Bill Newton

William Ellis (Bill) Newton, VC (8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943 when, despite intense anti-aircraft fire, he pressed home a series of attacks on the Salamaua Isthmus, the last of which saw him forced to ditch his aircraft in the sea. Newton was still officially posted as missing when the award was made in October 1943. It later emerged that he had been taken captive by the Japanese, and executed by beheading on 29 March.
Raised in Melbourne, Newton excelled at sport, playing cricket at youth state level. He joined the Citizen Military Forces in 1938, and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1940. Described as having the dash of "an Errol Flynn or a Keith Miller", Newton served as a flying instructor in Australia before being posted to No. 22 Squadron, which began operating Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942. Having just taken part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, he was on his fifty-second mission when he was shot down and captured. Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron.
Family, education and sport.
Born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda on 8 June 1919, Bill Newton was the youngest child of dentist Charles Ellis Newton and his second wife Minnie. His three older half-siblings from Charles' earlier marriage included two brothers, John and Lindsay, and a sister, Phyllis. Bill entered Melbourne Grammar School in 1929, but two years later switched to the nearby St Kilda Park Central School as the family income was reduced through the impact of the Great Depression. In 1934, aged fifteen, he was able to return to Melbourne Grammar where, despite struggling with his schoolwork, he completed his Intermediate certificate. He gave up further study when his father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of fifty-one, and began working in a silk warehouse.
Considered while at school to be a future leader in the community, Newton was also a talented all-round sportsman, playing cricket, Australian rules football, golf and water polo. A fast bowler in cricket, he was friends with Keith Miller, and collected the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) Colts bowling trophy for 1937–38, while Miller collected the equivalent batting prize. In January 1938, Newton dismissed Test batsman Bill Ponsford—still the only Australian to twice score 400 in a first-class innings—for four in a Colts game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The following year, he gained selection in the Victorian Second XI. He opened the bowling against the New South Wales Second XI—his first and only match—taking a total of 3/113 including the wickets of Ron Saggers and Arthur Morris who, like Miller, went on to become members of the "Invincibles".
Early career.
Newton had been a sergeant in his cadet corps at school, and joined the Citizens Military Force on 28 November 1938, serving as a private in the machine-gun section of the 6th Battalion, Royal Melbourne Regiment. Still employed in the silk warehouse when World War II broke out in September 1939, he resigned to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 5 February 1940. He had earlier attempted to enlist when he turned eighteen in 1937, but his mother refused to give her permission; with Australia now at war, she acquiesced. His brothers—dentists by profession, like their father—also enlisted in the armed forces, John as a surgeon lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy and Lindsay as a captain in the Army Medical Corps.
Newton undertook his initial training with No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School in Parafield, South Australia, flying De Havilland Tiger Moths, and with No. 21 (City of Melbourne) Squadron at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, flying CAC Wirraways. He was awarded his wings and commissioned as a pilot officer on 28 June 1940. Following advanced training on Avro Ansons with No. 1 Service Flying Training School at RAAF Point Cook in September, he was selected to become a flight instructor. He completed the requisite course at Central Flying School in Camden, New South Wales, and was promoted to flying officer on 28 December. He subsequently began training students under the Empire Air Training Scheme at No. 2 Service Flying Training School near Wagga Wagga, under the command of Group Captain Frederick Scherger.
In October 1941, Newton transferred to No. 5 Service Flying Training School at Uranquinty. He found instruction frustrating, as he longed for a combat assignment. His fortunes changed in February 1942, when he was selected for the navigation course on Ansons at the General Reconnaissance School based at Laverton. From there he was sent to No. 1 Operational Training Unit at Sale, Victoria, for conversion to Lockheed Hudson twin-engined light bombers during March and April.
Promoted to flight lieutenant on 1 April 1942, Newton was posted the following month to No. 22 (City of Sydney) Squadron, based at RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales. Previously equipped with Hudsons, the unit had just begun converting to the more advanced Douglas Boston when Newton arrived. A comrade described him as a "big brash, likeable man who could drink most of us under the table, was a good pilot, good at sports, and had a way with girls". No. 22 Squadron was engaged in convoy escort and anti-submarine patrols off Sydney from July to September, before moving north to Townsville, Queensland. In November, it was deployed to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, under the control of No. 9 Operational Group RAAF.
New Guinea campaign.
Newton undertook the first of his fifty-two operational sorties on 1 January 1943, under the leadership of his commanding officer, Squadron Leader Keith Hampshire. During February, Newton flew low-level missions through monsoon conditions and hazardous mountain terrain, attacking Japanese forces ranged against Allied troops in the Morobe province. In early March, he took part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, one of the key engagements in the South West Pacific theatre, bombing and strafing Lae airfield to prevent its force of enemy fighters taking off to intercept Allied aircraft attacking the Japanese fleet. Newton gained a reputation for driving straight at his targets without evasive manoeuvre, and always leaving them in flames; this earned him the nickname "The Firebug". The Japanese gunners, however, reportedly knew him as "Blue Cap", from his habit of wearing an old blue cricket cap on operations. In spite of the hazards of the air war in New Guinea, he was quoted as saying, "The troops on the ground should get two medals each, before any airman gets one".
Attacks on Salamaua.
On 16 March 1943, Newton led a sortie on the Salamaua Isthmus in which his Boston was hit repeatedly by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, damaging fuselage, wings, fuel tanks and undercarriage. In spite of this he continued his attack and dropped his bombs at low level on buildings, ammunition dumps and fuel stores, returning for a second pass at the target in order to strafe it with machine-gun fire. Newton managed to get his crippled machine back to base, where it was found to be marked with ninety-eight bullet holes. Two days later, he and his two-man crew made a further attack on Salamaua with five other Bostons. As he bombed his designated target, Newton's plane was seen to burst into flames, raked by cannon fire from the ground. Attempting to keep his aircraft aloft as long as possible to get his crew away from enemy lines, he was able to ditch in the sea approximately offshore.
The Boston's navigator, Sergeant Basil Eastwood, was killed in the forced landing but Newton and his wireless operator, Flight Sergeant John Lyon, survived and managed to swim ashore. Several of the other aircraft in the flight circled the area; one returned to base straight away to inform Hampshire, and the remainder were later forced to depart through lack of fuel. Newton and Lyon originally made their way inland with the help of natives, aiming to contact an Australian Coastwatcher, but subsequently returned to the coast. There they were captured by a Japanese patrol of No. 5 Special Naval Landing Force. The two airmen were taken to Salamaua and interrogated until 20 March, before being moved to Lae where Lyon was bayoneted to death on the orders of Rear Admiral Ruitaro Fujita, the senior Japanese commander in the area. Newton was taken back to Salamaua where, on 29 March 1943, he was ceremonially beheaded with a Samurai sword by Sub-Lieutenant Uichi Komai, the naval officer who had captured him. Komai was killed in the Philippines soon after, and Fujita committed suicide at the end of the war.
Revelations and reactions.
It was initially believed that Newton had failed to escape from the Boston after it ditched into the sea, and he was posted as missing. Squadron Leader Hampshire had immediately dispatched a sortie to recover the pair that were last seen swimming for shore, but no sign of them was found. Two weeks later, he wrote a letter to Newton's mother in which he described her son's courage and expressed the hope that he might yet be found alive. Hampshire concluded, "Bill is one of those rare fellows I shall miss for a long time, and if it is to be, remember for an age". The details of his capture and execution were only revealed later that year in a diary found on a Japanese soldier. Newton was not specifically named, but circumstantial evidence clearly identified him, as the diary entry recorded the beheading of an Australian flight lieutenant who had been shot down by anti-aircraft fire on 18 March 1943 while flying a Douglas aircraft. The Japanese observer described the prisoner as "composed" in the face of his impending execution, and "unshaken to the last". After the decapitation, a seaman slashed open the dead man's stomach, declaring "Something for the other day. Take that."
General Headquarters South West Pacific Area, while releasing details of the execution on 5 October, initially refused to name Newton. Aside from the lack of absolute certainty as to identification, Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock, Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command, contended that naming him would change the impact of the news upon Newton's fellow No. 22 Squadron members "from the impersonal to the closely personal" and hence "seriously affect morale". News of the atrocity provoked shock in Australia. In an attempt to alleviate anxiety among the families of other missing airmen, the Federal government announced on 12 October that the relatives of the slain man had been informed of his death.
Victoria Cross.
Newton was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 16–18 March, becoming the only Australian airman to earn the decoration in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the only one while flying with an RAAF squadron. The citation, which incorrectly implied that he was shot down on 17 March rather than the following day, and as having failed to escape from his sinking aircraft, was promulgated in the "London Gazette" on 19 October 1943:
Legacy.
Buried initially in an unmarked bomb crater in Salamaua, Newton's body was recovered and re-interred in Lae War Cemetery after Salamaua's capture by Allied troops in September 1943. His grave marker bears the epitaph . In early 1944, the recently constructed No. 4 Airfield in Nadzab was renamed Newton Field in his honour. For many years, the story of Newton's death was intertwined with that of an Australian commando, Sergeant Len Siffleet, who had also been captured in New Guinea. A famous photograph showing Siffleet about to be executed with a katana was discovered by American troops in April 1944 and was thought to have depicted Newton in Salamaua. However, no photograph of the airman's execution is known to exist.
Newton's mother Minnie was presented with her son's Victoria Cross by the Governor-General, the Duke of Gloucester, on 30 November 1945. She donated it to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, where it remains on display with his other medals. Newton is also commemorated on Canberra's Remembrance Driveway. In the 1990s, his friend Keith Miller successfully fought to ensure that the Victoria Racing Club abandoned a plan to rename the William Ellis Newton Steeplechase—run on Anzac Day—after a commercial sponsor. Later in the decade, Miller also publicly questioned Australia Post's exclusion of Newton from a series of stamps featuring notable Australians such as cricketer Sir Donald Bradman. A plaque dedicated to No. 22 Squadron was unveiled at the Australian War Memorial by the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Angus Houston, on 16 March 2003, the sixtieth anniversary of Newton's attack on Salamaua.


