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British Midland International

British Midland Airways Limited (trading at various times throughout its history as British Midland, bmi British Midland, bmi or British Midland International) was an airline in the United Kingdom with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, close to East Midlands Airport, England. The airline flew to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Central Asia from its main hub at London Heathrow Airport, where at its peak it held about 13% of all takeoff and landing slots and operated over 2,000 flights a week. BMI was a member of Star Alliance from 1 July 2000 until 20 April 2012.

BMI was acquired from Lufthansa by International Airlines Group (IAG) on 20 April 2012, and was integrated into British Airways (BA) by 27 October 2012. BMI's subsidiaries Bmibaby and BMI Regional were also purchased, although IAG did not wish to retain either. BMI Regional was sold to Sector Aviation Holdings in May 2012 and operated under the "flybmi" brand until it went into administration on 16 February 2019, whereas Bmibaby closed down in September 2012.

British Midland Airways Limited held a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

Origins
The airline dates back to 1938, when Captain Roy Harben established Air Schools Limited as a school for training pilots of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Harben had been approached by the Derby Corporation to run a new aerodrome under construction near Burnaston, which was planned to eventually become an airport. Sir Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, officially opened the aerodrome as Derby Municipal Airport on 17 June 1939. Military flying training continued at the airport throughout the war.

Air Schools Limited formed a parent company, Derby Aviation Limited, in 1946, and Harben died the following year of a heart attack. His wife remained the controlling shareholder of the business and asked E. W. Phillips, who had been involved in running the flying school with Captain Harben, to become the new managing director. The new parent company also incorporated Wolverhampton Aviation, based at Pendeford, which offered ad hoc charter and freight flights with de Havilland Dragon Rapides, as well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage.

In 1953, Derby Aviation ceased flying training, following the award of a licence to operate scheduled flights from Burnaston and Wolverhampton to Jersey. Flights in each direction were required to land at Elmdon Airport in Birmingham to allow passengers to clear customs. The first flight was made on 18 July 1953, using a Dragon Rapide. The following year, Wolverhampton Aviation was merged into Derby Aviation, and, in 1955, the company purchased its first Douglas DC-3, a converted former military transport.

International services to Ostend commenced in 1956, and flights carrying holidaymakers from the UK to mainland Europe began as well. The company was also contracted by Rolls-Royce to transport aero engines to customers all over the world. In 1959, Derby Aviation formed Derby Airways as its airline business and introduced a new livery incorporating the new airline's name. Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom began the same year.

1960s and 70s
On 1 October 1964, after buying the Manchester Airport-based scheduled and charter airline Mercury Airlines, the company changed its name to British Midland Airways (BMA) and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport. The corporate colours of blue and white were adopted at that time, along with the first turboprop aircraft, a Handley Page Dart Herald.

Minster Assets, a London-based investment and banking group, acquired the airline in 1968, and in 1969 promoted former Mercury ground handling manager Michael Bishop to become the company's general manager. From this point, Bishop drove the company forward, with domestic and European expansion continuing apace. As a first step, in November 1969, BMA took over Autair's Heathrow–Teesside route, which marked the airline's Heathrow debut.

In 1970, BMA entered the jet age with the introduction of three new BAC One-Eleven 500s, followed by an ex-Pan Am Boeing 707-321 in 1971. The former had been intended to be primarily used on European inclusive tour (IT) charters while the latter was to be mainly used on transatlantic "affinity group" charters. Also in 1970, BMA became the first British airline independent from government-owned corporations to employ UK-based, non-White cabin crew.

Following his appointment as managing director in 1972, Bishop withdrew the One-Elevens from service, two of which were swapped for three Handley Page Dart Heralds while the third was subsequently leased to Court Line. As the early-model, high-time second-hand 707s commanded a low resale value, the airline decided to keep these aircraft and lease them out to other airlines on a wet lease basis, beginning in November 1972 with a £3.3 million, two-year contract to operate Sudan Airways' Blue Nile service between Khartoum and London. The decision to pull out of both the IT and "affinity group" markets was taken to reverse heavy losses BMA had incurred on these charter operations due to its lack of scale and lack of vertical integration with a tour operator, which put it at a commercial disadvantage vis-à-vis the competition, as well as uneconomical charter rates as a result of overcapacity. This resulted in BMA concentrating on regional, short-haul scheduled services and ad hoc charters using turboprops such as the Herald and Viscount as these were more economical than contemporary jets on short, thin routes. The success of the airline's wet lease operation resulted in an increase in the number of Boeing 707s allocated to this activity, including the addition of several later model 707-320B and -320C aircraft from 1976. All of these were leased to other operators, with none operating for BMA on scheduled or charter services until 1981.

On 1 November 1974, BMA began operating between London Gatwick and Belfast, where it replaced the service previously operated by British Caledonian. London–Belfast was BMA's first UK domestic trunk route and the first all-year round route it served in [indirect] competition with British Airways (BA). BMA's Gatwick debut also made it the only airline at the time to operate scheduled services from all five contemporary London airports – Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Southend and Stansted.

In January 1975, an agreement was reached for BMA to provide two Vickers Viscounts in Cyprus Airways livery to link Athens with Cyprus. A former WWII airfield at Larnaca was selected to serve the south of the island, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. The first flights departed Larnaca on 10 February 1975. On 4 April 1975, the Daily Mail chartered a BMA Boeing 707 to assist the Project Vietnam Orphans and The Ockenden Venture charities in evacuating 150 orphaned children from Saigon during the Vietnam War.

On 1 September 1976, jets began gradually replacing the turboprop fleet on most of BMA's domestic and European services, when the airline's first Douglas DC-9 (a second-hand -15 leased from the manufacturer) replaced Viscounts on the Heathrow–Tesside route.

In 1978, Minster Assets sought to sell the company. With the help of a Californian entrepreneur, Robert F. Beauchamp, Bishop raised £2.5 million to lead the management buy-out, and was appointed chairman as a result, afterwards stating "I had to borrow the money from an American citizen. Most venture capitalists want a return of 40% to make up for all their other failures and they want an exit strategy." That year, British Midland and British Airways agreed to swap some of their routes, resulting in BMA relinquishing its routes from Birmingham to Brussels and Frankfurt, and BA handing over its routes from Liverpool to London Heathrow, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Glasgow. Annual passenger numbers topped 1 million for the first time in 1979.

1980s and 90s
On 31 March 1980, British Midland replaced British Airways on the Leeds Bradford to London Heathrow route, initially operating with their remaining Viscount 800 aircraft. Within a year or two these were replaced by the DC9 15, and following the extension of the runway at Leeds Bradford, the DC9 32 became the standard equipment on the route supplemented by the 15 series and at weekends the occasional Viscount, Fokker F27 or BAE ATP turbo prop. In 1986 however, British Midland leased a BAC1-11 400 (G-WLAD) from Airways International Cymru, and this aircraft was mainly used on the Heathrow route in lieu of the usual DC9s which returned in 1987. In the following years, British Midland increased its operations from Leeds Bradford, and introduced other routes including Glasgow, Paris CDG and Brussels. When the DC9s were phased out, the Boeing 737 200 became a regular on the Heathrow route, and later the 737 300, 400, and 500 were all operated prior to the arrival of the newly acquired Fokker 100, which again was supplemented on quieter rotations by the smaller Fokker 70. Eventually the Airbus A319 became the standard equipment to Heathrow, but busier rotations saw the larger A320 and occasional A321 too. At its peak, British Midland operated up to 6 flights each way to and from Heathrow from Leeds Bradford, the final late-evening flight being operated on a smaller Embraer 145 Regional Jet. In 2009 the airline dropped the route, which they had operated unbroken for 29 years.

