text:
Automaton

An automaton (: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the casual observer that they are operating under their own power or will, like a mechanical robot. The term has long been commonly associated with automated puppets that resemble moving humans or animals, built to impress and/or to entertain people.

Animatronics are a modern type of automata with electronics, often used for the portrayal of characters or creatures in films and in theme park attractions.

Etymology
The word "automaton" is the latinization of the Ancient Greek αὐτόματον,, (neuter) "acting of one's own will". This word was first used by Homer to describe an automatic door opening, or automatic movement of wheeled tripods. It is more often used to describe non-electronic moving machines, especially those that have been made to resemble human or animal actions, such as the jacks on old public striking clocks, or the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock.

Ancient
In ancient Egyptian legends, statues of divinities, mostly made of stone, metal or wood, were animated and played a key role in religious ceremonies. They were believed to have a soul (a kꜣ), derived from the divinity they represented. In the New Kingdom of Egypt, from the 16th century BC until the 11th century BC, ancient Egyptians would frequently consult these statues for advice. The statues would reply with a movement of the head. According to Egyptian lore, pharaoh Hatshepsut dispatched her squadron to the "Land of Incense" after consulting with the statue of Amun.

There are many examples of automata in Greek mythology: Hephaestus created automata for his workshop; Talos was an artificial man of bronze; King Alkinous of the Phaiakians employed gold and silver watchdogs. According to Aristotle, Daedalus used quicksilver to make his wooden statue of Aphrodite move. In other Greek legends he used quicksilver to install voice in his moving statues.

The automata in the Hellenistic world were intended as tools, toys, religious spectacles, or prototypes for demonstrating basic scientific principles. Numerous water-powered automata were built by Ktesibios, a Greek inventor and the first head of the Great Library of Alexandria; for example, he "used water to sound a whistle and make a model owl move. He had invented the world's first 'cuckoo clock'". This tradition continued in Alexandria with inventors such as the Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (sometimes known as Heron), whose writings on hydraulics, pneumatics, and mechanics described siphons, a fire engine, a water organ, the aeolipile, and a programmable cart. Philo of Byzantium was famous for his inventions.

Complex mechanical devices are known to have existed in Hellenistic Greece, though the only surviving example is the Antikythera mechanism, the earliest known analog computer. The clockwork is thought to have come originally from Rhodes, where there was apparently a tradition of mechanical engineering; the island was renowned for its automata; to quote Pindar's seventh Olympic Ode:

 * The animated figures stand
 * Adorning every public street
 * And seem to breathe in stone, or
 * move their marble feet.

However, the information gleaned from recent scans of the fragments indicate that it may have come from the colonies of Corinth in Sicily and implies a connection with Archimedes.

According to Jewish legend, King Solomon used his wisdom to design a throne with mechanical animals which hailed him as king when he ascended it; upon sitting down an eagle would place a crown upon his head, and a dove would bring him a Torah scroll. It is also said that when King Solomon stepped upon the throne, a mechanism was set in motion. As soon as he stepped upon the first step, a golden ox and a golden lion each stretched out one foot to support him and help him rise to the next step. On each side, the animals helped the King up until he was comfortably seated upon the throne.

In ancient China, a curious account of automata is found in the Lie Zi text, believed to have originated around 400 BCE and compiled around the fourth century CE. Within it there is a description of a much earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou (1023–957 BCE) and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. The latter proudly presented the king with a very realistic and detailed life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical handiwork:

"The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time...As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shih [Yan Shi] executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles, bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them artificial...The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their power of locomotion. The king was delighted."

Other notable examples of automata include Archytas' dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius. Similar Chinese accounts of flying automata are written of the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban, who made artificial wooden birds that could successfully fly according to the  and other texts.

Medieval
The manufacturing tradition of automata continued in the Greek world well into the Middle Ages. On his visit to Constantinople in 949 ambassador Liutprand of Cremona described automata in the emperor Theophilos' palace, including "'lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue,' 'a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species' and 'the emperor's throne' itself, which 'was made in such a cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher and was to be seen up in the air.'" Similar automata in the throne room (singing birds, roaring and moving lions) were described by Luitprand's contemporary the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his book De Ceremoniis (Perì tês Basileíou Tákseōs).

In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built: "statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad". The "public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the 'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed." Also in the 8th century, the Muslim alchemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), included recipes for constructing artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans that would be subject to their creator's control in his coded Book of Stones. In 827, Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad, which had the features of an automatic machine. There were metal birds that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim inventors and engineers. The Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir also had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 917, with birds on it flapping their wings and singing. In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.

Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206. His automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.

Al-Jazari constructed a hand washing automaton first employing the flush mechanism now used in modern toilets. It features a female automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the automaton refills the basin. His "peacock fountain" was another more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants who offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure—with a towel!"

Al-Jazari thus appears to have been the first inventor to display an interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes such as manipulating the environment for human comfort. Lamia Balafrej has also pointed out the prevalence of the figure of the automated slave in al-Jazari's treatise. Automated slaves were a frequent motif in ancient and medieval literature but it was not so common to find them described in a technical book. Balafrej has also written about automated female slaves, which appeared in timekeepers and as liquid-serving devices in medieval Arabic sources, thus suggesting a link between feminized forms of labor like housekeeping, medieval slavery, and the imaginary of automation.

In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours.

Samarangana Sutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja (11th century), includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology.

Villard de Honnecourt, in his 1230s sketchbook, depicted an early escapement mechanism in a drawing titled How to make an angel keep pointing his finger toward the Sun with an angel that would perpetually turn to face the sun. He also drew an automaton of a bird with jointed wings, which led to their design implementation in clocks.

At the end of the thirteenth century, Robert II, Count of Artois, built a pleasure garden at his castle at Hesdin that incorporated several automata as entertainment in the walled park. The work was conducted by local workmen and overseen by the Italian knight Renaud Coignet. It included monkey marionettes, a sundial supported by lions and "wild men", mechanized birds, mechanized fountains and a bellows-operated organ. The park was famed for its automata well into the fifteenth century before it was destroyed by English soldiers in the sixteenth century.

The Chinese author Xiao Xun wrote that when the Ming dynasty founder Hongwu (r. 1368–1398) was destroying the palaces of Khanbaliq belonging to the previous Yuan dynasty, there were—among many other mechanical devices—automata found that were in the shape of tigers.

Renaissance and early modern
The Renaissance witnessed a considerable revival of interest in automata. Hero's treatises were edited and translated into Latin and Italian. Hydraulic and pneumatic automata, similar to those described by Hero, were created for garden grottoes.

Giovanni Fontana, a Paduan engineer in 1420, developed Bellicorum instrumentorum liber which includes a puppet of a camelid driven by a clothed primate twice the height of a human being and an automaton of Mary Magdalene. He also created mechanical devils and rocket-propelled animal automata.

While functional, early clocks were also often designed as novelties and spectacles which integrated features of automata. Many big and complex clocks with automated figures were built as public spectacles in European town centres. One of the earliest of these large clocks was the Strasbourg astronomical clock, built in the 14th century which takes up the entire side of a cathedral wall. It contained an astronomical calendar, automata depicting animals, saints and the life of Christ. The mechanical rooster of Strasbourg clock was active from 1352 to 1789. The clock still functions to this day, but has undergone several restorations since its initial construction. The Prague astronomical clock was built in 1410, animated figures were added from the 17th century onwards. Numerous clockwork automata were manufactured in the 16th century, principally by the goldsmiths of the Free Imperial Cities of central Europe. These wondrous devices found a home in the cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammern of the princely courts of Europe.

In 1454, Duke Philip created an entertainment show named The extravagant Feast of the Pheasant, which was intended to influence the Duke's peers to participate in a crusade against the Ottomans but ended up being a grand display of automata, giants, and dwarves.

A banquet in Camilla of Aragon's honor in Italy, 1475, featured a lifelike automated camel. The spectacle was a part of a larger parade which continued over days.

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a complex mechanical knight, which he may have built and exhibited at a celebration hosted by Ludovico Sforza at the court of Milan around 1495. The design of Leonardo's robot was not rediscovered until the 1950s. A functional replica was later built that could move its arms, twist its head, and sit up.

Da Vinci is frequently credited with constructing a mechanical lion, which he presented to King Francois I in Lyon in 1515. Although no record of the device's original designs remain, a recreation of this piece is housed at the Château du Clos Lucé.

