliners in the cargo role as well, most notably the C-47 Skytrain version of the Douglas DC-3, which served with practically every Allied nation. This aircraft, like most of its era, used tail-dragger landing gear caused the aircraft to have a decided rearward tilt when landed. A similar rear loading ramp even appeared in a different form on the nosewheel gear-equipped. Postwar Europe also served to play a role in the development of the modern air cargo. To rapidly supply the numbers of aircraft, many older types. In operation it was found that it took as long or longer to unload these older designs as the much larger tricycle landing gear Douglas C-54 Skymaster which was easier to move about in when landed. The C-47s were quickly removed from service, and from then on flat-decks were a requirement of all new cargo designs, in the years following the war era a number of new custom-built cargo aircraft were introduced, often including some experimental features. For instance, the USs C-82 Packet featured a cargo area. Although larger, smaller and faster designs have been proposed for many years and these designs offer the ability to carry the heaviest loads, even main battle tanks, at global ranges. The Boeing 747 was originally designed to the specification as the C-5
2.
Boeing
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The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, and satellites worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support services, Boeing stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Boeing Companys corporate headquarters are located in Chicago and the company is led by President, Boeing is organized into five primary divisions, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Engineering, Operations & Technology, Boeing Capital, and Boeing Shared Services Group. Boeing bought Heaths shipyard in Seattle on the Duwamish River, which became his first airplane factory. Boeing was incorporated in Seattle by William Boeing, on July 15,1916, Boeing was later incorporated in Delaware, the original Certificate of Incorporation was filed with the Secretary of State of Delaware on July 19,1934. Boeing, who studied at Yale University, worked initially in the timber industry and this knowledge proved invaluable in his subsequent design and assembly of airplanes. The company stayed in Seattle to take advantage of the supply of spruce wood. William Boeing founded his company a few months after the June 15 maiden flight of one of the two B&W seaplanes built with the assistance of George Conrad Westervelt, a U. S. Navy engineer. Boeing and Westervelt decided to build the B&W seaplane after having flown in a Curtiss aircraft, Boeing bought a Glenn Martin Flying Birdcage seaplane and was taught to fly by Glenn Martin himself. Boeing soon crashed the Birdcage and when Martin informed Boeing that replacement parts would not become available for months, Westervelt agreed to build a better airplane and soon produced the B&W Seaplane. This first Boeing airplane was assembled in a hangar located on the northeast shore of Seattles Lake Union. Many of Boeings early planes were seaplanes, on April 6,1917, the U. S. declared War on Germany and later in the year entered World War I. On May 9,1917, the became the Boeing Airplane Company. With the U. S. entering the war, Boeing knew that the U. S. Navy needed seaplanes for training, so Boeing shipped two new Model Cs to Pensacola, Florida, where the planes were flown for the Navy. The Navy liked the Model C and ordered 50 more, the company moved its operations to a larger former shipbuilding facility known as Boeing Plant 1, located on the lower Duwamish River, Washington state. Others, including Boeing, started selling other products, Boeing built dressers, counters, and furniture, along with flat-bottom boats called Sea Sleds. In 1919 the Boeing B-1, flying boat made its first flight and it accommodated one pilot and two passengers and some mail. Over the course of eight years, it made international airmail flights from Seattle to Victoria, on May 24,1920, the Boeing Model 8 made its first flight
3.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
4.
Boeing 747
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The Boeing 747 is an American wide-body commercial jet airliner and cargo aircraft, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet. Its distinctive hump upper deck along the part of the aircraft makes it among the worlds most recognizable aircraft. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years, as of January 2017, the 747 has been involved in 60 hull losses, resulting in 3722 fatalities. The four-engine 747 uses a configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions, the 747 was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold, but it exceeded critics expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993. By February 2017,1,528 aircraft had been built, the 747-400, the most common passenger version in service, has a high-subsonic cruise speed of Mach 0. 85–0.855 with an intercontinental range of 7,260 nautical miles. The newest version of the aircraft, the 747-8, is in production, deliveries of the 747-8F freighter version began in October 2011, deliveries of the 747-8I passenger version began in May 2012. In 1963, the United States Air Force started a series of projects on a very large strategic transport aircraft. The payload bay had to be 17 feet wide by 13.5 feet high and 100 feet long with access doors at the front. Featuring only four engines, the design required new engine designs with greatly increased power and better fuel economy. After a downselect, Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed were given study contracts for the airframe, along with General Electric. All three of the airframe proposals shared a number of features, as the CX-HLS needed to be able to be loaded from the front, a door had to be included where the cockpit usually was. In 1965 Lockheeds aircraft design and General Electrics engine design were selected for the new C-5 Galaxy transport, the nose door and raised cockpit concepts would be carried over to the design of the 747. The 747 was conceived while air travel was increasing in the 1960s, the era of commercial jet transportation, led by the enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, had revolutionized long-distance travel. In 1965, Joe Sutter was transferred from Boeings 737 development team to manage the design studies for a new airliner, Sutter initiated a design study with Pan Am and other airlines, to better understand their requirements. At the time, it was thought that the 747 would eventually be superseded by supersonic transport aircraft. Boeing responded by designing the 747 so that it could be adapted easily to carry freight, in the freighter role, the clear need was to support the containerized shipping methodologies that were being widely introduced at about the same time. Standard containers are 8 ft square at the front and available in 20 and 40 ft lengths and this meant that it would be possible to support a 2-wide 2-high stack of containers two or three ranks deep with a fuselage size similar to the earlier CX-HLS project
5.
Space Shuttle orbiter
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The Space Shuttle orbiter was the reusable spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle program. Six orbiters were built for flight, Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, all were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company. The first orbiter, Enterprise, made its flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights, Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack, Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter, and made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis followed in 1983,1984 and 1985 respectively, in 1986, Challenger was destroyed in an accident shortly after launch. Endeavour was built as Challengers replacement, and was first launched in 1992, in 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining orbiters. Discovery completed its flight on March 9,2011. Atlantis completed the last ever Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21,2011, additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters provided additional thrust for approximately the first two minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their RCS thrusters, the vertical stabilizer of the orbiter had a leading edge that was swept back at a 45-degree angle. There were four elevons mounted at the edges of the delta wings. These, along with a movable body flap located underneath the main engines, controlled the orbiter during later stages of descent through the atmosphere, overall, the Space Shuttle orbiter was roughly the same size as a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airliner. This control system carried out the usual attitude control along the pitch, roll, and yaw axes during all of the phases of launching, orbiting. This system also executed any needed orbital maneuvers, including all changes in the altitude, orbital plane. These were all operations that required a lot more power and energy than mere attitude control, the forward rockets of the Reaction Control System, located near the nose of the Space Shuttle orbiter, included 14 primary and two vernier RCS rockets. The aft RCS engines were located in the two Orbital Maneuvering System pods at the rear of the orbiter, and these included 12 primary and two vernier engines in each pod. The RCS also controlled the attitude of the orbiter during most of its re-entry into the Earths atmosphere – until the air became dense enough that the rudder, elevons and body flap became effective. During the early process of the orbiter, the forward RCS thrusters were to be hidden underneath retractable doors
6.
Shuttle Landing Facility
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The Shuttle Landing Facility is an airport located on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida, USA. It is a part of the John F, starting in 2015, Space Florida manages and operates the facility under a 30-year lease from NASA. Private companies have been utilizing the SLF for its properties since 2011. The Shuttle Landing Facility covers 500 acres and has a single runway and it is one of the longest runways in the world, at 4,572 m, and is 91.4 meters wide. Additionally, the SLF has 305 meters of paved overruns at each end, the Mate-Demate Device, for use when the shuttle was transported by the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, was located just off the runway. The runway is designated runway 15, or 33, depending on the direction of use and it uses a grooved design to provide drainage and further increase the coefficient of friction. The original groove design was found to provide too much friction for the rubber used in the Shuttles tires. This issue was resolved by grinding down the pavement, reducing the depth of the grooves significantly, a local nickname for the runway is the gator tanning facility, as some of the 4,000 alligators living at Kennedy Space Center regularly bask in the sun on the runway. The landing facility is managed by contractor EG&G, which air traffic control services, as well as managing potential hazards to landing aircraft. Columbia was the first shuttle to arrive at the SLF via the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on March 24,1979, the runway was first used by a space shuttle on 11 February 1984, when the STS-41-B mission returned to Earth. This also marked the landing of a spacecraft at its launch site. On September 22,1993, Discovery was the first space shuttle to land at night at the SLF, a total of 78 shuttle missions landed at the SLF. The final landing of a space shuttle occurred on July 21,2011 by the Atlantis for STS-135, Discovery and Endeavour took off from the SLF on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for museums in Washington, D. C. and Los Angeles. In 2012, NASAs Johnson Space Centers Project Morpheuss first vehicle arrived at KSC, prior to arrival at KSC and throughout the project, Morpheus vehicle tests were performed at other NASA centers, KSC was the site for advanced testing. Multiple tests, including flight, were performed at the SLF in 2013-2014. Multiple vehicles and iterations of the vehicles were tested, due to upgrades and damages during this experimental test program, during the August 9,2012 test at the SLF, a vehicle exploded, no one was injured. The SLF has also used by commercial users. NASCAR teams have used the facility for vehicle testing
7.