In 1981, the CAA turned down BMA's application to fly between Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh, but the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry upheld the airline's appeal against the CAA's ruling. The decision to overturn the CAA's ruling enabled the airline to commence its first domestic trunk route from the UK's premier airport on 25 October 1982, when it launched six daily return flights between Heathrow and Glasgow operated with DC-9s. Although these flights were not as frequent as the competing hourly BA shuttle, BMA offered keener fares and a full in-flight service (compared with the no frills shuttle). Following BMA's success on the Heathrow–Glasgow route, the airline began flying between Heathrow and Edinburgh (1983) and Heathrow and Belfast (1984). With the introduction of these services, BMA and BA were now in direct competition on the UK's three busiest domestic trunk routes. BMA's competitive pressure on BA resulted in the latter replacing its no frills shuttle service with an upgraded Super Shuttle that included a full breakfast, hot drinks and a free bar service on both Heathrow–Glasgow and Heathrow–Edinburgh from September 1983. (BA subsequently extended Super Shuttle to Heathrow–Belfast as well following the launch of BMA's competing service in 1984, in turn resulting in BMA abandoning Gatwick–Belfast which was taken over by Dan-Air. )

Also in 1982, BMA, together with British & Commonwealth (the owners of AirUK at the time), formed Manx Airlines, and the following year it purchased a 75% stake in Glasgow-based regional airline Loganair from The Royal Bank of Scotland.

In October 1984, the Boeing 707 fleet was withdrawn, having been used extensively on lease operations for other airlines across the world.

In 1985, a new aircraft livery featuring a dark blue upper half and tail, with a light grey lower half separated by a thin, white stripe, was introduced. At this time, BMA was branded simply British Midland, and a new logo featuring a stylised red BM crowned with a white diamond shape appeared on aircraft tailfins. This livery subsequently featured a darker blue upper half and tail, with a deep grey lower half separated by two thin stripes, very dark blue at the top and red at the bottom. However, the logo on the aircraft's fins remained unchanged.

The conclusion of the first fully liberalised bilateral air transport agreement in Europe between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in 1985, as well as a legal technicality exempting the airline from the "London [Air] Traffic Distribution Rules" (a government policy that sought to compel all airlines that were planning to operate an international scheduled service to or from Heathrow for the first time to use Gatwick instead) as a result of having operated a Heathrow–Strasbourg scheduled service prior to this policy coming into effect on 1 April 1978, enabled BMA to compete directly with BA between Heathrow and Amsterdam from 29 June 1986. This resulted in BMA becoming the first private, independent airline to compete with then wholly government-owned BA on an international trunk route from Heathrow.

The Diamond Club frequent flyer programme (FFP) launched on 1 October 1987, coinciding with the introduction of an enhanced business class style, single-class Diamond Service featuring a full meal and free onboard drinks service for all passengers, regardless of the fare paid, as well as airport lounges at the airline's major UK destinations. These service enhancements helped increase British Midland's market share on the main London–Scotland and London–Northern Ireland trunk routes to 30%. All aircraft in the fleet were named after diamonds, beginning with a DC-9 named The Tiffany Diamond, unveiled by Rosamond Monckton, the managing director of Tiffany's in London. The company slogan was Better for Business (2009–2010).

In March 1987, Airlines of Britain Holdings (ABH) was formed to act as a holding company for British Midland Airways and British Midland Aviation Services.

British Midland operated its final Viscount flight on 20 February 1988, 21 years after the airline had first operated the type. That year, British Midland also became the first to operate the British Aerospace (BAe) ATP for which it had been the launch customer. The BAe ATP was the airline's last turboprop type.

In 1992, British Midland became the first airline to offer a vegetarian choice of in-flight meals on UK domestic flights and one of the first in Europe to do so on domestic services. The following year, the airline introduced Diamond EuroClass on its European routes, the first time it had offered a separate cabin for business travellers. Initially, Diamond EuroClass was competitively priced, with the highest fares being the same as rivals' published economy class fares.

On 30 September 1996, British Midland began offering Diamond EuroClass on all its domestic routes, becoming the second airline in the UK after Jersey European Airways (which had pioneered business class on UK domestic routes in 1993) to offer a separate cabin for business travellers on domestic routes and the first to do so on domestic trunk routes from Heathrow.

ABH became British Midland Plc in 1997, when it was de-merged as part of major corporate restructuring. Towards the end of the 1990s, British Midland switched its aircraft suppliers from Boeing and Fokker to Airbus and Embraer, selecting A319/320/321s and ERJ 135/145s to replace 737s and F70/100s. In July 1999, Bishop formally opened the British Midland Training Centre in Stockley Close. That year, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold half its stake to Lufthansa followed by British Midland joining Star Alliance (in 2000).

BMI
Following research that had established that people in the UK tended to confuse British Midland with the Midland Bank or British Airways and that many outside the UK could not relate to the term "Midland", it launched a new corporate identity in 2001, rebranding the airline as BMI British Midland (subsequently shortened to BMI). Aircraft received a new livery of royal blue, white and a fading Union flag on the tail, along with the new lower case BMI logotype. Also in 2001, BMI introduced the Airbus A330-200, its first widebodied aircraft type, into the fleet to enable it to serve the United States and other long-haul destinations. Bilateral restrictions implemented in the 1977 Bermuda II agreement meant the airline could neither fly its own aircraft to the US from its main base at Heathrow nor sell tickets on codeshare flights operated by Star Alliance partner United Airlines from the airport, as had been planned. Instead, it launched flights from Manchester to Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare in May and June 2001 respectively. Initially, the new A330s operated both routes; however, the Washington service was subsequently downgraded to a narrowbody operation using a Boeing 757-200 leased from Icelandair before being axed in 2005.

The airline carried 7.5 million passengers during 2002. By 2005, the total had risen to 10.1 million, the third highest of any UK airline. In early 2006, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) reported a drop in passengers carried and load factor for BMI mainline and regional services (excluding Bmibaby) whilst reporting increased loads for other AEA members over the same period.

BMI operated a service to Mumbai from London Heathrow between May 2005 and October 2006, after the UK and India amended their bilateral air services agreement. Services to Riyadh followed, commencing on 1 September 2005, after British Airways ceased to serve Saudi Arabia earlier that year. BMI also launched a scheduled service to Moscow Domodedevo in co-operation with Transaero Airlines on 29 October 2006, which used a dedicated A320 aircraft (G-MIDO) with special seating for the service, including leather seats and a 40" seat pitch. In 2007 the airline launched non-stop services from its Heathrow hub to Cairo and Amman, raising the airline's profile in the Middle East significantly. BMI announced on 5 November 2008 that it would end all longhaul operations from Manchester Airport. The two Airbus A330 aircraft based there were moved to Heathrow.

In February 2007, BMI bought British Mediterranean Airways (BMED), a British Airways franchise partner, and as a result gained access to new markets in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia that were served by that carrier. As a condition of the sale, BMI sold BMED's Heathrow slots to British Airways for £30 million. BMED was fully integrated into BMI on 28 October 2007.