The Smithsonian Institution has in its collection a clockwork monk, about 15 in high, possibly dating as early as 1560. The monk is driven by a key-wound spring and walks the path of a square, striking his chest with his right arm, while raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the cross to his lips and kisses it. It is believed that the monk was manufactured by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

The first description of a modern cuckoo clock was by the Augsburg nobleman Philipp Hainhofer in 1629. The clock belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen. By 1650, the workings of mechanical cuckoos were understood and were widely disseminated in Athanasius Kircher's handbook on music, Musurgia Universalis. In what is the first documented description of how a mechanical cuckoo works, a mechanical organ with several automated figures is described. In 18th-century Germany, clockmakers began making cuckoo clocks for sale. Clock shops selling cuckoo clocks became commonplace in the Black Forest region by the middle of the 18th century.

Japan adopted clockwork automata in the early 17th century as "karakuri" puppets. In 1662, Takeda Omi completed his first butai karakuri and then built several of these large puppets for theatrical exhibitions. Karakuri puppets went through a golden age during the Edo period (1603–1867).

A new attitude towards automata is to be found in René Descartes when he suggested that the bodies of animals are nothing more than complex machines – the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with cogs, pistons, and cams. Thus mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. France in the 17th century was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, in 1649, when Louis XIV was still a child, François-Joseph de Camus designed for him a miniature coach, complete with horses and footmen, a page, and a lady within the coach; all these figures exhibited a perfect movement. According to Labat, General de Gennes constructed, in 1688, in addition to machines for gunnery and navigation, a peacock that walked and ate. Athanasius Kircher produced many automata to create Jesuit shows, including a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking tube.

The world's first successfully-built biomechanical automaton is considered to be The Flute Player, which could play twelve songs, created by the French engineer Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. He also constructed The Tambourine Player and the Digesting Duck, a mechanical duck that – apart from quacking and flapping its wings – gave the false illusion of eating and defecating, seeming to endorse Cartesian ideas that animals are no more than machines of flesh.

In 1769, a chess-playing machine called the Turk, created by Wolfgang von Kempelen, made the rounds of the courts of Europe purporting to be an automaton. The Turk beat Benjamin Franklin in a game of chess when Franklin was ambassador to France. The Turk was actually operated from inside by a hidden human director, and was not a true automaton.

Other 18th century automaton makers include the prolific Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz (see Jaquet-Droz automata) and his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz, and his contemporary Henri Maillardet. Maillardet, a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable of drawing four pictures and writing three poems. Maillardet's Automaton is now part of the collections at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. Belgian-born John Joseph Merlin created the mechanism of the Silver Swan automaton, now at Bowes Museum. A musical elephant made by the French clockmaker Hubert Martinet in 1774 is one of the highlights of Waddesdon Manor. Tipu's Tiger is another late-18th century example of automata, made for Tipu Sultan, featuring a European soldier being mauled by a tiger. Catherine the Great of Russia was gifted a very large and elaborate Peacock Clock created by James Cox in 1781 now on display in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

According to philosopher Michel Foucault, Frederick the Great, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, was "obsessed" with automata. According to Manuel de Landa, "he put together his armies as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot-like warriors".

In 1801, Joseph Jacquard built his loom automaton that was controlled autonomously with punched cards.

Automata, particularly watches and clocks, were popular in China during the 18th and 19th centuries, and items were produced for the Chinese market. Strong interest by Chinese collectors in the 21st century brought many interesting items to market where they have had dramatic realizations.

Modern
The famous magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) was known for creating automata for his stage shows. Automata that acted according to a set of preset instructions were popular with magicians during this time.

In 1840, Italian inventor Innocenzo Manzetti constructed a flute-playing automaton, in the shape of a man, life-size, seated on a chair. Hidden inside the chair were levers, connecting rods and compressed air tubes, which made the automaton's lips and fingers move on the flute according to a program recorded on a cylinder similar to those used in player pianos. The automaton was powered by clockwork and could perform 12 different arias. As part of the performance it would rise from the chair, bow its head, and roll its eyes.

The period 1860 to 1910 is known as "The Golden Age of Automata". Mechanical coin-operated fortune tellers were introduced to boardwalks in Britain and America. In Paris during this period, many small family based companies of automata makers thrived. From their workshops they exported thousands of clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around the world. Although now rare and expensive, these French automata attract collectors worldwide. The main French makers were Bontems, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou, Roullet & Decamps, Theroude and Vichy.

Abstract automata theory started in mid-20th century with finite automata and is applied in branches of formal & natural science including computer science, physics, biology, as well as linguistics.

Contemporary automata continue this tradition with an emphasis on art, rather than technological sophistication. Contemporary automata are represented by the works of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in the United Kingdom, Thomas Kuntz, Arthur Ganson, Joe Jones and Le Défenseur du Temps by French artist Jacques Monestier.

Since 1990 Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been building large automated PVC structures called strandbeest (beach animal) that can walk on wind power or compressed air. Jansen claims that he intends them to automatically evolve and develop artificial intelligence, with herds roaming freely over the beach.

British sculptor Sam Smith (1908–1983) was a well-known maker of automata.

Proposals
In 2016, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program studied a rover, the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments, designed to survive for an extended time in Venus' environmental conditions. Unlike other modern automata, AREE is an automaton instead of a robot for practical reasons—Venus's harsh conditions, particularly its surface temperature of 462 C, make operating electronics there for any significant time impossible. It would be controlled by a mechanical computer and driven by wind power.

Clocks
Automaton clocks are clocks which feature automatons within or around the housing and typically activate around the beginning of each hour, at each half hour, or at each quarter hour. They were largely produced from the 1st Century BC to the end of the Victorian times in Europe. Older clocks typically featured religious characters or other mythical characters such as Death or Father Time. As time progressed, however, automaton clocks began to feature influential characters at the time of creation, such as kings, famous composers, or industrialists. Examples of automaton clocks include Chariot clock and Cuckoo Clocks. The Cuckooland Museum exhibits autonomous clocks. While automaton clocks' usage are largely perceived to have been in use during medieval times in Europe, they are largely produced in Japan today.

In Automata theory, clocks are regarded as timed automatons, a type of finite automaton. Automaton clocks being finite essentially means that automaton clocks have a certain number of states in which they can exist. The exact number is the number of combinations possible on a clock with the hour, minute, and second hand: 43,200. The title of timed automaton declares that the automaton changes states at a set rate, which for clocks is 1 state change every second. Clock automata only takes as input the time displayed by the previous state. The automata uses this input to produce the next state, a display of time 1 second later than the previous. Clock automata often also use the previous state's input to 'decide' whether or not the next state requires merely changing the hands on the clock, or if a special function is required, such as a mechanical bird popping out of a house like in cuckoo clocks. This choice is evaluated through the position of complex gears, cams, axles, and other mechanical devices within the automaton.

In art and popular culture throughout history

 * One of the oldest stories involving an automaton is "The Sandman" (short story) written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann.
 * The Clockwork Man (1923) by E.V. Odle, features an automaton-like man or cyborg.
 * Metropolis (1927 silent film) features a female automaton in this science fiction story.
 * Elizabeth King, American artist and sculptor, has work that has focused on automata.
 * The Pretended (2000 novel) by Darryl A. Smith features automata doppelgängers in order to critique race.
 * The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (2007 graphic novel) and film of the same name features an automaton.
 * The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia is a 2008 novel that features an automaton girl who must be wound up with a key to live.
 * The Automation (2014 novel) and its sequel The Pre-programming (2018) features creatures called "Automatons" created by the Greco-Roman god Vulcan.
 * Genshin Impact features an enemy group called an Automaton which are mechanical beings with most originating from the lost kingdom of Khaenri'ah.
 * Immortals Fenyx Rising (2020) includes a side plot featuring a fallen Hephaistos and his automatons, complete with an automaton boss fight.
 * American Gods season 3 (2021) features an automaton at a fair made by an early version of Technical Boy. This differs from the novel the show is based on.
 * In the Syberia video games one of the main characters is an automaton called Oscar. He is very proud of his own design and dislikes being called a "robot".
 * In the video game Helldivers 2, one of the enemy factions is called the Automatons.

title: Automaton


text:
User:Jonsed

argh i linked to myself, now i have to create this page!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Jonsed


text:
CAC Boomerang

The CAC Boomerang is a fighter aircraft designed and manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation between 1942 and 1945. Approved for production shortly following the Empire of Japan's entry into the Second World War, the Boomerang was rapidly designed as to meet the urgent demands for fighter aircraft to equip the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It was the first combat aircraft designed and constructed in Australia.

Different variants of the Boomerang were manufactured under a series of corresponding production contract numbers CA-12, CA-13, CA-14 and CA-19, the aircraft supplied under each subsequent contract would incorporate various modifications, typically aimed at improving the aircraft's performance. The Boomerang was handicapped by the available engine variant, which gave low power at altitude and resulted in the aircraft proving to be slower than contemporary fighter aircraft. The Boomerang rarely engaged in aerial combat. During early wartime operations, the Boomerang was mainly dispatched to equip home-based squadrons, freeing up other fighters for use overseas. In later service, the Boomerang would commonly be used for ground support duties, cooperating with Allied army units, in addition to secondary roles such as aerial reconnaissance and air sea rescue.