Kennedy Space Center
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The John F. Kennedy Space Center is one of ten National Aeronautics and Space Administration field centers. Since December 1968, Kennedy Space Center has been NASAs primary launch center of human spaceflight, Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the management of the two entities work very closely together, share resources, and even own facilities on each others property. Additionally, the center manages launch of robotic and commercial missions, researches food production and In-Situ Resource Utilization for off Earth exploration. Since 2010, the center has worked to become a multi-user spaceport through industry partnerships, there are about 700 facilities grouped across the centers 144,000 acres. There is also a Visitor Complex open to the public on site, the military had been performing launch operations since 1949 at what would become Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In December 1959, the Department of Defense transferred 5,000 personnel, President John F. Kennedys 1961 goal of a manned lunar landing before 1970 required an expansion of launch operations. On July 1,1962, the Launch Operations Directorate was separated from MSFC to become the Launch Operations Center, therefore, the decision was made to build a new LOC site located adjacent to Cape Canaveral on Merritt Island. NASA began land acquisition in 1962, buying title to 131 square miles, the major buildings in KSCs Industrial Area were designed by architect Charles Luckman. Construction began in November 1962, and Kennedy visited the site twice in 1962, on November 29,1963, the facility was given its current name by President Lyndon B. Johnson under Executive Order 11129. Johnsons order joined both the civilian LOC and the military Cape Canaveral station under the designation John F. Kennedy Space Center, spawning some confusion joining the two in the public mind. Located on Merritt Island, Florida, the center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean and it is 34 miles long and roughly six miles wide, covering 219 square miles. KSC is a major central Florida tourist destination and is one hours drive from the Orlando area. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers public tours of the center, Center workers can encounter bald eagles, American alligators, wild boars, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, the endangered Florida panther and Florida manatees. From 1967 through 1973, there were 13 Saturn V launches, the first of two unmanned flights, Apollo 4 on November 9,1967, was also the first rocket launch from KSC. The Saturn Vs first manned launch on December 21,1968 was Apollo 8s lunar orbiting mission, the next two missions tested the Lunar Module, Apollo 9 and Apollo 10. Apollo 11, launched from Pad A on July 16,1969, Apollo 12 followed four months later. From 1970–1972, the Apollo program concluded at KSC with the launches of missions 13 through 17, on May 14,1973, the last Saturn V launch put the Skylab space station in orbit from Pad 39A
8.
Mate-Demate Device
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A Mate-Demate Device is a specialized crane designed to lift a Space Shuttle orbiter onto and off the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first MDD was located at NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, California 34. 958559°N117. 883818°W /34.958559, construction of the MDD was completed in late 1976. It was first used during operations with the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise during the five Approach. It was then used for post-landing and Shuttle Carrier Aircraft mating operations at NASA Armstrong following shuttle orbital missions that landed at Edwards, fifty-four of the 135 shuttle missions landed at Edwards between STS-1 in 1981 through STS-128 in 2009. All but one of these flights landed at Kennedy Space Center instead and this MDD was used to hoist a Space Shuttle orbiter onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight back to Florida. The MDD was dismantled in 2014 following the retirement of Space Shuttle, the second MDD was located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida 28. 600666°N80. 679262°W /28.600666, -80.679262. Its primary use was unloading the orbiter after its flight from Edwards. The third MDD was built for the planned Space Shuttle operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and this structure was demolished in 2008. On the rare occasions when an orbiter needed to be loaded or unloaded at a location where no MDD was available, prior to its use in 2012 to exchange Discovery and Enterprise, the mobile MDD had been stored for over twenty years. For the Energia-Buran programme there was built similar structures in USSR, named PKU-50, for the time of the Buran first flight they were operated at LII, Baikonur Jubilee airfield and Bezymyanka airport. They were capable of loading Buran or Energia components on top of Myasishchev VM-T and Antonov An-225 aircraft
9.
Gantry crane
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Gantry cranes are a type of crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. Gantry cranes for marine application are imposing, multi-story structures prominent at most container terminals, used to load intermodal containers on and they are also called portal cranes, the portal being the empty space straddled by the gantry. The terms gantry crane and overhead crane are used interchangeably. The usual distinction drawn between the two is that with gantry cranes, the structure is usually wheeled. They operate along two rails spaced based on the size of crane to be used, ship-to-Shore Crane Elements Lateral movement system, A combination of two sets of typically ten rail wheels. The lateral movement is controlled by a cabin along the landside wheel, during any lateral movement, lights and sirens operate to ensure safety of the crew operating adjacent to the crane. The wheels are mounted to the bottom of the vertical frame/bracing system, vertical frame and braces, A structurally designed system of beams assembled to support the boom, cabin, operating machinery, and the cargo being lifted. They display signage describing restrictions, requirements and identifiers, Crane boom, A horizontal beam that runs transversely to the berth. It spans from landside of the rail wheels to a length over the edge of the berth. The waterside span is based on the size of ship that it can successfully load/unload, beams also have the ability to be raised for storage purposes. Hook, Device which moves vertically to raise and lower cargo as well as horizontally along the booms length, for container cranes, a spreader is attached to span the container and lock it safely in place during movement. Operating cabin, Encased setup with glass paneled flooring for operator to view the cargo being moved, elevators which are located along vertical frame members are used to get crew up and down from the cabin. Storage Equipment, For temporary storage options between vessel operations, one pin is inserted into anchorage arm dropped from each wheel set into a stow pin assembly. This setup is designed to prevent lateral movement along the rails, during hurricanes and other emergency shut down situations, tie down assemblies are used. Two angled arms are anchored at each end of set of wheels. This setup prevents longitudinal movement along the rails as well as prevents tipping of the due to uplift from high velocity winds. Ship-to-shore gantry cranes are used in pairs or teams of cranes in order to minimize the time required to load and unload vessels. One example are systems where specialized berths built that accommodate one vessel at a time with ship-to-shore gantry cranes on both sides of the vessel and this allows for more cranes and double the workspace under the cranes to be used for transporting cargo off dock
10.
Space Shuttle Enterprise
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Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17,1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight. Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight to become the second space-rated orbiter in service, similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead. Enterprise was restored and placed on display in 2003 at the Smithsonians new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. The design of Enterprise was not the same as that planned for Columbia, the first flight model, the aft fuselage was constructed differently, instead of a thermal protection system, its surface was primarily covered with simulated tiles made from polyurethane foam. Fiberglass was used for the edge panels in place of the reinforced carbon–carbon ones of spaceflight-worthy orbiters. Only a few sample thermal tiles and some Nomex blankets were real, Enterprise used fuel cells to generate its electrical power, but these were not sufficient to power the orbiter for spaceflight. Enterprise was equipped with Lockheed-manufactured zero-zero ejection seats like those its sister Columbia carried on its first four missions, construction began on Enterprise on June 4,1974. Designated OV-101, it was planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day. Fans of Star Trek asked US President Gerald Ford, through a campaign, to name the orbiter after the television shows fictional starship. White House advisors cited hundreds of thousands of letters from Trekkies—one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country—as a reason for giving the shuttle the name. Although Ford did not publicly mention the campaign, the president said that he was partial to the name Enterprise, in mid-1976 the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models. On September 17,1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwells plant at Palmdale, in recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony. On January 31,1977, Enterprise was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to begin operational testing, while at NASA Dryden Enterprise was used by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for Approach and these tests included a maiden flight on February 18,1977, atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight, the mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the characteristics of the mated combination
11.
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
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The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft originally designed and built by Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force with a heavy strategic airlift capability, one that can carry outsize and oversize loads. The Galaxy has many similarities to its smaller Lockheed C-141 Starlifter predecessor, the C-5 is among the largest military aircraft in the world. The C-5 Galaxys development was complicated, including significant cost overruns, shortly after entering service, cracks in the wings of many aircraft were discovered and the C-5 fleet was restricted in capability until corrective work was completed. The C-5M Super Galaxy is a version with new engines. The USAF has operated the C-5 since 1969, the Galaxy has also been used to distribute humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and supported the US Space Shuttle program. In 1961, several companies began studying heavy jet transport designs that would replace the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster. These studies led to the CX-4 design concept, but in 1962 the proposed design was rejected. By late 1963, the conceptual design was named CX-X. It was equipped with four engines, instead of six engines in the earlier CX-4 concept, the CX-X had a gross weight of 550,000 pounds, a maximum payload of 180,000 lb and a speed of Mach 0.75. The cargo compartment was 17.2 ft wide by 13.5 feet high and 100 ft long with front, to meet the power and range specifications with only four engines required a new engine with dramatically improved fuel efficiency. The criteria were finalized and an official request for proposal was issued in April 1964 for the Heavy Logistics System, in May 1964, proposals for aircraft were received from Boeing, Douglas, General Dynamics, Lockheed, and Martin Marietta. General Electric, Curtiss-Wright, and Pratt & Whitney submitted proposals for the engines, after a downselect, Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed were given one-year study contracts for the airframe, along with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines. All three of the designs shared a number of features, the cockpit was placed well above the cargo area to allow for cargo loading through a nose door. All of the designs had swept wings, as well as front, Lockheeds design featured a T-tail, while the designs by Boeing and Douglas had conventional tails. The Air Force considered Boeings design to be better than that of Lockheed, Lockheed was selected the winner in September 1965, then awarded a contract in December 1965. General Electrics TF39 engine was selected in August 1965 to power the new transport plane, the first C-5A Galaxy was rolled out of the manufacturing plant in Marietta, Georgia, on 2 March 1968. On 30 June 1968, flight testing of the C-5A began with the first flight, flown by Leo Sullivan, flight tests revealed that the aircraft exhibited a higher drag divergence Mach number than predicted by wind tunnel data
12.