The decision by the European Commission (EC) in 2008 to accord secondary slot trading by European airlines – the practice of buying and selling take-off and landing slots at congested airports – legal recognition resulted in BMI valuing its Heathrow slot holding at £770 million. Its first-time inclusion in BMI's 2007 annual report also resulted in a huge boost to the airline's net asset value, which stood at only £12 million the year before. It can therefore be argued that the EC's decision to legalise this practice made BMI an attractive takeover target for other Heathrow-based airlines and helped it avert bankruptcy.

In November 2009, following the complete takeover of BMI by Lufthansa, the airline announced a restructuring of its mainline and regional operations in an effort to suspend loss-making routes and adjust capacity. The measures included a fleet reduction of nine aircraft from the mainline fleet (two of which were operated by BMI Regional) and the suspension of routes from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kyiv and Aleppo in 2010. Seasonal routes from London Heathrow to Palma and Venice were also discontinued. It was said that the restructuring could result in the loss of around 600 jobs – around 13% of the airline's workforce.

On 12 January 2010, BMI announced that the number of daily flights between Dublin and London Heathrow would be reduced from 28 March from six to four due to the economic climate, which depressed consumer demand. This resulted in the closure of the Dublin base, which consisted of one plane and 33 cabin crew.

In April 2010, the airline announced it would begin using the British Midland International name, whilst retaining the BMI logo and continuing to be known by those initials in the domestic market. The decision to revert to the old British Midland name and to spell out for the first time what the I in BMI was supposed to stand for was taken in response to research showing that for passengers based in the Middle East, who accounted for a significant number of the airline's premium bookings, BMI did not mean anything, and that these people preferred a name with the word "British" in it.

Following increasing heavy losses that exceeded £100 million per year by 2012, BMI decided to stop offering business class on domestic flights and introduce a number of new, longer range international scheduled services from Heathrow to ensure the most profitable use of its highly prized (and sought-after) slots at the severely capacity-constrained airport. This entailed aircraft downsizing (replacing Airbus mainline jets with Embraer regional jets), frequency reductions and route cutbacks on the airline's loss-making short-haul routes from the airport, including axing its by then heavily loss-making Heathrow–Glasgow route from 27 March 2011. The decision to exit the Heathrow–Glasgow market after almost 30 years' continuous operation was blamed on a big rise in the fees BAA levied on domestic passengers at Heathrow, which had resulted in unsustainable losses of £1 million per month.

BMI's last-ever commercial flight using a "BD"-prefixed flight number touched down at London Heathrow on 27 October 2012. It was operated by Airbus A321-231 G-MEDF.

In September 2023, the company re-appeared on social media, on platforms Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) with the statement: "We're preparing to usher in a new era for the iconic bmi British Midland brand. We're building on 85 years of iconic British history, and we cannot wait to welcome you on board. For media enquiries, please contact us at media@jetbmi.co.uk". As the company is using a new web domain and new social media handles, the future identity of British Midland is unknown, and whether or not the "jet" phrase will be incorporated.

Overview
The airline had its head office at Donington Hall in Castle Donington in North West Leicestershire, near Derby. The airline's head office was previously at 78 Buckingham Gate in the City of Westminster, London (until 1982). In 2011, BMI employed 527 staff at Donington Hall. In 2012, International Airlines Group announced that it may lay off up to 1,200 BMI employees, with proposed layoffs mainly from the head office.

BMI also operated a flight training centre in the Stockley Close Industrial Estate in West Drayton, London Borough of Hillingdon, near London Heathrow Airport. The centre opened in 1999 and BMI had a 50-year lease on the property running from 25 March 1999 to 24 March 2049.

Ownership
In 1999, SAS sold half of its 40% stake in British Midland to Lufthansa, which was seeking a stronger position at London Heathrow, following which British Midland joined Star Alliance. At the time, British Midland chairman Sir Michael Bishop owned a 50% share of the company. Between 1999 and 2004, Lufthansa sought to sell some or all of its share in the airline. Virgin Atlantic hoped to buy the shares to then merge both airlines, as BMI was already Virgin's preferred feeder airline into Heathrow. Virgin argued that the merger would have brought together two airlines with combined ticket sales of more than £2 billion, forming a powerful force in the aviation industry. BMI was believed to have initiated the talks after it began losing money following the 11 September 2001 attacks. A merger would have strengthened Virgin Atlantic's base at Heathrow, where BMI had hundreds of highly valued take-off and landing slots, to increase the competition with British Airways.

The two airlines combined would have had 17% of Heathrow slots against British Airways' 43%. Worried about the increased competition it would face if such a merger went ahead, British Airways considered the takeover of either BMI or Virgin Atlantic to stop the merger. British Airways concluded it would be easier to take over the financially weaker and less high-profile BMI. However, in 2004 talks of any merger of the three airlines ended. In late 2006, the airline again dismissed renewed speculation that Virgin Atlantic was preparing to make a bid to acquire full control of BMI, despite Sir Richard Branson repeating in a radio interview that such a merger would be a logical business move.

In June 2007, SAS announced that it would sell its 20% stake to improve its own group profits. The airline commented that it was in early discussions with Lufthansa as a potential buyer. In October 2008 Lufthansa announced it would be taking over BMI by purchasing the 50% shareholding of Sir Michael Bishop to consolidate with the 30% share it already owned.

The European antitrust body approved the takeover on 14 May 2009, allowing Lufthansa to become the majority stakeholder. Due to landing rights issues, the stake would be tentatively held by a Lufthansa-controlled but British-based company, LHBD Holding. Once new bilateral agreements were in place, Lufthansa would take direct control. In June 2009 it was announced that Lufthansa would buy the remaining stake in the airline from Bishop for less than originally agreed upon.

Sale to International Airlines Group
Lufthansa announced in September 2011 that it planned to sell BMI following continued losses. Virgin Atlantic were mooted to be considering an offer; but in early November British Airways' parent company, International Airlines Group, announced an agreement in principle to purchase the airline. Virgin Atlantic confirmed on 12 December 2011 that it had also made an offer for BMI and signed an agreement in late November to allow them to conduct due diligence on the airline. The bid amount of around £50 million was half that offered by IAG; Virgin hoped that a quick sale due to fewer potential regulatory issues would convince Lufthansa to sell to Virgin.

On 22 December 2011, IAG confirmed it had entered a contract to buy BMI from Lufthansa for £172.5 million. This would increase IAG's share of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow from 45% to 53%. Branson pledged to fight the deal, urging European competition authorities to intervene. The deal included the option for Lufthansa to sell BMI Regional and Bmibaby separately, as they are not required by IAG; the deal price would be lowered should Bmibaby not be sold in time. Under the agreed contract, Lufthansa would continue to be responsible for the BMI pension scheme after the sale was completed, although following rejection by the pension regulator, it is now to enter the Pension Protection Fund.

On 30 March 2012, the sale of BMI was approved, conditional on giving up control of 14 daily slots at London Heathrow. Twelve of these were required to change hands completely while the remaining two could continue be part of the airline's slot portfolio but needed to be leased out. The twelve slots eventually went to Virgin Atlantic, who subsequently used them to set up its UK domestic operation operating out of BMI's old domestic base at Heathrow Terminal 1. BMI's ownership transferred to IAG at 23:59 on 19 April 2012. The airline left Star Alliance, but membership benefits for both Star Alliance and BMI's Diamond Club continued until 31 May 2012.