Tibor Tobak

Tibor Tobak (1921 – 2001) was a World War II fighter pilot serving in the 3rd squadron of Hungarian 101. Honi Légvédelmi Vadászrepülő Osztály, who survived the war with two serious injuries and 4 confirmed and one uncorfirmed aerial victories. Shortly after the fall of communist rule he wrote a 300-page novel based on his notes, diaries and preserved personal letters. The 1991 book titled "Pumas on the ground and in the air" was praised for style, thrill, as well as day-by-day documentary accuracy. It was subsequently translated to and published in German and French languages after three Hungarian editions.
The publication of Tobak's Puma book sparked unexpectedly great public interest in the history of pre-1945 Hungarian aviation and air force, which was a strictly banned subject during the communist bloc era. Tibor Tobak quickly became the key personality representing and organizing veteran Hungarian military aviators. He wrote several more short stories commemorating the service of Hungarian bomber and aerial reconnaissance units in World War II. He was decorated and promoted to the rank of a colonel (retired) by the democratic government for his work in preserving an important part of Hungarian military history.
Tobak's Puma book is organized into several chapters. These address his flight school and fighter academy studies, months of service as a courier pilot in Transylvania, his entry to the Pumas and the first fights against USAAF bomber formations during the summer and autumn of 1944. (The full Puma unit, nominally the "101st wing", was worth no more than thirty Bf 109G6 fighter planes, yet sent alone to attack US formations consisting of 500 B-17 or B-24 heavy bombers and 300 P-51 Mustang fighters). Tobak documents his severe injury and an adventurous journey to and from a hospital in Germany through the chaos of day-and-night allied carpet bombing campaign.
The final part of his Puma book deals with war on the soviet front, against Il-2 ground support battle-aircraft and their Yak and Lavochkin fighter cover, where the Bf 109 was at disadvantage in low altitude operations. The book ends with the Puma's fighting retreat into Austria and torching its remaining planes on Raffelding airfield on 6 May 1945, with the badly burnt Tobak watching from the sideline. The Puma unit eventually offered itself captive to the US Army.
Air kills.
Not confirmed
Books written by Tibor Tobak.
Tobak Tibor: Pumák földön-égen, Egy vadászrepülő kalandjai, Háttér, Budapest, 1989.
Tobak Tibor : Pumák és a többiek : Mindig túlerővel szemben. Budapest,: HungAvia, 1990.
Tobak Tibor: Pumák és boszorkányok. Zrínyi, Budapest, 1995.
Tobak Tibor: Les pumas rouges. Témoignage d'un as de la chasse hongroise, 1941–1945, Alerion, 1996.


Boeing Vertol XCH-62

The Boeing Vertol XCH-62 (Model 301) was a triple-turbine, heavy-lift helicopter project designed for the United States Army by Boeing Vertol. Approved in 1971, one prototype reached 95% completion before it was canceled in 1975. The prototype was destroyed in 2005.
Development.
While the CH-47 Chinook is a large helicopter by American standards, its payload of is dwarfed by the huge Soviet-Russian heavy-lift helicopters such as the Mil Mi-26, with payload, and the experimental Mil Mi-12, with payload. For a long time Boeing and the US military had an urge to match or top the Mil heavy lifters. In the late 1960s, Boeing came up with designs for machines with broad similarities to the Sea Knight and Chinook, but about twice the size of the Chinook in terms of linear dimensions. Proposed machines included the "Model 227" transport and the "Model 237" flying crane.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a Heavy Lift Helicopter (HLH) in November 1970. On May 7, 1971, the DoD announced the selection of Boeing Vertol to perform the first phase of HLH development. Following award of an Army contract for an HLH prototype in 1973, Boeing did move forward on building an oversized flying crane machine, the "XCH-62". The XCH-62 prototype was in an advanced state of assembly in 1975, being readied for a planned initial flight in 1976. The XT701 engine had passed its 30-hour Prototype Preliminary Flight Rating Test (PPFRT) on March 12, 1975, and then passed a 60-hour Safety Demonstration Test (SDT) on August 4. However, the program was officially canceled on August 1. At the time of cancellation, the prototype was at 95% completion, and it needed about three months of final assembly and checkouts before rollout and installation for pre-flight testing.
Failures in the spiral bevel gearing of the main transmission were experienced in tests because the method of analysis employed had not considered the effect of rim bending. Consequently, new gears with strengthened rims were designed and fabricated. For a more accurate prediction of the load capacity of the gears, an extensive Finite Element Method (FEM) system was developed. The U.S. Army's XCH-62 HLH aft rotor transmission was finally successfully tested at full design torque and speed, but the US Congress cut funding for the program in August 1975. The designers of the Mil Mi-26 avoided similar problems by using a split-torque design in the main rotor transmission.
Subsequent attempts were made to finish the incomplete XCH-62 prototype, which had a serial number of 73-22012. In the mid-1980s, the Army, the US National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) collaborated on a scheme to finish the XCH-62 for experimental flights, requesting a combined USD$71 million in funding through fiscal year 1989. However, Congress declined funding, and the craft remained incomplete. The prototype was moved from a warehouse storage site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, floated by barge to Panama City, Florida, and then lifted by a Chinook CH-47D helicopter to the US Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, Alabama on December 8, 1987. The XCH-62 prototype, the largest helicopter ever built in the western countries, was displayed at the US Army Aviation Museum until it was later scrapped in 2005. In 2008, several parts were sent to the Helicopter Museum at Weston-super-Mare (United Kingdom), to be exhibited there.
Design.
The XCH-62 is a tandem rotor helicopter, with four blades on each rotor. Its rotor diameter was to be , fuselage length , and footprint length . The maximum width with blades folded was . The rotor blade had a length was , a chord of , and a weight of . The fuselage was mounted high to provide of ground clearance, which let the helicopter taxi over a container for lifting. However, the taxiing requirement was later eliminated because of the helicopter's ability to hover and lift a load, so a second prototype would probably have had only of ground clearance, which would lower the overall height and reduce the amount of modifications required for the helicopter to fit into hangars.
The rotorcraft was designed to lift a standard Department of Defense, MILVAN container weighing up to . Its widely spaced landing gear would allow it to straddle heavy cargoes such as armored vehicles, and still carry twelve troops in its slender fuselage. Boeing also considered selling a commercial version, the "Model 301". The helicopter was powered by three Allison XT701-AD-700 turboshafts, developed from Allison's 501-M62B engines, which each produced static sea-level power to rotate a shaft at 11,485 rpm. A combiner gearbox converted the power of the three shafts into two transmission shafts turning at 7,976 rpm, leading into forward and aft rotor transmissions that produced at 155.7 rpm. The XCH-62 was designed to be the first helicopter with a fly-by-wire flight control system without a mechanical backup.


Ronaldsway railway station

Ronaldsway Halt is a request stop on the Isle of Man Railway between Castletown and Ballasalla at Ronaldsway, near the Isle of Man Airport. Passengers wishing to board the train here can signal the driver to stop the train; to alight from the train the guard must be notified in advance.
Location and environs.
The halt is situated behind the Ronaldsway Industrial Estate beside the Silverburn River at the midway point between the stations at Ballasalla and Castletown. Ronaldsway is the site of the Battle of Ronaldsway in 1275, which saw the Isle of Man transfer from Norse rule to Scottish rule; keills were excavated here and these now form part of historical displays at the Story Of Mann in Douglas. On the west side of the halt is a large field known as the "Great Meadow" which was once a horse racing track and later played host to the island's annual southern agricultural show; there were special trains for both these events.
History.
The halt was introduced in 1967, to compete for airport traffic with buses and taxis. At that time there was just a simple nameboard, and the halt was mentioned only intermittently in timetables. As part of a major overhaul of the entire line as part of an all-island sewerage network in 2001, a pipeline was laid beneath the railway line and the permanent way completely replaced, the halt received a small waiting platform consisting of built up sleepers.
Traffic.
Because of the short walk from the airport, air passengers leave and board trains here; it is also a popular drop-off spot for walkers, being close to the Millennium Way footpath established in 1979.
Nameboard.
The halt's name is that of the nearby airport. For the 1971 season only it was re-titled as "Great Meadow Halt" in reference to the large field and one-time race course that lies adjacent to the halt. When bilingual Manx/English nameboards were introduced on the line, a replacement nameboard was added in 2009 showing the Manx Gaelic name of "Staad Roonysvie" and is still there today.


Aloha Cargo Express


Time Ace

Time Ace is an aerial combat game developed for the Nintendo DS by Trainwreck Studios and The Farm 51 and published by Konami. The game was released on June 12, 2007. Time Ace is based on the concept that an eccentric inventor from 1914, Dr. Hugo Clock, has formed a plan to travel forward in time to end World War I, but the evil Dr. Klaus Scythe uses the time machine to further his own plan for world domination. The player's goal is to stop Scythe's scheme.
The game is similar in concept to Konami's 1981 arcade game "Time Pilot".
Story.
In 1914, eccentric scientist Dr. Hugo Clock created a time machine with the plans of going back in time and preventing World War I from happening and preventing millions of needless deaths. However, his sneaky assistant, Dr. Klaus Scythe, hijacks his time machine with a plan to acquire an arsenal of history's most powerful weapons in order to rule the world.
Reception.
"Time Ace" received mixed reviews from critics upon release. On Metacritic, the game holds a score of 52/100 based on 19 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


Long Lake Seaplane Base (Naples, Maine)

Long Lake Seaplane Base is a privately owned, public use seaplane base on Long Lake in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is located one nautical mile (2 km) northeast of the central business district of Naples, Maine.
Facilities and aircraft.
Long Lake Seaplane Base has one seaplane landing area designated 16/34 with a water surface measuring 15,000 by 3,960 feet (4,572 x 1,207 m). For the 12-month period ending August 13, 2010, the airport had 260 general aviation aircraft operations, an average of 21 per month.


Airport authority

An airport authority is an independent entity charged with the operation and oversight of an airport or group of airports. These authorities are often governed by a group of airport commissioners, who are appointed to lead the authority by a government official. When the authority of an entity encompasses more than just the airports in an area, harbor and rail facilities for example, the entity may be referred to as a port authority.
The Airports Council International is the world trade association of airport authorities.
In Canada, airport authorities usually refer to private (not government owned or affiliated) not-for-profit companies that are established to manage a city's commercial airports.


