I saw in several of the news sources that I follow that the RAF and other European Air Forces are refusing to recruit white males due to the "DIE" and adopting unrealistic "Diversity" goals so the white males are going elsewhere where their skills are in demand. And from what I have read, the standards of the Western Air Forces have been "Broadened to allow maximum recruitment effort". Whatever that means. This concerns me to a degree, your fighter pilots are supposed to be the best in the world, but if you no longer allow or train for that, the cost in national treasure and prestige can be devastating. I snagged this from a 3rd party in my work email.
TFASA says it is the only independent test-pilot school outside Europe and the Americas.
On April 23, 2022, a Hongdu L-15/JL-10 jet trainer crashed in Anhui,
China. Both pilots ejected from the aircraft safely, but what raised
eyebrows was who was in the aircraft.
When villagers rushed to the scene, they videoed on their cellphones a
Chinese pilot and, next to him, a non-Chinese pilot dressed in a
sand-colored flight suit speaking in accented English.
The internet went abuzz with theories. Some said he was a Russian pilot
working in conjunction with the Chinese on the L-15 aircraft project,
and some suggested he was a test pilot from Serbia or Latin America,
where China is hoping to market the aircraft.
Beijing never gave an explanation on the origin of the mysterious pilot.
South African company helps place Western pilots in China
Political indoctrination might affect Chinese pilots’ skills
Six months later, the UK government revealed that as many as 30 former
British military pilots are in China providing training to the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA). Since then, reports have suggested that China has
also headhunted former Australian and French
pilots for similar roles; French naval personnel are of particular
interest because of their aircraft carrier experience.
A South African company, the Test Flying Academy of South Africa
(TFASA), has been named as an intermediary for foreign pilots to work in
China. It even advertises a four-year contract to work at an
undisclosed location in “Far East Asia.” Job requirements
state that pilots must be graduates of either a U.S. or UK military
flight-test school.
An anonymous pilot in Australia tells Reuters that the company is
“clearly targeting Western/Five Eyes test pilots,” the latter referring
to Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. UK defense
officials said the pilots are being offered “lucrative”
pay packages worth more than £200,000 ($226,000) a year.
Following their UK counterparts, the AustralianDefense Departmenthas
commenced an investigation to see if any ex-military pilots have been lured to China.
So what is TFASA? Formed in 2003, it states on its website that it is
the only independent test pilot school outside Europe and the Americas.
Its website sports numerous high-resolution photos of PLA
aircraft—namely, the L-15, Shenyang J-16 and one image of
an FTC-2000 with a group of Western pilots.
Jean Rossouw, a former test pilot with theSouth African Air Force(SAAF),
is chairman of TFASA and a director of the China-linked
Avic-International Flight Training Academy (AIFA). AIFA is a joint
venture partner of TFASA. C. Jurie van Wyngaard, TFASA CEO, is also a
SAAF pilot who previously held roles atPilatusandSaab.
TFASA is also involved in aircraft sales for Blackshape Prime, Blackshape Gabriel and Ikarus C42 light aircraft.
Although the pace of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s (PLAAF)
modernization has been quick, its tactics and operational concepts are
not validated in any aspects. Countries such as Japan and South Korea
are trained to Western standards, whereas India
has combat experience against Pakistan, but the PLAAF remains untested.
With the exception of a handful of exercises with Thailand and Turkey,
Beijing has no benchmark for how its pilots and fighters will deal with
potential foes.
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic
Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in
Singapore, says the current skills and tactics introduced by the foreign
pilots could be hindered by existing PLAAF political
indoctrination.
“In other words, Western and Western-inspired air forces tend not only
to put more emphasis on the individual aptitude of the combat aviator
but also give a wide berth of autonomy in decision-making,” Koh says.
“Given the extent of centralization and political control within the
PLA, which we are seeing being strengthened under [Chinese President Xi
Jinping], one should question whether inducting these new insights and
skill sets from foreign instructors may make
a significant difference in the way the PLAAF operates, unless there’s a
monumental shift in the command and control as well as political
indoctrination,” Koh continues.