Background
During the mid 1930s, some political leaders observed that both the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany appeared to be preparing for war, which in turn led to several other countries commencing their own preparations.

In Australia, the nation's small domestic aircraft industry required substantial expansion and reorganization to produce modern combat aircraft in sufficient numbers. While Tugan Aircraft had built eight examples of a small twin engine transport to their own design, as an organization they were too small to be reasonably expected to expand into the role of producing large numbers of modern combat aircraft in a timely manner. An additional hurdle was the lack of experience in Australia outside of light private and small commercial aircraft, as all military aircraft had been procured from overseas manufacturers, mainly in the United Kingdom. On 17 October 1936, with the encouragement of the Government of Australia, three companies formed a joint venture, registered as the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC), which had the goal of developing a self-sufficient aircraft industry. Other companies would in turn join them, and Tugan Aircraft would be taken over by CAC.

CAC planned both engine and aircraft manufacturing and testing facilities at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, purchasing tooling and equipment from manufacturers in both Britain and the United States. While the company initially pursued the development and production of the CAC Wirraway, a single-engine armed advanced trainer aircraft which was a licence-built version of the North American NA-16, the firm would receive substantial orders for large numbers of military aircraft, in particular fighters, to equip the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). In July 1940, when the United Kingdom was the sole European nation still fighting against Germany, the Australian Government issued a statement advising that "from this date onward Australia can rely on England for no further supplies of any aircraft materials or equipment of any kind.

On 7 December 1941, the Pacific War began with a series of unanticipated near-simultaneous attacks by Japanese forces against Pearl Harbour, Thailand, Malaya and the Philippines. With Japan gaining control over vast areas of the Pacific and South East Asia within just a few months, Australia was in a precarious position. Two Australian squadrons were stationed in Europe, along with a further four squadrons in Malaya. Two of the Malayan squadrons were equipped with Lockheed Hudson medium bombers, one with Wirraways as general purpose aircraft, and another with the lacklustre Brewster Buffalo fighter. There was a distinct need of a strong Australian fighter force at that time.

While most RAAF aircraft came from the UK, by 1942, the British aircraft industry was hard-pressed to even meet the needs of its own country. Meanwhile, companies in the United States possessed enormous aircraft manufacturing capacity, but their output was at this point being monopolized by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and United States Navy (USN), which were also at war with Japan. Even where capacity could be found for new aircraft to be built overseas, their delivery would require them to be shipped considerable distances in wartime conditions, with consequent delays and at the risk of considerable losses, in particular due to German U-boats and Japanese submarines. While USAAF fighters such as the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and Bell P-39 Airacobra that were being used in the region that were damaged during service could be rebuilt by Australian workshops and even loaned to RAAF units, they were not available in sufficient numbers.

Origins
In late 1941, Lawrence Wackett, Manager and Chief Designer of CAC, began examining the possibility of designing and building a new domestically-designed fighter aircraft. The main challenge to this ambition was the fact that fighter aircraft had never been manufactured before in Australia; according to aviation author Rene J. Francillon, many experts considered that the licensed manufacture of a complete fighter aircraft would be beyond the capabilities of Australia's industry at that time. Wackett quickly decided to use elements of aircraft which were already being produced in Australia. Only two military aircraft were in production at the time: the CAC Wirraway, based on the North American NA-16, and the Bristol Beaufort bomber.

Overseas, the NA-16 had already become the basis of the North American NA-50 fighter (also known as the P-64), which had been used by the Peruvian Air Force in the 1941 Ecuadorian–Peruvian War. Crucially, CAC's licence to manufacture the Wirraway already contained a clause allowing the design to be modified. Accordingly, Wackett decided to use the airframe of the Wirraway as a starting point for the design of the new domestic fighter; this choice had the advantage of requiring little additional tooling; it also had the effect of reducing the timescales that would be involved in the design phase and to establish the manufacturing of the new aircraft.

Although British designers had reworked the twin-engined Beaufort into a successful attack aircraft, the Beaufighter, this was not a suitable basis for the sought-after single-engine interceptor aircraft. However, Australian-made Beauforts used 1,200 horsepower (890 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines, which were made under licence at the CAC plant in Lidcombe, Sydney. Another factor in favour of the engine was that it was already in use to power the Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters of the United States Navy, which helped make the Twin Wasp a logical choice to power the domestic fighter design.

Wackett promptly recruited designer Fred David, an Austrian Jew who had recently arrived in Australia as a refugee and, as David was technically an enemy alien, he had been interned by Australian immigration officials. David was well-suited to the CAC project, since he had previously worked for Heinkel in pre-Nazi Germany, as well as Mitsubishi and Aichi in Japan. As a result of this past, David possessed an excellent understanding of advanced fighter designs, including the Mitsubishi A6M ("Zero") (used by the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service) and the Heinkel He 112 (a contemporary of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and used in small numbers by Axis air forces in Europe).

In December 1941, the management of CAC issued its authorisation to proceed with the detailed design of the new fighter aircraft. The aircraft, which had received the internal designation of CA-12, used the wing, tail assembly, undercarriage, and center section of the Wirraway in combination with a new forward fuselage, which housed the larger Twin Wasp engine. It had a new single seat cockpit complete with a sliding hood, and carried an armament of two 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons along with four .303 machine guns. The proposal was presented to the Australian Government, which promptly gave its approval; the government viewed the CA-12 as an appropriate insurance against the delay or cancellation of its order for US-built P-40 fighters, as well as a desire to maintain work at CAC; the ready availability of usable Wirraway components for the CA-12, the latter of which would greatly speed up any manufacturing program, was also viewed favourably.

Accordingly, on 18 February 1942, the Australian War Cabinet authorised an order for 105 CA-12 aircraft; shortly thereafter, the name Boomerang was selected for the aircraft. The ordering of production aircraft had been made in advance of any prototype being produced or maiden flight performed, thus the Boomerang had been effectively ordered 'off the drawing board'.

Prototypes and early production
On 29 May 1942, the prototype Boomerang, A46-1, conducted its maiden flight from Fishermans Bend, flown by CAC pilot Ken Frewin. This initial prototype had been completed within only three months of having received the order to proceed, which was a considerably rare accomplishment for the era. A46-1 was quickly put to use for a series of test flights, being flown either by Frewin or by RAAF pilot John Harper; these tests reportedly went smoothly, with the prototype proving to be easy to handle and quite manoeuvrable. An issue with engine cooling was encountered, which led to a revision of the oil cooler intake and the addition of a spinner to the propeller upon A46-3 onwards. On 15 July, No. 1 Aircraft Depot (1 AD) of the RAAF formally received A46-1 (bu. no. 824) from CAC.

Comparison flight tests were undertaken by 1 AD, pitting the CA-12 against a Brewster Buffalo (A51-6) that had been lightened and re-weighted to approximate the flight characteristics of a Zero, as well as a Curtiss P-40E/Kittyhawk Mk I (A29-129) and a Bell P-400/Airacobra Mk Ia (BW127). It was found that the Boomerang was faster in level flight than the Buffalo, although the Buffalo out-manoeuvred it. The Boomerang was superior in armament, with two 20 mm cannon and four .303 calibre (7.7 mm) machine guns, all mounted in the short, thick wings. Its pilots were better protected, with generous armour plating, than Japanese fighter pilots. While the CA-12 was lively at low level, its performance fell away rapidly above altitudes of 15,000 ft (4,600 m), and its maximum speed of 265 knots (490 km/h) was not sufficient to make it an effective counter to Japanese fighters like the Zero and the Japanese Army's Nakajima Ki 43 ("Oscar"). Similarly, the best European fighters were reaching almost 350 knots (650 km/h), and even relatively sluggish contemporary fighters – like the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk I – were substantially faster than the Boomerang.

From March 1942, there was less pressure to place the CA-12 into production as multiple USAAF units, operating a mixture of P-40 and P-39 fighters, were being deployed in strength to northern Australia; the RAAF had also begun to receive new Kittyhawk fighters as well. In June 1943, manufacturing work upon the original order for 105 CA-12s was completed. During production of this batch, several modifications and improvements were incorporated onto the CA-12, these included the strengthening of the spinner back plates and belly tank locating pins, the installation of underwing night flying identification lights, and a revised electrical starter system; many of these modifications would be retrofitted onto early production models at operational bases as well.

In the face of difficulties experienced by CAC on the development of the CAC Woomera, a twin-engine bomber aircraft which was ultimately cancelled in September 1944, the Australian government elected to extend the production arrangement for the Boomerang, extending its orders from 105 to 250 aircraft. These additional 145 aircraft were manufactured in four distinct versions, the CA-13, the CA-14, CA-14A and CA-19. 95 CA-13s and 49 CA-19s, were completed, while only one prototype of the supercharged Boomerang CA-14 and its modified CA-14A form would be produced. In February 1945, the final Boomerang to be manufactured, A46-249, a CA-19 model, was completed.