Pan Am International Flight Academy

Pan Am International Flight Academy (PAIFA) is an aviation school that specializes in training airlines, pilots and aviation professionals from around the world. It is the only remaining division of Pan American World Airways, which declared bankruptcy in January 1991 and shut down in December of that year. Under the terms of the bankruptcy, the flight academy was allowed to remain open independently. It is presently owned by the holding company of All Nippon Airways.
In 2017 Pan Am International Flight Academy was awarded the Corporate Achievement Award by the Greater Miami Aviation Association recognizing the contributions of the corporation to the aviation industry. Pan Am International Flight Academy, Denver, was awarded the Export Achievement Certificate by the Denver office of the U.S. Commercial Services Division, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
History.
In 1980, Pan American World Airways' International Flight Academy opened for business in a new building located at the Miami International Airport (MIA). This training division operated until the airline closed on December 4, 1991. Under the terms of the airline bankruptcy, the training academy was permitted to remain open independently in 1992 under its current name, Pan Am International Flight Academy. The company began operations by using the flight simulator of the former airline at the same campus location.
In 2006, American Capital Strategies invested $58 million in Pan Am. Pan Am International Flight Academy, based out of Miami International Airport, has trained a substantial number of students from India.
In 2010, Pan Am International Flight Academy purchased Miami-based Aeroservice Aviation Center, LLC, located only a few blocks away. Under the terms of this agreement, Pan Am purchased all of Aeroservice's training and simulator assets, adding significantly to Pan Am's Miami training capabilities, classrooms, and campus size.
On July 30, 2013, ANA Holdings, the holding company of All Nippon Airways, announced they will acquire Pan Am Holdings, including Pan Am International Flight Academy.
Aviation School.
The flight academy, headquartered in Miami, trains pilots and aviation professionals from around the world. In 2017 Pan Am International Flight Academy trained over 5,000 individuals. Core training programs include pilot training, airline crew training, type rating training, ATP-CTP, aircraft maintenance training, flight attendant or cabin crew training, dispatchers, air traffic control, and career pilot academy or ab initio training at their location in Kissimmee.
The academy has training centers located throughout the United States and access to many centers around the world. The company, along with its licensed partners, has more than 200 aviation training programs and is certified to train pilots under major international authorities including: the Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and others.
It currently owns and operates more than 70 simulators and trains on the Boeing 707, Boeing 737, Boeing 747-200/400, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, Airbus A320 family, and Saab 340.
Sept 11 Attacks.
On August 17, 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was arrested after an instructor at Pan Am International Flight Academy became suspicious of him. In a piece in the New York Times, Michael Erlandson, chief of staff on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation is quoted as saying: "The Pan Am people are heroes who worked very diligently to make themselves heard at the FBI."
Television & Film.
Because of their flight simulators and professional aviators, the Pan Am International Flight Academy is often approached to allow usage of their equipment and experts to TV shows and films.
In addition to its Miami headquarters, Pan Am has facilities in Las Vegas, Kissimmee, Tokyo and London and is currently providing training to clients in Asia and Europe through participating partners.


Ivanpah Valley Airport

Ivanpah Valley Airport is a planned government relief airport for McCarran International Airport in the Las Vegas Valley, to be located in the Ivanpah Valley of the Mojave Desert, within Clark County, Nevada.
Since there is only limited space left for expansion at McCarran, due to being located adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip, a new airport is the only alternative to increase capacity by a significant amount. The project is on hold as of June 2010. The planned location for the airport is approximately 5 miles southwest of the Jean Airport. It is not known whether the Jean Airport would be closed if the new airport is opened. However, this would be likely due to the runways lining up and the interference between the small general aviation aircraft and commercial jets.
History.
Legislation was signed on October 28, 2000, allowing the Clark County Commission to purchase land for a new commercial airport. The Commission was to buy of land in the Ivanpah Valley from the Bureau of Land Management, about southwest of McCarran International Airport for the Ivanpah Airport. The location is between the towns of Jean and Primm.
The airport had been planned to open in 2017. However the Clark County Department of Aviation announced the project was put on temporary hold as of June 2010 due to the Great Recession, until air traffic and tourism demands to Metro Las Vegas returns and increases.
As of mid-2018 it is planned that the environmental impact study will last at least two more years. This means that construction is guaranteed not begin until at least 2020.
Construction.
Clark County Department of Aviation had hoped to start construction in 2010 and to open the facility in 2017. These dates were based on McCarran reaching 90% (49.5 million passengers) of its projected capacity of 55 million passengers in 2017, it actually had 48.5 million. At that time, McCarran was expected to be at 55 million passengers in 2011. The economic recession of 2007-2010 has slowed demand considerably in the Las Vegas region and as a result, planning for the airport has slowed. The federal environmental review process has been temporarily suspended and planning has slowed as well.
Most recently the project was working to meet the lengthy environmental studies required for major projects. The engineering consultant firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. was chosen as the firm to help prepare the Environmental Impact Statement for the airport.
Access to airport.
The location designated for the airport is between the towns of Jean and Primm, Nevada, and between Interstate 15 and the Union Pacific; this leaves a gap of approximately for the construction of the airport. The Interstate 15 right-of-way is expected to be used by the private Brightline West (formerly DesertXpress and XpressWest) high-speed rail line, purchased by Brightline in 2018. While no intermediate stops are planned, the railroad partnered with the airport authority in 2020 to ensure rail and flight operations and constructions would not conflict.
The also stalled California–Nevada Interstate Maglev line to connect Las Vegas with California was to terminate at the new airport.


Ivy Baldwin

Ivy Baldwin (born William Ivy July 31, 1866 – October 8, 1953, in Houston, Texas, he changed his name in later years to Ivy Baldwin so that he and his partner, Thomas Scott Baldwin, could be billed as "The Baldwin Brothers".
 Ivy Baldwin was an American balloonist, aeronaut and high-wire performer. He is credited with being the first aviator to be shot down during wartime in the U.S. during the Spanish–American War.
Biography.
In 1877 he performed in Thayer Dollar Circus as a tightrope walker. He later joined with Thomas and Sam Baldwin—billed as "The Baldwin Brothers"—performing high wire acts as well as balloon ascensions and parachuting. The Baldwin Brothers performed using handmade balloons filled with hot air which would ascend to 2500 feet as Ivy Baldwin performed acrobatics and would parachute to the ground. He became a solo performer in 1893 and joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps the following year as a Sergeant in the position of piloting and maintaining their demonstration balloon.
From 1890 to 1907 Baldwin spent many summers at Elitch Gardens where he made balloon ascents on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes performing stunts on a trapeze as he ascended. "In 1902, for the first time, Ivy Baldwin parachuted to the earth from the balloon. Mary Elitch Long, the owner of the gardens, was quoted as saying: "Mr. Long and I were the first passengers to soar into the Colorado sky. I must confess there were some apprehensive gasps as the starting whistle blew, but our fears soon gave place to a feeling of power and security as we ascended... From the great height of fifteen hundred feet, all Denver and its environs of mountains and plains lay spread before our entranced vision."
In 1898 he was the pilot of the hot air balloon that gave U.S. troops location information of Spanish snipers before the Battle of San Juan Hill. The balloon was shot down on June 30, 1898, and landed in the Aguadores River. Baldwin was later honourably discharged and he took fragments of the balloon with him which he would sell when he performed, dubbing himself "the air hero of the late War". He celebrated his eighty-second birthday by tightrope walking 125 feet above a canyon formed by the South Boulder Creek in Colorado, a crossing he'd made 80 times in 40 years.
Ivy Baldwin lived many years in Eldorado Canyon, in Boulder County, Colorado, where he died, not in a balloon mishap, but in bed, at his home on Oct. 8, 1953, at the age of 87.
Halls of fame.
He was the first inductee to the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame in 1969, along with 9 other early Colorado aviators. They stated that since his early years he had “a sincere urge to get into the air, one way or the other.” The ceremony noted that he was also "the first person to fly a powered 'air craft' in the State of Colorado" since he had made a brief flight "in a self-designed and self-built powered dirigible-type balloon".
He was selected to be in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame for being "the first person to successfully fly an airplane in the State of Nevada." which he accomplished on June 23, 1910.


Heathrow (hamlet)