UK officials say there is no evidence that pilots recruited to work in
China have broken the Official Secrets Act, the UK’s primary law against
espionage.
But since the government in London is taking a more hawkish line toward
China, along with other European nations and the U.S., the UK’s Defense
Ministry is considering what actions it can take to prevent military
expertise from being transferred to potential
adversary states in the future. In particular, the UK is looking at
using confidentiality contracts and nondisclosure agreements to prevent
such transfers of information. Meanwhile, a new National Security Bill
currently being examined by lawmakers will create
additional tools to tackle “contemporary security challenges,”
officials say.
I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs. This discussion was
started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in December 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.....I got the inspiration for this song driving into work for overtime:) and I had my Sirius/XM on the 70's channel or #7 and this song came on and for some reason I figured it would be a great "Monday Music" song, especially with the "Burn Baby Burn, when the Gas in the sprinkler system gets engaged. ( now this is for educational/entertainment purposes only)
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 and prepare yourself.,set up the tannerite rover and refill the lawn sprinkler lines with"Foo-gas."
I
figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and
hearing a song that is related to Disco and Porn in the 1970's. What
can I say, My humor is warped....just a bit. Next week will be "You
Should Be Dancing By the BeeGee's", Now that should really cause some
psych evals., hehehe, some poor ATF guy trying to explain the attraction
to his mother because of Disco. and the possibility of Leisure Suits,
Flared Collars and
Tannerite Rover :D, Now can you imagine "Old NFO" or "Old AFSarge" wearing a leisure suit? and making the moves like John Travolta did in Saturday night Fever? It IS their generation, LOL
The song was originally recorded by The Trammps in 1976 and released as a single. It was inspired by a scene in the 1974 blockbuster film The Towering Inferno in which a discotheque is caught in the blaze. According to Tom Moulton, who mixed the record, the Dolbynoise reduction
had been set incorrectly during the mixdown of the tracks. When
engineer Jay Mark discovered the error and corrected it, the mix had a
much wider dynamic range than was common at the time. Due to this, the
record seems to "jump out" at the listener. With "Starvin'" and "Body
Contact Contract", it topped the U.S. Disco chart for six weeks in the late winter of 1977.
On the other US charts, "Disco Inferno" hit number nine on the Black
Singles chart, but it was not initially a significant success at pop
radio, peaking at number fifty-three on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Disco Inferno" gained much greater recognition when the 10:54 minute album version was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Re-released by Atlantic Records,
the track peaked at number eleven in the U.S. during the spring of
1978, becoming The Trammps' biggest and most-recognized single. Later,
it was included in the Saturday Night Fever musical, interpreted by the 'DJ Monty' in the "Odissey 2001" discothèque.
The song also became an unofficial theme song for former New York YankeesoutfielderBernie Williams.
It was often played at old Yankee Stadium while the scoreboard and
video systems displayed the phrase "Bern Baby Bern", a play on the
song's refrain and Williams' first name.
In 1996, "Disco Inferno" was included on the soundtrack to the cult comedy film Kingpin and featured in two pivotal scenes in which Roy Munson (played by Woody Harrelson) confidently strolls into a bowling alley. The song was also used in the trailer to the Adam Sandler comedy Bedtime Stories. In 2006, the extended version was featured on a remastered version of the Ghostbusters soundtrack.
On September 19, 2005, "Disco Inferno" was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame
Looks like "KC" of the KC and the Sunshine band on keyboards, and there was something about the pageantry of the bands, they knew how to put on a show. A lot of bands didn't have a music video back then, because music videos was a novelty and not a requirement so I still think it was neat that a band actually puts out one back then.
I still am busy with work so I don't have time to post an opinion on the clown in DC on the Potomac, and other things. Right now the overtime is wide open and I am grabbing what I can get or that my body allows me to grab. They would let me work 7 days a week 10 + hours a day, but I ain't a spring chicken anymore and my job can be physically demanding so I am balancing my health with my avarice, LOL
This was in an article I saw in my email......Where else, and it was full of information that I wasn't aware of and I thought it was fascinating. so I shamelessly "Nicked" it.