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
13.
American Airlines
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American Airlines, Inc. commonly referred to as American, is a major American airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is the worlds largest airline measured by fleet size, revenue, scheduled passenger-kilometres flown. Regional service is operated by independent and subsidiary carriers under the name of American Eagle. American operates out of ten located in Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Chicago-OHare, Philadelphia, Miami, Phoenix, Washington, DC-National, Los Angeles, New York-JFK. American operates its primary base at Tulsa International Airport in addition to the maintenance locations located at its hubs. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is Americans largest passenger carrying hub handling 51.1 million passengers annually with an average of 140,000 passengers daily, the company as of 2015 employs over 113,300 people. Through the airlines parent company, American Airlines Group, it is traded under NASDAQ. American Airlines was started in 1930 via a union of more than eighty small airlines, the two organizations from which American Airlines was originated were Robertson Aircraft Corporation and Colonial Air Transport. The former was first formed in Missouri in 1921, with both being merged in 1929 into holding company The Aviation Corporation and this in turn, was made in 1930 into an operating company and rebranded as American Airways. In 1934, when new laws and attrition of mail contracts forced many airlines to reorganize, the corporation redid its routes into a connected system, between 1970 and 2000, the company grew into being an international carrier, purchasing Trans World Airlines in 2001. In 2011, due to a downturn in the airline industry, in 2013, US Airways and American Airlines merged. Eventually operations were merged under one operating certificate to create the largest United States airline which kept the American Airlines brand name, American Airlines is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The headquarters is located in two buildings in the CentrePort office complex and these buildings together have about 1,400,000 square feet of space. As of 2014 over 4,300 employees work at this complex, before it was headquartered in Texas, American Airlines was headquartered at 633 Third Avenue in the Murray Hill area of Midtown Manhattan, New York City. In 1979 American moved its headquarters to a site at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Mayor of New York City Ed Koch described the move as a betrayal of New York City. American moved to two leased office buildings in Grand Prairie, Texas, the airline began leasing the facility from the airport, which owns the facility. As of 2015 American Airlines is the corporation with the largest presence in Fort Worth, in 2015 the airline announced it will build a new headquarters in Fort Worth. Groundbreaking began in the spring of 2016 and occupancy is scheduled for summer 2019, the airline plans to house 5,000 new workers in the building
14.
Aircraft livery
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An aircraft livery is a set of comprehensive insignia comprising colour, graphic, and typographical identifiers which operators apply to their aircraft. They have provided an arena for the work of distinguished designers and eminent lay people like Raymond Loewy, Alexander Girard, the term is an adaptation of the word livery, the uniform-style clothing worn by servants of wealthy families and government representatives until the early/mid-20th Century. With the advent of stagecoaches, railway trains, and steamships, since the 1950s and 60s, aircraft liveries have usually been uniform livery across an entire fleet. One-off custom-designs might be applied from time to time to individual members to highlight set occasions. Livery application involves multiple layers of specialised paint, with decals and/or stickers used for geometrically challenging elements such as titles, airline liveries involve set individual elements. The airlines title is set in a specific style. This is closely defined by typographical designers as a logotype, the specification covers, typeface, type size, type case, cut, weight, proportion. Size varies according to member, the larger the aircraft. Since type is designed to be read from a flat surface. The specifications result in a logotype, a cliche of type whose characteristics remain unchanged, the airlines monogram or emblem is defined in terms of geometry by graphic designers. The resulting specification is called a logo, logos are also modified to fit curved surfaces and appear identical from diverse viewing angles. The colour or colours are specified in terms of colour matching, the resulting specification is called a colourway. Uniform liveries became genrally adopted by the 1950s and 60s, before then, individual airlines, notably Aeroflot and some US carriers like Delta Air Lines, used custom liveries designed for each individual aircraft type they operated. Aeroflot abandoned the practice as late as 1974, adopting a uniform livery across its fleet, as corrosion and paint research advanced and airliner lives lengthened, airframers began applying advanced primers and treatments to airliners during manufacture. Many airframers insisted on overall corrosion protection remaining in place throughout an airliners service life and this made bare metal liveries problematic, they began giving way to painted exteriors by the mid-1960s. To ensure longevity, bare metal liveries involved intensive polishing and waxing during manufacture, nevertheless, the bare metal era survived into the 21st Century and the advent of plastic composite airliners like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 XWB. The most notable proponent of the bare metal look, American Airlines. Cargo carriers like Cargolux, Flying Tigers, JAL Japan Airlines Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, counterclaims stated that extra maintenance costs cancel this benefit
15.
Armstrong Flight Research Center
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The Armstrong Flight Research Center, located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. It was originally named in honor of Hugh L, first known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit, the DFRC has also been known as the High-Speed Flight Research Station and the High-Speed Flight Station. The facility was renamed, effective March 1,2014, the Armstrong Flight Research Center in honor of Neil Armstrong, similarly the Western Aeronautical Test Range at the facility was renamed the NASA Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range. The facility is NASAs premier site for research and operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world. It was also the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one landed at Edwards, david McBride is currently the centers director. He succeeded Kevin Petersen, who retired in April 2008, until 2004, Armstrong Flight Research Center operated the oldest B-52 Stratofortress bomber, a B-52B model which had been converted to drop test aircraft, dubbed Balls 8. It dropped a number of supersonic test vehicles, ranging from the X-15 to its last research program. The aircraft was retired and is currently on display near the North Gate of Edwards, NASAs predecessor, NACA, operated the Douglas Skyrocket. A successor to the Air Forces Bell X-1, the D-558-II could operate under rocket or jet power and it conducted extensive tests into aircraft stability in the transsonic range, optimal supersonic wing configurations, rocket plume effects, and high-speed flight dynamics. On November 20,1953, the Douglas Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly at twice the speed of sound when it attained a speed of Mach 2.005. Like the X-1, the D-558-II could be air-launched using a B-29 Superfortress, unlike the X-1, the Skyrocket could also takeoff from a runway with the help of JATO units. On December 1,1984, a remotely piloted Boeing 720 aircraft was flown into specially built wing openers which tore the wings open, despite the new fuel additive, the resulting fire ball was huge, the fire still took an hour to fully extinguish. Even though the fuel additive did not prevent a fire, the research was not a complete failure. The additive still prevented the combustion of fuel which flowed over the fuselage of the aircraft. Also, instrumented crash test dummies were in the airplane for the impact, LASRE was a NASA experiment in cooperation with Lockheed Martin to study a reusable launch vehicle design based on a linear aerospike rocket engine. The experiments goal was to provide data to help Lockheed Martin validate the computational predictive tools they developed to design the craft. LASRE was a small, half-span model of a body with eight thrust cells of an aerospike engine. The experiment, mounted on the back of an SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, the interaction of the aerodynamic flow with the engine plume could create drag, design refinements look to minimize that interaction
16.
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
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The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, supersonic interceptor aircraft which later became widely used as an attack aircraft. It was originally developed by Lockheed for the United States Air Force, but became used by US Allies around the world. One of the Century Series of fighter aircraft, it was operated by the air forces of more than a dozen nations from 1958 to 2004. Its design team was led by Kelly Johnson, who went on to lead or contribute to the development of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the F-104 set numerous world records, including both airspeed and altitude records. The poor safety record of the Starfighter also brought the aircraft into the public eye, Fighter ace Erich Hartmann was forced to retire from the Luftwaffe due to his outspoken opposition to selection of the F-104. The ultimate production version of the model was the F-104S, an all-weather interceptor designed by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force. An advanced F-104 with a wing, known as the CL-1200 Lancer, was considered. In 2018 a privately owned Starfighter is scheduled to launch a group of small cubesat satellites into low orbit by carrying the rocket aloft. Clarence Kelly Johnson, the engineer at Lockheeds Skunk Works, visited Korea in December 1951. At the time, the U. S. pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, the pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance. Armed with this information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft on his return to the United States. In March, his team was assembled, they studied several designs, ranging from small designs at 8,000 lb. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs, the small L-246 design powered by a single J79 remained essentially identical to the L-083 Starfighter as eventually delivered. The design was presented to the Air Force in November 1952, although all were interesting, Lockheed had an insurmountable lead, and was granted a development contract in March 1953 for two prototypes, these were given the designation XF-104. Work progressed quickly, with a ready for inspection at the end of April. Meanwhile, the J79 engine was not ready, both prototypes were designed to use the Wright J65 engine, a licensed-built version of the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. The first prototype was completed by early 1954 and first flew on 4 March at Edwards AFB, the total time from contract to first flight was less than a year. When the USAF revealed the existence of the XF-104, they gave a vague description of it
17.