Heathrow or Heath Row was a wayside hamlet along a minor country lane called Heathrow Road in the ancient parish of Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, on the outskirts of what is now Greater London. Its buildings and all associated holdings were demolished, along with almost all of the often grouped locality of The Magpies in 1944 for the construction of Heathrow Airport.
The name Heathrow described its layout: a lane, on one side smallholdings and farms of fields and orchards which ran for a little over a , on the other, until the 1819 Inclosure for farmland, common land: a mixture of pasture, hunting and foraging land on less fertile heath. Akin to Sipson Green it was a scattered agricultural locality of Harmondsworth. The two lightly populated places dotted the brickearth-over-gravel soils in the east of Harmondsworth which historically butted on to Hounslow Heath. Yards from the lane, while the heath existed, General William Roy mapped one end of the first baseline for measuring the distance between the Paris and Greenwich observatories, the first precise distance survey in Britain, in 1784.
By the late 19th century Heathrow had developed three main agricultural settlement clusters with orchards and fields worked by teams of labourers — Heathrow Hall, Perrotts Farm and on some measures Perry Oaks at a fork in the southwest end of the lane. Abutting The Magpies, east along the Bath Road, Sipson Green also lay in Harmondsworth, covered in the article on the hamlet-turned-village of Sipson. A small orchard founded before the 19th century Kings Arbour, Harmondsworth, separated The Magpies from Heathrow. The Magpies had a mission church of the parish and has kept one of its pre-1765 public houses, "The Three Magpies".
History.
"For a timeline of Heathrow events, see Heathrow timeline."
Extent and development.
By the 1910s the amenities of Heathrow had grown little since the, at latest, 15th-century laying out of the lane.
It spanned, north–south, from Kings Arbour orchard to Perry Oaks farm (which sat at the junction of the lane and another). An agricultural cluster of buildings and great house Heathrow Hall were slightly toward the north of the lane. All the homes and farms clung to this 90° turning lane, a turn staggered by two bends. Detailed 1910s maps show its unusual continuing agricultural focus so close to London; about half of the buildings and homes were at the two farms. The northern was Heathrow Hall, 500 metres south of the area of Harmondsworth that was from the 16th century until the mid 20th century known as The Magpies, a mix of terraces and houses on and off of the Bath Road, the west of which was a set of 18 densely packed houses, Belch's Row and the east of which was Sipson Green, further orchard-backed homes along the Bath Road in the same parish. Heathrow itself had no terraces, instead small cottages and a few larger houses in large grounds. Two offshoot lanes broke away, Cain's Lane southeast to New Bedfont and High Tree Lane south to West Bedfont (long part of Stanwell); at the start of Cain's Lane was in the 1910s an Anglican Mission room in the heart of the orchards and fields of Perrotts Farm, the other main cluster of buildings of Heathrow. The Diocese of London was keen to give all people a convenient place of worship. By the end of the 19th century The Magpies had a mission church, on the north side of the Bath Road. Sipson Green is covered in the text on the hamlet-turned-village of Sipson. Both remain intrinsic parts of the ecclesiastical parish of Harmondsworth, whose parish priest is as at Amatu Onundu Christian-Iwuagwu in a church with elements surviving from initial 1067 construction. It will be re-sited or see elements curated in a museum if a third runway for Heathrow Airport receives final planning permission and all appeals are dismissed.
Founding and early history.
A sizeable Neolithic settlement is believed to have been in the Heathrow area. Many artefacts have been found in the gravel around what is now the airport, and the Colne Valley regional park. Waste pits filled with struck flint, arrowheads and fragments of pottery were also found in the area, indicating a settlement, though none other remains of such a settlement.
Heathrow was one of the last settlements formed in the parish of Harmondsworth. Its name was rendered in various orthographies which reflect approximately the same pronunciation as today "La Hetherewe" (about year 1410, first known mention), "Hithero", "Hetherow", "Hetherowfeyld", "Hitherowe", and "Heath Row/Heathrow", Middle English spellings of "heath row" (simply a row (impliedly of houses) on or by a heath). Old maps show Heathrow as a row of houses along the northwest sides of the curve of a lane occasionally named Heathrow Road or Lane, which faced land until 1819 part of a great set of common lands belonging to neighbouring parishes — Hounslow Heath. The first orthography as "Heathrow" dates to 1453.
Certain Ordnance Survey maps before the Second World War, closer to Sipson Green and the adjoining Harlington Corner (localities of the Bath Road), show an earthwork, 300 metres due south of where New Road, Harlington meets the Bath Road, that had been excavated in 1723 by order of William Stukeley. He believed it to have been a Roman settlement, and named it "Caesar's Camp".
General Roy's western baseline.
In 1784 General William Roy chose the orchard of King's Arbour to be one end of first base line of the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) trigonometrical survey for the first triangles of a triangulation grid reaching across the English Channel. He chose Hounslow Heath for his lines it was near-flat, near barracks and about 15 miles from the Royal Observatory. The east/south end was the Poor House in Hampton. The ends were originally marked by vertical wooden pipes (which could support flagstaffs), but in the resurvey of 1791 they were found to be rotting and were replaced by upright cannon heads which are still to be seen.
The marker and landmarks on the Bath Road enables visitors and historians to picture features on old maps when visiting today's airport, without the use of grid references.
Great West Aerodrome.
In 1929, Fairey Aviation bought of land just southeast of Heathrow hamlet, to establish an airfield for flight testing; later purchases gradually enlarged the aerodrome to about . It came to be called the Great West Aerodrome, which in 1944 was greatly enlarged to become London Airport, which was later renamed as Heathrow Airport.
Development.
Agriculture became the main source of income for residents in the hamlet, as the brickearth just as the underlying gravel in soils in the area made for reliable farming for fruit trees and bushes, vegetables, and flowers as it held manure well and markets were in easy reach of these perishable cash crops. Clay soil in other parts of England favoured potatoes and chalk favoured grains. Most residents and seasonal labourers joined in the large west Middlesex market gardening industry. Many residents grew which they would travel with into London to sell, on the return journey collecting manure for farming. As motor vehicles made urban horse manure (from stables and cleaned off roads) much less, local farm workers started instead using sewage sludge (up to annually) from the Perry Oaks sewage works, opened in 1936, as fertiliser.
The farms and buildings across most of south-east Harmondsworth greatly changed in the early 20th century; mostly a web of rural roads and lanes. An illustration being that until about 1930, only one building stood on the north side of Bath Road between Belches Row at The Magpies on the two kilometres to the demolished Kings Head west of the preserved Longford Pump, Longford. Three factories: Technicolor and Penguin Books and Black & Decker were founded in those fields before 1939. No buildings equally stood on the south side of this major thoroughfare.
Other than a few homes and gardens, six farms held land on became the airport in the 1930s, as documented in principal feature maps.
Heathrow was away from main roads and further away from railways; that kept it secluded and quiet although near London. As Middlesex changed to market gardening and fruit growing to supply expanding London, parts of Heathrow held on to old-type mixed farming, and thus was chosen for Middlesex area horse-drawn ploughing competitions, which needed land which was under stubble after harvest.
The ford where High Tree Lane crossed the Duke of Northumberland's River was a scenic spot used sometimes for picnics and courting couples. There was a footpath along beside the river from the ford to Longford.
The Middlesex Agricultural and Growers' Association held annual ploughing matches in Heathrow, until the last, the 99th, was held on 28 September 1937; the 100th match (in 1938) was postponed to 1939 due to severe drought, and in 1939 it was cancelled because World War II had started.
The Royal Commission on Historic Monuments listed 28 historically significant buildings in the parish of Harmondsworth, a third of which were in Heathrow. Notable buildings included Heathrow Hall, a late 18th-century farmhouse, which was on Heathrow Road, and Perry Oaks farm, which was Elizabethan.
In the 19th century much brickearth-type land in west Middlesex, including in Heathrow, was used for orchards of fruit trees, often several sorts mixed in one orchard. Much soft fruit was grown, often in the orchards under the fruit trees. Sometimes vegetables, or flowers for cutting, were grown under the fruit trees. An author in 1907 reported "thousands and thousands" of plum, cherry, apple, pear, and damson trees, and innumerable currant and gooseberry bushes, round Harmondsworth and Sipson and Harlington and Heathrow. After World War I the amount of fruit growing in the area decreased due to competition from imports and demand for more market-gardening land, and by 1939 less than 10% of the orchard area was left.
Produce was taken to Covent Garden market, or by smaller growers to Brentford market, which was nearer but less profitable. From the Three Magpies, the lane's northern end – much reduced and curtailed today – to Covent Garden is which was about 6 hours at laden horse-and-wagon speed; goods had to set off before 10 pm the day before to reach the market when it opened at 4 am, until motor trucks came. Lighter produce such as strawberries where freshness brought highest prices could reach Covent Garden Market in an hour and a half in a light vehicle behind a light fast horse.
An field south of the Bath Road, about east of the lane, were between after 1912 and 1935 allotment gardens (shown on a map dated 1935) and in the 1940 Luftwaffe air survey.
In the 1930s Heathrow Hall and Perry Oaks were mixed farms with wheat, cattle, sheep and pigs, and the other farms were largely market gardening and fruit growing. Photographs from early in the 20th century show to the southeast, at Cain's Farm facing modest Heathrow House, milk cattle (about 22 in the photograph) and the yearly horse-drawn ploughing competition on Cain's Lane. Later examples show such competitions in the far north-east near Tithe Barn Lane on Heathrow Hall land. In the 1910s a small gravel pit of just under an acre was on the east side of Tithe Barn Lane at the far west of what could be loosely, based mainly on Heathrow Hall's ownership be considered part of Heathrow and a similar marsh then pond to the north, all where today's Compass Centre stands.
Archaeology.
Caesar's Camp.
Caesar's Camp, also called Schapsbury Hill and Shasbury Hill, was a square, Early Iron Age, British (not Roman) fort site of c. 500 BC, south of Bath Road, about halfway between Heathrow Road and Hatton Road, and a bit north of due east of Heathrow Hall. It was about square (c. 1820 measurement) or square (1911 measurement). It survived because it was on common land until the enclosure of the commons of Harmondsworth parish, after which the fort's ramparts were fairly quickly ploughed out.
It was excavated hurriedly in 1944: see timeline below. Inside its rampart 15 circular hut sites were found, and a large rectangular building which was probably a temple. The east end of the north runway obliterated it.
Fern Hill.
Fern Hill was another ramparted prehistoric site, represented in 1944 by a roughly circular cropmark about in diameter, near Hatton Cross. The site is now partly under an aircraft hangar.
Terminal 5 site.
Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 began in September 2002, on the site of the Perry Oaks sewage works, with earthworks for the construction of the buildings' foundation. The long delay caused by planning discussions allowed a thorough archaeological dig at the site, which found more than 80,000 artefacts.
Industry.
A brickearth and gravel quarry and brick works was opened in the 1930s. At a survey in 1934 the quarry was , of which was lake. Later it expanded to the northeast and finally the lake was about long. The Heathrow Brick Company went into liquidation in 1943 and was wound up in 1944.
A sewage sludge works was built in the Perry Oaks part of Heathrow in 1934, and a gauge railway installed three years later. Improvements were made in the 1950s and 1960s, and the works were eventually demolished in 2002 to make way for Terminal 5.
The settled sludge of the large Mogden Sewage Treatment Works (West Middlesex Sewage Treatment Works) in Isleworth/Twickenham was pumped west to Perry Oaks for further settling and conversion for use in agriculture in pelleted or powder form as Mogdenite or Morganite. Sales were eventually stopped because of the possibility of contamination with toxic
metals.
Philip Sherwood, author of several books about Heathrow, infers that the route of the under-pressure sludge sewer, which needed access points to prevent blockages, could have stopped the building of the airport. He states if it had gone across the Heathrow fields area, e.g. straight from Harlington Corner to Perry Oaks, the amount of work and time in wartime needed to divert it would have stopped the airport from being developed.
Education.
Heathrow School was founded in 1875, as Heathrow Elementary School, on land given by George Stevens Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford by the north side of Bath Road. The school opened two years later and was enlarged in 1891. In time the school was renamed 'Sipson and Heathrow School', because more than half its pupils came from Sipson.
After the construction of Heathrow Airport started in 1944, the school was affected by aircraft noise from the north runway. Pupils from the few Perry Oaks cottages for more than a year travelled by taxi to avoid construction works, until its sludge-to-fertiliser farm led to the end of almost all its homes. In 1962 the school lost its playing field when an airport access road was built and four years later it moved to Harmondsworth Lane in Sipson, and became Heathrow School again. The school's current logo is a Concorde in flight.


