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John Derry
Squadron leader John Douglas Derry DFC (5 December 1921 – 6 September 1952) was a British test pilot who is believed to be the first Briton to have exceeded the speed of sound in flight. Early life and education Derry was born in Cairo, Egypt, where his father, Douglas Derry, was Professor of Anatomy at Royal Egyptian University. Douglas Derry was the first anatomist to be involved in the examination of Tutankhamun's mummy, after the discovery of the tomb in 1925. John Derry attended Dragon School in Oxford and Charterhouse School. In his youth, Derry developed a keen interest in bird watching and often attended motor races. Military career Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he left school to enlist as a wireless operator and air gunner in the Royal Air Force. In 1942 he received a commission and the following year trained (in Canada) as a pilot. His operational career began late in 1944 when he joined 182 Squadron, flying Hawker Typhoons on close support to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.9 million, is the 12th-largest in the world by population. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt, as the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, the city first developed as Fustat, a settlement founded after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640 next to an existing ancient Roman fortress, Babylon. Under the Fatimid dynasty a new city, ''al-Qāhirah'', was founded nearby in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (12th–16th centuries). Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting of three countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Geographically and historically, the area also includes parts of France and Germany such as the French Flanders and the German regions of East Frisia and Cleves. During the Middle Ages, the Low Countries were divided into numerous semi-independent principalities. Historically, the regions without access to the sea linked themselves politically and economically to those with access to form various unions of ports and hinterland, stretching inland as far as parts of the German Rhineland. Because of this, nowadays not only physically low-altitude areas, but also some hilly or elevated regi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Justin
John Justin (24 November 1917 – 29 November 2002) was a British stage and film actor. Early life John Justinian de Ledesma was born in Knightsbridge, London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father's ranch, he was educated at Bryanston School in Bryanston, Dorset. He developed an interest in flying and became a qualified pilot at the age of 12, though he was not allowed to fly solo at the time because of his age. Acting career He became interested in acting at a young age. By the age of 16, he had joined the Plymouth Repertory. In 1937, he briefly trained with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but did not like it and soon joined the repertory company of John Gielgud. Among the plays he appeared in was ''Dear Octopus''. ''The Thief of Bagdad'' In 1938, he auditioned for and was cast the role for which he is perhaps best remembered, Ahmad in the 1940 version of '' The Thief of Bagdad'', opposite Sabu. To do so, he had to sign a seve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' (1957), ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), ''Doctor Zhivago'' (1965), and ''A Passage to India'' (1984). He also directed the film adaptations of two Charles Dickens novels, '' Great Expectations'' (1946) and '' Oliver Twist'' (1948), as well as the romantic drama ''Brief Encounter'' (1945). Originally a film editor in the early 1930s, Lean made his directorial debut with 1942's '' In Which We Serve'', which was the first of four collaborations with Noël Coward. Beginning with '' Summertime'' in 1955, Lean began to make internationally co-produced films financed by the big Hollywood studios; in 1970, however, the critical failure of his film ''Ryan's Daughter'' led him to take a fourteen-year break from filmmaking, during which he pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sound Barrier
''The Sound Barrier'' is a 1952 British aviation drama film directed by David Lean. It is a fictional story about attempts by aircraft designers and test pilots to break the sound barrier. It was David Lean's third and final film with his wife Ann Todd, but it was his first for Alexander Korda's London Films, following the break-up of Cineguild. ''The Sound Barrier'' stars Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, John Justin and Nigel Patrick. It was known in the United States as ''Breaking Through the Sound Barrier'' and ''Breaking the Sound Barrier''. ''The Sound Barrier'' was a box-office success on first release, but it has become one of the least-known of Lean's films. Following on ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), the film is another of Lean's ventures into a genre of filmmaking where impressions of documentary film are created. Plot After his aircraft company's groundbreaking work on jet engine technology in the World War II, Second World War, John Ridgefield, its wealthy owner, employs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Havilland Sea Vixen