The Diamond Club FFP continues for members with a BMI credit card, who earn points from their spend which can be converted to Avios, the currency of BA's FFP, Executive Club, on a 1:1 ratio. All other members were required to transfer to British Airways' Executive Club FFP.

British Midland Airways Limited continues to exist as a company, registered at British Airways' head office at Waterside in Harmondsworth, as of August 2017.

Subsidiaries
In 2002, BMI set up a low-cost subsidiary, Bmibaby, using Boeing 737s which were displaced after BMI's fleet renewal programme favoured an all-Airbus fleet. Bmibaby flew routes between major and secondary airports around Europe from its bases at East Midlands Airport, Manchester Airport and Birmingham Airport until it was closed down by IAG in September 2012.

The airline also operated a regional subsidiary named BMI Regional, headquartered in Aberdeen. An agreement to sell the airline to the Scottish-based consortium Sector Aviation Holdings was reached in May 2012 and was completed on 1 June 2012. BMI Regional continued to operate regional services for BMI until 27 October 2012, when it began operations as an independent airline.

Business trends
The key trends for BMI over its later years are shown below (figures as at year ending 31 December, and include Bmibaby): Financial data was reported in pounds sterling, and then in euros, because BMI was fully consolidated into the Lufthansa group of airlines on 1 July 2009.

Codeshare agreements
Throughout its existence, BMI had codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Final fleet

Following the sale of BMI to IAG, the airline's fleet began to be transferred to British Airways. All aircraft were transferred and repainted in the BA livery, excluding its three Airbus A330s which were returned to the lessors. At its peak prior to the commencement of licensing transfers, the fleet consisted of the following aircraft registered with the Civil Aviation Authority:

Former fleet
BMI formerly operated the following:

In-flight service
On flights from London Heathrow within the UK and to Ireland, economy class passengers had a selection of food items available for purchase; flexible economy class passengers were offered complimentary snacks and drinks. On European flights and services to Tripoli, Tunisia and Morocco, a two-class in-flight service was in place, with a hot three course meal for the business cabin and complimentary food and drinks served in the economy cabin. On mid-haul and the Freetown route, a two-class in-flight service was also in place. The business cabin was served a three course meal and was provided in-flight entertainment. A hot meal and complimentary drinks were served in the economy cabin. On A330 services to Saudi Arabia and Israel (until 2010), business, premium economy (only on board the flights to Israel) and economy cabins were available, each provided with complimentary drinks and food.

Frequent flyer programme
Diamond Club was the frequent-flyer programme of BMI, with three membership levels: Blue, Silver and Gold.

On sale to IAG, and being integrated into British Airways, Diamond Club members were offered a status match - BMI Gold to BA Gold, BMI Silver to BA Silver and BMI Blue to BA Blue (BA's base level). At the time of transfer, BA did not offer a lifetime status, so members who held BMI Lifetime Gold having qualified for 10 years in succession were only matched to BA Gold and were required to re-qualify every year to maintain that status level.

Incidents and accidents

 * On 7 October 1961, Derby Aviation Douglas C-47B Dakota G-AMSW crashed into Mont Canigou in the French Pyrenees whilst operating a charter flight from Gatwick to Perpignan. All 34 passengers and crew were killed.
 * The Stockport Air Disaster: a Canadair C-4 aircraft owned by British Midland Airways (registration G-ALHG) operating a holiday charter flight crashed near the centre of Stockport, Greater Manchester, on 4 June 1967. This accident, the deadliest in the airline's history, killed 72 of the 84 on board and seriously injured the 12 survivors; it also resulted in withdrawal of the type from the airline's fleet.
 * On 20 February 1969, a Vickers Viscount (registration G-AODG) was damaged beyond economic repair when it landed short of the runway at East Midlands Airport. There were no casualties.
 * On 20 March 1969, a Vickers Viscount (registration G-AVJA) crashed on takeoff at Ringway Airport, Manchester. Three of the four crew members on board were killed.
 * On 22 January 1970, a Vickers Viscount (registration G-AWXI) was damaged beyond economic repair at London Heathrow Airport when an engine caught fire on takeoff. A successful emergency landing was made at Heathrow.
 * On 18 January 1987, a Fokker F27 Friendship (registration G-BMAU) on a training flight crashed on approach to East Midlands Airport due to wing and tail surface icing. There were no fatalities.
 * The Kegworth air disaster: on 8 January 1989, British Midland flight BD 092, a recently delivered Boeing 737-400 (registration G-OBME), crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway just short of the runway of East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire. Forty-seven of the 118 passengers lost their lives.
 * On 24 August 2010, an Airbus A321-231 (registration G-MEDJ ) en route from Khartoum to Beirut as flight BD996 suffered a serious electrical malfunction which caused the intermittent failure of the captain and co-pilot's electronic displays together with the uncommanded application of left rudder trim. The latter caused the aircraft to stray 20 nautical miles off course. The aircraft was cruising at 36,000 ft at the time, with both autopilot and autothrust engaged. The captain ultimately disengaged both and flew the aircraft manually, landing in Beirut without further mishap. Airbus indicated that an electrical power interruption had occurred which had caused a reset of the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC). Such an event may cause a small incremental offset of the rudder trim, according to the aircraft manufacturer. The Air Accidents Investigations Board (AAIB) subsequently issued Safety Recommendation 2010–092, recommending that Airbus alert all operators of A320 series aircraft of the possibility that an electrical malfunction may not be clearly annunciated on the Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring system (ECAM) and that such an event may lead to an uncommanded input of rudder trim.

title: British Midland International


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Numerical digit

A numerical digit (often shortened to just digit) or numeral is a single symbol used alone (such as "1") or in combinations (such as "15"), to represent numbers in a positional numeral system. The name "digit" comes from the fact that the ten digits (Latin digiti meaning fingers) of the hands correspond to the ten symbols of the common base 10 numeral system, i.e. the decimal (ancient Latin adjective decem meaning ten) digits.

For a given numeral system with an integer base, the number of different digits required is given by the absolute value of the base. For example, the decimal system (base 10) requires ten digits (0 through to 9), whereas the binary system (base 2) requires two digits (0 and 1).

Overview
In a basic digital system, a numeral is a sequence of digits, which may be of arbitrary length. Each position in the sequence has a place value, and each digit has a value. The value of the numeral is computed by multiplying each digit in the sequence by its place value, and summing the results.

Digital values
Each digit in a number system represents an integer. For example, in decimal the digit "1" represents the integer one, and in the hexadecimal system, the letter "A" represents the number ten. A positional number system has one unique digit for each integer from zero up to, but not including, the radix of the number system.

Thus in the positional decimal system, the numbers 0 to 9 can be expressed using their respective numerals "0" to "9" in the rightmost "units" position. The number 12 can be expressed with the numeral "2" in the units position, and with the numeral "1" in the "tens" position, to the left of the "2" while the number 312 can be expressed by three numerals: "3" in the "hundreds" position, "1" in the "tens" position, and "2" in the "units" position.