Iron Eagle on the Attack

Iron Eagle on the Attack (also known as Iron Eagle IV) is a 1995 direct-to-video aviation action film directed by Sidney J. Furie. The fourth instalment in the "Iron Eagle" series, it stars Louis Gossett Jr. reprising his role once again as retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair. Doug Masters, the protagonist of the first film, returns, but is played by Jason Cadieux instead of Jason Gedrick. The film's opening scene is an alternate take on the scenario presented in "Iron Eagle II", wherein Masters survived after being shot down in Soviet airspace.
Plot.
While on a routine F-16C fighter aircraft patrol in United States airspace west of Alaska, Doug Masters and his wingman test the g-forces of their fighters but stray into Soviet airspace. One of the Soviet aircraft has Doug on missile-lock, shooting him down. Doug safely ejects but is captured by Soviet soldiers.
Several years later, Doug is still haunted by his days as a prisoner. Working as a crop duster, he is recruited by old friend, retired Gen. Charles "Chappy" Sinclair as an instructor at his flight school. Chappy's school has teenagers who fly his Harvard IV trainers with no regard for safety. These teenagers in trouble with the law were taken in as a means of rehabilitating them.
During an exhibition the young misfits face off against teens from the Air Force. Wheeler cons a drug dealer out of $2,000 by handing him a bag of sugar disguised as cocaine. With her co-pilot Rudy Marlowe she tries to fly to Mexico. Doug pursues her and has her to land on an abandoned air force base. A platoon of armed men at the base try to kill them. Doug intervenes and tells Chappy about the incident. Chappy and Maj. Gen. Brad Kettle investigate the activity at a storage bunker revealed to be holding chemical weapons.
Doug leaves the school and Chappy is given a notice by the State Patrol that his flight program is terminated immediately with his students sent back to juvenile hall. Wheeler steals a trainer, creating a diversion allowing students to hijack a bus and head back to the school. Chappy organizes the students to infiltrate the airbase and acquire enough resources to stop the convoy carrying the chemical weapons. Upon entering the airbase, Kitty Shaw and Chappy discover Operation Pandora was to use chemical weapons on hostile countries, like Cuba. They print out the data before leaving the premises and handing it to Kettle. Meanwhile, Dana Osborne and Rudy attempt to stop the convoy, but are shot down. As they attempt to escape on foot, Rudy is shot by Major Pierce, but Doug, Chappy and his team accompany Kettle to Craig Air Force Base, only to realize that Kettle is the ring-leader who captures the team.
After Kettle leaves the chamber, Kitty hacks the computer setting off fire extinguishers, giving Chappy's team time to escape. A stray shot from one of the soldiers ruptures the canister, contaminating the chamber and killing Dr. Francis Gully and everyone inside. As Kitty and Peter sneak into the cargo plane carrying the chemical weapon, Chappy sends a radio message, warning everyone of a hostile aircraft heading to Cuba. Kettle orders his fighter squadron to shoot down the trainer aircraft. The squadron of two fighters attacks the trainers, only to be confronted by Doug, who has commandeered a fighter aircraft. Doug and the students shoot down the attackers.
The students approach the cargo plane and attack it. Inside, Peter Kane opens the cargo door, causing the soldiers aboard to fall out. Kitty assumes the controls. Peter then jettisons all of the canisters into the ocean. Seeing his mission as a failure, Kettle prepares to kill Chappy when Doug suddenly attacks the airbase, giving Chappy time to escape. As police arrive at the scene, Kettle enters the contaminated chamber - his fate unknown.
Days later, Wheeler tells Doug she is heading to Mexico for a new start, but he convinces her to stay. The Iron Eagle Flight School then prepares for a new batch of students fresh out of juvenile hall.
Production.
"Iron Eagle on the Attack" was shot at the Oshawa Airport and CFB Toronto (Downsview Airport), Ontario, Canada.The main aircraft in the film scenes in Canada are three CCF Harvard IV training aircraft owned and operated by Hannu Halminen of Roaero Ltd., Oshawa. A wide range of other aircraft were seen in the background or in hangars: Beechcraft 35-33 Debonair, Bell OH-58 Kiowa, Bell 206 JetRanger, Boeing-Stearman Model 75, Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan, Canadair CF-116A and CF-116D, Cessna 150, Lockheed C-130H Hercules, Percival P.66 Pembroke C.51, Piper PA-11 Cub Special and Waco Classic Aircraft YMF-5C.
Other aircraft from the Israeli Air Force shown in aerial combat footage included: General Dynamics F-16A "Netz", F-21/C-2 Kfir and McDonnell Douglas F-4 "Kurnass".
Reception.
Film historian and reviewer Leonard Maltin considered the first "Iron Eagle" as "... a dum-dum comic-book movie ..." His only comment about the fourth in the series was simply to list it as part of the series.


Airmobile Operations Division (Germany)

Airmobile Operations Division (Division Luftbewegliche Operationen) was a division of the German Army. The division was founded on 1 July 2002 and reported for duty 8 October 2002. Airmobile Operations Division consisted of approximately 14,500 soldiers, 350 of which were stationed at divisionary headquarters in Veitshöchheim, Germany.
In October 2011 the German Federal Ministry of Defence announced a reorganisation/reduction of the German Armed Forces. As a consequence, Airmobile Operations Division was dissolved and those units not being disbanded altogether were either transferred to other parts of the armed forces or incorporated into a different command structure. The division itself was officially disbanded on 26 June 2014 and was integrated into the 10th Armoured Division which relocated from Sigmaringen to Veitshöchheim.
Tasks.
The tasks of the division were unique within the modern German military in that it was able to provide air mobility as well as ground-based fire support, aerial defence and counter chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear assets to all parts of the German military. With an additional infantry component, it was also capable of limited air assault operations. The division's command was prepared to fulfil a role as Framework Headquarters for NATO and EU operations. Troops of Airmobile Operations Division also render assistance to civilian authorities during disaster relief operations.
Coat of arms and motto.
The coat of arms of Airmobile Operations Division depicts a flying black eagle, with its wings turned upright, holding a sword in its claws on a argent. Below the eagle a red arrow is shown. The argent symbolises dedication and the eagle strength, courage and bravery. The eagle's upturned wings, somewhat unusual in heraldry, represent the lunging out for new power. The sword stands for strike capability and penetration depth. The red arrow illustrates the third dimension, the depth of space and the dynamics of the division. The framing silver cord shows the status as a division. The maroon coloured seam corresponds with the traditional beret colour of the Army Aviation Corps and airborne forces.
The division's motto was the same as the German Army Aviation Corps': "Nach vorn!" which translates as either "Forward!" or "To the front!".
Deployment.
Units of Airmobile Operations Division were deployed in a number of missions under the aegis of either the United Nations, the European Union or NATO.
Structure.
Airmobile Operations Division's staff was based at Veitshöchheim. The division incorporated units from various branches of the German Army. These units were stationed all over Southern and Central parts of Germany.
The following units were directly subordinate to Airmobile Operations Division:
The following units were subordinate to Airmobile Brigade 1:


Oliver P. Echols

Oliver Patton Echols (March 4, 1892 – May 15, 1954) was an American military officer who brought success in World War II to the United States Army Air Forces by expanding the inventory of America's air arm to meet the needs of the coming war. More than any other man under Chief of the Army Air Forces, General Henry H. Arnold, Echols was responsible for the development, procurement and supply of aircraft and aeronautical equipment. Fighter projects officer Benjamin S. Kelsey, directly subordinate to Echols from 1934 to 1945, called him "The Man Who Won World War II."
Early career.
Oliver Patton Echols was born on March 4, 1892 in Charlottesville, Virginia, to William Holding Echols, a university professor. Oliver Echols attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the University of Virginia, studying aviation engineering.
Echols enlisted in 1916 and served in World War I with the United States Army Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, from August 1917 to April 1919, participating as an aviator in the battles of Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. At the rank of captain, Echols served as Chief of Air Service, I Corps, for the final drive against German forces.
Echols's educational and military preparation for his later specialization included attendance at the Army Industrial College, Command and General Staff School, Army War College, and Air Corps Tactical School. He served in the Air Corps Experimental Engineering Section and the Procurement Section before becoming the chief engineer of the Materiel Division from 1934 to 1938.
War production.
In January 1936, Echols telephoned Howard Hughes to say the Air Corps was interested in purchasing the record-breaking Hughes H-1 Racer as a pursuit plane—it was faster than anything they had. Hughes agreed to fly the aircraft to Wright Field for a demonstration, but he failed to show up for the appointment that Echols had set up with higher Air Corps brass. After that snub, Echols never again gave Hughes a chance to bid on Air Corps projects, not even in October 1941 when Hughes offered the twin-boom D-2 fighter-bomber design. Echols allowed Wright Field engineers to examine the D-2 but they concluded that it would be too heavy for its own engines after incorporating required military features such as armor plate, a bullet-resistant windshield and stronger landing gear.
Echols was assistant chief of the Materiel Division at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio from 1939 to 1940. As chief of that division, which was headquartered in Washington, he served from 1940 to 1942. In March 1942, a reorganization changed his title to commanding general, Materiel Command, in the Army Air Forces headquarters—a position changed a year later to assistant chief of staff for materiel, maintenance and distribution. Until April 1945 Echols continued to play the major role in the production of the prime tools of American airpower.
The real impetus to aircraft production came in May 1940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt went to Congress with a call for a program of no less than 50,000 "military and naval" aircraft per year for the nation's defense. (The Air Corps and the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics agreed that the Navy would get 12,500 of these.)
A year and a half later, on December 7, 1941, the airframe weight of U.S. aircraft production increased sixfold—from the rate of per year, to . By November 1942 the production rate had tripled again, to 50,000 aircraft per year. In the following year and a half to June 1944, Echols supervised another tripling of production.
From 1941 on, United States aircraft production was much greater than the combined output of Japan and Germany, and the force of 3,305 combat planes in December 1941 grew to 41,000 in August 1945. Not all of these aircraft were of self-powered metal construction: in March 1942, Echols told the joint Senate–House committee that the Army Air Corps had ordered 1000 wooden gliders, each capable of carrying 50 soldiers.
One of Echols's most important yet little known roles was his membership from 1943 to 1945 on the Air Production Board and on the Executive Committee of the War Production Board. He represented the Army Air Forces in the committee task of coordination of all production, and the establishment of priorities for use of tools, materiel and manpower within the national war program. Helping to determine the relative strength of air versus land and sea forces of the United States were one of Echols's responsibilities, as was the task of deciding relative strengths of fighter aircraft to light-, medium- and heavy bomber forces.
In early 1939, a combination of Army Air Forces tactical staff under General Arnold and Materiel Division engineers under then-Lieutenant Colonel Echols, prescribed the military requirements around which the B-29 Superfortress was to be built. As Boeing was testing the first prototype, Echols surprised Chief Engineer Wellwood Beall of Boeing by telling him that the Army Air Forces intended to spend $2 billion on the bomber. The first production model was completed in July 1943 and 11 months later B-29s were bombing Japan.
While at Wright Field and in Washington, Echols was known in the profession as the man chiefly responsible for the long, hard process of bringing a plane into being—planes such as the B-24 Liberator, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-50 Superfortress and the B-36 Peacemaker. He helped with the initial planning that led to the B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress and the earliest American jet aircraft. Echols participated in the decision to have General Electric reproduce Frank Whittle's W.2B jet engine for American jet fighter designs.
In May 1945, Echols was sent to Germany to re-assemble and administer local government, public health, safety and welfare programs, to supervise education and religion, and to direct all communications. Echols served successively as Chief, Internal Affairs for the U.S. Control Council for Germany, as assistant deputy military governor in Germany, and director of Civil Affairs Division of the War Department Special Staff. Echols helped select government specialists for occupation duty in Japan. Major General Echols retired on December 1, 1946.
Northrop.
In civilian life, Echols continued to help strengthen the nation's airpower potential. As president of the Aircraft Industries Association (AIA) from 1947 to 1949, his reputation for vision, decisiveness and good humor became even more widely appreciated.
In August 1947, Echols was called before a War Investigating committee led by Senator Homer Ferguson, to uncover misconduct in wartime contracts given to Howard Hughes. Echols testified that the president's son, Elliott Roosevelt, who as an Army Air Forces major and lieutenant colonel had flown the successful P-38 Lightning photo reconnaissance variant during the North Africa campaign, had put political pressure on the AAF in 1943 to purchase the unneeded Hughes XF-11 photo reconnaissance aircraft over the objections of Echols and Chief of Air Staff Barney M. Giles. The committee uncovered more than $5,000 in entertainment spent on Roosevelt by a paid Hughes publicist.
Echols joined Northrop in 1949 as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. In 1952, Jack Northrop, broken by the cancellation of the B-35 and B-49 projects, gave up running his company to return to pure engineering, and made Echols president and general manager. Under the direction of Echols, Northrop's work force increased from 8,000 to 24,000 employees, and the company's backlog of orders advanced from $70 million to $557 million at the time of his sudden death on May 15, 1954.
Legacy.
General of the Air Force Henry H. "Hap" Arnold said of Echols in May 1945:
United States Air Force Brigadier General Benjamin S. Kelsey dedicated his book "The Dragon's Teeth?" to Echols, writing in 1981 that his
A Falcon Scholarship in honor of Echols is sponsored each year by Northrop for a student seeking United States Air Force Academy admission with the intention of becoming an Air Force officer.
Personal life.
Echols married Margaret Elizabeth Bailey (1892–1990) of Rockport, Texas on December 28, 1920 in El Paso. They had one daughter, Mary Beirne Echols, born November 28, 1926 in Dayton. The Echols family was living in Greene, Ohio in 1930 at the time of the decade census. In 1940, the family moved to Washington, D.C. so that Echols could be closer to his work in government war production. Mary married in 1948 and delivered two children before Echols died, and two more afterward. Echols was originally buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but his remains were moved to join those of his wife at Rockport Cemetery in Aransas County, Texas after her death in 1990.
References.
Notes
Bibliography


George D. Murray

George Dominic Murray (July 6, 1889 – June 18, 1956) was an admiral in the United States Navy and an early naval aviator.
Biography.
Murray was born in Boston, Massachusetts, attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1911 and becoming naval aviator number 22 in 1915.
At the beginning of 1924, he was the commander of Torpedo and Bombing Squadron 20 (VT-20). In January, his squadron of seaplanes was transferred from San Diego to the Philippines aboard to provide air support for the Asiatic Fleet.
During World War II, Murray commanded the aircraft carrier , from 21 March 1941 to 30 June 1942, which included the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and the Battle of Midway.
From 17 August 1944 to 20 July 1945, he commanded U.S. Naval Air Forces, Pacific Fleet.
At the end of the war, Murray was the commander of the Mariana Islands, and accepted the Japanese surrender of the Caroline Islands aboard his flagship, the cruiser .
He commanded the First Fleet from August 1947 to August 1948.
He retired as a full admiral in 1951, died in San Francisco, California, on 18 June 1956, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1961, Murray was posthumously designated the third recipient of the Gray Eagle Award, as the most senior active naval aviator from 1947 until his retirement.
Personal life.
Murray is the stepfather of Vice Admiral Lloyd M. Mustin, the step grandfather of Vice Admiral Henry C. Mustin, and the step great grandfather of Vice Admiral John B. Mustin.


Henry Ralph Lumley

Second Lieutenant Henry Ralph Lumley (20 March 1892 – 11 March 1918) was a First World War pilot and burn victim whose case was important to the future development of facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.
Early life.
Henry Ralph Lumley was the son of Robert and Florence (née Fiske) Lumley, his father was a barrister and dramatic author and his mother an actress. Henry attended Christ's Hospital school, Horsham from 1902 to 1908. He became an employee of the Eastern Telegraph Company. At the start of the war he was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Flying Corps and went to the Central Flying School for pilot training.
Accident.
As he graduated from the Central Flying School the aircraft he was flying crashed. Lumley was badly burned, losing his lips, eyebrows, and most of the skin on his face. His left eye was burned out, and his right eye was mostly blind.
Surgery.
Lumley was transferred to Sidcup on 22 September 1917, for reconstructive surgery. The surgical team, led by Harold Gillies, decided to reconstruct Henry's face using a huge skin graft from his chest. The scar tissue would be removed, and the graft would be stitched into place. Tubed pedicles would be employed to provide sailors, William Vicarage, who had received severe cordite burns at the Battle of Jutland.
The operation was performed in stages. The first, on 24 October 1917, outlined the chest graft and created the tubed pedicles at the neck. The second, more major, operation occurred on 15 February 1918. The scar tissue was excised, effectively removing all traces of Lumley's 'old' face, and the graft was stitched into place.
Because of the size of the graft and Lumley's already weakened state, the chest skin was rejected and he died of heart failure on 11 March 1918.
Legacy.
After Lumley's death Gillies realised that he had tried to do too much too quickly, and that large facial grafts were more hazardous than expected. As a result, he began using smaller staged grafts to create the overall result instead of a single large graft.
The lessons learned from the failure of Henry Ralph Lumley's surgery would go on to help thousands of people suffering with extreme facial burns.


Zhigansk Airport

Zhigansk Airport is an airport serving the urban locality of Zhigansk, Zhigansky District, in the Sakha Republic of Russia.


Viktor Golubev

Viktor Maksimovich Golubev (; 17 May 1945) was a pilot in the 58th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Force during the Great Patriotic War. He was twice declared a Hero of the Soviet Union before his death in a training flight on 17 May 1945.
Early life.
Golubev was born on to a Russian family in Petrograd. His family moved to Uglich in 1918, where he remained until completing his initial schooling in 1932. He then went to a trade school in his home town, where he held several jobs as a mechanic before graduating from the aeroclub in 1936. In October he joined the military, where he worked as a mechanic the 7th NKVD Aviation Detachment. After graduating from the Kharkov Military School of Border and Internal Troops in September 1939, he went on to study at the Engels Military Aviation School. Upon graduating from Engels in October 1940 he was assigned to the 209th Bomber Aviation Regiment.
World War II.
Upon the start of Operation Barbarossa, Golubev entered combat as part of the defense of the Western Front. He flew seven sorties on the Su-2 before he was injured and sent to the rear of the front to retrain to fly the Il-2. During one of his missions with the 209th Bomber Regiment, on 26 July 1941, his gunner was killed when the plane was shot down by the enemy, but Golubev survived with injuries to his leg and neck. Having managed to land on safe territory, he was taken to a medical battalion and treated for his injuries, but when he returned to his unit a few days later it turned out that the commander of his regiment had already sent a death notice to his family, believing him to be dead. He was soon sent to Voronezh to be retrained to fly the Ilyushin Il-2. After completing training he was appointed as a flight commander in the 285th Attack Aviation Regiment. On 15 May 1942 he was first nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union for having flown 100 sorties on the Il-2; the title was awarded on 12 August, after he had been sent to retrain to fly the two-seater Il-2. On 10 September he returned to the front to fight in the Battle of Stalingrad. During the battle he missions attacking enemy warehouses, tanks, vehicles, and weapons; he sometimes made as many as four sorties per day. In January 1943 he took out six transport aircraft on the ground over a period of five days. That month he flew in an attack that was personally ordered by Major General Sergey Rudenko. In February the 285th Regiment was honored with the guards designation and renamed as the 58th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment. The unit was one of the first to become equipped with the PTAB, a anti-tank bomb; the new bomb was more effective in penetrating the armor of German tanks; Golubev became one of the first pilots to drop the new bomb on a tank column in the Battle of Kursk. For his actions in that battle as squadron commander and for flying an additional 148 sorties on the Il-2 after his first nomination he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union again on 24 August 1943.
While he was assigned to combat he flew on the Western, Central, Don, Southwest, and Byelorussian fronts in the battles for Kharkov, Rostov, Kursk, Oryol, Stalingrad, Pripyat, and other cities. In total he flew 150 sorties on the Il-2 and shot down three enemy aircraft in addition to damaging a large amount of enemy equipment on the ground.
In November 1943 he was sent to attend the Air Force Academy in Monino, where died during a crash of a practice flight in an Il-2 on 17 May 1945 and was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.


