|
1966 Palomares B-52 Crash
The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, also called the Palomares incident, occurred on 17 January 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. At the time of the accident, the B-52G was carrying four B28FI Mod 2 Y1 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs, all of which fell to the surface. Three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a area with radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a search lasting two and a half months. Acci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
B28 Nuclear Bomb
The B28, originally Mark 28, was a thermonuclear bomb carried by U.S. tactical fighter bombers, attack aircraft and bomber aircraft. From 1962 to 1972 under the NATO nuclear weapons sharing program, American B28s also equipped six Europe-based Canadian CF-104 squadrons known as the RCAF Nuclear Strike Force. It was also supplied for delivery by UK-based Royal Air Force Valiant and Canberra aircraft assigned to NATO under the command of SACEUR. In addition, certain U.S. Navy carrier based attack aircraft such as the A3D (later A-3B) Skywarrior, A4D (later A-4) Skyhawk, and A3J (later A-5A) Vigilante were equipped to carry the B28. Production history Initial development of the IN and EX weapons During the design of the TX-15 in 1953 it became evident to designers that massive reductions in size and weight of thermonuclear weapons were possible. In November 1954 the TX-Theta Committee proposed the development of the WX-27 and the WX-28. The larger diameter TX-27 was intende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almería
Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city grew wealthy during the Islamic era, becoming a world city throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. It enjoyed an active port that traded silk, oil and raisins. Etymology The name "Almería" comes from the city's former Arabic name, ''Madīnat al-Mariyya'', meaning "city of the watchtower". As the settlement was originally port or coastal suburb of Pechina, it was initially known as ''Mariyyat al-Bajjāna'' (''Bajjāna'' being the Arabic name for Pechina). History The origin of Almería is connected to the 9th-century establishment of the so-called Republic of Pechina (Bajjana) some kilometres to the north, which was for a time autonomous from the Cordobese central authority: the settlement of current-day Almería initially developed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laydown Delivery
Laydown delivery is a mode of delivery found in some nuclear gravity bombs: the bomb's descent to the target is slowed by parachute so that it lands on the ground without detonating. The bomb then detonates by timer some time later. Laydown delivery requires the weapon to be reinforced so that it can survive the force of impact. Laydown modes are used to make weapon delivery survivable by aircraft flying at low level. Low-altitude delivery helps hide the aircraft from surface-to-air missiles. The ground burst detonation of a laydown delivered weapon is used to increase the effect of the weapon's blast on built-up targets such as submarine pens, or to transmit a shock wave through the ground to attack deeply-buried targets. An attack of this type produces large amounts of radioactive fallout. Weapons with laydown delivery options United Kingdom The issue of aircraft survivability lead to laydown being selected for the Vickers Valiant bomber of the Royal Air Force, as the design beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Burst
A ground burst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an artillery shell, nuclear weapon or air-dropped bomb that explodes at ground level. These weapons are set off by fuses that are activated when the weapon strikes the ground or something equally hard, such as a concrete building, or otherwise detonated at the surface. In the context of a nuclear weapon, a ground burst is a detonation on the ground, in shallow water, or below the fallout-free altitude. This condition produces substantial amounts of nuclear fallout. An air burst or a deep subterranean detonation, by contrast, makes little fallout. Ground shock Ground shock, or water shock will result from nuclear explosions on (or near) the surface of ground or water. The ground shock can damage or destroy hardened structures. In water, the shock is damaging to nearby vessels and may also produce a surface wave to limited ranges. A crater is formed by an explosion at (or near) the ground surface. The size of the cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Burst
An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over a ground burst is that the energy from the explosion (as well as any shell fragments) is distributed more evenly over a wider area; however, the peak energy is lower at ground zero. History Air burst artillery has a long history. The shrapnel shell was invented by Henry Shrapnel of the British Army in about 1780 to increase the effectiveness of canister shot. It was widely used by the time of the War of 1812 and stayed in use until it was superseded during the First World War. Modern shells, though sometimes called "shrapnel shells", actually produce fragments and splinters, not shrapnel. Air bursts were used in the First World War to shower enemy positions and men with shrapnel balls to kill the largest possible number with a sing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Águilas