Further development
During the flight testing phase of development work upon the initial CA-12 model, CAC commenced work upon a new variant which featured performance improvements in terms of speed, climb and ceiling. Designated CA-14, this aircraft was designed around an order for 145 U.S.-built, 1,700 hp (1,268 kW) Wright Cyclone R-2600 engines. The Wright engines ordered were not delivered as scheduled, and in mid-1942 Wackett authorised use of the 1,850 hp (1,380 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800, which was available from the CAC factory in Lidcombe. Due to the layout of the Boomerang's compact fuselage, the supercharger for the engine was installed in the rear fuselage, while a new three-bladed variable pitch Curtiss-built propeller was also initially adopted.

Unfortunately, the addition of significantly greater weight of this powerplant imposed an unacceptable risk of undercarriage failure. (The R-2800 engine would later be the basis of design work on the Boomerang's successor: the CAC CA-15 "Kangaroo".) CAC eventually returned to the Twin Wasp, to which it added a General Electric B-2 turbo-supercharger mounted inside the rear part of the fuselage, new propeller gear, a geared cooling fan (influenced by intelligence reports from Europe regarding captured German BMW 801 twin-row radial engines, which were used by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A) and a larger, squared-off tailfin and rudder.

By July 1943, the significantly re-worked CA-14 prototype, now known as the CA-14A, had a top speed that was 25–30% better than the CA-12, and an operational ceiling 4,000 ft (1,200 m) higher. Testing of the later Boomerang variants found that they compared favourably, under some conditions, with the Spitfire Mk V, as well as early variants of the Republic Thunderbolt (P-47) and North American Mustang (P-51). By that time, however, the Spitfire had filled the interceptor role and CAC was on the verge of commencing the manufacture of Mustangs under licence to meet the sought bomber escort, air superiority and close air support roles. Accordingly, the CA-14 never entered production.

Design
The Boomerang was a small single-engine monoplane fighter aircraft, designed with an emphasis on high manoeuvrability. It had a stubby appearance, which had resulted from the structure being derived from the smaller Wirraway being paired with a considerably larger engine in the form of a 1,200 horsepower (890 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engine, which drove a three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller, license-built by de Havilland. The engine was closely cowled with two air scoops fixed to the upper and lower sides, the upper being for the carburetor and the lower for the oil cooler. Fuel was divided between one fuselage-housed 70 impgal self-sealing fuel tank and a pair of 45 impgal tanks within the center section of the wing.

Although the original intention during development had been to use as many Wirraway components as possible, the final design of the Boomerang had substantially differed from the source, having adopted shorter wings along with a shorter, wood-sheathed, aluminium-framed fuselage, which had increased strength to withstand combat stresses, and an original centre section. The low-mounted cantilever wing consisted of five sections, these being a central section, a pair of outer sections, and two detachable wing tips; the outer sections had a swept-back leading edge along with a straight trailing edge. The wing used a single spar and a stressed skin construction, along with fabric-covered ailerons, aluminium trim tabs and split trailing edge flaps. The main undercarriage hydraulically retracted into wheelwells forward of the main spar.

The Boomerang had a new single seat cockpit located directly over the centre of the wing, which was furnished with a sliding canopy which had 1.5 in bulletproof glass and armor protection. Common to many of the latest fighters at the time, the Boomerang was equipped with automatic cannons; as no such weapons had previously been manufactured in Australia, a pair of British-made Hispano-Suiza 20 mm were used. Allegedly, an example which an Australian airman had collected as a souvenir in the Middle East was reverse engineered. Other armament fitted included four Browning .303 machine guns along with provision for up to four 20 lb smoke bombs; all of these were mounted within the wings.

Operational history

On 19 October 1942, CA-12 A46-6 (bu. no. 829) became the first Boomerang to reach a training/conversion unit, it was immediately put to use training pilots when it was transferred to No. 2 OTU, from 1 AD. In the training role, while generally being considered to be a success according to Rene, pilots without previous operational experience had difficulty transitioning from the Wirraway to the Boomerang due to its poor forward visibility, the reflector gun sight was subsequently relocated to improve pilot vision.

No. 83 Squadron became the first fighter unit to receive Boomerangs, when several were delivered to replace Airacobras at Strathpine Airfield in Strathpine, Queensland on 10 April 1943. A few weeks afterward, CA-12s were also received by a frontline air defence unit, No. 84 Squadron which was stationed on Horn Island Airfield, in Torres Strait. The third Boomerang fighter unit, No. 85 Squadron, like No. 83 Squadron, was performing home defence duties, at RAAF Guildford (known later as Perth Airport); the Boomerangs replaced the squadron's Buffaloes.

On 16 May 1943, the first encounter between the Boomerang while on aerial patrol duties and Japanese aircraft occurred; a pair of Boomerangs, flown by Flying Officer Johnstone and Sergeant Stammer, spotted three Mitsubishi G4M 'Betty' bombers and opened fire upon them at 250 yards, resulting in little apparent damage and the enemy's withdrawal. On the evening of 20 May 1943, Flight Lieutenant Roy Goon became the first Boomerang pilot to scramble on the Australian mainland against Japanese bombers. Goon, part of a No. 85 Squadron detachment at RAAF Learmonth, near Exmouth, Western Australia, undertaking air defence of the Allied naval base at Exmouth Gulf (codenamed "Potshot"), took off to intercept Japanese bombers. After Goon had sighted them, the bombers dropped their payloads wide of their target and left the area. The majority of standing patrols were uneventful.

No. 84 Squadron had been deployed to a US Army Air Forces bomber base on Horn Island off the coast of Northern Australia in a measure to address Japanese air raids and the continuing shortage of fighters in this area, which were required for an intended small scale offensive in New Guinea. The squadron was only modestly successful in this role however. The Boomerang's low top speed and poor high altitude performance meant that No. 84 could drive off enemy attacks but rarely could get close enough to Japanese aircraft to bring their guns to bear. There were not many air raids in this area, and after using Boomerangs for eight months, No. 84 Squadron upgraded to the Kittyhawk. In addition to its air defence operations, No. 84 also provided cover for all shipping in the area during this time, including within 20 miles of Merauke, Papua Province.

While RAAF records show that the Boomerang was never recorded as having destroyed any enemy aircraft, the type proved to be more useful in its capacity as a light ground attack aircraft used by Army co-operation squadrons, often replacing the lightly armed Wirraway in this role. In this vital mission, the Boomerang directly contributed to the extensive ground war in the jungles of the South West Pacific theatre, which was often characterised by widely dispersed, small unit actions, which typically fought at close quarters and with uncertain front lines. In addition to strafing Japanese ground forces with cannon and machine gun fire, Boomerangs would often deploy smoke bombs to mark valuable targets for other units to attack. The aircraft was also used for artillery spotting, aerial supply drops, tactical reconnaissance, and anti-malarial spraying.

The aircraft proved to be ideal in this ground attack role due to a number of qualities that it possessed. The Boomerang had the range to go wherever it was needed when it was based close to ground operations; had heavy armament; was agile and easy to fly, meaning that pilots could get close to ground targets, avoid ground fire and rough terrain; and featured extensive armour plating along with a wood and aluminium airframe that could withstand significant battle damage. Some of the aircraft were shot down, including two accidental "kills" by US forces, and many were damaged during accidents while landing, often because the Boomerang was prone to ground looping.

No. 4 Squadron and No. 5 Squadron flew Boomerangs in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands Campaign and Borneo Campaign, also in the close support role, with marked success. Flying in pairs (one to observe the ground, the other to observe the air around them), their tasks included bombing, strafing, close infantry support and artillery spotting. When attacking larger enemy formations, Boomerangs often operated in conjunction with larger aircraft. In this role, the Boomerang would get in close to confirm the identity of the target and mark it with a 20 lb (9 kg) smoke bomb with the "cooperating" aircraft delivering the major ordnance from a safer distance. A partnership between No. 5 Squadron Boomerangs and Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsair fighter bombers during the Bougainville Campaign was said to be particularly effective.

On 14 August 1945, the wartime role of the Boomerang came to an end when the suspension of all offensive operations against land targets, except for direct support of Allied ground forces in contact with the enemy, was issued.

No. 8 Communications Unit operated a number of Boomerangs to assist with air sea rescue operations in New Guinea.

The sole CA-14A was used for research by No. 1 Aircraft Performance Unit RAAF, and was also seconded to the Bureau of Meteorology for a period after the war ended.

Variants

 * CA-12 (Mark I)
 * The first single-seat fighter version, 105 built.

 * CA-13 (Mark II)
 * Improved version of the CA-12, 95 built.

