Monday Music "Cowboys From Hell" By Pantera

 

I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in November of 2019? it is a Facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines set up the Tannerite Rover, turn on the water irrigation system and fill it with gasoline instead of water and prepare yourself.

 I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song about people having a good time and standing up for themselves and having the best music from the best decade and  playing  it Loud will scar the Alphabet Boi's as they force the stack through the door, because they will be exposed to good music for the first time unlike the crap they listen to now sipping their soi latte's and comparing notes on the latest soyburger recipes and who wears the best manbuns in the team.

     This song was suggested by "V2", I have heard of Pantera but know little about them....Until now.

Cowboys from Hell is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on July 24, 1990 by Atco Records. It marked the band's major label debut and their first collaboration with producer Terry Date. It is considered one of the first ever groove metal albums

 

 

Writing sessions for Cowboys from Hell took place throughout 1988 and 1989. After being turned down "28 times by every major label on the face of the Earth", Atco Records representative Mark Ross was asked by his boss, Derek Shulman (who was interested in signing Pantera), to see the band perform after Hurricane Hugo stranded him in Texas. Ross was so impressed by the band's performance that he called his boss that night, suggesting that Pantera be signed to the label.

Ross on the performance:

"By the end of the first song, my jaw was on the floor. The sonic power of it all — the attitude and the musicianship — blew me away. Basically, you had to be an idiot to not think they're amazing. I mean, how could you see these guys and not think, 'Holy shit!'?"

Atco Records accepted but the band had to wait a six month period before they commenced recording at Pantego Sound Studio in Pantego, Texas. Accounts vary as to how long the recording sessions of Cowboys from Hell lasted; bassist Rex Brown stated in a 2010 interview with Metal Hammer that the recording sessions took place from February to April 1990, however vocalist Phil Anselmo has also claimed that the album was recorded in 1989. Pantera's initial choice as the producer for Cowboys from Hell was Max Norman based on his work with Ozzy Osbourne. Norman, who flew to Houston to watch the band perform, initially agreed to work on the album, but right before the recording sessions started, he was offered to produce Lynch Mob's debut album Wicked Sensation instead Pantera then proposed Terry Date to produce the album on the strength of his work with Soundgarden, Metal Church and Overkill, the latter of whose latest album at the time The Years of Decay had influenced Diamond Darrell's guitar tone, as well as the band's transition away from glam/traditional heavy metal to thrash/groove metal.

Pantera adopted a new sound and attitude, and the writing of what would become Cowboys from Hell saw the band exploring darker subject matters, while the guitar would be notably heavier, despite occasionally reverting to the hair metal formula. The band recorded a self-produced demo album in 1989 which featured 11 tracks, 10 of which would make the album cut. The last two tracks to be written were "Clash with Reality" and "Primal Concrete Sledge", while a song entitled "The Will to Survive" would be discarded early in the recording sessions.

The band were feeling confident about their material and themselves, finally feeling that they were making the kind of album they believed in. One key track to emerge during the writing was "Cemetery Gates", a seven-minute power ballad that would be the first song to show both their diversity and Anselmo's vocal range. Although they had already recorded four albums prior to Cowboys from Hell, Pantera felt that this was their true debut, working with a professional producer and a major label for the first time and creating music that was not simply stealing from other similar bands in an attempt to attract attention.

Pantera's vocalist Phil Anselmo recalled on an episode of That Metal Show that during a 1989 house party in Fort Worth, Texas, guitarist Dimebag Darrell arrived late and ran towards Anselmo and said he had a new riff to show him. The two of them went into Abbott's car where he played the intro to Anselmo, who said afterward to Abbott, "Yes, this must be an anthem."

Drummer Vinnie Paul described the concept:

Cowboys is where everybody came into their own, along with the full-blown Pantera sound", "That was actually the first song we wrote for the record. Basically it was about us coming out of Texas and being out of place. People don't think of Texas as being a hot spot for heavy metal, they think of New York or L.A. or something like that, so it just seemed like an obvious concept for us^.