Space Shuttle Columbia
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Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated orbiter in NASAs Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12,1981, construction began on Columbia in 1975 at Rockwell Internationals principal assembly facility in Palmdale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is also named after the Command Module of Apollo 11, Columbia was also the female symbol of the United States. After construction, the arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979. Columbia was originally scheduled to lift off in late 1979, however the date was delayed by problems with both the SSME components, as well as the thermal protection system. On March 19,1981, during preparations for a ground test, workers were asphyxiated while working in Columbias nitrogen-purged aft engine compartment, resulting in two or three fatalities. Columbia spent 610 days in the Orbiter Processing Facility, another 35 days in the Vehicle Assembly Building, Columbia then undertook three further research missions to test its technical characteristics and performance. Its first operational mission, with a crew, was STS-5. At this point Columbia was joined by Challenger, which flew the next three missions, while Columbia underwent modifications for the first Spacelab mission. At that time the fleet was expanded to include Discovery. Columbia returned to space on January 12,1986, with the launch of STS-61-C, the missions crew included Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, as well as the first sitting member of the House of Representatives to venture into space, Bill Nelson. The next shuttle mission, STS-51-L, was undertaken by Challenger and it was launched on January 28,1986, ten days after STS-61-C had landed, and ended in disaster 73 seconds after launch. In the aftermath NASAs shuttle timetable was disrupted, and Columbia was not flown again until 1989, sTS-93, launched on July 23,1999, was the first U. S. space mission with a female commander, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins. This mission deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Columbias final successful mission was STS-109, the fourth servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. Its next mission, STS-107, culminated in the loss when it disintegrated during reentry. Consequently, President Bush decided to retire the Shuttle orbiter fleet by 2010 in favor of the Constellation program, the Constellation program was later cancelled with the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 signed by President Obama on October 11. Due to its weight, Columbia could not have used the planned Centaur-G booster, the retention of the internal airlock allowed NASA to use Columbia for the STS-109 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, along with the Spacehab double module used on STS-107. The upgrade also involved replacing many of the white LRSI tiles on the surfaces with Advanced Flexible Reusable Surface Insulation blankets that had been used on Discovery
18.
Vehicle Assembly Building
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The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center is a building designed to assemble large space vehicles, such as the massive Saturn V and the Space Shuttle. The future Space Launch System will also be assembled there, at 3,664,883 cubic meters it is one of the largest buildings in the world by volume. The building is at Launch Complex 39 at KSC, halfway between Jacksonville and Miami, and due east of Orlando on Merritt Island on the Atlantic coast of Florida. The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world, was the tallest building in Florida until 1974, and is still the tallest building in the United States outside an urban area. The VAB, which was completed in 1966, was built to allow for the vertical assembly of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program. Once assembled, the complete Space Shuttle was moved on the Mobile Launcher Platform, the VAB is 526 feet tall,716 feet long and 518 feet wide. It covers 8 acres, and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet of space, despite this, it has received damage from several hurricanes There are four entries to the bays located inside the building, which are the four largest doors in the world. Each door is 456 feet high, has 7 vertical panels and 4 horizontal panels, the north entry that leads to the transfer aisle was widened by 40 feet to allow entry of the shuttle orbiter. A central slot at the entry allowed for passage of the orbiters vertical stabilizer. To lift the components of the Space Transportation System, the VAB housed five overhead bridge cranes, the building has at least 10,000 tons of air conditioning equipment, including 125 ventilators on the roof supported by four large air handlers to keep moisture under control. Air in the building can be replaced every hour. It is 209 feet high, and 110 feet wide, each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is 9 feet wide. Work began in early 2007 to restore the paint on the immense facility. Special attention was paid to the enormous American flag and NASA meatball insignia, the work repaired visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The flag and logo had been repainted in 1998 for NASAs 40th anniversary. Twenty five additional panels were blown off the east side by the winds from Hurricane Jeanne just three weeks later, earlier in the season, Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost $700,000. Damage caused by hurricanes was still visible in 2007. Some of these panels are punch-outs, designed to detach from the VAB when a pressure differential is created on the outside vs. the inside
19.
Aerial refueling
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The procedure allows the receiving aircraft to remain airborne longer, extending its range or loiter time on station. A series of air refuelings can give range limited only by crew fatigue, alternatively, a shorter take-off roll can be achieved because take-off can be at a lighter weight before refueling once airborne. Aerial refueling has also considered as a means to reduce fuel consumption on long-distance flights greater than 3,000 nautical miles. Potential fuel savings in the range of 35-40% have been estimated for long haul flights, usually, the aircraft providing the fuel is specially designed for the task, although refueling pods can be fitted to existing aircraft designs if the probe-and-drogue system is to be used. There is no known regular civilian in-flight refueling activity, for instance, in the Gulf War and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Iraq War, all coalition air sorties were air-refueled except for a few short-range ground attack sorties in the Kuwait area. The first mid-air refueling, based on the development of Alexander P. de Seversky, as the 1920s progressed, greater numbers of aviation enthusiasts vied to set new aerial long-distance records, using inflight air refueling. One such enthusiast, who would revolutionize aerial refueling was Sir Alan Cobham, member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, and a pioneer of long-distance aviation. During the 1920s, he made long-distance flights to places as far afield as Africa and Australia and this craft was eventually modified by Airspeed to Cobhams specification, for a non-stop flight from London to India, using in-flight refueling to extend the planes flight duration. Meanwhile, in 1929, a group of U. S. Army Air Corps fliers, led by then Major Carl Spaatz, set an endurance record of over 150 hours with the Question Mark over Los Angeles. Aerial refueling remained a dangerous process until 1935 when brothers Fred and Al Key demonstrated a spill-free refueling nozzle. They exceeded the Hunters record by nearly 100 hours in a Curtiss Robin monoplane, the US was mainly concerned about transatlantic flights for faster postal service between Europe and America. In 1931 W. Irving Glover, the assistant postmaster, wrote an extensive article for Popular Mechanics concerning the challenges. In his article he even mentioned the use of Aerial refueling after take off as a possible solution, by 1931 they had demonstrated refueling between two Vickers Virginias, with fuel flow controlled by an automatic valve on the hose which would cut off if contact was lost. Royal Air Force officer Richard Atcherley had observed the dangerous aerial-refueling techniques in use at barnstorming events in the US and determined to create a workable system. In 1934, Cobham sold off the airline Cobham Air Routes Ltd to Olley Air Service, atcherlys system was bought up by Cobhams company, and with some refinement and continuous improvement through the late 30s, it became the first practical refueling system. Sir Alan Cobhams Grappled-line looped-hose air-to-air refueling system borrowed from techniques patented by David Nicolson and John Lord, and was publicly demonstrated for the first time in 1935. In the system the aircraft, at one time an Airspeed Courier, trailed a steel cable which was then grappled by a line shot from the tanker. The line was drawn back into the tanker where the receivers cable was connected to the refueling hose
20.
Boeing E-4
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The Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, with the project name Nightwatch, is a strategic command and control military aircraft operated by the United States Air Force. The E-4 series was modified from the Boeing 747-200B. The E-4 serves as a mobile command post for the National Command Authority, namely the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense. The four E-4Bs are operated by the 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron of the 595th Command and Control Group located at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, an E-4B is denoted a National Airborne Operations Center when in action. Two of the original 747-200 airframes were originally planned to be commercial airliners, the first E-4A was completed at the Boeing plant outside Seattle, Washington in 1973. E-Systems won the contract to install interim equipment in three aircraft, and the first completed E-4A was delivered to Andrews AFB, Maryland in December 1974. The next two were delivered in 1975, the third differed by being powered by the GE F103 engine, the A model effectively housed the same equipment as the EC-135, but offered more space and an ability to remain aloft longer than an EC-135. In November 1973 it was reported that the program cost was estimated to total $548 million for seven 747s, six as operational command posts and one for research and development. In December 1973 a fourth aircraft was ordered, it was fitted with advanced equipment. This contains the aircrafts SHF satellite antenna, by January 1985 all three E-4As had been retrofitted to E-4B models. The E-4B offered a vast increase in capability over the previous model and was considered to be hardened against the effects of electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast. Hardening the aircraft meant that all equipment and wiring on board was shielded from EMP, the E-4B fleet has an estimated roll-out cost of approximately US$250 million each. In 2005 the Air Force awarded Boeing a five-year, US$2 billion contract for the upgrade of the E-4B fleet. In addition to the purchase and upgrade costs, the E-4 costs nearly $160,000 per hour for the Air Force to operate, the E-4B is designed to survive an EMP with systems intact and has state-of-the-art direct fire countermeasures. Although many older aircraft have been upgraded with glass cockpits, the E-4B still uses traditional analog flight instruments, the E-4B is capable of operating with a crew up to 112 people including flight and mission personnel, the largest crew of any aircraft in US Air Force history. With in-flight aerial refueling it is capable of remaining airborne for a considerable period, limited only by consumption of the engines lubricants. In a test flight for endurance, the aircraft remained airborne and fully operational for 35.4 hours and it takes two fully loaded KC-135 tankers to fully refuel an E-4B. The E-4B has three decks, upper, middle, and lower
21.