 * CA-14
 * One aircraft fitted with a turbo-supercharged engine, did not enter production. Serial number A46-1001.

 * CA-14A
 * The CA-14 prototype was later modified to have a square tail and rudder.

 * CA-19
 * Tactical reconnaissance variant with a single vertical camera in the fuselage, 49 built. Serial numbers: A46-201 to A46-249.

Operators

 * Royal Australian Air Force
 * No. 2 Operational Training Unit (October 1942 – 1945)
 * No. 4 Squadron (August 1943 – August 1945). Code letters: QE
 * No. 5 Squadron (November 1943 – August 1946). Code letters: BF
 * No. 83 Squadron (September 1943 – August 1945). Code letters: MH
 * No. 84 Squadron (April 1943 – October 1943). Code letters: LB
 * No. 85 Squadron (May 1943 – January 1945). Code letters: SH
 * No. 8 Communications Unit (February 1944 – August 1944). Code letters: ZA
 * No. 8 Communications Unit (February 1944 – August 1944). Code letters: ZA

Surviving aircraft

 * A46-30 – CA-12 on static display at the RAAF Museum in Point Cook, Victoria.
 * A46-63 – CA-12 airworthy with Boomerang Aviation Pty of Mile End South, South Australia. It first flew again on 26 June 2009. The restoration includes the provision of a passenger seat.
 * A46-77 – CA-12 under restoration to airworthy with Rotorworks Pty Ltd in Mareeba, Queensland.
 * A46-89 – CA-12 under restoration to airworthy with Ian Baker in Sydney.
 * A46-90 – CA-12 under restoration to airworthy with Ian Baker in Sydney, New South Wales.
 * A46-122 "Suzy Q" – CA-13 airworthy at the Temora Aviation Museum in Temora, New South Wales.  Ownership was transferred to the RAAF in July 2019 and it is operated by the Temora Historic Flight of the Air Force Heritage Squadron.
 * A46-140 – CA-13 under restoration to airworthy with Ian Baker in Sydney, New South Wales.
 * A46-147 "Zoot" – CA-13 under restoration to static with Nick Knight in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria.
 * A46-206 "Milingimbi Ghost" – CA-19 on static display at the Museum of Australian Army Flying in Oakey, Queensland. It was previously owned by Lynette Zuccoli in Toowoomba, Queensland.
 * Replica – Airworthy replica of an unknown variant, private owner based in the Netherlands. It was built using parts from the original A46-139. Previously registered in the United States as N32CS.

title: CAC Boomerang


text:
List of people educated at Westminster School

The following people were educated at Westminster School in London, and are sometimes listed with OW (Old Westminster) after their name (collectively, OWW). There are over 900 Old Westminsters listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography so these are necessarily a small sample:

15th century

 * John Hygdon (c. 1472–1532), first dean of Cardinal College Christ Church, Oxford

16th century

 * Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616), travel writer
 * Thomas Braddock (1556–1607), clergyman and translator
 * William Alabaster (1567–1640), poet
 * Robert Bruce Cotton (1570–1631), antiquarian
 * Ben Jonson (1573–1637), poet and dramatist
 * Arthur Dee (1579–1651), physician
 * Richard Corbet (1582–1635), poet
 * Sir Richard Lane (1584–1650), Chief Baron of the Exchequer
 * Robert Herrick (1591–1674), poet
 * Charles Chauncy (1592–1672), President of Harvard 1654–72
 * Henry King (1592–1669), poet
 * George Herbert (1593–1633), public orator and poet

17th century

 * Jasper Mayne (1604–1672), dramatist
 * Thomas Randolph (1605–1635), poet and dramatist
 * John Maplet (1612?–1670), physician and poet
 * Abraham Cowley (1618–1667), poet
 * Sir John Baber (1625–1704), physician to Charles II of England
 * Richard Lower (1631–1691), pioneering physician
 * John Dryden (1631–1700), poet and playwright
 * John Locke (1632–1704), philosopher
 * Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), architect, scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society
 * Robert Hooke (1635–1703), scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society
 * Thomas Gale (c. 1636–1702), classical scholar and antiquarian
 * Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), philosopher
 * George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1648–1689), Lord Chief Justice of the Bloody Assize, Lord Chancellor (also ed. by Thomas Chaloner at Shrewsbury and attended St Paul's)
 * Humphrey Prideaux (1648–1724), Dean of Norwich
 * William Taswell (1652–1721), priest and witness to the Great Fire of London
 * Lancelot Blackburne (1658–1743), Archbishop of York
 * Henry Purcell (1659–1695), composer
 * Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (1661–1715), creator of the Bank of England
 * James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn (1661–1734), Privy Counsellor
 * William King (1663–1712), poet
 * Matthew Prior (1664–1771), poet
 * Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718), Poet Laureate 1715
 * Richard Newton, (1676–1753), founder and principal of the first Hertford College, Oxford
 * William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (1684–1764), Cabinet Minister
 * John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690–1763), statesman and Cabinet Minister
 * Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1693–1768), First Lord of the Treasury 1754–1756, Prime Minister
 * James Bramston (1694–1744), satirist
 * John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694–1754), Lord Privy Seal
 * Henry Pelham (1696–1754), First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1743–1754, Prime Minister
 * John, Lord Hervey (1696–1743), statesman and writer
 * John Dyer (1699–1748), poet

18th century

 * Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls
 * Charles Wesley (1707–1788), Methodist preacher and writer of over 6,000 hymns
 * William Beckford (1709–1770), politician, twice Lord Mayor of London
 * John Cleland (1709–1789), author of the first erotic novel
 * Sir John Eardley Wilmot (1709–1792), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
 * Robert Hay Drummond (1711–1776), Archbishop of York
 * James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (1715–1763), First Lord of the Treasury, Prime Minister for five days in 1757
 * Francis Lewis (1713–1803), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
 * General Thomas Gage (1721–1787), C in C North America, Governor of Massachusetts 1774
 * John Burgoyne (1723–1792), Lieutenant-General who surrendered British Army at Saratoga
 * Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (1726–1799), Admiral of the Fleet
 * Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet (1727–1814), MP and campaigner for the abolition of slavery
 * Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730–1782), Prime Minister
 * William Cowper (1731–1800), poet and hymnodist
 * Henry Constantine Jennings (1731–1819), collector
 * Charles Churchill, George Colman the Elder, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd (1731–1764, 1732–1794, 1725–1768, and 1733–1764), satirists and poets; founders of the satirists' Nonsense Club
 * Warren Hastings (1732–1818), Governor-General of Bengal impeached but acquitted by Parliament
 * Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811), Astronomer Royal
 * Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), dramatist
 * Welbore Ellis Agar (1735–1805), commissioner of HM Revenue and Customs and art collector
 * Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735–1811), Prime Minister
 * Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), reforming politician
 * John Horne Tooke (1736–1812), politician and philologist
 * Edward Gibbon, FRS (1737–1794), historian
 * William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738–1809), Prime Minister
 * Arthur Middleton (1742–1787), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
 * Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746–1825), ADC to Washington 1777, defeated by Jefferson in 1804 in contest for Presidency
 * Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), philosopher, lawyer and eccentric
 * Archibald James Edward Stewart, 1st Baron Douglas of Douglas (1748–1827); winner of the Douglas Cause; MP and Lord Lieutenant of Forfarshire
 * Edward Hussey (1749–1816), cricketer, sportsman and owner of Scotney Castle in Kent
 * Henry William Bunbury (1750–1811), caricaturist
 * Thomas Pinckney (1750–1828), American ambassador to Britain
 * James Bland Burgess (1752–1824), dramatist and playwright
 * Richard Burke Jr. (1758–1794), Member of Parliament
 * Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766–1841), ambassador to Constantinople, bringer of parthenon marbles to Britain
 * Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768–1854), cavalry and horse artillery officer at Waterloo, where he lost a leg
 * James Bruce (1769–1798), Member of Parliament
 * Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (1770–1844), radical parliamentarian and parliamentary reformer
 * Robert Southey (1774–1843), Poet Laureate 1813
 * Matthew Lewis (1775–1818), dramatist
 * Benjamin Hall (1778–1817), Welsh industrialist, father of 1st Baron Llanover (below)
 * Henry Fynes Clinton (1781–1852), scholar
 * John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton (1786–1869), companion and ally of Byron
 * Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863), architect, archaeologist, and writer
 * FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855), lost his right arm at Waterloo, C-in-C in the Crimea
 * Sir James Graham (1792–1861), politician
 * John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878), Prime Minister
 * Henry Westenra, 3rd Baron Rossmore (1792–1860), politician and piper
 * Charles Longley (1794–1868), Archbishop of Canterbury
 * William Mure (1799–1860), scholar and politician