The Airbus A300B1 took off for the first time in Toulouse on Oct. 28, 1972, a Saturday.
Credit: Airbus
The incident happened early on in the flight-test program. On Dec. 6, 1972, pilots Jacques Grangette and Pierre Baud took off for the 17th sortie of the A300B1. Two flight-test engineers and a mechanic were also on board. Shortly after they started the day’s test program, the two pilots found that the aircraft reacted excessively when they initiated turns. Baud, a former fighter pilot who had joined Airbus just three months earlier, was not too worried, but Grangette decided to cancel the rest of the schedule and return to base.
The Airbus A300, while no financial success, was a key building block for Airbus
The first Airbus aircraft introduced widebody twin concept
Substantial freighter fleet remains in service with Fedex and UPS
Origins
In hindsight, there were many instances in which the A300 program—and with it the entire Airbus project—could have failed for technical, commercial and political reasons. Some are more well known, such as the struggle to launch the program via an extremely tedious process spanning most of the 1960s and then kickstarting enough sales momentum in the 1970s to allow a level of production that made some economic sense. That flight on Dec. 6 turned out to be one of the many lesser-known hiccups, but in some ways it was a close call for the program. More on that later.
On Oct. 28, 1972, the first A300B1 test aircraft took off on its first flight, marking the start of an industrial, political and ultimately economic success story that is called Airbus and continues today.
The A300 itself was no commercial success. The 561 orders for all A300 versions and another 251 for the A310 before the program was terminated after 35 years of production tell their own story. At peak demand, Airbus delivered 46 of the aircraft in 1982 but only 19 the next year. From 1997 on, annual output was mostly in the teens. But the A300 was the catalyst for the launch of Airbus and a more united European aerospace industry that would eventually be able to compete with the big players in the U.S. at the time: Boeing, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas. The enormity of that accomplishment is indicated by the fact that only one of the three initial competitors is still building commercial airplanes and that none of the other national or binational European projects such as the BAC 1-11, Caravelle, Concorde or Mercure were successful.
In addition to starting to integrate the European industry, the A300 marked technical and industrial milestones. It was the first European widebody aircraft, and it introduced the concept of only two engines on a widebody, an idea met with massive skepticism by the establishment for years and one of the reasons the airliner’s commercial breatkthrough took so long. “The Americans told us we were crazy,” Gerard Guyot, one of the initial A300B2 and -B4 flight-test engineers, remembers. Boeing followed up with the 767, which entered service in 1982 and later superseded the A300 because of its longer range.
In the early 1980s, Airbus also switched to a two-pilot cockpit from the traditional setup of three on the -B2 and -B4.
“The real reason why this aircraft was successful is because it brought something different to the market,” Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer says. A widebody with two engines was “a new economic proposition,” he asserts. For comparison, Scherer points to the introduction of the Comac C919 this year. While gaining technological sovereignty in aviation is perfectly legitimate for a country the size of China, as it was for Europe in the 1970s, “[the C919] is an imitation of something that already exists,” he says.
The A300 was the design primarily of three men: Henri Ziegler, Roger Beteille and Felix Kracht. Ziegler was named as the first CEO of the Airbus Industrie consortium, Beteille became chief operating officer, and Felix Kracht, who had played an important role in the background, headed production.
In 1967, Kracht became managing director of Deutsche Airbus, which was to consolidate Germany’s workshare in the upcoming program. Along with Beteille and Ziegler, he was the mastermind behind the A300B, a technically ambitious aircraft. He pushed to use the best technology available, wherever it came from. “If the Chinese have the best engine, we will use it,” he once said. Beteille, Ziegler and Kracht also agreed that Airbus would not succeed in the long term with only a single product. The A300 would have to be developed into a family of aircraft if the Europeans were to compete with Boeing, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas. To say so publicly early on did not seem prudent politically, so they kept the idea to themselves initially.