Computation of place values
The decimal numeral system uses a decimal separator, commonly a period in English, or a comma in other European languages, to denote the "ones place" or "units place", which has a place value one. Each successive place to the left of this has a place value equal to the place value of the previous digit times the base. Similarly, each successive place to the right of the separator has a place value equal to the place value of the previous digit divided by the base. For example, in the numeral 10.34 (written in base 10),
 * the 0 is immediately to the left of the separator, so it is in the ones or units place, and is called the units digit or ones digit;
 * the 1 to the left of the ones place is in the tens place, and is called the tens digit;
 * the 3 is to the right of the ones place, so it is in the tenths place, and is called the tenths digit;
 * the 4 to the right of the tenths place is in the hundredths place, and is called the hundredths digit.

The total value of the number is 1 ten, 0 ones, 3 tenths, and 4 hundredths. The zero, which contributes no value to the number, indicates that the 1 is in the tens place rather than the ones place.

The place value of any given digit in a numeral can be given by a simple calculation, which in itself is a complement to the logic behind numeral systems. The calculation involves the multiplication of the given digit by the base raised by the exponent n − 1, where n represents the position of the digit from the separator; the value of n is positive (+), but this is only if the digit is to the left of the separator. And to the right, the digit is multiplied by the base raised by a negative (−) n. For example, in the number 10.34 (written in base 10),
 * the 1 is second to the left of the separator, so based on calculation, its value is,

 * $$n - 1 = 2 - 1 = 1$$

 * $$1 \times 10^1 = 10$$

 * the 4 is second to the right of the separator, so based on calculation its value is,

 * $$n = -2$$

 * $$4 \times 10^{-2} = \frac{4}{100}$$

History
The first true written positional numeral system is considered to be the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. This system was established by the 7th century in India, but was not yet in its modern form because the use of the digit zero had not yet been widely accepted. Instead of a zero sometimes the digits were marked with dots to indicate their significance, or a space was used as a placeholder. The first widely acknowledged use of zero was in 876. The original numerals were very similar to the modern ones, even down to the glyphs used to represent digits.

By the 13th century, Western Arabic numerals were accepted in European mathematical circles (Fibonacci used them in his Liber Abaci). They began to enter common use in the 15th century. By the end of the 20th century virtually all non-computerized calculations in the world were done with Arabic numerals, which have replaced native numeral systems in most cultures.

Other historical numeral systems using digits
The exact age of the Maya numerals is unclear, but it is possible that it is older than the Hindu–Arabic system. The system was vigesimal (base 20), so it has twenty digits. The Mayas used a shell symbol to represent zero. Numerals were written vertically, with the ones place at the bottom. The Mayas had no equivalent of the modern decimal separator, so their system could not represent fractions.

The Thai numeral system is identical to the Hindu–Arabic numeral system except for the symbols used to represent digits. The use of these digits is less common in Thailand than it once was, but they are still used alongside Arabic numerals.

The rod numerals, the written forms of counting rods once used by Chinese and Japanese mathematicians, are a decimal positional system able to represent not only zero but also negative numbers. Counting rods themselves predate the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The Suzhou numerals are variants of rod numerals.

In computer science
The binary (base 2), octal (base 8), and hexadecimal (base 16) systems, extensively used in computer science, all follow the conventions of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The binary system uses only the digits "0" and "1", while the octal system uses the digits from "0" through "7". The hexadecimal system uses all the digits from the decimal system, plus the letters "A" through "F", which represent the numbers 10 to 15 respectively. When the binary system is used, the term "bit(s)" is typically used as an alternative for "digit(s)", being a portmanteau of the term "binary digit".

Unusual systems
The ternary and balanced ternary systems have sometimes been used. They are both base 3 systems.

Balanced ternary is unusual in having the digit values 1, 0 and –1. Balanced ternary turns out to have some useful properties and the system has been used in the experimental Russian Setun computers.

Several authors in the last 300 years have noted a facility of positional notation that amounts to a modified decimal representation. Some advantages are cited for use of numerical digits that represent negative values. In 1840 Augustin-Louis Cauchy advocated use of signed-digit representation of numbers, and in 1928 Florian Cajori presented his collection of references for negative numerals. The concept of signed-digit representation has also been taken up in computer design.

Digits in mathematics
Despite the essential role of digits in describing numbers, they are relatively unimportant to modern mathematics. Nevertheless, there are a few important mathematical concepts that make use of the representation of a number as a sequence of digits.

Digital roots
The digital root is the single-digit number obtained by summing the digits of a given number, then summing the digits of the result, and so on until a single-digit number is obtained.

Casting out nines
Casting out nines is a procedure for checking arithmetic done by hand. To describe it, let $$f(x)$$ represent the digital root of $$x$$, as described above. Casting out nines makes use of the fact that if $$A + B = C$$, then $$f(f(A) + f(B)) = f(C)$$. In the process of casting out nines, both sides of the latter equation are computed, and if they are not equal, the original addition must have been faulty.

Repunits and repdigits
Repunits are integers that are represented with only the digit 1. For example, 1111 (one thousand, one hundred and eleven) is a repunit. Repdigits are a generalization of repunits; they are integers represented by repeated instances of the same digit. For example, 333 is a repdigit. The primality of repunits is of interest to mathematicians.

Palindromic numbers and Lychrel numbers
Palindromic numbers are numbers that read the same when their digits are reversed. A Lychrel number is a positive integer that never yields a palindromic number when subjected to the iterative process of being added to itself with digits reversed. The question of whether there are any Lychrel numbers in base 10 is an open problem in recreational mathematics; the smallest candidate is 196.

History of ancient numbers
Counting aids, especially the use of body parts (counting on fingers), were certainly used in prehistoric times as today. There are many variations. Besides counting ten fingers, some cultures have counted knuckles, the space between fingers, and toes as well as fingers. The Oksapmin culture of New Guinea uses a system of 27 upper body locations to represent numbers.

To preserve numerical information, tallies carved in wood, bone, and stone have been used since prehistoric times. Stone age cultures, including ancient indigenous American groups, used tallies for gambling, personal services, and trade-goods.

A method of preserving numeric information in clay was invented by the Sumerians between 8000 and 3500 BC. This was done with small clay tokens of various shapes that were strung like beads on a string. Beginning about 3500 BC, clay tokens were gradually replaced by number signs impressed with a round stylus at different angles in clay tablets (originally containers for tokens) which were then baked. About 3100 BC, written numbers were dissociated from the things being counted and became abstract numerals.

Between 2700 and 2000 BC, in Sumer, the round stylus was gradually replaced by a reed stylus that was used to press wedge-shaped cuneiform signs in clay. These cuneiform number signs resembled the round number signs they replaced and retained the additive sign-value notation of the round number signs. These systems gradually converged on a common sexagesimal number system; this was a place-value system consisting of only two impressed marks, the vertical wedge and the chevron, which could also represent fractions. This sexagesimal number system was fully developed at the beginning of the Old Babylonia period (about 1950 BC) and became standard in Babylonia.

Sexagesimal numerals were a mixed radix system that retained the alternating base 10 and base 6 in a sequence of cuneiform vertical wedges and chevrons. By 1950 BC, this was a positional notation system. Sexagesimal numerals came to be widely used in commerce, but were also used in astronomical and other calculations. This system was exported from Babylonia and used throughout Mesopotamia, and by every Mediterranean nation that used standard Babylonian units of measure and counting, including the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Babylonian-style sexagesimal numeration is still used in modern societies to measure time (minutes per hour) and angles (degrees).