19th century

 * John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), Irish clergyman
 * Thomas Henry Lister (1800–1842), novelist and first Registrar General
 * Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover (1802–1867), Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings responsible for, amongst others, the current Palace of Westminster, likely to have given his name to Big Ben
 * Augustus Short (1802–1883), the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide, South Australia
 * Zerah Colburn (1804–1840), Canadian child mathematics prodigy
 * Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore (1810–1885), Judge of the Arches
 * Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (1811–1856), writer
 * Sir Charles Dilke, 1st Baronet (1811–1869), reformer, instigator of the Great Exhibition
 * Henry Mayhew (1812–1887), reforming and satirical journalist; chronicler of London's poor and founder of Punch
 * Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817–1896), author
 * Sir Edward Poynter (1836–1919), painter
 * Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge (1837–1912), Liberal politician
 * Sir Roland Vaughan Williams (1838–1916), Lord Justice of Appeal
 * Henry Bull (1843–1905), cricketer
 * Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet (1843–1911), Liberal and Radical statesman
 * Arthur Lee (1849–1925), cricketer
 * Herbert Rawson (1852–1924), England footballer
 * Norman Bailey (1857–1923), England footballer
 * Oswell Borradaile (1859–1935), cricketer and cricket administrator
 * F. W. Bain (1863–1940), writer of fantasy stories
 * Percy Dearmer (1867–1936), radical clergyman and liturgist
 * Edward Henry Blakeney (1869–1955), poet and classical scholar
 * Harry Robert Kempe (1852-1935), electrical engineer, author and editor
 * Frederick Ranalow (1873–1953), baritone and actor
 * Sir Guy Francis Laking (1875–1919), art historian and Keeper of the London Museum
 * Charles Dennis Fisher (1877–1916), classical scholar
 * Sir K. A. C. Creswell (1879–1974), architectural historian specialising in Egyptian Islamic architecture
 * Jasper Blaxland (1880–1963), consultant surgeon
 * Hugh Bompas (1881–1944), first-class cricketer, barrister, First World War aviator and civil servant
 * A. A. Milne (1882–1956), author and journalist
 * Hussein Ala (1882–1964), Prime Minister of Iran
 * Battiscombe Gunn (1883–1950), Egyptologist
 * Adrian Stephen (1883–1948), Bloomsbury psychoanalyst
 * Henry Tizard (1885–1959), scientist and inventor
 * Harry St. John Philby (1885–1960), Arabist, explorer, author, agent
 * John Spedan Lewis (1885–1963), founder of employee-owned John Lewis Partnership
 * Reginald Hackforth (1887–1957), classical scholar, professor of Ancient Philosophy at University of Cambridge
 * R. C. S. Walters (1888–1980), civil engineer, hydrogeologist
 * John Colin Campbell, 1st Viscount Davidson (1889–1970), Conservative politician
 * Gustav Hamel (1889–1914), pioneer aviator
 * Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1984), conductor
 * Edgar Adrian (1889–1977), scientist and Nobel Prizewinner
 * Francis Turner (1890–1979), cricketer, educator and soldier
 * Jack Hulbert (1892–1978), actor
 * Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos (1893–1972), Cabinet Minister during World War II, chairman of the National Theatre Board
 * Frederick Melville (1882–1940), philatelist
 * Guy Chapman, OBE MC (1889–1972), historian
 * Meredith Frampton (1894–1984), artist
 * Geoffrey Bailey (1899 – after 1929), World War I flying ace
 * Leslie Woodgate (1900–1961), choral conductor, composer and writer
 * Arthur Foster (1881–1956), cricketer and Royal Army Medical Corp physician

20th century

 * R.A. Bevan (1901–1974), media pioneer
 * Robert Rattenbury (1901–1970), classical scholar and Registrary of the University of Cambridge
 * Gregory Dix (1902–1952), liturgical scholar
 * C. W. A. Scott (1903–1946), pioneer aviator
 * Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962), novelist and playwright
 * Sir John Gielgud (1904–2000), actor and director
 * Sir John Aitken (1910–1985), Conservative newspaper owner
 * H. A. R. "Kim" Philby (1912–1988), agent who defected to USSR 1963
 * Professor Sir Richard Doll, CH FRS (1912–2005), epidemiologist
 * Pierre Turquet (1913–1975), psychiatrist and Olympic fencer
 * Sir Richard Stone (1913–1991), Nobel Prize winner
 * Angus Wilson (1913–1991), novelist
 * Norman Parkinson (1913–1990), photographer
 * Sir William Deakin (1913–2005), historian and literary assistant to Winston Churchill
 * John Freeman (1915–2014), Labour politician, broadcaster, diplomat and television chairman
 * Jack Simmons (1915–2000), historian
 * Henry Young (1915–1943), RAF pilot who took part in Dambusters raid
 * Sir Andrew Huxley FRS (1917–2012), scientist
 * Cecil Gould (1918–1994), art historian
 * Brian Urquhart (1919–2021), UN undersecretary-general and pioneer of peacekeeping
 * Sir Peter Ustinov (1921–2004), actor, writer and director
 * Michael Flanders and Donald Swann (1922–1975 and 1923–1994), performers, writers and musicians
 * Neville Sandelson (1923–2002), founder member of the Social Democratic Party
 * Michael Havers (1923–1992), lord chancellor
 * Richard Wollheim (1923–2003), philosopher
 * Michael Hamburger (1924–2007), translator, poet and literary critic
 * Colin Turnbull (1924–1994), anthropologist
 * Tony Benn (1925–2014), politician
 * Peter Brook (1925–2022), theatre director
 * Tristram Cary (1925–2008), pioneering electronic and classical composer
 * Anthony Sampson (1926–2004), author, founder member of the Social Democratic Party
 * Edward Enfield (1929–2019), broadcaster
 * Donald Allchin (1930–2010), theologian
 * Sir Crispin Tickell (1930–2022), environmentalist, diplomat and academic
 * Nigel, Lord Lawson (1932–2023), former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * Anthony Howard (1934–2010), journalist
 * Sir Roger Norrington (born 1934), musician
 * Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (1934–2022), Orthodox theologian
 * Graham Fraser (1936–1994), otolaryngologist
 * Simon Gray (1936–2008), playwright
 * John Goldman (1938–2013), medical scientist
 * William Cookson (1939–2004), literary critic
 * Adam Roberts (born 1939), academic
 * Jonathan Fenby (born 1942), journalist, writer and former editor of The Observer and the South China Morning Post
 * Julian, Lord Hunt (born 1942), climate change writer and Labour peer
 * Hugh Davies (1943-2005), pioneering electronic and classical composer
 * Sir Peter Bottomley (born 1944), Conservative politician
 * Robin Gill (born 1944), ethicist
 * Peter Asher (born 1944), musician
 * Maqbool Rahimtoola (born 1945), Pakistani minister of commerce(
 * Gordon Waller (1945–2009), musician
 * Paul Atterbury (born 1945), broadcaster
 * David Carpenter (born 1947), historian
 * William, Baron Bach (born 1946), Labour politician
 * Martyn Poliakoff (born 1947), scientist
 * Ian Patterson (born 1948), poet and academic
 * David Neuberger, Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury (born 1948), President of the Supreme Court
 * Andrew, Lord Lloyd-Webber (born 1948), musician
 * Francis Monkman (1949-2023), rock and classical composer
 * Michael Attenborough (born 1950), theatre director
 * Henry Marsh (born 1950), neuro-surgeon and author
 * Jacek Rostowski (born 1951), Polish cabinet minister
 * Tim Sebastian (born 1952), television correspondent and interviewer
 * Stephen Poliakoff (born 1952), playwright
 * Philip Carr-Gomm (born 1952), druid and author
 * Nigel Planer (born 1953), novelist and actor
 * Chris Huhne (born 1954), Liberal Democrat politician
 * Adam Mars-Jones (born 1954), novelist and critic
 * Patrick Wintour (born 1954), journalist
 * Christopher Catherwood (born 1955), author
 * James Robbins (born 1955), diplomatic correspondent
 * Tim Gardam (born 1955), journalist and educator, former director of Channel 4
 * Andrew Graham-Dixon (born 1956), broadcaster and art historian
 * Dominic Grieve (born 1956), former Attorney-General and pro-European politician
 * Dominic Lawson (born 1956), journalist
 * Nicholas Hamblen, Lord Hamblen (born 1957), Justice of the Supreme Court
 * Shane MacGowan (born 1957), musician
 * James Lasdun (born 1957), poet and novelist
 * Thomas Dolby (born 1958), musician
 * Louisa Young (born 1959), author
 * Edward St Aubyn (born 1960), author
 * Tom Holt (born 1960), novelist
 * Timothy Winter (born 1960), Islamic scholar
 * Michael Reiss (born 1960), Anglican bioethicist
 * George Benjamin (born 1960), composer
 * Daisy Goodwin (born 1961), television producer, poetry anthologist and novelist
 * David Heyman (born 1961), film producer
 * Tessa Ross (born 1961), National Theatre director
 * Imogen Stubbs (born 1961), actress
 * John Kampfner (born 1962), arts director and journalist
 * Simon Target (born 1962), documentary filmmaker
 * Geoff Mulgan (born 1962), academic, former adviser to Gordon Brown and Tony Blair
 * Chris Nineham (born 1962), antiwar activist, founder of anti-Iraq war protest
 * Bronwen Maddox (born 1963), journalist, writer, director of the Institute for Government
 * Alexander Beard (born 1963), arts administrator
 * Matt Frei (born 1963), foreign correspondent
 * Ian Bostridge (born 1964), tenor
 * Richard Rutnagur (born 1964), sportsman
 * Michael Sherwood (born 1965), banker
 * Lucasta Miller (born 1966), literary critic
 * Helena Bonham Carter (born 1966), actress
 * Julian Anderson (born 1967), composer
 * Nick Clegg (born 1967), British Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader
 * Noreena Hertz (born 1967), economist and campaigner
 * Jason Kouchak (born 1967), musician and composer
 * Gavin Rossdale (born 1967), musician and actor
 * Alexander Williams (born 1967), artist and animator
 * Richard Harris (born 1968), composer and pianist
 * Ruth Kelly MP (born 1968), former Education Secretary
 * Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish (born 1968 and 1969), TV performers and journalists
 * Giles Coren (born 1969), journalist
 * Marcel Theroux (born 1969), novelist
 * Louis Theroux (born 1970), documentary filmmaker
 * Lucy Walker (born 1970], documentary director
 * Tobias Hill (born 1970), poet and novelist
 * Jonathan Yeo (born 1970), artist
 * Dido Armstrong (born 1971), musician under the name of "Dido"
 * Jamie McCartney (born 1971), artist and sculptor
 * Polly Arnold (born 1972), scientist
 * Martha Lane Fox (born 1973), public servant, dot.com entrepreneur and philanthropist
 * James Reynolds (born 1974), BBC Rome Correspondent
 * Mike Sergeant, (born 1975), BBC foreign correspondent
 * Helen Whately (born 1976), politician
 * Conrad Shawcross (born 1977), artist
 * Christian Coulson (born 1978), actor
 * Pinny Grylls (born 1978), filmmaker
 * Benjamin Yeoh (born 1978), playwright
 * Alexander Shelley (born 1979), conductor
 * Jenny Kleeman (born c. 1980), documentary film-maker, journalist and reporter/presenter of Unreported World
 * Clemency Burton (born 1981), novelist and broadcaster
 * Alastair Sooke (born 1981), art historian and broadcaster
 * Alice Eve (born 1982), actress
 * Nick Douwma (born 1982), musician - DJ under the name "Sub Focus"
 * Hassan Damluji (born 1982), author and international development expert
 * Mica Penniman (born 1983), musician under the name "Mika"
 * Anna Stothard (born 1983), novelist
 * Tamsin Omond (born 1984), environmental campaigner
 * Alexander Campkin (born 1984), conductor and composer
 * Grace Chatto (born 1985), musician
 * Sophie Troiano and Marcus Mepstead (born 1987 and 1990), Olympic sportspeople
 * Alfred Enoch (born 1988), actor
 * Alexander Guttenplan (born 1990), captain of winning University Challenge team 2010
 * Jack Aitken (born 1995), racing driver
 * Blondey McCoy (born 1997), artist and fashion designer