Bassist Rex Brown remembered the designing of the introduction:

The crazy noise at the beginning was just a Dime thing, that's what he was hearing in his head so he made a loop of that to play over. I just remember it was fucking very repetitious and very fucking annoying for a long while. And that "Cowboys From Hell" intro is a little form of in-the-box scaling. We were always down the street watching all these great blues guys come through because Vinnie and Darrell's dad [Jerry Abbott] was an engineer at Pantego studio. We'd sneak down there and sit way underneath the board listening to all this great stuff. And I think that's where Dime got the idea for that intro to "Cowboys". He started it as a kind of modal exercise because he would practice it forwards and backwards.

The song was recorded for the band's 1989 demo album, Cowboys from Hell: The Demos. After the band got signed to Atco Records, the band rerecorded the song and put it on the major label debut album Cowboys from Hell.

 

 

The music videos for this song and for "Psycho Holiday" were recorded in a Dallas club that the band frequented called "The Basement" and were directed by Paul Rachman. The video simply shows the band playing the song live to an audience

 

 

Sorry about the Lack of posting....

 I have been busier than a....

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    "One Armed paper Hanger..."    Yeah I have been really busy, Work calls, I like blogging, but I like making Money also, LOL

Why the Masked and Unmasked have distain for each other

 I snagged this from "Townhall", it was very good.  I have found myself pushing back against the maskers and the "Fear Porn" that they are pushing.  I am soo tired of the fearmongering that I have gotten quite "Snippy" with some of the people because they have bought into the media narrative that "We all gonna die" unless we follow the draconian and confusing mandates from the CDC and our "Betters" from Washington and Hollywood. 

Among the many unbridgeable divides between Americans is a completely antithetical view of mask wearing. On one side are those who wear masks almost everywhere outside their homes and who demand that others do so, including young children in class and on outdoor playgrounds, and 2-year-olds on airplanes. 

On the other side are those who only wear a mask where they are punished for not doing so (most obviously, airplanes). They regard masks as essentially pacifiers for adults.

Generally speaking, these two groups have disdain for each other.

Why the pro-mask half of America holds the anti-mask half in contempt needs little explanation. They believe anti-mask Americans are putting others in grave danger. Pro-maskers believe that even children who do not wear masks put their own lives and the lives of other children and teachers at risk.

Consequently, pro-mask Americans regard those who do not wear masks, let alone those who actively oppose mask-wearing, as selfish, anti-science potential killers.

What may be less obvious is why anti-maskers hold pro-maskers in equal contempt. So, this needs explaining in greater detail. After all, anti-maskers don't believe that maskers are putting people in hospitals.

First, anti-maskers regard the charges made against them by pro-maskers as baseless. Therefore, as odd as it sounds, anti-maskers have contempt for the pro-maskers' contempt. To wrongly charge people with causing mass death is, to understate the case, immoral. And if this charge is demonstrably wrong, the people who level it are the ones who are anti-science.

Since each side regards the other as anti-science, what is the science? 

Nearly all public health authorities claim that masks are absolutely necessary to save lives. But they have virtually no science to back up the claim.

There is, however, abundant scientific evidence that masks are worthless vis-a-vis viruses and do great harm to society.

Here is a fraction of the examples I could give:

In February 2020, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted: "Seriously people -- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus."

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program executive director, Mike Ryan, wrote: "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any particular benefit."

A 2010 study in France led by Laetitia Canini (Ph.D. in epidemiology and biostatistics) concluded: "We did not identify any trend in the results suggesting effectiveness of facemasks."

A 2009 study of Japanese health workers led by epidemiologist Dr. Joshua L. Jacobs, of the University of Hawaii Medical School, concluded: "Face mask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds."

 

As far as I could determine, the only randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19 was a 2020 study led by Henning Bundgaard of the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. Published in the March 2021 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, it found that 1.8% of those in the masked group and 2.1% of those in the control group became infected with COVID-19 within a month. The 0.3-point difference is statistically insignificant.