History of modern numbers
In China, armies and provisions were counted using modular tallies of prime numbers. Unique numbers of troops and measures of rice appear as unique combinations of these tallies. A great convenience of modular arithmetic is that it is easy to multiply. This makes use of modular arithmetic for provisions especially attractive. Conventional tallies are quite difficult to multiply and divide. In modern times modular arithmetic is sometimes used in digital signal processing.

The oldest Greek system was that of the Attic numerals, but in the 4th century BC they began to use a quasidecimal alphabetic system (see Greek numerals). Jews began using a similar system (Hebrew numerals), with the oldest examples known being coins from around 100 BC.

The Roman empire used tallies written on wax, papyrus and stone, and roughly followed the Greek custom of assigning letters to various numbers. The Roman numerals system remained in common use in Europe until positional notation came into common use in the 16th century.

The Maya of Central America used a mixed base 18 and base 20 system, possibly inherited from the Olmec, including advanced features such as positional notation and a zero. They used this system to make advanced astronomical calculations, including highly accurate calculations of the length of the solar year and the orbit of Venus.

The Incan Empire ran a large command economy using quipu, tallies made by knotting colored fibers. Knowledge of the encodings of the knots and colors was suppressed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, and has not survived although simple quipu-like recording devices are still used in the Andean region.

Some authorities believe that positional arithmetic began with the wide use of counting rods in China. The earliest written positional records seem to be rod calculus results in China around 400. Zero was first used in India in the 7th century CE by Brahmagupta.

The modern positional Arabic numeral system was developed by mathematicians in India, and passed on to Muslim mathematicians, along with astronomical tables brought to Baghdad by an Indian ambassador around 773.

From India, the thriving trade between Islamic sultans and Africa carried the concept to Cairo. Arabic mathematicians extended the system to include decimal fractions, and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḵwārizmī wrote an important work about it in the 9th century. The modern Arabic numerals were introduced to Europe with the translation of this work in the 12th century in Spain and Leonardo of Pisa's Liber Abaci of 1201. In Europe, the complete Indian system with the zero was derived from the Arabs in the 12th century.

The binary system (base 2) was propagated in the 17th century by Gottfried Leibniz. Leibniz had developed the concept early in his career, and had revisited it when he reviewed a copy of the I Ching from China. Binary numbers came into common use in the 20th century because of computer applications.

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

title: Numerical digit


text:
Lolly (singer)

Lolly (born Anna Shantha Kumble (pronounced KUUM-blay, Kŭmblā); 27 June 1977, Sutton Coldfield) is an English singer, dancer and TV presenter.

Career
Anna Kumble worked as a model before going into a pop career. Lolly arrived on the British pop music scene in 1999 with the release of her first single, "Viva La Radio". She released five top 20 singles and two albums over her two-year career in music. Her real name was released one letter at a time in Smash Hits magazine. After quitting her record label Polydor, Lolly reverted to her real name and began TV presenting, working for the BBC on programmes such as Xchange. She also works for Nickelodeon. Kumble also acted as a stand-in for presenter Anna Williamson some Saturday and Sunday mornings on now-axed kids show Toonattik on CITV. She has had roles in West End productions of Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and played Priscilla Presley in Elvis at the Prince of Wales Theatre. In July 2018, her first two albums My First Album and Pick 'n' Mix were released digitally. In October 2018, she released a new single, "Stay Young and Beautiful", her first in 18 years. In 2020, Lolly's follow-up single was titled "Paper Rain".

Pantomime
Kumble has starred in a number of pantomimes, typically billed as "Anna Kumble (Lolly)". In 2002, she played Tinker Bell in Peter Pan at the Theatre Royal, Brighton. In 2004, she played the title role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Derby Assembly Rooms. In 2006, Kumble starred as Alice Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington at The Playhouse in Weston-super-Mare. In 2009, Kumble again starred in Dick Whittington as Fairy Bowbells, this time at the Stag theatre, Kent.

In 2010, Kumble returned to Peter Pan, this time playing the role of Tiger Lily at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre. In December 2012, she appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk in Weymouth. In December 2018, she appeared in Cinderella as the Fairy Godmother in Telford. She returned to Telford in December 2022, where she appeared in Snow White as the Evil Queen.

Personal life
Anna Kumble was born to Jaiker Kumble (who emigrated from India) and Barbara in Sutton Coldfield. She has a brother Paul, and a sister Jodie. Kumble attended The Shrubbery School, Highclare School and Plantsbrook School in Sutton Coldfield. Kumble is a graduate of the London Studio Centre and has two children, a son Charlie and a daughter Belle, who is following in her mother’s musical footsteps.

title: Lolly (singer)


text:
Bolkow

Bolkow may refer to:

 * Bölkow, a German aircraft manufacturer based in Stuttgart
 * Bolków (formerly German Bolkenhain), a town in south-west Poland
 * Bolków, Łódź Voivodeship, a village in central Poland

title: Bolkow


text:
Talk:Mest (album)

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title: Talk:Mest (album)


text:
Lolly

Lolly may refer to:

Candy

 * Lolly, a short form of lollipop (a kind of confectionery on a stick)
 * Lolly, in Australian and New Zealand English, a piece of what is called candy in American English or sweets in British English

Art, entertainment, and media

 * Lolly Allen, a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Neighbours
 * Lolly Talk, a Hong Kong girl group
 * Lolly Whitehill, a recurring character in the television series Orange Is the New Black
 * "Lolly" (song), a 2013 song by Maejor Ali, featuring Juicy J and Justin Bieber
 * "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here", a song from Schoolhouse Rock

People

 * Lolly (given name)
 * Lolly (singer) (born 1977), British pop star
 * Lolly Adefope, British comedian
 * Emmanuel Lolly Debattista (1929–2021), Maltese soccer player and manager
 * Candido "Lolly" Vasquez-Vegas, former guitarist and vocalist of the band Redbone
 * Emmanuel Lolly Vella (1933-2012), Australian association footballer
 * Elizabeth Yeats (1868-1940) nicknamed Lolly, British book publisher, sister of the poet W. B. Yeats
 * Lolly, a character who is Princess Bubblegum’s mechanical aunt in the animated series Adventure Time

Other uses

 * Lolly Moor, a reserve in Norfolk, England

title: Lolly


text:
Governor of Stockholm

The Governor of Stockholm (överståthållaren) was the head of the Office of the Governor of Stockholm (Överståthållarämbetet, ÖÄ), and as such he was the highest Swedish State official overseeing the affairs in the City of Stockholm between 1634 and 1967. The Governor was the equivalent in Stockholm of a county governor elsewhere in Sweden.

The Governor was appointed by and reported to the King in Council. The Office of the Governor of Stockholm was instituted by the Instrument of Government of 1634, written by Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, which uniformly delineated the civil state administration of Sweden into Counties and the Office of the Governor of Stockholm.