Águilas () is a municipality and seaport of southeastern Spain, in the province of Murcia. It is situated at the southern end of Murcia's Mediterranean coastline, otherwise known as the Costa Cálida, near the border with the Province of Almería. Location and geography The municipality has a population of 35,000 people ( INEbr>2017, and an area of approximately 253.7 km2, with some 28 km of coastline. It is 105 km southwest of the provincial capital, Murcia. Águilas is built on the landward side of a small peninsula, between two bays—the Puerto Poniente on the south-west, and the Puerto Levante on the north-east. The Puerto de Aguilas, close to the centre of the city, is flanked on its western side by a large rocky hill. On its top sits the Castillo de San Juan de las Águilas castle, built in the 18th century on the site of a much older Carthaginian fortification. King Charles I ordered its refurbishment in 1530 to help protect the coast from Turkish and Alg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defense Technical Information Center
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC, pronounced "Dee-tick") is the repository for research and engineering information for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DTIC's services are available to DoD personnel, federal government personnel, federal contractors and selected academic institutions. The general public can access unclassified information through its public website. History The DTIC traces its history to the June 1945 formation of the Air Documents Research Center (ADRC), a joint effort of the US Army Air Force, US Navy and Royal Air Force to build a single collection of captured German aeronautical research, based in London. The ADRC was initially tasked with the sorting of the document collection into three broad groups; documents that would assist the war in the Pacific theater, documents of immediate intelligence interest to the United States or British forces and documents of interest for future research. With the ending of the war in 1945, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longeron
In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural frameworks. Aircraft In aircraft fuselage, stringers are attached to formers (also called frames) and run in the longitudinal direction of the aircraft. They are primarily responsible for transferring the aerodynamic loads acting on the skin onto the frames and formers. In the wings or horizontal stabilizer, longerons run spanwise (from wing root to wing tip) and attach between the ribs. The primary function here also is to transfer the bending loads acting on the wings onto the ribs and spar. Sometimes the terms "longeron" and "stringer" are used interchangeably. Historically, though, there is a subtle difference between the two terms. If the longitudinal members in a fuselage are few in number (usually 4 to 8) and run all along th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KC-135 Stratotanker Boom Operator
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transport aircraft. The KC-135 was the United States Air Force's first jet-powered refueling tanker and replaced the KC-97 Stratofreighter. The KC-135 was initially tasked with refueling strategic bombers, but it was used extensively in the Vietnam War and later conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm to extend the range and endurance of US tactical fighters and bombers. The KC-135 entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1957; it is one of nine military fixed-wing aircraft with over 60 years of continuous service with its original operator. The KC-135 is supplemented by the larger McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender. Studies have concluded that many of the aircraft could be flown until 2030, although maintenance costs have greatl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk (Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent ( Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Govern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Chrome Dome
Operation Chrome Dome was a United States Air Force Cold War-era mission from 1960 to 1968 in which B-52 strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons remained on continuous airborne alert and flew routes to points on the Soviet Union's border. Background During the Cold War, General Thomas S. Power initiated a program whereby B-52s performed airborne-alert duty under code names such as '' Head Start'', ''Chrome Dome'', ''Hard Head'', '' Round Robin'', and '' Operation Giant Lance''. Bombers loitered near points outside the Soviet Union to provide rapid first-strike or retaliation capability in case of nuclear war. Primary mission The missions in 1964 involved a B-52D that left Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and flew across the United States to New England and headed out to the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft refueled over the Atlantic heading north to and around Newfoundland. The bomber changed course and flew northwesterly over Baffin Bay towards Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race. The Western Bloc was led by the United States as well as a number of othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Almería")
.png "Click for more on -> Cold War")