History of the Iranian Air Force
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The history of the Iranian Air Force can be divided into two phases — before the Islamic Revolution, and after it. The Imperial Iranian Air Force was a branch of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces and was established by Reza Shah and it became operational with its first fully trained pilots on February 25,1925. Irans first attempt to procure aircraft from the United States in the 1920s failed due to Washingtons refusal to supply equipment because of a World War I treaty, until World War II, the IIAFs aircraft inventory consisted entirely of European aircraft, mainly British and German. A few Iranian planes did manage to get airborne during the invasion, a roughly 1946 order of battle for the Air Force can be found in Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War II. Two regiments were reported to be based near Tehran. After World War II, the IIAF began to rebuild its inventory, with aircraft mainly supplied by the United States. A national, aerobatic team was formed in 1958. Called Golden Crown, and a part of the IIAF, this lasted until 1978, in the 1960s, the IIAF acquired 90 Canadair Sabre fighters from the RCAF, but they were flipped over to the Pakistan Air Force. In the 1960s and 1970s, the air force was used as part of a joint, aerial espionage programme of Iran and this was in two parts, known as Project Dark Gene and Project Ibex. The IIAF deployed aircraft to Oman in the 1970s, when Iran provided military assistance to that country, during this conflict, one Iranian F-4 Phantom II was shot down by rebels. In 1976, the Imperial Iranian Air Force responded to a UFO incident over the Iranian capital, later in the 1970s, the IIAF became the only military force other than the United States Navy to be equipped with the F-14 Tomcat. Consequently, it became the only other operator of the AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile. Some were brought back into service, due to localised production of reverse-engineered, Iranian-made, spare parts, during this era, the United States instituted the Spellout, Peace Ruby and Peace Net programmes to improve/upgrade, the air-defence system of Iran. As well as air defence radars, the network was linked using microwave LOS and troposcatter communications networks. The IIAF had also placed an order for over 150 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft in 1976 and these aircraft would go on to serve in the Israeli Air Force. The overthrow of the Shah in the Islamic Revolution of February 1979, was followed by changes to the organization of the Iranian military, the air force was renamed the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, and largely inherited the equipment and structure of the former IIAF. Due to strained relations with the west, Iran had to procure new equipment from Brazil, the Soviet Union/Russia and its other personnel were also decimated by the purges, with many pilots removed or leaving the air force. This left the air force ill-prepared for the Iran–Iraq War, intense Iranian activity inside Iraqi air space during the first week of the war managed to prove so successful that it eventually forced the Iraqi Air Force onto the defensive
22.
Space Shuttle Challenger
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Space Shuttle Challenger was the second orbiter of NASAs space shuttle program to be put into service following Columbia. The shuttle was built by Rockwell Internationals Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey and its maiden flight, STS-6, started on April 4,1983. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight, the other being Columbia in 2003, the accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet, flights resumed in 1988 with STS-26 flown by Discovery. Challenger itself was replaced by Endeavour which was built using structural spares ordered by NASA as part of the contracts for Discovery. The Apollo 17 lunar module that landed on the Moon in 1972 was also named Challenger. Because of the low volume of orbiters, the Space Shuttle program decided to build a vehicle as a Structural Test Article, STA-099. The contract for STA-099 was awarded to North American Rockwell on July 26,1972, after STA-099s rollout, it was sent to a Lockheed test site in Palmdale, where it spent over 11 months in vibration tests designed to simulate entire shuttle flights, from launch to landing. In order to prevent damage during structural testing, qualification tests were performed to a factor of safety of 1.2 times the limit loads. The qualification tests were used to validate computational models, and compliance with the required 1.4 factor of safety was shown by analysis. STA-099 was essentially a complete airframe of a Space Shuttle orbiter, with only a crew module installed. Modifying her for flight article status would have far too difficult, expensive. Since STA-099 was not as far along in the construction of its airframe, because STA-099s qualification testing prevented damage, NASA found that rebuilding STA-099 as OV-099 would be less expensive than refitting Enterprise. Work on converting STA-099 into Challenger began in January 1979, starting with just the crew module as the rest of the orbiter was used by Lockheed. STA-099 returned to the Rockwell plant in November 1979, and the original unfinished crew module was replaced with the newly constructed model. Major portions of STA-099, including the bay doors, body flap, wings and vertical stabilizer. By early 1981, most of these components had returned to Palmdale and were reinstalled on the orbiter, work continued on the conversion until July 1982. Challenger had fewer tiles in its Thermal Protection System than Columbia, most of the tiles on the payload bay doors, upper wing surfaces, and rear fuselage surfaces were replaced with DuPont white Nomex felt insulation. These modifications as well as a lighter structure allowed Challenger to carry 2,500 lb more payload than Columbia
23.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay
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Happy Valley-Goose Bay is a Canadian town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Located in the part of Labrador on the coast of Lake Melville. Incorporated in 1973, it comprises the town of Happy Valley. Built on a sandy plateau in 1941, the town is home to the largest military air base in northeastern North America. Docking facilities for transportation of goods and personnel were built at Terrington Basin, Goose Air Base became a landing and refuelling stop for the Atlantic Ferry route. Soon after the site was selected, men from the coast of Labrador began working on the base, with World War II in bloom, it took only five months to build an operational military airport on the leased territory. The first settlers to the area came from coastal Labrador to work with McNamara Construction Company and their first choice was Otter Creek, where they were told that it would have been too close to the base. A new location was based upon the requirement to be at least five miles from the base. In 1942, a new site was chosen that was first called Refugee Cove, the first three families to arrive to work at the construction of the base were the Saunders from Davis Inlet, the Broomfields from Big Bay, and the Perraults from Makkovik. Happy Valleys first school was operated by a Mrs. Perrault from her home until 1946, the old one-room school was bought by Bella and Clarence Brown in the early 1962 and turned into a family residence. In 1949, the Air Force donated a building which became the North Star School. Mrs. Perrault became Happy Valleys first librarian also, Bella Brown took over as Happy Valleys librarian when the North Star Schools second building was donated as the new library. The Grenfell Mission operated the first medical facilities when it opened a station in 1951. In 1963, the government built Paddon Memorial Hospital. Happy Valley-Goose Bay lies at the southwest end of Lake Melville near the mouth of the Churchill River, the town is located on the southern shore of a peninsula created by Terrington Basin to the north and Goose Bay at the south. Happy Valley-Goose Bay displays a borderline subarctic climate/humid continental climate, marked by significant snowfall in the winter, summer highs, on the other hand, average 20 °C. The average high temperature stays below freezing for five months of the year, snowfall averages nearly 460 centimetres per year, and occurs in all months except July and August. Precipitation, at nearly 950 millimetres, is significant year-round and is heavy for the citys latitude and it lies between the subarctic and the humid continental regime
24.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
25.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
26.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
27.
Paris Air Show
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The Paris Air Show claims to be the worlds calendar-oldest air show. Established in 1909, it is held every odd year at Le Bourget Airport in north Paris. The 2015 Paris Air Show, from 15–21 June 2015, became the 51st, the format is similar to the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain and the ILA Berlin Air Show, both of which are staged in alternate years to the Paris show. The Paris event starts with four days closed to the general public. The Paris Air Show is organised by the French aerospace industrys primary representative body, according to GIFAS, the 2011 Paris show attracted 151,500 professional visitors and 204,000 members of the general public, and 3,250 journalists from 80 countries. It is a commercial event, with a major purpose being to demonstrate military. It claims to be the most prestigious aircraft exposition in the world, major aircraft sales contracts are announced by manufacturers during the show. All major international manufacturers, as well as representatives of the forces of many countries. The Paris Air Show traces its history back to the first decade of the 20th century, in 1908 a section of the Paris Motor Show was dedicated to aircraft. The following year, an air show was held at the Grand Palais from 25 September to 17 October, during which 100,000 visitors turned out to see products. There were four further shows before the First World War, the show restarted in 1919, and from 1924 it was held every two years before being interrupted again by the Second World War. It restarted again in 1946 and since 1949, has held in every odd year. The air show continued to be held at the Grand Palais, in 1953, the show was relocated from the Grand Palais to Le Bourget. Since the 1970s, the show emerged as the international reference of the aeronautical sector. Among major accidents, there were two crashes of Convair B-58 Hustler bombers, in 1961 and 1965, at the Paris Air Show on June 3,1973, the second Tupolev Tu-144 production aircraft crashed during its display. It stalled while attempting a rapid climb, the cause of this accident remains controversial. A Mikoyan MiG-29 crashed during a flight with no loss of life. The then Soviet space shuttle Buran and its aircraft the Antonov An-225 were displayed
28.