While Stockholm County was established in 1714, the city itself was not included until 1968, when the Office of the Governor of Stockholm was abolished and the duties of it was handed over to the Governor of Stockholm County.

title: Governor of Stockholm


text:
Talk:List of United Kingdom countries by population

I hope no one thinks that the "North East" of England constitutes a country. These are regions. Deb 18:11 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Dublin Castle

2003 posts
Should a note be added about the explosion in 1892? According to an article in The Strand Magazine currently doing the rounds on Distributed Proofreaders it was the second criminal use of dynamite to cause a death:
 * "On the Christmas Eve of 1892, an infernal machine exploded outside the Detective Office in Exchange Court, Dublin Castle, when a detective officer was killed"

The article has a picture of the scene, which I could upload. -- Jim Regan 18:12 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Oh yeah, do. It would be an excellent addition. FearÉIREANN 18:56 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Here it is:

Should I resize it, remove the comment? -- Jim Regan 22:16 28 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Resize it certainly but no, I'd leave the comment. It gives it a content and a historic 'feel'. great work getting the picture. FearÉIREANN 23:42 28 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I've got a load more; I've got a picture of the gun Pat O'Donnell shot James Carey with, but there's no article about it, and since all those folk songs were news to me, I don't think I'm the person to write it (the chorus of "The Fields of Athenry" is the extent of my knowledge of Irish folk music, and I only learned that in college :) -- Jim Regan 21:49, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Smaller image

This better? -- Jim Regan 22:05, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Interesting pic; that whole area of buildings on the left has been long demolished; for a while it was a public garden, now some kind of square has been planned there. The building at the end of the court still exists.

Older origins
I am wondering if a piece at the start of the article should mention the more ancient origins of the location of dublin castle.

The Dubh Linn gardens are at the site of the Dubh Linn settlement which predates the viking invasion of teh country and gives the city it's name. And the Vikings also built a fortress on the same site. During excavations of the medieval dublin castle, remains of a viking fortress were uncovered.
 * Agreed. The article only gives a brief disscussion of Dubh Linn and only one mention of the Vikings (in relation to Powder Tower on Viking defences within the castle). While the article does mention that the city (Dublin) and subsequently the castle does get its name from the actual (Dubh Linn) pool, it claims the castle was by the pool and not on it. Recent excavations found evidence the castle was built on the pool (rather than by) and that parts of the pool were located under the present site of the coach house and castle gardens. one of the Castle Gardens in Dublin castle is The Dubhlinn Garden which is where it is deemed to be the location of the original dubh linn or ‘black pool’. Further, it was also discovered that that this area was part of a significant port for the vikings and they had set up a trading base in this area, as discussed here, and here, and here. The original comment above was made by User:212.2.180.236 on 23:20, 26 December 2006 and i would imagine that this should have been acted on by now, since there is plenty of evidence to support this.79.155.41.48 (talk) 11:37, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

State Apartments
I have added a new paragraph with basic information about each of the principal rooms of the State Apartments. There is little of an architectural focus in the article thus far, and could do with further embellishment in this respect given the Castle's importance and contribution to Irish architecture.

The article is also a bit incoherent in terms of layout and could do with a clean-up, if anyone wants to take on the challenge! -- GrahamH 02:39, 22 Jul 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dublin Castle


text:
Program music

Program music or programmatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music. A well-known example is Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

The genre culminates in the symphonic works of Richard Strauss that include narrations of the adventures of Don Quixote, Till Eulenspiegel, the composer's domestic life, and an interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of the Übermensch, Also Sprach Zarathustra. Following Strauss, the genre declined and new works with explicitly narrative content are rare. Nevertheless the genre continues to exert an influence on film music, especially where this draws upon the techniques of 19th-century late romantic music. Similar compositional forms also exist within popular music, including the concept album and rock opera.

The term is almost exclusively applied to works in the European classical music tradition, particularly those from the Romantic music period of the 19th century, during which the concept was popular, but pieces which fit the description have long been a part of music. The term is usually reserved for purely instrumental works (pieces without singers and lyrics), and not used, for example for opera or lieder. Single-movement orchestral pieces of program music are often called symphonic poems. Absolute music, in contrast, is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Definition
Composers and some theorists argue that there is indeed no such thing as true "absolute (ars gratia artis) music" and that music always at least conveys or evokes emotions. While non-professional listeners often claim that music has meaning (to them), "new" musicologists, such as Susan McClary, argue that so-called "abstract" techniques and structures are actually highly politically and socially charged, specifically, even gendered. This may be linked to a more general argument against abstraction, such as Mark Johnson's argument that it is, "necessary...for abstract meaning...to have a bodily basis". However, a more specific definition of absolute music is: music which was composed without programmatic intent, or narrative.

More traditional listeners often reject these views sharply, asserting that music can be meaningful, as well as deeply emotional, while being essentially about itself (notes, themes, keys, and so on), and without any connection to the political and societal conflicts of our own day, but consciously associated with non-musical ideas, images, or events (poems, art works, etc.)

16th and 17th centuries
Composers of the Renaissance wrote a fair amount of program music, especially for the harpsichord, including works such as Martin Peerson's The Fall of the Leafe and William Byrd's The Battell. For the latter work, the composer provided this written description of the sections: "Souldiers sommons, marche of footemen, marche of horsmen, trumpetts, Irishe marche, bagpipe and the drone, flute and the droome, marche to the fighte, the battels be joyned, retreat, galliarde for the victorie."

18th century
In the Baroque era, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons has poetic inscriptions in the score referring to each of the seasons, evoking spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While many cantatas by J. S. Bach contain programmatic elements, an example of outright program music is his Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, BWV 992.

Program music was perhaps less often composed in the Classical era. At that time, perhaps more than any other, music achieved drama from its own internal resources, notably in works written in sonata form. It is thought, however, that a number of Joseph Haydn's earlier symphonies may be program music; for example, the composer once said that one of his earlier symphonies represents "a dialogue between God and the Sinner". It is not known which of his symphonies Haydn was referring to. His Symphony No. 8 also includes a movement named "La tempesta" that represents a storm. A minor Classical-era composer, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, wrote a series of symphonies based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (not to be confused with twentieth-century composer Benjamin Britten's Six Metamorphoses after Ovid), which falls into this category. German composer Justin Heinrich Knecht's Le portrait musical de la nature, ou Grande sinfonie (Musical Portrait of Nature or Grand Symphony) from 1784–1785 is another 18th century example, anticipating Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony by twenty years.

19th century
Program music particularly flourished in the Romantic era. As it can invoke in the listener a specific experience other than sitting in front of a musician or musicians, it is related to the purely Romantic idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk describing Wagner's Operas as a fusion of many arts (set design, choreography, poetry and so on), although it relies solely on musical aspects to illustrate a multi-faceted artistic concept such as a poem or a painting. Composers believed that the dynamics of sound that were newly possible in the Romantic orchestra of the era allowed them to focus on emotions and other intangible aspects of life much more than during the Baroque or Classical eras.

Ludwig van Beethoven felt a certain reluctance in writing program music, and said of his 1808 Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) that the "whole work can be perceived without description – it is more an expression of feelings rather than tone-painting".. Yet the work clearly contains depictions of bird calls, a babbling brook, a storm, and so on. Beethoven later returned to program music with his Piano Sonata Op. 81a, Les Adieux, which depicts the departure and return of his close friend the Archduke Rudolf.

Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique was a musical narration of a hyperbolically emotional love story, the main subject being an actress with whom he was in love at the time. Franz Liszt did provide explicit programs for many of his piano pieces and he was also the inventor of the term symphonic poem. In 1874, Modest Mussorgsky composed for piano a series of pieces describing seeing a gallery of ten of his friend's paintings and drawings in his Pictures at an Exhibition, later orchestrated by many composers including Maurice Ravel. The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote many short pieces of program music which he called Tone Poems. His most famous are probably the Danse Macabre and several movements from the Carnival of the Animals. The composer Paul Dukas is perhaps best known for his tone poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on a tale from Goethe.