Of course, the idea of the family concept and communality even across different types of aircraft has been an Airbus leitmotiv for decades.
During a 1973 demo tour, pilot Max Fischl and flight-test engineer Gerard Guyot waited for repairs in Mexico City. Credit: Gerard Guyot
Efforts to pull together the project in the first place took years, mainly because of industry politics. The UK was largely focused on developing Concorde, which many expected would be the future of civil aviation. Only Hawker Siddeley showed an interest in the A300 project. Germany was initially lukewarm at best. And even in France, the picture was complex: Dassault was aiming at the civil market with its Mercure project, an aircraft roughly the size of the A320 developed by Airbus later. Like in the UK, France was working on the Concorde, and anyone not immune to prestige thinking wanted to be on the program. When the first A300 test aircraft was rolled out along with another Concorde prototype in September 1972, no one really paid attention to the Airbus, even though Concorde had been in flight tests for some years.
Key airlines were underwhelmed, too. Air France did not want any political interference in its order decisions. Lufthansa chief Herbert Culmann also made it clear what he would do if he felt that kind of pressure: “If someone wants to force me to buy this Airbus, I will take my hat and leave tomorrow.”
Engine Trouble
The project nearly died several times. The original A300 was planned to have around 300 seats, aimed at large-volume, short- and medium-haul routes mainly in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, rather than the U.S., a market dominated by incumbents Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. The aircraft was supposed to be equipped with Rolls-Royce RB207 engines. But in May of 1968, the British engine-maker presented a price for the power-plant that was out of the question for Beteille and Ziegler. “The difference in price of the RB211 for the Lockheed L-1011 was simply unacceptable, and we realized that Rolls was playing another game without admitting it,” Beteille said at the time. “By continuing in that way, we would have ended up with nothing more than a superb glider.”
The high price was Rolls-Royce’s way of saying that it actually did not want to build an engine for the A300. The company was already building the RB211 for the Lockheed L-1011, a three-engine aircraft that would later compete with the first Airbus.
On Oct. 6, 1968. Ziegler hosted Beteille at his home on Avenue Stephane Mallarme in Paris. The two prepared major changes to rescue the project and decided to put forward the idea of a scaled-down version about 80% the size of the 300-seater. That way, the Airbus partners would spend less on development and be able to choose between two engines: the RB211 and the General ElectricCF6. Given the tense relationship with Rolls-Royce, it was no surprise that Airbus came to an an agreement with GE. The Pratt & Whitney JT9D was added later as a second engine option in the program.
Decades later, Rolls-Royce played a role at Airbus as part of the International Aero Engines (IAE) consortium building the V2500 and then delivering the RB211-derived Trent engines for the A330, A350 and A380 widebodies.
On May 29, 1969, the French and German governments agreed on a memorandum of understanding at the Paris Air Show to jointly develop the A300B. At the time, it was not a momentous event: The news was buried in this magazine’s report on the Paris Air Show (AW&ST June 9, 1969, p. 33). But the Airbus project was a reality.
Following the engine sourcing, the quandary over the A300’s wings nearly ended the development program. While UK-based Hawker Siddeley was willing to take on the wing work, the British government refused to provide development money. The German government came to the rescue by agreeing to fund the work, removing one of the last major hurdles to program launch.
Taking Flight
Soon it was time for flight testing, but few people took notice. The first flight was scheduled for Friday, Oct. 27, but dense fog prevented the crew—pilots Max Fischl, Bernard Ziegler, flight-test engineers Gunter Scherer and Pierre Caneill and flight-test mechanic Romeo Zinzoni—from taking off. “No one was interested in the A300,” recalls Barbara Kracht, daughter of Airbus founder Felix Kracht who spent her entire professional career working for the company. In 1969, she was in university and was able to attend the first flight only because it was delayed to a Saturday, when she had no classes.
Not only did very few people actually witness the flight—at least compared to later first flights that were orchestrated as social media events—Airbus’ hometown newspaper La Depeche du Midi in Toulouse also buried the story on an inside page. This magazine did the same (AW&ST Nov. 6, 1972, p. 22).