text:
HMS Ajax

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Ajax after the Greek hero Ajax:
 * HMS Ajax (1767) was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line launched in 1767 and sold in 1785.
 * HMS Ajax (1798) was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1798. She fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and was burned by accident in 1807.
 * HMS Ajax (1809) was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1809. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1846 and broken up in 1864.
 * HMS Ajax was a 78-gun third rate launched in 1835 as HMS Vanguard (1835). She was renamed HMS Ajax in 1867 and was broken up in 1875.
 * HMS Ajax (1880) was an Ajax-class ironclad battleship launched in 1880 and sold in 1904.
 * HMS Ajax (1912) was a King George V-class battleship battleship launched in 1912 and broken up in 1926.
 * HMS Ajax (22) was a Leander-class cruiser light cruiser launched in 1934. She took part in the Battle of the River Plate and was broken up in 1949.
 * HMS Ajax (F114) was a Leander-class frigate launched in 1962 and broken up in 1988.
 * HMS Ajax (851F) was an Admiralty barge built in 1956. She was moored at Jupiter Point on the Lynher River, Plymouth for seamanship training by HMS Raleigh (shore establishment) from 1987 to 2008.

Battle Honours

 * St. Vincent 1780
 * St Kitts 1782
 * The Saints 1782
 * Egypt 1801
 * Trafalgar 1805
 * San Sebastian 1813
 * Baltic 1854–55
 * Jutland 1916
 * River Plate 1939
 * Mediterranean 1940–41
 * Matapan 1941
 * Greece 1941
 * Crete 1941
 * Malta Convoys 1941
 * Aegean 1944
 * Normandy 1944
 * South France 1944

title: HMS Ajax


text:
User talk:Jonsed

Hey, and welcome. I hope you enjoy the place. Great work on the rocksteady article! (I wish I still had all my Toots CDs, but everything that came after Nirvana in alphabetical order was stolen a few months ago) If you're planning on writing articles on music-related subjects, you may want to check out Wikiproject Albums and Wikiproject Music standards, where we have all the rules laid out (like using ampersands and a lowercase the in names like Toots & the Maytals). If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Tuf-Kat

Wotcher
Hello! Guy (Help!) 10:57, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jonsed


text:
WTTW

WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The two stations share studios in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue (adjacent to the main campus of Northeastern Illinois University) in the city's North Park neighborhood; its transmitter facility is atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the two stations.

WTTW is one of two PBS member stations serving the Chicago market, alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WYIN (channel 56). WTTW, along with PBS Wisconsin flagship station WHA-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, serve as default PBS member stations for Rockford as that market does not have a PBS station of its own; both stations are available in that market on local cable and satellite providers.

History
WTTW first signed on the air on September 6, 1955, as a member station of National Educational Television (NET). The station was founded by a group of civic-minded Chicagoans, led by Inland Steel executive Edward R. Ryerson. Channel 11 came to life during the first year of the inaugural term of Mayor Richard J. Daley; Daley, Ryerson and businessman Irving B. Harris were responsible for creating WTTW, which began its life with studios and offices in Chicago's Banker's Building. It also had a 'working exhibit' facility at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago's Jackson Park. The WTTW call letters were chosen as the founders wanted the station to be Chicago's "Window To The World". The station's transmitter was given to WTTW by the staff and management of the defunct KS2XBS, a pay television station operated by Zenith Radio Corporation on VHF channel 2 that was forced to shut down as a result of CBS owned-and-operated station WBBM-TV's relocation to that channel in July 1953.

Ryerson recruited a young communications lawyer, Newton N. Minow, to join the station's board; Minow would serve as both chairman of the WTTW board and as Commissioner of the FCC under the administration of President John F. Kennedy. Irving B. Harris, Henry W. "Brick" Meers, John W. McCarter Jr., Martin J. "Mike" Koldyke and Sandra P. Guthman have served as chairman of the board for the public broadcaster in subsequent decades. Guthman, a member of the Polk Brothers family of Chicago, is the current chairman of the board, having served in that post since October 2003.

Minow stated that the only really important decision that he made during his tenure as chair of WTTW was the recruitment of William J. McCarter Jr. as president and chief executive officer, a post which he held for 27 years. Having run public station WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., McCarter—a decorated Korean War hero and a veteran television pioneer—got his start in the broadcasting industry as a cameraman for American Bandstand and then as a part of the Army-McCarthy hearings on Capitol Hill. McCarter developed the concept of the political roundtable that is now a staple of television news. In non-commercial television circles, McCarter is referred to as the "architect" of public television (his friends know him as the man who kicked Bob Dylan—who was set to tape an episode of SoundStage and was found by McCarter asleep on the couch in the room—out of his office, waking the bearded Dylan up and ushering him out of the office after McCarter returned from a meeting).

During the 1960s, WTTW aired educational programming during the daytime hours, showing programs produced under the auspices of Chicago Area Schools Television (CAST). Programs from "TV College", covering college subjects, were also shown on weekdays. Other afternoon shows included a locally produced series titled The Storyteller, which featured a children's story presented weekdays at 5:30 p.m., and was sponsored by the locally based Marshall Field & Company department store chain.

In 1962, WTTW's owner, then known as the Chicago Educational Television Association (CETA) began efforts for a second educational station. to air additional classroom instructional courses, especially those displaced as more and more of its own broadcast day was filled first with programming from National Educational Television (NET). On September 20, 1965, sister station WXXW signed on as Chicago's second UHF television station on channel 20.