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
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The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11,39 EST. Disintegration of the vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. The O-ring was not designed to fly under unusually cold conditions as in this launch and this led to the separation of the right-hand SRBs aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces broke up the orbiter, the crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. The exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown, the shuttle had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable. The Rogers Commission found NASAs organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident, NASA managers had known since 1977 that contractor Morton Thiokols design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings, but they had failed to address this problem properly. Approximately 17 percent of Americans witnessed the launch live because of the presence of Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, media coverage of the accident was extensive, one study reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a study in many discussions of engineering safety. Each of the Space Shuttles two Solid Rocket Boosters was constructed of seven sections, six of which were joined in pairs at the factory. For each flight, the four resulting segments were then assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, the factory joints were sealed with asbestos-silica insulation applied over the joint, while each field joint was sealed with two rubber O-rings. During the Space Shuttle design process, a McDonnell Douglas report in September 1971 discussed the safety record of solid rockets, while a safe abort was possible after most types of failures, one was especially dangerous, a burnthrough by hot gases of the rockets casing. The report stated that if burnthrough occurs adjacent to tank or orbiter, timely sensing may not be feasible and abort not possible, Morton Thiokol was the contractor responsible for the construction and maintenance of the shuttles SRBs. This phenomenon, known as joint rotation, caused a drop in air pressure. This made it possible for combustion gases to erode the O-rings, in the event of widespread erosion, a flame path could develop, causing the joint to burst—which would have destroyed the booster and the shuttle. Evidence of serious O-ring erosion was present as early as the space shuttle mission, STS-2. Contrary to NASA regulations, the Marshall Center did not report this problem to senior management at NASA, by 1985, Marshall and Thiokol realized that they had a potentially catastrophic problem on their hands. They began the process of redesigning the joint with three inches of steel around the tang. This tang would grip the inner face of the joint and prevent it from rotating and they did not call for a halt to shuttle flights until the joints could be redesigned, but rather treated the problem as an acceptable flight risk
29.
Japan Airlines
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Japan Airlines Co. Ltd. is the flag carrier airline of Japan and the second largest in the country behind All Nippon Airways. JAL group operations include scheduled and non-scheduled international and domestic passenger and cargo services to 220 destinations in 35 countries worldwide, the group has a fleet of 279 aircraft. In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2009, the group carried over 52 million passengers and over 1.1 million tons of cargo. Japan Airlines, J-Air, JAL Express, and Japan Transocean Air are members of the Oneworld airline alliance, JAL was established in 1951 and became the national airline of Japan in 1953. After over three decades of service and expansion, the airline was privatised in 1987. In 2002, the merged with Japan Air System, Japans third-largest airline. Japan Airlines is currently a sponsor of Japan Football Association, Japan national football team, Shimizu S-Pulse. All Nippon Airways, the largest airline in Japan, is JALs main competitor, the airline was founded with an initial capital of ¥100 million, and its headquarters located in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo. Between 27 and 29 August, the airline operated flights on a Douglas DC-3 Kinsei. On 25 October, Japans first post-war domestic airline service was inaugurated, using a Martin 2-0-2 aircraft, named Mokusei, by 1953 the JAL network extended northward from Tokyo to Sapporo and Misawa, and westward to Nagoya, Osaka, Iwakuni and Fukuoka. On 2 February 1954 the airline began flights, carrying 18 passengers from Tokyo to San Francisco on a Douglas DC-6B City of Tokyo via Wake Island. The flights between Tokyo and San Francisco are still Flights 1 and 2, to commemorate its first international service, the early flights were advertised as being operated by American crews and serviced by United Air Lines in San Francisco. The airline, in addition to the Douglas DC-3, Douglas DC-6B and Martin 2-0-2s, operated Douglas DC-4, JAL flew to Hong Kong via Okinawa by 1955, having pared down its domestic network to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo. By 1958 the Hong Kong route had extended to Bangkok. With DC-7Cs JAL was able to fly nonstop between Seattle and Tokyo in 1959, in 1960 the airline took delivery of its first jet, a Douglas DC-8 named Fuji, introducing jet service on the Tokyo-Honolulu-San Francisco route. JAL went on to operate a fleet of 51 DC-8s, retiring the last of the type in 1987, JAL also began flying to Seattle and Hong Kong in 1960. At the end of 1961 JAL had transpolar flights from Tokyo to Seattle, Copenhagen, London and Paris via Anchorage, Alaska and to Los Angeles and San Francisco via Honolulu, during the 1960s JAL flew to many new cities including Moscow, New York and Pusan. DC-8 flights to Europe via Anchorage started in 1961, flights to Europe via India started in 1962, by 1965 Japan Air Lines was headquartered in the Tokyo Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo
30.
Space Shuttle Endeavour
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Space Shuttle Endeavour is a retired orbiter from NASAs Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission, STS-134, STS-134 was expected to be the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but with the authorization of STS-135, Atlantis became the last shuttle to fly. The United States Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace Challenger, structural spares built during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis were used in its assembly. NASA chose, on cost grounds, to build Endeavour from spares rather than refitting Enterprise or accepting a Rockwell International proposal to build two shuttles for the price of one. The orbiter is named after the British HMS Endeavour, the ship which took Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery and this is why the name is spelled in the British English manner, rather than the American English. This has caused confusion, including when NASA itself misspelled a sign on the pad in 2007. The Space Shuttle carried a piece of the wood from Cook’s ship inside the cockpit. The name also honored Endeavour, the Command Module of Apollo 15, Endeavour was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools. Entries included an essay about the name, the story behind it and why it was appropriate for a NASA shuttle, Endeavour was the most popular entry, accounting for almost one-third of the state-level winners. The national winners were Senatobia Middle School in Senatobia, Mississippi, in the division and Tallulah Falls School in Tallulah Falls, Georgia. They were honored at ceremonies in Washington, D. C. including a White House ceremony where then-President George H. W. Bush presented awards to each school. Endeavour was delivered by Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division in May 1991 and first launched a year later, in May 1992, Rockwell International claimed that it had made no profit on Space Shuttle Endeavour, despite construction costing US$2.2 billion. On its first mission, it captured and redeployed the stranded INTELSAT VI communications satellite, the first African-American woman astronaut, Mae Jemison, was brought into space on the mission STS-47 on September 12,1992. Endeavour flew the first servicing mission STS-61 for the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, in 1997 it was withdrawn from service for eight months for a retrofit, including installation of a new airlock. In December 1998, it delivered the Unity Module to the International Space Station, Endeavours last Orbiter Major Modification period began in December 2003 and ended on October 6,2005. Morgan was the backup for Christa McAuliffe who was on the ill-fated mission STS-51-L in 1986, as it was constructed later, Endeavour was built with new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities. Most of this equipment was incorporated into the other three orbiters during out-of-service major inspection and modification programs. Endeavour’s upgrades include, A 40-foot diameter drag chute that reduced the orbiters rollout distance by 1,000 to 2,000 feet, the plumbing and electrical connections needed for Extended Duration Orbiter modifications to allow up to a 28-day mission
31.
Palmdale, California
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Palmdale is a city in the center of northern Los Angeles County in the U. S. state of California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the City of Los Angeles, on August 24,1962, Palmdale became the first community in the Antelope Valley to incorporate. 47 years later, in November 2009, voters approved making it a charter city and its population was 152,750 at the 2010 census, up from 116,670 at the 2000 census. Palmdale is the 33rd most populous city in California, in 2013, the Palmdale / Lancaster urban area had an estimated population of 513,547. According to area folklore, the travelers had been told they would know they were close to the ocean when they saw palm trees, never actually having seen palm trees before, they mistook the local Joshua trees for palms and so named their settlement after them. According to David L. Durham Joshua trees were sometimes called yucca palms at the time, the village was officially established upon the arrival of a post office on June 17,1888. By the 1890s farming families continued to migrate to Palmenthal and nearby Harold to grow grain, however, most of these settlers were unfamiliar with farming in a desert climate, so when the drought years occurred, most abandoned their settlement. By 1899, only one family was left in the original village, the rest of the settlers, including the post office, moved closer to the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. This new community was renamed Palmdale and was located where the present day civic center is, a railroad station was built along the tracks there. This railroad was operated by Southern Pacific and traveled between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Wells Fargo stagecoach line that ran between San Francisco and New Orleans stopped there as well. During this period, crops of apples, pears and alfalfa became plentiful, in 1915, Palmdales first newspaper, the Palmdale Post, was published. Today it is called the Antelope Valley Press, in 1921, the first major link between Palmdale and Los Angeles was completed, Mint Canyon/Lancaster Road, later designated U. S. Route 6. Completion of this caused the local agricultural industry to flourish and was the first major step towards defining the metropolis that exists today. Presently this road is known as Sierra Highway, in 1924, the Little Rock Dam and the Harold Reservoir, present day Lake Palmdale, were constructed to assist the agricultural industry and have enough water to serve the growing communities. Agriculture continued to be the foremost industry for Palmdale and its northern neighbor Lancaster until the outbreak of World War II, in 1933, the United States government established Muroc Air Base six miles north of Lancaster in Kern County, now known as Edwards Air Force Base. They also bought Palmdale Airport in 1952 and established an aerospace development, one year later, in 1953, Lockheed established a facility at the airport. After this point in time, the industry took over as the primary local source of employment. Today the city is referred to as the Aerospace Capital of America because of its rich heritage in being the home of many of the aircraft used in the United States military
32.
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
33.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
34.