MD and epidemiologist Vinay Prasad of the University of California at San Francisco buried the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's child masking recommendation in one sentence: "The CDC cannot 'follow the science' because there is no relevant science."

And what about surgical masks? They are not designed to prevent the spread of viruses, but to prevent medical personnel from accidentally infecting the open wounds of patients on the operating table, and to prevent body fluids from patients spraying up into the mouths and noses of the surgical team. Dr. Colin Axon, a COVID-19 advisor to the British government, made this point clear: Medics were "unable to comprehend" the miniscule elements involved: "A Covid viral particle is around 100 nanometers, material gaps in blue surgical masks are up to 1,000 times that size, cloth mask gaps can be 5,000 times the size."

While most studies conclude that masks are essentially useless against COVID-19, not all do. Probably the most widely cited study on behalf of mask efficacy was published in the British Medical Journal in October 2021. But it's hardly a ringing endorsement. As the authors note, "The quality of current evidence would be graded as low or very low, as it consists of observational studies with poor methods."

If the only problem with the pro-mask position were that it negates science, it would only be harmless nonsense.

But while it is nonsense, it is not harmless. 

Take children, for example. Only time will tell how affected children have been by not seeing other children's faces and seeing few adult faces for two years. In July 2021, an article published under the auspices of the USC Center for Health Policy and Economics addressed this issue: 

"Masking is a psychological stressor for children and disrupts learning. Covering the lower half of the face of both teacher and pupil reduces the ability to communicate. In particular, children lose the experience of mimicking expressions, an essential tool of nonverbal communication. Positive emotions such as laughing and smiling become less recognizable, and negative emotions get amplified. Bonding between teachers and students takes a hit. Overall, it is likely that masking exacerbates the chances that a child will experience anxiety and depression, which are already at pandemic levels themselves."

Yet, just this past week, the enemies of children known as teachers unions -- in this case, the one that controls the Los Angeles Unified School District -- issued a directive that all children must wear N95-type masks all day, including during outdoor recess, with a wire over their noses to keep the masks at maximum tightness.

 

The social damage of masks is not confined to children. All human interaction has suffered as a result of two years of masking. For example, people are less kind when they are anonymous.

All of that harm is more than sufficient to justify contempt for mask advocacy. 

Now let's add to that the irrationality of the pro-mask position.

Health authorities demand that people wear masks when entering restaurants, when seated on an airplane, and when walking through airports. However, an exception is made for eating and drinking. So, then, one regularly sees people on airplanes seated less than 12 inches from one another eating without masks on; people seated at airport cafes and restaurants with no masks on; and people spending about an hour eating in restaurants with no masks on.

And while on the subject of airplanes: Do pro-mask advocates think that pilots keep their masks on while flying? Do they even want them to? Does any rational person want their pilots to breathe their own carbon dioxide for six hours while flying across the country?

The utter irrationality of mask advocacy is the single greatest reason the anti-mask people hold mask advocates in contempt. How else should one regard adults who believe that two-year-olds on airplanes and five-year-olds in schools should be masked?

Watching half of our fellow Americans accept and engage in such irrational behavior (not to mention sometimes hysterically enforce it, as myriad social media videos attest) not only depresses the rest of us; it frightens us. That more than half of our country willingly obeys completely irrational orders raises the question: What irrational orders from the state would they not obey?

 

Monday Music "Every Breath you Take" by The Police

 

 I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in November of 2019? it is a Facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines set up the Tannerite Rover, turn on the water irrigation system and fill it with gasoline instead of water and prepare yourself.

 I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song about people having a good time and standing up for themselves and having the best music from the best decade and  playing  it Loud will scar the Alphabet Boi's as they force the stack through the door, because they will be exposed to good music for the first time unlike the crap they listen to now sipping their soi latte's and comparing notes on the latest soyburger recipes and who wears the best manbuns in the team.