The A300’s first sortie was remarkable in several ways. Fischl and Ziegler (Henri’s son, hailed by his colleagues as a formidable test pilot and equally capable boss) put the aircraft through a wide range of configurations, speeds and altitudes, switched the autopilot on and tested all the important systems. It was a more comprehensive program than would be undertaken on a first flight today. There was one unplanned aspect: As the weather deteriorated quickly, Fischl had to land the aircraft with a 28-kt. crosswind gusting to 34 kt. As it turned out, that was above the aircraft’s later certification limit. Baud, who witnessed the landing from his position on the apron, says Fischl did well to put the A300 back on the ground under the circumstances.
Christian Scherer, 10 years old at the time, watched the A300’s first takeoff and landing from the rooftop of the old Toulouse airport terminal building. His father, Gunter, was onboard as the flight-test engineer. “[I was] holding my mom’s hand,” Christian Scherer recalls, and noticed that the landing included “quite a bounce” and that the aircraft was “going sideways” on the final approach because of the crosswinds. Only about 25 other people had assembled on that platform.
Baud had just joined Airbus a month before the first flight, and like most of the test pilots, he was still very new to the program when he participated in his own first test flights. One of them, the 17th overall, proved to be a critical one. Grangette, who was in command, instinctively felt that the strong lateral moves could not be right. After landing, the available data was analyzed and extreme loads were discovered on Frame 90, where the tailplane and fin are attached to the fuselage. “Thanks to Grangette’s decision, a disaster was avoided,” Baud says.
The fix was rather straightforward. Frame 90 was reinforced and the settings for the spoilers and ailerons were reduced so that loads would be guaranteed to stay well below limits. The new configuration was validated on the 42nd flight in February 1973.
Another issue took somewhat longer to fix. During avoidance maneuvers at high altitude, pilots discovered a risk of the aircraft pitching up and causing them to lose control, a phenomenon discussed since early in the development. As it turned out, a shockwave disturbed lift at the tip of the wing, leading to a loss in speed and increased angle of attack. Airbus engineers found that the only way to reduce the shockwave was to add a wingtip.
A large order from Eastern Air Lines in 1978 provided the commercial breakthrough for the A300. Credit: Airbus
Much to the chagrin of Airbus, French weekly news magazine L’Express argued that the A300 program should be scrapped because of the allegedly poorly designed wing. The paper’s founder and editor, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, was a strong supporter of the Dassault Mercure project, so other considerations may have influenced his judgment of the wing situation.
The first two prototypes were A300B1s, but to make the aircraft more attractive to Air France, Airbus stretched the fuselage to accommodate three more seat rows, creating the B2. The third test aircraft was already a B2, a version that morphed into the B4 (with an added center fuel tank and Krueger flaps for additional range). The A300-600, introduced a decade later, involved a slight further stretch of the fuselage and featured several upgrades including the the forward-facing crew cockpit, Airbus’ move from a flight crew of three to two.
Tough Sell
Although flight testing was going smoothly overall, sales were not. Airbus was completely new to everyone in the industry. It launched demo tours around the world to introduce itself and the A300. The first was a monthlong Americas trip starting Sept. 15, 1973. Ziegler and Baud flew the aircraft from Toulouse to Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil (via Dakar, Senegal, and Recife, Brazil), to participate in a local air show. Guyot was also on board, as were mechanics, Airbus sales representatives—and a lot of spare parts, just in case.
“We were like an autonomous circus,” remarks Barbara Kracht, who was a member of the Airbus communications staff at the time.
“We were unknown, going from one city to another,” Guyot says.
Airbus was doing demo flights inviting pilots and local VIPs, trying to build trust in the aircraft and a lobby for future orders. “We were all driven by the same pioneer spirit,” Guyot says.