Colin Defries

Colin Defries (1884–1963) was an English racing driver and pilot who made his first powered aeroplane flight over Australia on 9 December 1909. He piloted a Wright Model A airplane approximately 100 yards (91 m), although the flight was not officially recognised. Defries managed to fly at height of about 15 ft (5 m) at a speed of about 36 mph. He then lost control and crashed, that led to the opinion that no controlled flight was achieved. With the Aerial League and a newspaper denying that the flight had occurred at all, Defries made a second attempt on 18 December. Finally, his mechanic, R. C. Banks, made an attempt of his own on 1 March 1910, and crashed the plane again.
Wing Commander Harry Cobby wrote in "Aircraft" in March 1938 that "the first aeroplane flight in the Southern Hemisphere was made in 1909 by Mr Colin Defries, a Londoner, at Victoria Park Racecourse, Sydney, in a Wilbur Wright aeroplane". Colin Defries was a trained pilot, having learnt to fly in Cannes, France. By modern standards his flight time was minimal, but in 1909 he had enough experience to become an instructor. He took it off, maintained straight and level flight, albeit briefly, and landed safely, on his first flight. His crash landing on his second flight demonstrated what a momentary lack of attention could cause while flying a Wright Model A.
Despite rival claims for aviators Fred Custance and Harry Houdini, whose historic flight was in fact certified by the Aerial League of Australia as the first, it is claimed by some Australian historians and the Aviation Historical Society of Australia that the definition of flight established by the Gorell Committee on behalf of the Aero Club of Great Britain dictates the acceptance of a flight or its rejection, giving Colin Defries credit as the first to make an aeroplane flight.
The owner of the aircraft, Lawrence Adamson, "dumped it at sea" in order to avoid paying customs duties. Most of the plane was lost, although the engine and two propellers were later salvaged. The engine now belongs to Museum Victoria, where it is regarded by the handler, David Crotty, as "one of the most significant aeronautical artefacts" in the collection.
Personal.
In 1940 Defries married the concert pianist Moura Lympany, a woman 32 years his junior. They divorced in 1950.


Muhammad al-Khuli

Muhammad al-Khuli () (born 1937) was a career officer in the Syrian Arab Air Force throughout Ba'athist rule in Syria and during the presidency of Hafez al-Assad.
Early life.
Al-Khuli was born in Beit Yashout in 1937 to an Alawite family descending from the Hadadeen tribe, near the coastal city of Jableh. Information on his early life is scarce, although it is known that he was not involved, nor interested, in the Ba'ath Party which took power in Syria in March 1963.
Career.
Early service.
In 1964 al-Khuli was appointed Deputy Chief of the Syrian Air Force under Hafez al-Assad. When al-Assad ousted the government of Nureddin al-Atassi and Salah Jadid in 1970, he appointed al-Khuli Chief of Air Force Intelligence. Between 1971 and 1973 he underwent training in East Germany under both the GDR Air Force and the Stasi. Eventually, he gained the additional prominent position of Chairman of the Presidential Intelligence Committee. Under al-Khuli's leadership, Air Force Intelligence became a powerful apparatus largely independent from scrutiny and tasked with assignments beyond its traditional roles. Practically, it oversaw the nominating of posts throughout Syria's intelligence networks and those networks' undercover activities.
Hindawi affair.
Following the attempted April 1986 bombing of an Israeli El Al plane in London's Heathrow Airport in what became known as the Hindawi affair, al-Khuli was dismissed from his intelligence post in 1987. He was transferred to his old post as Deputy Chief of the Air Force. Assad likely dismissed al-Khuli as a result of international pressure led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the latter of which had severed diplomatic relations with Syria as a result of the incident.
Al-Khuli remained close to al-Assad as a presidential adviser and still maintained strong influence within the Air Force Intelligence apparatus. Indeed, his successor, Ibrahim al-Hwayjah belonged to the same tribe and has been described by some Syrians as "al-Khuli's creature." According to historian Hanna Batatu, "it is not unlikely that al-Khuli decided to take ultimate responsibility for imprudence or missteps by Air Intelligence and to consent to the semblance of presidential disfavor in the higher interest of the regime."
Air Force Commander.
In 1994 President Assad promoted al-Khuli to Commander of the Air Force as indicated by sources in the Syrian press. His appointment, which coincided with efforts by the Syrian government to improve ties with the West, was a surprise to observers due to al-Khuli's alleged role in the Hindawi affair. Historian Moshe Ma'oz explains the move as a possible attempt by al-Assad to secure the "foundations" of his government during difficult times by promoting a loyal confidant such as al-Khuli who could also be relied on to support al-Assad in his bid to nominate Bashar al-Assad as successor to the presidency.
Later life.
Al-Khuli retired from service in June 1999 at the age of 66. Batatu asserts that al-Khuli was not tainted by official corruption or abuse of authority. He is mostly depicted as "upright, competent and deep in Assad's confidence." However, al-Khuli has been accused of influencing al-Assad to strongly rely on fellow Alawites. In 1988 an opponent of the Assad government and a former secretary-general of the Ba'ath Party was quoted by Batatu as stating "It is possible that it was he who pushed Assad towards the slippery path of sectarianism. But he is a man with a horizon."


Robert Spurdle

Wing Commander Robert Lawrence "Peter" Spurdle (3 March 1918 – 5 March 1994) was a New Zealand flying ace of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with the destruction of ten enemy aircraft.
Born in Wanganui, New Zealand, Spurdle joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in 1939. After completing flight training in 1940 he was sent to the United Kingdom and transferred to the RAF. He flew Supermarine Spitfires with No. 74 Squadron during the later stages of the Battle of Britain and later flew with No. 91 Squadron. From late 1942 and into the following year, he was temporarily attached to the RNZAF, firstly in a training capacity in New Zealand, and then in the Solomon Islands campaign with No. 16 Squadron. He returned to Europe in 1944, flying with No. 80 Squadron as its commander. After the end of the war in Europe, Spurdle returned to service with the RNZAF and was discharged in 1946. In civilian life he worked as an engineer before taking up yachting. He died in 1994 at the age of 76.
Early life.
Robert Lawrence Spurdle, known to his family as Peter, was born in Wanganui on 3 March 1918. He was a son of F. M. Spurdle and his wife. Educated at Wanganui Collegiate School, he worked as a warehouseman after completing his schooling. He decided to pursue a career in military aviation and in early 1939, applied for a short-service commission in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). He was accepted and commenced his training in September.
Second World War.
By the time Spurdle's training started, the Second World War had been underway for some weeks and his short service course was the last to be run by the RNZAF. He went to No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School at the RNZAF stations at Taieri and then No. 1 Flight Training School at Wigram Air Base in Christchurch. Sickness affected the progress of his training which, at this stage, was as a light bomber pilot. Instead of graduating with his group of trainees, he was held back and completed his course with another intake.
Along with 22 other RNZAF pilots, among them Edward Wells, who like Spurdle, would go on to lead a fighter squadron in the war, he travelled to the United Kingdom in early June 1940 to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Officially transferred to the RAF in July, he went to Uxbridge and then onto No. 7 Operational Training Unit at Hawarden, where he learnt to fly the Supermarine Spitfire.
Battle of Britain.
On 21 August, Spurdle was posted to No. 74 Squadron, which was commanded by Squadron Leader Sailor Malan. At the time he joined the squadron, it was at Kirton-in-Lindsey, reequipping with the Mk IIa Spitfire. Spurdle began operational flying on 28 August and two weeks later, was one of three pilots that damaged a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber. In mid-October, the squadron joined No. 11 Group, based at the RAF's station at Biggin Hill. Soon afterwards, he was involved in a dogfight which saw him having to bail out when his Spitfire broke up while in a high speed dive in pursuit of a Messerschmitt Bf 109. At the end of the month he claimed a Bf 109 as probably destroyed. A few days later, he had his first confirmed enemy aircraft destroyed, when No. 74 Squadron, patrolling with No. 92 Squadron, encountered a group of 60 Bf 109s over Maidstone. He engaged and shot down a Bf 109, which crashed near Ashford in Kent. He had just been promoted to flying officer.
Another significant encounter was on 14 November, when No. 74 Squadron intercepted a force of 50 Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers over Dover, accompanied by 25 Bf 109s. A total of 15 German aircraft was confirmed as destroyed with two probables and many others damaged. Spurdle claimed one of the probables, a Ju 87, and two others damaged. He then shot down a Bf 109 on 5 December.
Channel Front.
In early 1941, there was change in tactics and Fighter Command began carry out offensive sweeps over the English Channel and the coast of occupied France to draw the Luftwaffe into combat. On 3 March, while on such a sweep with No. 74 Squadron, Spurdle shot down two Bf 109s. Later in the month, he shared in the probable destruction of a Junkers Ju 88 bomber and damaged another bomber, a Dornier Do 217. On his last operational flight with the squadron, carried out on 6 April, his Spitfire received damage when he was attacked by German fighters while strafing an airfield in Belgium. Despite this, on his return flight back to RAF Manston, from where the squadron was operating at the time, he spotted a Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter and was able to shoot it down. Later in the month he was posted to No. 92 Squadron. Operating from Hawkinge in Kent, the squadron patrolled the Kentish coast and made reconnaissance flights over the North Sea. In May he claimed a Bf 109 as a probable and damaged another later in the month.
By June, Spurdle was on new duties, having been transferred to the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit, based at Speke. The unit operated Hawker Hurricanes, which were launched from catapults mounted on merchant vessels; these were known as CAM ships. They provided some protection against long-range Focke Wulf Fw 200 bombers that operated against shipping convoys crossing the Atlantic. In the early stages of his posting at Speke, he crashed a de Havilland Tiger Moth while stunting the aircraft. He was court-martialed for his misdemeanor. He made two voyages to the United States aboard CAM ships but these were without incident due to a lack of enemy activity. By February of the following year, he was back with No. 92 Squadron. Two months later he was appointed a flight commander and received a promotion to acting flight lieutenant.
On 25 July, Spurdle destroyed a Bf 109 and the following day, flying over Hastings, had a successful engagement with a Focke Wulf 190, one of a flight of four. The German pilot bailed out and was recovered by a British Air Sea Rescue launch. Spurdle visited the pilot, who had been hospitalised, and found that he was Horst Bennokruger, a flying ace of the Luftwaffe who had shot down a reported 17 British aircraft. Just two days later, Spurdle had an encounter with another Fw 190, claiming it as damaged. Early in August, a Bf 109 was damaged. Later in the month he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The published citation read:
Shortly after his award of the DFC was announced, he took part in the Dieppe Raid. During the operation, No. 92 Squadron was tasked with targeting German vessels that could disrupt the landings being made by the Canadian forces. Spurdle flew four patrols during the day. By the end of the month, he was very fatigued and was shifted to No. 116 Squadron, which was involved in less strenuous work: radar and anti-aircraft cooperation duties. He was then loaned to the RNZAF, returning to New Zealand in December 1942.
Solomon Islands.
Spurdle was tasked with establishing a Camera Gun Assessing School, based at the RNZAF's base at Ohakea, a duty that he performed from January to May 1943. He was then posted as a flight commander in the RNZAF's No. 16 Squadron. At the time, it was operating Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks and based at Woodbourne, preparing for service in the Solomon Islands campaign.
By the end of June, it was operating from Espiritu Santo, carrying out anti-submarine patrols and intercepting Japanese aircraft. The following month, it shifted to Guadalcanal where its main role was to be acting as escort to American bombers. Although the Japanese fighter aircraft were carrying fewer offensive operations by this time, Spurdle shot down a "Hap", a variant of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, on 13 August. A "Zeke" fighter, another Zero variant, was destroyed nearly two weeks later. During its time at Guadalcanal, the squadron also searched for Japanese barges transporting supplies to isolated garrisons in the Solomons. On one such mission, Spurdle and his wingman damaged a barge at Choiseul Island and also destroyed three Japanese patrol boats. In mid-September, the squadron ceased operations on Guadalcanal and returned to New Zealand.
Return to Europe.
After a period of rest, Spurdle ended his attachment to the RNZAF and returned to England aboard the steamer "Umgeni". He was posted to No. 130 Squadron in April; it operated from Lympe and flew Spitfire Vbs in bomber escort missions. His time with the squadron was brief for the following month, he was sent to No. 80 Squadron, based at Hornchurch. It was flying offensive operations to the continent, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy. A flight commander by the end of May, on D-Day, the squadron was originally held in reserve. Towards the end of the day, it escorted Short Stirlings that were towing gliders and during this mission, Spurdle and his flight attacked a German tank.
He was given command of the squadron two months later. Now an acting squadron leader, he oversaw his command's conversion from Spitfire IXs to the Hawker Tempest. He led the squadron during its support of the parachute landings at Arnhem, targeting the German flak guns.
Afterwards, and now flying from Holland, No. 80 Squadron joined No. 122 Wing. Originally tasked with defensive work, protecting bridges and airfields from attacks by the Luftwaffe, in December the squadron switched to offensive operations. Soon afterwards, he was credited with damaging two Junkers Ju 188 bombers. He was stood down from operations in early January 1945, on account of being fatigued from his extensive war service, and was sent to served at the headquarters of No. 83 Group. Later that month, his award of a bar to his DFC was announced. He was invested with the DFC in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace later in the year.
Tiring of his headquarters role, Spurdle volunteered for duty as an air-support controller. Having received training in radio duties, Spurdle participated in Operation Varsity, the second airborne crossing of the Rhine. Attached to the British 6th Airborne Division, he was commander of three RAF radio teams. Landed by glider at Wesel on 24 March, his teams were tasked with handling of air-support for the ground forces involved in the action. For his work on this occasion, he was mentioned in despatches. He was later attached to the 11th Armoured Division, working in a similar role co-ordinating fighter activities in support of the British forces as they advanced to the Elbe, where he finished the war in May 1945.
Spurdle, now a wing commander, flew 565 operational sorties, including his glider flight with the 6th Airborne Division, during the course of the war, and was credited with destroying ten enemy aircraft, two, and a half share in another, probably destroyed and nine damaged. The aviation historian Mike Spick gives similar totals for Spurdle, although credits him with eleven damaged rather than nine.
Later life.
In July 1945, Spurdle was sent to the Central Gunnery School at Catfoss. He was to take an instructor's course there but a few days after his arrival, his service with the RAF ended and he was transferred to the RNZAF. This required him to give up his commission in the RAF. He was repatriated to New Zealand in November, sailing aboard the RMS "Rangitata". He was transferred to the reserve in April 1946, after a period of leave.
Returning to civilian life, Spurdle established an engineering business in Wanganui. He became interested in maritime pursuits, taking up diving and going on a sailing cruise for four months around the South Pacific. Following this, he constructed a catamaran, the "Whai", an endeavour which took four years. Once completed, he sailed the "Whai" to Japan. His account of the construction of the catamaran and its subsequent voyage to Japan was published as "Into the Rising Sun" in 1972. Moving to Whitianga, he completed a second catamaran in 1978. He later wrote his memoirs, "The Blue Arena", published in 1986. He died on 5 March 1994 at Whitianga and his remains were interred at Mercury Bay cemetery. With his wife, Shirley, he had at least one child.