On October 5, 1970, WTTW became a charter member station of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

WTTW did not air shows on Saturdays until the summer of 1972. At first, it only had a limited schedule until 2 p.m. Then, in 1974, it expanded to a full day. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTTW was used to test stereo sound for TV broadcasts overnight.

WTTW's sister station WXXW quietly went dark in 1974 when the transmitter broke down. It had been one of the last in Chicago to transmit in black-and-white and by then its schedule was filled with what former WTTW station manager Edward Morris called "talking heads and a blackboard" In 1977, WTTW sold the long-dark WXXW license a to consortium led by City Colleges of Chicago; the station ultimately became WYCC.

In 1981, the Chicago Educational Television Association created Chicago magazine as WTTW and WFMT's program guide. It was sold for $17 million in 1986 to a joint venture between Metropolitan Detroit Magazine and Adams Communications.

On August 7, 1984, WTTW became the first U.S. TV station to broadcast its entire schedule in stereo.

On November 22, 1987, WTTW's signal was hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask—the second such signal interruption incident to occur in the Chicago area that night, with the first taking place during the 9 p.m. newscast on independent station WGN-TV (channel 9) two hours prior to the hacker's intrusion of the WTTW signal. While WGN-TV's analog transmitter was located atop the John Hancock Center at the time, allowing for engineers to almost immediately thwart the video hacker by changing the studio-to-transmitter frequency, WTTW's transmitter was located atop the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), which made it harder to stop the hacker before the interruption voluntarily concluded after almost two minutes.

On June 4, 2010, Window to the World Communications announced that it would lay off around 12% of WTTW and WFMT's employee base and extend a salary freeze instituted in 2009 for one additional year, in an effort to cut $3 million in operating costs due to declining revenue, effects from the economic downturn and the loss of $1.25 million in grant money from the Illinois General Assembly. Among the employees exiting WTTW in that layoff were Randy Chandler, Amy Christenson, Andy Fontana, Marc Glick, Susan Godfrey, Andrea Guthmann, Kari Hurley, Andre Jones, Shaunese Teamer, Sarah Warner and Tom Wuellner.

In 2012, WTTW eliminated the position of 16-year company veteran Joanie Bayhack, who had been senior vice president of communications and corporate partnerships. In 2014, WTTW eliminated the position of Holly Gilson, a 13-year veteran of the company who most recently had been director of strategic partnerships and special projects.

On April 15, 2014, Window to the World Communications renamed the broadcasting facilities for WTTW and WFMT-FM as the Renée Crown Public Media Center, following a monetary gift of an undisclosed amount by the family of Renée Crown (wife of Lester), who has served as a trustee for Window to the World since 1981).

In September 2017, WTTW offered former fellow PBS member station WYCC (the descendant of former sister station WXXW) with a channel-sharing agreement to stay on the air after an announcement that WYCC would shut down October 25, 2017. (WYCC had sold its spectrum in the April 2017 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction.)

On December 7, 2017, Window to the World Communications announced its intent to purchase the WYCC license outright, reuniting the stations under one organization. An application to the FCC in January 2018 disclosed that WTTW would acquire the WYCC license from the City Colleges of Chicago for $100,000, with the two stations sharing WTTW's frequency allocation. The sale was approved by the FCC on March 13, 2018, and was completed on April 20.

Window to the World Communications relinquished the WYCC license, effective June 1, 2022, advising viewers the same shows were available on its multiplexed channels and the PBS app.

Technical achievements
WTTW has been recognized as a pioneer in technical aspects of television broadcasting, particularly in broadcast audio transmission. The station, in particular, participated in the trend of pop music-focused programs on television during the early 1970s (a few of which were also simulcast on local FM radio stations). When WTTW began production on Made in Chicago, the station made the decision to transition from monaural audio to stereo for the FM broadcasts. However, stereo recording equipment for television production did not exist at that time. Because of this, WTTW engineers chose to modify existing Ampex quadruplex recorders to provide a stereo medium in sync with the video portion of the program. This innovation earned the station's staff a local Technical Emmy Award in 1973.

Further refinements to this system resulted in improvements to both frequency response and noise reduction, and eventually led to the ability to edit stereo audio as the video was being edited electronically. Dolby Laboratories noise reduction technology (Type C, and then Type A) was introduced as the staff was driven to make improvements in the audio specifications. WTTW began syndicating Made in Chicago to other public television stations under the new title Soundstage, with the first official taping of that program in June 1974 featuring previously filmed concert footage of folk singer Jim Croce prior to his death in a plane crash in September 1973. The station was broadcast in simulcast FM stereo—with WXRT (93.1 FM) and WBBM-FM (96.3) as participating stations—in the manner of its predecessor.

In 1975, WTTW management was approached by a startup company called Telesonics with an idea to develop an audio system for television broadcasts that used a mono-compatible, stereo audio channel. Around this time, the Sears Tower had been completed and WTTW became one of the first broadcasters to move its transmitter facilities atop the new building; WTTW had broadcast from a temporary antenna as the now familiar twin towers that adorn the top of the building had not yet been completed.

Programming
WTTW carries programs distributed by PBS, American Public Television and other sources, along with airing several locally produced programs. WTTW also distributes several programs to public television stations independently of PBS, such as via American Public Television. In addition, WTTW is one of the few public television stations that regularly produce or present national public television programming. Its most prominent productions include political discussion program The McLaughlin Group and the music program Soundstage. WTTW has produced over 110 SoundStage episodes from its Chicago studios, the first of which featured Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters surrounded by his young proteges: Dr. John, Junior Wells, Michael Bloomfield, Koko Taylor, Rollo Radford, Buddy Guy, Nick Gravenites, Buddy Miles and his long-time collaborator, pianist Otis Spann among others.

WTTW also produced the popular cooking series The Frugal Gourmet during the 1980s. Other popular programs produced by WTTW for public television syndication have included the early art-video show Image Union; CEO Exchange; locally produced restaurant review show Check, Please! cooking show Mexico: One Plate at a Time; travel show The Travel Detective; children's programs Lamb Chop's Play-Along, Kidsongs, WordWorld and Nature Cat; and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago.

The most well-known program ever to have been originated by WTTW was Sneak Previews, the first movie review show to air on television. It began in 1975 with film critics Roger Ebert (then a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) and Gene Siskel (then with the Chicago Tribune) as its hosts and was later hosted by Michael Medved, Neal Gabler, and Jeffrey Lyons when Siskel and Ebert moved into syndication (starting the show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and later Siskel & Ebert & the Movies); Sneak Previews was canceled in 1996. In January 2011, WTTW produced a new movie review program created by Ebert, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, which was hosted by Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Ebert himself hosting a segment called "Roger's Office"; the program lasted one season, before being canceled due to funding constraints and the subsequent death of Ebert.

Among its local programs, WTTW also produces the newsmagazine and analysis program Chicago Tonight, hosted by Paris Schutz and Brandis Friedman. The program began in 1984 as a half-hour panel interview program with local broadcast journalist John Callaway, but was later expanded to an hour-long show with the addition of various feature segments including arts and restaurant reviews. The show is accompanied by two pre-recorded programs highlighting issues affecting Black and Latino communities, Chicago Tonight: Black Voices and Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices.

The station has produced hundreds of significant arts programs, highlighting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Ravinia Festival. In addition, WTTW features documentaries hosted by Geoffrey Baer, spotlighting the history and culture of various parts of the Chicago area. These programs' popularity has often resulted in a high volume of monetary pledges to the station. It also produces The Artsiders, an arts-focused program produced by Kai Harding, Inc. and created by former Big Idea director Chris Olsen.

Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed:

In May 2015, WTTW downgraded the resolution of its main channel from 1080i to 720p, which the station had previously transmitted its high definition content in prior to September 2009, during which time it downconverted HD content provided by PBS from their native 1080i format.

WTTW-DT2
From the sign-on of its digital signal in 2002 until 2008, WTTW branded its main digital channel on 11.1 as "WTTW-Digital", featuring a full schedule of programs available in high definition, while digital subchannel 11.2 rebroadcast the main programming schedule of analog channel 11. In September 2008, digital channel 11.1 was converted into a simulcast of the analog signal's programming, resulting in it carrying the same programming schedule as 11.2. On March 30, 2009, 11.2 was relaunched with a separate schedule as "WTTW Prime", which features a mix of PBS prime time programs and WTTW's locally produced programming—particularly during the period from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., when children's programming airs on the main channel. WTTW Prime carries some PBS programs in their traditional timeslots (most notably, a block of the service's public affairs programs that run on Friday evenings and a daily airing of the Nightly Business Report at 5:30 p.m.) WTTW Prime is also available on Comcast digital channel 370.

Analog-to-digital conversion
WTTW shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 47, using virtual channel 11.

title: WTTW