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Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanicalflight and theaircraft industry.Aircraft includefixed-wing androtary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well aslighter-than-air aircraft such ashot air balloons andairships.
Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of thehot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement throughbuoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying ofOtto Lilienthal in 1896. A major leap followed with the construction of theWright Flyer, the first poweredairplane by theWright brothers in the early 1900s.
Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world. In 2024, there were 9.5 billion passengers worldwide according to theICAO. As of 2018, estimates suggest that 11% of the world's population traveled by air, with up to 4% taking international flights. (Full article...)
Wind shear itself is amicroscale meteorological phenomenon occurring over a very small distance, but it can be associated withmesoscale orsynoptic scale weather features such as squall lines and cold fronts. It is commonly observed nearmicrobursts anddownbursts caused bythunderstorms, weather fronts, areas of locally higher low level winds referred to as low level jets, nearmountains, radiation inversions that occur due to clear skies and calm winds, buildings, wind turbines, and sailboats. Wind shear has a significant effect during take-off and landing of aircraft due to their effects on steering of the aircraft, and was a significant cause of aircraft accidents involving large loss of life within theUnited States.
Sound movement through the atmosphere is affected by wind shear, which can bend the wave front, causing sounds to be heard where they normally would not, or vice versa. Strong vertical wind shear within the troposphere also inhibitstropical cyclone development, but helps to organize individual thunderstorms into living longer life cycles which can then producesevere weather. Thethermal wind concept explains with how differences in wind speed with height are dependent on horizontal temperature differences, and explains the existence of thejet stream. (Full article...)
...thatSuriname's worst air disaster wasSurinam AirwaysFlight 764, which crashed after the pilots ignored repeated warnings that they were flying too low?...that theRyanX-13 Vertijet aircraft landed by using a hook on its nose to hang itself on a wire?... that on 28 May 1931, aBellanca CH-300 fitted with aPackard DR-980diesel engine set a 55-year record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes without being refueled?
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During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in theBritish Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During theBoer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing inSwitzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service inNigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded theSouthern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.
In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of theCentral Flying School. He held several senior positions in theRoyal Flying Corps duringWorld War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the firstChief of the Air Staff before taking up command of theIndependent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff underWinston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of theRoyal Air Force. He wasMetropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.
[[File:|right|250px|The two YC-130 prototypes; the blunt nose was replaced withradar on later production models.]] TheLockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engineturbopropcargo aircraft and the maintactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 50 nations. On December 2006 the C-130 was the third aircraft (after theEnglish Electric Canberra in May 2001 and theB-52 Stratofortress in January 2005) to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer (in this case the United States Air Force).
Capable ofshort takeoffs and landings from unpreparedrunways, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop,medical evacuation and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as agunship, and forairborne assault,search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance,aerial refuelling andaerial firefighting. The Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. During more than 50 years of service the family has participated in military, civilian andhumanitarian aid operations.
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