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Frederick William Hill
Frederick William "Gunner" Hill (24 February 1889 – 10 November 1959) is best known for his pre-war calculations that showed that the high speed fighters then being developed (notably the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane) would need to be armed with eight machine guns in order for them to become the potent weapons that were crucial to the victory in the Battle of Britain. Captain Hill's technical skills were important in arming aircraft in both World Wars. In World War I he trialled methods of mounting machine guns in aircraft, evaluated heavy aircraft guns including the 37mm Coventry Ordnance Works (COW) gun, tested ammunition to be used against Zeppelins including the Brock bullet and designed and developed aircraft gun sights. In the inter-war period he worked at the Air Ministry where he continued to work on aircraft gun sights as well as showing how they could best be armed with the weapons then available. He made key contributions to the development of the GM2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force (RAF), the world's first independent air force. It was replaced by the Fleet Air Arm, initially consisting of those RAF units that normally operated from ships, but emerging as a separate unit similar to the original RNAS by the time of World War 2. Background In 1908, the British Government recognised the military potential of aircraft. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, approved the formation of an "Advisory Committee for Aeronautics" and an "Aerial Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence". Both committees were composed of politicians, British Army, army officers and Royal Navy officers. On 21 July 1908 Captain Reginald Bacon, who was a member of the Aerial Na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Victoria Marine Experimental Aircraft Depot
The British Royal Naval Air Service established an R.N. Aeroplane Repair Depot on the Isle of Grain on the River Medway Estuary in Kent in early 1915. As there was already a RNAS seaplane base on the Isle of Grain, the Depot was named Port Victoria, after the nearby railway station. It became the Marine Aircraft Experimental Depot,Bruce in ''Flight'', 29 November 1957, p.846. comprising 3 sections: *Experimental Construction Depot *Seaplane Test Depot *Experimental Armament Section It was renamed ''Marine and Armament Experimental Establishment'' on 16 March 1920 in recognition of the fact that weapons and other equipment were evaluated as well as complete aircraft. It was renamed again on 1 March 1924 to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment and eventually moved to Felixstowe. While at Port Victoria it designed a range of experimental aircraft, not all of which were constructed and flown. Port Victoria aircraft types * P.V.1 * P.V.2 * P.V.3 - Design only, not produced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Vice-Marshal
Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. Air vice-marshal is a two-star rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-7. It is equivalent to a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy or a major-general in the British Army or the Royal Marines. In other NATO forces, such as the United States Armed Forces and the Canadian Armed Forces, the equivalent two-star rank is major general. The rank of air vice-marshal is immediately senior to the rank air commodore and immediately subordinate to the rank of air marshal. Since before the Second World War it has been common for air officers commanding RAF groups to hold the rank of air vice-marshal. In small air forces such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barr And Stroud
Barr & Stroud Limited was a pioneering Glasgow optical engineering firm. They played a leading role in the development of modern optics, including rangefinders, for the Royal Navy and for other branches of British Armed Forces during the 20th century. There was a non-military arm of the company which made medical equipment, like photocoagulators and electronic filters, some of which were used by the BBC. The company and its intellectual property passed through Pilkington group to Thales Optronics. The Barr and Stroud name was sold on to an importer of optical equipment, who use the trademarked name for a line of binoculars and similar instruments. History Archibald Barr and William Stroud had been associated from as early as 1888 when the two men were professors of, respectively, engineering and physics at the Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds). In 1891, they were approached by the Admiralty to submit a design for a short-base rangefinder for trial. By this time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Dot Sight
A red dot sight is a common classification for a type of non- magnifying reflector (or reflex) sight for firearms, and other devices that require aiming, that gives the user a point of aim in the form of an illuminated red dot. A standard design uses a red light-emitting diode (LED) at the focus of collimating optics which generates a dot-style illuminated reticle that stays in alignment with the weapon the sight is attached to, regardless of eye position (nearly parallax free). They are considered to be fast-acquisition and easy-to-use gun sights for civilian target shooting, hunting, or in police and military applications. Aside from firearm applications, they are also used on cameras and telescopes. On cameras they are used to photograph flying aircraft, birds in flight, and other distant, quickly moving subjects. Telescopes have a narrow field of view and therefore are often equipped with a secondary "finder scope" such as a red dot sight. Description The typical configur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispano-Suiza HS
Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft engines, trucks and weapons. In 1923, its French luxury car arm became a semi-autonomous partnership with the Spanish parent company. In 1946, the Spanish parent company sold all of its Spanish automotive assets to Enasa, a Spanish state-owned vehicle manufacturer, and the French arm continued as an independent aviation engine and components manufacturer under the Hispano-Suiza name. In 1968, Hispano-Suiza was taken over by the aerospace company Snecma, which is now part of the French Safran, Safran Group. An attempt to relaunch the marque was made by the company Hispano Suiza Cars associated with the Peralada Group (owned by the Suqué Mateu family) in 2019 with a fully-electric car. History Early years In 1898, a Spanish artillery captain, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M1919 Browning Machine Gun
The M1919 Browning is a .30 caliber medium machine gun that was widely used during the 20th century, especially during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The M1919 saw service as a light infantry, coaxial, mounted, aircraft, and anti-aircraft machine gun by the U.S. and many other countries. The M1919 was an air-cooled development of the standard US machine gun of World War I, the John M. Browning-designed water-cooled M1917. The emergence of general-purpose machine guns in the 1950s pushed the M1919 into secondary roles in many cases, especially after the arrival of the M60 in US Army service. The United States Navy also converted many to 7.62 mm NATO, and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0; they were commonly used on riverine craft in the 1960s and 1970s in Vietnam. Many NATO countries also converted their examples to 7.62 mm caliber, and these remained in service well into the 1990s, as well as up to the present day in some countries. Operation Loading The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil servant, also known as a public servant, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and state governments, and answer to the government, not a political party. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, only Crown (national government) employees are referred to as "civil servants" whereas employees of local authorities (counties, cities and similar administrations) are generally referred to as "local government civil service officers", who are considered public servants but not civil servants. Thus, in the UK, a civil servant is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geddes Axe
The Geddes Axe was the drive for public economy and retrenchment in UK government expenditure recommended in the 1920s by a Committee on National Expenditure chaired by Sir Eric Geddes and with Lord Inchcape, Lord Faringdon, Sir Joseph Maclay and Sir Guy Granet also members. Background During and after the Great War, government expenditure and taxation increased. Taxation per head per annum was £18 in 1919; £22 in 1920; and £24 in 1921. In 1913–14 the Civil Services and Revenue Departments cost £81.3 million; in 1920–21 they cost £523.3 million; and in 1921–22 they cost £590.7 million. The Armed Forces cost around £77 million in the year before the War and approaching £190 million in 1921–22. Similarly, the National Debt and other Consolidated Fund Services increased over the same time from £37.3 million to £359.8 million. In 1921 the Anti-Waste League was formed by Lord Rothermere to campaign against what they considered wasteful government expen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mentioned In Dispatches
To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy is described. In some countries, a service member's name must be mentioned in dispatches as a condition for receiving certain decorations. United Kingdom, British Empire, and Commonwealth of Nations Servicemen and women of the British Empire or the Commonwealth who are mentioned in despatches (MiD) are not awarded a medal for their actions, but receive a certificate and wear an oak leaf device on the ribbon of the appropriate campaign medal. A smaller version of the oak leaf device is attached to the ribbon when worn alone. Prior to 2014, only one device could be worn on a ribbon, irrespective of the number of times the recipient was mentioned in despatches. Where no campaign medal is awarded, the oak leaf is worn direc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airco DH
The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early United Kingdom, British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918. Airco produced many thousands of aircraft for both the British and Allied military air wings throughout the war, including fighter aircraft, fighters, trainer aircraft, trainers and medium bomber, bombers. The majority of the company's aircraft were designed in-house by Airco's chief designer Geoffrey de Havilland. Airco established the first airline in the United Kingdom, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, which operated as a subsidiary of Airco. On 25 August 1919, it commenced the world's first regular daily international service. Following the end of the war, the company's fortunes rapidly turned sour. The interwar period was unfavourable for aircraft manufacturers largely due to a glut of surplus aircraft from the war ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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