“What fascinated me was the emotional attachment to the mission,” Christian Scherer says of his father and colleagues. He says he was “in awe of the technology” as well as of the team’s ability to bridge cultures and come together. After all, his father was part of the first generation of German aeronautical engineers after World War II, who would not necessarily have been easily welcomed in France. But Gunter Scherer, who was a francophile, was an important player in building that bridge, his son recalls. And the members of French pilot school EPNER—in particular Jean Caillard, who became the elder Scherer’s mentor—received him with open arms. Gunter Scherer and Bernard Ziegler also later became best friends.
The A300B1 toured Brazil and some Caribbean destinations before stopping in West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida. Then, in Mexico City, Max Fischl’s piloting skills were required again: Upon takeoff from the high-altitude airport, an engine failed. Fischl turned the aircraft around, and mechanics repaired the engine. They were able to continue on the all-important U.S. tour as planned, with demos to Pan American World Airways, Trans World Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, among others. But it would be several more years before Airbus would achieve its commercial breakthrough in the U.S.
Following the Americas tour, Airbus sent an aircraft to Southern Africa with stops in Niamey, Niger; Libreville, Gabon; Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, South Africa; Kinshasa, Democratic Repulic of Congo; and Windhoek, Namibia. The Windhoek stop was also used for takeoff performance tests at high altitude.
Certification and Production
May 1974 proved to be full of milestones for the aircraft. Following certification by France and Germany in March, the A300 was certified by the U.S. FAA. Airbus embarked on a third demo tour, this time to the Asia-Pacific region, with many stops in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. On May 10, Air France took delivery of its first B2 and started commercial services on May 30, operating the aircraft initially on the Paris-London route.
Things did not become easier for Airbus, however. “Most airlines were reticent about a twin-engine widebody carrying so many passengers,” Baud says. All widebodies at the time had at least three engines, and the Boeing 747 had four. Even the short- and medium-haul Boeing 727 was a three-engine aircraft. Beteille, Ziegler and Kracht were convinced nonetheless that they had the more efficient design and that the aircraft would be easier to repair than one with one engine installed high up on the tailplane. “We had to change the mindset of the airlines,” Baud notes.
That effort took years. During the first six years of production, Airbus built more A300s than it delivered, parking expensive “white-tails” waiting to be sold and handed over. Between 1974 and 1979, Airbus delivered fewer than 90 aircraft. The low point was 1976; Airbus did not receive a single order between the end of 1975 and mid-1977. Production was reduced to a nominal rate of just 0.5 aircraft per month, nowhere near any kind of profitable level. By comparison, after decades of industrial optimization, currently Airbus is not making money at a rate of five aircraft per month on the A350 program.
Into Operation
Air France was the first operator in 1974, followed by Air Siam at the end of the year. Korean Air and Hapag-Lloyd took their first A300s in 1975, and then Lufthansa, Air Inter, Indian Airlines and South African Airways the next year. At least some of the demo tours appeared to have paid off, with a good part of the early deliveries going to carriers in Asia, as Airbus had hoped, given the route structures and need to connect large metropolitan areas with high-capacity aircraft. Air Siam was a case in point: The carrier had leased aircraft MSN 8 for nine months to fly the Bangkok-Hong Kong route—the A300’s first extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards service early on in its operational history. The U.S. remained closed to the A300 for the time being.
In 1975, Bernard Lathiere took over the top position at Airbus from Henri Ziegler. He warned internally that the situation had to improve, and fast. Baud remembers people leaving the flight-test department that year because there was not enough work for everyone. But Lathiere, born in Kolkata (then Calcutta), India, turned out to be in the right place at the right time, as he excelled at what Airbus needed most in the mid-1970s: sales brilliance. Seeing that none of the other U.S. carriers were prepared to go for the A300, Lathiere approached the CEO of Eastern Air Lines, Frank Borman, a former astronaut. The carrier had not made money in 10 years but needed new aircraft, and Lathiere saw an opportunity.
The two agreed on a deal that is legendary to this day and one of the reasons why Airbus still exists. The OEM sent four A300s to Eastern to test in commercial operations free of charge for six months. The test satisfied Borman, and not only did Eastern buy the four aircraft, it ordered 23 more in 1977. The order gave Airbus the credibility it needed to build sales momentum over the coming years and put it in position to expand its portfolio further and build the A320, which was launched in 1984.