Space Shuttle abort modes
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Space Shuttle abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of the NASA Space Shuttle could be terminated. A pad abort occurred after ignition of the main engines. Crew bailout was possible in some situations where the orbiter could not land on a runway. The three Space Shuttle main engines were ignited roughly 6.6 seconds before liftoff, and computers monitored their performance as they built up thrust. If an anomaly was detected, the engines would be shut down automatically and this was called a redundant set launch sequencer abort, and happened five times, STS-41-D, STS-51-F, STS-51, STS-55, and STS-68. Once the shuttles SRBs were ignited, the vehicle was committed to liftoff, if an event requiring an abort happened after SRB ignition, it was not possible to begin the abort until after SRB burnout and separation about two minutes after launch. There were five abort modes available during ascent, divided into the categories of intact aborts, the choice of abort mode depended on how urgent the situation was, and what emergency landing site could be reached. Other possible non-engine failures necessitating an abort included an auxiliary power unit failure, a cabin leak. There were four intact abort modes for the Space Shuttle, intact aborts were designed to provide a safe return of the orbiter to a planned landing site or to a lower orbit than planned for the mission. Return to launch site was the first abort mode available and could be selected just after SRB jettison, the Shuttle would continue downrange to burn excess propellant, as well as pitch up to maintain vertical speed in aborts with an SSME failure. After burning sufficient propellant, the vehicle would be pitched all the way around, additionally, the Shuttles OMS and reaction control system motors would continuously thrust to burn off excess OMS propellant to reduce landing weight and adjust the orbiters center of gravity. The SSMEs would cut off, and the tank would be jettisoned, once the orbiter cleared the tank, it would make a normal gliding landing about 25 minutes after lift-off. If a second SSME failed at any point during PPA, the Shuttle would not be able to make it back to the runway at KSC, a failure of a third engine during PPA would lead to loss of control and subsequent loss of crew and vehicle. Failure of all three engines as horizontal velocity approached zero or just before external tank jettison would also result in LOCV and this abort mode was never needed in the history of the shuttle program. Astronaut Mike Mullane referred to the RTLS abort as an act of physics. A transoceanic abort landing involved landing at a location in Africa or western Europe about 25 to 30 minutes after lift-off. It was to be used when velocity, altitude, and distance downrange did not allow return to the point by RTLS. It was also to be used when a less time-critical failure did not require the faster, a TAL abort would have been declared between roughly T+2,30 and main engine cutoff, about T+8,30
35.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
36.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
37.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
38.
Boeing Phantom Ray
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The Boeing Phantom Ray is an American demonstration stealth unmanned combat air vehicle being developed by Boeing using company funds. The autonomous Phantom Ray is a wing around the size of a conventional fighter jet. It will conduct a program of test flights involving surveillance, ground attack, the developers say it can carry 4,500 pounds of payload. The Phantom Ray project, called Project Reblue internally at Boeing, was first conceived in mid-2007, the project was secret within the company, except for a small number of executives and engineers, until May 2009. The Phantom Ray was unveiled on May 10,2010, in St. Louis, in November 2010, low-speed taxi tests were carried out in St. Louis. Boeing anticipates that the Phantom Ray will be the first of a series of new prototype aircraft, the Phantom Ray flew to 7,500 feet and reached a speed of 178 knots, flying for a total of 17 minutes. Values for the X-45 are marked with an asterisk
39.
Unmanned combat aerial vehicle
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An unmanned combat aerial vehicle, also known as a combat drone or simply a drone, is an unmanned aerial vehicle that usually carries aircraft ordnance such as missiles. Aircraft of this type have no human pilot. These drones are usually under real-time human control, with varying levels of autonomy and they are used in drone strikes. Equipment necessary for a pilot are not needed, as the operator runs the vehicle from a remote terminal, resulting in a lower weight. One of the earliest explorations of the concept of the drone was by Lee De Forest, an early inventor of radio devices, and U. A. Sanabria. They presented their idea in an article in a 1940 publication of Popular Mechanics, the modern military drone as known today was the brainchild of John Stuart Foster Jr. a nuclear physicist and former head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 1971, Foster was a model airplane hobbyist and had the idea this hobby could be applied to building weapons and he drew up plans and by 1973 DARPA built two prototypes called Praeire and Calere. They were powered by a modified engine and could stay aloft for two hours while carrying 28-pounds of load. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel used unarmed U. S. Ryan Firebee target drones to spur Egypt into firing its entire arsenal of anti-aircraft missiles and this mission was accomplished with no injuries to Israeli pilots, who soon exploited the depleted Egyptian defenses. In the late 1970s and 80s, Israel developed the Scout and the Pioneer, Israel pioneered the use of Unmanned aerial vehicles for real-time surveillance, electronic warfare, and decoys. In the late 1980s, Iran deployed a drone armed with six RPG-7 rounds in the Iran–Iraq War, impressed by Israels success, the US quickly acquired a number of UAVs, and its Hunter and Pioneer systems are direct derivatives of Israeli models. The first UAV war was the first Gulf War, according to a May 1991 Department of the Navy report, after the Gulf War successfully demonstrated their utility, global militaries invested widely in the domestic development of combat UAVs. The first kill by an American UAV was on October 7,2001 in Kandahar, in recent years the U. S. has increased its use of drone strikes against targets in foreign countries and elsewhere as part of the War on Terror. In January 2014, it was estimated that 2,400 people have died from U. S. drone strikes in five years, in June 2015 the total death toll of U. S. drone strikes was estimated to exceed 6,000. Note, Some of these are not aircraft prototypes but technology demonstrators that are not expected to enter service, various Chinese UCAV concepts have also materialized. WZ-2000, UCAV versions of the Xianglong high altitude are long endurance UAV, Taranis is a British demonstrator programme for unmanned combat air vehicle technology. It is part of the UKs Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicle programme, the Taranis demonstrator will have an MTOW of about 8000 kilograms and be of comparable size to the BAE Hawk – making it one of the worlds largest UAVs. It will be stealthy, fast, and able to deploy a range of munitions over a number of targets, as well as being capable of defending itself against manned, the first steel was cut in September 2007 and ground testing started in early 2009
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Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
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It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay. A substantial addition to the center encompassing restoration, conservation and collection-storage facilities was completed in 2010, restoration facilities and museum archives were moved from the museums Garber facility to the new sections of the Udvar-Hazy Center. Designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, who designed the National Air and Space Museum building. The exhibition areas comprise two large hangars, the 293, 707-square-foot Boeing Aviation Hangar and the 53, 067-square-foot James S, the Donald D. Engen Observation Tower provides a view of landing operations at adjacent Washington Dulles International Airport. The museum also contains an IMAX theater, a taxiway connects the museum to the airport. Phase Two of the Udvar-Hazy Center will be dedicated to the care of the Smithsonians collection of aircraft, spacecraft, related artifacts. On December 2,2008, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center received a gift of $6 million for two from Airbus Americas Inc. — the largest corporate gift to the Smithsonian Institution in 2008. The Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory — will provide conservators much-needed space to develop, Collections processing unit — a dedicated loading dock and specially designed secure area for initial inspection and analysis of artifacts. The center finished construction and opened on December 15,2003, the current list is maintained at the Objects On Display page of the Smithsonian Institution NASM Collections site. A number of events are held at the museum throughout the year and these include lectures, book signings, sleepovers, and events for children. Some of the larger events include Air & Scare for Halloween, an open house. The center made its first media appearance in the 2009 film Transformers, the center remained open while filming took place, although certain areas were closed. The SR-71 that is on display in the museum was used as Jetfire, in the film, it is referred to simply as the National Air and Space Museum. List of aerospace museums Official website
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Smithsonian Institution
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The Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, is a group of museums and research centers administered by the Government of the United States. Originally organized as the United States National Museum, that ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Additional facilities are located in Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York City, Texas, Virginia, more than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and Panama are Smithsonian Affiliates. The Institutions thirty million annual visitors are admitted without charge and its annual budget is around $1.2 billion with 2/3 coming from annual federal appropriations. Other funding comes from the Institutions endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, and earned retail, concession, Institution publications include Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines. The British scientist James Smithson left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hungerford, Congress officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation, and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust on July 1,1836. The American diplomat Richard Rush was dispatched to England by President Andrew Jackson to collect the bequest, Rush returned in August 1838 with 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns. Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithsons rather vague mandate for the increase, unfortunately, the money was invested by the US Treasury in bonds issued by the state of Arkansas which soon defaulted. The United States Exploring Expedition by the U. S. Navy circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842, in 1846, the regents developed a plan for weather observation, in 1847, money was appropriated for meteorological research. The Institution became a magnet for young scientists from 1857 to 1866, the Smithsonian played a critical role as the U. S. partner institution in early bilateral scientific exchanges with the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. The Smithsonian Institution Building began construction in 1849, designed by architect James Renwick Jr. its interiors were completed by general contract Gilbert Cameron and the building opened in 1855. The Smithsonians first expansion came with construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881, Congress had promised to build a new structure for the museum if the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition generated enough income. It did, and the building was designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonians Department of Living Animals and this structure was designed by the D. C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall. More than 40 years would pass before the museum, the Museum of History. It was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White. That same year, the Smithsonian signed an agreement to take over the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum opened in the Old Patent Office Building on October 7,1968. The first new building to open since the National Museum of Natural History was the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