Terufumi Kofukuda

, born as , was an officer and a fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. He participated in various battles and campaigns throughout the Pacific War. After the war he served in the new Japanese Self Defence Force (JSDF) as the commander of the Central Air Defense Force.
Early career.
Mitsugi Kofukuda enrolled in the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in April 1928, and graduated as part of the 59th class in November 1931. In November 1933, he started the navy pilot training program and after completing the basic course in autumn 1934, he was selected for fighter specialisation at
Ōmura Air Group. In December 1935, he was assigned to the fighter squadron of the aircraft carrier "Kaga". In the beginning of 1937, he was transferred to Ōminato Air Group on the northern tip of Honshu, where he was experimenting with aircraft operating in show and winter conditions. In May 1937, he was posted to Kasumigaura as a flight instructor.
In December 1937, Kofukuda was promoted to full Lieutenant and assigned to the carrier "Ryūjō" as its fighter squadron leader ("Buntaichō"). In June 1938, he was posted to the 12th Air Group in Central China, which operated from Nanjing at that time, but then gradually moved to Anqing, Jiujiang and finally to Hankou with the Japanese advance up the Yangtze river. He returned to Japan in December 1938 and was assigned to Ōita Air Group. In November 1939, Lieutenant Kofukuda was transferred to 14th Air Group, which moved to Hanoi, Indochina in Autumn 1940. On 7 October, he led six new Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters to escort a strike of 27 Mitsubishi G3M bombers against Kunming. In the ensuing air battle with Chinese fighters, they claimed 13 enemy aircraft destroyed.
In November 1940, Lieutenant Kofukuda was sent to Japan to work at the flight test department of Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal. First he worked on testing a new aircraft catapult system for the carrier "Kaga". At the end of 1940, he was assigned to test the newly acquired Heinkel He 100 prototype that was shipped from Germany along with Heinkel test pilot Gerhard Nitschke. In the middle of 1941, he conducted flight tests with Nakajima J1N. He also participated in the development of the new Mitsubishi interceptor J2M.
Pacific War.
In July 1942, Lieutenant Kofukuda was assigned as the "Hikōtaichō" of the 6th Air Group, which was intended to be the garrison for Midway Island but since the Japanese failed to capture Midway. At the time the unit was stationed at Kisarazu in Japan and was then ordered to move to Rabaul on New Britain on 21 August. Lieutenant Kofukuda led a 5,000-kilomer over-water ferry flight of 18 Zero fighters from Japan to Rabaul via island bases (Iwo Jima, Saipan, Truk and Kavieng), which was unprecedented for a single-seat aircraft at the time.
Initially, Lieutenant Kofukuda and his Air Group provided air defence for Rabaul base and air cover for ship convoys, before they finally started to participate in attacks on Guadalcanal from 11 September 1942. In one such attack on 28 September, Lieutenant Kofukuda led 27 Zeros to escort 27 Mitsubishi G4M bombers. Receiving an early warning from coastwatchers and radar, the US forces from Henderson Field scrambled 35 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters to intercept the strike, during which Kofukuda and his Zeros were unsuccessful at protecting their bombers, which resulted in a loss of eight G4M bombers. As a consequence, Japanese changed the tactics and on 2 October Lieutenant Kofukuda led a fighter sweep of 28 Zeros ahead of nine G4M bombers and eight Zeros, which acted as a decoy and turned back before reaching Guadalcanal. His unit managed to surprise the intercepting 36 Wildcats and shot down six of them for the loss of one Zero, in addition to destroying two Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers on the way back.
On 8 October 1942, Lieutenant Kofukuda and his unit moved from Rabaul to a newly completed airstrip at Buin on Bougainville. His unit could then operate the new Model 32 Zero fighters, which previously did not have the combat range to reach Guadalcanal from Rabaul. On 22 October, he led nine Zeros to escort a strike of six Aichi D3A dive bombers against Allied ships off Guadalcanal and the next day he led a fighter sweep of 12 Zeros ahead of G4M bombers that attacked Henderson Field.
Kofukuda described a typical fighter sweep mission against Guadalcanal in the following manner:
On 1 November 1942, Kofukuda's unit was renamed to 204th Air Group and he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the meantime. On 14 November, he participated in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where he protected Rear Admiral Raizō Tanaka's transports carrying fresh troops and supplies to Guadalcanal. However, during his patrol, he lost two of his Zero fighters and one transport was hit by enemy SBD dive bombers.
Later career.
In March 1943, Lieutenant Commander Kofukuda was transferred to Japan where he served in various posts, including in the development and testing of the new Mitsubishi A7M fighter. He was promoted to Commander at the end of the war. He served in the national police during the immediate post-war period and eventually change his given name. In July 1954, he joined the new Japan Air Self-Defense Force. He eventually risen to the rank of Lieutenant General in July 1965 and became the commander of Central Air Defense Force. He retired in March 1967 and died on 29 July 1995 at the age of 86.


Operational loads monitoring

Operational loads monitoring (OLM) is a term given to act of investigating the characteristics of a structure in its normal operating environment. This term is often used to describe programs involving aircraft to extending their in-service life in a manner that does not compromise flight safety. A typical program would involve the installation of strain gauges to measure loads, accelerometers to measure g-force and other parameters to support the program or to add value (such as flap position, aircraft altitude, environmental conditions etc.), data acquisition system to process this data and a recorder to save the data for later analysis
. In this way it is very similar to structural health monitoring, a term that is sometimes also used to describe operational loads monitoring. Unlike Health and Usage Monitoring Systems, OLM programs are generally a short term project used to assess the remaining useful safe life of an airframe. This is especially important when an aircraft's role changes as the stresses and strains may now be significantly different from those initially anticipated. OLM program's benefits include a possible increased safe operating life figure and helping to prevent accidents such as the C-130 crash that occurred after the platform had been modified and flown for a different mission (fire fighting).
There are several active OLM programs currently underway, including research initiatives to standardize approaches for civilian aircraft.