I decided to go with the Police and "Every Breath you take"   This song was very popular during my senior year in high school.  A lot of us liked the song and the entire album;

"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers (but officially credited to Sting only). The single entered the charts at position 36 on 4 June 1983. The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the Billboard Top Tracks chart for nine weeks.
At the 1984 Grammy Awards Sting won Song of the Year and The Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Every Breath You Take", while it was also nominated for Record of the Year. The song ranked No. 84 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 25 on Billboard's Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. This song is considered to be The Police's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income

.The lyrics are the words of a character of dubious nature, who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make".

I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.

—Sting^[

Sting later said he was disconcerted by how many people think the song is more positive than it is. He insists it's about the obsession with a lost lover, the jealousy and surveillance that follow. "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!' I thought, 'Well, good luck.'" When asked why he appears angry in the music video Sting told BBC Radio 2, "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle, little love song."
According to the Back to Mono box-set book, "Every Breath You Take" is influenced by a Gene Pitney song titled "Every Breath I Take". The song's structure is a variation on the Classical rondo form with its AABACABA structure, a form rarely found in modern popular music.
The demo of the song was recorded in an eight track suite in North London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over a Hammond organ. While recording, Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by Béla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond "make it your own."
The recording process was fraught with difficulties as personal tensions between the band members, particularly Sting and Stewart Copeland, came to the fore. Producer Hugh Padgham claimed that by the time of the recording sessions, Sting and Copeland "hated each other", with verbal and physical fights in the studio common. The tensions almost led to the recording sessions being cancelled until a meeting involving the band and the group's manager, Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother), resulted in an agreement to continue. The drum track was largely created through separate overdubs of each percussive instrument, with the main backbeat created by simultaneously playing a snare and a gong drum. Keyboard parts were added from Roland guitar synthesisers, a Prophet-5 and an Oberheim synthesiser. The single-note piano in the middle eight was recommended by Padgham, inspired by similar work that he had done with the group XTC.
     The song had a music video (directed by duo Godley & Creme) that was praised for its black-and-white cinematography. Both MTV (1999) and VH1 (2002) named it as one of the best music videos ever, placing it 16th and 33rd in their respective top 100 lists. Daniel Pearl won the first MTV cinematography award for his work on the video

 

Meatloaf Crosses beyond the Rim

 Bummer, I remember when we first started dating, and we were together about 6 months at this time, we were poor as church mice, and I remember Meatloaf coming to Lakewood amphitheater in Atlanta in 1994 and I really wanted to go and My Spousal Unit gave me a hallmark card(one of her super powers) , I opened it up and 2 tickets fell out. Granted they were lawn seats but that was a heck of a concert and Meatloaf told his fans "thank you for staying with him all this time". I was listening to the 80's Channel on the way home and the VJ Mark Goodman from MTV Fame talked about "Meatloaf and the impact and he then played the song from Meatloaf's 1993 Album "Bat out of Hell" back Into Hell

Man it brought me back the memories of back then when we were dating and the salad days and times were hard but we stuck it out until times got better, and the little gestures that mean a lot.
May God grant his family serenity during this time.

I snagged the article from "Hollywood Reporter"

Meat Loaf KEVIN WINTER/DCP/GETTY IMAGES FOR DCP

• 
  

Born Marvin Lee Aday on Sept. 27, 1947, in Dallas, Meat Loaf was the son of Orvis, a former police officer, and Wilma, a schoolteacher. “Meat” was a nickname his father gave him, the singer told Oprah Winfrey in 2016, explaining that he was “born bright red” and looked like “nine-and-a-half pounds of ground chuck.” His home life was disruptive due to his father’s alcoholism, and he spent some time living with his grandmother.
He left Texas for Los Angeles in 1967 to pursue a music career. His first band, Meat Loaf Soul, had a number of name changes, including Popcorn Blizzard and Floating Circus. and toured with acts such as The Who and the Grateful Dead, but only achieved fringe success. Working odd jobs, he had a chance encounter that would lead to an audition for the L.A. production of the musical Hair.
On the strength of his performance in Hair, Meat Loaf was offered the chance to record his first album by Motown Records. Working with Stoney Murphy, Motown released Stoney and Meat Loaf in 1971, but once again success was limited and Meat Loaf returned to work on the Broadway production of Hair.

Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman during the recording of ‘Bat Out of Hell II’ in Los Angeles in 1991. JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC, INC

In the early 1970s, Meat Loaf met Steinman and starred in his Vietnam War musical More Than You Deserve. The two then began a fruitful artistic collaboration, with Steinman writing and composing the music and Meat Loaf singing and bringing his charisma and stage presence as the frontman.
The duo started work on the operatic rock album Bat Out of Hell in 1972. It was not released until 1977 and went on to become a huge global hit, selling more than 40 million copies. The album spawned the singles “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “Bat Out of Hell” and made Meat Loaf a household name.
Despite Steinman’s integral creative input, Meat Loaf, with his name on the album, was firmly front and center when it came to promotional materials and was the star attraction at live shows. The apportioning of credit and royalties for the success of Bat Out of Hell would lead to difficulties and even legal strife between the pair in later years.
“I know there’s people out there that think I was the Frankenstein monster to Jim’s Dr. Frankenstein, but that’s not how it went at all,” Meat Loaf told the New York Times in 2019. He added, “I never do anything the way the writer intended it. Jim wrote it, but it became my song.”

Meat Loaf and Steinman patched up their differences to work on 1981’s Dead Ringer and 1984’s Bad Attitude, but both albums were commercial failures. In 1993, Meat Loaf and Steinman worked together on Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which featured the global No. 1 single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” with a video directed by Michael Bay. The album went multiplatinum and would lead to Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, in 2006.
Meat Loaf and Steinman’s final two collaborations included the album Braver Than We Are in 2016 and Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, which debuted in London’s West End in 2017 and played off-Broadway in 2019.
Meat Loaf branched out into movies in the early ’70s. He memorably played motorcycle-riding Eddie in the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973), having played him as well as Dr. Everett Scott in the musical version. In the film, Eddie sings the song “Hot Patootie — Bless My Soul” before meeting his demise.
He gave a scene-stealing performance in David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), playing Robert “Bob” Paulson, a former steroid-popping wrestler suffering from gynecomastia. Hours after Meat Loaf’s death, “Robert Paulson” began to trend on social media as fans of the film paid tribute to him by posting stills and video and the valedictory quote from the film related to his character: “his name was Robert Paulson.”

From left: ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Roadie’ COURTESY OF EVERETT COLLECTION

His other notable film credits included playing Tiny in Wayne’s World (1992), the Alan Rudolph film Roadie (1980), the Patrick Swayze film Black Dog (1998) and cameos in Spice World (1997) and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006).
On television, his long list of credits included episodes of Elementary, Glee Nash Bridges, Ghost Wars, South Park, The Outer Limits and The Equalizer. He also appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.
In later life, Meat Loaf suffered a series of health problems. He underwent heart surgery in 2003 and collapsed during concerts in Pittsburgh in 2011 and in Edmonton, Canada in 2016.
Survivors include his wife and daughters.

20 Airlines Predicted to fail this year

 

 

We got back late last night and I had to go to work this morning and I was unable to get a post together

but I saw this in my email at work and thought it was worth posting.(The Pics are from my stash or what I have taken in my travels.)  it shows the effect of the lock downs on the world economy, when I was in California, I saw so many planes especially dreamliners and widebodies still in storage because of the pandemics

  

    Parts of the world has started to come back, but other areas like the far East and Europe and Africa are still heavily restricted for travel so many airlines have parked their airplanes.   Some countries are increasing the restrictions again because of the Omicron variant no matter the damage it does to the economy of their country and how many people they put out of work.   

UN aviation body ICAO, aircraft lessor Avolon and consultancy firm IBA have released their 2022 trend analyses, with IBA predicting another 20 airline failures in 2022 and ICAO lowering its 2050 growth forecast.

IBA estimates that there were 63 airline failures and restructurings in 2020 and 2021, which grounded 1,924 aircraft.

