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Ball Turret
A ball turret was a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. The turret held the gunner, two heavy machine guns, ammunition, and sights. The Sperry Corporation designed ventral versions that became the most common version; thus, the term "ball turret" generally indicates these versions. Sperry ball turret Sperry and Emerson Electric each developed a ball turret, and the designs were similar in the nose turret version. Development of the spherical Emerson was halted. The Sperry nose turret was tested and preferred, but its use was limited due to poor availability of suitable aircraft designs. The Sperry-designed ventral system saw widespread use and production, including much sub-contracting. The design was mainly deployed on the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landing Flare
The landing flare, also referred to as the round out, is a maneuver or stage during the landing of an aircraft. The flare follows the final approach phase and precedes the touchdown and roll-out phases of landing. In the flare, the nose of the plane is raised, slowing the descent rate and therefore creating a softer touchdown, and the proper attitude is set for touchdown. In the case of tailwheel landing gear-equipped aircraft, the attitude is set for touchdown on the main (front) landing gear first. In the case of tricycle gear-equipped aircraft, the attitude is set for touchdown on the main (rear) landing gear. In the case of monowheel gear-equipped gliders, the flare consists only of leveling the aircraft. In parachuting, the flare is the part of the parachute landing fall preceding ground contact and is executed about above ground. During a helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadow In The Cloud
''Shadow in the Cloud'' is a 2020 action horror film directed by Roseanne Liang, from a screenplay by Liang and Max Landis, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Beulah Koale , Taylor John Smith, Callan Mulvey and Nick Robinson. It follows a female flight officer on a top-secret mission in the Pacific during the Second World War, who after boarding a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, encounters an evil gremlin during the flight. The film premiered on September 12, 2020, at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. It was released on January 1, 2021, by Vertical Entertainment and Redbox Entertainment. Plot In August 1943, RAF Pilot Officer Maude Garrett is assigned to travel with a top secret package from Auckland, New Zealand, to Samoa. When she arrives at the airbase at night, she wanders the tarmac before suddenly finding herself standing right in front of her transport, an American B-17 bomber named ''The Fool's Errand''. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazing Stories (1985 TV Series)
''Amazing Stories'' is an American anthology television series created by Steven Spielberg, that originally ran on NBC in the United States from September 29, 1985 to April 10, 1987. The series was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards and won five. The first season episode "The Amazing Falsworth" earned writer Mick Garris an Edgar Award for Best Episode in a TV Series. It was not a ratings hit (ranking 40th in Season 1 and 52nd in Season 2), however, and the network did not renew it after the two-year contract expired. The 1987 science fiction film ''Batteries Not Included'' was originally intended as a story for ''Amazing Stories'', but Spielberg liked the idea so much that he decided to make it a theatrical release. The series title licensed the name of ''Amazing Stories'', the first dedicated science fiction magazine created by Hugo Gernsback in April 1926. The title sequence was made by computer-generated imagery (CGI) firm, Robert Abel and Associates. On March 6, 2020, a reviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The World According To Garp
''The World According to Garp'' is John Irving's fourth novel, about a man, born out of wedlock to a feminist leader, who grows up to be a writer. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years. It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1979,"National Book Awards – 1979" . Retrieved 14 March 2012. and its first paperback edition won the Award the following year. [Baidu] |
John Irving
John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of ''The World According to Garp'' in 1978. Many of Irving's novels, including ''The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1981), ''The Cider House Rules'' (1985), ''A Prayer for Owen Meany'' (1989), and ''A Widow for One Year'' (1998), have been bestsellers. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in the 72nd Academy Awards (1999) for his script of ''The Cider House Rules''."John Irving 1999 Acceptance Speech on Winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay" ''oscars.org'' Five of his novels have been adapted into films (''Garp'', ''H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randall Jarrell
Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poet Laureate of the United States. Among other honors, Jarrell was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the years 1947–48; a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, in 1951; and the National Book Award for Poetry, in 1961. Biography Youth and education Jarrell was a native of Nashville, Tennessee. He attended Hume-Fogg High School where he "practiced tennis, starred in some school plays, and began his career as a critic with satirical essays in a school magazine."Burt, Stephen. ''Randall Jarrell and His Age''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. He received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1935. While at Vanderbilt, he edited the student humor magazine ''The Masquerader'', was captain of the tennis team, made P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a five-line poem by Randall Jarrell published in 1945. The poem is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Jarrell, who served in the Army Air Forces, provided the following explanatory note: A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine guns and one man, a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the fetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon-firing explosive she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PBM Mariner
The Martin PBM Mariner was an American patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War era. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado in service. A total of 1,366 PBMs were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940, with the last of the type being retired in 1964. Design and development In 1937 the Glenn L. Martin Company designed a new twin-engined flying boat, the Model 162, to succeed its earlier Martin P3M and complement the PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado. It received an order for a single prototype XPBM-1 on 30 June 1937.Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 318. This was followed by an initial production order for 21 PBM-1 aircraft on 28 December 1937.Green 1968, p. 177. To test the PBM's layout, Martin built a ⅜ scale flying model, the Martin 162A ''Tadpole Clipper'' with a crew of one and powered by a single Chevrolet engine driving two airscrews via v-belt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PB4Y-2 Privateer
The Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer is an American World War II and Korean War era patrol bomber of the United States Navy derived from the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The Navy had been using B-24s with only minor modifications as the PB4Y-1 Liberator, and along with maritime patrol Liberators used by RAF Coastal Command this type of patrol plane was proven successful. A fully navalised design was desired, and Consolidated developed a dedicated long-range patrol bomber in 1943, designated PB4Y-2 Privateer.Baugher, Joe"Convair PB4Y-2 Privateer."''American Military Aircraft,'' 23 August 1999. Retrieved: 13 November 2010. In 1951, the type was redesignated P4Y-2 Privateer. A further designation change occurred in September 1962, when the remaining Navy Privateers (all having previously been converted to drone configuration as P4Y-2K) were redesignated QP-4B. Design and development The Privateer was externally similar to the Liberator, but the fuselage was longer to accommodate a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erco Ball Turret 1
Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) was started by Henry Berliner in 1930. Berliner was the son of Emile Berliner, who had patented numerous inventions relating to sound and acoustics, and pioneer of helicopter development with the experimental Berliner Helicopter. The younger Berliner founded ERCO to produce tools for the manufacture of metal aircraft and propellers. He founded the company in a shed at 2014 5th Street NW Washington D.C. Berliner met Fred Weick, an aeronautical engineer, who worked with National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in cowlings and propellers on a 1926 while developing the propellers for the USS Akron. Weick also worked on an experimental aircraft that incorporated the up-to-date safety features. In 1935, the company moved to 6100 Sligo Blvd. In 1936, Weick left NACA to work for ERCO on his "safety airplane". In 1937, Berliner purchased 50 acres of land in Riverdale, Maryland near the College Park Airport and built the large ERCO factory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