The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company during the late 1940s at its Hatfield aircraft factory in Hertfordshire, developed from the company's earlier first generation jet fighters. It was later called the Hawker Siddeley Sea Vixen after de Havilland was absorbed by the Hawker Siddeley Corporation in 1960. The Sea Vixen had the distinction of being the first British two-seat combat aircraft to achieve supersonic speed, albeit not in level flight. Operating from British aircraft carriers, it was used in combat over Tanganyika and over Yemen during the Aden Emergency. In 1972, the Sea Vixen was phased out in favour of the American-made McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1 interceptor. There have been no flying Sea Vixens since 2017. Development Orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1952 Farnborough Airshow DH
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his head ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banked Turn
A banked turn (or banking turn) is a turn or change of direction in which the vehicle banks or inclines, usually towards the inside of the turn. For a road or railroad this is usually due to the roadbed having a transverse down-slope towards the inside of the curve. The bank angle is the angle at which the vehicle is inclined about its longitudinal axis with respect to the horizontal. Turn on flat surfaces If the bank angle is zero, the surface is flat and the normal force is vertically upward. The only force keeping the vehicle turning on its path is friction, or traction. This must be large enough to provide the centripetal force, a relationship that can be expressed as an inequality, assuming the car is driving in a circle of radius ''r'': :\mu mg > . The expression on the right hand side is the centripetal acceleration multiplied by mass, the force required to turn the vehicle. The left hand side is the maximum frictional force, which equals the coefficient of friction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerobatic Maneuver
Aerobatic maneuvers are flight paths putting aircraft in unusual attitudes, in air shows, dogfights or competition aerobatics. Aerobatics can be performed by a single aircraft or in formation with several others. Nearly all aircraft are capable of performing aerobatics maneuvers of some kind, although it may not be legal or safe to do so in certain aircraft. Aerobatics consist of five basic maneuvers: * Lines (both horizontal and vertical), * loops, * rolls, * spins, and * hammerheads. Most aerobatic figures are composites of these basic maneuvers with rolls superimposed. A loop is when the pilot pulls the plane up into the vertical, continues around until they are heading back in the same direction, like making a 360 degree turn, except it is in the vertical plane instead of the horizontal. The pilot will be inverted (upside down) at the top of the loop. A loop can also be performed by rolling inverted and making the same maneuver but diving towards the ground. It can be v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey De Havilland, Jr
Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to: People * Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name * Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history * Geoffrey I of Anjou (died 987) * Geoffrey II of Anjou (died 1060) * Geoffrey III of Anjou (died 1096) * Geoffrey IV of Anjou (died 1106) * Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou (1113–1151), father of King Henry II of England * Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158–1186), one of Henry II's sons * Geoffrey, Archbishop of York (c. 1152–1212) * Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois, 12th century French chronicler * Geoffroy de Charney (died 1314), Preceptor of the Knights Templar * Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry (c. 1320–1391), French nobleman and writer * Geoffrey the Baker (died c. 1360), English historian and chronicler * Geoffroy (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer, songwriter and multi-instrument ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Right Stuff (book)
''The Right Stuff'' is a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program. ''The Right Stuff'' is based on extensive research by Wolfe, who interviewed test pilots, the astronautsAs a matter of fact, Alan Shepard said that Tom Wolfe had not talked to any of the original seven astronauts, at any time (Alan Shepard's Interview to Charlie Rose, July 20, 1994). and their wives, among others. The story contrasts the Mercury Seven and their families with other test pilots such as Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many contemporaries as the best of them all, but who was never selected as an astronaut. Wolfe wrote that the book was inspired by the desire to find out why the astronauts accepted the danger of space flight. He recounts the enormous risks that test pilots were already taking, and the men ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. Wolfe began his career as a regional newspaper reporter in the 1950s, achieving national prominence in the 1960s following the publication of such best-selling books as ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, '' Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'' and ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby''. In 1979, he published the influential book '' The Right Stuff'' about the Mercury Seven astronauts, which was made into a 1983 film of the same name directed by Ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