“With North America the only region forecast to have a profitable 2022, IBA predicts further failures. It forecasts that 20 airlines covering 200 aircraft will fail in 2022, bringing the three-year total to 83 carriers and 2,124 affected aircraft,” IBA said Jan. 17. 

The consultancy firm cited inflation, higher fuel prices and taxation as key headwinds.

Meanwhile, ICAO has reduced its compound annual RPK growth for the period 2018-2050. It is now predicting 3.6% growth, down from 4.2% pre-pandemic.

ICAO data shows that passenger numbers initially plummeted 60% in 2020 against the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline. This decline narrowed to 49% in 2021 and is expected to improve further in 2022. Around 68% of domestic traffic has returned, but international traffic is lagging at just 28%. 

In an optimistic scenario (95% domestic and 73% international recovery), ICAO said passenger traffic could reach 86% of 2019 levels by the end of 2022. Under a more pessimistic scenario (86% domestic and 58% international recovery), traffic might reach 75% of pre-pandemic levels by year-end.

The Americas are recovering at the fastest pace and Europe picked up noticeably during summer 2021. ICAO said the Middle East and Africa had seen moderate progress, but Africa plunged because of omicron coronavirus variant restrictions. Asia-Pacific is the weakest performing region.

 

The IBA forecast follows a similar geographical pattern. The consultancy firm believes a number of U.S. carriers will return to or exceed pre-pandemic capacity in 2022, with transatlantic flights recovering to 2019 levels. IBA also expects LCCs in the EU and U.S. to make a strong return, but airlines most exposed to the Asia-Pacific region will lag behind the rest of the industry.

IBA believes that leasing activity will strengthen in 2022, with lease-starts rising by over 20%, but aircraft disposals will appear to fall significantly. This is because the 2021 numbers for lessors were distorted by AerCap’s acquisition of GECAS.

Boeing 737 MAX values have rebounded strongly since the type’s grounding, rising by over 5% since the start of 2021, while Airbus A321neo values rose 2% over the same period. The weak long-haul market caused A350-900s and Boeing 787-9s to fall in value, but older widebodies took the greatest hit because of “considerable market oversupply.” IBA said 10-year-old Boeing 777-300ER values fell 25.6%, while A330-300s of the same era were down 33.2%.

“For 2022, IBA forecasts new generation narrowbody values will firm,” IBA said. “Widebody demand will remain suppressed, with values stabilizing at lower levels for out-of-production types. Regional jet value recovery is set to continue into 2022, with turboprop values and lease rates expected to strengthen as supply tightens.”

 

Aircraft lessor Avolon believes lessors will exceed more than 50% of the large commercial aircraft fleet in 2022, as airlines release aircraft liquidity to weather the crisis. 

Avolon predicts that international air traffic will return to 70% of 2019 levels by the end of 2022. “While we are confident in recovery, it will be a gradual and uneven recovery that will vary region-by-region,” Avolon head of portfolio management Jim Morrison said.

Sustainability will also be a key theme. Avolon is expecting 10 full-scale electric aircraft prototypes to fly in 2022 and the cost of carbon offsets to increase. “The global voluntary offset market could be worth $50 billion by the end of the decade, up from $300 million in 2018,” Avolon said.

Avolon also sees sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) getting stronger financial backing in 2022, quadrupling the lessor’s outlook for SAF production by 2030.

Meanwhile, air cargo will continue to play a key role in the recovery. Avolon said air freight accounted for more than a third of airline revenue over the past two years, three times its normal share. “Another strong year for air cargo paired with continued passenger market improvements may be enough to return the airline industry to profitability in 2022,” Avolon said.

 

55 years later, Douglas Merging with McDonnell

My Employer really liked the Douglas airplanes, they were really well built and well engineered aircraft, With Airbus, the Airframe has an "expiration date" , with Douglas products, it is "Indefinite" As long as you can find the parts and and keep it airworthy it will fly.  I personally had a love/hate relationship with the "T-Tails" as we called it, everything was low to the ground and crowded...and for a summer chicken like me, crawling into places was uncomfortable.  