Possibly the most adept at musical depiction in his program music was German composer Richard Strauss. His symphonic poems include Death and Transfiguration (portraying a dying man and his entry into heaven), Don Juan (based on the ancient legend of Don Juan), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (based on episodes in the career of the legendary German figure Till Eulenspiegel), Don Quixote (portraying episodes in the life of Miguel de Cervantes' character, Don Quixote), A Hero's Life (which depicts episodes in the life of an unnamed hero often taken to be Strauss himself) and Symphonia Domestica (which portrays episodes in the composer's own married life, including putting the baby to bed). Strauss is reported to have said that music can describe anything, even a teaspoon.

Another composer of programmatic music is Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose colorful "musical pictures" include "Sadko", Op. 5, after the Russian Bylina, about the minstrel who sings to the Tsar of the Sea, the very famous "'Scheherazade", Op. 35, after the Arabian Nights entertainments (where the heroine is depicted by a violin and whose stories include "Sinbad the Sailor") and any number of orchestral suites from his operas, including The Tale of Tsar Saltan (which also contains "Flight of the Bumblebee"), The Golden Cockerel, Christmas Eve, The Snow Maiden, and The Legend of The Invisible City of Kitezh.

In Scandinavia, Sibelius explored the Kalevala legend in several tone poems, most famously in The Swan of Tuonela.

One of the most famous programs, because it has never been definitively identified, is the secret non-musical idea or theme – the "Enigma" – that underlies Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma) of 1899. The composer disclosed it to certain friends, but at his request they never made it public.

20th century
Ottorino Respighi composed a number of tone poems in the 1910s and 1920s, notably three works on different aspects of the city of Rome. Gustav Holst's "The Planets" is another well-known example. Alban Berg's Lyric Suite was thought for years to be abstract music, but in 1977 it was discovered that it was in fact dedicated to Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. Important leitmotifs are based on the melodic series A–B–H–F, which is their combined initials. The last movement also contains a setting of a poem by Charles Baudelaire, suppressed by the composer for publication.

Popular music as program music
The term "program music" is not generally used with regard to popular music, although some popular music does have aspects in common with program music. The tradition of purely orchestral program music is continued in pieces for jazz orchestra, most notably several pieces by Duke Ellington. Instrumental pieces in popular music often have a descriptive title which suggests that they could be categorized as program music, and several instrumental albums are completely devoted to some programmatic idea (for example, China by Vangelis or The Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield). Some of the genres of popular music are more likely than others to involve programmatic elements; these include ambient, new-age, space music, surf rock, black metal, jazz fusion, progressive rock, art rock and various genres of techno music. Bluegrass has at least one outstanding bit of program music called Orange Blossom Special.

Progressive rock groups and musicians during the 1970s in particular experimented with program music, among which was Rush's "Jacob's Ladder" (1980), which shows clear influences of Smetana's Má vlast ("My Homeland") (1874–1879). In addition, Rush's songs "Xanadu", "La Villa Strangiato" "Red Barchetta", and "YYZ" also show their experimentalism with program music, as do parts of "2112", particularly the discovery scene.

18th century
Part of the music from the Baroque and Classical eras is absolute, as is suggested by titles which often consist simply of the type of composition, a numerical designation within the composer's oeuvre, and its key. Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for two harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060 and Mozart's Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545 are examples of absolute music.

Some composers of the Baroque era used to design titles for their music in a fashion resembling that of Romantic program music, called the rappresentativo (representative) style. Some of the most notable examples were composed by Antonio Vivaldi – some of his violin, flute or recorder concertos bear titles inspired by human affects (Il piacere – the pleasure), occupations (La caccia – the hunting, La pastorella – the shepherdess) or, most notably, aspects of nature and meteors (The Four Seasons, La notte – the night, La tempesta di mare – the sea storm). Another well-known example is Heinrich Ignaz Biber's Sonata representativa (for violin and continuo), which depicts various animals (the nightingale, the cuckoo, the cat) in a humoristic manner. However, a distinction may be drawn between "representational" music and program music properly speaking, as well as between "imitation" and "representation. Finally, there is the question of whether a deliberate expressive character is sufficient to rank as a "program".

19th century
Program music was quite popular during the Romantic era. Many mainstream "classical" works are unequivocally program music, such as Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony, which is a musical description of ascending and descending a mountain, with 22 section titles such as "Night", "Sunrise", "By the Waterfall", "In Thicket and Underbrush on the Wrong Path", "Summit", "Mists Rise" and "Storm and Descent". Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 is program music, too, with titled movements and instrumental depictions of bird calls, country dances, and a storm. His fifteenth string quartet, Opus 132, contains a middle movement titled "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart" ('A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode'), suggesting to some auditors that the entire work can be heard as a tonal evocation of sickness and recovery.

20th century
During the late-nineteenth and twentieth century, the increased influence of modernism and other anti-Romantic trends contributed to a decline in esteem for program music, but audiences continued to enjoy such pieces as Arthur Honegger's depiction of a steam locomotive in Pacific 231 (1923). Indeed, Percy Grainger's incomplete orchestral fragment Train Music employs the same function. This music for large orchestra depicts a train moving in the mountains of Italy. Heitor Villa-Lobos similarly depicted a rural steam-driven train in The Little Train of the Caipira (1930).

Indeed, an entire genre sprang up in the 1920s, particularly in the Soviet Union, of picturesque music depicting machines and factories. Well-known examples include Alexander Mosolov's Iron Foundry (1926–27) and Sergei Prokofiev's Le Pas d'acier (The Steel Step, 1926). An example from outside of the Soviet Union is George Antheil's Ballet mécanique (1923–24).

Opera and ballet
Music that is composed to accompany a ballet is often program music, even when presented separately as a concert piece. Aaron Copland was amused when a listener said that when she listened to Appalachian Spring she "could see the Appalachians and feel Spring", the title having been a last-minute thought, but it is certainly program music. Film scores and the orchestration in operas are very often program music, and some film scores, such as Prokofiev's music for Alexander Nevsky, have even found a place in the classical concert repertoire.

Programmatic music and abstract imagery
A good deal of program music falls in between the realm of purely programmatic and purely absolute, with titles that clearly suggest an extramusical association, but no detailed story that can be followed and no musical passages that can be unequivocally identified with specific images. Examples would include Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, From the New World or Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica.

Motion picture soundtrack
Influenced by the late Romantic work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ottorino Respighi, Richard Strauss, and others, motion picture soundtrack took up the banner of programmatic music following the advent of "talkies". Many film composers, including Paul Smith, Ennio Morricone, and John Williams (whose 1977 Star Wars soundtrack redefined the symphonic movie score) have followed the programmatic model and solidified motion picture soundtrack as its own programmatic genre. Music's power for pictorial suggestion may be said to have culminated in Walt Disney's 1940 film Fantasia. Disney gave us, too, the term Mickey Mousing, used to describe scores that mimic too obviously the movements of nature. The music of Max Steiner, for instance, often lauded for its uncanny sound-image synchronization, has also been assailed for being too "Mickey Mouse".

title: Program music