Christian Scherer joined Airbus as an intern in the contracts department in September 1984. His first assignment was the final paperwork for the PanAm order for 12 A300B4s. Then, on Dec. 21, four aircraft were delivered the same day. One was going to Berlin for PanAm’s air bridge service, and three more flew to New York via Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. Scherer was on board of one of them. He recalls seeing the three parked next to each other during a refueling stop in a snowstorm at Gander: “That was one of the most emotional moments of my career.”
I got this in my work email from a 3rd party source, thought it was an interesting read and shamelessly "Nicked" it. To me, what helped was the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were the sole superpower, and we leveraged the prestige we had after Desert Storm to facilitate this and other agreements. We negotiated these agreements from a position of strength, could we do this right now? I don't think so with the present group of chuckleheads running D.C. on the Potomac, they would be more concerned about "Climate Change" or some other nebulous buzzwords that is popular with the woke beltway crowd.
Thirty years ago, the governments of the Netherlands and the US took the
courageous and visionary step of forging the world’s first Open Skies
agreement.
It took courage because of the suspicions and cynicism on both sides of
the Atlantic about who might be the “bigger winner,” and it was
visionary because few at the time comprehended the tremendous
significance that this first Open Skies pact would have on
commercial aviation and global trade.
Since 1992, the US has established more than 130 Open Skies agreements
and the model has been adopted by other nations and national alliances.
Over 70% of international flights in and out of the US operate under an
Open Skies agreement.
The policy of unrestricted market access, which is the keystone to an
Open Skies agreement, eliminates government intervention in airline
decision-making about routes, capacity and pricing, and is credited with
lowering fares by as much as 30%, creating millions
of jobs and generating billions of dollars in international trade.
Open Skies agreements are the great aviation connector of people, ideas
and, most especially, commerce. FedEx founder and chairman Fred
Smith—himself a visionary and the creator of the modern air cargo and
express package system—noted in September as he received
the prestigious 2022 L. Welch Pogue Award that history proves
conclusively that people have always wanted to travel and trade.
Supporting the continuance of the markets that Open Skies have
facilitated is critical, he said.
Smith is right. But there are increasingly worrying signs of protectionism and isolationism that threaten Open Skies.
Retreating from Open Skies policies would be a grave mistake. In
particular, it would disrupt the global air cargo system at a time when
the role of that industry sector has never been more critical. Try to
imagine a pandemic world where miraculous vaccines
could not be delivered safely, securely and expediently.
The global air cargo system has long been the deliverer of essential
medical equipment and medicines and of manufacturing parts critical to
the global supply chain. It has long been a conduit for trade and
emerging e-commerce. The pandemic shone a light on
the industry and its capabilities and has accelerated the pace of
e-commerce by perhaps five years, generating more business and jobs.
Air cargo operators depend on Open Skies, especially the fourth and
fifth freedoms that are often encompassed in the agreements for the
express purpose of providing additional rights to fly routes that do not
connect to their home country.
Mess with Open Skies and you risk messing up that entire eco-system that brings connectivity, wealth, well-being and jobs.
The 30th anniversary of the pact between the US and the Netherlands is a
time to celebrate that incredible achievement and to build on it. Open
Skies must be cherished and preserved.
I was reading a kindle book in between airplanes called "One Decisive Victory" a Grimm War book number#3 and there was a quote where he used before he sent his ship the U.S.S interceptor into battle and it caught my interest....So I looked up the quote to get the rest of the story.
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.
The quote caught my interest and I figured I would look up the backstory:
The Lays were composed by Macaulay in his thirties, during his spare time while he was the "legal member" of the Governor-General of India's Supreme Council from 1834 to 1838. He later wrote of them:
The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojourn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal.
The Roman ballads are preceded by brief introductions, discussing the
legends from a scholarly perspective. Macaulay explains that his
intention was to write poems resembling those that might have been sung
in ancient times.