     I ran across this article and shamelessly "Nicked" it, I was going to post it last night but it was a long day from work and I didn't get it posted until now.  I am going out of town for a few days and I am hoping there is internet, if so, I will keep the blog updated since I didn't have a chance to load the scheduler thingie.

 

In January 1967, two United States aviation powerhouses, the Douglas Aircraft Company and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, announced their intentions to merge. The move would lead to the formation of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, creating a stir in the market in the years to come.

The McDonnell Douglas merger was made official on April 28th, following Douglas’ 

rejection from several other companies.

Donald W. Douglas Sr. founded the Douglas Aircraft Company on July 22nd, 1921. The pioneer remained company president until 1957 before becoming chairman of the board until the merger in 1967. His son, Donald Douglas Jr., was also a driving force within the company since 1939. He was named as vice president in 1951 before taking over his father as president in 1957.

Douglas was a notable player in both the civil and military scenes. On the commercial side, the manufacturer was famed for the development of the DC series of aircraft that took civil aviation to new heights in the mid-20th century.

The DC-3 and its variants were crucial in both commercial and military missions.

James Smith McDonnell incorporated the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis on July 6th, 1939. The firm would go on to become a force in the aviation industry in the following decades, especially when it came to the space race and military efforts. Mr McDonnell was president until 1962 before becoming chairman and CEO.

Altogether, both companies were integral in the maturation of the US aviation market. A merger between the two firms would give them more ground across the spectrum, especially by allowing McDonnell to have significant coverage in the commercial sector.

McDonnell’s son, James Smith McDonnell III, would eventually become chairman 

and CEO of McDonnell Douglas.

 

The post-war transformation in the market would take its toll on Douglas. Demand was at an all-time high for both civilian and fighter aircraft. The DC-8 and DC-9 were receiving a lot of attention from airlines, while the A-4 Skyhawk was increasing in popularity. However, Douglas was struggling to increase production output following the rise in demand.

There were also challenges due to staff shortages during the Vietnam War. These difficulties were on top of financial troubles that were rocking operations. As a result, Douglas was open to an offer from McDonnell, and talks began in the early 1960s.

 

After approximately four years of discussions, in January 1967, the leaders of two Douglas and McDonnell announced their intention of a merger. Following this step, Douglas Jr. and Mr McDonnell confirmed that the boards of their two businesses approved a definitive merger agreement on March 1st, 1967.

The plan was revealed to have Douglas Sr. serve as honorary chairman of the new McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Meanwhile, Mr McDonnell would serve as chairman and chief executive officer, and David Lewis would be the president.

Numerous airlines were eager to get their hands on the new jets of the time

On April 19th, 1967, Douglas shareholders came together in person and by proxy at an annual meeting at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. At the event, they voted to merge with the McDonnell Company amid financial struggles. Douglas highlighted that this move came about because “Douglas has been outrun by its own success.”

 

There was a considerable number of votes for the merger. In total, 4,897,543 shares were for the consolidation, and 41,065 were against it. In practice, over 1,200 shareholders were in favor of merging with McDonnell, with 71.98% of the vote. It was announced that Douglas Jr. Douglas would continue as head of the Douglas branch of the merged entity.

“Despite management efforts to make the Douglas acquisition fit under the McDonnell umbrella, the two remain very separate entities. Douglas, with production facilities at Long Beach, Calif., was founded and built by Donald Douglas, who began in 1920 by making a biplane of wood, wire and cloth,” The New York Times shared in 1979.

“The company dominated the commercial aircraft industry virtually without challenge until 1955, when Boeing and Lockheed began to gain ground. By 1967, when McDonnell took it over, the company had overcommitted itself and faced cash shortages and huge production costs on the DC‐9 twin jet transport.”

Delta Air Lines, who was a massive fan of the DC Series, flew the DC-9 family until 2014

Following the merger, the McDonnell Douglas Corporation would find it hard to balance success. The American Airlines Flight 191 crash that saw 271 passengers pass away on a DC-10-10 in Chicago would be a PR disaster. Other challenges with the aircraft and broader operations would also prove to be challenging.