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National Air and Space Museum
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The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the NASM, is a museum in Washington, D. C. It holds the largest collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1946 as the National Air Museum and opened its building on the National Mall near LEnfant Plaza in 1976. In 2014, the museum saw approximately 6.7 million visitors, the museum contains the Apollo 11 module, the Friendship 7 capsule which was flown by John Glenn, the Bell X-1 which broke the sound barrier, and the Wright brothers plane near the entrance. The National Air and Space Museum is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight, as well as science and terrestrial geology. Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or the original backup craft and it operates an annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles International Airport, which opened in 2003 and itself encompasses 760,000 square feet. The museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. St, the mass of the museum is similar to the National Gallery of Art across the National Mall, and uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery. Built by Gilbane Building Company, the museum was completed in 1976, the west glass wall of the building is used for the installation of airplanes, functioning as a giant door. The Air and Space Museum was originally called the National Air Museum when formed on August 12,1946 by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. The String fellow steam engine intended for aircraft was added to the collection in 1889, some pieces were on display in the Arts and Industries Building, some were stored in the Aircraft Building, a large temporary metal shed in the Smithsonian Castles south yard. Larger missiles and rockets were displayed outdoors in what was known as Rocket Row, the shed housed a large Martin bomber, a LePere fighter-bomber, and an Aeromarine 39B floatplane. Still, much of the collection remained in storage due to a lack of display space, the current Garber Facility was ceded to the Smithsonian by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1952 after the curator Paul E. Garber spotted the wooded area from the air. Bulldozers from Fort Belvoir and prefabricated buildings from the United States Navy kept the initial costs low, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened in 2003, funded by a private donation. The museum also holds the mirror for the Hubble which. The Smithsonian has also promised the International Cometary Explorer, which is currently in a solar orbit that occasionally brings it back to Earth. The Air and Space Museum announced a renovation of its main entrance hall. The renovation to the hall was funded by a $30 million donation from Boeing. The gift, which will be paid over seven years, is the largest corporate donation ever received by the Air, Boeing had previously given donations totaling $58 million
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Chantilly, Virginia
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Chantilly is a census-designated place in western Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 23,039 at the 2010 census, Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the name of an 18th-century plantation that was located in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The name Chantilly originated in France with the Château de Chantilly, located in the Northern Virginia portion of the Washington metropolitan area, Chantilly sits approximately 25 miles west of Washington, D. C. via Interstate 66 and U. S. Route 50. It is located between Centreville to the south, Herndon and Reston to the north and northeast, respectively, Chantilly was home to a number of colonial plantations in the 1700s, including the Sully Plantation built by Richard Bland Lee I. Other plantations included George Richard Lee Turbervilles Leeton Grove, the John Hutchison Farm, Cornelia Lee Turberville Stuart, who was born at Leeton and was the daughter of George Richard Lee Turberville and Henrietta Lee, inherited a portion of Leeton in 1817 from her father. During the Civil War, federal troops destroyed by fire the Chantilly Plantation manor house, one building remains, a stone house across Route 50 from the Greenbriar Shopping Center. After the war, Cornelia Stuart, who had become deeply in debt, sold her 1, the advertisement for the sale referenced several tenements, one of which was the Stone House. The village grew during the 19th century, particularly following the construction of the Little River Turnpike to Winchester, during the American Civil War on September 1,1862, the Battle of Chantilly was fought nearby. Reaching the Little River Turnpike northwest of Centreville, Jackson turned southeastward toward Fairfax Court House to strike in rear of Popes army, during September 1, Pope, apprised of Jacksons movement, began to withdraw toward Fairfax Court House. Late in the day, Jackson clashed with Union forces under Brigadier General Isaac Stevens and Major General Philip Kearny near Ox Hill, during the ensuing battle, which was fought amid a raging storm, both Union generals Stevens and Kearny were killed. The fighting ended at dusk, and Popes army continued its withdrawal to Fairfax, although commercial and residential development now covers most of the Chantilly battlefield, a small county park preserves a 5-acre portion of the battle site. Chantilly is located in western Fairfax County at 38°53′39″N 77°25′52″W, to the southwest is Schneider Crossroads, not part of any census-designated area. The present center of Chantilly is located around the intersection of U. S. Route 50 and Virginia Route 28. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 12.2 square miles, of which 12.0 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 23,039 people,7,218 households, the population density was 1,916.7 people per square mile. There were 7,403 housing units at a density of 615. 9/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 57. 6% White,6. 5% African American,0. 3% Native American,25. 2% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,6. 1% some other race, and 4. 3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15. 9% of the population,13. 0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2. 4% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
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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
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Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base
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The host wing for the installation is the Texas Air National Guards 147th Reconnaissance Wing. Opened in 1917, Ellington Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I. It is named for 1st Lt. Eric Ellington, a U. S. Army aviator who was killed in a crash in San Diego. The United States Air Forces 147th Reconnaissance Wing is an Air National Guard unit operationally-gained by the Air Combat Command, the 147 RW provides a 24/7 capability with MQ-1B Predator Unmanned Aerial Systems. A collocated Air Support Operations Squadron provides terminal control for weapons employment in a Close Air Support scenario, integrating combat air, new construction designated under the Grow the Army project was completed in 2010. The project consisted of ten buildings for the Army National Guard and reserve units, “This will be a tremendous cost benefit to the Army Reserve as travel and logistical costs will be streamlined, ” noted Major General Eldon Regua, 75th division commander. The $80 million construction project includes a 40, 000-square-foot Battle Command Training Center, a second Armed Forces Reserve Center with an assembly hall and offices, a Welcome Center, which will handle retention, recruitment and military identification services. In 1917, the U. S. government purchased 1,280 acres of land from Dr. R. W. Knox, the location, near Genoa Township in southeast Houston, was selected because the weather conditions were ideal for flight training. Soldiers from nearby Camp Logan briefly assisted with the construction of the airfield when civilian workers went on strike. Soon after construction began on the airfield, the base was named after Lt. Eric Lamar Ellington, the base, which consisted of a few hangars and some wooden headquarters buildings, was completed in a matter of months. In December, the first planes from Ellington Field flew over Houston for a benefit for the American Red Cross, a flight of ten JN-4s took off from grass runways and followed the interurban tracks stretching north from Genoa to Houston. Throngs of men, women, and children watched in amazement as the JN-4s flew overhead, the roar of the aircraft was almost drowned out by the wail of sirens and factory whistles as the planes passed over. As the planes circled the city, they dropped paper flyers for the American Red Cross, next, the formation flew to Camp Logan and then turned south toward Galveston Island. The entire flight took about an hour, during World War I, Ellington served as an advanced flight training base. As of 1918, Ellington had its own gunnery and bombing range on a peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico near San Leon. Within the year, however, this changed for the worse. By August 1918, Ellington Field recorded the most pilot fatalities of the 18 U. S. Army Air Service training bases in the United States, before the end of the war, approximately 5,000 men and 250 aircraft were assigned to the base. Ellington was considered surplus to requirements after World War I and the base was inactivated as an active duty airfield in January 1920, in May 1923, the War Department had ordered the small caretaker force at Ellington Field to dismantle all remaining structures and to sell them as surplus
46.
Sacramento, California
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Sacramento is the capital city of the U. S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the portion of Californias expansive Central Valley. Its estimated 2014 population of 485,199 made it the sixth-largest city in California, Sacramento is the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which includes seven counties with a 2010 population of 2,414,783. In 2002, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University conducted for Time magazine named Sacramento Americas Most Diverse City, Sacramento became a city through the efforts of the Swiss immigrant John Sutter, Sr. his son John Augustus Sutter, Jr. and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew quickly thanks to the protection of Sutters Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839, the city was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santísimo Sacramento, California State University, Sacramento, is the largest university in the city and one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. University of the Pacific is a university with one of its three campuses in Sacramento. In addition, the University of California, Davis, located in nearby Davis, operates its UC Davis Medical Center, nisenan and Plains Miwok Native Americans had lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the settlers who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Native Americans left little evidence of their existence. Traditionally, their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the oak trees in the region, and by fruits, bulbs, seeds. In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga discovered and named the Sacramento Valley, a Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote, Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths, the air was like champagne, and drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. The valley and the river were then christened after the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, John Sutter first arrived on August 13,1839 at the divergence of the American and Sacramento Rivers with a Mexican land grant of 50,000 acres. The next year, he and his party established Sutters Fort, representing Mexico, Sutter called his colony New Helvetia, a Swiss inspired name, and was the political authority and dispenser of justice in the new settlement. Soon, the colony began to grow as more and more pioneers headed west, within just a few short years, John Sutter had become a grand success, owning a ten-acre orchard and a herd of thirteen thousand cattle. Fort Sutter became a stop for the increasing number of immigrants coming through the valley. In 1847, Sutter hired James Marshall to build a sawmill so that he could continue to expand his empire, Sutter received 2,000 fruit trees in 1847, which started the agriculture industry in the Sacramento Valley. In 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma and he hired topographical engineer William H
47.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
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