The Lays were first published by Longman in 1842. They became immensely popular, and were a regular subject of recitation, then a common pastime. The Lays were standard reading in British public schools for more than a century. Winston Churchill memorized them while at Harrow School, in order to show that he was capable of mental prodigies, notwithstanding his lacklustre academic performance
The first poem, Horatius, describes how Publius Horatius and two companions, Spurius Larcius and Titus Herminius, hold the Sublician bridge, the only span crossing the Tiber at Rome, against the Etruscan army of Lars Porsena, King of Clusium.
The three heroes are willing to die in order to prevent the enemy from
crossing the bridge, and sacking the otherwise ill-defended city.
While the trio close with the front ranks of the Etruscans, Roman
engineers hurriedly work to demolish the bridge, leaving their enemies
on the far side of the swollen river.
Horatius
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."
Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?
As the span becomes unstable, Horatius urges Lartius and Herminius to
retreat, while he fights on alone. His companions regain the Roman
side before the bridge begins to collapse, but Horatius can no longer
cross to safety, and therefore leaps into the river, still fully
armoured. Macaulay writes,
No sound of joy or sorrow
Was heard from either bank;
But friends and foes in dumb surprise,
With parted lips and straining eyes,
Stood gazing where he sank:
And when above the surges
They saw his crest appear,
All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
And even the ranks of Tuscany
Could scarce forbear to cheer.
He reaches the Roman shore, is richly rewarded, and gains mythic status by his act of bravery:
With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.
I started this theme back in November of 2019?...With a couple of interruptions it has been consistent...Dang.
Saw this meme and *rescued it from farcebook*, why? because I am a humanitarian, that's why.
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 from the 1990's, an excellent Music Decade where we had a
President that Loved America and Distrusted Government and made the
comment during a speech "The most feared words in the English language
to a true American was I am from the government and I am here to help.."
and we listen to good music
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
went with the a Soundtrack song from "Apocalypse Now" I never heard of "The Ride" until I saw that movie in the early 80's, it started the movie off with a splash. I liked the movie pretty well but to be honest some of the ramblings of "Willard" played by Martin Sheen, got a bit old and long, and Marlin Brando as Colonel Kurtz was a bit of a disappointment to me. Just my opinion. But overall it was a good movie.
The "Ride of the Valkries" was suggested by a reader "Cannon".
As a separate piece, the "Ride" is often heard in a purely
instrumental version, which may be as short as three minutes. Together
with the "Bridal Chorus" from Lohengrin, the "Ride of the Valkyries" is one of Wagner's best-known pieces.
The main theme of the "Ride", the leitmotif labelled Walkürenritt,
was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851. The preliminary
draft for the "Ride" was composed in 1854 as part of the composition of
the entire opera, which was fully orchestrated by the end of March
1856.
In the Walküre opera, the "Ride", which takes around eight
minutes, begins in the prelude to the third act, building up successive
layers of accompaniment until the curtain rises to reveal a mountain
peak where four of the eight Valkyrie sisters of Brünnhilde have gathered in preparation for the transportation of fallen heroes to Valhalla.
As they are joined by the other four, the familiar tune is carried by
the orchestra, while, above it, the Valkyries greet each other and sing
their battle-cry. Apart from the song of the Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, it is the only ensemble piece in the first three operas of Wagner's Ring cycle.
The complete opera Die Walküre was first performed on 26 June 1870 in the National Theatre Munich
against the composer's intent. By January of the next year, Wagner was
receiving requests for the "Ride" to be performed separately, but wrote
that such a performance should be considered "an utter indiscretion" and
forbade "any such thing". However, the piece was still printed and sold in Leipzig, and Wagner wrote a complaint to the publisher Schott. In the period up to the first performance of the complete Ring cycle, Wagner continued to receive requests for separate performances, his second wife Cosima noting "Unsavoury letters arrive for R. – requests for the Ride of the Valkyries and I don't know what else."[4] Once the Ring had been performed in Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner lifted the embargo. He himself conducted it in London on 12 May 1877, repeating it as an encore.