“The McDonnell half of the company, paradoxically as strong in its defense business as ever, was having difficulty making the Douglas half perform as expected. The DC‐10, once the company’s great hope for its commercial business, has been a continuing problem ever since production began eight years ago. The plane has never made money for McDonnell Douglas and was not expected to until at least 1982,” The New York Times added.

“Last year the company lost $60 million on its commercial‐aviation business, nearly $10 million more than “McDonnell got Douglas for a song. But in the long run, it’s been an expensive proposition.”

Military contracts would provide a boost for the company. Sales of the F-4, F-15, and F-18 fighters would help McDonnell Douglas report a record income of $161.1 million in 1978.

McDonnell Douglas commercial aircraft such as the MD-80 would go on to 

become favorites among aviation enthusiasts.

Ultimately, McDonnell Douglas soon began discussing another merger, this time with Boeing. The announcement of a merger proposal with the fellow US behemoth was made public in 1996, with Boeing keen to make use of McDonnell Douglas’ facilities following high demand. The merger was then completed the following year.

All in all, both Douglas and McDonnell have parallels that can be drawn with their history. They were both family companies that were headed by two different generations. More importantly, the pair helped transition the United States’ aviation market into one of the most robust and influential industries in the world.

 

Ruger Mini-14 A Garand Inspired Rifle

 

I had looked at a Mini-14 and I liked the Rifle, but the cost is up there and I will probably lose it in another kayak accident like my AR's and Garand *Sniff*Sniff*.  Part of me wondered why the Military never tried the Ruger in Trials.  I shamelessly *Nicked* this from American Rifleman.

In 1967, Ruger embarked on an ambitious project. The task was to shrink the M14—the select-fire, 7.62 NATO-chambered rifle that replaced the U.S. military’s venerable M1 Garands in 1959—to a more nimble firearm with the same performance and reliability. Adding to the challenge was the fact that the new firearm also needed to run .223 Rem. cartridges.

The task was a formidable one, but after six years of design work and exhaustive testing, the first Mini 14 was unveiled in 1973. Full scale production followed the next year.

The firearm featured a variety of innovations and cost-saving alternations that would have made it a serious contender against the M16 that was ultimately fielded by U.S. Army. The timing was poor, according to Bill Ruger, although a semi-automatic version is offered to this day by Ruger. It continues to be a popular choice and a standout in the company’s long list of time-proven performers.  

Despite similarity in name, the manner in which the M14 and Mini-14 gas systems operate is not the same. The M14 uses a piston, operating rod, gas plug and gas cylinder. The Mini-14, on the other hand, employs a Garand-style breech bolt locking system, a fixed-piston gas system and self-cleaning, moving gas cylinder.

Enthusiasts added Mini-14s to their collections in steady numbers after its introduction, but when it started appearing with “Mr. T” in “The A-Team” it went mainstream. Those regular appearances in the hands of the crime-fighting quartet on the television series—from season two in 1984 until ratings dropped in 1987—put the gun on nationwide display.

Today Ruger offers two distinct families of the Mini-14 (not including the Mini-30, which is a variation chambered in 7.62x39 mm). There are 11 versions in the Ranch line and six Tactical models. All are chambered in 5.56 mm NATO.

Every Ranch model has an 18.5", cold hammer-forged barrel. Stocks available include wood, synthetic, camo patterns, wood laminate and even an engraved hardwood. Their solid steel receivers are drilled and tapped for Picatinny rail mounting and the rifles ship with one, along with scope rings and a pair of magazines (capacity of 5 or 20 cartridges, depending on model). MSRPs for non-distributor exclusives run from $1,189 to $1,359.

Tactical versions feature the same rugged, optics-ready construction, but barrels are threaded. Most ship with a flash suppressor and they measure either 16.12", 16.15" or 20". Stocks are either synthetic or speckled hardwood. Magazine capacity is 20 cartridges, and the carbines ship with two, along with the Picatinny and scope rings. MSRPs run from $1,259 to $1,399.